Thanks to the effort of my fellow webmaster Valerio Tirri Chessvine.com is now a featured news source on yourchess.net.

He's using a javascript method to parse my feedburner feed so the update is virtually instant as I post new content.

I like the idea of trying to 'aggregate' all these blog feeds and media sources all in one place. I'm fully supporting this project even if at some point Valerio decides to go fully Italian rather than primarily English (and therefore drops chessvine as Google's Italian translation tool is no doubt difficult to read ... I'm too colloquial).

Anyway, you should head on over there and check out Valerio's site. What are you still doing hanging around here? Get going!

Well, it seems that in my absence Chessvine gained some undue attention. It seems that my accepting Jack Lemoine's request to be a part of Chessvine has created a political stir. Just read this comment to a recent unrelated post:

Dear chess playing blogger,

Your blog has been reviewed as submitted. The Committee appreciates your enthusiasm in joining the world wide web consortium. Unfortunately at this time your blog has a noticeable lack of original or remotely interesting content, and has been deemed as "regurgitated cyber fluff." The Committee would like to note that this is encouraging as a first effort, and We are confident you can reach "semi digested craptacular say-nothings" soon.

At this time the Committee would like to thank you for supporting Chess, particularly by playing in sanctioned tournaments. Few chess playing bloggers-turned-wannabe-politicians (e.g. Jack LeMoine) do this on a regular basis, and therefore forget their roots. Based on your blog submission, We do not deem this to be applicable to your case.

Best Regards,

The Committee for Chess Blog Reviews

That's so kind of them to support chess blogging isn't it? You mean there's actually a commitee which makes judgements on blogs and found Chessvine lacking? nope.

That's right, there is no such organization. This comment was made by a political opponent of Jack Lemoine and/or Susan Polgar.

I enjoyed the cheeky comment albeit attached to a non-related entry. I am afraid to delete the comment for fear of being called political. Quite frankly, I don't even know what Jack Lemoine stands for from a political perspective. The fact is he was the only blogger (other than Tom Chivers and Susan Polgar) who understand what I'm trying to do in supporting chess blogging). If Jack's political opponents would like a voice on this blog they're more than welcome to join. I've always been a proponent of 'equal time' and that seems logical.

I think it's a bit unpleasant to call this blog "regurgitated cyber fluff". It's true I do take news items from other places but 99% of those places got their news from somewhere else as well. That's how news travels. I tend to add my personal opinion for flavor and this is where chessvine beats the competition. No other Blog or news source has me.

The person who wrote the hateful comment out of political or personal motivation is not welcome to become a part of this blog (because we hate spammers here). But his ideas in opposition of Jack Lemoine are perfectly welcome and someone with an intellectual compass can join Chessvine any time they get ready ... by simply contacting me via e-mail or through this blog entry.

unfortunately for my readership I'll be gone for about a week and where I'm going is probably the United States equivalent of the gobi desert. You won't be hearing from me in that time but when I come back I'll be more than ready to post like crazy and get back up to date with current chess events. Thanks for understanding folks ... I'll be in touch.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome a new contributor to the Chessvine blog ... let's get a big round of applause to Jack Lemoine (jlemoine)!

His current blog site www.jacklemoine.com has been informative and interesting and I personally look forward to his contributions to chessvine.

Welcome, Jack!

well, the results are in. To put things shortly - the contest was a success and a failure. Now, here's the longer answer ...

1) only one person entered the contest despite its appearance on Susan's Blog and the Streatham & Brixton Blog.

2) That one person (Jack Le Moine) has his own blog and may not be interested in blogging for chessvine but he was kind enough to support the project.

3) The traffic report for this month is nearly double last months numbers and it isn't all directed to the contest post ... so I'm gaining readership like wildfire which is a major consolation.

The Final Verdict?

The Chess Blog world just wasn't ready for the contest. The average public saw it as just a promotional gimmick. While it was indeed meant to promote the chessvine blog I could've done a bunch of other things but I chose the contest format in order to promote chess blogging.

I'm happy with the result ... traffic increases that are consistent and a bit of name dropping to the right ears.