Sunday, September 2, 2007

Lessons Learned

The big push to get the Chess Blog Carnival out is over and I’ve had a day to think about improving the process for the future. This was the first ever Carnival for Chess Blogs so naturally, there was going to be something of a learning curve.

The E-mail address issue was a surprise to me. I can understand the reluctance of bloggers to give out their e-mail addresses. Upon reflection, I am reluctant to receive e-mail addresses. If someone abuses the address then the question becomes who revealed it? I become a suspect. So, an alternate way for bloggers to submit posts is indicated.

The problem is that without e-mail addresses, there is no way for the host to inter-act with the blogger if the need arises. For example, I sent a post of mine to the History Carnival. I got a nice e-mail back from this month’s host telling me that my submission was unsuitable. He explained why it was unsuitable and what I would have to do in the future to qualify. This was very helpful information and I took it as such.

BlogCarnival.com says that they keep e-mail address confidential but they do require them. That’s how they resolved the issue. What do you think?

BTW I did have to reject 2 entries. The trouble was that they were only tangentially related to chess. They were about “brain enhancement techniques”. Mental exercise like physical exercise may be a good thing but in light of the USCF Natrol controversy a few years back, I just decided to pass and take a strict approach to topics – especially on the inaugural edition of the Carnival.

Meanwhile, it is time to look forward to the next Carnival on October 1. I am wondering if I should host it one more time in order to establish it more firmly or to pass it on to another blog. This is really now the property of the chess community, not of me. Now that people can see what a Carnival looks like, they can decide what they want to do.

I would like one of the larger chess sites to host it as soon as possible. This will help give this both legitimacy and visibility. In the meantime, will all the chess bloggers out there please, pretty please, put an announcement of this Carnival on your blogs?

And please give us your feedback by posting a comment below. These comments not only help me but all the rest of the chess community as well.

3 comments:

Blue Devil Knight said...

That's why I created a special yahoo account.
bluedevil--dot--knight[you know what goes here]yahoo[if you don't know what goes here you are a bot]

and so on.

Tom Panelas said...

I would be willing to consider hosting sometime, provided I could schedule it around other commitments well in advance, but I'm a small blog with little traffic. I agree with Jack that getting a big blog to do it would be great. Susan Polgar might be too much to hope for, but then again, maybe not. She seems to have been supportive. What about the Boylston?

In the meantime, Jack, if you were willing to carry it another month, I doubt anyone would object, absent someone else who's chomping at the bit.

Polly said...

Hi Jack,

I thought the first carnival was a lot of fun. It was interesting to see other chess blogs and to get some exposure to my blog.

Are you hosting another for October? If so when will you be accepting submissions.