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Ellen Nadeau
08-28-2008, 09:07 AM
The executive committee wants your feedback as to what content to have in the magazine. I encourage everyone to post ideas on this forum, or I can be contacted directly.

Ellen Nadeau
ellennadeau@yahoo.ca

Ken Craft
08-28-2008, 09:42 AM
I'm still waiting to hear who authorized the cessation of the hard copy magazine and when this authorization was made. Can the executive provide us with this information, please?

Andrei Botez
08-29-2008, 10:40 AM
Hi Ellen,

I think it would be great to see some chess material dedicated for children with a rating under 1000. That can include basic tournament rules (what to do and what not to do during a tournament), something for the new chess parents (to have an idea about how the pairings are done and so on) and of course simple tactics, some simple annotated games.
USCF children magazine is pretty well done from this point of view.

Andrei

Bob Armstrong
08-29-2008, 02:12 PM
Hi Ellen:

I wonder if members are expecting the identical content of the old print Chess Canada, only on-line now?

If so, very expensive ! The editor for this would not come cheap, and especially with the condition it be entirely new monthly ( where the print magazine was only quarterly ). And getting articles from contributors is expensive.

And you would be competing against good established sites like ChessBase, Chess Cafe, etc..

Bob

P.S. By this post I temporarily push the Viagara post into second place !!

Jonathan Berry
08-30-2008, 10:31 AM
With apologies to Marshall McLuhan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan).

The question has been put to some early-adopters of the CFC's new public forum. Are we opinion makers or blowhards? It seems to me that the important people to ask are the CFC members who are not frequent Internet users, perhaps using good old-fashioned snail mail.

Off the top of my head, here is one possible multi-part question:

I never valued the magazine, please don't go to a lot of effort on my behalf.
I liked the magazine; a web-based presence is of no interest to me.
I liked the magazine; please provide a printable (e.g., PDF) online replacement.
Let's go with screen- and computer- friendly web content. Paper is so 90s.
It strikes me that if the decision is 3, then you'll want a magazine editor (with chess and typesetting smarts), but if the decision is 4, your central character will be a webmaster (with web smarts).

David Lavin
08-31-2008, 08:21 AM
Ellen has asked for some ideas so here are a few.

Regional Reports:
Since space is not an issue we should publsih regional reports in full, complete with some games and highlights. This will help build a sense of community.

International Reports
Can we exchange a few pages with Europe Echec, New in Chess, and other publications? Will other Fedations supply us with reports on their national championships?

Columns

Can some of our great players contribute one annoteated game per month?

Can our average players contribute to a section such as "My two greatest games ever"?

Can we have a section on the history of chess in Canada?

just a few ideas to get the ball rolling.

Valer Eugen Demian
09-02-2008, 02:47 PM
Here is the link to an online magazine devoted to correspondence chess:
http://www.ccn.correspondencechess.com/
It was active for 3 years, being put together by a team of volunteers. You can all download several issues and have a look what has been done to have it come out every 2 weeks.

In my humble opinion CFC should start small with a similar electronic magazine (once a month) and grow from there. It would be great to pay money for articles, but if we have none what can we do: wait until we get some and have no magazine meantime?!...

Lawrence Day
09-03-2008, 12:37 PM
Getting quality content on a shoestring budget is not a novel problem; the original Chess Canada magazine went through that too. But the CFC has some big advantages. One is that the most talented players need a healthy CFC to deal with FIDE as bureaucracy to bureaucracy. Hence it is in the masters own self-interest that the magazine have enough quality to attract members/subscribers. They will probably contribute more enthusiastically than they would to an ordinary profit-oriented business-model magazine.

Tell me what what you think of this idea:
The available budget is divided into thirds.
The first goes for technical website maintenance including providing such hard and soft ware as required by the editor. The editor is paid the second third.
The last third is put in a pool to be shared by titled Chess Canada Content Providers (CCCP!) who would operate as freelancers maintaining copyright on their content for potential translation, other media, yearbook/magazine reproduction, whatever. The pioneer of that variation was Svetozar Gligoric in the 60s. He sold "Game of the Month" theory articles in a half-dozen different languages before eventually compiling them in a popular hard cover book.

The CCCPs would also receive a free ad for their own services (teaching, book, DVD whatever) or a sponsor's choice. For example at the CO 07 some companies sponsored players. In such case the player could blog their impressions and some games and provide a link to the sponsor's product/whatever. The freelance content provider thereby benefits by the ad revenue. Player blogs with both Canadian and International content are popular. Blogs in French would also be welcome and a convenient glossary provided for translation of the most common chess terms.

Internet chess readers who play tournaments are used to paying for theory. Book-you-up texts (Winning with the such-and-such Gambit, etc) cost, as does even TWIC or NICs theoretical supplements. Private teachers also charge. There are world-wide potential subscribers for quality content in practical opening theory.
Thus, if there is useful theoretical content then foreigners will subscribe even though they do not necessarily intend to play in Canadian tournaments.

The ratio of shares in the CCCP pool could be FM=1, IM=2, GM=3 (x per article). This can be fine tuned adding correspondence or women's titles or on a case by case basis as determined by the editor. For example a long exhaustive article might count double, or a historical article be excellent even though the author is not a titled player. The accounting could be figured quarterly. At year end when (hopefully) the CFC will have determined it's financial situation, there could be bonuses based on membership/subscribers attracted beyond initial membership (currently just under 1900). This would be incentive for quality in the content. Also quality, by attracting members, gives titled players the opportunity to contribute towards the CFC paying the various FIDE dues for International tournaments, titles, federation reregistrations and FIDE ratings. New members also get an extra benefit compared to the paper magazine variation because they have access to articles printed before they joined. An ongoing continuum is better than monthly PDFs in my opinion. It avoids their technical awkwardness for older computers or those using landlines. If an article is ready to go, then why wait for the month to end?

I'm considering applying as editor using this cooperative model. The CFC will still need an attractive free public site with the rules, beginner's lessons, a FAQ (en passant, stalemate etc) and most of the stuff it has now. Tournament announcements, club locations and descriptions, teaching contacts, the public forums of course go in the free part. Normal "Creative Commons" attribution rules would apply.

Aside from blogs and theory, Cross Canada reports probably belong in the subscriber's magazine. Letters to the Editor would have to be a bit deeper than short forum posts on the open forum, but would also be inside the member zone. Likewise editorials, which naturally would have to be even-handed and circumspect regarding any open debates, FIDE politics, CFC policy, etc. Books reviewed should allow sampling at least one game. Canadian readers should be encouraged to buy through CMA so profits remain supporting our new chess talent rather than being dispersed to general investors. We should encourage all businesses which promote chess in Canada equally fairly and without prejudice.

Some food for thought...

Lawrence

Egidijus Zeromskis
09-03-2008, 11:12 PM
I'm considering applying as editor using this cooperative model.

You should stop considering and you should start applying ;)

Jonathan Berry
09-08-2008, 02:47 PM
I was already encouraging somebody else to apply. However, Lawrence's plan (it's also the only general plan I've seen), harnessed to Lawrence's person (the pre-eminent chess journalist in Canada) as editor, makes this a winner. I hope that Lawrence puts his proposal to the CFC, and that they see it the same way!

Jonathan Berry
09-11-2008, 04:03 PM
The other person I encouraged to go for the editor job has decided not to apply. So:

Apple without a core, the old story told
More apologies to Yeats, the centre cannot hold
Between the CFC and the Information Void
The Chess gods have placed Lawrence Day
If his prose you have enjoyed
Get the CFC to hire him, and pay.

Bob Armstrong
09-11-2008, 04:13 PM
Has Lawrence yet decided to apply??

Bob

Jonathan Berry
09-12-2008, 11:56 AM
Has Lawrence yet decided to apply??

Bob

Not only that, he has actually applied.
Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhh-hhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !
Thanks for the enthusiasm!

Ken Craft
09-12-2008, 12:04 PM
We all knew that this Day would arrive.:)

Kerry Liles
09-12-2008, 12:25 PM
Not only that, he has actually applied.
Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhh-hhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !
Thanks for the enthusiasm!

I hope he is the only applicant, because then even the CFC could not pick the wrong person! Seriously, I think Lawrence would be a perfect choice.

Jonathan Berry
09-13-2008, 12:34 PM
I hope he is the only applicant, because then even the CFC could not pick the wrong person!

The previous administration could have.

With the content question cornered, there is still the matter of presentation, a good web master / designer. A lot of great chess presentation code is out there as freeware or easily adaptable, but there's still the question of putting it together into a compelling package. Apologizing again to McLuhan, the medium is the message.

Jonathan Berry
09-25-2008, 11:32 AM
Apple without a core, the old story told
More apologies to Yeats, the centre cannot hold
...

Couch potatoes watching the season double-opener of Heroes a couple of nights ago may have had a déjà entendu with the Yeats poem, "The Second Coming", which was recited in the episode of the same name:

http://classiclit.about.com/library/weekly/aa031701a.htm

Apologies for quoting myself. Just be thankful I didn't give you my version of The Lake Isle of Innisfree, called instead The Lake Isle of LSD.

Lawrence Day
09-26-2008, 12:46 PM
I don't follow "Heroes" but I did notice Yeats showing up in the synchronicity current. In some thread somewhere an economist said that this financial crisis was "worst since the 14th century" leading some to wonder what happened then. 1307 Philip of France arrested his creditors, the Templars and banking disappeared. 1381 the Peasant's Revolt effectively ended serfdom in England. Without banks to borrow from and a 100 yrs war to pay for, the Poll Tax rose from 1 to 2 to 3 groats. But Black Plague had killed 2/3 of the peasantry and the survivors wanted more pay to pay their poll tax.
So I'm looking out my study window and a gull is cruising the Humber River below. And I'm thinking about whether the plague might have been contained if the medical knowledge of the shaman-class witches and wizards hadn't been burnt by the so-called advanced civilization. I'm all ponder ponder and the gull says to me:
"Yo Irish, look to your poet." Hmmm, the communal consciousness of animal species seems more natural than supernatural to me, ordinary magic, so I played along even though I suspected I was imagining it. I could see a very dusty copy of Yeats Selected left over from my wayback eng lit edu studies. Opened it at random I did, reading Beast or Demon, the poem before The Second Coming (which we'd studied and which was perhaps why the book may have 'randomly' opened there)
so I was reading across the page about, of all things, the gull:
"...aimless joy had made me stop
beside the little lake
To watch a white gull take
A bit of bread thrown up into the air;
Now gyring down and perning there
he splashed where an absurd
Portly green-pated bird
Shook off the water from his back;
Being no more demoniac
A stupid happy creature
Could rouse my whole nature..."

So, the deep message: feed me!
And I went down to the river and tossed some bread to my green-pated portly Mallard friends.
Quite naturally the gull dropped in for a bite.

Paul Leblanc
09-28-2008, 06:38 PM
Some thoughts about content:

- stick to Canadian content. The rest of the world is available through other websites
- have a chessboard that is large and easily manipulated to show games from recent Canadian events or from international events with Canadian participants. Annotated if possible but not necessary
- lots of photographs
- interview a successful Canadian chess player or organizer each issue
- password protection to limit access to CFC members
- letters to the editor section

Bob Gillanders
09-28-2008, 09:10 PM
Lawrence,

I agree with Paul. A common complaint from members was the lack of Canadian content in the magazine. This is where they want to read about Canadian chess. Local stuff. Read about their friends, and yes, when they win, see their own names in print. Why not !

It's great to have you aboard as the new editor. Good luck.

Bob

Egidijus Zeromskis
09-28-2008, 09:33 PM
The CFC may start a program to attract TDs to submit games scoresheets (PGN, chessbase, etc) for a chess content preparation. One possible way, to lower rating fee for those who submits 75% of games :)

Lawrence Day
09-28-2008, 11:58 PM
Thanks Bob. I'm looking forward to it. The Canadiana variation looks forced but looks fun too. There are many technical things to be worked out (I only do content, not form) but I think the situation is promising overall.
Paul, good points. Since the site is membership only it means photographs may run into copyright issues, like we can't just steal them from other sources ;-)
Once we're set up pic contributions will be welcome; likewise interviews. The copyright will remain with the contributor. Player interviews can be interesting too. Since Victoria had their first taste of a professional-style long weekend tournament this year, brief feedback interviews with random players would be interesting also. As an outsider I thought it was well received. In any case the "Black Hole" of what happened in 2008 should eventually get filled in. Certainly a whole lot of interesting games have been played.

cheers,
Lawrence