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Thread: What Content for CFC online magazine?

  1. #1
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    Default What Content for CFC online magazine?

    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

  2. #2

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    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?

  3. #3

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    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

  4. #4

    Default Chess Canada On-line ?

    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 !!

  5. #5
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    Default The Medium Is The Message

    With apologies to 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:
    1. I never valued the magazine, please don't go to a lot of effort on my behalf.
    2. I liked the magazine; a web-based presence is of no interest to me.
    3. I liked the magazine; please provide a printable (e.g., PDF) online replacement.
    4. 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).

  6. #6

    Default

    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.

  7. #7
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    Unhappy Online magazine

    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?!...

  8. #8

    Default If it looks like a duck and talks like a duck it can probably fly

    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

  9. #9
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lawrence Day
    I'm considering applying as editor using this cooperative model.
    You should stop considering and you should start applying

  10. #10
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    Default

    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!

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