. . . Ideas for My Column

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G'day!

This weekend my email inbox contained the usual stuff - ads for little blue pills, offers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Africa and Holland to let me help some honest criminals move money out of the country for a variety of plausible reasons - assuming that (A) I am larceny hearted, and (B) I am so stupid as to believe that they "found" my email address because they were looking for an honest person to help them rip off... Well you see where I am going with that, right? Unless there really is a list of honest people and their email addresses online - and I consider myself a mostly honest person really - I always have to pass.

Suggestions for Digital Grind

Among the mail there were about a dozen nice letters from folks with ideas for my column - and I want to say right now that I think that it is cool that you all like Digital Grind enough to actually send me suggestions.

I always reply to these email suggestions with a polite thank you, but for the most part I cannot use the suggestions that I receive - not that I am saying do not send them in! No, the problem is not you, it is the reality of the newspaper industry...

I only get around 1,400 words every other week to use - sometimes I get more, sometimes I get less - it all depends on how much space is available and of course, the news cycle for that week. I mention this to illustrate that I do not even have enough space to write about everything I want to write about - so while your suggestions are both welcome and appreciated, I hope you will all understand that unless it is a breaking topic or has significant local relevance, the chances are not good.

Video Game / MMO Requests

Another sort of suggestion that I get a lot is invitations to play video games...

I really do appreciate these invites - and there is a very good chance that I will take you up on the friending offer and invite to a game - but there are a few things you should know.

At the moment I only have the following platforms:

(1) PC
(2) XBox 360
(3) Nintendo Wii

And I am only active on the following MMO's:

(1) FFXI
(2) EQ2
(3) SWG

So keep that in mind when you are looking for a game partner d'accord?

Note - I do not play WoW - I will not play WoW - even if it was free.

A New Blog is in the Works

The folks at the paper are in the process of setting up a new blog for me to write - a Video Game News and Reviews based blog, that will be hosted at the paper's site and linked to from the section I write for.

The idea is to expand the paper's coverage of things like gaming and the game industry, and as there are significant space limits in the paper, a blog is the natural choice!

I have to say I am actually excited about this. The first time the subject was raised I had given an instant "not interested" as my answer because, and I blush to admit this, I know what my track record is with blogging! I am good about making entries for a while and then - poof - I disappear. Well, I am going to try really hard to not let that happen this time.

Halloween

I hope that you all had a really great holiday and got loads of loot (candy). I still cannot believe that Summer is over - where did it go??

Ciao!

CMBF

Associated Content

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G'day!

Last month I received an email from an aspiring writer who asked me if I thought that the website Associated Content might be a good place to get experience and get published. I was not familiar with that site, so I took a look at it, and I find it interesting.

It appears that its revenue stream is created by selling the content that the writers on its site create. It pays per 1,000 page views at different rates depending upon how much content the writer has created - though I am not clear if it pays for the page views for sites it sells a piece to or not.

I have decided to participate in that site to see how it works IRL - since it is a place I can write about topics I would not write about either for the paper or elsewhere...

If any of you have experience with that site - or others like it - I would really like to hear from you so please email me.

Cheers!

Chris

Email Fraud

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G'day!

The number of emails I have received lately from fraudsters is only exceeded by the number of email messages I have received from readers asking about the email that THEY have been getting from fraudsters... Ah it is a circular hell we are in.

My answer to this problem was to create a short article on Email Fraud that you will find on the main menu of the new gateway page on my site - speaking of which, no I did not delete the eclectic pages that are my home page - I just moved them and replaced the first page with that new and rather plain gateway page.

My reason for doing this has to do with some email I received from an editor who was interested in something I wrote - and who commented that my "home" page should be more descriptive so that it gives an editor an idea of who I am as a person and what my experience and skills are. Well I took that to heart, and created what you now see on the home page... The simple part was intentional I want to point out - but I think it does the job.

The Email Fraud Primer is linked off of the main (gateway) page - let me know what you think of it?

CMBF