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This was a week of March Madness down here at The Shameless Plug. We had polls running and tournaments racing…it was quite a blast for news nerds like me. The dust settled and one major victor stood out: Dade Pendwyn. He took this week's Best Article award and then managed to catch up to Alias Vision’s 20 vote lead in the last leg of the tourney (The Shameless Plug Award for 'mini' Medi Mogul - SPAMM).

I feel obligated to mention that all contenders were generous enough to agree to a 24-hour extension of the tournament to allow more article ‘air time.’ Alias could have easily grabbed 1st place if he simply said “No.” Great sportsmanship. Great writing. And some, sort of, great prizes:

1st Place for 6.5 GOLD, 31 CAD, and 82 USD:
– eCanada’s New ‘mini’ Media Mogul – Dade Pendwyn

2nd Place for 1 GOLD, 6 CAD, and 20 USD:
– Most Subscriptions Gained – Dominik

SPAMM Contenders with starting subscriptions, article title, and current votes:

Dade Pendwyn (117 subs.) - "Scrapyard Battlefield"
-- 56 Votes and +10 subs. **Winner of main prize (most votes)**

Alias Vision (109 subs.) - "The Top 10 Most Influential Canadians"
-- 47 Votes and +4 subs.

Marcchelala (69 subs.) - "Canada's Government Companies"
-- 45 Votes and +11 subs.

Dominik (76 subs.) - "Five Suggestions for Improving eRepublik"
-- 33 Votes and +16 subs. **Winner of second prize (most subs.)**

Best Article: March 1-7

1. "Party Platforms” by Yonsil of People’s Journal. 10% [ 2 ]
2. “The Battle for the Central Highlands” by Gallant0 of The Syldavian Telegraph. 15% [ 3 ]
3. "Canadian Health Services” by emilio sanchez of Canadian News Corp. 15% [ 3 ]
4. "EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Bruck ! / Interview avec Bruck, EXCLUSIF!” by marcchelala of Quick News. 25% [ 5 ]
5. "The Boomer Bugle Man of the Month - February 2009” by Dade Pendwyn of The Boomer Bugle. 35% [ 7 ]

Total Votes : 20

The Shameless Plug sat down for a fireside chat with Dade Pendwyn to talk about the win and other media matters. Outside the cabin, Dade’s ‘writer retreat,’ the March winds blew. Inside, the fireplace crackled and the ice clinked in highball crystal. The conversation meandered as the scotch flowed…

Plugson: Congratulations Dade on your two wins his week. You’re taking everything: the SPABA and 1st in the SPAMM tournament. It’s a clean sweep.

DadePendwyn: It helps that AV didn't write an article last week. I feel bad winning both things this week

Plugson: Yes, you should feel very guilty...there was even an extension. AV was well in the lead at that time. I’m just rubbing it in.

Dade: I do feel bad  FORGIVE MEEEE

Plugson: You won twice this week...and once last week...three times lucky. So let’s get serious and assume that you weren’t so lucky. Let’s say you buy a Q1 moving ticket with a shoddy airline, leading to a crash in the Canadian Rockies. You’re alone except for one other survivor. Among all eRep citizens, whom would you want to have survived the crash with you?

Dade: There are two important things when strande😛 humour and food. In this light, I'd pick Augustus Baldwin. He's a funny guy, but can also be a jerk so I wouldn't feel bad about cannibalizing him. Two birds with one stone.

Plugson: Plan A and Plan B, good thinking. I would go with Keneto.

Dade: Is that a sushi?

Plugson: No, he’s a statistician/economist who puts out those graphs on the food market. I figured he'd be able to create some great pie charts to track our foraging vs. hunting success.

Dade: Oh right. It's incredible that someone made of sushi can write such concise articles.

Plugson: I never thought about that. Plan B---sushi.

Dade: Now I'm hungry.

Plugson: Okay, so the whole SPAMM thing. Did it work or did it have a few too many issues? Chew on that.

Dade: It worked, I think. The pot was bigger than I thought it would be, and it turned out to be more about quality articles than vote whoring...although I definitely advertised to my friends. I think it worked just fine. The only problem is reader enthusiasm. It seems like Canada has a problem with people getting excited about the media. Maybe we need to import some Hungarians or something.

Plugson: Hungarians would boost the ratings.

Dade: It's true.

Plugson: But would also be more mouths to feed.

Dade: They can eat Salad Bar.

Plugson: Hungarian Salad Bar...would it have goulash?

Dade: Nothing but.

Plugson: I was actually surprised that quality articles became a priority for the contestants. It was supposed to be half-spoof. Back to reader enthusiasm...does it exist or does the SPAMM creator need to attract more of it?

Dade: It exists in very small portions. Canadians, and North Americans, are very, very lazy. Case in point – the article that consisted of a single period that got like 70 votes. Oh yeah, I should mention that I voted enthusiastically for that.

Plugson: So we need a SPAMM salad bar.

Dade: Meat doesn't belong in salad. Which is why it's lucky there's no meat in spam.

Plugson: Correct... so more punctuation or more meat.

Dade: Both! Why can't we have punctual meat?

Plugson: What about the whole "media module" -- does it work?

Dade: It works in the same way hitting a home-run off a t-bar works.

Plugson: So a ‘news article home-run’ is like T-ball?

Dade: Right. The media module gets the job done. But there's so much more that could be done with it, i.e. show the paper that the article is from on the home page. That way we could tell faster what's garbage and what's not. "Oh that article is from the Freeholder Press. I'm going to read it." or "Oh that article about old ladies is from the Boomer Bugle. F-- that I have a better use of my 1 and a half minutes.” There's a lot that could be improved on.

Plugson: How about a small subscription fee? Think it would catch on? 0.5 CAD a week or something similar.

Dade: It sure would prevent BS sub scams. People would take their subs more seriously. Although I'm concerned they wouldn't sub at all. My preference would be that maybe they could only have 4 or 5 subs total. And if they wanted more they could pay a one time fee of 0.2 gold or something

Plugson: What would make you more giddy....20 Votes, 10 Subs, or 5 good comments?

Dade: Oh dang. That's a really good one….Not 20 votes. I dunno. Depends on the subs. If they are Canadian subs, then 10 subs. Okay then, 5 good comments. I like comments more than anything. It shows that people actually read the thing…and that they're alive.

Plugson: So Dade Pendwyn, people want to know...is this the real you? Because personas abound in eRep.

Dade: Nope. Not even the same name. Turns out I'm not a monkey petting a cat.

Plugson: What would you say about yourself? (come on, be honest) In eRep I’m _____________, but in real life _________________________.

Dade: In eRep I'm Dade Pendwyn, mildly prone to douchebaggery, and verbally opinionated. In real life I'm Ryan Harder and I'm very prone to douchebaggery, and introvertedly opinionated. Also, I'm incredibly deformed so I don't get out much.

Plugson: Thanks for laying it all out there. I’m googling you as you type.

Dade: If you want more details I can provide…Wow, if I google Ryan Harder, my facebook comes up. That's creepy as hell. ….oh no! The OTHER Ryan Harder from Saskatoon's facebook comes up. How awful. NOTE: If you google Ryan Harder and you get a Ryan Harder facebook profile from Saskatoon, it's not me if he's really ugly with a beard. I hate having an ugly Ryan Harder in the same city as me. Ok, apparently, I don't show up on Google at all. So scratch that. Just a bunch of ugly Ryan Harders.

Plugson: http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Harder/505074603 Please eCanadian fans of The Boomer Bugle, do not mistake this man for Dade Pendwyn. He is not an award-winning e-journalist worthy of stalking. I guess that concludes our time together. Thanks Dade for the cheap bottle of scotch and for sharing your views (all 100% serious). Cheers!