Certificate of Merit

[Matthew Turner]

John,
The launch statement has now been removed from the ECF site, so what is the exact status of the COM. I notice also that if you type certificate of merit chess into google it takes you to a site called brokencontrollers which seems very dubious.

[Alex Holowczak]

Matthew, the site hasn't been registered with Google yet, presumably. Once that has been done (it takes a few minutes to do), it'll take a few hours for it to appear when you search for it. I think it's quite encouraging that given the site hasn't been added to Google yet, this still appears as the top hit - it means there are few other "Certificate of Merit" things around the world for any industry. It means that this should be comfortably a top search when you search for it on Google - meaning few people will miss it.

[John Upham]

John,
I notice also that if you type certificate of merit chess into google it takes you to a site called brokencontrollers which seems very dubious.

This would appear to be some kind of blogging site for random crap.

Someone has posted a message about the launch it would appear.

Should we be worried about this? I doubt it.

Can we do anything about it? No.

Thanks for mentioning Matthew.

[John Upham]

Matthew, the site hasn't been registered with Google yet, presumably.

Thanks for reminding me Alex. Just registered the URL with Google.

[John Upham]

I received this rather gratifying piece of feedback from one of the newly registered students :

Very well done to you and your colleagues in an exciting initiative. I think this will be a major benefit for Children and Adults alike.

[Alex Holowczak]

I received this rather gratifying piece of feedback from one of the newly registered students :

Very well done to you and your colleagues in an exciting initiative. I think this will be a major benefit for Children and Adults alike.

How old was this student? They're not that eloquent where I come from...

[Matthew Turner]

John,
I appreciate that you cannot do anything directly about the brokencontrollers site, but if people go to the ECF site and cannot find anything about the CoM then it seems a logical thing to do a google search. It is unfortunate that this leads them to a dubious site. If the CoM has been launched and is working fine then lets have the launch statement back on the ECF site.

[Alex Holowczak]

In a few hours, that won't matter - Google will pick the actual COM site up ahead of it.

[Adam Raoof]

I have recently received this feedback from one of our younger students on the Certificate of Merit;

MY DEAR JOHN,

I am not accustomed to writing thus, and I begin already to find my language inadequate to express my gratitude. Being idle, I set my sights upon your latest initiative yesterday, I do not know when, and did not perform quite as well as I had hoped to do. I attempted your test again this morning at seven o'clock, and had a very pleasant response by email confirming my success, and as the morning was cloudy and perfectly cool. I chose to celebrate by designing my own certificate, which I shall send you under separate cover for your approval and validation.

My brothers Edward and Frank are both gone out to seek their fortunes; the latter is to return soon and I will introduce him to your marvellous self-improvement scheme. The former we shall never see again, as he has taken up bridge.

God bless you! I must leave off, for we are going out.

Yours very gratefully,

Tim (aged 9)

[Michael Bennett]

Wow - that is pretty eloquent for a 9-year-old!

Reminds me a little of the time when my son (then 5) read "Alice in Wonderland" for the first time and then came up to me and said:

"If you please Daddy, may I have a glass of water?"

[Carol Williams]

Sorry, just have the gut feel that some else wrote that - can't think why

[Mike Truran]

Someone taking the proverbial?

[Matthew Turner]

Second launch for the CoM today.

One of my students, Rhys Cumming (178) has had a go at the practise level and scored 18/20. Slightly disappointing for a player of his strength, but I cannot be too critical because I only scored 16. Still I have kept trying and I have managed to record a score of 20/20, although I felt I was getting some of the questions wrong. I am not confident about the real test and I'm not sure it is worth me paying my six quid yet. More practise required me thinks.

[David Sedgwick]

I've just made about five attempts to register and log in, with a total lack of success. That may just be due to my being a total techno-numpty, but I wonder whether it would be helpful to have an idiot's guide to the process (perhaps in the FAQ section).

[Adam Raoof]

I've just made about five attempts to register and log in, with a total lack of success. That may just be due to my being a total techno-numpty, but I wonder whether it would be helpful to have an idiot's guide to the process (perhaps in the FAQ section).

Hi David -

- have you filled in all the fields marked with an *asterisk?
- have you scrolled down to see the rest of the registration fields?
- have you typed your email address correctly?
- most common - is your browser set to accept cookies? There is a guide to the latter at

http://www.google.com/support/websearch ... swer=35851