Blogshares and me-- part I

For the past while I've been spending some time with Blogshares, an online game I've posted about previously. At its most basic, in the game blogs are akin to companies, shares of which can be bought and sold similar to the stock market. It's not real money, of course, but nevertheless I find Blogshares a fun way to pass the time.

My goal in Blogshares has evolved with time. At first I was merely bored and thought I'd try it out. Once I started getting familiar with the basics, I started to see how much B$ I could make. I became much more picky and discerning in regards to which blogs I would purchase (aside: the only reason I own any shares in my blog is because it's *my* blog--if it was anyone else's the valuation would be too low for me to even bother!).

For a month or so I remained a "non-premium" aka non-paying member, which is fine, but I quickly found the 20 transactions per day limit... well... limiting. Anyway, in the forums someone was offering a premium membership ($15 USD per annum) for the first person to meet his/her criteria. I posted, and was generously given a premium membership. A fairly fortuitous happenstance as I'd about decided to purchase a premium membership in order to have access to added functionality in the game.

Happily, there are many experienced players in Blogshares willing to provide help and advice to newbies. Anywhoo, for a while I actively looked for blogs I could purchase to build up my portfolio and net worth. Finding vulnerable, high value blogs became a little tedious, so my focus turned to voting and moderating blogs in to categories. This earned me "chips" which I then sold for B$.

My interest in Blogshares tapered off, or perhaps plateaued would be a better description. I was content with maintaining my portfolio and occasionally searching for a new blog. But then something happened....