Hey Jeff,
It is great to hear from you again. Also, thank you Chris for your excellent, thorough suggestions for Jeff and the rest of the B/R community on how to improve their exposure across the internet.
While Chris was spot on with everything he said, I'd also like to address a few of the points you brought up in your original post and response to Chris.
While we understand your frustrations in there not being any writer competitions for the B/R rugby section, the simple reason for there not being one is because there is no competition. If the rugby community continues to grow, meaning there being more than three or four rugby specific writers, there will definitely be consideration to adding a competition.
As for why college baseball has a top writer competition, that is actually because we used to have more consistent writers for that section. While it has dwindled down, that section hasn't been changed because many of our baseball writers will produce content during the season, specifically during the College World Series.
I'd also like to touch on this section of your post:
4) I understand that content makes its way to the B/R "Lead Story" status based on merit and reads; however, at present I don't see any conceivable way that my articles - and there have been some that have really caught fire (ie. 20,000+ reads) - could ever reach that status.
The placement of your article actually has nothing to do with your writer ranking or the points you have accumulated. For an article to be featured on the front page, your content needs to fulfill two requirements:
1. It needs to be extremely well written
2. It needs to be relevant
All writers on Bleacher Report have the same opportunity as the next to be featured. Whether you are writing your first ever article or your 1000th, these opportunities are only given to those pieces that really standout from the rest.
Also, it is worth noting that we are still for the most part an American website. While World Football is often featured on our front page, it has found great popularity in the states compared to sports like rugby and cricket. This doesn't mean sports like rugby and cricket are given less of a chance — we are always looking to feature other sports that are popular around the world. However, back to point No. 2 above, it needs to be relevant.
Also, you mention that your articles don't seem to get edited on time because we don't have any editors focused on rugby. This actually isn't true, as we have a team of editors who are here to give each article an edit when it reaches it point in the queue for which your article enters after publishing.
Once again, we do understand your frustrations, Jeff. As we have discussed in the past, I used to write for a small team/topic on the site (Arizona State football).
Writing for a small sport team can definitely be difficult, but if you keep up the great work, you will see that in the end it can be quite rewarding, especially when you are the sole writer for that team or sport. When I wrote for ASU, not only didn't I see that community continue to build, but I was also recognized as the voice of ASU football.
Remember, our staff is always here to help you improve. We really appreciate all of your feedback and the ideas that you have provided to us, and we will continue to look into ways to improve the experience for smaller sports.
Thanks again, Jeff. If you'd like to discuss these matters any further, please don't hesitate to email me at jchase@bleacherreport.com.