Gotta love Barack Obama. He tweeted to us.

“Report Abuse” on the comments
We just need to clear up a rumor about what the “report abuse” link does in the matchup comments.  Some have said that by clicking that, it wipes the person profile out.  Others have thought that it blocks votes from going through.  None of the above is true.  It’s a rumor. It’s untrue.

So what happens?  When a user clicks “report abuse” in the comments, all it does is flags the comment.  We have a system that tracks all flagged comments.  Our staff looks through those flagged comments and determines either to keep those comments public or delete them.

It’s that simple.  It doesn’t block any votes. It doesn’t wipe out any profiles.  All it does is flag the specific comment.

“Report User” on the user profile
This works in the exact same way as the “report abuse” link in the comments.  No profile is deleted. Votes are not blocked.  All it does is flag the user for our staff to look at later.  Everything in terms of functionality stays the same.  Nothing changes in terms of what the user can do and what can be done.

Hopefully that clears those rumors up. Both links do NOTHING in terms of affecting the outfome of voting in Zinch March Madness.  Hopefully that makes sense.  Feel free to ask any questions.

More than 500 students applied to become a Zinch blogger.  Only 30 were chosen. 25 of them live in the United States.  The other 5 are international (Israel, India, Italy, Abu Dhabi and Spain).  There are a total of 19 females and 11 males.  They cover each of the high school grades; they come from various ethnic backgrounds; they offer unique perspectives.  Meet some of America’s best high school writers. This is the Zinch30.

» Meet the Zinch30

For those who didn’t make it, don’t feel bad.  It was an extremely selective and competitive process.  There were hundreds of exceptional writers and talented individuals out there and it was very difficult for us to choose.  Thanks to all who applied and we wish you the best of luck in all that you pursue.  Thanks!

Cool vid by some students at Clarkson.  Nice rhymes.

Finalists! If you want us to post one of your videos on your matchup page, send them to us at marchmadness@zinch.com ! I know a bunch of you have already done videos….but let us know if you want us to put them up and send the link of the vid again to make sure it's easy for us to get to. View an example of what i'm talking about by checking out Leah Titus' video on her matchup page.

-Mick

The 64 finalists have been chosen. Be sure to check out the brackets to vote.

Also in the news. For the semifinalists who didn't make it: we are giving away $1k to one of you in the new Biggest Loser Competition.. You can only vote for one person among ALL groups on the page there.

Also with the final 64: You can use these domain names to have people go directly to your tab in the brackets:
www.zinch.com/east
www.zinch.com/west
www.zinch.com/north
www.zinch.com/south

64 finalists have been chosen. Let the games begin. This is gonna be a fun ride….

- Mick

Tomorrow morning the regionals officially end! One day. That’s still plenty of time to make a splash in your high school and in your community. Again, we need help choosing 17 people to make it into the final 64. The regionals will only give us 44 automatic entries into the 64. Cinderella 3 is 3 more. We need help choosing the 17 We’re getting tons of email and updates and local press clippings and tons of youtube videos….keep ‘em coming, keep ‘em coming, keep ‘em coming. This is coming down to the wire….

Here are a couple new videos.

Anna Vignet (West #2)

Shelby Lohr (South #3)

Leah Titus (West #3)