Well, the LAMB celebrated its 50th member just the other day, so it seems a fine time to check up on some other news:

LAMB Membership…booming?
The Oscars event certainly brought the LAMB a lot of exposure, and it showed with a strong February that earned us 13 new sites. March may look down on the chart below, with nine new sites (including two that I have yet to post), but the month is only half-over, so it’s likely that we’ll have our best month yet. I’ve thrown in some modest goals for the next six months or so, and if they come to fruition, we should be closing in on 200 LAMBs by the time the site’s year anniversary comes around at the end of October. Now would be a good time to mention that if you know of any friends’ site that aren’t members, they should be. Subtle and not-so-subtle recruiting methods are highly encouraged.

The LAMB Leaderboard
Nothing really new to report here, except that the latest “scores” are up, and the top spot might surprise you. My apologies to the top two sites for their truncated names, but it makes the chart look much better.

Monthly Trivia Contest
Starting sometime in April, the LAMB will be hosting a monthly trivia contest (tentatively and terribly titled “LAMBtests” – feel free to suggest a better name). The details are still being worked out, but my plan is for them to be fun yet difficult, with an as-yet-undetermined prize for each month’s winner. As for those prizes, I’m looking for help as well. I’d like them to be of some value, but the LAMB isn’t exactly a cash cow, so I can’t offer prizes similar to the one given out for the Oscar Pool winner. Some ideas I’ve been rattling around include: a pick of three of my no-longer-wanted/needed VHS movies (not exactly enticing, but there are some good movies here, and I’m sure there are some technophobes that still use VHS…right?) or a pick of some DVDs from my library that, again, are either no longer needed or wanted. If you have any other prize suggestions that are a) creative, b) movie-related, and c) won’t break the bank, I’m all ears. Of course, another potential idea would be to charge $1.00 to enter the contest, with funds going towards that and any future contests.

Much more on this later.

Random LAMB Banners
This isn’t really news, but thanks to the 13 sites that have sent in their banners. The Gallery page is really starting to fill out, and the more of these I get, the better the LAMB Leaderboard will look. If you have yet to create/send one, go to the Gallery page for more details.

The Sirens of the LAMBs
Much thanks to Nick of R2D2 for his work in putting together this event. It sounds like it’s all set to officially launch early this week, and it should be a lot of fun. If you’d like to participate/host a future event like this (or read about other potential events discussed), the LAMB Forum is the place for you.

LAMBScores?
I’ve had this idea floating in my head for a while now, but I can’t think of the best way to execute it, so I’m putting it out there for your thoughts. I’d like a simple, easily categorized way for the LAMBs (and the LAMBs only, I’m afraid) to be able to give their scores/grades/ratings to the new releases of the day (older movies could be looked at later). The trouble is incorporating this into Blogger and my ineptitude as a “programmer.”

I’d like it to be as simple as this: I put up a new post for each movie. The post only consists of the title of the movie, the movie’s poster and a widget (of sorts) for rating. Now, Daniel G. of Getafilm has a nifty widget from Outbrain on his blog, and I like the widget, but it has its drawbacks (chief of which is that installation of it places it on every post, but also that I couldn’t lock it down to just LAMB members doing the grading). A poll from Blogger could be added to each post, but again – no lockdown, and there wouldn’t be a way to see the average score, and I think that’s an important element.

The overall goal is to start collecting aggregate ratings from the LAMB member sites, which would help to give us a voice in the movie blog community. In time, a nice database of scores would be created. Now, this could be done manually, but I don’t think I have the time to do so and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone else. If you have any thoughts on how this might work, you know the drill.

Ferdy on Films Dance Movie Blogathon
Marilyn over at Ferdy on Films is hosting an upcoming blogathon and would like your participation. If you’d like to, or know someone who would, the details can be found here. If you have any questions or would like to RSVP, her email is ferdyonfilms@comcast.net.

tMF Profile Writing Contest
The Movie Fantatic is having a profile writing contest for Emile Hirsch and is giving away 3 DVDs as prizes. For more details, go here.

Finally…a PSA
A number of LAMBs have inquired about the scroll box widget that lists all of the LAMBs for their sites. If you’d like the latest version of it, feel free to email me. Any updates for new LAMBs would have to be made either manually or via my sending you an updated version. This is a really easy thing for me to send and for you to install, so if you’re looking to give some link love to all of the LAMBs and don’t want your blogroll getting a mile long, it’s a great solution.