Thank you.

There’s not much more else I can say.

Late Monday night, we were informed that Rattling Chains was named the top disc golf blog by DiscGolfStation.com. In the growing age of digital media and blogging, this is quite an honor.

We were contacted by Disc Golf Station a week ago, letting us know we were being considered. I answered the two questions I was asked and sent things back.

Then we got the news.

I’m obviously stoked — for the site, for those who contribute, but most of all for those who have supported us for the past 10 months. The fan base this site has built might not be as large as some other disc golf sites, but we have a loyal and vocal group who will tell it like it is.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

These fans will tell us when we’ve done well, tell us when we’ve messed up, when we’ve misspelled something or when we got something right. And I like that. They send us ideas and thoughts and it helps us grow as a site.

Clint Henderson, of Disc Golf Station, said they sent e-mails to about 20 disc golf blogs, and considered many others in the initial process. It’s nice to know how we stacked up against so many other blogs.

When I started Rattling Chains in 2012, the goal was simple: create a disc golf blog that covers the sport like no other place — with journalistic integrity, entertaining and original content, and consistency. Add all that together, and our hope was to help grow the sport through the written word as we dive into stories others aren’t telling.

I think this site has delivered in its goal.

A couple area people helped with some ideas early and one of my closest friends, Darren Dolezel, has been a valued person helping with the site, from helping land some good swag for giveaways to a few stories and other support, we were off to a good start.

In the beginning, I also got extremely lucky when Steve Hill and Jack Trageser jumped on board, believing in the vision I had for this site. Hill is a former newspaper reporter and Trageser also has a journalistic background.

Talk about hitting a jackpot.

Since then, we’ve had others join in smaller capacities and they’ve all added to the overall success of this website.

I’m fully proud of what we’ve accomplished this year. We’ve delivered with some really great in-depth stories about people and companies. We’ve had good columns, some great instructional posts and have done things nobody else has done. For example, to coincide with the inaugural Women’s Global Event, we had a women’s week where everything on our site was about or written by women. We even changed the colors of the site. We intend on doing that yearly and we plan to match it up with Mother’s Day. With no WGE planned for this year, we’re happy to say we’ll continue honor women playing the game of disc golf.

We aren’t done, though. We know we have to keep working hard and we will. And for that, I thank each and every person who contributes to this site — no matter how big or small.

But I especially need to thank the readers. If we only had 20 hits per day, we likely wouldn’t be continuing this. Though we’re all writers, we still like to know people read what we write. And this site has steadily grown. Would I like to see more hits? Absolutely. But as long as we continue to grow, I’m happy. And having a good set of readers always watching helps makes us continue on.

It makes me even more happy to note that the fifth blog listed on Disc Golf Station’s list was School of Disc Golf, which is Trageser’s main blog where he works to help improve disc golfers. I’ve always been impressed with his knowledge of the sport and his ability to break things down, so to know he’s listed in this group is excellent.

The other three sites are a potpourri of excellent disc golf work. In order, here are the others Disc Golf Station gave awards to:

TALKdg: This is a disc golf news aggregate blog, where other blogs and sites can come and post their news or whatever else disc golf and link back to their own sites. Though we don’t utilize it as much as we probably should, we’re users there from time to time as well.

Explore Disc Golf: A blog with many topics, it covers a lot of design elements and beginner tips. In May, Rattling Chains ran a story about the company.

Dogleg Disc Golf: Originally a spot for six friends to share disc golf stories, the site has grown to become a community. It’s a spot for disc golfers to read what others have done and, at times, post their own stories.

We want to wish a hearty congrats to everyone who made the top five.

As for Rattling Chains, we’re excited for 2013 and look to continue growing. We’ll celebrate our first anniversary in March and we have some great things planned in the future.

Thank you again to everyone who has made us what we are.

P.J. Harmer is the founder and executive editor for Rattling Chains. E-mail him at: pj@rattlingchains.com.

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