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While his blog was still an internal corporate one, AOL vice-chairman Ted Leonsis, challenges anyone to beat him in an AIM Fight. For the remedial class: AIM Fight measures how many online AIM users have you on their buddy lists right now (and their buddies, out to three degrees). An AIM Fight score shifts as people log on and off, but Ted Leonsis says he can beat almost anyone, especially during business hours. He whispered his screenname in my ear and I ran him up against a few other highly connected AIMsters. Here are their scores:

Ted Leonsis: 917,974
 Jason Calacanis, personal AOL evangelist: 109,615
 Nick Denton, Gawker Media dark lord: 64,107
 Phil Torrone, MAKEbot co-developer: 62,426

Sadly, bots like SmarterChild (a general-purpose IM bot) and MAKEbot (the first popular RSS-over-IM tool) aren't measured by AIM Fight; I'm beginning to think they're the only match for Ted. Feel like challenging the title? Send an IM to "heyvalleywag".

AIM Fight [Ted's Take]
AIM Fight [AIMfight.com]