This post was written aaages ago - a few days after I was shortlisted to be precise - I’m not one to cause controversy but I hope you get the points I’m trying to raise.

I’m naturally very suspicious person, I tend to go along with things until I have more of an idea of whats going on. So when I received an email from Rhys the other week with the title omgomogmogmogmgomgomgomgomgomg and the link to the Metro youth shortlist I was rather excited. Mainly because I didn’t expect my site to be up there in a million years and because it had been such a long time since the nominations I reread the rules and my suspicious mind got thinking….

The rules said:

Youth (for bloggers under the age of 18)
We want to find the best young bloggers in the country. If the person writing the blog is under the age of 18, whatever the topic, nominate them here. It could be a personal diary of their life, or about anything else under the sun.

LOL I’m 19. I’ve never lied about it, its right there in the first sentence of my about page. Rhys even put my age down as 19 when he submitted the entry.

Today I receive and email from metro, stating that because I was under 18 they required my parents permission for me to partake in certain activities! I may be short, like pink, kittens and bunny rabbits but I’m 19, honest! I’m studying at university, I can buy porn and am quite partial to the odd bottle of lambrini. They even put in the description of my site “Personal writing from a design student.” you’d think that’d give it away.

At this point my suspicious mind started coming up with wild theories as to why on earth I was shortlisted! The most fathomable one was that quite simply, they hadn’t received ‘quite’ the amount of entries they’d hoped for in that category and simply listed me as filler. Then informed the judge not to choose me. Its a conspiracy I tell you!

So that was my theory, and then I got thinking again. (This is getting to be quite dangerous!) what’s to say the others were under 18?! Its cruel I know, but this also shows how little privacy there is online.

Lets start with Repost Media, His blog post about being shortlisted:

So it appears Repost has been shortlisted for the Metro’s Brit Blog Awards ‘07. This is kind of funny for a couple of reasons: 1. This blog has been going for about a month. 2. It’s in the Youth category, and I sure as hell don’t feel youthful. 3. I can’t think of a third. Don’t think I’m not grateful though, it’s pretty cool.

Doesn’t quite feel youthful? A quick google of his email address (scary isn’t it) and I’ve found his myspace, 23, from scotland.

ok, so maybe they needed some more filler?!

Moving on. Thesecretlifeofamanicdepressive Introduction post:

I moved to London when I was 17, in 2003.

oh dear, 21. This took seconds to find out I might add.

30gigabytes.com Surely one of the entrants is 18 or under?! yes, Just in there.

A link from the sidebar shows that flyingsaucer is indeed under 18

So two out of five shortlisted actually qualify for the competition….Is this just an honest mistake (although it took me all of five minutes to find out all the entrants ages), or a viral post attempt by metro to get bloggers talking….about what and for what purpose I have no idea! Anyone have any theories?!

On another note a comment from Lil Do they honestly think that writing an essay would be a gratifying prize for teenagers? I couldn’t have put it better myself!

After this was written and the winners were announced The runner up, Pole to Polar was [Specially commended - was nominated in Youth category, but author was just over the age limit] I’m sorry - Just over?! She’s 21 the limit was 18!

No I’m not bitter. I’m really rather glad I didn’t win to be honest. Why the hell would I want to write an essay as opposed to the other winners who all get brand spanking new laptops!? Surely this’d be a good prize for the ‘teenagers’ (I use that term loosely) who have far more need of a laptop than most!

[tag]metro[/tag] [tag]scandal[/tag] [tag]viral advertising[/tag] [tag]blog[/tag] [tag]awards[/tag] [tag]google[/tag]