Monday 20 February 2012

An Unexpected Email

...was in my inbox today. It came from someone I'd never heard of, and they wrote:

Hi there,

An article you wrote in 2012 titled Fashion Calendar: January has earned your blog a nomination for a Fascination Award: 2012's Most Fascinating Librarian blog.

The comments posted in response to your post prove that your content not only inspires your audience, but it also creates discussion around your posts, both of which are requirements for the nomination of a Fascination award.

As a nominee of this award, you have full permission to display the "Nominated" emblem on your website. To learn more about the contest, the rules, or the prizes, click here: 2012 Fascination Awards Rules & Prizes.

To get started: 
  1. Accept your nomination by replying to this email by Thursday February 24th (11:59 PM EST).
  2. Claim your "Nominated" badge to display on your blog: - - - link removed, since I am not sure it is OK to show the link on here - - -

Voting begins February 27th at 12:01 AM (EST). The blog with the most votes by March 5th at 11:59 PM (EST) will win the grand prize, a $200 restaurant gift card.

Good luck and thank you for your participation!

- - - end of copy - - -

Needless to say, I was both pleased and surprised at the same time. For a moment, I even thought of it being hoaxy spam or a spammy hoax, but when I did follow the link to look at the rules & prizes, my doubts were gone and I now believe that one of you, my dear readers, must have sent them an email, telling them about my blog.
Well, whoever it was: thank you very much for liking my blog enough to tell others about it!
I am under no illusion as to the outcome of the voting; the winner won't be me - strictly speaking, according to the rules, my blog hardly qualifies. Plus even if I did win - I do not live in the US and therefore am not eligible to actually receive a prize.
Nonetheless, I am well chuffed, and once again want to say thank you to all of you who regularly read my blog and leave comments!

- - - Important update - - -

KaylaBeck commented (see below) on this post and pointed me to someone else's blog where they explain more about what is behind these nominations. Reading that has made me quite unsure about the whole thing, and I have replied to the person who sent me that email, asking for further explanation. It will be interesting to read what they have to say. Until then, please don't vote or put in anyone's name on that website. My intention was certainly never to create any trouble for anyone; since I was never offered any money in the original email or elsewhere, I did not think it could be some kind of scam. In fact, me not being resident in the US, I am not even eligible for an actual prize.

30 comments:

  1. Well done! What a great thing, and a pity you can't get a prize (don't be so modest....) :)

    I always enjoy your blog and am pleased when I see from my feed that you have done a post so I am not surprised you have been nominated. I'll go to the Fascination Awards site and have a look now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jenny! Well, the prize is a 200$ restaurant token - it would be cool to have that in Euros, so that I could spend it on a lavish dinner for my family on my birthday.

      Delete
  2. Glückwunsch! (;
    Das mit dem Preis ist zwar ein wenig ärgerlich, aber der Wille zählt ^^
    LG

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Danke :-) Ja, finde ich nicht so schlimm mit dem Preis.

      Delete
  3. well should you win! you could use that as an excuse to come to the US for dinner! hehehehe. :) and well deserved!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Linda! He he I'd take you along, and we'd have a great evening out!

      Delete
  4. Before you have written this post I left some words at your former one. But they would fit better in here, so I shall repeat them:

    Congratulations to the nomination for the "most fascinating blog of 2012", I hope you will win it!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, gigunelsa, I saw it, thank you! Actually, it was your comment who made me think I should turn this into an extra post :-)

      Delete
  5. Well done Meike. I think you blog is fascinating and enjoyable! Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Graham! Everyone can vote for me on that page, by the way ;-)

      Delete
  6. Perhaps they could send you an American food parcel? Good luck, anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Or maybe the voucher could be changed from Dollars into Euros? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well done. Like you I would have been suspicious initially but knowing it's genuine I'm delighted for you. Well deserved and I shall pop over and vote.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Congratulations to this nomination! So far I could not find out how to vote for you, but I will take more time to read the nomination site.
    12

    ReplyDelete
  10. Delighted for you. I'll pop over and vote now.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I got a nomination, too, and I've done some research (how I found you!). This site http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2012/02/tywkiwdbi-declines-fascination-award.html talks about what it is, and links to some other blogs that explain it further. You may like to read it. I'm declining mine. :-/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello KaylaBeck, thanks for popping over and pointing me to the site. I am going to check it out in a minute.

      Delete
  12. Doesn't surprise me at all. I always knew you were fascinating. I hate being right all the time.
    Of course, you have my vote! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm always skeptical of being contacted by outsiders. I think you did the right thing by doing some investigation.

    On another note - you are fascinating!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mary! I have a reply from the Accelerated Degrees Program people and shall post more later.

      Delete