Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Fascination Award? No Thank You

On Monday I received an email notice that a post on this blog had caused it to be nominated for a "Fascination Award" in the category of "2012's Most Fascinating Creative Writing Teacher blog." "That's nice," I said to myself. Then, before I got all giddy and jumped around the room (I had better things to do that day, such as finish writing the first draft of Spinster's Folly), I did a Google web search on the Fascination Awards. An entry on the list caught my eye, so I clicked over to the Tai-Wiki-Widbee blog to learn why the proprietor thereof had declined the award. He or she gave compelling reasons why I did not wish to help spread the word, nor ask my readers to "vote" for me, and otherwise divert my attention from what is more important in my daily routine.

Basically, if I put up the "badge" denoting that my blog had been nominated, the link would go to a site that is ultimately involved in funneling students to private online institutions of higher learning that, as I see it from the perspective of having a friend in that industry who is desperately trying to get out of it, serves mostly to separate a student from their student loan money. Tax-payer-provided student loan money that saddles a student with debt for years, if not decades, to come.

My friend sees "doctoral degree" students, who, he or she says, can scarcely string three coherent words together. Draw your own conclusions as to the efficacy or scruples of such programs after you click the links included in Tai-Wiki-Widbee's post.

And that, folks, is why I'm also declining the Fascination Award.

12 comments:

  1. Wow, we certainly have to look out for ourselves! Good for you, Marsha...

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  2. I got the same thing and also ignored it.

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  3. Wow--so sneaky. Good to know; thanks for sharing.

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  4. Glad you did your homework. A+

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  5. Marsha, my blog was nominated for that same award, but when I went to the blog post that they said was nominated because it was so "creative" it was a contest announcement I'd done and not creative at all! Why would I want people to vote on my "creativity" for a contest announcement? I turned it down for that reason, but I'm glad to find someone else who researched and turned it down for a better reason. :)

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  6. Before I took a year off from blogging I received a few awards of this type. I never respond, not sure which are legit and which are not. I once wrote a very tongue in cheek blog about a completely made up award. I was congratulated by multiple people and some asked what I had to do to get it. Crazy stuff out there

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  7. Fascinating! Good for you for researching it out.

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  8. Wow. Thanks for the heads up. I appreciate it!

    Inklings @ margothovley.com

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  9. Good for you! I am impressed you researched it before jumping into it, very smart!

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  10. You are so wise...thanks for educating us all! hugs~

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I welcome your comments.

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