You know what I find funny? The life-cycle of a popular link.

The Album Cover Challenge has been up for a couple of weeks now. I originally put it together using albums which were recommended to me on Amazon.co.uk, the recommendations off those recommendations and the listmania lists which surrounded any suggestion.

It started out relatively small. A few people in the UK linked to it, and there was a steady stream of guesses and requests for the answers.

And then suddenly, over the weekend, it exploded. Hundreds of guesses. Hundreds of requests. Metafilter. Number #11 on Blogdex. Some South African radio station. Boom.

The funny thing is this: now that the visitors are so much more international, I’m suddenly getting shitloads of flack about the content of the challenge:

“All british based bands”
“…not fair…”
“…Limey rock fan”….”
“…Bunch of whinging must have brits put this together….”
“…that’s cheating…”
“….I’ve never heard of X, it must be a brit thing..”
“…how are we meant to get all these if we’re not british?”

Well, let me let you into a secret. You’re not. Or rather, so what if you can’t?

That’s not to say that I aim to specifically hobble anyone not from the UK, but rather that this quiz was put together without an attempt whatsoever to evenly balance the albums and acts across genres, decades or continents. I’m working on another, pre-christmas challenge, which *will* have a more even distribution, but as far as this one is concerned, live with it.

I’m amazed that what started out as a bit of fun has somehow become a public service that I’m failing to provide correctly. The Anti Valentine Card project suffered the same fate, with people moving within only a few days from
“hey, this is cool, thanks for doing it”
to
“Why isn’t there X? And why can’t I use it to do Y? And I don’t like Z.”

I wonder if I should get a sticker or something which says “labour of love” with which I can brand particular projects like this - not for profit, not for public service. Just a bit of fun.

Find the bit that you enjoy, and then move on.