The Philippines' Gossip Girl ?

Actually read this article from PDI about a college student running a blog about the girls in his campus a la Gossip Girl! In just a few months the site was able to rake in at least 31,000 views! I've been running this blog on and off for almost 2 years now and I'm not even close to that number! 

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Feel pretty? Someone's Watching You

Philippine Daily Inquirer

by: Sandie B. Gadia (Ateneo de Manila University)

October 18, 2008

MANILA, Philippines - Whether you are lining up for lunch in the cafeteria stall, or taking one of the school's many walkways, you might feel a pair of eyes zooming in on your every move. Surreptitiously, he takes note of not just your companions and your clothes, but even your smile, posture, laugh, or complexion.

A few days later, you find yourself suddenly the talk of the campus. An anonymous blogger writes about you in his infamous Blogspot account.

There's a growing fad in websites a la Gossip Girl. The GoodJobGod blog is one such site.  Now that you're in the spotlight, can you handle the attention and the bashing?

31,000 views

Garnering over 31,000 page views to date, what started as a summer vacation pastime is now a hit among Ateneans. The GoodJobGod blog has been controversial even if entries have been deleted for undisclosed reasons.

"I didn't really expect the blog to explode and take flight the way it did," says the blog's moderator who identifies himself as James. "I just really wanted a place where I can express what I really feel."

On the criteria for the choice of girls to feature, James says aside from the "obviously pretty" (those who pretty up and dress well), he also considers those who "may not be instant hits" but he finds beautiful nonetheless.

James adds, "I think confidence plays a huge role. If you carry yourself without self-doubt, that's good enough for me. Also, I think being true to yourself and comfortable in your own skin makes a pretty girl pretty." Showbiz personality and senior Literature-English major Nikki Gil has landed on the GoodJobGod blog. James writes, "[If] Nikki were to ride jeepneys (context is Gil's "Sakayan Ng Jeep" single released in 2005) all her life, I'd trade in my Honda Civic for a silver stallion for a good chance to give her a ride home everyday."

Aside from featuring models and actresses, James writes about average Janes too. In another entry, he writes about a sophomore Management Economics major, "Tennis anyone? With every forehand, she shows her grace. With every backhand, her elegance. Volley, her charm. Slice, her magnificence."

Every entry comes with a photo that James grabs from the girls' personal sites. He says he does not seek permission from the girls before he posts the photos and blog entries.

Girls react

Nella Lomotan, a sophomore Communications Technology Management major, was among those featured on the blog.

James writes about Nella: "Nella can shine bright with her beauty! This angel radiates with her gorgeousness every time. She has yet to fail me!"

Nella responds, "I never really saw myself the way [James] did. He may have exaggerated things a little bit."

"I guess the main disadvantage [of blogging anonymously] is that it's kind of embarrassing since I don't really have an idea as to who and how many [people] saw the entry," Nella says. "[I] wanted to bury myself alive the first time I saw [the entry about me]."

The entry has no lasting effects, at least for Nella. "I can't say it left an impact on me [because] truth be told, I never really cared about it," she says.  "I think there are so many other, more important things to be concerned about."

Compared to Nella, the blog's impact on Kryz Uy, a junior Communications Technology Management major, had been more palpable.

James writes on Kryz: "Like a holy chariot charging from the highest heavens, here comes the cutest most beautiful lady these eyes laid upon that day!"

"Initially, I felt as though the blogger had absolutely no respect for women," Kryz says. "It seemed like he was placing us on a shelf for other men to check out and comment on at their own pleasure!"  She adds that after much thought, however, she realized that if it's any consolation, James' blog entries weren't perverse or malicious.

The entry about her, she claims, made her more conscious of her privacy. "Before, I could dance around school and I couldn't care less what anyone thought about me," says Kryz, a member of the Company of Ateneo Dancers. "Now, I get embarrassed."

Nella and Kryz believe James means no harm. But they would prefer, however, that he not write about them. Nella says, "I'm not comfortable with the idea of someone I don't know writing stuff about me." Kryz agrees, "I hate that this whole thing has made me so conscious about what others think [about me]. I realized that people actually notice other people."

Not omnipresent

As if in reply, James wrote his readers a letter dated May 28. He said he is not an omnipresent being in the Ateneo campus. "I am a living, breathing, human person who can feel as much as you do."  He stressed, "I know what I'm doing, and my conscience is clear. This is a blog to appreciate beautiful women - If [one is] willing to share that with me, then [he] will always be welcome. I am not forcing [him] to read, much less like what I write in my blog."

The blog is now bare save for a single entry. "23k hits at last!" writes James. "I won the bet! You know who you are and you owe me big time! Kala mo hindi ko kaya 'no (You thought I couldn't make it)?"  Now readers ask, was the blog just a bet? Or a psychological experiment, as rumor has it?

James stays in control, leaving readers hanging, wondering what James has in store.

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