Missloi brought to my attention on the Ping.sg shoutbox this site, www.solutiononline.org. And under the Blog Development section of their portfolio, her blog was found listed there.

Nothing really looked out of place until Missloi pointed out to me that she did not use the services of this company and the reason she brought it to our attention was to seek our advice on what can be done. Her own webmaster, who did this site for her, was pretty pissed off at this. On closer examination, I also realised that the description of the blog is wrong. Missloi’s blog is not just about exams anyway. (I had saved a copy of the printout of the site in PDF format here.)

This really takes the cake. I was really shocked that someone would stoop so low. Personally speaking, I am really clueless what can be done about this blatant and shameless attempt of taking credit for something one didn’t do. It appears to me ‘Solution Online’ is in India so I really am not sure just how far the law would reach. Even if they are not beyond the reach of the law, the question will be how much it would cost to legally make sure they ‘de-list’ Missloi’s blog from their site.

I took the conversation with Missloi off the Shoutbox to Windows Live Messenger and we agreed that mindless and vociferous denunciation of the company wouldn’t help at all. Above which, ‘peasants’ like us really don’t have the money to sue people. However, the idea of checking with those other blogs and sites listed to find out if they did use the services of ‘SolutionOnline’ came up. After all, if these people are in the same boat as Missloi, then it’s only a matter of courtesy to inform these people how their sites have been misused for marketing without their approval. Hopefully, they will be outraged enough to make a ruckus out of the matter and if they are in another country, take the matter up with their local media as well.

Since we were on taking up the matter with the local media, I suggested to Missloi to check with the Sunday Times reporter who interviewed her previously if they might be interested to run this news – for e.g. putting it up on the Digital Life section on Tuesday. We hoped that if enough attention (or even negative publicity) is created about this matter, then even the foreign media might pick up the news and run it as well – just like how Bo Davis became infamous for his bullying of the Trishaw uncle in Singapore.

Anyway, if anyone else have even better suggestions on how to publicise this matter – just like how the brouhaha of Nuffnang’s charging for their cheques hit the public domain, I believe Missloi and her webmaster – and in fact some of us who cared for our community – would be glad to hear it.

All suggestions are welcomed. Please however remember the main objective is to stop these jokers in India from using sites / blogs they didn’t help to do to market themselves. Thank you.