I got a call about a week ago from an anonymous lady who identified herself as an representative from the Malaysian “Usage” (she pronounced “Youth Search” that way) committee.

“Malaysian Dotcom Youth Search is the hunt for websites, portals and even blogs with the ability to generate income and influence communities with an innovative factor.” - YouthMalaysia.com

The conversation goes like this.

Her: Hello, is this Ling Zi Neng?

Me: Yeah, speaking, who’s this?

Her: I’m from the Malaysian Usage committee…

Me: Huh? Sorry?

Her: I’m from the Malaysian Usage committee…

Me: (Alright, what are you up to? What sort of usage information are you trying to gather?) Ohh okay, what’s up?

Her: Did you put up a banner on your website?

Me: (Not knowing they’re from the M’sian Youth Search, I didn’t know what banner is she referring to) What banner? On which website? I’ve got several websites, you know…

Her: Errr, you hold on ah. (Her voice on the background, covering the mic while speaking Mandarin: Ta jiang shen me website? (He asked me which website?) Her friend: Nehh, na ge alexallied.com ahh)

Her: Erm, that alexallied.com, did you put our banner there?

Me: Ni jiang Hua Yu ma? Wo kan ni hai shi jiang Hua Yu bahh (Do you speak Mandarin? I think we better speak Mandarin)

Her: Hahaha…*LOL LMAO* (laughters with her colleague at the background).

We then conversed in Mandarin as following.

Me: (Now that I’ve realized it’s Malaysian Youth search…) Ohh, that banner! You guys stated in the registration process that you’ll send me an e-mail with the code in it. But I haven’t got it and it’s been 2 weeks now.

Her: Okay, I’ll ask them to send you the e-mail again. But nevermind, are you free next week?

Me: Erm, I’m not in KL woh…

Her: It’s okay, it’s on the 18th of January, we got this Awards Ceremony in PWTC, can you come? We just wanna know if you’re coming…

Me: I’m in Sarawak woh, how to go?

Her: …. erm…na mei guang xi la (It’s okay then)…bye.

Me: …(wtf?)

I thought that was a really time wasting conversation and I felt disheartened by how she ends the conversation.

Nevermind that conversation, but I think she forgot to send me the e-mail with the banner codes. Now if you read this, please send me the code? Ohh, I forgot, the award ceremony’s on this coming Friday, and the voting process is over!

Nevermind that code now, but I’ve got this stupid mass e-mail that invites me to the Award ceremony (again?), with all the participants’ e-mail address, too!!

They’ve actually forgot to put these contacts in the BCC column, which reveals all the e-mail address to all the recipients, which resulted in this…

Hit that “Reply to All” button and my mailbox is full with a truckload of junk mail from naughty bloggers/participants. Advertisements, junks, etc, rubbish talk, gg.

We’ve all got an apology e-mail from the Organizers, but sometimes, mistakes done are irreversible. Thanks for giving out our contacts to potential spammers, FREE of charge. I wonder if they got a privacy policy stating that they won’t give out our contacts to any third party? Cause we may charge them to court for this. LOL.

Nevermind the spam e-mails, let’s hope there are no bloopers during the Award ceremony, and it looks like Paul Tan’s the hottest candidate to win the award. Good luck you guys!