Following my post yesterday, commenting on the launch of a French web site that purportedly offered to do students' homework, for a fee, the faismesdevoirs.com (translation: do my homework dot com) site posted a retraction of sorts.

The site's creators say that they're closing the site, purportedly following a sudden realization that "this site goes against our own values."

I take this as further evidence that the site was put up to demonstrate the founder's skills and to pave the way for job interviews or other career opportunities. I suspect that the founders built nothing more than a shop window, and that no one actually did any homework for a few, or even intended to.

I mean no ill towards the duo behind faismesdevoirs.com. They deserve recognition for drawing attention to a project very quickly, and probably at low cost: the project was discussed by the mainstream media, contested by France's leading daily, debated by the French education minister. The duo generated tremendous word-of-mouth, and probably an enviable number of site visits (hits).

Bt can we speak of buzz? I have my reservations, mostly because I doubt there really was a product or service actually on offer.