It's easy to imagine that somebody observing the business could become desensitized to some of the silliness that goes on.

Buffalo-based Web host Weblinkhosting.com ( weblinkhosting.com ) upped the ante in December with its announcement proclaiming the company's plans to adopt a child to be raised in its data center.

The outrageous announcement, and its verbatim reposting by several Web hosting news outlets, raises some questions as to just how unlikely an announcement has to be in order for it not to be automatically accepted as fact (or, at least, publishable) by what we consider to be the Web hosting press.

Tony Tebano, CEO of Weblinkhosting and mastermind of the company-adopts-child strategy, says he expects to encounter a certain amount of objection. And rightly so, no doubt. The potentially offensive points of an announcement that promises the rearing of a child in a data center by the staff of a Web hosting company don't take a lot of deep analysis to uncover.

"It's definitely not a marketing ploy," says Tebano. "I'm giving the child a better life. It's better for the child to live with [the company] rather than the care of a foster parent. The child could grow up to be a successful person and to contribute to society."

But the opposition does not appear to have been forthcoming. And neither, more surprisingly, has the skepticism one might expect from the sites that would report the announcement, which also described a plan for the child to become the company's "mascot."

There is, for instance, the matter of the law. Brian Marchetti, a spokesperson for the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, says that by state law, it is not possible for a corporation to adopt a child.

Yet Tebano insists that the process is underway. He says he and his wife Linda will adopt the child under their names, and not under the company's name, as Weblinkhosting had announced.

The rest of the plan, he says, remains the same.

The company's Buffalo data center has been prepared with a bedroom, kitchen and living area, where Tebano says the adopted child will be raised. Along with the primary care of Tebano and his wife, Tebano says friends, family members and employees will all contribute in providing the boy with food, clothing, shelter and education, courtesy of a private teacher.

"I feel the child will benefit from the teachings of me, and my employees," says Tebano. "I'm not home 24/7, so I think we will actually spend more time together [at the date center] as well."

Tadano says plans have progressed since the distribution of the press release, which said the sex of the child would be determined by 'the flip of a coin." He now expects an eight-year-old boy, and he expects the adoption process, which has taken six months so far, to be complete by the end of February.

According to Tadano the child will learn the fundamentals of Web hosting from an early age, molding him to take on an integral role in the future at WebLinkHosting.com.

And while he hopes the boy will follow in his footsteps to work for his "first baby," Weblinkhosting.com, Tebano says he remain supportive regardless of his son's career choice.

"I'm not going to force him to be the system administrator or CEO of the company. If he really felt that being a doctor was his calling, then [I'll tell him to] go for it. But [the company] will be pushing for him to stay, be part of, and contribute to the company."

Tebano is confident that the adoption will bring Weblinkhosting.com generate further success, but says he is prepared for anything.