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Wow, talk about your crash and burn. Young Max Gogarty (son of freelance travel writer Paul Gogarty) landed something of a dream gig. He was to blog about his travels in India and Thailand for that grand British paper, the Guardian. Off goes this adorable hipster boy, not before admitting that he likes to blow his money on "food and skinny jeans" and he's "not entirely sure what appeals to me about travelling. Maybe the lack of work or study? The mayhem? The imagined company of beautiful girls ... all very good reasons to travel." Immediately, the savaging begins.
Commenter three throws the first punch..
posh 19 year old goes to Thailand to find himself amongst all the other 'gappers', and we can follow his every move? wow.
and the crowd follows. The kid goes down, hard, and Guardian takes a pretty hefty pounding too. Also, from the comments:
It seems there is a Paul Gogarty who already writes for the Guardian Travel section. Coincidence? I think not.
I like the Guardian usually, but sometimes, they don't half get it wrong. Moneyed youngster goes travelling to the usual places to get drunk and meet girls? Well, bugger me, a stroke of genius.
It doesn't take long for the rest of the travelsphere to chime in. The blog launched on February 14th.
On that same day, Digital Lifestyles posts a "best of" from the 500 or so comments - so many, and in some cases, so harsh, that the Guardian decided to close comments.
Within about five hours the article publishing, the “oh, we’re so open and _love_ users comments” Guardian took the decision to close the comments, citing:
As we are increasingly having to take down vicious personal abuse directed against the writer, in open contravention of the community standards, this discussion will shortly close. But thanks for the suggestions that we did receive, and for your criticisms, which have been noted.
On February 15th, Ecotplasmosis hurls some shockingly mean and painfully funny vitriol at young Max - this is just the beginning of John Brownlee's dissection:
Meet Max Gogarty, the latest addition to the Guardian’s company of travel bloggers. Don’t let his appearance fool you. Beneath those £400 sunglasses, that meticulously tossed coiffureage and the carefully cultivated stubble perforating his lilly-white androgyne throat throbs the lion’s pulse of an adventurer.
On February 17th, Upgrade, Travel Better posts How Not To Launch a Travel Blog - featuring more of those star comments and more sharp words for the Guardian:
Britain’s Guardian had my respect and admiration for some time. Until Thursday morning. And all because of a travel blog.
It’s not because they started a travel blog, per se. It’s because they disrespected their readers so completely by publishing a poorly-written, self-indulgent case study in nepotism. And they featured it on the front page.
Also on the 17th, The Guardian's technology section reports on the entire hate-filled mess in Hate Mail Hell of a Gap Year Blogger. Gogarty's father sounds off.
'There is no nepotism. I hardly ever write for the Guardian,' said Gogarty. 'He is not an attention seeker. He is just bright and 19 and middle-class - and that's a crime in Britain.'
'Max won't be writing any more blogs, I thought I'd bring all those heroic internet warriors the good news. Max's trip (which he paid for himself I'm afraid - sorry) has got off to the worst possible start and he's feeling pretty grim You may like or dislike the blog, but the cruelty is shocking, if quintessentially British.'
Why did readers go crazy? What pissed them off so much? From The Way of the Web
It got complaints because it wasn't honest and open. Disclosure isn't an unfamiliar concept to journalists or bloggers, so I'm still amazed it proves so difficult for corporate or company-approved bloggers to understand that hiding things are pointless. You should be honest,
to the point of stating why you can't discuss certain topics on here. I wouldn't blog about someone I didn't like at work, for example, or a top secret project, because they'd be biased, or damaging to that project.It got complaints because the only response was to close the comments. In later stories, you saw responses from someone claiming to be Max's dad, Paul Gogarty, and also Emily Bell. And even though there was still blame on the 'nasty bullies', and a time limit on comments, you can already see that the nature of the comments changes slightly when there is actually someone
