Adebayor's started so well for Man City
Read this blog - is it a hoax?
If you need something to make you smile, read this blog. It's written by a guy called Max and he's about to go off travelling. It's not so much the blog I'd like you to have a look at but keep scrolling down to the comments - they are fantastic.
I can't help but wondering if the blog itself is a hoax - what do you think?
If it is a viral campaign its creators are a bit dim, and the laugh is on the Gogartys. May forever be associated with To hell with the lot of ‘em.
did you see in the sunday papers, the blog has been closed due to some of the abuse max received? Some called it "cyber-bullying".
Why do you think it's "fantastic"?
If it is a hoax, how is it a hoax? Can you explain who or what is being hoaxed and why?
There are strong articles in the Guardian about cyber-bullying - are they part of the hoax too?
His father seems angry and called it a class issue and the guy who wrote it has now decided to give up his career in the media. I have my own opinions about the original post and the comments, but I am interested in why you think it's "Fantastic"?
commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rafael_behr/2008/02/backpackers_bullies_and_intern.html
Hi Jonathan
I thought bits of the blog and some of the comments were extremely funny (maybe unintentionally). I suggested it might be a hoax because it's unusual for an unknown 19 year old to get their own blog on a Guardian site...and perhaps those reacting to it were "falling" for the hoax. I was wrong, it was a genuine blog - and the consumers/community/majority were clearly unimpressed. I've no idea if it was cyber bullying - if Max G thought it was, then it is. If you're out there blogging, writing in newspapers, making radio programmes, doing anything to do with new/old media and you invite people to comment, then they will - and it won't always be pleasant. Isn't that the way it goes? Or I am being incredibly unsympathetic?
Thanks
Victoria
Victoria
You're not being "incredibly unsympathetic", and you're right - it is uncommon for an unknown 19-year old to get a blog in a national newspaper.
You may not be aware as it takes a lot of reading of the commentary around this, but the comments that can be referred to as 'cyber-bullying' are far outweighed by a lot of very angry Guardian readers who believe that nepotism had a hand in the Guardian giving young Max this job in the first place.
Rather than respond to this, The Guardian & Observer have instead poured petrol on the flames and published a couple of response articles accusing readers of being "bullies" (piece by Rafael Behr), "malevolant and sanctimonius" (Barry Glendenning and Barney Ronay) and indulging in "class hatred" (Caroline Davies).
Toughing it out is one thing, but heaping abuse on your customers seems a bit short-sighted. Can't imagine you being popular if that's how you ran your shows.
As for Max? Well, I do feel some sympathy for him, because he shouldn't have been put in a position where he could be exposed to public ridicule and then hung out to dry by his employer (whose only sign of remorse has been to cancel the blog after the first chapter).
Why doesnt victoria derbyshire have some one on her show from a french housing estate to explain how they drink. You can bet they don't drink champaign and expensive wines, they drink the same as any young person from a poor back ground which is cheap wine or bear drunk in a local pub or cafe or bought from a super market, How often do you see a well educated man or woman in the street with a bottle in there hand drunk and out of there head, it is probably the same in francebut not reported.French young people like a drink the same as the Brit's difference is they get drunk at home and we don't