trees are people too

Think you are anonymous out there? Think again.

Blogging is not for the faint hearted. At least, not if you sound like a self appreciating twat.

Max Gogarty was a 19 year old commissioned by the Guardian to blog about his adventure backpacking through India and south east asia. Unfortunately, what started as few readers disliking max’s somewhat cliched laddish avent-garde approach to the task escalated into full blown hate attacks once they discovered he had the same surname as another of the Guardian’s travel writers, Paul Gogarty. Claims of nepotism scourged forth.

Within 24 hours comments were closed on the blog as person after person got stuck into max and his (albeit) perhaps poorly planned venture into the blogosphere.

Within days it was downright scandal, with the guardian blaming the lynch-mob mentality to be found on the internet, max’s family getting involved, excerpts on wikipedia and facebook and loads of other commentary from around the world all dissecting poor little maxxy. The words ‘hate’ and ‘mail’ have taken on a new meaning for this kid.

Now poor little max has decided not to continue his media career. I’m not really sure what he was expecting. After all, as the Guardian says, comment is free. People are going to comment, and it sure ain’t always nice.

Some (mostly other Guardian writers) have argued that this proves a lack of democracy on the web, that people just want to hate, that it displays a ‘quintessentially british’ quality of wanting to destroy those who do better than you.

I would argue exactly the opposite. People had the chance to say what they felt, and say it they did. No more max.

Perhaps leaving room for a better blog? Idealistic, I know, but at least we didn’t have to listen to his drivel. (Oh max, it’s nothing personal.)