THEREFORE DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY FUCKING BLOG YOU FUCKING SHEEP FUCKER!

Not really a great way of starting a blog post. However, I’m stating this now before anything gets out of control. I said this to Mr. Luke Chandler, our ex-New Zealand Correspondent and Editor, and now he’s using this to basically to blackmail me into submitting to him or he will, quote, “ruin [me]” with the people he apparently knows in New Zealand – though questionably, how is he going to ruin me? If it is like that “Josh Sherborne”-or-”Jamie Cooper”-or-whatever-his-name was post he written in his blog before, by basically stating that he was a homosexual by simply searching on Google with his email address and then having no actual proof but conjecture, then I must admit, I’m not that scared.

However, the important question on why am I blogging about this is some honesty. Honesty about what I did in the past 48 hours before he uses that quote to basically “ruin” me. I admit, this is not really some nice language coming from the Editor-in-Chief of TECHGEEK.com.au, and I know this will cause a blacklash – I know, I have talked to Stewart about this – and I regretfully am sorry about the language. But not its intention.

In order to get the full scope of the picture, you must know what has happened after putting him as an editor of TECHGEEK.com.au. His first strike was that when he created a post on the 26 May 2009 that effectively stated that his ‘company’,  Chandler Networks (now Chandler Media) was bought by Microsoft. While it can be argued as a silly article, there was a slight dip in readers and a noticeable drop in Twitter followers. I suspended him for a month, before allowing him to return.

Then more trouble began. We had differences. He wanted TECHGEEK.com.au, and in effect, Reawaken Media to move away from AlfaHosts, a company which I assisted in building up with a good friend before he left and put Stewart – we both knew him – in charge. When I said that I was planning to move to AlfaHosts, he got angry. To be fair, his ‘company’ and AlfaHosts are competitors, and still holds on to the point that Stewart is just using me and apparently he isn’t. He’s making himself the good guy – unfortunately, he tried to push Stewart out of Reawaken Media – back then it was reawakennetworks – but his plan failed.

While this may sound like an excuse, I was tired and he really started to really bug me on how he was complaining that James Wilson was getting minuscule things wrong – like a time wrong on the article “iOS 4: 9.00AM Pacific, 2.00AM AEST”. This update came out an hour later than reported. However, this is not James Wilson’s fault. This was written well before the actual time, and Luke’s actual comment was disparaging to this editor – I edited the comment so that it did not look like an internal bickering fight.

However, his comments continued and more complaining to me about how James Wilson’s posts were not relevant to anything Apple and that his (Luke Chandler) posts, which were obviously written quite poorly, were of a similar standard.

That was the final straw. I cracked it.

I view differently. When I created Cupertino Loop, it was blog about everything Apple – including trivial matters, as I believe it is an interesting focus to have editors reflect on what new things that they have found online or on their applications. It provides some realism that, as bloggers, there are still things we may not know. His posts, however, were really of poor standard – and did not match what other posts other writers had posted on TECHGEEK.

Example (E3 2010: Super Scribblenauts, Gabriel Huynh)

After the success of the first game, Scribblenauts, 5th Cell has decided to make a sequel.  Super Scribblenauts is using the same gameplay as the first game, using varies words to obtain a ‘starites’, a star shaped object to complete a puzzle.

Example (NBN/Govt. strikes landmark deal with Telstra, Terence Huynh)

The Federal Government and Telstra have announced that both parties have come to an $11 billion deal that would see NBN able to access Telstra’s infrastructure and Telstra moving its clients to the new fibre optic network after its roll out.

Example (Vodafone Hutchison Australia to offer iPad Plans, Stewart Wilson)

The mobile carrier Vodafone Hutchison Australia have announced that they will offer dedicated iPad plans when the 3G iPad comes out in Australia late May. The plans will be available with both brands 3 and Vodafone.

Example (MobileMe gets a Facelift, Find My iPhone App as well, James Wilson)

On top of the news that there has been over 600,000 iPhone 4 orders, a new Mac mini and a FCC inquiry into possible anti-competitive practices by Apple, the big fruit has updated its MobileMe Web Interface and launched a new Find My iPhone App.

Example (Looking to do some motoring around the house?, Luke Chandler)

Looking to do some motoring around the house over the summer?
Well now you can with the 4+4 Motorized Wheelbarrow!

His postings were also mainly PR releases, many of which I deleted, and had several spelling mistakes or refused to use the Australian/New Zealand/English spelling and opted to use the American – not that I have anything wrong with that, but it is a blog that is primarily focused on the Australian market.

I am sorry for readers who believe my conduct was out of line. However, I do stand by my comments (well, not the sheep f##king bit, though you know how many times he has use Asian stereotypes) that he does not have control of my blog and I have the final editorial decision. He did not respect that, he did not respect the quality I have established and refused to be a team player. That is why I felt it necessary to fire him (or permanently remove him from the TECHGEEK.com.au team).

If you choose to leave TECHGEEK.com.au. I do not blame you. However, being editor-in-chief is like an experiment – some actions you do are right and some are not. You just got to learn from your mistakes.

Update: Mr. Luke Chandler has decided to respond to this article and has decided to call me thick.

Update #2: Article has been updated to add additional examples of the quality of posts from other writers – including the editor in question.

Meanwhile, we are finally relaunching the Journal as a place to track the Election. Basically, it will just be a place we just aggregate content – though we are going to be a bit more interactive, like recaps and polls to see what is happening; and like last election, live Twitter coverage on the election and on the blog – though that depends on the schedule.

TECHGEEK Podcast is up and running again, though we’re going to be doing it every month – so it means that we can fit it around our busy schedules. We might expand it to have special episodes, but then again we might not. However, I so want to do a prediction thing.

Finally, I might not be blogging a lot on this blog this year, mainly because I’m currently doing two Unit 3&4s and they take priority than this small personal blog. I’m still balancing my life with RM, so expect me to be blogging on TECHGEEK a whole lot more… hopefully.

Now, since I’ve got a test tomorrow (or the next day, or any day before or after you’re reading this), I really need to study.

See ya!

A friend of mine named Andrew has started his own online radio station named Smash. You can obviously tell that I’m helping him out because you can see that Reawaken Media is listed. Stewart is also helping him out as well, since they both used work at AlfaHosts (Okay, Stewart hired him).

A full site, which I’m designing (as Antinomie Designs), is coming soon; however, the stream is up, so go listen to it and give us some feedback.

You can visit the site at http://smashradio.com.au.

Most of the traffic comes from Google, while direct traffic (directly typing the address to TECHGEEK.com.au) comes in second. More than 10,000 visitors use Google than directly going to our address. I should also note that this only tracks unique visitors for the day – meaning that if you made two visits in the same day, it will still be recorded as one. Oh, and some people still prefer to use the old address – despite we switched to .com.au in June, though I think that should have stopped by now.