Assume What I Will

Now I've calmed down somewhat following the disappointing behaviour of fellow XCN website News0r regarding their claims that BXB has closed, I feel I can reflect upon it with a little more poignancy.

The first thing that comes to mind is the lack of professionalism the website displayed in not following standard journalistic procedure, if you will, and relying on weak sources for their news.

I've had plenty of experience in journalism and it's pretty much the said thing to wait for a company, person or in this case website to get back to you about what's happening. Particularly about something as dramatic as a website as popular as BXB closing down for good.

Despite me asking news0r to confirm who dealt with the actually story, they refuse to clear up my simple questions with honest answers. Their Editor claims he wrote and published the story yet I was contacted by their News Editor Ben Furfie. It's seems very odd that one person would ask for a comment for another persons story. It's certainly not standard journalistic procedure in my experience.

I also asked News0r's Editor is he felt that basing a story on someone's MSN sign in name was a bad idea? He claims he has further sources, people from BXB who contacted him about it. However, again, he refused to reveal who it was.

Finally. Their story "Britxbox Bites the Dust" seemed to cause quite a stir on Newsnow, a website visited by many thousands of members of the public and gaming journalists to get the latest news. The story, even though it still linked to a blank page, sat in the top 20 most clicked stories for at least a day afterward.

What damage has this slanderous story done to BXB? Honestly, I expect it's done nothing. In fact, I expect it has helped raise our profile. Something I'm quite pleased about.

It doesn't, however, excuse the poor behaviour of the staff at News0r.

I find it very disappointing that the management at the website were also unwilling to provide me with the answers I required and it's left me with little choice to fill in the gaps for myself and frankly it's not a pretty picture.

From what I can tell their post was a very deliberate, planned and vicious attempt to tar the good name of BXB. I'm more than willing to keep that opinion liquid until they are professional and mature enough to answer the questions I ask, admit they made a mistake and apologise on their website publicly.