Poor Max Gogarty… One minute he was writing about his Gap Year travels for a coveted blogging spot on Guardian.co.uk, and the next he was at the brunt end of a full-scale cyber hatred campaign.

Max, who introduced himself as living "on top of a hill in north London...spending any sort of money I earn on food and skinny jeans", was accused of nepotism (he is the son of Paul Gogarty, an occasional contributor to The Guardian's travel pages), unoriginality, pretention and worse in over 500 comments left by Guardian.co.uk readers.

One reader writes "Oh Christ, this guy's going to get an absolute hammering. CiF commissioning editors, you are cruel, cruel beasts. I almost feel sympathetic", another continues with "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".

The deluge of criticism spawned a blog entry by the Travel Editor in defence of his decision to employ Max, a news piece in The Observer discussing the "tsunami of hate" unleashed by Max's writing and a commentary in The Guardian bemoaning "mob rule online".

The ruthless reactions to Max's travel blog culminated in a comment by Max's father stating: "As Andy Pietrasik's blog hasn't mentioned the fact 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 so that's double good news for the brave warriors. You may like or dislike the blog but the cruelty is shocking if quintessentially British. Obviously everyone in his family is very hurt for Max so that's a bonus. I won't be reading any more smug clever dick comments but feel free to kick me around the field a bit now - just please leave Max alone. He hasn't actually done anything wrong and you have your wish - he won't be writing any further blogs."

What you think of Max and The Guardian is up to you, just make sure you don't get on the wrong side of this guy...