Hoaxtead Research: The little blog that could

We at Team HR were startled the other day to realise that this blog was coming up on a milestone of sorts; and then late last evening it happened—the view counter ticked over 750,000 views.

We were keeping an eye on the counter yesterday, watching it climb…and then we left the computer to see a man about a dog, and when we came back the magic number was already in the rear-view mirror. But never mind: three-quarters of a million, not bad for a small blog run on the free WordPress.com platform, and cobbled together by a group of volunteers.

When Scarlet Scoop started Hoaxtead Research on 2 May 2015, it was a gesture of defiance—in those days, it seemed that the Hampstead SRA hoax, which many had predicted would die a natural death, was instead getting larger and more powerful, propelled in large part by Charlotte Alton Ward’s sleazy, unctuous “I’m not saying they’re guilty, but they’re definitely guilty” blog, which we dubbed Hamster Research. But from the outset, Hoaxtead Research began upsetting the carefully engineered apple cart, with smart, timely reporting, hilarious memes, and a healthy comments section.

In August 2015, shortly after Scarlet Scoop’s 1,000th post, El Coyote took over as editor, and has remained in the post since then. We’ve covered so much ground, it’s hard to wrap it all up in a single post, but here are some highlights:

• That first “Perps poster“, a true group effort, which was compiled via hours poring over videos from the demonstrations at Christ Church, and then regularly updated as we identified more and more Hoaxtead mobsters;
• That time we outed “Jacqui Farmer” and “Video Man” as Charlotte Ward and Jacco de Boer;
• Reporting on the arrests of Christine Ann Sands and Neelu Berry;
• Covering Sabine’s arrest at the Royal Courts of Justice, mere hours after she’d returned to the UK from fleeing the cops to Germany;
• Delving into the murky pasts of various Hoaxtead mobsters, including Abe and Ella, Belinda McKenzie, Sabine McNeill, Araya Soma, Angela Power-Disney, and so many more;
• Turning the spotlight firmly onto the hoax, and exposing each lie, inconsistency, impossibility, and hypocrisy;
• Investigating Angela Power-Disney’s various financial (and other) irregularities;
• Covering Sabine and Neelu’s week-long court case in July 2016, and tracking the fallout from it;
• Reporting on the multiple arrests which took place last September and October…and following up with court coverage;
• Having multiple blogs, YouTube channels, Facebook posts, and Twitter accounts taken down;
• And along the way, having a rollicking good time!

We’ve been accused of all number of things, including but not limited to being MI5, MI6, GCHQ, CIA, Illuminati, cult members, cannibals, paedo-enablers; we’ve received death threats galore. We’ve also had dozens of people write in with tips, kudos, and expressions of gratitude for being (relatively) sane; and it seems that many of our readers now come to us from “the other side”, as they know they won’t get accurate news anywhere else.

Just out of curiosity, we had a peek at Google Trends the other day, as we wanted to check on the relative popularity of Hoaxtead over time. Here’s what we found:

While the Hampstead SRA hoax got the jump on us by a couple of months, since this blog went online, we’ve more than given the hoax a run for its money. And ultimately, we think the fact that we’ve attracted three-quarters of a million viewers in that time says it all.

Thank you to everyone, readers past and present, those who comment and those who just check out the daily blogs—you’re both the reason we do this, and the engine that keeps us running.