HODER

TORONTO -- One of the most controversial and maybe most read Persian blogs has finally been shut down. It belonged to Hossein Derakhsan, aka Hoder. No doubt, many of his enemies and those who did not like him very much may be very happy. But only a few may even ask why this has happened. The following is a brief account about the rise and fall of the so called THE GODFATHER OF PERSIAN BLOG.

Some time in 2001 Hoder started to blog in Persian. It is not still clear whether he debuted blogging in Persian or not. However he was one of the first Persiam bloggers. From the start, Hoder's blogs were based on extremely emotional and somehow sarcastic comments and views about different aspects of life outside and inside of Iran.

Although he always called himself a journalist, I believe he has no idea about the exact theory and practice of journalism. He used to write for a few Iranian newspapers. But he never showed any signs of professionalism in his writings.

I think one of his biggest mistakes was lack of knowledge and skill in the field of journalism and professional writing. Hoder was not aware of the terms and conditions of writing on the web. He simply accused anyone who did not think like him. Maybe this is why he called his blog: EDITOR MYSELF.

At the start he criticized the Iranian regime; maybe he was trying to impose himself as a political activist. But the problem was that he does not understand politics.

In the middle of the Iranian presidential elections in 2005, he went back to Iran to lobby for the reformists. But he was allegedly stopped at the airport by the Iranian ministry of intelligence. The details of this incident is still sketchy. But since then, Hoder has played down the game: Upon his return from Iran he U-turned and started to praise the regime.

This was not a problem because many Iranians outside the country still favour the Iranian regime. Without any evidence, he started accusing people of espionage and cooperation with the U.S. and other Western countries to interrupt the Islamic Republic.

He never provided a single evidence to support his claims. Hoder did not know that he was playing with fire and finally he paid the price. He simply created a circle of enemies around him and never knew some day they would come to help him.

One of his favourite hobbies was creating controversy around himself. It did not matter what you would say about him; even a single word was very satisfying to him.

We do not know whether he will be back or not. But what happened to him was a great lesson for all of us: THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE!�