Anyone reading the Hull Daily Mail today may well believe the character assassination of the creator of the website HU17.net. Who in their right minds would want this man within a hundred miles of the beautiful town of Beverley after this?
There is certainly some truth in what the Hull Daily Mail has printed. Paul Smith has had some dealings with people involved in the adult industry in the past, and has coded some of their websites. He has also taught many of them how to update their own sites, and this looks like being a huge mistake, as the content is then completely out of his control yet still carries links to his website company.
However, as the Hull Daily Mail states several times, Paul Smith is supposedly personally behind “thousands” of hardcore websites. It also states that he has earned a mere £12,000 per annum and incurred several hundred pounds of losses in his business. Something doesn’t quite seem to add up there.
His meagre salary is no reflection of the effort he put into trying to build up his website business, which was immense, but more a reflection of the struggle he had to find suitable clients. He tried to stick to fairly strict guide-lines, but it is obvious that once his work was done, his website templates were updated with content that was very much outside his chosen field. Paul owns a total of 112 domain names which cover every website he has made over four years of every kind. Almost half of these have been dormant for many months. It’s a mystery where the figure of 3,991 websites comes from, but as an exaggeration, it is exceptional.
The paper also states several times that Paul Smith agreed to make a website for one of their reporters who were posing as an Escort. The truth is that Paul agreed to discuss the possibility of building a site, but as the HDM says Paul acknowledged that the term’ Escort’ covers such a wide range of possible services. He made it clear that he would agree to absolutely nothing until he had a chance to establish the moral code of the individual in a meeting. Obviously, this meeting never happened as it was fabricated by the reporter as a way of obtaining an interview for the paper.
Paul has already received very enthusiastic support today from people, not only those that know him and know what an honest and hard-working man he is, but from complete strangers who have visited his HU17.net website for the first time as a result of the HDM’s article. They can see through the newspaper’s angle, and are just making up their own minds to just what sort of person Paul Smith is. Just as he has done over the last nine months, he will continue to dedicate every waking moment to the creation of good and varied publicity for free to ANYONE in Beverley who invites him. He has created HU17.net to reflect the beauty and life of this stunning town because he loves it.
There’s more I could write, and probably will, but I don’t want to waste any more of my time looking at this deeply upsetting publication to find issues with what they have written. There are things going on in Beverley today that are much more important, and I will support Paul in his coverage of them.
Does the HDM publish adverts for Masseurs, Escorts etc in the ‘personals’ section themselves?
Most local rags do…
I suggest you take the HDM to court,can’t believe they’ve gone this low
I’ve emailed the Press Complaints Commission (complaints@pcc.org.uk) about this, since I’m in a similar position south of the river – web designer, an adult site and local news site in the portfolio, plus ThisIs.. in the area.
I hope Paul gets a full-page apology and a lot more work from this.
Keep up the good work Paul. Bev has needed a website like this for years.
Although I had never heard of this website before I am appalled at the holier than thou image of the Hull Daily Mail. It acknowledges that Mr Smith has done nothing illegal, but puts bullet points of what is illegal, so the casual reader would think this is what is contained. I have previously had to contact HDM as they have carried ticket touting personal ads much against Hull City’s wishes and the law. Good luck.
I hope Paul gets a full page apology from the Hull Daily Mail for this complete character assasination. It’s the very nature of the beast that web designers and developers will work on a wide and diverse range of projects, as Mr Smith has done here.
What he has also done is devote an enormous amount of time to the town and people of Beverley, and provided them with a FREE community website.
Once a website is handed over, the content on that site is the responsibility of the owner, NOT the designer. HDM seem to fail to understand this. Shoddy reporting by them, and it’s done them no favours what so ever.
Keep up the good work Paul, you have most of the people of Beverley on your side for a reason!
Paul – looks like you have an awesome website here which the dinosaurs are afraid of as their industry dies. Might not seem like it now but all publicity is good publicity. Good luck, and screw the HDM – their time is up and they know it.
Just made a complaint about the HDM to the Press Complaints Commission
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html
What a tawdry exhibition by the HDM today. A terrible faux pas. Ignore them, please… journalism? They don’t know the meaning of the word!
I am a regyoular reeder of the Hull Daly Male. I carnt see what all this fuss is abowt. In think the Hull Daly Male is reelly good.
He’s a web developer/designer, who cares what sites he’s designed…..my god people can you come back to reality please?
The HDM are the biggest set of hypocrites ever. I have close links with some escorts in Hull and while the HDM throw stones at you they’re quite happy to take money off the escorts for adverts. HDM even offer advice on wording of adverts so they can get their cash while remaining within the letter of the law!
As a further illustration of their hypocrisy, several years ago an agency which worked with sex workers wanted to put an advert in the HDM personal column (where all the escorts and brothels advertise) letting the girls know of the services and support that were available. The HDM refused to allow it, the explanation? ‘If we took the advert we would be admitting that we know the other adverts are for selling sex and therefore the HDM would be breaking the law. As long as the word sex isn’t mentioned we can plead ignorance and escape prosecution’. Some of the adverts they accepted at the time included stuff like ‘Ladies for men, ladies for couples and ladies for ladies’ how can they plead ignorance of what was going on there?
I wish you well Paul, you’re in a service industry and you’ve provided that service to the best of your ability.
Well I for one think we should mass debate it.
As the comments section has now been closed on both HDM articles, I have also reported the newspaper to the Press Complaints Commission instead of commenting directly. The paper’s behaviour over this has been baffling and out-of-order, and they deserve some sort of reprimand.
Fair play to Mr Smith – he’s a normal, everyday IT worker trying to make a living just like thousands of us are. Just because he’s coded a few websites in the past which may contain entirely legal adult material, so what? The HDM is trying to insinuate that because of this he must be some sort of evil sex monster because this site contains pictures of children playing sports. It would seem that the Hull Daily Mail is a chip off the old block as this is exactly the sort of dribbling, retrograde nonsense the Daily Mail would print. Ignore the knuckle dragging morons, Mr smith – anyone with more than a couple of brain cells can see that you have done nothing wrong and this faux outrage is unjustified, twaddle, innuendo and border-line libel. Even the local religious lot have come out in support of Mr Smith and rightly so.
I’m not from your area but I’m SO PLEASED that your local’s and other news sites like theregister have seen this story for the rubbish it is and supported you. It’s fantastic to see that so many have seen through this poor effort for a story and can see that what you do outside of HU17 is a completely different thing and has no bearing or association to the hard work you do here. Congrats on your support, you’ve a town to be PROUD of!!! I’m proud of your town and I live in Stoke on Trent! Good luck for the future, and a big hand shake to Beverley Minster virger Neil Pickford for showing that even the man of God can see you for who you are. That’s my penny’s worth, keep up the hard work
This is a great website for the people of Beverley. I just wish there could be a real alternative to the HDM in Hull. I personally don’t trust anything printed in the name of the non-dom Viscount Rothermere. Non of the semi-literate HDM readers are actually aware of the blatant right-wing agenda of their local paper. They just assume it’s unbiased because it’s THE local news.
We need a local news service dedicated to informing people of real and accurate news rather than the barely subtle fascist agenda of the Rothermere press.
As a former reporter at the HDM I have never been more disappointed in them (despite them giving me plenty of opportunity to feel let down)!
I sincerely hope this doesn’t affect Paul’s business – and the HU17 website looks great.
The HDM always has a mass panic whenever there’s a sniff of competition. They did the same when KC Radio plans were announced and when the BBC moved into Queens Gardens. It’s pathetic. They should concentrate on their own products, rather than trying to dig up dirt on others. And, really, who cares if Paul designed these adult sites? He didn’t pose for them! Get a grip HDM.