James on OMAAT
Jun 11, 2019, 1:37 am
#1
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James on OMAAT
Does anyone know what happened to that Australian writer Ben Schlappig hired for his blog, OMAAT, who suddenly disappeared? He obviously left or was fired, but I’m curious about the circumstances considering it appeared he was doing a good job. I actually enjoyed some of his articles and it was nice to get a perspective of someone who was not a US citizen and lived outside the US.
Jun 11, 2019, 8:23 am
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Jun 11, 2019, 10:34 am
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Long time associate - Tiffany is still involved in Ben's business operations, and recently has been occasionally initiating articles again. However Ben certainly contributes the vast majority of content. He is prolific, and I'm a reader that feels his overall site content has improved dramatically in the last 6-9 months. Personally think this is due to some positive lifestyle changes that he sometimes alludes to.
Last edited by Craig6z; Jun 11, 2019 at 10:40 am
Jun 11, 2019, 6:12 pm
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Jun 12, 2019, 6:27 am
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Long time associate - Tiffany is still involved in Ben's business operations, and recently has been occasionally initiating articles again. However Ben certainly contributes the vast majority of content. He is prolific, and I'm a reader that feels his overall site content has improved dramatically in the last 6-9 months. Personally think this is due to some positive lifestyle changes that he sometimes alludes to.
Jun 29, 2019, 7:42 pm
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As far as James is concerned, we've addressed this several times in the comments when readers have asked, so it's not a secret. He is writing for TPGUK under his given name -- it's a tremendous opportunity for him, and while we were given very little notice, we certainly respect his choice and are happy for him.
Jul 12, 2019, 6:16 am
#12
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Last edited by oliver2002; Jul 12, 2019 at 6:23 am
Aug 21, 2019, 8:58 am
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Aug 24, 2019, 9:25 pm
#14
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Yeah why is it everybody brings up James/Ben whatever his name is going to TPG and not repeating the story. It was once told in a comments section? Oh then we should have no trouble finding it.
can we just know why James left?
can we just know why James left?
Aug 26, 2019, 8:12 pm
#15
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It seems pretty simple to me:
Lucky seems to not be able to keep other writers on the site.
Whether this is because of drama between him and freelancers, differences in opinion, control freak, no need to pay freelancers for blogs if he doesn't see good enough money or traffic coming in, low freelance pay, or whatever rumors may be out there, the end is always the same. He has operated over the years as a heavily one man shop on the writing side, so why is everyone surprised he left when seemingly everyone else he's brought on as a freelancers has left? "James" left for a competing blog but he isn't the first OMAAT writer to leave, likely won't be the last & he's not the first blog writer who TPG has poached from another site.
TPG offered James a full time job and probably give himself a better lifestyle of non-stop travel vs. trying to fit in all that traveling while being a lawyer.
Are there juicy rumors floating around for this, or maybe I'm missing something? I love to rag on those oh so relatable travel bloggers but this seems to be a nothingburger.
