When I started, it was pretty soon after Mike Magee [who he?.ed] opened the INQ. I was not the first to join, but ironically was the last to leave.

It took a while moving from straight news to tabloid news with snark. But actually, it was something that the industry wanted or needed. Sure there was the Rogester, but really they were humourless wankers pretending to be jolly clever. The best bits of the Rogerster were Mike’s ideas anyway which were carried over to the INQ using people who had the humour and news ability to carry it off.

The INQ worked on its stuff, with obvious nods to Private Eye. What was different from what is now called “satire” was that we didn’t make shit up. We just wrote with the voice of a tired hack who had been given a press release to do before they were allowed to go to the pub.

There were shedloads of phrases which we repeated. Apple became Snapple (which was fizzy and insubstantial) or “reassuringly expensive” ( a nod to the Stein lager adds) . Steve Jobs was the Apple Messiah (or spiritual and temporal head) and Steve Ballmer was the “shy and retiring” who whispered softly in a voice that could crack cement miles away. More cryptic was Pat “Kicking” Gelsinger who earnt his nickname because he once kicked Mike Magee after an interview.

The INQ was “cutting edge”. It was entirely online and had its own community of supporting developers and IT people. Its hacks were working from home from all over the world.

From it came a unique brand of British humour, which can be seen in my book Tree Falls, and philosophy. It was important, done in a rush and on a shoestring. It launched the Everywhere Girl and was the sworn enema of Wackypedia. Even the ad teams were some dodgy online outfit from Hong Kong or somewhere. What was terrific was while it never made Mike rich, it kept a lot of us alive for a good few years.

Then it was bought by Incisive. I stayed because I needed the money but it was like staying in school during the holidays when your friends had all gone home. You had to explain to a bunch of increasingly fresh-faced hacks why the INQ was not a corporate whore and why Steve Ballmer made people’s ears bleed if he was whispering all the time.

Eventually, I was told to tone it all down and I got bored and walked away. Last time I looked the INQ was writing the same pro-Apple bollocks as everyone else. I thought Mike Magee would be turning in his grave. Then I remembered Mike Magee was not dead yet and in fact would be editing my copy in Fudzilla.