What an adorable kitten photo!

Kitteh has a money. What kitteh do wif it?

So will there still be an end-of-year Gulix?

Sykes has been an utterly useless editor. I can't believe he still has the nerve to pocket his salary... he should be ashamed of himself.

There has been one issue of Felix since the end of the spring term, 23rd of March. So by my reckoning, he has not done his job for three months nearly. Not that the quality suggested that much was being done before this mess started.

Someone really needs to bring a paper to the next council removing his HLM. It just makes council look bad, he shouldn't be able to stand up in a meeting and, on the record, say he's done nothing for weeks and ten be awarded for services above and beyond his job description. It is also very cruel on Shama, whether or not she deserved HLM, as the only sabb not recieving one

Perhaps the HLM vote should be changed to a 2/3 majority vote. If there's scope for a 49% doubt do we really think it is deserved?

Firstly there has been more than one issue this term, I can't remember how many, but more than one.

It's not Andy's fault that permission to print Felix was pulled at short notice, how do you expect him then to be motivated to write a paper that will never be printed?

Personally I think Andy's done a bloody good job of holding together a paper suffering from the backlash due to the conduct of the previous editor. The readers may have been amused by Felix last year, but the contributers certainly were not!

Yes, I am sad that there will be no more Felix this year, but the blame does not lie solely with Andy!

speak for yourself but don't say all the contributers last year thought like that.

felix this year has been disappointing to say the least, mostly due to lack of motivation/caring of its editor.

"I can't remember how many, but more than one."

Looking through live! there could not have been more than two. And the only one I remember was tiny.

The main question as I see it is where does the buck stop? People can moan and make excuses, but at the end of the day it is the editors job to make sure that the advertising revenue is collected, sort out issues with the printers and most importantly get the paper out. As this is not occuring, the way I see it the editor is to blame. And he is still getting paid for doing sweet FA.

It is not the editor's job to chase advertising revenue.

The issue with the printer arrose when printing of Felix was hastily withdrawn.

Andy did not just decide to up sticks and stop printing!

But it is his full time job to deal with all these issues. Any way you look at it, not being able to publish is pretty much the ultimate failure, and in the "real world" would almost certainly result in dismissal.

When you consider that (apparently) bugger all else has been done in the meanwhile it seems reasonable to ask why he's still being paid.

Even if you don't think he should have been sacked, surely it seems a bit ridiculous to offer him honourary life membership given these failings. If someone could explain..?

I personally think that Felix editor shouldn't be a sabb position at all, but that's by-the-by.

"It is not the editor's job to chase advertising revenue"

Then whose is it? As I see it we pay somebody to do the full time day to day running of the newspaper. It is not just writing articles, it is clear that there is a lot of donkey work behind the scenes that has to be done. Maybe Andy did not seem to realise this....

In that case, what do you think the position of Felix editor should be?

I wouldn't be surprised is Andy agreed that it was a bit daft for them to continue to employ him while giving him nothing to do! I believe he will still have to train the next editor before leaving though.

It is not his job to chase invoices, it is also fairly normal for felix (an other clubs) to run in the red so long as there is money due to come in from advertisers, sponsors etc. I don't suppose he thought the decision not to allow felix to print would be taken, certainly not at such short notice.

Slateist, the job of chasing invoices belongs to the Finance Office. That is the way it works.

As for donkey work, yes, there is a vast amount of it behind the scenes, not least of which is securing advertising.

The job of the editor (who is effectively the same rank as a club chair) is to write the invoices and submit them. This has been done.

The miscommunication arose between Andy and the HST for Media, who took the decision not to sign off cheques for printing at the last minute, and without consulting Andy. Felix was pretty much f**ked at that point. Every year Felix runs into the red at the end of the last term; this year, the HST chose to take a stand (for a reason no-one is really sure of) and prevent any more expenditure. Game over.

understand that it may happen every year, but given the lack of printing this term (and the associated printing costs) how on earth did they manage to spend that money?

Felix has missed four issues. That's it.

But that's 14% of the years' issues. If salary was tied to number of issues, the editor should get £2,500 less...

That would be really silly everybody knows that felix is for reading in lectures and a great way of getting information out to the masses. It plays a much more important role in the first two terms when everyone is actually around college and when freshers are still er... fresh and interseted, the first two terms' issues are far more important. Anyway at least college will be happier now there's less media to try and censor!

You should also bear in mind that the Felix editor spends at least a "term" during the summer doing the handbook and C&S book.

"the editor (who is effectively the same rank as a club chair)"

And this is the rank I think the Felix Editor should have. How many other club chairs get paid a full time salary?

Rank does not equate to hours of work.

Felix editor is a full time job, hence it deserves a salary (it's not exactly a massive salary either!).

If there were no full time editor Felix would probably only be printed once a month, which is hardly the point of a newspaper.

I thought that Felix was one of the few student newspapers to have a paid full time editor. The compared to other university newspapers, are we getting value for money...? Or am I completely misunderstanding the situation?

you are.

any paper without a full-time editor or staff support does no go out weekly. the exception might be beaver at LSE, but then they're not all IC students with ridiculous timetables every week - it really helps having arts students around.

a good example is varsity at cambridge - they have no paid, full-time editor, but they're a separate company from the union with their own staff members, paid by the company. you simply can't expect a weekly paper at IC without a sabb editor.

We are not expecting a weekly paper at the minute though, are we?

To be fair, if Felix would've been allowed to be printed, there still wouldn't have been much content as there is barely anything happening at the minute - I'm sure if you took all the Live! articles that came out during this term, they'd equate to a (albeit snazzy looking) pamphlet, not a newspaper. And yet there still have been two issues of Felix this term.

The only issue for debate in my opinion is the lack of updating the website, but I asked Andy about this (a novel idea I know, actually asking someone about their job instead of accusing them - perhaps too novel for Imperial) and he said there is an enormous amount of effort and time in uploading just one issue. I still think there should've been some sort of update and sure Andy would accept a slap on the wrist for that.

I'm annoyed there wasn't one last issue as I had a lovely article I wanted to put in - On the other hand, I wished there could be an online last issue but then isn't that what Live! is for? I don't know anymore. You all smell of p***.

Let's face it, slateist, any explanation given here won't satisfy you.

It's been explained why Felix isn't printing; you can't place the blame for not chasing invoices on Andy, as that's not his job. The finance staff are, after being yelled at by the HST (who finally realised where the responsibility lay) chasing invoices, and are doing an excellent job at it. We cannot print - we have content, but we simply cannot. We're as annoyed as you are. Some of us at Felix had things we wanted to say before the last issue.

Currently, he's working on next year's handbook, ahead of schedule, and training the next editor - go down the office, you can see them.

And slateist, if you're the person I think you are, I know you had a run-in with Andy at some point last year about something he wrote about the Slate. Don't take it personally.

s

I know for a fact that Andy has been extremely lazy about Felix. He used his time to fart around with his awful band and sleep.

He had the balls to blame most of his uselessness on the illness of a friend, which I find utterly immoral.

The reason why Felix failed this year, was that Andy incorporated all his cronies to write for him and excluded the old Felix contributors. The cronies (being like their awful leader) were equally lazy and thus Felix came to be in its sorry state.

What is most galling is the fact that this odious little man got HLM. The Union is unbelievably corrupt with the "I scratch your back" philosophy.

For pictures of Andy farting around in his "awful band" go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44683&id=222403139&ref=mf

IRREFUTIBLE PROOF THAT HE FARTS AROUND! And I heard he slept with a hooker from Crotia who only had one leg and the other was a stump. Also I heard that he likes to steal breast milk from babies whilst burning his pubic hair.

I meant Croatia for all those pedants.

"What is most galling is the fact that this odious little man got HLM. The Union is unbelievably corrupt with the "I scratch your back" philosophy."

Um...Andy is hardly Mr Popular on Council, its stretching the matey matey have a prize moral a bit far to suggest that!

“The reason why Felix failed this year, was that Andy incorporated all his cronies to write for him and excluded the old Felix contributors. The cronies (being like their awful leader) were equally lazy and thus Felix came to be in its sorry state.”

`

Luke, if you're such an expert on Felix and the Union, why don't you use your real name to prove it? Ok, Felix didn’t go out this term, but get your facts straight on why before making insulting comments. You're a typical Imperial College c**t, slag someone off then run away like a pussy. The same goes for anyone here who posts anonymously.

As far as I know, all the contributors from last year either still contribute, left due to other commitments or graduated. Name one person who was told they can't contribute and I'll suck your c**k.

As for getting HLM, what James Millen said above…

I find it offensive that a person called themselves by the name of the Son of God just to write an article.

well, i don't.

NOR DO I

It's funny.

Whilst, from a fairly close and objective perspective, the editor of Felix is far from perfect; the cretinous comments made by most of his detractors are enough to make me want to knee-jerk to his defence. Most of the criticism levelled at said sabb are ill-informed at best, and smack of personal axes being ground. They show no understanding of the workings of either the newspaper, the union, or indeed of life in general.

Using the applied logic of posters such as Slateist, all politicians should be sacked because their positions are full-time and paid, yet the world isn't f**king perfect yet. Simply saying that someone is paid to do something doesn't immediately make it easy, or indeed possible.

As for the Felix offices.... they are far more pleasant to be in this year, as opposed to last year. If you remember, at this point last year, the editor was suffering from a near-total walkout and boycott because his entire staff hated him.

In conclusion: Grow up, and do your research.

OK, well I admit that my comments may had been the best. But there is little point in arguing about things now.

All that can be done is to make sure that these problems get sorted out before next year. Agreed?

dear robert,

your comments are extremely exaggerated, and show a lack of involvement with the newspaper and/or a wish to stick your oar in. you clearly know nothing about felix this year or last, and shouldn't (like so many on this board) make out that you do

dear not entirely true,

you are wrong