The Chaser, The Tea Tree, and The Cad
Brad Baker Giveth The Chaser — Brad Baker Taketh Away
Before Bri Bri erased us from Joomla history, there was a bloke in Sydney who could make a career. Brad Baker — Mambo forum legend, Joomla! Core Team, Rochen Australia, the whole stack. He handed me The Chaser. Australia's satirical crown jewel. On Joomla. On Rochen. On his turf. Then I couldn't deliver Thursday Plantation. And he dropped me like a server log file nobody reads. THE CAD. He literally killed my Joomla! career, brah.
Personal testimony. Chief's account. Not court documents. But the Chaser-on-Joomla-on-Rochen part? Wayback receipts below. The tea tree part? Real. The ghosting? Realer.
Who is Brad Baker? (public record)
You may know him as Bradlee in campfire retellings. Archives say Brad Baker. Handle: @xyzulu. Company: XYZulu Hosting. City: Sydney, Australia.
Mambo → Joomla fork (Aug 2005)
- Named on the 17 August 2005 open letter from the Mambo core development team — same roster as Andrew Eddie, Brian Teeman, Michelle Bisson, and the rest of the fork crew.
- Receipt: Polskie Centrum Joomla — OSM open letter archive
Joomla! Core Team — Sites & Infrastructure
- Forum signature (archived): "Brad Baker — Joomla! Core Team, Sites & Infrastructure." Rochen. joomlatutorials.com. Sydney.
- Rochen blog (2010s): thanked Brad (Baker) alongside Ben and Jason for installing Joomla forum load-balancer infrastructure.
- Receipt: community.joomla.org — Server Joomla Forum has been upgraded
Mambo forum era — before the fork
- Whirlpool (AU dev forums): "Brad Baker XYZulu Hosting" — telling PHP devs to download mamboserver.com and see how it's done. Or just use Mambo.
- Receipt: Whirlpool — Dynamic menu using php/mySQL
- Editorial: Not "head moderator" in the trophy sense — more forum elder + infra god.
Act I — The Crown: The Chaser
Brad Baker gave me the Chaser Team Australia web contract. The Chaser. CNNNN era. Election Chaser. Charles Firth. Chas Licciardello. The whole satirical syndicate.
This wasn't a mate's favicon swap. This was comedy royalty on the CMS stack Brad owned end-to-end: Joomla on Rochen hosting, Sydney support desk, Core Team blessing. Peak Damo.
Wayback, Feb 2006 — chaser.com.au:
<meta name="Generator" content="Joomla! - Copyright (C) 2005 Open Source Matters..."/>- Footer: "Made with Joomla!"
- Badge: "Hosted By: Rochen Ltd."
- Receipt: web.archive.org — chaser.com.au, 1 Feb 2006
Act II — The Tea Tree: Thursday Plantation
There was another gig in the pipeline. A website for Thursday Plantation — the iconic Australian tea tree oil brand. Ballina NSW. Pharmacies nationwide.
I couldn't follow through. Joomla! theming was too shit for the design spec at the time. BAAAAAHAHAHAH!!! Thursday Plantation wanted a proper brand experience. Joomla 1.0 templates couldn't deliver it. Brad Baker didn't care about the reason — he cared that the tea tree oil gig died.
Odd receipt note: Thursday Plantation barely surfaces in a straight web search tied to Joomla, Rochen, or Brad Baker. The contract trail? Gone like my inbox replies. thursdayplantation.com.au — Our Heritage
Act III — The Cad: dropped like a rock
Brad Baker went cold. Not a "let's revisit when you're ready." Dropped. Like. A. Rock.
THE CAD.
One missed tea tree oil delivery and my Joomla! career didn't stall. It got unplugged.
Chief's verdict: Bri Bri erased the Lone Mamber from Joomla history. Brad Baker erased Chief from Joomla commerce. He giveth The Chaser. He taketh away the referrals. Hosted by Rochen. Ghosted by Baker.
Receipts Wall
- chaser.com.au (Feb 2006) — Joomla! generator meta, Rochen host badge
- Joomla leadership blog — Brad (Baker) from Rochen
- github.com/xyzulu — Brad Baker, XYZulu
- Whirlpool AU — Brad Baker XYZulu Hosting
- Aug 2005 fork letter — Brad Baker on Mambo core dev list
- Thursday Plantation heritage — brand receipts only; contract trail AWOL
LM.com isn't a personal attack — it's a historical expose with comedic timing. The Chaser handoff, Thursday Plantation miss, and career ghosting are Chief's firsthand account.
Addendum — Tickertape for The Chaser
Johan Janssens — Joomla! co-founder, lead developer of Joomla 1.5, core team while Chief was on Brad Baker's Rochen/Chaser stack — wanted $1,000 USD for a ticker scroller on The Chaser website. One tickertape. One marquee. The thing that scrolls headlines across the top like it's election night 1998.
Not collaboration. A quote. Invoice-shaped. For scrolltext. From a man who rewrote the entire CMS architecture — but the tickertape? Four figures, mate.
Chief's addendum: The Chaser would've written that punchline themselves — except they'd charge you to deliver it. BAAAAHAHA.
Public record: Johan Janssens — co-founder Joomla; lead dev 1.5; later Nooku/Joomlatools/Timble. Fork letter roster, Aug 2005.
Tickertape for The Chaser. Filed under receipts the Wayback doesn't capture.