Player0
06-30-2003, 02:26 PM
Cause:
http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=243
Effect:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10245
Why is TomsHardware always on the edge of controversy? I have to beleive amdmb.com on this one. Im sure THG was trying some shadey marketing tricks to keep the exclusive. After all, you gotta try and ask for exclusives right? Thats just life in the press. Whether AMD or Nvidia agree to a blackout is really their deal. Sounds like this was a lot of on-the-fly pandering however, and exclusives should be handled BEFORE the event. So, in terms of that, nah, I can't take sides. THG needs to try to get exclusives like this, and I cant blame them for trying, although it looks like a lot of miscommunication went on that Im sure pissed off the guy from AMDMB and rightly so. But, I dont think there was a right or wrong here.
Until we see Omar's letter to the Inq. How pompous can they get? The first thing that is abundantly clear is that journalism is seperate from technology. The best hardware people out there AREN'T writers. They aren't doing reviews, they aren't really submitting to news sites. Many people in the community look at reviews on THG or HOCP or Anand and sometimes don't see things that jive. Those larger sites are too busy dealing with the journalism end than the hardware technical end. They do however get to regurgitate a lot of good manufacturer info, which is why we all continue to go to those sites.
I've read some of Omar's stuff. I'm not frankily impressed. He mentions Anand, he isn't even in the same LEAGUE as Anand (who I beleive is probably the best hardware news guy out there). Yet he wants to call all the smaller webmasters out there fanboys? Sites like this? He sais we will be the fall of AMD? Where the hell does he dig this up? (obviously LN.com isn't a news site, but I'm sure he classes us as fanboys anyway).
Off topic, the fall of AMD is mostly to do with the fact that, I dont know, Intel products are BETTER right now??? And wheres Athlon64? Yeah. But if some smaller sites show benchmarks that say AMD runs slower than Intel, they are responsible for AMDs downfall. Or worse, now the larger sites are complaining about benchmark cheating. Yeah, its an issue. But if you look more closely at that...you have to wonder if the larger review sites are trying to find someway of giving 'their' benches more credit than the smaller sites. We'll have to see on that one... its one possible direction.
AMDMB hit the bullet on the head. Journalistic tech sites are dirty things. Obviously someone is paying those large bills, and you can bet its the manufacturers. It's very difficult to not feel pressure from the manufacturers to give favorable reviews. I personally try to be fair in my own reviews, although if I say something someone doesnt agree with, they simply discount my numbers to a 'benchmarking flaw'. But I digress.
With big traffic comes big heads I guess. THG thinks it's spectacular because of how big its gotten. Wrong. THG is big because maybe they have some business sense, and they have been around for a long time. Does that mean their reviews/news is of any quality? Of course not. Popularity simply comes from time, and most of the THG readers probably dont know well enough to discern right from wrong in the industry. Hell, its hard for experienced tech guys to tell sometimes between fact and fiction. There are some other quickly growing sites, like AMDMB.com which have the potential to overthrow a site like THG in the future. Of course, you kind of have to play dirty with the manufacturers to get that kind of support too.
IMHO? Better to stay small. Or at least Medium. The medium sites have the best information, and its generally less affected by manufacturer pressures than the larger sites. Review wise. If you want the latest news, you still gotta go to the large sites, because those are the guys on the inside.
http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=243
Effect:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10245
Why is TomsHardware always on the edge of controversy? I have to beleive amdmb.com on this one. Im sure THG was trying some shadey marketing tricks to keep the exclusive. After all, you gotta try and ask for exclusives right? Thats just life in the press. Whether AMD or Nvidia agree to a blackout is really their deal. Sounds like this was a lot of on-the-fly pandering however, and exclusives should be handled BEFORE the event. So, in terms of that, nah, I can't take sides. THG needs to try to get exclusives like this, and I cant blame them for trying, although it looks like a lot of miscommunication went on that Im sure pissed off the guy from AMDMB and rightly so. But, I dont think there was a right or wrong here.
Until we see Omar's letter to the Inq. How pompous can they get? The first thing that is abundantly clear is that journalism is seperate from technology. The best hardware people out there AREN'T writers. They aren't doing reviews, they aren't really submitting to news sites. Many people in the community look at reviews on THG or HOCP or Anand and sometimes don't see things that jive. Those larger sites are too busy dealing with the journalism end than the hardware technical end. They do however get to regurgitate a lot of good manufacturer info, which is why we all continue to go to those sites.
I've read some of Omar's stuff. I'm not frankily impressed. He mentions Anand, he isn't even in the same LEAGUE as Anand (who I beleive is probably the best hardware news guy out there). Yet he wants to call all the smaller webmasters out there fanboys? Sites like this? He sais we will be the fall of AMD? Where the hell does he dig this up? (obviously LN.com isn't a news site, but I'm sure he classes us as fanboys anyway).
Off topic, the fall of AMD is mostly to do with the fact that, I dont know, Intel products are BETTER right now??? And wheres Athlon64? Yeah. But if some smaller sites show benchmarks that say AMD runs slower than Intel, they are responsible for AMDs downfall. Or worse, now the larger sites are complaining about benchmark cheating. Yeah, its an issue. But if you look more closely at that...you have to wonder if the larger review sites are trying to find someway of giving 'their' benches more credit than the smaller sites. We'll have to see on that one... its one possible direction.
AMDMB hit the bullet on the head. Journalistic tech sites are dirty things. Obviously someone is paying those large bills, and you can bet its the manufacturers. It's very difficult to not feel pressure from the manufacturers to give favorable reviews. I personally try to be fair in my own reviews, although if I say something someone doesnt agree with, they simply discount my numbers to a 'benchmarking flaw'. But I digress.
With big traffic comes big heads I guess. THG thinks it's spectacular because of how big its gotten. Wrong. THG is big because maybe they have some business sense, and they have been around for a long time. Does that mean their reviews/news is of any quality? Of course not. Popularity simply comes from time, and most of the THG readers probably dont know well enough to discern right from wrong in the industry. Hell, its hard for experienced tech guys to tell sometimes between fact and fiction. There are some other quickly growing sites, like AMDMB.com which have the potential to overthrow a site like THG in the future. Of course, you kind of have to play dirty with the manufacturers to get that kind of support too.
IMHO? Better to stay small. Or at least Medium. The medium sites have the best information, and its generally less affected by manufacturer pressures than the larger sites. Review wise. If you want the latest news, you still gotta go to the large sites, because those are the guys on the inside.