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Alternative... Anyone?

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July 12, 2009 8:57:34 AM

Is there a site that works like THG in the old days?
I like the pictures that were on the front page, but its now just text, which I assume is not for reader purposes but for google spidering.

I want to place my reading with a better, informative site that is enjoyable right from the home page...
I come here, hoping for a change, but it hasnt happened.

Im not complaining about the speed, downtime or anything like that....

I just want my daily read of articles in a manner that was enjoyable

I tried engadget, which is better but does not keep me up to date on new stuff.

atomicmpc is ok... but a bit hardcore....

Any other suggestions that can end up in my BOOKMARKS ????

More about : alternative

July 13, 2009 1:19:11 PM

Yeah ... you could go to Dailytech where the authors know nothing about what they are writing about but the sentences are short and manageable.

Anandtech might be also for you as the pages load a bit faster as the code is slicker and the ads are sized for speed ... the articles can be quite a bit beefier than here. Daily loads off the a$$ of Anandtech ... a plus there.

I might lose points for sending you away too ... then again I might get some points.

Your post is a cheeky one ... I like that.

Good luck !!!




July 13, 2009 11:45:37 PM

MOST (not all) of the old guys here at toms have gone to this website: http://bit.ly/2JMeI
See: http://forum.****/ <== notice the astrix.

Sorry, I had to use shortner cause THF block link to actual site lol.

Also most of the old guys are over at xtremesystems,etc.
Related resources
July 14, 2009 5:19:51 AM

reynod, how can you possibly recommend Dailytech? That's got to be one of the worst professional sites in existence. The comments section is like a blog with unlimited comments on a single page.
July 14, 2009 11:19:22 AM

I didn't recommend them at all ... you failed to read my comment.

Does this sound like a recommendation?

Yeah ... you could go to Dailytech where the authors know nothing about what they are writing about but the sentences are short and manageable.
July 14, 2009 11:23:18 AM

:o 
July 15, 2009 12:32:33 AM

I like frozen orange juice concentrate. Granted, it takes a little more effort to make, but it sure beats the already mixed containers that all of these young whippersnappers buy nowdays. We used to mix it with wooden spoons, made of real wood, and drink it as we ate our oatmeal in preperation for our four mile hike to school, barefooted, uphill in the snow.....



...*Nods off.*...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
July 15, 2009 12:12:35 PM

RSS Reader (Google Reader :D ) + content worthy sites = lots of info to absorb everyday.

I visit Arstechnica a lot these days.
July 15, 2009 2:34:58 PM

I was only joking too.

I wish Jack would come back as he was a great believer in helping up the top in the forums.

Also the chap who did lots of research on TIM has been missed I am sure ... he also did neat graphics.

hope I made you laugh anyway.
July 16, 2009 9:41:36 AM

Did they "BUMP" 3DMan?
I enjoyed his comments and bloopers...

Im not blaming BOM for their money hungry style they have used on the site, but its at readers expense, which ultimately has a reverse effect.

This site has gone from an informative website to a style befitting a "Home Shopping Channel"...

Im sure that a new site will emerge that can replace TH, with a more "Open Source" type feel that involves the user to explore articles instead of swamping "Best Deals", inapropriate Scientology adverts and a never ending stream of google ads that I despise with a passion.

But thats my opinion and my post is to ask other readers if they have found something worthwhile on the internet...

I rememberthe days when I used C4 .com as my search engine, until the simple design and uncluttered google came along... Websites come and go and executives that have the job of monitoring performance need to weigh up longevity in a site just as much as revenue... And this is where the good and bad execs stand out....

For me, this site is not attractive anymore and I maybe just one of thousands who do not visit as regular, but interestingly enough, TH is not as much a topic of conversation with my peers as it used to be.
July 16, 2009 11:24:39 PM

I think the problem here is in order grow a site to a proportion that's beyond it's user niche, they have to dilute or 'dumb down'. e.g. CNet and PCWorld <-points and laugh

Alexa says THG is currently ranked #1002, and apparently BOM still wants MORE, that tells me they're heading the direction of CNet-alike. Our niche isn't large enough to support that kinda growth so they try and target/attract the general non-techy public for that growth. Result: Dilution, not keeping to the core values THG was founded on, to cater our niche alone.
July 17, 2009 5:24:08 AM

All this means is, eventually, therell be less and less sites bringing this kind of good info, and those sites will actually grow in numbers too. The pie aint gettin any bigger, they just want a larger piece, and in a hurry.
I believe if they stayed the same, and went long haul, it would grow, as others changed, or fell. Look at Extreme Tech, now, they werent the hottest HW site out there, but it did have some good stuff, theyre gone. Some of the more knowledgeable people from there could have migrated here, if theyd kept it the same
July 18, 2009 11:48:21 PM


This was in a book "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Linux", 1999). If a well respected author mentioned toms now days they'll be LOLed at probably. If you want to know why I ended up reading this, it was because I wanted to get my feet wet(er) with shell commands/scripts. And yes, I run openSUSE/openSolaris/Fedora. No Ubantu for me.

July 19, 2009 6:47:00 AM

Yeah well the hardware reviewers here at THG are simply poor ... fourth rate.

I though Chris Angelini has done a couple of good articles but the German reviewers are just second rate - they all just throw rubbish onto the page and their benchmarks are just not replicated by others.

They also bash AMD at any opportunity and that sort of approach just won't do they any favours - the educated among us know what Intel and AMD based systems are good at, and at what price range.

If I still managed PC Hardware trg where I work I would setup a lab and offer some reviews of my own ... they would have to be better than the rubbish here.

I have found there are a couple of exceptional reviewers out there - Scott Wasson and Anand .. both write very clearly and try to avoid fanboi comments.

The reviewers here tend to do the opposite ... there are so many example I just refer you to read ANY of them.

I come to THG for the forums ... not the website.

It has become so cluttered with ads and rubbish it is hard to find anything.

Very dissappointing.

I would be interested in what the reviewers think.
July 21, 2009 7:14:30 AM

From what I am gathering, THG has turned into a money making machine with no thought of the future stability of THG. I would think easing back on the amount of advertising, boosting popularity and then increasing advert prices would be a smarter way to do things, while keeping the integrity of THG intact.

The less "greatness" THG has, the more ads will be displayed in an attempt to keep revenue up.
Where do these MARKETING people come from?
July 21, 2009 7:44:35 AM

You people need to sit back for a moment and think from the perspective of a company (BoM) that makes its money from advertising and stop thinking like a hardware enthusiast.

BoM can't increase advertisement prices because advertisers won't pay up. There's a recession at the moment in case you've been living in Antarctica and haven't got the latest news. Advertisers are pulling plenty of ads off sites in general, so BoM can't afford to lose more of them by increasing prices.

Companies are having to cut staff and drop business areas that aren't making enough money to outweigh the costs. The late Tom's Games may come to mind.
July 21, 2009 8:55:05 AM

Quote:
You people need to sit back for a moment and think from the perspective of a company (BoM) that makes its money from advertising and stop thinking like a hardware enthusiast.


Quick solution (for hardware enthusiasts): Go read another site! :p 

I'm not here to make $ for anyone. I'm here to learn, and to make sure no BS marketing is being spread (which will the price of my future purchases).

Quote:
Companies are having to cut staff and drop business areas that aren't making enough money to outweigh the costs.

Quality comes from employees being passionate about their work, not about how much they get paid.
Paying staff less during recession is better than making more redundant in order to keep up the pay rate. If they don't like it they can leave.
July 21, 2009 2:29:47 PM

At the expense of who... its readers?
Because at the end of the day... if they cant keep their readers then they will have no chance of selling ads...
Recession... I know what it is... and I know those that survive are smart...
but this all started prior to the recession... and is continuing its spiral down until it becomes scientology heaven (sic)
July 22, 2009 2:31:03 AM

They are keeping their readers, if not getting more.
July 22, 2009 4:12:49 AM

Well, thats good for them then.
Perhaps for my requirements of reading articles, navigation, website performance and most of all enjoyability of this site, it just doesnt work for me anymore.

Maybe I am so old now that I just dont enjoy clutter, a slow loading site and adverts plastered all over the place... *sigh*

Some people mentioned a few sites which I found nice, so I guess I will make them my new home.
July 22, 2009 3:19:16 PM

random ... you don't need to respond mate. You don't need to defend the site.

cyber makes some good points.

THG has spiralled down as a site that now caters for mush ...

That's the truth.

We need better tech reviews to get the site's reputation back up there with Anand's and some of the others.

Don W just did a good review ... they just need to get rid of the old coots who still lament plugging DIL Ram chips into riser cards ... Hyper !!
July 23, 2009 2:28:53 AM

I'm not defending the articles or saying I like the ads (I use Adblock Plus on every site and often block certain page elements too). I'm just saying that you can't expect them to ease up on advertising when that's their primary source of income and that source is pulling in the reigns as is.
July 23, 2009 4:15:47 AM

The general rule is good stuff don't get spread or recognised easily. I can name just about everything that applies to daily life. Marketing/spread-of-word and userbase on the other hand attracts people like flies.

There are some places on the Internet that are hardly (or less) visited, but are full of goodness e.g. a group of elites on a specific topic. I hunt for those sites.

That said, I can't really complain about THG anymore. This 'trend' has been happening ever since Dr. Thomas Pabst left. It's just not possible to have the best of both world in a single website. To grow in number of readers past the proportion in population of our niche as they've done in the past years is to sacrifice quality.
July 23, 2009 7:13:01 AM

Yea, TG Publishing screwed up a fair bit.
July 24, 2009 3:59:37 PM

Top notch reviews pull crowds of techies to read them ... only Chris and Don have done a decent review in the past couple of months.

The other reviewers are really bad !!

Reviewers ... get your act together.

If you want assistance with doing final edits on your review then PM some of the more literate users and ask for a bit of feedback.

I would call that forward thinking.
July 25, 2009 1:34:57 AM

Remember that many of the reviews are translated so it's not the reviewers that are making errors in literacy.
July 25, 2009 2:07:40 AM

I remember aways back and Patrick was under fire by a few omissions he had accidently left out, hed later corrected. Cant do that now? This was done in the forums with direct contact to the writer. Maybe on the German forums this should happen for other languages?
July 25, 2009 7:34:40 AM

Maybe. The reviewers don't have much time to check the forums for feedback on their articles and after all that's what the comments section is for. The problem is it also gets flooded with BS and fanboyism. You can always contact the writer(s) by clicking on their names above the article, assuming that feature still works.
July 25, 2009 8:27:43 AM

Yea, good idea. Assuming theyll listen
August 16, 2009 5:06:31 PM

how do you guys rate PCMag.com, i sometimes read them and they are OK.

TH/THG should start a magazine program, if not in paper they should make it digital, but don't use Zinio the suck
August 17, 2009 11:36:20 AM

Any publication published monthly/weekly in this fast moving industry is not ideal for our niche. They're more suitable to the general public that doesn't follow the IT market every second (literally) like we do.

I admit a few years ago I'd still occasionally read weekly journals on the business/enterprise IT market as a student. Now I've began working in that industry meant keeping up with the latest and constantly thinking ways to deploy any new tech/ways is essential to me if I'm to move ahead of others.
That's where Google Reader comes in. ;) 
August 17, 2009 2:44:51 PM

true^

but there are still some people who would read that magazine on TH and at least that way BoM would make some money and because now it will be more visible to other people, they will have to integrate more quality in their articles, to keep their image up and their readers subscribed
!