Tom's Hardware Tutorial Contest – Win a Nexus Tablet!

Status
Not open for further replies.

fractal123

Distinguished
Jun 26, 2010
6
0
18,510
No thanks.

Surely you jest.

How low can Toms (and other technical enterprises) go?

Even at the poorest-paid fast-food joint rewards its workers better than that.
 

jpishgar

Splendid
Overlord Emeritus
fractal123, there were a ton of our users posting Tutorials already, and if you've seen our forum subcategories, you know many of our veteran members have posted lengthy guides already for overclocking, system builds, Windows troubleshooting and a myriad number of other issues. Many of these have been made into stickies, but there's only so much space we have at the top of the forum, which is why we added the Tutorials option.

This contest is a way of rewarding these power users and our way of saying "Thanks!" for all the hard work our dedicated community of experts has been up to. You don't have to participate if you don't want. I expect most of the guys who are going to win this week are barely even going to try, or may not even be aware of the contest until I pm them and ask them what email they'd like their gift cards sent to. Helping other users and building out these detailed guides is like second nature to them. One of the things Tom's is really proud of is a vibrant community of active, engaged users, and we've got an army of volunteer moderators, experts living across 7 continents answering questions in all time zones, entire teams Folding@Home and System Builders, showcasing their rigs and crafting the most meticulous of cooling solutions, just to name a few.

The help here is free. The news here is free. The forum is free. We intend to keep it that way, and we'll do our best to recognize and award great content when great content emerges from our bad-ass community.
 

slomo4sho

Distinguished


Free? Please don't patronize us. The users are subject to advertisements and the site is paid by said advertisers. In addition, articles and news stories that are related to your advertisers have been tainted with bias and show clear favoritism for specific products and manufacturers. The saving grace of this site is the community and the forums contributors who actually do end up providing both sides of a debate and enable the individual to draw their own conclusions. Or at least one can hope.
 

jpishgar

Splendid
Overlord Emeritus
Advertisements in the news area does indeed support the site and allow us to pay staff and bandwidth costs - we are supported in that way, yes. What I was referring to is the service provided to users. Many news organizations have switched over to a subscriber-only or pay wall setup, and we remain free. Registered users in the forums also experience no advertisements.

If you are going to accuse Tom's of bias or "taint", please cite specifics. I've refuted these types of generic, broad-based misstatements before. Editorial independence is fiercely maintained, and Tom's reputation is founded on unbiased, consumer-sided reporting, so we take those types of allegations seriously. So as not to further gravitate off-topic on this thread, please private message me with specifics you'd like to cite.
 

shin0bi272

Distinguished
Nov 20, 2007
1,103
0
19,310
This is a cool contest and I do help users out as much as I can but I dont really write tutorials per se. Good luck to the ones that enter though that nexus tablet is pretty sweet.
 

joneb

Distinguished
Jan 15, 2007
79
0
18,630
"I expect most of the guys who are going to win this week are barely even going to try, or may not even be aware of the contest until I pm them and ask them what email they'd like their gift cards sent to." So its all already decided. Why not just reward these guys instead of a fake competition? I was going to try but not now.
 

jn77

Distinguished
Feb 14, 2007
587
0
18,990
So I "potentially" can get a gift card or free tablet to do the work of what a full time employee of Tomshardware should be paid to do. I think I will pass.
 
Since Tom's started pushing the tutorial thing a month or so ago, all I've seen is crappy tutorials that don't really cover anything, filled with spelling mistakes, bad image links, etc. One was how to make your internet and browsing faster, and all it was, was the steps to set the Google DNS servers and that was it.
 

mesab66

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2009
893
0
19,160
I think a number of folk are way off mark with their negativity here.

"This contest is a way of rewarding these power users and our way of saying "Thanks!" for all the hard work our dedicated community of experts has been up to"

.....To put this principle down makes no sense whatsoever.
 

randomizer

Champion
Moderator

I think you misunderstood him. What he's saying is that there have been relatively few entries at present ("present" being Oct 1) and those that have been posted are quite likely by people who didn't even know about the contest and would have created the tutorials regardless.
 

jpishgar

Splendid
Overlord Emeritus
So I "potentially" can get a gift card or free tablet to do the work of what a full time employee of Tomshardware should be paid to do. I think I will pass.

Technically, this last week, if you wrote a single tutorial, you won some money. And no, your assessment there is off. Writing tutorials is something our users were already doing, and have been doing for years. Our forum has hundreds if not thousands of step-by-step instructions and guides and how-to's. This isn't something new our users are doing - but stepping up and offering a bit more recognition than a fancy set of badges (which are still cool) is.

One was how to make your internet and browsing faster, and all it was, was the steps to set the Google DNS servers and that was it.

Yeah, that was a crap tutorial. Deleted that bad mamajama. Tutorials that don't qualify for the contest or are low quality will be deleted, unless it's a special case and I've spoken to the user beforehand. Sometimes all a tutorial needs is a bit of formatting or a screenie or two to be worthwhile.

What he's saying is that there have been relatively few entries at present ("present" being Oct 1) and those that have been posted are quite likely by people who didn't even know about the contest and would have created the tutorials regardless.

Yep. The tutorial function makes it easy to collect Best Answers with a quick selection from the drop-down menu in the quick response, so a number of our users have been creating them already, without knowledge of the competition. It'll be a pleasant surprise, I'm betting. :)
 

jimmike

Honorable
May 28, 2013
7
0
10,510
I'm reminded of the story of a fellow who was about to be tarred-and-feathered, then ridden out of town on a rail. When sentenced to his fate , he replied, "If it weren't for the honor involved, I'd as soon not be."

If it weren't for the honor involved, I'd as soon remain an un-paid reader as an un-paid hard worker.

But thanks for asking. Nice try.
 

jimmike

Honorable
May 28, 2013
7
0
10,510
" At the end of the month on the 30th, the participant who wrote the most tutorials for that month will win a new Google Nexus 7 tablet!"

With all due respect--and I do respect your emag (take note, advertizers)--you DO have to be aware of the world's realities. To quote a student of mine who was offered $10/hour to work as a lab assistant, "Sorry, Prof. ___, I can make more than that by simply collecting money at the gas station next door...".
Now, people have different, and changing, priorities. I love to write, particularly electronics-based tutorials, as that is my a/vocation.There's a time in my life when I would have devoted all waking hours to doing this.

You WILL find someone(s) to take you up on this Good luck, and I look forward to reading the resulting products.

Sincerely...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.