Firstly, let me address the advertising/revenue bias thing. Our Editorial team and writing staff are expressly, painfully unbiased. There's a massive mile-high wall between Editorial and the Sales/Ads, and never the twain shall meet. Tom's cut its teeth on taking on payola schemes in hardware and the pay-for-play in the tech news scene back in the day, so it would be pretty damned stupid to reverse on that now. For what it's worth, whenever the editorial guys do up an article critical of Brand X, the Brand X fans accuse us of being in the deep pockets of Brand Y, and vice versa. We are simultaneously accused of being corporate shills for Samsung, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, AMD, Nvidia, and probably both Pepsi AND Coke. It comes with the territory on critical reporting. We tend to take accusations of bias pretty seriously though, because, well, we're one of the few tech news sites where that editorial wall is well-intact. Community (my department) has an awesome working relationship with AMD (see recent AMA with Don who used to work for us) and Intel on contests, giveaways, and forum events, but Editorial often gets the stink-eye because it's stick-in-the-mud about being objective. No joke, the guys treat editorial independence and integrity with near-religious fervor. I would ask that you please refrain from any accusations of bias unless you have evidence to assert on this. Otherwise, it's just a reactionary response and not constructive. We welcome feedback, always, on methodology, testing approach, and even the findings - but knee-jerk "OMG in the tank for Brand X!!" is not helpful, and we legit get it every critical review we conduct.
Secondly, as serious as they are about integrity, they back up their findings with fact and solid evidence. Our guys aren't always necessarily first, but they are the best, and they'll tell you things that aren't necessarily popular, and they'll dig in deeper than a lot of others. Our editorial staff stand by their work and deep dives in performance on hardware. I've been with Tom's for 8ish years now, and I can only remember two times in that entire history where a correction was issued on a faulty testing run. None of the editorial guys are fanboys. Some of my moderators certainly are, (and I have my own preferences), but we try to keep a healthy balance. Editorial doesn't get that luxury, and instead tackles reviews with stern objectivity.
Please try to keep comments here civil, and constructive. Thanks all!
-JP
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