Tom is degenarating. As usual, if you want to sell more you will have to diversify. First "Why i sent 3k on a freaking mac.", now blogs.

i wouldnt mind reading your blogs
would be a nice side line to the normal info

Well, most of your recent "news" items have been nothing more than blog entries anyway, so what can it hurt? Really, what's the difference?

For me, news is a non-biased reporting of fact. The writer at least making an effort to track down original sources and getting confirmation, denial, or even a no comment from all parties involved.

Most of what I've read in the "news" section of this site as been what the writer has read on some other site, which usually refers to what they read on yet another site. And then the writer making some smart alek response to the story.

Honestly though, semantics aside (and needless whining aside), if what you purpose means bringing more interesting tech news from around the world to the site, then I'm for it.

The idea of blogs is to diversify.

The blogs would likely be opinion-based columns on topics that aren't necessarily news but rather topics of interest. This would hopefully take the "blogginess" away from the news and keep it to the weekly columns for each reader.

I'd read them. Give the authors a chance to share their personal opinions without starting WW3.

*editor rather. Pardon my hasty commenting.

Pfft what are you kidding me? Someone always has to bitch about something, just look at the top poster hes already started bitching.

Weekly columns for editors would be great. It would be nice to know what got you really excited during the last week, a new technology you started using or a new program/service that really drove your attention. Some more sophisticated authors could make Dvorak-like statements or speculations about the computer markets so firing up a debate.

IMO as far as the blog style is concerned I think that news-serving is a service you provide and should be objective. News should not be confused with subjective opinions. First give the facts and then state your opinion. Jane's posts for example sure motivate people to respond to news and makes news more digestible for wider audiences but only cover one side of the coin and I often feel compelled to respond playing the role of the devil's advocate.

One other thing is that often in the comments section I see few statements that really enlighten me, Prodigit80's comments for example and a handfull of others. I am an active member of many blogs but I come here and at xbit labs to see the news and the reason is I am fed up with fanboy comments and useless comments that are only posted to give the false impression of a community. Most comments are anticipated depending on the subject, Mac fanboys, PC fanboys, Linux fanboys, pirate comments, antipirate comments, republican comments, democratic comments, communist comments, american comments, european comments and the list can go on for ever... Moreover I come hear to read the opinions of the gurus, people I acknowledge as better at technology than myself.

You might think I am not very fond of free speech rights but this would be wrong, I guess that people (not excluding myself) lost their ability to discern when they really have sth to say that can add sth to what it is already known, and just want to be selfish and state their opinions...

The thumbs up and thumbs down on comments was a good move if people used them. I would also suggest putting sth like a poll with agree and disagree in subjective editor's opinions.

Sorry for the length of my comment and thanks opportunity you gave us to talk about recent site changes.

I guess blogs would be ok, would give me more reason to search through toms for info. This is my only tech site so maybe ill be able to get more out of it.

But, please don't pick my brain, that's just plain rude (and a bit graphic).

Oh and please limit the size of these responses, there's not a chance in hell im reading the one above me its far to long and unsightly. No offense to that poster of course but when there is a post that long i feel like i have to ignore it.

And something I forgot. Some NEWS posts are really like commercials, please stop quoting press releases of products with corporal subjective comments without any footage, testing whatsoever. Corporations have sites, we come here to read posts of journalists and testers.

Thank you

I'd read them, I already keep an eye on ZDNet and other blogs. Tom's has changed a lot over the years (reading for about 9 years now). To be honest I miss the HPC facility tours, factory tours, hacks and home brewed projects, etc. Blogs would introduce a new home for those kinds of articles.

Hi dedhorse -

News aggregation is a service. It's better to be able to get your news from few sources, rather than spending hours scouring across many websites. It's a service we can say we provide to avoid people having to spend time looking all over--that's what we do. Our job is two fold: bring the news to you so you don't have to go to it, and also provide you with exclusive stories as it arrives to us.

We report. To who else but you guys.

While you may have read something that we posted elsewhere, it doesn't mean the next person has, and in that case, we may have saved them time.

We're trying to improve our service, not diminish it. Often times, it requires trying new things, and new things don't always bode well with some. But that's what you call growing pains.

/ Tuan

If it will add content, stop opinions from creeping into the news (except oddball news), and not diminish from the current amount of coverage, than it's a fantastic idea. Besides, if it's only one article per week, per staff editor, than it's not really a blog, it's an op/ed. Treat it as such, put it in a new op/ed section along with QOTD. "Blog" has come to mean "the daily ramblings of every highly opinionated, yet unqualified Tom, Dick, and Harry". Don't call it a blog, or refer to it as blogging. I would love to see this happen, just keep it out of the news section and keep it to staff editors (or maybe occasional big names in the industry), and keep it to once a week.

its great! lets give it a try. blogs are very useful for sharing informations and experiences.

Sounds interesting. I say go for it. =)

what about adding a poll on some topics?
I find "the question at the end of every article" just plainly stupid!
Noone really cares about the question, but the article,and noone cares about the answer neither.
I understand toms need to be funded, and gets a lot through advertising.
Ads only bring up when people are visiting them or at least seeing them.
So let's try people to reply to topics so pages will be loaded at least twice (once before the post, and once after the post).

The questions at the end of the topic really disgust me.
I mean, the day you can send an author that will either reply the answered question, or write us an article what you did with the feedback gained, (EG:went to MS,and gave them feedback; helped firefox to become more userfriendly through the comments posted on toms, etc...) I will start answering those ridiculous questions.

Often those questions makes me NOT answer to the topic!

It should be more than obvious users should be able to comment and make their own conclusions out of the article and write about them,not an artificial "yes we agree", or "I'll tell you what you asked even if noone ever will read the reply I write, and in no way is constructive in society".

I am very happy though that my voice about Win Vista was heard here, and many people started realizing that Vista is not what it promised to be (with it's speed and response issues).
As well as power saving issues, making users more power efficient aware (choosing the right pc).

I'm sure a lot of manufacturers like Asus take a peek here from time to time in their R&D phases of new products.(despite being Japs)

Toms is a great place to let a voice be heard,and has helped push the market a lot, making users aware of good buys, and thus efficiently raising the market quality of producs through user votes and information.

A lot of articles are crappy indeed. Some not even looking professional and degrading the integrity of toms (like those porn articles).

I think this is a great idea! Toms is my source of tech news, and a blog would be another great addition to the page.

With regard to the question at the end of the post, I like it. I mostly read comments, rather than join in myself and it's interesting seeing what everyone thinks about the topic. I hate it when I see people bitching about the fact that there's a question every time there's a question! If you don't like it... just don't respond!

It really depends on what these blogs will be used for. If they will be used to showcase Editor experiences, choices, digital lifestyle, opinions on controversial topics, etc, then I believe it would be an asset to the content of the site. Blogs, like anything else, adds content to the site and this will certainly be original content (appeasing the critics of rehashed news). Although, this might be an additional strain on the editors of the site to create even more content on a weekly basis. Just don't let it hinder the quality of the "bread and butter" content, such as reviews and news.

Get the other redhead (Tamara) to talk about weekly stuff is good enough. Blogs are simply articles without substances full of barely justified personal opinion.

As for quality of the news; I felt Tom’s is going from NHK/Xinhua/NYTimes to Fox/Access Hollywood.

Really? I didn't notice that no one cared since many of those QOTDs have 200 comments and people seem to like to write what's on their mind. Where are you coming up with the metric to make such a sweeping statement like "no one cares?"--are you answering for everyone?

Polls? Sure, but often times people want to be heard. People are entitled to their opinions and the comments are for just that.

Why are you assuming that we don't do anything with those questions? We give feedback to companies all the time.

Your entire post just boggles the mind. By your own standards, your post:

- has no facts to back your claims
- claims such as "no one cares" pulled from unknown source
- claims and assumptions made using unknown metric
- making bold statements on other people's behalf when you have no idea what they're thinking.
- you're completely bias as you think the QOTDs are stupid, yet according to numbers visible by you and everyone else, people do care. People care, or else they wouldn't reply. Simple and obvious one there.
- sorry porn offends you but porn is a fact of life, people, technology and internet influence on people's lives. Hiding behind a curtain pretending to be ignorant to the fact helps no one.

You assume the QOTDs have something to do with ads. Again, show me the facts? QOTDs were something I thought up to write about on some spare time, to see what people have to say. Don't like the question? Don't reply. Why click, read, and then get pissed off because you didn't like what you read?

For the record, and for your own information, ProDigit80, pageview is becoming less and less of a meaningful metric for advertisers. In case you haven't noticed, there are an endless number of sites out there with a wealth of information, and more and more informative sites are popping up daily. Study up on internet trends would you?

Reply when you have something substantial to say other than calling things stupid and making bold sweeping claims that have no merit, proving yourself wrong in the process.

The QOTDs are something I contributed personally out of genuine interest to see what new and long time readers of Tom's has to say. So don't play that advertising card with me again.

/ Tuan
Director, News Operations

Sure, I'd add TH blogs to my daily reading. QOTD - what can you offer us, the loyal blog readers, that other technology websites cannot?

I'm in! There's blogs that I would be more tempted to read, like Kevin, Tuan and Jane. Their style of writing appeals more to me (and Jane is sexy! I know, I'm a douche.). I'd probably give the others a shot too but they'll have to be interesting right off the bat for me to visit them regularly.

How did you EVER survive high school English class? Read a book, they're a bit longer than most comments on the internet, but a hell of a lot more satisfying. Some of them even have nice big pictures!

no blogs... please...
I want 100% concentration on the current news, articles and reviews.
please... no more diversions.

I like the idea of polls. Also... admittedly my blog experiences have been non-existent (I don't like the way that word feels in my mouth... "blog" :-\)
I do like discussing things in the news posts. Reading them usually makes me lol.
I might even register instead of using random names/emails if polls/blogs/more interactive news/thoughts about news come into play

As mentioned it should help to clean up the discrepancy of "news" vs. "news + views".

Where the news can be posted with a link to any relevant blogging. Thus people who are interested in an opinion summary of a news article can jump to it if there is one.

Could in theory keep things cleaner and more organized. I like that notion.

You can read all the books with all the big pictures in them you want, ill stick with not reading books with big pictures.

Oh I see what's going on here.

Go for it I am really enjoying reading all the articles as of late!