Sure why not it will be cool to see what people want to say!

it would need its own section on the website, with some moderation

Agree with Geibys, as long as it's clear it's user content.

I like the idea, but there should be some way to make sure the good ones are not drowned in crap.

I'd say it's a good idea, especially for entry level hardware that never gets reviewed - sometimes you can get pretty good kit from less well known makers but it's always a complete gamble as sites never ask for the lower end stuff to review. This way would be perfect to get the scoop.

From the quality of the articles Tom's staff has submitted the last couple of years, I'd say there wouldn't be much of a difference.

This may conflict with the whole idea, but maybe you could only allow people with so many posts to be allowed to write their own content. This might help distinguish some of the good from the crap. btw, i have only just started posting on this site so i would not be falling into the category of those being able to post

A big yes! Plus, the better written reviews/news by members would also feature on the main page.

No. That's what forums are for.

As long as the reader submitted content doesn't replace any real articles and there are moderators and editors to check profanity and grammar. Also, all fanboyism and unsupported opinions should be banned. But that aside, I would like some mouse and keyboard reviews.

No. User content will dilute the integrity of THG. Please use forums for user content.

Sounds good to me, but the site admins should enforce a certain level of quality.

No, this is a horrible idea. I like Tom's because it is credible and it includes insider information that readers wouldn't have. It would also lower the quality of articles and fill the site with many garbage articles. I think this may be good if a few articles are written every so often by experts, I don't want to hear what the regular person has to say.

This is just not the right site for that type of article, you might as well make this a blog site if you do that. It would destroy the site.

And as said in previous comments, the forums are a great place for this sort of thing.

Keep it to the forums, or if you are going to have user submitted content, then as previously suggested it should be in its own section CEALRY stating that it is USER submitted content.

No, leave it to the forums.

You could make a forum section for user submitted articles.

Certainly,a user FORUM devoted to user reviews/input,especially of not so high co$t equipment,as everyone is aware it is difficult if not impossible to find good reviews/user experiences of not so co$tly equipment,in situ reviews of this would be of great benefit as there are a lot of folk who can not afford the latest and greatest,after all there are some who are deliberately a little "behind the curve" as it were,you do not always need the late$t and great$t hardware,who knows we might find it very entertaing and maybe enlightening..
Say what you will but to me user input is always the best of any endeavor..

i think every thing will have to be looked at to try to stop fanboyism and false info

maybe it can be like digg you vote for an article and it will hit the main page
you can flag an article for false info, fanboy content or profanity.

but keep it on a page separated from anything else and have sections for hardware reviews, game reviews, software reviews, trouble shooting and tweaking

i think it would be hard organizing all the info and separating it apart from the bad info

i say try it, it could be big if done right

make a seperate area for it, and maybe make sure its not just stupid stuff or spam and I'd love to read it.

Yes we have the forums for that. So even if somebody writes something idiotic we need not take it as written by someone from Tom's if it's written in the forums. Please it's a useless idea...

Guys, you don't think they would seriously put it up without first editing do you? It's not going to be spam.

As long as it's moderated, why not? Keep it hardware related?

Sure, as long as it's formal looking and doesn't look like how comment boxes look like.

I'm not knocking the content on this site. Most of the articles are interesting and have some useful information. However, it's pretty clear that most of the articles are not edited. Typos and grammatical errors are common.

I'd hate to see this site overrun by user content. As others have suggested, it would need to be in a completely different section of the site. You might want to make better use of style sheets to make the user content pages look different. You have enough issues with readers not realizing they've jumped from Tom's Hardware to Tom's Guide.

i wouldn't mind seeing how other people tweak their stuff... but again, i agree with how that should stay in the forums - just make it more... renowned? more noticable? it's own section on the home page?

I'm fine with it if it is added as a Forum and not as news. We see a lot of new stuff in the Forum. There could be a separate Forum for this purpose so people really don't have to write articles but give links and other not-so-professional write-ups. I'm sure moderators are aware of the news getting posted in the forum.

Umm, I don't think that forum-type of user content is good. Too much garbage will be there eventualy.

It should be a separate section, and articles would be posted there ONLY after being read and approved by an editor from Tom's staff. So only a well writen articles get published.

As an incentive, the "best of" would be linked on a front page, and those authors would perhaps get a small amount of "compensation".. or an offer to become a part of Tom's staff.

Too many newbies use this site for a learning tool and I think randoms diggs from trolls would get even more confusing for a viewer using the best video cards for the money resource. Our life doesn't revolve around this web site and it's an even greater waste of time and a distraction from the folks trying to study computers.

As long as I can babble about nothing, well within reason you got my vote.

-Spud

Im sure someone else has written something similar before me, im too lazy to read through them all right now, but still, it would be a good thing IF there were people maintaining a certain quality of the user submitted information. If just anyone can post whatever they want too, then... Well, i don't think i have to say that it wouldn't be good. I don't mean to complain... Actually, i do, but still. Some of the articles have a certain sense of mediocracy to them, and that's stuff posted by "professionals" just imagine what it would be like with "amateurs" posting, and then being cleared by said professionals... Im not so sure about this, now that i've thought about it loudly. Well, as long as you keep it separate from the normal THG site it doesn't matter, i suppose.

- Yes, i know i sound like a mean spirited bitch, and im sorry, i just want THG to be what it once was = Great.

I think its a bad idea, fanboys would spam the site, keep user content in the forums.
You guys already have problems with typos and other stuff so why overload the staff even more?
Anyway if TH actualy goes with amateur content keep the main RSS feed of the site clean of that, make a separate RSS, I don't want to read spam or fanboys.