Too bad it's limited to 18+!

i wonder what tom is thinking...

Odds of winning, 1 in 5. Million. My time is more valuable to me than a having to fill out a survey for a shot in hell at winning a mere $50. If Tom's doesn't actually listen to reader's comments in comment sections about wanting better editing, tech briefs that aren't so bloggy and have little to do with tech, etc., then why would we bother with this? We've already spoken.

This is ridicules, Toms main objectives in this survey is to figure out spending habits of individuals... Do we really need to see more ads? ~90% of their survey was to determine what I will be buying and if I have the ability to make purchasing decisions for a business...

Have you actually considered taking a survey to improve the quality of your articles or figure out what content your viewers are actually after?

After 8+ years of visiting this site, the amount of embedded ads are getting to the point of where I am starting to go to other sites for information. NoScript plugin for Firefox is the only thing keeping me at this site currently...

You're absolutely right! We are trying to find out what you and others tend to spend on and in what categories. This is to figure out what class of hardware and devices to focus our review time on. There's no point covering something that the majority of readers wouldn't consider--am I correct here? If most of our readers never buy say, X-product, then a review on said product wouldn't really have any value for you.

It's always too easy to jump to conclusions that Tom's Hardware does this, or Tom's Hardware does that, in an all too negative manner. What's the point of doing that anyway? If you don't think the survey would help you or be a useful thing for you to spend 5 minutes on, then don't do it. But if you think that we'll read the surveys, then by all means, contribute.

We already know surveys can be a hassle, hence the Amazon giveaways, at least to give some sort of perk.

The choices ultimately remain with you as a reader. Web content is almost all free. If you find anything useful, pocket it--if not, no harm done.

/ Tuan

That's exactly why we are spending so much time in the comments section.

First of all, I based my previous statement AFTER taking the survey. It was a reflection of my thoughts about the usefulness of your survey.

Tuan, realistically there are much better ways of determine what type of information that the general audience of this site would like to see.

If anything you could have designed the survey better to fit the needs you so clearly point out in your reply. You could have asked directly about the motives of the readers of why they actually visit the site and then branched off to get more detailed data as to what they would wish to see covered. Instead you beat around the bush asking for data that is completely irrelevant to what you claim to be after.

I sincerely stared to fill out the survey in hopes to help improve the site with my feedback. As I went through the survey though, the only thing that ran through my mind was why there was a need to determine my spending habits and why you need to know about my influence to make purchasing decisions for businesses. You are not a retailer, how will this data actually help the site provide better content?

Do you think you will get a better idea of knowing what content I am looking for at this site with this unrelated data that your are collecting than if you actually just asked me about what content I was looking forward to reading at the site?

Trying to find a correlation between spending habits and potential interest is not just another form of speculation but is also statistically unsound. I hope you understand this.

A business intent on selling me something would need to figure out the data you collected. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the data collected will better help you generate advertising revenue.