TR Forums

I'm not seeing much recent at the Tech Report site. The site die for one reason or another?

Yes, more or less:

https://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic ... 1&t=122158

Too bad.

It's dead, Jim.

The second to last staff news poster was Nathan W., he left for school. The last staff news poster was Erik F., and he's gone now. My YouTube channel remains active but I see no reason to continue generating companion content here since the lack of regular news updates kills the hit count, and Renee appears to just be posting more listicles rather than serious reviews, so TR is pretty much a dead property unless the current owners bring some additional people onboard.

ludi wrote:

It's dead, Jim.

The second to last staff news poster was Nathan W., he left for school. The last staff news poster was Erik F., and he's gone now. My YouTube channel remains active but I see no reason to continue generating companion content here since the lack of regular news updates kills the hit count, and Renee appears to just be posting more listicles rather than serious reviews, so TR is pretty much a dead property unless the current owners bring some additional people onboard.

Yeah. The only sad thing about TR dying is loss of forums. Archive.org doesn't go deep enough to archive those properly and man, was there ever some good stuff posted here over the years....

Expecting the current TR owners to do anything with the site other than harvest its organs and discard it is, and has always been, foolish. It's what they do, you can see they are carrion preying on easy SEO pickings from their portfolio of dying or dead websites.

Thinking about TR these days, I can’t help be reminded of the classic kids book The Giving Tree.

Tech Report played its part in creating wonderful opportunities and connections for Scott, Geoff, Cyril, Jeff, Adam, staff writers, contributors, and many in the community. We tend to focus on how much individuals gave to the site, but never forget that the Tech Report itself as a purpose-driven journalistic enterprise always delivered with integrity, time and again, and richly rewarded all those who chose to invest their time here.

The Tech Report kept giving until it had nothing left to give.

Market forces are what they are. But TR will always be special.

Many times we have thanked the individuals involved. But today I'd like to say: Thank you Tech Report, for what you have given us.

Rest if Peace TR. I'll always treasure the good old days. Ignoring other sites and waiting for a TR review instead, and arguing in the comments section.

I miss Tech Report. I wish the owners would do something with it rather than just letting the site languish. If all they were going to do was simply sit on it, I'm not sure what their purpose was in purchasing it in the first place.

The Swamp wrote:

I miss Tech Report. I wish the owners would do something with it rather than just letting the site languish. If all they were going to do was simply sit on it, I'm not sure what their purpose was in purchasing it in the first place.

They are doing something with it, which is to attract SEO bots. This audience just has a different understanding of what "something" means to them vs the new owners. Goals and objectives.

It has ascended to its final form: a robotic listicle wasteland.

derFunkenstein wrote:

It has ascended to its final form: a robotic listicle wasteland.

I miss the times when I could come here and know that this was the defacto place to learn about computers... I used the guides back when the nForce 4 chipset was all the rage... ahhh those times...

derFunkenstein wrote:

It has ascended to its final form: a robotic listicle wasteland.

Does this final form make money? I'm thinking no.

Honestly at this point, I am hoping I get a 404 each time I log in. Put it out of its misery.

Vrock wrote:

derFunkenstein wrote:

It has ascended to its final form: a robotic listicle wasteland.

Does this final form make money? I'm thinking no.

Honestly at this point, I am hoping I get a 404 each time I log in. Put it out of its misery.

It won't be a plain 404 error. It will have a list of the top 10 404 errors.

Well said.

Wonders wrote:

Thinking about TR these days, I can’t help be reminded of the classic kids book The Giving Tree.

Tech Report played its part in creating wonderful opportunities and connections for Scott, Geoff, Cyril, Jeff, Adam, staff writers, contributors, and many in the community. We tend to focus on how much individuals gave to the site, but never forget that the Tech Report itself as a purpose-driven journalistic enterprise always delivered with integrity, time and again, and richly rewarded all those who chose to invest their time here.

The Tech Report kept giving until it had nothing left to give.

Market forces are what they are. But TR will always be special.

Many times we have thanked the individuals involved. But today I'd like to say: Thank you Tech Report, for what you have given us.

Vrock wrote:

derFunkenstein wrote:

It has ascended to its final form: a robotic listicle wasteland.

Does this final form make money? I'm thinking no.

Honestly at this point, I am hoping I get a 404 each time I log in. Put it out of its misery.

They're investing nothing beyond co-located hosting costs, so yes, I do think it makes *some* money as it is.

If so, multiply by 100 sites, and... profit?

That's my guess, yes. Economies of scale that none of us could hope to achieve.

I am really sad to see the situation here. Look at the TR front page, i feel like crying.

Last post on the front page was 12/21. And it was ****. Complete and total ****.

Put it out of its misery already.

I even clicked on that "smart mattresses" thing, hoping to see more about this, but instead got a list of dumb mattresses using coil springs to direct wi-fi radiation into the user's head and all known organs. And they hav a user interface, which is not the surface to lie on but a phone app, very likely designed to waste some of the user's time before going to sleep.

Wirko wrote:

I even clicked on that "smart mattresses" thing, hoping to see more about this, but instead got a list of dumb mattresses using coil springs to direct wi-fi radiation into the user's head and all known organs. And they hav a user interface, which is not the surface to lie on but a phone app, very likely designed to waste some of the user's time before going to sleep.

Just what everybody wants. An internet-connected, security hole-ridden smart mattress.

Tr was such a great place for the latest computer related info. I looked forward to the system build guides , they haven't done one in 2 years? I haven't built a new system in 10 years.

The forums and the community of posters were always the greatest assets to the site . Since Damage left its steadily gone down hill. I used to start each day perusing the tech articles and whatever forum posts I was following.
I maybe check it out once a month or so to see if anything is interesting, usually not . I did post in gaming this am about the original Guild Wars. TR, the death of one of the internet giant tech sites.

rogue426 wrote:

Tr was such a great place for the latest computer related info. I looked forward to the system build guides , they haven't done one in 2 years? I haven't built a new system in 10 years.

Who is this "they" you spoke of? None of that crew is left on the content/editorial teamrobot anymore. Most of the old folks are us mods that just kept up the spam fighting routines and then clock out.

Flying Fox wrote:

rogue426 wrote:

Tr was such a great place for the latest computer related info. I looked forward to the system build guides , they haven't done one in 2 years? I haven't built a new system in 10 years.

Who is this "they" you spoke of? None of that crew is left on the content/editorial teamrobot anymore. Most of the old folks are us mods that just kept up the spam fighting routines and then clock out.

Exactly

im still here; that counts for something right?

What happened? I obviously missed something.

Now I feel bad about all those times I said "well... maybe next year" to the TRBBQ

The BBQ may continue independently.

meerkt wrote:

The BBQ may continue independently.

Probably so but if the site's fully dead where do we go to find out about the when and where

Questors wrote:

What happened? I obviously missed something.

TL;DR version:

-site was not profitable and was sold to a soulless "entrepreneur"
-new management has not invested time and resources into the site nor do they understand/care to understand the community
-slowly but surely, anyone who had any passion for tech and hardware left the site
-site now consists of inane listicles and a forum that's 90% dead

This is the fate of all large computer hardware sites, eventually, IMO. Tech is a commodity now and has been for quite some time. And you don't see thriving websites reviewing and discussing the merits of toilet paper and laundry detergent, because no one cares.