*UPDATED 9/5/2018* Tom's Hardware's Editor in Chief's Controversial RTX Article

[Igor Wallossek]

Quote

I'm probably not the only one who is lacking some of the context behind this post. Has Tom's been sold again? I thought it was under the Purch umbrella? 

Yes. To Future plc, a UK company. They are visiting NY this week to complete the overtake. Panic mode now, nothing else

 

I licensed the German site in May, because they planned to close it completely. And they gave me only a naked MongoDB data dump without any doumentation of the structure, no shortcodes, simply nothing. And less than 3 weeks to migrate to an own server.  No user data, no forum. We restored all and were online. Their system is a pure mess and it was a horrible work - but done. Now we have the better system, a better forum and it seems also the better content.

[Sauron]

On 25/8/2018 at 10:18 AM, -rascal- said:

 

Please don't give me the 100-year ban for this...

  Hide contents

 

HAH, that's nothing...

Spoiler

 

[NumLock21]

11 hours ago, -rascal- said:

Looks like Tom's Hardware U.S. -- or Purch Group Inc -- is now on damage control.

Damage control in a *BAD* way, by implementing 100-year bans on the forum, and deleting thread posts / responses. 

 

Bringing back the ol' LTT 'Keep on Diggin'

Spoiler

 

 

 

I wish the shovel would light up too.

[Jito463]

5 hours ago, Igor Wallossek said:

I licensed the German site in May, because they planned to close it completely.

Sounds like it may be time for a name change, and just have the TH domain redirect, so you can completely distance yourself from them.

[LinusTech]

10 hours ago, Igor Wallossek said:

Yes. To Future plc, a UK company. They are visiting NY this week to complete the overtake. Panic mode now, nothing else

 

I licensed the German site in May, because they planned to close it completely. And they gave me only a naked MongoDB data dump without any doumentation of the structure, no shortcodes, simply nothing. And less than 3 weeks to migrate to an own server.  No user data, no forum. We restored all and were online. Their system is a pure mess and it was a horrible work - but done. Now we have the better system, a better forum and it seems also the better content.

Fascinating! Well I wish you the best of luck

[JediFragger]

4 hours ago, Jito463 said:

Sounds like it may be time for a name change, and just have the TH domain redirect, so you can completely distance yourself from them.

Have to agree, the TH umbrella seems to be forever tainted now

[asus killer]

14 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

pardon my comical interest in languages:

DeutscheHardware?

www.nottomshardware.com

[Spotty]

5 hours ago, Jito463 said:

Sounds like it may be time for a name change, and just have the TH domain redirect, so you can completely distance yourself from them.

 

24 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

pardon my comical interest in languages:

DeutscheHardware?

9 minutes ago, asus killer said:

www.nottomshardware.com

Igorshardware.com?

But why should German Tom's Hardware have to change their name because of the American sites problems?
Tomshardware.com should change be the one to change their name. They don't even have a "Tom" working for them any longer! What about "JustBuyItHardware.com"? The domain is available.

[Igor Wallossek]

Spoiler

jensenshardware.biz, avrams-fairytale.com or simply: 2insame4reality.com 

 

[Igor Wallossek]

jensenshardware.biz, avrams-fairytale.com or simply: 2insame4reality.com 

 

Sorry for the double post, but it's very difficult to navigate in this forum with a smarthpone.

[FloRolf]

Next up in the news:

 

 - we were all wrong - 

20 Year Old dude bought all the RTX cards and saved so much money that he became a billionaire. 

[NMS]

What puzzles me most is the fact that the editor is still emplyed (correct me if I'm wrong) and even if they were to let him go now, that would still show a lot of negative things about current managment.

 

Remember the good old days of Tom's Hardware? Now those were the days!

[Spotty]

15 minutes ago, Igor Wallossek said:

Sorry for the double post, but it's very difficult to navigate in this forum with a smarthpone.

Bit of the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think?

 

 

Spoiler

I'm kidding. It's obvious you're not associated with the US site or their forums considering the 99 year ban

[Dylanc1500]

1 hour ago, FloRolf said:

Next up in the news:

 

 - we were all wrong - 

20 Year Old dude bought all the RTX cards and saved so much money that he became a billionaire. 

 

On 8/25/2018 at 3:41 AM, Dylanc1500 said:

So if I buy all of the GPUs, I save all of the money?!

I told em

[NumLock21]

8 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

what, like Carebear Stare?

Shovelbear

Like those cool neon signs

[Euphoria]

I started a thread on TomsHW UK yesterday morning asking the mods/staff if the UK site was independent like TomsHW.de or could we be seeing nonsense like this "Just Buy It" article on the UK site soon? I didn't think that was rude or unfair, I wasn't asking staff to comment their own opinions regarding the paid Nvidia advert *cough I mean unbias article that might get them into trouble, it was merely a; do you operate like TomsHW DE or are you managed by the US side of the company?
 

I just thought the first thing that happened was funny and showing the start of what was to come. I received an official warning for profanity for my single use of "bs" and my post was edited by the mods - I used the abbreviation "bs" as I thought that was more suitable and shouldn't offend anyone, especially as I've seen it used thousands of times on the site with no issues over the years, but apparently, that's worthy of an official warning now.

Anyway, then it started. A few members began posting their own opinions on this article, no one was flaming, no one was swearing, no wild unsubstantiated accusations, or anything hostile/rude, just simply - "I think it's rubbish and if the editor-in-chief is putting this out, then TomsHW is done for me." - Stuff like that, just civil opinions and thoughts.

Sure enough, the posts started disappearing, being deleted by the mods.

 

Long story short, after asking some mods/staff directly and not receiving any responses, except seeing more posts disappearing, I requested my account to be deleted. 6 years of recommending people to the site, trusting what they put out as unbias (as much as someone can be) and consumer orientated, hundreds upon hundreds of posts, getting to know(ish) some forum mods, dozens of their award badge thingies... gone with one insane, brain-dead article/paid ad.

Tom's Hardware, for me at least, is now the tech website equivalent of the Daily Mail - write any old crap for clicks, views, and of course... paychecks.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Euphoria
Reason for edit = my terrible grammar

[Euphoria]

P.S. It's funny, a TomsHW forum mod created a "How to delete your TomsHW account"  thread very recently, it's almost like someone knew about the article and thought: I better prepare in advance.
 

[-rascal-]

On 8/29/2018 at 11:15 AM, Igor Wallossek said:

 

I signed a contract to NOT damage the reputation and image of TH with my publications under the TH brand logo. That's fine and self-evident. And I still believe in objective journalism, which refers to facts and real test results and not to speculation and click-baiting. I have always represented my opinion publicly, because whoever ducks away also sells his own ideals.

 

But this guy is damaging my current work and all, what we built in the past. I'm also in contact with Thomas the founder and it's a shame what happened. All this shit falls back also to my own business. And not only. I'm not sure that he read his contract carefully. I run here a complete independent site and pay only for the brand and domain (ok, I changed it from the begin to an own to be safe).

 

It is my great hope that everyone involved will remember what once distinguished this website. I am the last person who would not support this with all his strength, time and also his own money. My hope is entirely with the new owners, who will hopefully implement what was stated in the letter of intent. It will be my pleasure to be able to continue to offer all those loyal readers exactly the content they have received for years and whose right it is to demand exactly this standard also in the future.

 

The handling of this controverse is not poor, it is a real suicide. The whole staff is in panic mode, because the new owners will visit the NY office this week. Nothing was better timed, than this "article" from the "geekingchief" himself. Bravo!

 

On 8/29/2018 at 12:00 PM, Igor Wallossek said:

Yes. To Future plc, a UK company. They are visiting NY this week to complete the overtake. Panic mode now, nothing else

 

I licensed the German site in May, because they planned to close it completely. And they gave me only a naked MongoDB data dump without any doumentation of the structure, no shortcodes, simply nothing. And less than 3 weeks to migrate to an own server.  No user data, no forum. We restored all and were online. Their system is a pure mess and it was a horrible work - but done. Now we have the better system, a better forum and it seems also the better content.

 

 

On 8/29/2018 at 11:47 AM, LinusTech said:

Hi Igor, 

 

Welcome to LTT forum

 

I'm probably not the only one who is lacking some of the context behind this post. Has Tom's been sold again? I thought it was under the Purch umbrella? 

 

Linus

 

Agreed with Linus -- there is missing context that many of us are not aware of.

 

Thank you Igor for providing us with a bit more information, and some further clarification, on this topic; greatly appreciated.

I understand they would want to make things a "nice" as possible to prepare for the overtake, hence, the deleting of posts, bans, etc.

It appears that this "whole staff panic mode" got a little over the top, though.

 

Tom's Hardware is not completed in the ground, we still have you, and Tom's Hardware Germany! 

 

EDIT:

Even my comment/discussion question regarding to Ray Tracing, and followed by indicating I had been a registered member at Tom's Hardware for ~8 years now, seeing how things took a turn in recent days, and hoping to see Tom's Hardware U.S. recover and succeed, got removed. My response did not contain any foul language or direct criticism on the article. It looks like that is the end of it.

[NumLock21]

4 hours ago, Euphoria said:

Spoiler

I started a thread on TomsHW UK yesterday morning asking the mods/staff if the UK site was independent like TomsHW.de or could we be seeing nonsense like this "Just Buy It" article on the UK site soon? I didn't think that was rude or unfair, I wasn't asking staff to comment their own opinions regarding the paid Nvidia advert *cough I mean unbias article that might get them into trouble, it was merely a; do you operate like TomsHW DE or are you managed by the US side of the company?
 

I just thought the first thing that happened was funny and showing the start of what was to come. I received an official warning for profanity for my single use of "bs" and my post was edited by the mods - I used the abbreviation "bs" as I thought that was more suitable and shouldn't offend anyone, especially as I've seen it used thousands of times on the site with no issues over the years, but apparently, that's worthy of an official warning now.

Anyway, then it started. A few members began posting their own opinions on this article, no one was flaming, no one was swearing, no wild unsubstantiated accusations, or anything hostile/rude, just simply - "I think it's rubbish and if the editor-in-chief is putting this out, then TomsHW is done for me." - Stuff like that, just civil opinions and thoughts.

Sure enough, the posts started disappearing, being deleted by the mods.

 

Long story short, after asking some mods/staff directly and not receiving any responses, except seeing more posts disappearing, I requested my account to be deleted. 6 years of recommending people to the site, trusting what they put out as unbias (as much as someone can be) and consumer orientated, hundreds upon hundreds of posts, getting to know(ish) some forum mods, dozens of their award badge thingies... gone with one insane, brain-dead article/paid ad.

Tom's Hardware, for me at least, is now the tech website equivalent of the Daily Mail - write any old crap for clicks, views, and of course... paychecks.

 

So Tomshardware UK is the same as Tomshardware US. I also had some badges over there, earning them wasn't easy, when the best answer, 99.99999% of the time, will always go to a mod, even when you post first, and has the correct solution to OP's problem.

[mark_cameron]

I think this whole thing is disgraceful.

 

 

Tom's Hardware are wide open to legal action for misleading consumers if something they say is not true with RTX and they received quid pro quo for that review.

 

There are consumer protection laws in north America and Europe that take very dim views on this.

 

This is why sponsored content has to be indicated.

 

Consumer reviews versus news (or speculation) versus personal opinion pieces need to be marked as such.

 

In Europe the mere act of misleading or causing a consumer confusion before a purchase is illegal. Especially from manufacturers or retailers.

 

If this is done by proxy. By a independent website that isn't actually independent. The courts would have no different a view.

[ZacoAttaco]

4 hours ago, mark_cameron said:

This is why sponsored content has to be indicated.

Was this actually sponsored though? Avram didn't explicitly say it in the article. I may have missed it but I was under the impression that this was just an opinion piece?

[Peskanova]

On 25/8/2018 at 5:11 PM, mr moose said:

this debate is as old as the hills, the eye has a set number of rods and cones. as a visual receptor it is actually very poor, the reason we think we see so well is becasue the visual processing part of the brain is really good at taking all the broken bits of information and making a single image that seems to be high detail.

 

We don't even process visual input when our eyes are moving. 

So we have good post-pro but bad graphics?

[Euphoria]

[Update] My thread and all posts on every thread from the past few days have been deleted by TomsHW mods this morning and I received another official warning about my conduct. Apparently, asking if TomsHW UK is independent of TomsHW US is against the forum rules and guidelines, literally, that is what they said, even though I posted in Forum Discussion/Feedback section, haha what a joke.

 

It's also been roughly 40 hours since I requested my account to be deleted but it's still active, maybe they're overwhelmed with the numbers of account deletion requests.

[-rascal-]

9 minutes ago, Euphoria said:

[Update] My thread and all posts on every thread from the past few days have been deleted by TomsHW mods this morning and I received another official warning about my conduct. Apparently, asking if TomsHW UK is independent of TomsHW US is against the forum rules and guidelines, literally, that is what they said, even though I posted in Forum Discussion/Feedback section, haha what a joke.

 

It's also been roughly 40 hours since I requested my account to be deleted but it's still active, maybe they're overwhelmed with the numbers of account deletion requests.

 

Damage control gone mad.

 

They removed my post, and I did not get a notification or e-mail on why they removed it.

 

Even some of the mods have expressed that they even don't feel it is right to remove some of the posts...but they have to follow higher up orders.

[ZacoAttaco]

4 minutes ago, Euphoria said:

[Update] My thread and all posts on every thread from the past few days have been deleted by TomsHW mods this morning and I received another official warning about my conduct. Apparently, asking if TomsHW UK is independent of TomsHW US is against the forum rules and guidelines, literally, that is what they said, even though I posted in Forum Discussion/Feedback section, haha what a joke.

 

It's also been roughly 40 hours since I requested my account to be deleted but it's still active, maybe they're overwhelmed with the numbers of account deletion requests.

They're handling this awfully.

 

All jokes aside, I hope they can turn it around.

It's a good forum and it's been a helpful in the past for research when troubleshooting so I hope it sticks around.