Bit-tech has lost its spirit

Brilliant call -
That would be exactly perfect.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

On the main topic of this thread, I was upset when I first saw this thread because I think of bit-tech so fondly, but after having throught about it for several days I've come to realize that I agree. I used to be able to spend litterally hours reading articles and logs. I haven't been around that long, but it seems like I've been around a lot longer than most of the people who post.

There is just not as much _interesting_ content anymore and what good content that's left is lost in all of the meaningless posts and threads from people with no experience and no skillset.

Maybe there should even be a new forum called "noob advice" or something like that for all the dumb questions to go to.

I love bit, but now I mainly check the site out of habit and spend 15 minutes looking for something interesting -

I don't know - maybe Techno-Dann's (brilliant) idea regarding fixing the project logs would help....

Sorry if this seems like a rant......

 

Definately!

Many people (myself included) see the work of talented modders (mainly new faces aswell) in the PL forum on regular occasions, but rather than find a link/ dig out the discussion thread, I navigate elsewhere. Having members chip in and provide feedback on your work gives a real sense of community; with the new project log system I imagine some users feel a sense of rejection when very little/ no comments are left. This may have a 'nock-on' effect and could put new members off the idea of starting a log here.

I think it's great the way Bit have progressed into a mainstream tech resource but I've said it before and I'll say it again, they seem to have lost the whole modding aspect. I think the staff should keep an eye on the Project logs and should start nominating particularly promising projects to be featured on the main site. There should also be more community events, what happened to mod of the month?

No offence meant by this statement, but I feel a good solid project log featured on the main site will attract more visitors than a hardware review. I'm sure we can all agree around the time of Piloux's mods, the forums were literally buzzing!

Bring back the good old days

 

I'd like to weigh in in support of Techno-Dan's suggestion as well. The beauty of the idea is that it allows everyone to get what they want, weather it be to just see to project logs or to read the associated comments. In a perfect world the process would not require two seperate posts, but rather anything posted in the "everything" forum by the thread starter (and hence builder) is automatically mirrored on a second "clean" forum. Not sure if this is technically possible or not, but...

 

Some posts are disappearing from Staff? What the hell's happening?

 

Tims post, Bretts post at least have just *gone*. There's not even a moderating record that they were ever there. If stuff is (soft)deleted by mods you see a "deleted post" placeholder in vB for us "on the inside", but someone's hard-removed them for some reason so there's nothing.

 

I see posts #75 and 76, one from Tim and one from Brett. Are those the one you're talking about Bindi?

 

There was a couple more, im sure of it. One of Tims on this page for definate. The post numbers wont matter if they were hard-removed.

 

Come to think of it, one of mine has dissappeared as well

 

Don't panic. We're thinking And Roto: I don't think so?

 

Have you noticed that most of time Projectlog archive has more people viewing it than Projectlogs?
Even these are old threads many more people likes to see them than the new ones; several of most seen modders say they do not like sepparated comments threads and the results are there, at sight for everyone. Myself, I do not like sepparated threads either and wanted to make this comment for a long time.

 

Il tell you whats wrong.

Modding and overclocking are now old news, they arent interesting anymore! The people who started it all dont want to have anything to do with it anymore. Now you can go buy it from a shop whats the point! all todays modders are doing are copying as its become fashionable to bolt useless crap on your pc.

Nearly all the good people from bit have left and dont post regualy anymore, i think we all got ****ed off with the way the site had gone down hill tbh! The place lost its spirit so we have gone and found new interesting places to hang out.

Bit-tech is dead and wont be coming back! its sad but nothing you can do all forums go this way once they get popular.

 

New blood doesnt mean the end - its precisely that attitude that contributes to the downfall of a good forum. Tell me Slater, where have you found to hang out since you decided to leave bit-tech? (Around V4 is when you decided to quit i believe). Bit-tech's expansion has indeed alienated a lot of it, but deciding whether modding and overclocking is dead or dying is up to the people here to decide. Theres still plenty of opportunity for people to make things better than they were before, but the methodology and the mindset behind it has been fading.

The question becomes this; are the forumers who used to love it here sit back and reminisce about the "good old days" or try to bring back what made bit-tech special? Its obvious something needs to be done, but bitching about it most certainly isnt the solution.

 

It's impossible for the staff to please everyone, I became less active myself shortly after V4 arrived and the forums were reshuffled (I was a moderator at the time), there was nothing that the staff had done that I disliked, I just had less desire to post. This is probably due to my joining when most of the threads in HW&OC, where I did most of my posting/browsing, wereabout how far could you push your NF7, followed by the the DFI NFII based boards, rather than questions about whether the PSU with the green cathode inside is better than the one with the blue LED's, but that's a side effect to the site getting more popular with a wider audience, and was always something that was going to happen.

The problem(s) being complained about here, are not caused by the staff, but by the audience. You'll just have to put up with it, its a fact of life.

 

I really do agree with what kiljoi just said, I've been around long enough to see 3 or 4 major sets of forum members come and go, i guess if you do something over and over, you get very good at it, but then it becomes a chore. Just stick with it, like others have said, every forum has it's ups and downs.

Oh yeah, and bring back the test forum

[EDIT]

Wow, i was just snooping round the older articles:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031204231857/www.bit-tech.net/article/

And i've noticed that the bit-tech we know now is more of a hardware related news portal, look over the old article listing, you can see 4, maybe 5 hardware reviews, the rest is there purely for solid discussion and admiration, which is what I think is missing from it at the moment.

We need more innovation, I see plenty of fantastic ideas in the project logs that just get ignored on the front page, the old bit-tech would have it plastered up there, and would be proud of it. Now the space is reserved for news, comparison, nit picking and adverts . . .

 

i have been hoping that a thread like this would come up for a while, im glad to see that other bit-tech people are also unhappy.

I have one major problem and that is the mods. where are they? what happened to the bleading edge/extreme mods that the staff used to bring out. i started visiting this site over 5 years ago (!!!) i have been here for a long time. during that time i would visit this site almost everyday. now i find myself going days without even glancing at anything. why dont i care.... what is missing.....??? read on.....

staff mods. the staff mods were the whole reason that people came here. think back a few years when ALL the front page articles were staff mods. some of the best and most innnovative mods that i had ever seen. those were the glory days. Days when we could say that bit-tech had some of the finest mods in the world. then bit-tech went "corporate", new design, and nothing but reviews. REVIEWS, REVIEWS, REVIEWS. Now i know that it is great fun having a chance to play with the latest and greatest, and im sure the staff enjoy having big companies throw toys their way (and no dobut having lots of nice perks from these companies as well), but lets look at what the heart of bit-tech is (or was). MODS. when was the last time a staff member did a mod???? i cannot remmeber one for quite a while. when was the last time a mod was on the front page?????????!!!!!!!!! how many staff members actually have modded computers??????????????? how many spent days soldering wires eveywhere, and making their own fan controllers?????? think back to macro-black, one of the finest staff mods. that machine was hand made, everything was soldered and custom built. i dont think anyone builds machines like that anymore.

i'm dissapointed with bit-tech now days. not just the forums (im not a big user of the forums anyway), but the whole ethos of the site. now the staff just get given hardware by big companies, they test it, and they send it back, here's your check, thank you very much. not great. i can read reviews at a thousand other web-sites. reviews are nothing special. Yes, bit-tech do reviews very well, but they are not the best. they WERE the BEST at mods though, so why dont you get back to your roots staff?

the forums are also falling apart. this used to be a haven for modding. now any idiot can slap some lighted fans and a few bits of premade plastic into their box and they get a 5 star rating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont want to name it but their was one mod here that would take 1 day to build, he used nothing but pre manufactured components, simply slid the units in, screwed in some screws, and he got 5 stars!!!! our standards are slipping.

STAFF, PLEASE get back to what made this site great. reviews are great, but they are not unique. there are thousands of other sites writing reviews, stop being so "corporate" and start hacking this hardware up. start doing stuff that no-one has ever seen before, stuff that makes the world gasp, like it used to. PLEASE bringing back the old bit-tech.

 

I agree with all your other points but this one. I utterly disagree in fact - we have just the opposite problem, and its hard to do something new and innovative without a big budget or extreme metal working skills.

 

I beg to differ. A good design can make poor/average metalworking skills look better than they are. For example, the case I'm "building", will have smooth edges, and a good finish, but thats because I'm using edging strips so I need to get inches of edge perfect, not feet, the rest of the work is in the finish, which is easy but time consuming, and I'm fabricating, not modding. Yeah I know I've not worked on it in over a year, but it should be finished by the end of summer

My materials cost is <£60 atm, and I only need a few more bits and bobs.

There are many other examples which disprove what you just said.

 

I don't mean to offend Roto, but i feel a bad trend is appearing on the forum. some of the work that is done here is amazing. some of the worlds leading mods come out of this forum: orac, hypercube, macro-black, black messa, borg cube (only oldies will remember this one) all mods that were world leading, and they got their due credit, but then we have a whole bunch of mods that require no skill or creativity. there is a place for these mods, but please, dont give them 5 stars.

its not about a big budget roto, i commend all the people that are making their own cases, who are using the materials they have avaialble. look at server-rama for an example. but then there are people who go to their local computer store, buy some fans, buy a fan controller, a few cathodes, maybe a can of paint here and there, come home, slap it all together in 3 hours flat, with nothing more than a screwdriver, and then bit-tech awards them 5 stars. come on.

Please, dont take it that nothing good comes out of here, that not true, some of the best mods in the world come out of here, but the readers are starting to give 5 stars to mods that are uncreative, and simple. please think of all the people who put 100's of hours into their creations, give them all the credit in the world, not the guy who buys everything premodded and screws it together.

 

Where are these so called 5 star premod bolt togethers anyway? I havent seen them.