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Hardware The Path of Progress: Tracking the evolution of AMD’s graphics cards

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by brumgrunt, 6 Sep 2012.

  1. HarryBizzle

    HarryBizzle What's a Dremel?

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    Had to dig out my forum password to comment on this.

    1. Reading that article was genuinely a little embarrassing. I wouldn't want to have my name in the by line of something like that. Forgetting any kinds of accusations of bias or whatever, if this level of writing is set to become more prevalent on bit-tech, I can see myself drifting away from the site.

    2. To the people who are saying "bit-tech is free, they need to make money," the flipside is that there are loads of other free websites who would not do something like this, and they're free too. I can got to HardOCP, AnandTech, etc and I know how strongly they feel about things like this. Ultimately you're only going to harm yourselves in the long run if people see this stuff and decide to stop reading.

    3. What do the writers at bit-tech see themselves as? I would hope that on some level, they see themselves as journalists. Having any sort of dependence on, or conflict of interest with a company you report on is unacceptable, whether the puff piece they would have you write is "relevant" or not.

    4. Reviewers are accused of bias all the time. A relationship like this is not going to make things any easier on you, and will always throw up flags in the minds of people reading bit-tech.


    Just seems like a bad idea, anyway I look at it (unless they're paying you guys a lot more than I would have thought).
     
  2. Ciber

    Ciber Minimodder

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    I saw similar in there when I was a subscriber but I cancelled that years ago.
     
  3. thebinh

    thebinh What's a Dremel?

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    Separation bit-tech, whatever happened to the advertising staying well away from editorial? Doesn't the what?
     
  4. dogknees

    dogknees Minimodder

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    >>To be honest, I come from a magazine background, where it's not uncommon to put together labelled sponsored features of this ilk.

    But this is not a magazine. Traditional publishing practice is pretty much irrelevant.

    I accept that you made an error in the way you posted it. Can you assure us that you now have a detailed checklist to follow for EVERY article you post, so that it won't happen again?

    It just seems that these errors are getting made far too often. A lot of articles/ads are posted without the acknowledgement that they are ads and are only corrected after the complaints come in.

    If it was the occasional one, maybe one in 50-100, it would be more believable. If I made this many "mistakes" at work, I'd be sacked!
     
  5. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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    You're going to have to help me here, I'm afraid. When have I, or the editorial team, done this before?
     
  6. alex101

    alex101 Geek

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    HAHA! The "bit-tech has hit rock bottom...sold it's soul...biased reviews..." people have come out from under their rocks.

    I disagree entirely. As long as any sponsored article has it stated at the beginning I have no problem with it.

    As Simon said, this type of advertising is relevant to the readers. People will moan whatever advertising there is.

    Good work BT staff.
     
  7. xxxsonic1971

    xxxsonic1971 W.O.T xxxsonic1971

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    Amd must have bought the beer this week!
     
  8. Jhodas

    Jhodas Theorist

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    Mistakes are fine. People make them, if they didn't the world would be a very boring place. And I appreciate bit-tech has bills.
    My issue with this piece is the fact that bit-tech/CustomPC have never had an issue standing apart from the 'herd'.

    One of the finest moments was giving Modern Warfare 3 the panning I think it deserved when pretty much every other publication was dribbling over it.

    Reading this article, I was expecting something similar to The Hardware Hall of Fame. I, like many other bit-tech readers am interested in things like cache, pipeline architecture, voltages, temperature, power draw and fan noise.

    Instead, we get
    What does that even mean? Here's an idea: take out some of the more sycophantic phrases like

    Add some colourful block diagrams like the one we saw of Fermi (still want that as a poster), add a timeline charting the increase in shader numbers or clock speed or the reduction in core voltage. Give us some numbers bit-tech, or you may end up paying the highest price of all.
     
  9. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    I'm far more bemused by some of the knee-jerk, and frankly idiotic, responses than I ever would be at a sponsored article.

    Bailing out of this thread - can't take any more idiocy.
     
    Shirty likes this.
  10. GrahamC

    GrahamC What's a Dremel?

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    Bit-tec makes money by sell advertising because of the readership it has built up over the years. I would say that that readership does not want advertising encroaching into the main editorial space which is what was done here. An advert took the place of an editorial (labeled or not) which IMO was selling Bit-tec readership short. Keep adverts in the place they should be, that is on the sidelines not on the pitch. Piss an advertiser off they grumble, piss your readership off and ALL your advertisers leave. Bit-tec you poured gravy on your pudding, you can still eat it but it leaves a bad taste.
     
  11. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    +1

    It's like people can't get their heads around the difference between editorial and advertising. They are completely separate things. Frankly the format is irrelevant unless it's intrusive, which this clearly isn't.

    Like Spreadie, I'm out. Good luck staff, I think by the time this comments thread closes you'll be feeling a lot like this:

    :sigh::miffed::wallbash::grr::duh:
     
  12. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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    What editorial piece did it take the place of exactly? There was a review, news and a board game blog up yesterday. The sponsored feature was extra, on top of that.

    Simon
     
  13. GrahamC

    GrahamC What's a Dremel?

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    I can tell when it's an advert or editorial (labeled or not) but it was for me intrusive. Adverts have their place, let it slip and soon every other link will be an advert, been reading for 5 mins ... auto load an advert. We don't visit Bit-tec because of the adverts. It pissed me off no end that an avert was in the editorial space.
     
  14. GrahamC

    GrahamC What's a Dremel?

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    How would I know what it took the place of (how about a proper look at the history of AMD) The editorial space was used for an advert.
     
  15. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    That should be enough for any reader to presume a certain level of bias and focus on AMD rather than any of their competition.

    You don't then have to read it and complain about what should be patently obvious at the outset. Sites and magazines have to have a money stream and as it's more the exception than the rule I can't see why people are getting their knickers in a twist.

    Nothing to see here, move along people.
     
  16. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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    In print, I'd accept that argument. But on a website, one sponsored feature doesn't take room in the same way? It doesn't stop us putting anyone else up, whereas in print, we wouldn't be able to?

    Anyway, to be absolutely clear: it didn't take the place of anything. There was no editorial piece that was removed, or did not run, because of one sponsored feature.

    Simon
     
  17. brumgrunt

    brumgrunt What's a Dremel?

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    Made me chuckle, appreciate that! I've no problem with people having their say, though.
     
    Zurechial likes this.
  18. Ciber

    Ciber Minimodder

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    Idiotic advertorials deserve this sort of thread.
     
  19. B3CK

    B3CK Minimodder

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    My biggest disappointment is the lack of technical specs, facts to go along with the story. If I wanted to read this, I would buy a magazine. BT is supposed to be more in-depth; provide technical data to support or define the piece. A lot of that changed with Dennis, but give/take is part of life.
    If future articles are indeed planned, then make them for more tech savvy audience, (if not tech super advanced), that we the audience are.
    I don't mind the one sided story. I don't mind the fluff ourselves up mentality of the article. What I do mind is the lack of detail. The generality of it all. Lack of comparison to the compition is ok, it is by company X, for company X. But BT is not the audience to tell that the sky is blue, without explaining why the sky is blue and how it interacts with the land, sea, and the performance gains that can be used to make it a lighter shade of blue, or darker. How it has been tweaked or used in the in the real world, not just on paper.

    I think I miss the highly detailed reviews, and am concerned that future of my favorite website is slipping little by little into a generic pc magazine role.
     
  20. m0ngy

    m0ngy What's a Dremel?

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    What a shameless and obvious grab at advertising revenue. Very ugly indeed, while the purile justification of essential revenue raising serves to demonstrate the lack of discerning readership increasingly subscribing to BT.

    It was only after Parge identified this POS advertorial as pure marketing, that BT decided they should actually clearly identify it as such.

    So, they got busted trying to pass it off as a editorial piece; it shares the same space, context, and exact same format as any other editorial piece. Absolutely SHAMELESS!

    Your readership loves that they can come here and get honest, sometimes borderline subversive reviews, but incidents like this savagely undermine your credibility. Don't listen to the fanboi "yes" men when they tell you it's all good, it ain't acceptable. Previously there were full screen marketing questionnaires exploding all over the BT site, so obnoxious, poorly constructed, difficult to navigate, and impossible to get rid of, that I thought they must be malware. I'd never seen anything like it, not even on a porn site. In fact, they were part of BT's advertising strategy, and obviously consented to by BT's marketing dept. and editor. I'd suggest that anyone stupid enough to willingly subject readers to such invasive and annoying advertising would not think twice about trying to pass off this AMD advertorial as a real opinion piece.
     
    Last edited: 7 Sep 2012
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