RIP Anandtech

[Lord Evermore]

The end of a site that has a lot of history, but AnandTech hasn't been much more than generic tech coverage for at least a decade, probably more but I can't remember exactly when I stopped going regularly. A while after Anand sold it off it just became another site in the owner's catalog (and I don't know who has owned it over the years, if it changed hands again), expected to follow the same rules and requirements and meet the same expectations that all their other sites did, aimed to cover as wide a demographic as possible, eventually with the cheapest freelancer articles possible that could have appeared on any other site. Before that, it was PC hardware enthusiast-run, targeted at enthusiasts, with dedicated writers and editors looking to provide something that wasn't available elsewhere and doing it because they believed in it. It's been at least ten years since I went there for anything other than "I'm bored and just looking for some tech to read about", and since it was much more than yet another review of yet another power supply or mobile phone or USB flash drive with coverage that wasn't really anything I couldn't get elsewhere but sometimes had a particular product I hadn't seen anywhere else.

The AT forums were also at one time where I spent an inordinate amount of my free time. Then life happened and I got pulled away and the site changed and the type of user on it changed and I never went back.

Add it to the list of amazing sites that sold out and declined, along with The Tech Report.

Ars Technica of course is also just another site in the owner's catalog, but has managed to stay relevant and useful and isn't just a review site, and hasn't needed to adhere to the generic requirements of the conglomerate or end up looking and behaving like everyone else.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I don't think it's fair to say that sites "sell out"

I don't mean just moving on and selling the site, which could be done by passing it to like-minded people. I mean selling it to a big conglomerate that is going to be concerned about nothing but profit, will change the site completely and get rid of the staff for cheaper people, no guarantees in the contract about maintaining it in a certain way, keeping at least the heart of it (like Ars), etc. Just take the biggest wad of cash that can be solicited and never look back. The new owners just assimilate and it becomes no different from other sites, purchased only for the name and existing audience and then executives (as always) think they can change it completely and that audience won't leave. Obviously a new audience can come in, and when they redesign it to appeal to a broader group it can continue to be successful, but it's not the same site, and it's just mass entertainment rather than art.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'm a refugee from TechReport. :-( Anandtech and Toms were always unreadable. IMO.

Well, I was reading Ars when TR "forked" off IIRC, and here I am still. Nearly the last site standing.

Anandtech wasn't ALWAYS unreadable...