oooh reflecty

Come April, AnandTech will have been up and running for a full 7 years. Exactly 1/3 of my life has been spent running AT and considering that the remaining 2/3 were spent learning to read and write, I can say that this site has been my life. I'm in a reflecting mood right now so I'm going to do just that, with a little bit of sharing.

I started AT the summer of my Freshman year in highschool, I was 14 at the time and really had no idea of what this would turn into. I remember thinking that I really just wanted to be able to have a community to talk tech with, to be able to say "Good Morning" to be able to just have fun with. Seven years later, I do believe that dream was realized. Although it's tough to keep a personal connection to 4 million individuals, through things like this blog, your comments and your emails (not to mention the Forums), I think the personal connection is definitely there - at least in my eyes. I read all the threads although I don't post much and I get some of the best entertainment from the Off Topic Forum, so do a lot of my friends, it's great.

The community has definitely grown since my early days in '97; there are many more hardware sites around, a very good thing overall. As readers the community has grown to be much more aware of what goes on in the industry and I think overall has positively influenced the direction of our industry. Companies like AMD and Intel that would never pay attention to an online community in the past now give me a call whenever they read something of interest appears on the site. NVIDIA calls me up and asks for suggestions to make their control panels more user friendly - from the perspective of the AnandTech reader. ATI will put things together like the famed Valve event to showcase up and coming technology, primarily directed at this audience - at you - at the AnandTech reader. It's amazing how incredibly large everything has gotten.

Most of the newer hardware sites around today learned from all of our mistakes in the past and are a lot smarter about how to run things, but at the same time so are the manufacturers.

The quickest way for a manufacturer to get press is through the web, but it is also a manufacturer's biggest nightmare. Nothing scares these manufacturers more than JoeRandomTech.com opening up, gaining virtually instantaneous readership, and slamming their product (either with valid complaints or, even worse, a misinformed opinion). So a lot of manufacturers will do whatever it takes to be the "nice guy" and establish good working relationships with most websites. I stopped selling ads on AnandTech years ago because of this; it's too easy for a manufacturer to put pressure on a site if you are dealing with them on all fronts, editorial and sales. I contract all of our sales out to a third party company which has no influence on any AnandTech staff member (and vice versa). Advertising is actually the least of the problems with the community; for the most part, advertising is handled (today at least) on the up and up. It's the politics that you've got to worry about...

Manufacturers quickly learned that reviews couldn't be bought; there's too much potential for someone to spill the beans and then you get bad press for the manufacturer if they keep their ad contracts and even more bad press if they lose them. To a journalist money isn't a primary concern, an exclusive however is. The promise of "exclusivity" is often times the bargaining chip that's used to get a favorable look at things. If exclusivity doesn't get you, then it's other things like parties, drinks or the worst - review samples.

Now the parties and the beer I could care less about, I don't drink and thus me and "conventional" parties don't mix. In the past, a manufacturer pulling review samples was an issue (and believe me, it's happened to me countless times) but now we can either go out and buy the stuff or get it from other sources.

I'm not here to chastise all manufacturers, in fact the ones I'm talking about are most likely not the ones that come to mind when you think about the issue. I started out reading tech publications and websites, that's what brought me here. I figure the next generation of writers in this industry are also going to be coming from the same sort of background, and on the off chance that one of them happens to be reading here right now I figured I would pass on what I can.

My message to the manufacturers? The same as it has always been. Don't wine and dine us, it's not necessary. You don't want anyone who responds positively only after receiving that sort of treatment reviewing your products to begin with, if someone can be bought that easily it's just as easy to pull their loyalties elsewhere.

My message to the readers? I don't think I've ever read a conspiracy theory about the politics in this community that has been right. It's usually the exact opposite that's true, and although it's hard (and not as fun) to believe - it ends up being true most of the time. My perspective on the matter is this: anyone with a conscience wouldn't sell out their readers for any amount of money, product, good treatment, etc... I look at it this way, if 4 million readers are coming to AT every month they are coming here with money in hand, wanting to upgrade and wanting guidance - take the average cost of a hardware upgrade, multiply it by 4 million people and you've got a number that's way too high to betray regardless of what the stakes are.

My Dad came to this country with $26 in his pocket with borrowed luggage, a loaned plane ticket and a scholarship. His story has been my driving inspiration ever since I heard it. There are always ways to get ahead in life and I'm not one for taking the easy route. It's not something I advocate openly or behind the scenes at AnandTech, and just something that I wanted to keep out in the open.

I'm off to class, I'll make a Macdate later tonight. Have a great day everyone.