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[USAFRet]

There has to be a line with regard to politics that isn’t crossed. A partisan argument by the supporters of the purple party and the supporters of yellow party serves no one, as such the mods are right to close such discussions. Reporting that a government has passed a bill/law that will have consequences that affect the tech field is valid.

There is a subset of members that just cannot resist crossing that line.

"Your guy sux! My guy would have done it right."
Whatever the article was actually about.

Every time.

 

[M0rtis]

Less Raspberry Pi news. Every 10th article is about some useless, ultra niche thing a Piemaker or whatever they are called "invented" that is of no use to anyone but themselves..

Are we really supposed to care about some guy who shoehorned a Raspberry Pi into a digital photo frame that shows him a new cactus picture exactly every 26 days and 11 hours ?

In general I would like to see the writing quality improve a bit. Im not sure how to put it but something about the formatting or writing style makes reading the articles a bit less engaging for lack of a better term.

Maybe have some more in-depth articles and guides

How about a series on switching from Windows to Linux and Mac to Linux since Windows is getting worse. Choose a distro and explain why you did so and stick to it. Beginners guide, software compatibility guide, productivity guide and gaming guide

 

[Zerk2012]

Unclear when and if we'll be able to roll it out and whether it becomes a premium feature

You put up a pay wall to see content or use tools and it will be the next step in the site going dead.

 

[usertests]

"We don't want politics!"
(Everyone rushes in with their comments before the comment section on clearly political articles is locked.)

Yeah, we love talking about it actually. Are you not entertained? Don't click on a story about tariffs, Musk, China, etc.

Less Raspberry Pi news. Every 10th article is about some useless, ultra niche thing a Piemaker or whatever they are called "invented" that is of no use to anyone but themselves..

Are we really supposed to care about some guy who shoehorned a Raspberry Pi into a digital photo frame that shows him a new cactus picture exactly every 26 days and 11 hours ?

I don't think they are going to remove Raspberry Pi and "Maker" type news if it gets a lot of clicks. Hard to measure it here, but I would compare it to SpaceX stories on Wccftech. Very few comments compared to the popular article of the moment, but they often appear in the Trending Stories box on the main page reflecting a high active reader count. If that's the case here, these stories are probably here to stay, luring in tourists from search engines, news aggregators, or wherever they are showing up from.

I don't notice these stories cluttering too much of the real estate on the Tom's Hardware main page. We aren't Hackaday just yet.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Chip manufacturing is tied into geo-politics these days. It is what it is.

True, like the fact that despite the protests against tariffs, TSMC just invested 165 Billion to manufacture chips in the US because of the tariffs that had been put in place. The weird thing is, it isn't being talked about much by either side, but it IS a substantial investment none the less.

 

[alrighty_then]

I wouldn't change anything. I come here for tech news and to be aware of deals, reviews, and whatever else pops up. I scan the headlines daily, and they're informing/entertaining me.

 

[flashflood101]

Why is your survey asking me for sensitive personal information, including about my finances?
Utterly inappropriate.

You are delusional if you think anyone is paying for a membership.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Why is your survey asking me for sensitive personal information, including about my finances?
Utterly inappropriate.

You are delusional if you think anyone is paying for a membership.

Thing is that for those questions you don't actually have to supply an answer other than "I decline to answer", which tells them nothing at all. And for those you may not be able to skip there's nothing preventing you giving bogus information.

 

[bluvg]

I totally sympathize with the dilemma of not wanting partisan political soapboxing, but it can feel a bit absurd to have an article about e.g. tariffs, with nothing specific about any particular technology, comments open, a discussion ensues about the impacts of tariffs, and then be told stay on topic and avoid politics. But... the topic of the article is tariffs.

As someone else put it, those articles feel like bait and the comments section like a trap. It has a stifling effect on what I see as one of the best parts of this site: the often informed, thoughtful commentary by some very informed peers. I think it's nearly impossible to have a substantive, 100% apolitical discussion when the very topic is political, so if it's zero tolerance for politics when 'politics' is not clearly defined, it would make more sense just to turn the comments off for these articles, though as @bit_user said, it would be regrettable.

In an attempt to offer a suggestion beyond something a la Stewart's "I know it when I see it" test, I would submit that policy as it affects technology is meaningful, relevant, and inextricable from technology as a subject, and announcements and orders of parties and politicians are likewise relevant and inextricable, but advocacy of parties and politicians is crossing the line.

 

[Mindstab Thrull]

My first recommendation? Get articles checked for spelling and grammar. Seriously. There's no reason why any website, let alone a site like Tom's, should have any sort of errors of this nature (barring translation errors, but I don't think that's what happens here most of the time).
Second... I don't know what happened but Aris did great for PSU reviews. The first few reviews I saw from the person taking over seemed... questionable in terms of quality. I'll be honest, I haven't looked much at the PSU reviews since then, so I don't know if they've improved or not. But a good review on something like a PSU needs to be thorough. Aris' reviews from a couple years ago are a good idea on where to start. And anyone, feel free to tell me if you think they've gotten better recently!
Third, with what's going on in the tech world these days, politics is going to happen. Personally I think of an article is bringing up politics (Trump trying to repeal the CHIPS Act, China, etc), people should be able to respond to it but only in that context. Saying "no politics" when an article specifically brings up politics seems wrong to me. I see three options: (a) no politically-charged articles, (b) no ability to respond to such articles, or (c) accept that people with political opinions will want to respond to them and as long as they're being reasonable, allow the discussion. I don't know what the answer to this is, tbh, but this is probably the biggest one TH faces right now regarding tech news.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

In addition, when referencing the president do not refer to him as simply "Trump". He is to be addressed as "President Trump", it doesn't matter whether you like him or not.

No thank you!

 

[SparklyIO]

For user interaction on articles... maybe rethink what that looks like instead of forum posts, perhpas you guide it more like this? https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/02/a...ts-section-and-asks-readers-to-debate-instead

 

[lolvatveo]

wish that comments on old posts would not be locked. Creating new threads would dilute the forum instead of continuing to focus on 1 or few thread so that all the discussion and solutions are in the fewest threads. Making many people search for solutions faster, this is the reason to abandon locking old discussions. Instead of just thinking that the thread is too old and there is no need to comment further because the OP will not need it anymore! Of course, maybe, but they may still need it after 1 year when they come back to the forum and someone replies with the method, AND others search on the search engine will save time to get the solution. Or someone continues the discussion without recreating the conversation

 

[stonecarver]

wish that comments on old posts would not be locked.

I also agree there is so many great solutions already hammered out and adding to an old thread only adds to a better understanding to the topic with a mountain of information verses snippets here and there.


Sometimes it feels like developing the wheel and instead of improving how it spins we start over and over again redeveloping the same wheel.


Looking for topics with Tom's search off the forum never finds what your looking for.

If you google that same inquiry you will get a link off google to the exact information your looking for but if someone posts to an older thread there post locks the thread and are told to make your own thread.

That I semi agree if a new posts to and old thread goes way off topic and lets take my wheel thread for example and it shifts to talking about trailer hitches, than yes a new thread should be required but if were still talking about wheels why lock the continued wealth of information the thread could amount to.

 

[Aeacus]

wish that comments on old posts would not be locked.

That's double-edged sword.

On once instance, i get what you're asking, having solution(s) all in one topic.

But on another instance, that makes single topic, pages long, with hundreds of replies and finding the actual solution in that topic is difficult, especially when people are constantly replying into it, thanking for solution or asking for a solution, since they didn't bother to browse through 10+ pages. That, and with long-running topics, keeping the discussion on-point, without derailing into off-topic, is very difficult.

There is no good solution for this problem. But i find that the current order of TH forums suffices. Whereby, when solution is found and topic marked as Solved, it is closed. And it is up to new person, either to find the said topic with the solution or making a new topic asking for same/similar solution.

Making many people search for solutions faster

Due to the nature of people, very few are actually searching the answer within forums, combing through hundreds of topics. Instead, when someone has an issue, they want it fixed ASAP and they make a new topic with their issue.

Open forum search, use asap keyword, check the Search titles only box and look how many topics you'll find.

 

[Fox Tread33]

I'll keep it simple. Drop all political content and disable comments on anything that may even hint at politics. This is a tech site, not a political commentary site. In addition, when referencing the president do not refer to him as simply "Trump". He is to be addressed as "President Trump", it doesn't matter whether you like him or not.

March 9, 2025 - Well said, and I totally agree with you. There are plenty of forums/comments sections that allow for political comments because of their content. Genre specific sites like Tom's should be used for the exchange of information, and Tech assistance. Stay well Sir.

 

[ILIKEPCs]

I have been a LONG time reader. I stopped reading Anandtech when I bought some of his reviewed products and realized he just repeated what the box said and mostly hid the glitches and went on to the next products like a paid reviewer. No fun buying a motherboard that doesn't work with rated RAM or BIOS needs to be flashed to accept recent CPUs. Tom's hardware was always better. I did happen to buy some parts to again assemble a PC but normally it isn't cost effective for years vs just buy one on sale.
I would keep some reviews of PC parts but mostly branch into the most popular tech and what comes to mind are tablets and cell phones and maybe some laptops. Routers and modems need more honest reviews on stability and real thoughput. I have bought all those and just this week tried to find good reviews and not just clickbait reading the specs. For example hands on with pictures and videos for cell phones was harder to find and worse if it isn't the flagship phone. I might throw in some other tech items a roborock floor cleaner or projection TV.
I feel just staying with a shrinking segment for PC builders will not allow a website to compete against social media. I wouldn't even care if all the reviews were not yours and you aggregated them like from the good TV reviewing sight RTings.

 

[ILIKEPCs]

EDIT: I haven't been on the forums for a very long time, mostly because of the 'lack of' things mentioned above. Things need to change - this site used to be teeming with super enthusiastic people and forum activity. Now, it has just become an alternative to using Google to get 1 answer and never be heard from again.

And I think this captures a my main thought about forums in general. Not even a damn thank you after your correctly solved their problem. I dropped off a few forums I actively helped others in for this reason and the amount of rudeness. To a lesser degree wrong answers. In talking with the much younger generation they go about things with this attitude. TicTok it or find the quickest most shallow answer to what you are researching. I've come to the conclusion dedicated websites might be an endangered species?

 

[Sohom]

Give me a job. I really need it.