Sign in or Register (it’s quick!)

Forgot?
Omega65
RIP EPoX
Omega65
2,894 Posts

THG is at it Again....

AMDMB Editorial: Online Media Morals


This weekend at the Million Man Lan 2 (MML2) this usual series of events was shifted due to manufacturer and media company coming to their own terms. It started when I was attempting to attend the MML2 event, in Louisville, KY. I was told by a representative of AMD that I was not going to be allowed to even enter the building because Tom’s Hardware (THG) had forced a media blackout for all other online press. That means that as a member of the press, I was not allowed to enter the building, take photos or write about the hardware events that would occur inside. Needless to say, I was not happy when I heard about this turn of events
.
.
.
While I won’t be able to pass a final judgment on the passing of these events until after tonight, when the AMD demonstration is set to go on at 10pm EST, the past two days have really soured my views of both AMD and THG.


Read about the whole sordid affair here
__________________ Asus P5N32-E SLI - C2Q Q6600
Asus P5N-T - C2Q Q9550
Asus P6T6 i7-930 (waiting for parts...)


Heatware: Omega65 167-0-0
Ebay: Omega365 130-0-0
seversphere
Slam Poet
seversphere
592 Posts
What was that AMD rep thinking - he might get a raise? Either he wants to play grabass with the THG rep friend of his or he's an Intel saboteur but probably just played too much grabass and wanted to be alone with the THG rep at the presentation so he could play some more grabass.
__________________ "Here I am, so typically, late to a hot thread."

Heatware
Shorty
Sniping teh enterpwise!
Shorty
9,678 Posts
Omega beat me to the punch. I got an email from Ryan when I woke up this morning.

It's disgusting. A really sad and sorry chain of events. THG just dig themselves deeper.
__________________ I am a twit... follow me... @s8nftw
DoM-aL
Banned
DoM-aL
136 Posts
Blah... disturbing... but hell maybe now thg will go amd biased and the intel fanboys wont have any benchmarks to show us.
mmonnin
Veteran Icrontian
mmonnin
10,545 Posts
Sounds to me like there was some money passed under the table by those two reps.
__________________ Stanford Team Stats_____________Team Short-Media
Statsman Team Stats______________EOC Team Stats
Shorty
Sniping teh enterpwise!
Shorty
9,678 Posts
Well.. it gets deeper.. the inquirer got a hold of it..

Small online guys squeezed by the not-so-jolly giants

Then.. they had a letter from Toms ...

No strongarming at LAN event, Tom's Hardware says .. which included this gem.

I find myself writing to you in response to some comments that were made on some AMD fanboy site, as referred to in a piece here. Why? Indigestion, headache, ennui, lack of caffeine - who knows. There really does not seem much sense having to deal with this sort of thing, although it has to be said that I am sick and tired of fanboy sites that do nothing but slam everyone for their own edification. Soapbox amateurs who just want to get a few rants up on a page, and paint themselves as gurus. What has it got to do with hardware and technology? Nothing. They're Tom wannabes, or Anand wannabes, or Kyle wannabes, or even Mike wannabes. I would hope they aspire to something greater, but the nature of society today dictates that we all have a grasp that exceeds our reach.

My sincere hope is that AMD finally realizes that their fanboy sites are what is going to ultimately put them out of the desktop business. If it was possible, I'd set up a tote and take bets on it.
Thrax
Cat Whisperer
Thrax
25,154 Posts
Tom Pabst über alles!

Zeig heil, Bundeslander Pabst!
__________________ Robert Hallock
Twitter | LinkedIn

CPU: Intel Core i7 920
MoBo: Asus P6T
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3-1600
VID: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
HSF: Thermalright Ultra-120

MediaMan
Driven by Socket 462754939940
MediaMan
2,691 Posts
The online seas heave once again with proverbial David meeting Goliath in a digital mudfest. A media blackout is not an incredulous occurence. The fact that a member of the press went to cover an event and then was denied that coverage is also not so hard to believe.

It happens.

Miscommunication, lack of communication and fickle minds sometimes make for bad feelings and broken poison pens. Could there be a situation of "strongarming"? AMDMB, and others on the side of the "online David" may see it that way but "Goliath" THG does not.

There exists the possibility that THG pre-promoted the event and provided "free" coverage in trade for a few favors. Rarely do any of us do a favor without expecting something in return. This is business and it happens in every business everywhere.

It is too easy to misread the AMDMB article thinking that AMD, the company, had an official response or was it AMD the field rep? As a word of caution my colleague at AMDMB, who may be rightly justified, should take a few minutes to let the blood stop boiling else he learn the legal terms libel and slander the hard way.

Now I am not taking up the side of THG. Quite simply I am utterly sickened by THG General Manager Omid Rahmat's careless use of such a wide sweeping brush that he paints "fanboy" sites with. As an official representative of a company the THG General Manager should take more care in choosing his words. His kneejerk response to AMDMB is childish and offensive to this writer of another so-called "fanboy" site.

The standard apology should be in order but it holds little substance for me when coming from GM's who react so foolishly. As a "wannabe" I shall redouble my efforts to storm the ivory towers that THG apparently feels so secure in.
a2jfreak
madasiemanym
a2jfreak
3,351 Posts
I think you said it fairly well, MM.

MediaMan said
The online seas heave once again with proverbial David meeting Goliath in a digital mudfest. A media blackout is not an incredulous occurence. The fact that a member of the press went to cover an event and then was denied that coverage is also not so hard to believe.

It happens.

Miscommunication, lack of communication and fickle minds sometimes make for bad feelings and broken poison pens. Could there be a situation of "strongarming"? AMDMB, and others on the side of the "online David" may see it that way but "Goliath" THG does not.

There exists the possibility that THG pre-promoted the event and provided "free" coverage in trade for a few favors. Rarely do any of us do a favor without expecting something in return. This is business and it happens in every business everywhere.

It is too easy to misread the AMDMB article thinking that AMD, the company, had an official response or was it AMD the field rep? As a word of caution my colleague at AMDMB, who may be rightly justified, should take a few minutes to let the blood stop boiling else he learn the legal terms libel and slander the hard way.

Now I am not taking up the side of THG. Quite simply I am utterly sickened by THG General Manager Omid Rahmat's careless use of such a wide sweeping brush that he paints "fanboy" sites with. As an official representative of a company the THG General Manager should take more care in choosing his words. His kneejerk response to AMDMB is childish and offensive to this writer of another so-called "fanboy" site.

The standard apology should be in order but it holds little substance for me when coming from GM's who react so foolishly. As a "wannabe" I shall redouble my efforts to storm the ivory towers that THG apparently feels so secure in.
Shorty
Sniping teh enterpwise!
Shorty
9,678 Posts
MediaMan said
Quite simply I am utterly sickened by THG General Manager Omid Rahmat's careless use of such a wide sweeping brush that he paints "fanboy" sites with. As an official representative of a company the THG General Manager should take more care in choosing his words. His kneejerk response to AMDMB is childish and offensive to this writer of another so-called "fanboy" site.

The standard apology should be in order but it holds little substance for me when coming from GM's who react so foolishly. As a "wannabe". I shall redouble my efforts to storm the ivory towers that THG apparently feels so secure in.
Couldn't have put it better myself

For all those who wanna keep it fresh and non-biased..

Get Published on Short-Media

Help us be the difference
Gargoyle
We can't stop here...
Gargoyle
4,843 Posts
THG Letter:
They're Tom wannabes, or Anand wannabes, or Kyle wannabes, or even Mike wannabes. I would hope they aspire to something greater, but the nature of society today dictates that we all have a grasp that exceeds our reach.
Sounds like a slightly more educated version of the trash talk I hear in Counter-Strike from 13 year olds.

He may think his site is superior to all, but what's important is what us readers think .
__________________
Asus P5K-E, Celeron E3200 @ 3400, ATI 5770 GPU2
ASRock 939Dual, Opteron 165 @ 2475, 8800GTS
Laptop: Dell 1520, C2D @ 2000, 8600M GT
Icrontic_11: Asus A7N8X, Barton @ 2210 (decomissioned)
TekGamer
I used to be an xXUSERXx
TekGamer
102 Posts
I wonder if Tom relizes that no one likes him and only noobs read his site..

Im also pretty sure that Anand and HardOCP where kinda tweaked about Tom casting himself with them. As I recall Kyle hates Tom and Tom used to bad mouth him..

Tek
__________________ Torn between the light and the dark side of the force....
Thrax
Cat Whisperer
Thrax
25,154 Posts
You are indeed right about Kyle and Tom, Tek.
GHoosdum
tequilavangelist
GHoosdum
10,638 Posts
Does anyone know whether THG's clear Intel bias is due to a little "corporate sponsorship," false belief in the MHz myth, or what?

I'm fairly sickened by this behavior at MML2, as well as the response letter from THG. I'm kind of glad I didn't go to this LANWAR... and I find myself wondering why THG really wants to cover such an AMD-friendly event as LANWAR?
__________________ Is it true it's always happy hour here?
If it is I'd like to stay a while...
hitokiri
Resident Ninja Poster.
hitokiri
143 Posts
Wow, I always thought that there was something weird about the benchmarks at THG.
When Icrontic went down I used to go to THG for news and NewEgg has the reviews from THG on their site, so I thought it might be credible.

Well now... Anyone have any good, non-biased Tech sites that I can trust? I know about SM and Icrontic, addaboy is cool too, but are there any other sites you guys visit?
GHoosdum
tequilavangelist
GHoosdum
10,638 Posts
The [H] has a clear intel bias, but I only visit that site for the [H]ot Deals forum...

Amdmb.com is great for tech stuff. Takes the AMD slant, of course, but that's fine with me!
TheBaron
Veteran Icrontian
TheBaron
2,784 Posts
the [H] may have a clear intel bias, but they seem to be much less biased than before. if you compare benches from [H] and anand, they usually show exactly the same thing. you throw in THG reviews and you might think intel has some sort of allpowerful commanding lead
WuGgaRoO
Rat Catcher
WuGgaRoO
2,354 Posts
*mumbles uncontrollably and curses* i swear to god...how are "fanboy" sites going to ut AMD out of business....if anything...we are the backbone of their distrubition....AMD doesnt have commercials on TV and such...and its not even offered in DELL nor gateway (im guessing on gateway)... these "fanboy" sites are the ones who give out the msg to everyone showing how AMD is good...and besides...its ppl like THG that makes ppl not like intel...
__________________
sig compliments of Dogsoldier due to most people's retinas burning
Now with No Smoke Technology!

[url="http://club.ign.com/b/list/custom?&lid=100018&owner=WuGgaRoO&mode=vown[/URL]
GHoosdum
tequilavangelist
GHoosdum
10,638 Posts
WuGgaRoO said
and its not even offered in DELL nor gateway
That's why when I bought my lappy I got a Compaq... I think HP and Compaq are the only ones that offer AMDs in their notebook PCs... I got an XP 2200+ in my notebook. It's niiiice. A lot nicer than a 2.2GHz celery (which cost more!) anyway.
a2jfreak
madasiemanym
a2jfreak
3,351 Posts
AnandTech - http://www.anandtech.com/
SharkyExtreme - http://www.sharkyextreme.com/

Sharky may have a bias, as I have not been a frequent visitor to Sharky in a while, but they used to be pretty good.

AnandTech is my favorite review site.

hitokiri said
Wow, I always thought that there was something weird about the benchmarks at THG.
When Icrontic went down I used to go to THG for news and NewEgg has the reviews from THG on their site, so I thought it might be credible.

Well now... Anyone have any good, non-biased Tech sites that I can trust? I know about SM and Icrontic, addaboy is cool too, but are there any other sites you guys visit?
hitokiri
Resident Ninja Poster.
hitokiri
143 Posts
cool, Ive been to Anandtech and ipKonfig before. I should visit AT more hehe. Thanks
croc_
AMD and ATI for life.
croc_
1,145 Posts
can't we all just get along. :P
__________________ Laptop:
HP DM3-1035DX
Desktop:
Phenom II X4 955 BE @ 3.7GHz (1.5v) • M4A79T-DLX • Corsair H50
4x 2GB Mushkin 996601 @ 1333 7-7-7-18 1T • ATI 5870 1GB
Two OCZ Vertex 30GB Raid 0 SSD • Two WD GP 1TB • BFG 1KW PSU
MediaMan
Driven by Socket 462754939940
MediaMan
2,691 Posts
I know se7ven from Ipkonfig personally. He is a really cool guy. What he knows...he knows extremely well.
a2jfreak
madasiemanym
a2jfreak
3,351 Posts
I know 6ix, and 5ive too. =)

Seriously though, I've been to IPKonfig before but never became a regular so I didn't even think about it, but even if I had I wouldn't have listed it because I didn't know if it is or used to be unbiased.

I guess I'll start checking it out more often now

MediaMan said
I know se7ven from Ipkonfig personally. He is a really cool guy. What he knows...he knows extremely well.
Go Back   Icrontic Forums > Content > Tech Articles
Jump to
This Thread Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Current time: 3:35am (GMT)
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2010, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Get Vanilla Forums instead. Trust me.