And it's with this that I say, goodbye PCWorld

[Pretender]

Farewell PCWorld...your time is up.

When I first subscribed to thee, your information seemed limitless. You were my main source for up-to-date computer knowledge. I learned many a thing from you, and your articles were very informative. Last December, you were my best and only source for knowledge.

Then, one day, March 14, around 5 PM, I found Anandtech. It was disguised innocently, found it when a friend told me about something called an I-opener, and the hot deals forum. I quickly found the other two forums which exist, Off Topic and General Hardware. That, was the beginning of the end.

I then began noticing, how should I put it, flaws, in PCWorld. Little things, but things nonetheless. It was my most recent, and last issue, however, which has settled things. A review of the new AOL 6.0, being mentioned on the cover as having "better mail, and useful new features". A news article almost a month old about the shutdown bug w/fast computers (November 10th on anandtech), oversimplified articles and reviews, and either faulty or skewed information. I'd really like to know how Geforce2 MX boards got 1st, 3rd, and 4th places on the top 10 graphics boards. "Overall rating is based on performance (42.5%) .... price (20%)". BS.

However, I think the deciding moment for me was seeing the cheezy Rambus ad on page 235.

I'm glad this subscription is over. Begone, vile PC World.

 

[SSP]

Ehh... welcome to the Club??? hmm... I stopped reading computer magazines 2 years ago. Oh well...

 

[Adul]

Welcome to the club, I just about given up on any PC based magazines out there.

 

[zippy]

Almost exactly the same thing for me, only I found anandtech a long time before you!

Heh, you found anandtech on my birthday!

 

[Passions]

same for maximumpc, they all owned and intel's biacth!

 

[Valhalla1]

I still subscribe to maximum pc. but I may stop after this year.

 

[Bulbasaur]

PCWorld's peripheral reviews were lacking in detail as well as accuracy. However, their Consumer Watch section is pretty good. I still believe magazines serve a purpose in that they help people who might have gotten a raw deal, and don't know the legal recourses available to them.

 

[pac1085]

Same here. I got the letter from PCWorld in the mail today asking to renew my subscription...now that I have AnandTech and other places online, I get the magazine, skim thru it and chuck it somewhere...Its goodbye PCWorld for me too...:frown:

 

[JellyBaby]

There comes a time when your favorite mag lets you down. Basically, you begin to notice BS, opinionated reviews, slants, ad sections designed to mimick a real mag review, etc. I've dropped all my PC magazine subscriptions except for...PC Magazine. Don't get me wrong I still feel it has problems: like most Ziffies, they love Rambus, anything Intel is Good, anything from a tier-one vendor who has ads in our mag is Good, etc. But since becoming aware of this bias, it's easy to spot it and take with a grain of salt. I also keep PC Mag around because it's good Throne Room reading material (bathroom is not Connected yet).

As for PC World, I find value in a lot of their online content (printer, monitor reviews for example).

 

[DefRef]

I've stopped or am letting run out almost all of my PC mag subs because most of them have the exact same content on their web sites. The Hints are cool, but I can search for those on the sites. I don't need all the useless paper stacked up when I just need a few bits of info.

MaxPC is on the bubble right now. The content is getting thinner and thinner and their reviews are starting to get useless. I'm even switching to non-CD versions of game mags, cuz I usually have the games demos DLed from the cable the day they hit and have disposed of them bythe time the hard copy has arrived.

 

[Rastus]

Since the internet came about, I have let all magazine subscriptions go. Why pay to read old news?

 

[JellyBaby]

Like I said some of us still perfer print form for one reason or another. I like a paper rag in the Throne Room for instance.

Yeah sometimes you outgrow the mag but more often the mag simple devolves and you're forced to dump it. I was so sad to see Computer Gaming World turn into the ad-filled hype-machine it is today. Oh well, plenty of good gaming sites on the web.

 

[zogar]

i get gaming mags... but they were free

 

[apoppin]

I said goodbye to PCWorld awhile ago.

When my subscription runs out on MaximumPC (my last hope for a quality PC mag). I will not renew. My disinchantment began with their ridiculous "Dream Machine" article.

No loss.

 

[Pretender]

I'm still gonna keep PC Gamer because it's kinda funny, less biased, and has "The Vede" who is usually good to laugh at. Besides, I get bored at looking up gaming info online, I'd rather wait a week or 2 and get the print (and ignore all the outdated computer hardware information they give also) for something to read on the subway.

 

[wjones]

I got 1 year free PCWorld thanks to MSN passport
I subscribed to PC Mag last year and it suppose to be ended this year summer. But I still receive every issue of PC Mag (Nope, they never charged my credit card). I guess I'm just lucky or this happen to most of you?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Vote me for another letting all the subscriptions expire. I think PCMag might be the last one now, maybe a couple more issues.

Computer magazines by the very nature of print media CANNOT be up to date. Articles have to be submitted weeks in advance (a month or more, often) of the time it's expected to be printed. It has to be written, proofread, re-written, positioned in the layout, etc., and then they have to be shipped out to the people with subscriptions before it hits the stands. So if you have a subscription, you're getting the old news actually a bit sooner than the people buying it at a store.

So by the time the magazine gets to you, the information is almost certainly more than 2 weeks old, and probably at least a month old. By the time it hits the newsstands it's another couple of weeks old, and remember that those things SIT on the newsstand for a month before the next issue, so someone could buy it just before the next issue, which means it's another month old. We're now hitting nearly 3 month old information.

For people that follow computer news closely, that's just not good enough. Plus, getting a once a month batch of information is not good enough for us, when we can have a steady stream of it, with many more details and in-depth information, throughout that month that magazine readers are waiting.

Add to that the fact that most of the people writing the articles do NOT spend nearly as much time as we do following computer or tech news, and they don't get as nearly in-depth in the information as we like. Many of them just give out plain WRONG information, most give out at least somewhat misleading information occasionally, very few ever write a totally accurate article.

Magazines are okay for people that just want to keep up with 'everybody else', namely people that are also reading magazines. People like us are still a minority, though we may be a large minority when it comes to the number of people using computers, not just the general population. Reading a magazine once a month can catch you up on the biggest stuff that's going on, giving you a wide-angle view of things. However it can't give you any deep down information. You do also have to deal with the bias of the writers. They're writing for people that get their information from magazines, and they know it. (I just love seeing things like "The readers of PC Magazine are of course a bit more knowledgeable than general users, but...&quot They have to write based on the "home user's" perspective, someone that wants to feel like they've got a really nice system but doesn't want to pay out the nose for it (hence an MX video card gets better ratings than a more expensive but better performing G2 Ultra), and who want to feel like they've got the 'inside scoop' or that they know more about computers than their friend that just uses the one at work and that's it.

I've had several subscriptions over the years. I let them all lapse once, then got more when my girlfriend's brother was selling them for his school, and again I'm letting them lapse. They simply are not worth the money. About the only thing I read them for now is the humor page at the back. Usually I glance through the 'new products' section, occasionally the 'How To' sections, and breeze through the less boring articles. The magazine is usually in the trash before the end of the night, and at most by the next evening.

I have to say that the new focus on 'Business to Business' garbage is the most annoying part of PCMag, PCWorld, etc, the 'consumer' magazines, not like gaming specific mags. Not everybody is running their own business, and any company that bases their network design and implementation on the recommendations of a magazine write is just going to fail from day one.

 

[DefRef]

apoppin: True dat on the "Dream Machine". C'mon...TWO Plextor burners, jsut because? Riiiiight.

 

[JellyBaby]

Don't count on fast, free hardware and software sites forever. At least not if the Big Suits have their sneaky way. Mergers and acquistions will continue under the guise of providing better content (e.g. meld between CNet and ZDNet..AOHell too) but what they're looking to do is control content. Once content is control they can *surprise* begin to charge for it again.

Hopefully this won't happen as small but popular sites like this one continue to flourish.

 

[Pretender]

That summed up my feelings and thoughts into a nice concise description Evermore. I just felt like giving the "disgruntled rant" point of view

 

[slunk]

I'm currently on MaximumPC's subscription list, but that will change when my subscription is over with.

 

[thebestMAX]

I agree. If we wanted business news and uses, we would buy those type of mags. Will not renew PCWorld and may even cancel before it expires.

MaximumPC has been great until just lately. Hope they can hang on, my fave.

Still like paper, easier to read and take to bed. (along with other things )

 

[Gatsby]

Ohhh how you were so good when I knew nothing about the world.

Ohh how you taught me what I should have known.

Ohh how old those articles you have are.

Gatsby - 48

 

[DataFly]

I too let my PCWorld subscription run out.

About a month before it did, I got a phone call from them asking if I wanted to renew my subscription. I said no, and the guy started spewing all of these outrageous deals at me even after I said no. Each successive deal got better, all the way down to $8 or so, but I was strong and resisted the Dark Side. The lesson? Keep saying "no" until the guy is about to hang up and take the best deal they offered you.

 

[SenorBiggles]

PC World bites. I signed up for a free issue, they sent me three issues, and started demanding money from me. I figured the letter that asks if you want to keep receiving the magazine got lost, so I would ignore their requests for money. Then they went to a collection agency. For $20?!? WTF? I paid the collection agency, but now I have a special hatred for PC World.