I remember c|net as a standard-bearer of tech journalism back in the 1990s. Theirs was one of the few bookmarks I opened regularly to read about tech news.
Red Ventures has destroyed its reputation, along with all their other properties’ like ZDNet (the other fantastic tech news site). RV’s decisive pivot to AI is likely fatal; they will accelerate the descent of all their outlets into a content swill mill fit only for your blocklist.
@zaivala Slashdot is too nerdy, IMO. c|net is like Popular Science but for tech news. It may be light reading for people deep in the bowels of tech, but it democratized consumer technology to casual readers.
@drahardja To me, C|net was already a bad actor when they were bought by CBS and ruined download com and many other sites. Basically a content farm since 2008.
@uliwitness@drahardja It’s interesting that it’s now hard to find information about Declan from when he was CMU Student Body President, whether the allegations about domestic violence or embezzling student activity funds.
“CNET's impact on the early internet and other important trends cannot be understated. Even from its beginnings with Download.com as a trustworthy place to download legitimate freeware and shareware, CNET has been a rock. Now with terribly-written AI-generated articles, layoffs, and removing of content, I don't even know what to think. (1/2)
@Aaron It’s really sad. c|net (I’m gonna keep using their original branding) and ZDNet occupied a niche that has not been replicated since: bite-sized, product-focused reporting on tech that is timely, consumer-focused, and trustworthy. The stuff they did has now been taken over by various more focused sites (Ars, Wired (though they’ve always been a weird presence), Tom’s HW, various niche tech blogs like 9to5Mac…) but I don’t think there’s a single place you can go to for this sort of general tech journalism any more. Add to that the generally good quality of download dot com (RIP Tucows), and well…
I thought c|net was the evolution of general tech mags like PCMagazine and Byte. Sad to see it turn into a garbage-filled wasteland.
@drahardja I think you’re right. And older internet folk like us know how far it has fallen. They were so good especially in the 90s and early 2000s. They even had shows on msnbc!!
And it’s a shell of its former self. Really really sad.
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