The one year & one month anniversary

[Output]

I do enjoy Linus Tech Tips and Level1 Techs as well, both of which I'm subscribed to on Floatplane (if anyone hadn't heard of it, it's LTT's sister company which is like Patreon but with its own video and live-streaming backend), with the former being more for entertainment purposes than specifically news or knowledge, even if both can be gained from it (especially via the WAN Show).

Any usage of Ars Technica or The Register is more of an occasional than a must-check (the latter is especially less frequent, more of a remembering that it exists). It's possible I might increase usage of Ars at some point though.

[neonplanet40]

Another vote for "I read 386 but without a forum, it isn't home".

I also tend to use youtube, etc., but haven't found a new forum home. shame

[Saracen999]

.... with the former being more for entertainment purposes than specifically news or knowledge ....

Agreed, but that's probably the major component of why I watch it.
It can be irritating too, and I don't agree with all Linus' 'takes', but mostly, I do. And there's a degree of ... dunno quite how to put it, .... 'perspective' from him, too. A bit of a peek behind the curtain, at times. Not too much, there are NDAs after all, but there are some interesting ... insights. That's probably the best word.

Also, they dig into things that, these days, would whoosh right over my head, industry wise. It's nostalgic, too.

[cptwhite_uk]

While I like all the listed tech channels, thought it might be worth mentioning some smaller tech youtubers

Mike's Unboxing, Reviews How-To's
Hold's a weekly live stream at 8pm on Saturdays, nice little group of 60-90 viewers, many regulars, it's UK based, and has a nice little community feel about it.

UFD Tech
Brett has a good sense of humour, he seems a little crazy, but holds daily tech new updates, can be funny, and news is presented with great enthusiasm. He's kid is seriously ill and he often fundraises for his care.

Dawid Does Tech Stuff
You've probably seen him on Youtube recommendations, something initially put me off him, but I've grown to love his channel. Always light hearted, with tons of adult humour, he's a fun tech entertainment channel.

[Output]

Agreed, but that's probably the major component of why I watch it.

Yep, that's exactly what I was trying to say with my mention of it, rather than it being a description of the channel in general (even if it obviously does double as that).

It can be irritating too, and I don't agree with all Linus' 'takes', but mostly, I do. And there's a degree of ... dunno quite how to put it, .... 'perspective' from him, too. A bit of a peek behind the curtain, at times. Not too much, there are NDAs after all, but there are some interesting ... insights. That's probably the best word.

Also, they dig into things that, these days, would whoosh right over my head, industry wise. It's nostalgic, too.

It is nice to get that peek and those insights.

And with the Labs, it's clear that LTT is aiming to be as useful to viewers as possible.

It's still a business and as such it has to be profitable of course, but from what has been said by Linus on screen, it's clear that there are still ethics and a desire for quality underpinning it all.

Obviously Linus would be the first to say not to think that we know him (he said so on the latest WAN Show in fact), as we obviously only see him on screen, but I'd like to think that what LTT is putting together as a whole and how it has acted to date, certainly seems to agree that there are good intentions.

[Saracen999]

Yep, that's exactly what I was trying to say with my mention of it, rather than it being a description of the channel in general (even if it obviously does double as that).



It is nice to get that peek and those insights.

And with the Labs, it's clear that LTT is aiming to be as useful to viewers as possible.

It's still a business and as such it has to be profitable of course, but from what has been said by Linus on screen, it's clear that there are still ethics and a desire for quality underpinning it all.

Obviously Linus would be the first to say not to think that we know him (he said so on the latest WAN Show in fact), as we obviously only see him on screen, but I'd like to think that what LTT is putting together as a whole and how it has acted to date, certainly seems to agree that there are good intentions.

Yup, saw the "don't know him" comment and, clearly, he's right. But also, in a sense, we kinda do, due to the amount of screen time he puts in, but also the wife, house and even kids. And the amount of things, some of a highly ersonal nature, he dscusses.

Still, he's right, we don't know him and at least some of that is a 'persona'. At the very least, he ought to (and I'd bet, does) know that, but pretty much any 'celeb' suffers from that to a degree. It's a Faustian deal, if you ask me. I mean, after 20-ish years of writing for magazines, newspapers etc, there's a lot of people have read what I've written but, all being words on a page, i could walk past all but a handful on the street and none of them woud know it. Personally, you wouldn't get me on-camera like he (or any conventional TV personality) does, in a month of sundays. But looked at from the other perspective, he has to know lots of people will think they know him. It's the game he plays. And part of the price, which is why there's no way I'd add my kids to that mix. And for that reason, my sympathy is limited.

Also, I agree the whole "trust me, Bro" thing encourages that personal connection, and the whole ethos of LTT seems to be about that, about product quality, ethics in journalism, etc. Still, undoubtedly, that stance is a good one for any consumer-facing jourmalistic to take, especially one running a consumer-facing business. He dents his own credibility a smidge when, with one breath, he's on about "trust me, bro" over warranties, yet in another is saying how so much is about "business decisions". Quite so, Linus.

[Rob_B]

I like LTTs less mainstream videos, fab visits, server stuff etc I don't really watch the reviews or click baity stuff if I can help it.

Another vote for Dawid however some of his patter is a bit repetitive.
Random gaming in HD was interesting while I was looking into budget builds.
Serve the home is interesting if you're into that topic.
Craft computing does some interesting stuff.
Jeff Geerling for Pi related things.

Then there's the usual GN/Hub for general news.

[Output]

I like LTTs less mainstream videos, fab visits, server stuff etc I don't really watch the reviews or click badly stuff if I can help it.

I'm interested in seeing Luke's visit to OVH, it sounded interesting from his description.

Serve the home is interesting if you're into that topic.

I think I recall visiting their site a few times a number of years ago, in the times where there was the whole HP Homeserver cashback thing going on, but I never did end up buying one of them.

I doubt there's likely to be any such offers like that again these days or in the next few years though.

I can't comment on their channel though, as I either didn't know or forgot it even existed. Either way, I'm pretty sure I've never watched it.

Jeff Geerling for Pi related things.

Good point, he is a recent addition to my YouTube subscription list since I got a Raspberry Pi (8GB) Starter Kit.

Although I still haven't specifically decided what to actually do with it yet (other than PiHole most likely being part of it), and it still hasn't even been unpacked yet despite it being a number of months since I bought it.

Then there's the usual GN/Hub for general news.

I believe I saw a video recently-ish where Wendell from Level1 Techs had a look around, and possibly one or two in the past where Linus visited too, but I don't think I've specifically sought it out.

I think I may have also seen a video about putting a bicycle through its paces (and not having particularly good things to say about it overall if I recall correctly) or something like that, which my mind seems to think was by them, but that's probably about it.

And that last one I think that was due to autoplay being on at the time and me just letting it carry on due to not having anything else in particular to watch that I could think of.

[Rob_B]

You've got to get that pihole up and running, browsing on a different connection if I'm not at home is an eye opening experience!

[Iota]

Criticisms

• Lack of a Forum. Forums imo trump the likes of Twitter & Facebook, would love to see one in the future.

So a year on, what is now you're goto tech news site(s)?

Have you joined any other tech communities as a result?

The lack of a forum on 386 does make it more of a read and move on type of place. Certainly doesn't build a community around itself in that regard. I haven't joined any other tech communities in the last year (doesn't time fly...). I do however spend more time watching YouTube (Linus and JayzTwoCents are the ones I can tolerate and also find amusing in some ways).

Without the forum section to follow-up reviews it feels a bit soulless to me personally

Same.

without a dedicated way of interacting as you say it's just another news site rather than a community.

Agreed.

So I haven't moved on, and doubt I will.

....

I hover here, because you lot are friends, even (especially) those I argue with a lot.

To be honest, Hexus is and was quite unique in the fact you could have a sensible discussion with like minded people without stupid up / downvotes that you get on other forums (looking at ars for example). It's certainly more welcoming than many sites I've been over the years.

I get the email updates from 386, but that's about it.

That's my Monday morning thing, catching up with tech news. It isn't a bad thing, but equally doesn't have that community feel.

[Output]

You've got to get that pihole up and running, browsing on a different connection if I'm not at home is an eye opening experience!

To be honest, most of the reason for the PiHole is the thought of if I were to decide to connect my TV to the network (which still may not even happen anyway, but it's there as a possibility), so that I could restrict any telemetry and ads on it as much as possible.

Other than that I'm pretty happy using an adblocker anyway, as if I understand it correctly, PiHole would make it harder to whitelist sites to show ads (like many of us did for HEXUS).

[[GSV]Trig]

I think the problem is with 'community' is it takes some running, and that takes time and resources.

IMHO, they should have a review team, that team does the actual reviewing and such, but does it on video, so you have the video, or you can strip just the audio from that and make it a podcast, this can also be done in written form for the website, that one video then becomes 3 possible formats for consumption for those that like to read, watch, or just listen.

Then there's the backup team that essentially just runs/moderates the forum side of things.

but, that said, not my circus not my monkeys...

[AGTDenton]

I like LTTs less mainstream videos, fab visits, server stuff etc I don't really watch the reviews or click baity stuff if I can help it.

I think a number of LTTs videos that are like the tours they used to do are now on Floatplane. But I could be wrong. I do know there is Floatplane only content. This has clearly done well for them especially when YouTube hit a rocky road some years ago.

[Rob_B]

New LTT video at Micron testing/R&D facility is out.

Also, anyone else having cert issues in the main site/forum?

[Jonj1611]

Yeah I have bought it up, hopefully someone will get on it

[[GSV]Trig]

Is anyone actively paying for or running the forum anymore since Hexus closed it doors, or are we just here as an archive until the mouse dies?