ATI Employee on the boards adds bias?.

[TiG]

I've put my slightly controvertial topic in here as i'm interested in what people think to our recent appearance of an ATI employee "working" while on the boards. While I think it a great idea and certainly I think its a great move by Hexus' to either do it by choice or by the driver coverage recently given to the new Catalyst 4.12 drivers.

The question does come back to whether this affects whether there becomes any bias to the website/forums. Why do I ask this question, well i've had personal experience of something similar while I was at Uni, when Sun Microsystems sponsored University or Kent at Canterbury as its first "Java Campus" - in effect paying for the University to keep teaching Java....

It was in my opinion a very much double edged sword for the University as this link with Sun affected other deals and contracts it had on the table and while the Java programming side of the course improved, it did adversly affect other areas. (far too many courses where assessed with programming assignments in you guessed it Java)

So does the same thing potentially happen here, are we likely to see Nvidia putting a employee on the forum to provide insight too?.

To me its an interesting question that doesn't have a right or wrong answer, And whether it causes Bias towards ATI, I certainly know it won't. The reason Hexus is here, is for its fine example of unbias reviews of everything they can get their hands on

But what are other peoples thoughts.

TiG

[Byatt]

I think it's actually a pretty good idea for ATi to have someone looking directly at the "grass roots" of enthusiast computing - that catalyst thread pretty much says it all - I'm only surprised hexeh hasn't been in and had a gripe about linux support.

Would certainly be good to get an nvidia counterpart in as well though.

[0iD]

iI think it's good too. handy for tech support & if you have a gripe about their products at least you know someone from the company is actually listening to your problem.

Good for Hexus, good for us!

[Rave]

I'm only surprised hexeh hasn't been in and had a gripe about linux support.

Someone else beat him to it.

As far as I can see Andrzej has been very helpful without overly plugging his company's products. In some threads where he's giving general advice I've seen him refer to the X800XT/6800U as equivalent cards for the purposes of the point he's making. I'd like to see someone from NVidia come in here and contribute too, if they can be as even handed and helpful as Andrzej has been then so much the better.

Rich :¬)

[Lee H]

I agree with Rave for once

Having employees working here is fine - just as long as they don't start to "pimp" at every chance they get. As long as they are polite, helpful and friendly this will speak more for the company involved than links to their products on every thread.

anyway.. I want to see the pictures that are described in his signature

[Zak33]

would love someone from nVidia to pop in to....Andrzej is a top fella lucky for us that he's here.

However...TiG has a point. Can it be seen as fair and un-biased? Well, its a hard one for us to balance. He COULD have just signed up and been "invisible" as ATI staff....but then no one would have taken him seriously, just as a well meaning internet forum boarder. What we DONT want is a war of words between two opposing companies for a willy waving competition. Besides....ATI's willy is clearly bigger AND anti aliased hence smoother

[Zathras]

I don't see any problems at all, so long as no "deal" has been done with Dave that any mention of 'competitors' (to ATi) be banned in return for Andrzej posting. Whilst something I would expect at the drop of a hat from certain forums, I severely doubt anything of the sort would go on here. I'm impressed with the sort of support and explanations that Andrzej is giving, and it's certainly upped my impression of ATi.

[0iD]

If Andrzej was pimping ATi &/or badmouthing competitors there may be a prob. But from what I've seen he seems like a stand-up guy who's doing his best to offer us a supporting hand when requied.

[Zak33]

trust me..there aint no "deal" ...except for Andrzej wanting his company to sell more cards by being open and honest.

He's doing pretty good work I think

[CrapshoT]

I think its a great idea.I think it's brave as well.He is putting himself forward on these forums to help.As others have said it could push someone from Nvidia to come forward as well.I would rather read what Andrzej has to say in these forums than any other.cos i know if he starts trying any BS we have wise people on here who would be there to shoot him down. this is why I think its a good and brave idea.How easier can it be for us ATI gfx users to get our "grievances" with their drivers heard by their top blokes.He has given us this chance.If it had been a Nvidia guy doing what Andrzej is doing I certainly wouldnt say Hexus was being biased towards ATI.I'd start wondering why ATI hadnt done it as well.Us mere mortals need people like Andrzej to help us ,just like He needs us mere mortals to help him with his bugs.Now if we could just get someone like him from Creative,Abit,OCZ.......

[TiG]

CrapshoT's got a good point there, having "integrated" forums in terms of having manufacturers at our finger tips could work wonders not just for us as consumers, Hexus as a Website, and the manufacturers in seeing market trends and getting an understanding of what we want as consumers.

Maybe this is the future of hexus as a manufacturer "backed" community?

TiG

[wedge22]

Well I think that is great that an ATi employee has the balls to join a forum and then answer any questions thrown at him by us Hexites. I personally have had an ATi product since the 8500 was released and I think they are great. I do not work for ATi

[Zak33]

HEY.....cheers guys....for being supportive and constructive

[turkster]

I think its pretty cool. Andrzej can contribute information that none of us can so its certainly useful .

As long as people dont start touting Hexus as the ATI backed forum I dont see a problem.

[0iD]

At the end of the day it's no different from Scan & Komplett having their own customer support sections. Nobody has accused the site of being biased toward them as hardware suppliers.

[TiG]

I think Scan and Komplett are slightly different tho, They are where we buy kit and as such reviews from Hexus.net are not influenced by them. ATI is different tho, they are the manufacturer of the board and as such are a different prospect.

TiG