Tech press meet/Conference: Difference between how things are done here and how others do it.

I was in Singapore for a seminar about few hardware stuff. I am beyond impressed. I am still very impressed and overwhelmed about the rush of information that I’ve got and I am writing a draft while it’s still fresh in my mind so please excuse the bad sentence construction and grammar in this writeup. Most likely this would be more confusing and irrelevant to the thread title. This is what guys from tech review/media REALLY want (provided they know how to do it).

Yeah, a friend said I should have a notebook however since Hardware BBQ is still “an infant” ((Okay, let’s be realistic even compared to mainstream medias- or maybe compared to many bloggers despite, she’s got a very long way to go)). And despite seeing smooth progress, getting an even better setup for reviewing takes higher priority. No week goes by when I think if BBQ will be productive for me to earn money so that I can take her to another level, hire people, get better resources, learn a lot of things and even push it to a level that only the international guys were able to do it. But its best for now to work on perfecting to do proper reviews so that people can make the right decision and so that manufacturers can get feedbacks and bridge the gap. Yeah, foolish it might sound but for now monetizing will take a step behind because we need to work on making our community stronger from ground root level and I need to work very hard to cater to that crowd. We’ll keep that conversation for another day.

There I was: Conference room. Guys from Australia, Thailand, UAE and few others from APAC region except Taiwan. The stuff that they talked and explained gave me that refreshing “feeling” that no press conferences in India has given me (Power User meets are not press conferences)- yet. It was my first REAL Tech conference. Not one of those where you will see people talking about business expansions and basic specs which usually happen in press conference here in India. In reality, those are probably more suited for “business journalists”. If a brand is more customer centric, I don’t think they care much about Indian economy and all that jazz.

When I came back and when I checked my mails (Yeah, sorry about that) one of the suits “really” wanted to have a massive (yes they used that word) Power User’s meets sort of “indirectly” hinting towards Asus‘ meet not too long time ago. Yes, the eyes are around. I guess few manufacturers like motherboards, memory kits who happen to make SSDs and even PSU/Cooling/Gaming have realized that having a proper power user meet on a yearly basis makes more sense than having press conference. Reality is bad, but its the truth (I think the best to say “from my perspective”). Most (yeah most is the right word) journos come. Out of which TV journos do their video thing and “exclusive” interview at times, print/online journos in reality take few pictures, clear the food and the drink (all are non-alcoholic btw- for good reasons I guess) then just put a press release. There are few bloggers as well. There are very handful of people asking the right questions, most ask questions like “How would your company’s growth contribute to the Indian economy?”, some…welll..they ask exotic questions when people ask series of questions that pretty much stuns everyone.

Yeah- I know. I am drifting away. Reality- the one I’ve attended in Singapore is something I can say with a very high note of confidence that it was my first REAL tech conference/seminar. Nobody said “I will get back to you on this” or “We’ll have to check on that”. They knew what they were saying and they know what kind of questions you will probably ask. And the fact that Shamino did one of the presentations, it was brilliant. He explained everything so well and so precise that everyone was left speechless. Everyone -even the Aussies and Thai guys had to take some time to ask the questions because the entire presentations did not have any vague stuff. Such presentation, in full glory, is something who knows what they are saying, how it works and RnD specialists can only give. I had a hard time containing my excitement that  a guy like me not only met shamino but also being in the same room and listening to his explanations.

Will we ever have such conference in India where even the presence of International Press? Maybe not to press (Most Indian journos expect maybe 3-6 of them) but most likely with End Users- and maybe handful of guys from certain media to “hang around”. Afterall since there isn’t any form of media in India catering to that crowd (I still have a long way to go before calling myself as the media guy) and who can understand it. The forum crowd is small, and compared to the number of people buying h/w on a daily basis, somewhat insignifcant. But hey, we are not ignored. The Indian tech forums (Techenclave and Digit, Indian Broadband forum- and no I haven’t “forgotten” to mention other Tech forum- ouchies!!!!)  makes a lot of noise and I am proud to call myself as “The forum guy”. I haven’t slept for 2 nights and I couldn’t sleep in the plane. But it was very well worth it.

But will we see people from RnD flown in to address such end users? Yes- provided they can get the right users. A time will come when I can say it out loud (yeah- bit premature from my end- proper word would be- I hope) gone are the days Indian mainstream media will say “Oh no! We can’t say that- its too “techie”. By their defination, almost all tech crowd in India are not “technically inclined”.  The fact, however, is pretty much the opposite to a small, but very much visible, extent.

Techenclave, by default, has that ability to do it properly and ethically if the senior guys are willing to invest a lot of time in it (which to a certain extent I doubt it). But I think its best if some people from the community (guys like who selflessly helped the forum without any need to be a moderator) are not only be employed as in-house PR-cum-sort-marketing-and-some-bit-of-a-sales-jack in the box to properly promote the respected brands- provided the respected brand in India is not being a PITA and not letting him do what he does best- and not forcing him to abuse his good name on the forum to help a brand. People ain’t idiots. They can probably be fooled once or twice, mostly because of the herd’s influence. They can smell a sellout when they read it. All you need is one person to point out the obvious. This way the guy does what he’s good at, he’s still an active part of the community he spent years and money (for his hardware upgrades to be “in the zone”), the company will know what to do and what not to do and everyone goes home happy- users and manufacturers. A good help is hard to come by these days anyways and most of them are discouraged/loose interest due to time, family and not able to get something out of it that will justify their full time investment in something they started out of hobby and then converted into real time passion.

Its also best if a thought to be given that people who spend a lot of time in tech forums to get jobs in such companies. Let’s face it: Most of the guys in tech journo either get a good job oversees or eventually hired by the corporates. If community forum guys join companies in a respectable position- like “power user communication specialist” or even a PR executive who has more than the usual influence, they can grow their community by understanding their needs and getting the job done accordingly- and they get paid for it. Remember, community guys learn a lot provided they do it right, but reality is that they do not get anything out of it- maybe a freebie here and there but that’s it. Hiring active community guys for a job makes more sense than hiring tech journos- in my honest opinion- provided that community guys do not abuse their influence over the forums/community to promote a brand blindly. If a product is good enough, all good. But like all people, he should work on feedbacks as much as possible.

Edit (30-10-2011): I’ve had a word with CM India. So they did use it. But they aren’t the only source that used this facility. What’s important is being neutral. If the international media houses that used this facility used it to evaluate products with no biased influence because they used the facility from one of the rivaled brands, its all good- even if the rivaled brand has a history of many bad series of power supplies. Then you might logically ask that if a brand has such sophisticated way to test product in such a manner, why have any room to have bad psu? Well- that’s one question we’ll have in our minds always.

Toms’ hardware using Coolermaster EU’s power supply testing lab equipment for reviewing power supplies? Even the Rival version?? hmm I sense a bad BAD cake.

I always had my doubts about Toms’ hardware. Always had an always will. I never was able to pinpoint it but I always had my doubts. It was as good as the itch at the back of your head in a place where you scratch it.

Left: Pics from Toms' hardware Site where they explain testing methodology. Right: Pictures from Coolermaster Europe, during the factory tour. Notice that its the same setup and the same table.

I was getting a lot of requests to test power supplies and I have refused it on the start. Ground reality: None of the mainstream media in India has a proper setup for testing such units, despite their fancy ways of creating a separate page for it and showing off their lab setup. I wished/fantasized (fantasized is the word here) to have a proper test appartus but for that I need lotsa and lotsa money!!! Let’s not forget I live in Octroi land so since such units are pretty heavy and cost $3,000 onwards (without the line conditioner, hot box setup, wiring, the works and a really good fire extinguisher **just** in case the psu is a piece of scrap beyond words), pretty much I have to get Hardware BBQ primed up and ready Big time (and fast) if I want to convert it to realistic goals.

But I found something “odd”. Out of all the stuff, the most “intimidating” and advanced setup was in Toms’ hardware. Then after sometime I got an idea to search for articles who have done factory tours on companies that manufacture power supplies. I am sure it would give some idea about how this can be done- you’ll never know.

And boy, I hit the jackpot. I then bumped into Madshrimps’ article about their factory tour in Coolermaster office, Netherlands. The pictures from this article in madshrimps are same as the one in Toms’ hardware. So is Toms’ hardware pulling a fast one infront of our eyes- or are they using CM’s setup to test power supplies- or worse- are CM guys testing/reviewing the power supplies for them ((I’ll have to admit. Its a theory based on the possibility of this happening is highly likely). I didn’t want to rant about it, because the only thing substancial is the same type of setup and table. Honestly, I needed something concrete and I didn’t really bother finding the cost of such equipments.

Today morning I was “rubbing the salt on the wound” when I asked series of people who held their upgrade plans for atleast a year for AMD Bulldozer, which unfortunately bulldozed itself in performance-power consumption benchmarks in multiple review sources.

So what made me post about it here? I didn’t find anything myself, but I lurked over a thread in overclock.net (credit to the person in Facebook who put it up somewhere but don’t who it is- sorry )and happen to see Phaedrus2129′s signature in one of the posts with the title “Why not to trust TomsHardware (for PSUs at least)“ and this pretty much kills. it. According to the thread, people were talking about this in JonnyGURU forums as well. Oh well. I remember 1 guy in a particular forum defending Toms’ hardware. I am not saying not to trust their reviews- especially psu. Chances are they might have taken it on “a rent” (lame word, I know, or maybe they had an “understanding”).If they are taking it for a rent and/or if there is something where Tom’s hardware will not influence their article just because they’re using their setup. If so, why not be upfront about it??

It could be worse. Like this one. Unless you’re Obi Von kenobi (or whatever his name is) and have the ability to sense “the force” in power supplies, such reviews are nothing more than the work of fiction.

One thing for sure, that itch ain’t my imagination- and I am speaking for myself here.

I read madshrimps, Overclock3D, Hardware Canucks, jonnyGuru and Hardware secrets, and only articles written by Anand Shimpi and to a certain extent: Jarred. Forums? Always!!! Overclock.net, techenclave, xtremesystems and geekhack forums. Digit is where I try to help people and Chip on very occasions, despite the very recent activities of displaying-err-certain tendencies.

Oh well!!! There ya go folks!! The cake is fishy.

Grumpy Indian tech bloggers are peeing all over the place- thanks to Indiblogger/Samsung Galaxy Tab contest.

Fish fingers with custard!!! I bet a lot of people tried that when The Doctor said that in S05E01.

Most of you guys know about my opinions about “tech” bloggers …well… most of them. I am the last person who thought I would do this because it’s all….”custardy“. Started by putting reviews of whatever stuff I buy in forums…one thing left to another and then our good friend Harshal sent the first media samples from Gigabyte and then after few months one thing left to another, started krystal projekt blog as a dump for my reviews and then I went “Geronimo” and Hardware BBQ. If all things goes well, Hardware BBQ is going on a major revamp this december…hopefully.

It’s a continuation of Indiblogger thing I posted when it started, where I objected about the contest solely because of this “giveaway”:

It’s not limited to tech bloggers at least it doesn’t say. Okay, so giving 20 tablets is pretty neat. Saying “Samsung will send you all the latest Samsung devices for review” pretty much means you’re banking on naïve reviewers to basically write good things about you. It’s not rare its common. I was offered Rs. 65,000 to do a positive review on the forums some tier 3 cellphone. I not only refused, but I also said that if anyone on the forums post an ass-kissing review, not only the “Attempt to bribe” emails will go public, but eventually people will question the mainstream media reviews. As it is most of us read India mainstream media “tech” content with a pinch of salt. They didn’t apologize, just a “misunderstanding” saying that most of the Indian sources say they will take some stuff for free and/or advertisement revenue should they need an article.

Not-really-an-AMD “community” meet. SMC and Erodov “media pvt. ltd.”: You naughty boys :P

Dude, the cake is a lie?

You decide.

maxAxe posted on techenclave, digit and Chip at the speed of lightning about the AMD community meet. Suspicion was pretty obvious when MaxAxe said that the even is going to be in smc rather than AMD’s office because (according to what HE said) the space was small. He said clearly that this is sponsored by none other than AMD.

Here’s the link.

MaxAxe. Dude!! What’s up with that eh? Now don’t tell me you “accidently forgot” to mention that its hosted by SMC with Erodov’s usual PR help. Using AMD’s name like this and fooling around to attract people? Asus did their own meet. Same goes for a very very very very small Gigabyte meet. Tch Tch.

Correct me if I am wrong, you’re into forum scene since when? The defunct Kawabonka/Indian Pro league days? How can you know say it, unless its your obvious intention promote your “media company”? See this what why I don’t like a community suddenly claims to be a media pvt. ltd. The cake becomes salty, you see.

You should have said the AMD “community” meet is (in reality) hosted by SMC International, one of AMD’s channel partners.

I had no idea that channel partners (major dealers/official distros) can use a company’s name for a “community meet” like this- that too without letting the PR guys know about it: And its irrelevant to us. What AMD PR said, is infact, relevant:

This is not an event that AMD is hosting directly. It is one of AMD’s channel partners in Delhi [SMC International], who is hosting this event on his own.

IT Depot contest in Techenclave? I am sure “IT Depot” is an “official” channel partner for more than 1 brand, most likely the ones which they gave as giveaways for their contest. You don’t don’t see “Techenclave in association with whatever brands IT depot is giving a giveaway” contest- its associated with ITDepot. That’s how communities work. You are supposed to be clear.

BTW, The AMD India Fanpage is not officially hosted by AMD so they are “spreading the word on behalf of them or for the good of it”, take it with a pinch of salt. Did they mention it in their infomation tab? Nah they blindly left it.There ya go, boyz. Cakes are flying on a ROFLCOPTER!!!1111

For the PRs who ask me “What do you think about Erodov??” There you go! Last rant about Erodov? I hope so. Cakes to all!

Indiblogger promoting publicity stunt in the name of “reviews”: using inexperienced “tech” bloggers for free publicity access [Re-Edit]

It was said in a forum (not Indian ones) that 90% of the people who do reviews is because to get free hardware (some might find this questionable so we’ll leave that for another day). However when I speak to reviewers and editors in international sites, they have a very laid back system for their personal use except maybe a notebook and a camera.

You could call it mid end gaming system which they will use it for their personal stuff. The stuff which they get “for free” usually ends up in their test bed system because using the newer hardware (maybe not high-end ones unless it’s compared with a high-end product as reference) when they do a review. As far as how I see things, international PRs know that every review source should do the obvious and mention the test bed setup clearly. Reviewers do it so that readers will know which hardware they’re using and PRs give it because their product is listed there.

If you look at reviews in mainstream medias in India, they don’t really do that. So what do they really do???

In 1 corner, a memory manufacturing company asked me “What can I do for them” when we were talking about media samples. I was confused why he was asking that.

In another corner, a gaming clan called ATE made an announcement that they will start their own review site and make others follow them.

In the other corner, we have the media guys sending hordes of emails to countless people to get media samples and tempting casual users to reviewers (No, I am not saying its wrong, but the way they do it is…lol) with a clause that the content from the people will only post on their forum, and that content belongs to the ones who own the forum. Yeah, community power is commercialised for promoting self interests.

And in another corner we have Indiblogger.

Indiblogger is basically like an interactive community of bloggers where people share their ideas and stuff. When I started posting, some other guys started posting reviews as well. My purpose to join there is to try to tap in the general crowd without reducing the quality of the content. Mainstream media guys said that’s not possible because its not possible for “common people” to understand and I wholeheartedly refuse to believe that. To a minor extent, it does work. Its all on the execution. General users are PMing me via Indiblogger and asking about power supplies, surge protectors and tablets so there you go!

Their business model is sort of like PR , except they use free labour i mean bloggers. Its not really that bad, in fact its good. People will blog to get something for free. But now I feel (I emphasize on these words) that Indiblogger should have thought properly before going ahead with it. To understand how this works, I participated in one of the them, but I really didn’t like it. They’re using bloggers as a PR spin doctor.

They also started this thing with a tablet competition where people will talk about its “unique” features. Here’s the thing: No idea was given about the tablet except the paper configuration, and if you compare that config with others (3 of them) are the same hardware except 1 that comes with a keyboard dock. But they wanted bloggers to write about and make “those people” feel good about themselves and in exchange they get access to review hardware.

There’s something called “Paid Reviews”. Basically, a blogger is paid money by the the company who is providing a media sample to them. I know that by common sense (hopefully) people will question about the legit analysis in that content.

Edit: No. Indiblogger doesn’t promote this. I came to know about this when some people who are in one of those blogs with lot of guest bloggers. You pay them and they will blog on such sources with large memberbase. The blog owner is kept out of the loop because he doesn’t know. Still believe guest blogging is the right thing to do?

But Indiblogger is obviously getting money from brands to tempt bloggers to be used this way. Out of 100 bloggers, 1 wins the goodies. 99 free/cheap labour/bloggers. Imagine even 10 of them doing everything they can to promote one thing in a hope to win something in exchange, and out of 10, maybe the readership of about 2 bloggers is retwitted, shared and promoted via reddit, stumbleupon, forums…list goes on.

Reviewing in India is looked down as another source of PR. Its sad and its something manufacturers and people need to avoid. Why manufacturers? If they can praise your product for an incentive, they can even criticise you in exchange for an incentive you could give or worse if its given by a rival company. I am sure few people know such people. Its best that communication with such samples should be avoided, unless you want a good PR session. You shall reap what you sow!

People? Yeah! They are not going to get anything out of it maybe a chance to get something for 40k- but are you really going to sell out your readers for that? You don’t appreciate such acts by the mainstream media and yet you guys do it. Who is the hypocrite now?

We need to build a system an honest system. We need PR to get access and PR need people like reviewers to promote their product: but at end of the day they want to do it for the good of the people and people refer to your content to search for best stuff money can buy. But if people have completely opposite experience, they’ll not only stop to trust the source, but also the company. Readers are smart people (well most of them), especially if their have the genuine intention to buy.

Edit: Nothing against Samsung- or any manufacturers, as long as things are done in a right way. Whatever criticisms I’ve pointed out I’ve taken care that I don’t bully/troll companies or their people.

Just to make another point clear: No, I got nothing personally against with what Indiblogger does. Yes, I strongly believe that Indiblogger must make a conscious effort to discourge using reviews as a source of PR. Reviews are made for 2 reasons (mostly for 1 reason): To keep people informed how good/bad a product is and hence be a neutral entity so that one he and she can recommend something to the readers for a particular price point. Second is so that certain nitpicks can be highlighted by reviewers (provided they know what they’re doing) and hence if possible manufacturers can improve it ASAP or implement it on newer versions/models. That’s how its always worked- until the point a particular media entity is offering publicity service and now Indiblogger seem to be doing it.

The PR Aunty effect: Gender plays a role in the Tech PR field- or is it just co-incidence?

I did not want to write this because some people might take it in the wrong way. But the reason I am ranting in “Dude, the cake is a lie!!!1″ is because I can vent my frustrations out.

Questions about the community that will never be answered. M-Jeri Vs. ITWares/E-lounge: New and Unheard Terms & Conditions/RMA Policy

• There have been so many things I am questioning about certain people in our community and certain antics done by certain dealers:
• How can a particular group  forum admins and even bloggers brag as being Media guys/”Media PVT LTD“  when they are not?
• Why do these group feel ashamed to be a non-media entity, when its a downright fact that people always refer to non media entity for proper advice/opinions?
• Why are these people trying to convert a community effort to improve something and have mutual/proper 2 way communication into a PR spin/publicity stunt? And behaving like a Page3 Aunty in the process?
• Why do you create communities with an intention to be neutral, only to end up manipulating your fellow members and people’s contribution to pose as a media? For what? Free hardware? Free publicity? Free/exclusive access? Then how are you really different from certain mainstream media who are (in reality) PR Spindoctors?
• How can small business owners brag about being authorised dealers when they are not?
• How can dealers declare a product as EOL when its not (and not having the authority to do so)?
• Why do people expect professionalism and courtest from people when you are not?
• Why do dealer(s) who run business on their own with nothing more than 2-3 staff bragging/posing as distributors? And bring something exclusive and sell a lot of stuff from that brand, then unable to replace/repair defective stuff of that brand and trying to cook up a scene to bash that brand???
• How can you such people call themselves as a company, when in reality its a small store run and owned by an individual with nothing more than “Shop and establishment” license?
• What does warranty really mean?
• Why do I have to read terms and conditions from dealer’s site when I am buying from a forum?
• Why is there so many terms and conditions when its obvious I am buying from a small business owner and not from a franchise stores like Croma?
• How are they deemed as registered dealers for a community if dealers are asking buyers to join their forum/register on their site/email them if they want support?
• Who let the dogs out?

And also..

• How can you say that you’re a part of the team- even though a lot of people from that team don’t even treat you like one? Or blackmailing you to make you stay on the team?

Yes these are questions. Because honestly they are not going to answered. Even if they are, chances are that will have a transparent “conditions apply” star or it will be changed in some point during the future.