Front Page Story

[Angry_Games]

jelly: we have no problem promoting what is already here, but how long can we recycle old, used threads as front page news? That's the main concern.

 

We've always prided ourselves on having some of the best info on the net, but we've created nothing new for a year or more so it's like Bon Jovi, living on old fame, and it doesn't last long, and just makes you look bad if you try to milk it for as long as possible.

 

This is why we are so adamant about you guys helping us put something worthy on there to read. New material brings new readers and makes original readers appreciate the place even more knowing that the wheels are cranking again and this was always the best place for information, and they knew they could trust it as being bull crap-free.

[MACarter02]

What about a fact-based article about DFI's scam??

 

Don't know if it violates contracts you had with DFI, but I feel like if there was evidence and stuff, the people who have spents hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on their products would like to know about it. It's okay if that's a terrible idea..

[red930]

Wouldn't do much good and it's quite a long time since the products we were familiar with are relevant.

 

Plus the fact virtually every other vendor does it to some degree and it's going to go nowhere, other than possibly give us a helluva headache.

 

One of the big problems (for me at least) is that there is no real shortage of ideas, just shortage of time and funds. Unfortunately they go hand in hand for the time being. A year from now? Yeah, I should be able to have the money for it no problem (at least for a few ideas), but there are no guarantees on time.

 

Time plays a huge part in this, until you undertake a project you have no idea what it involves.

 

When I first agreed to do the HTPC guide I figured I could have a rough draft done in a week or so (during college too). It ended up taking me around 6 weeks before Angry and a few others looked it over and made some changes.

 

And that was an article that didn't require any time to play with hardware. Pure writing and research. To be able to get a new piece of hardware and write a good, well thought out report on it is astounding. Yet sites with a 9600GT right now are doing just that. Some of those guys of course are doing this as their primary source of income, in which case this is understandable. But for the rest of us that work 40+ hours we simply don't have the time to work on this. And that's what it becomes too - work. When you are forced into using this stuff and have deadlines for reviews it feels like work.

 

Don't get me wrong, it can be a lot of fun too. But doing a gajillion different tests on at least two different operating systems with varying overclocks begins to add up.

 

I'd still gladly do it. But I want it done right. Any review that I did would be posted at least 3 weeks after I purchased the product, which would likely be a few weeks after release.

 

But until I can afford to buy the proper equipment and get back into enjoying overclocking and benching...I don't see it happening.

 

Of course there are many other aspects of DIY that I enjoy. My PRIMARY hobby is building speakers. This can both be cheap and expensive, depending on what I want to do. At this point I'd like to lean towards the "bang for your buck" aspect and I'd still like to try my hand at making some computer speakers with custom amp (or integrated amps). Even that requires a solid amount of money though since I no longer have access to the tools I need.

 

A secondary hobby is building amps. I'm not very good at it by any means and have very little experience doing so, but even low-end kits (that I could use) cost a couple hundred dollars. It's hard to justify that cost when I have perfectly capable amps already.

 

Someday I suppose, just not now. It seems a lot of mods have run into "life problems" of late as well. It's not that I don't want to help, it's just that I can't really put much into it.

 

I have one thing I'm working on a little bit right now that I hope to finish this weekend and it won't even be a page or two long!

 

*sigh*

 

Maybe someday. Just not now.

[red930]

I might have a thought here.

Since we think or know that we dont have an direction i wanna know what binds us these days.

Like with an game its playing together or the character one has.

 

So what is it for all of us here besides making our own systems?

Cause if we know that we might have an direction to go too.

[sparkyftw]

Ok I know its old but I sorta agree with David.

 

The best thing that happened to this forum was DFI.

 

BUT

 

The best thing that Angry did was to tell the truth, lose his job, and the support for this forum. He gained respect from me (although that means nothing to him, just some stupid 18 year old from minnesota), and probably many others.

 

Everyone has great ideas on what to add to the content, I have a few I could do. If we all pitch in WE can be the best thing that has happened to DIY-Street

 

I for one would love to know how to assemble my own speakers and amps. I understand that technodan doesn't have the time/money. We all have real life problems.

 

I am sure technodan would love to learn how do something, even if he doesn't have any desire to do it himself. Maybe he wants to know how to build an engine or something like that, dr_bowtie (from what I recall) knows how to do that. Maybe doc could do a simple movie on it, maybe a series on how to build one (obviously this is expensive, someone would have to already be in the process of doing it)

 

I would love to see how put a kitchen together, its something we are going to be doing at my house soon.

 

I am optimistic, I think if we have a list of things people want to LEARN, maybe someone will look through the list and see something they have the know how to do, and can make a tutorial.

 

Look at the TV show "How its made." Do you honestly need to know how twinkies or filing cabnets are made? No you don't. But its so entertaining to watch. Its fun to learn about something new.

 

Theres my "stupid teenager" opinion.

[suedenim]

Perhaps we need an embryonic projects section. A section where people can put in requests for members with specific talents, a key one being time, to assist in the production of something for the site.

 

I think a big stumbling block for most people is writing, good writing. The kind of content/ editorial/ expose that is easy and enjoyable to read. On the other hand I would think there are a fair few people that are interested in journalism, publishing that would like the chance to stretch their skills and have something published online. A nice addition to a resume I would have thought. Obviously this requires two things, permanence and those types of people.

 

I wasn't here way back in the early days but my impression is that this was a support and OC site mainly for DFI and has gone through that organic growth thing. That has left us where we are now but we are still burdened with that history - a DFI orientated site without official support perhaps.

 

How do we change that?

How do we get new people in here even when the change hasn't occurred?

How do we keep them?

 

Obviously if I had answers to these questions you'd be reading them at www.suedenims-superwhizzy-site.com or my offshoot consultancy www.sues-denims-keep-you-hot.com

 

One thing we can certainly offer is that the main site is completely and utterly independent from any kind of corporate interference, influence.

 

Look at the recent trouble at gamespot. The fact that a lot of other games journalists took a stand against that suggests that skepticism and trust is always an issue.

 

DIY-Street. A site by the users for the users. In here we take no crap and nobody gets used.

 

As it stands now we need to work on the "by the users" stuff.

[dr_bowtie]

You all see....?

 

This is what we are all talking about....A_G says he's going to shut the site down and a thread fills up with 1000's of hits and more traffic in 2 days than we've seen in weeks BUT, it didnt last long and here we are and everyone just let it drop...

 

Whats worse and as all the people saying they would help do something havent even contacted any of us about anything....

 

Dont say we didnt warn you (Well A_G did) when you wake up one morning and what!!!! no more site...where did it go...? what are we going to do with ourselves....? who will we blame for this....? well to answer the last question....we should ALL take a good look in the mirror and realize we ALL are the answer to the last question....!

[tasr]

what are we going to do with ourselves....?

Paint that room I've been putting off.

[ReelFiles]

Guess we're all gonna have to mass IM doc since he's got no life besides work and the Street and he would terribly miss us.

 

For real though; you are absolutely right Terry. Except I'll take some of that blame too, since I am a lazy bastard.

[jelly]

I do know that one of the things dfi-street was known for we're the guides. I dont know what kinds of guide we can do today, but I think thats where we need to go. NOT REVIEW! Everyone and there brother does reviews. I dont care about that I want to know how to install, overclock, and build. That is the diy way.

 

One think thats is hurting us is the lack of up to date hardware. All the guides we have are old, and we need the new fresh stuff. But lets keep it simple for now, just to get things rolling. There are alot of people out there that dont know how to assemble a computer or just do a simple upgrade of a cpu, ram or video card.

 

I just ordered an 8800gt and I could write up a guide on how to upgrade a video card. Im going to go from and ati x1900xt to an 8800gt. I could show how to unistall the old ati drivers, open the case and change out the video card, install the new drivers, and test the card for stablity. If I run into a problem I can show what I did to troubleshoot. What do you guys think?

[dr_bowtie]

Got your PM jelly and I would like to do some MSN to further discuss this....

 

What you have in mind is a great idea...cover the whole thing from benching your current card to un-installing the drivers as well as the card then installing the new card and drivers and any issues you come across or not....

 

I will be more than glad to help any way I can and we have several people willing the help edit anything you may write....

 

take alot of pictures or even a video of the whole process and we can resize for posting while keeping any high-res biggie size pink linkable....

 

 

Just so the rest of you know this is the 1st guy to step up....good job

 

 

Anyone want to take Rado's guide and whip it into something front-page-able...? rado's got all the high res pics and all the details and this could be something nice as well as the video card clocking guide he did....anyone?

 

Picking this up will put you intouch with a rather nice chatable forum member who is.... well just a nice person to work with....

 

 

Guess we're all gonna have to mass IM doc since he's got no life besides work and the Street and he would terribly miss us.

 

For real though; you are absolutely right Terry. Except I'll take some of that blame too, since I am a lazy bastard.

 

This is very true....as most of us have stated before this site is my home....home here at home...if it goes away I would really miss all of you (little tear...lol) as I dont have that many of you on MSN and the ones I do have....well... we do have good times chatting...I do like to keep in touch with people I like...

 

As much as I say people like Rado pester me on MSN the truth is I pester him just as much....Steavis can tell you the same....

[ReelFiles]

I told rado to send us those pics a long time ago don't know whatever happened to that, figured you and I could bang that out in no time.