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HardOCP Is Getting 'Mothballed' As Kyle Bennett Accepts Job At Intel (hardocp.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the hello-goodbye dept.

Slashdot reader grasshoppa writes: Kyle Bennett, long-time owner/operator of one of the last independent review sites, HardOCP, announced that effective April 1st he will be leaving it behind to start a new career at Intel. "Effective April 1, 2019 I will be taking on the position of Director of Enthusiast Engagement for Intel's Technology Leadership Marketing group," Bennett writes. "Intel wants to reconnect with the top of the high-performance consumer pyramid which contains hardware enthusiasts, overclockers, gamers, and content creators. This is the part of our community that has great influence through word of mouth and online engagement. I'll be focusing on helping Intel get back in touch with this audience and re-establishing a voice and dialog on where the company is going with its future technologies. If you are reading this, you are very likely already part of this group."

He goes on to say that he does not want to sell HardOCP or HardForum and see those properties turned into something that he would not be proud of. Instead, "HardOCP will be 'mothballed,'" he writes. "It will no longer publish news, editorial, or hardware review content. [...] HardForum.com will be sold to a company that I have done business with for years, one that I can trust to run it in the way you are familiar with. HardForum will be demonetized and all advertising and commission links removed. Simply put, HardForum will not make money in any way..."

You can read Bennett's full statement here.

6 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Corporate shlll by Enigma2175 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I will be taking on the position of Director of Enthusiast Engagement for Intel's Technology Leadership Marketing group," Bennett writes. "Intel wants to reconnect with the top of the high-performance consumer pyramid which contains hardware enthusiasts, overclockers, gamers, and content creators. This is the part of our community that has great influence through word of mouth and online engagement. I'll be focusing on helping Intel get back in touch with this audience and re-establishing a voice and dialog

    Wow, he's sure got the corporate marketroid-douchebag speak down pat.

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    Enigma

    1. Re:Corporate shlll by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The translation of what he said is roughly, "We want to infiltrate the maker community, mine them for good ideas, and then monetize the hell out of whatever we find."

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      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    2. Re:Corporate shlll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He in fact will not be a shill, since a shill by definition is someone who hides his allegiance.

      Everyone needs a job and there's nothing wrong with doing marketing. Shilling is much worse, but that's not what he's doing.

  2. Connecting with Enthusiasts? by Tavor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe he can get them to stop the confusing mess of which features are enabled and disabled across the lines of chips. I hate having to dig through the Intel Ark to find out which used sku's have ECC memory support, which ones have IOMMU support, which ones have vPro, which ones have AES-NI, etc. Especially galling is the ECC support, as it's enabled and disabled seemingly at random throughout the consumer space (where AMD has it across the board.)

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    Windows has detected an undetectable error.
  3. Re:Sellout... by BenFranske · · Score: 4, Informative

    Intel has been hiring away all the tech hardware reviewers it seems. Ryan Shrout from PCPerspective, then one of the people he sold PCPer to (Alvan Malvantano) and now Kyle from HardOCP have all gone to Intel. It's quite the interesting strategy on Intel's part. On the other hand if you want to work for Intel it seems like a good idea to start a hardware review site and you'll probably get a job offer if you can attract any sort of following.

  4. Re:Sellout... by Urinal+Pube · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The dude could have been content being a hero in the enthusiast/IT community. He could have been remembered long after he was gone.

    Now... he's killing the baby for a cash payout. He'll be remembered for this.

    But who cares... it's all about the big bucks.

    I suspect it's less about selling out, and more about finally letting go of something that was costing him money out of pocket to run every month. There's something to be said for not having to worry about whether or not you can afford health insurance for your family.