Wednesday, November 3rd 2021
Hexus.net and Bit-Tech.net Bid Farewell, Former Staff Tease New Online Venture
Today was a sad day for the ever-shrinking world of PC and tech media, with two UK-based websites ceasing active operations as of November 1, 2021. Hexus.net, more commonly referred to simply as Hexus by its readers and fans alike, was started by David Ross in 1998. It grew in popularity enough to be the flag bearer for David's The Media Team group, which included under its umbrella entities including "PC-Max.de, Foodie Paradise Cranble, and cult-classic Sick Chirpse" as he puts it himself. Clearly things were going well at a point, with one of my favorite modding-centric website, Bit-Tech.net, added to the portfolio. While Hexus remained an international force in our field, Bit-Tech arguably had more passionate a reader base that made PC DIY builds what it is today. There were sponsored build competitions and mods that gave the likes of Overclock.net, at least in its heyday, a running for its money. Between the two, TechPowerUp editors made friends with some of the most talented people to step into this industry, including davido_labido who was our peripheral editor before he left for Bit-Tech, and eventually Alphacool. There were many press events, media dinners, and even frustrating product launches shared and attended together that will always be cherished!
Both Hexus and Bit-Tech announced today that the websites as we know it will cease to exist, with no more new activity coming from the editorial team under those banners. It's no doubt led to speculation galore about whether this was a financial move, but it is not our place to speculate. What matters more is knowing that, at least for the foreseeable future, the online assets of both websites will remain available. This includes YouTube channels and forums for all to see, as well as the home page for those wishing to not lose on the published news and reviews alike. TechPowerUp takes solace in knowing that some of the now-former staff have already teased a new website in the making—one that is supposed to be launching imminently to take advantage of traffic inbound with Intel's Alder Lake launch. This does confirm that it was not a shock or surprise to anyone, and that it is not the end for content from some of them at least. We hope that everyone inevitable lands on their feet, and would like to take this time to welcome Hexus and Bit-Tech members who feel wanting for more discussions and content.
Update Nov 3rd: Former staff, Tarinder and Parm have launched a new website called Club386 (club386.com), which borrows naming from the famous Intel 386 architecture of the 80s. With the launch of Intel Alder Lake scheduled for tomorrow, Club386 has a review incoming to use that traffic and kickstart its journey as a hopefully successful independent tech media.
Sources:
Hexus, Bit-Tech, Club386
Both Hexus and Bit-Tech announced today that the websites as we know it will cease to exist, with no more new activity coming from the editorial team under those banners. It's no doubt led to speculation galore about whether this was a financial move, but it is not our place to speculate. What matters more is knowing that, at least for the foreseeable future, the online assets of both websites will remain available. This includes YouTube channels and forums for all to see, as well as the home page for those wishing to not lose on the published news and reviews alike. TechPowerUp takes solace in knowing that some of the now-former staff have already teased a new website in the making—one that is supposed to be launching imminently to take advantage of traffic inbound with Intel's Alder Lake launch. This does confirm that it was not a shock or surprise to anyone, and that it is not the end for content from some of them at least. We hope that everyone inevitable lands on their feet, and would like to take this time to welcome Hexus and Bit-Tech members who feel wanting for more discussions and content.
Update Nov 3rd: Former staff, Tarinder and Parm have launched a new website called Club386 (club386.com), which borrows naming from the famous Intel 386 architecture of the 80s. With the launch of Intel Alder Lake scheduled for tomorrow, Club386 has a review incoming to use that traffic and kickstart its journey as a hopefully successful independent tech media.
40 Comments on Hexus.net and Bit-Tech.net Bid Farewell, Former Staff Tease New Online Venture
Of course you can post in the comment section but this is a nice gesture indicating that vendors' comments are welcome, and more visible too.Hey, me too. Tech Report ... what a painful death. (But we still managed to have some fun during its last days.) It's far better to shut down the shop at moment's notice like Hexus has done.Yes I'm sure it will but ... so many reviews of keyboards and mice and earphones mean one thing: pieces of shiny new silicon that deserve any attention from reviewers are few and far apart these days. No offense to authors, they do what they can, and do it well.I certainly do that - however, I turn on every privacy feature that's built into Firefox, and that's for all websites. Cookies are also deleted upon exit, which means every day. I have no idea if there are negative consequences for those sites.One day we'll have a de-video-ing bot that transforms speech into text, extracts relevant still images from the video, edits the text to make it less obvious that it originates from spoken language, divides it up into chapters with titles, and violá, an article! It's just a dream right now but we have AI, don't we?
It is a shame to see the old sites die but we are in a changing world and more and more people prefer to see videos instead of reading (it must be hard or something?).
After [H]ard|OCP closed their doors I have used TPU for my daily news fix and toghether with servethehome it covers my IT needs.
congrats sir
@Darksaber
edit: all-time totals
I wonder who else has done more than 1000 reviews. Maybe Hilbert
been there for some review and was helpful
Sad to activity go the way of the dodo. I cant remember what name I used there, but I still get the email newsletter.
that 2990WX would be a nice kit