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Sad news for visitors to DPReview.com UPDATE: DPReview sold, will not close
- Thread starter Jumpthesnark
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I’d say it like this
“The iPhone opened up image taking to the masses. A few have show impressive degrees of creativity - shows it’s NOT the gear, rather the thought and skill behind it.”
Saddened to hear this. Always a wonderful website, and remained splendidly simple up to today. I enjoyed the reviews and forum discussions for many years. I'm further saddened that they will not bother with making the site read-only and instead shutter the whole thing. More reasons for my growing dislike of Amazon; though at this point I doubt anyone who was involved with Amazon's acquisition still has a say in keeping it open. It was suits who never batted an eye before.
The Internet becomes less vibrant with time instead of more, and it is a great shame.
The Internet becomes less vibrant with time instead of more, and it is a great shame.
Sheesh.
Even a robber baron like Andrew Carnegie had the class to open thousands of libraries.Stanford? a university. Bezos? [cue crickets...].
Rather sad that someone who gained so much from the internet can't be bothered to at least preserve an important corner of it. Shows a lot about his lack of character.
Even a robber baron like Andrew Carnegie had the class to open thousands of libraries.Stanford? a university. Bezos? [cue crickets...].
Rather sad that someone who gained so much from the internet can't be bothered to at least preserve an important corner of it. Shows a lot about his lack of character.
Just today I read a post on DPR about on- and off-camera mics that gave me an insight into a subject that is new to me. So much knowledge has been freely shared over the years there; so sad to see it go.
It's not just Amazon - it's symptomatic of the way the internet is effectively becoming the fiefdom of a few giant corporations.
It's not just Amazon - it's symptomatic of the way the internet is effectively becoming the fiefdom of a few giant corporations.
Yeah, I've really gotten to trust them over the years. I've never really gotten into their forums but their reviews were always really thorough and genuine. Sorry to see them go.
Some good news:
petapixel.com
Digicam Finder is a New Resource That Replaces DPReview's Camera Library
A library of camera information has been saved.
That is good news.Some good news:
Digicam Finder is a New Resource That Replaces DPReview's Camera Library
A library of camera information has been saved.
I see today that as part of their cost-cutting, Amazon is shuttering the UK-based Book Depository that it bought in 2011. These closures show the real problem of big companies buying the smaller entities - they are sideshows to them and easy targets when cutting costs. They don't care a wit about the businesses or their clientele because they are small.
Some good news:
Digicam Finder is a New Resource That Replaces DPReview's Camera Library
A library of camera information has been saved.
Looks like this is specs data but not the reviews?
Right; they pulled together all the specs data but not the reviews. The reviews may be available in the archived version of DPR unless there are legal issues, which could happen.
From yesterday
An update: https://www.dpreview.com/news/0507902613/dpreview-closure-an-update
Are they going to keep the archives and not to close it for good as they said at the beginning?
An update: https://www.dpreview.com/news/0507902613/dpreview-closure-an-update
Are they going to keep the archives and not to close it for good as they said at the beginning?
Kind of looks that way, doesn't it? That would be so valuable!!! Fingers crossed....
sad but true, worse yet those of us in rural areas sometimes have no other choice.
I am in that boat. There are sometimes hard choices to make - buy less and / or pay more.
But you have to factor the wider, harder-to-quantify costs of doing business with Amazon into that. If I get a set of speakers for $30 less at Amazon plus free shipping, BUT their employees are dying of heatstroke in their warehouses, and they are absorbing and eventually killing businesses and websites I like...that's part of the cost of those speakers. Am I OK with that?
Maybe paying more at B&H or a local store (when available), or simply buying less stuff sometimes, is not such a bad alternative, really. Reward the vendors with a less sketchy business model. I certainly don't feel good about giving Amazon any money...that in itself is part of the cost of doing business with them.
If you want to shop at places that treat their workers well - especially warehouse workers - then keep looking. B&H has had to settle discrimination complaints with the Department of Labor over treatment of their warehouse workers and others.
When we shop, we all make our own decisions, moral and otherwise, as you noted. I have not shopped at B&H for years because of their practices. Other places, such as Roberts Camera and Adorama, don't have the same history of problematic labor issues, so I shop there instead. And as you noted, the local store has earned my faith as well.
Very good point - which raises the question whether any of the larger merchants treat their warehouse employees fairly at present. I have used Adorama especially and mean to shop there more. I try as much as possible to shop locally, even if it means paying higher prices. It's true that sometimes local markup is just so high (50%+) over the internet that it's hard to justify.
I know B&H has had issues too. The painful reality is that it is rare to find a vendor that is totally unproblematic. I live in a small town, and some of the local business owners are openly obnoxious people. It's just as hard to give them my money as Amazon.
We all have to make choices when buying things. Though, to get back to the main point of the thread, Amazon is so big now they can absorb pretty much anything that gains their attention. Which puts them in a special class of awful.
Making a choice in buying benefits your morals and ethics. The public, of course imo, is going to purchase what they consider the best deal, maybe not aware or daily caring about working conditions of the employees. Recently saw a video of John Oliver exposing the poor treatment field farm pickers endure. Probably not many think of this when buying their veggies.
It's a good summary of how we got to this point. Several years ago a large enthusiasts forum was 'revamped' by a publishing giant, causing thousands of posts and images to be lost, years and years of data was just thrown out. One argument is: it's their playground, they pay the bill, they can do with it as they want. Another argument (mine): for years we entrusted this company/entity/call it what you want with our shared expertise and the fruits of our work (in text and images). The company has betrayed this trust by throwing out all this data. By accepting all this work, I think they do have an obligation to look after it. The same thing goes for Amazon and DRPreview. We send books to libraries so that they can look after them, making sure that the knowledge in it is preserved. Why is it different when it's digital? I'm not saying we should preserve everything that gets posted everywhere, but if a resource has been growing for 23 years, surely it deserves a bit more consideration.
It looks as if the site will be visible for a bit longer and there are several sites trying to preserve what is there... but it's the original decision just to close the site down that was wrong. It's no less wrong today.
Property and business are sacred. The idea that a broader group of people can claim a moral stake or ownership in that property is totally devalued.
Of course, in the case of DPReview, the uniqueness and informational value of the site had nothing intellectually to do with Amazon. They bought it, presumably to try and make money, bankrolled it for awhile, but appear to not have known what to do with it ultimately...so they destroyed it. Let that sequence of events sink in for a bit.