[sippingjippers]

Classic bait-and-switch. This essentially happens with every review site after they build up enough brand awareness to pull it off. I guess it happens because from the perspective of the company it makes total sense to try. Why earn pennies on the dollar from e.g. ad clicks when you can get huge lumpy (and possibly regular) payouts for much less work in much less time

[MaxBarraclough]

> Why earn pennies on the dollar from e.g. ad clicks when you can get huge lumpy (and possibly regular) payouts for much less work in much less time

When things are working well, the answer is because honesty is a better policy in the long run. Impartiality, and a reputation for impartiality, is why Which? still exists, at the age of 63. [0][1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which%3F

[1] https://www.which.co.uk/about-which/who-we-are

[Tomte]

Comparably, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftung_Warentest has extremely high trust among the German public.

Yes, every tech nerd is mocking their PC tests, because they are just like a vaccuum cleaner test: unbox, set-up, do mainstream stuff, like writing mails and Word documents. No discussion of GDDR5 vs. GDDR4 or such nonsense.

It's a fantastic resource when you don't know what to look for (until today you never had any use for the tool you now consider buying) and it's not tech (then I tend to look to Wirecutter, for all its faults and controversies).

[MaxBarraclough]

> every tech nerd is mocking their PC tests, because they are just like a vaccuum cleaner test: unbox, set-up, do mainstream stuff, like writing mails and Word documents

That still sounds like a useful test, if only to punish bundling of useless bloatware.

[reaperducer]

because honesty is a better policy in the long run

SV doesn't optimize for the long run. It only cares about the next quarter, or until the buyout comes. Everyone knows the phrase "exit strategy," but nobody knows the phrase "quality and service."

In my experience, 1%† of the people in the SV bubble are doing it to make a quality product. They're just there to make a quick buck.

(† Less than 1% in the Seattle bubble)