bit-tech: The Next Generation

Written by Tim Smalley

April 6, 2007 | 10:01

Tags: #changes #community #editor #feedback #hardware #modders #new #site #smalley #staff #tim

Companies: #bit-tech #games

By now, I’m sure many of our regular readers will have noticed that Wil Harris is no longer with us. For those that aren't regular readers, Wil announced that he was stepping down from his role as Editor-in-Chief at the end of March, after deciding that the time was right for him to move onto a fresh challenge.

Wil was a driving force behind bit-tech right from its early days. His enthusiasm to drive the site forwards took us from being a group of like-minded computer hobbyists running a popular website from our homes, into a team of extremely dedicated full-time professionals operating out of office premises in the lovely town of Ascot in Berkshire.

The point of my column today though, isn’t to write Wil’s bit-tech obituary; rather, it’s about where we are going next. First though, there have been a few changes in the cast and crew recently, and I wanted to make sure you will all be familiar with the new faces.

"The point of my column today though, isn’t to write Wil’s bit-tech obituary; rather, it’s about where we are going next."

I’m sure every regular forum reader has come across Richard Swinburne at some point on their travels. If you haven’t, please say Hi to him – he posts under the name Bindibadgi, and despite the rumours that fly around GD, he honestly doesn’t bite.

Rich has been writing for bit-tech on a part time basis for a long time – it’s almost three years now, if my memory serves me correctly. After seeing the light, he abandoned his pursuit of a PhD in Biochemistry and joined the full time team on February 1st. Since then, he has made some great progress and having already got his first CeBIT out of the way, he’s got some great stories to tell the grand children (just please don’t mention the Munchen Halle / SanDisk party!).

More recently, Joe Martin joined us this week after writing for a number of predominantly games websites and studying Linguistics and Creative Writing at University. You’ve already seen him pop up a couple of times at the top of our news index, and he spent most of this week playing through Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. If you haven’t already read his review, I really suggest you do. You’ll be seeing a mix of different content from Joe, ranging from games reviews to things like keyboards, mice, games controllers and cases.

Brett Thomas has been keeping you in the loop on the latest developments in the world of technology for some time now and you’re going to be seeing a lot more of him going forward. He’ll be working closely with the modding community and has been working to build up some good partnerships with companies to help bring more modding talent into a new level of public awareness.

In the past, it has been said that we’ve not been giving the modding community enough support and that is a perception that I want to dispel. Although I’ve always had a personal interest in modding, it took a back seat when my passion for technology went into overdrive. With that said, modding on bit-tech certainly isn’t going to take a back seat, as there’s no denying that modding has and will always be a big part of bit-tech’s heritage. With a dedicated point of contact for our modding content, I hope that this will give the modding community the exposure it deserves.

In addition to Brett working to develop our modding coverage, we are also working on some big things that will help to further strengthen the modding community, though I can’t really go into much detail on those things at the moment. I’ll be sure to let you know as and when they are getting close. I can promise that the changes will be very exciting.

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On top of a return to form on the modding front, there will also be an increase in game and hardware reviews. While we’ll still be covering the latest and greatest products from AMD, Intel and Nvidia, I’m also keen for us to branch out into areas that have gone relatively untouched.

I’m referring to things like hard drives, power supplies, heatsinks and memory. You’re already starting to see the fruits of some of that hard work with a recent spout of memory reviews and a heatsink roundup, but there is plenty more to do in order to bring you the right blend of interesting and relevant content.

"In the past, it has been said that we’ve not been giving the modding community enough support and that is a perception that I want to dispel."

One question that I’ve left unanswered over the course of this article is one that I hope has answered itself. That is, who is going to step up to take over the role as Editor in Chief of bit-tech? There’s a reason why you can see my ugly mug in the top right hand corner of this page and that is because that person will be me. There have been a few hints as to who it might be cropping up on the site over the last couple of months, but we’ve kept quiet – probably too quiet to be fair – about who would be taking on the task of leading bit-tech into the future.

Indeed, there have been a lot of things going on in the background since Wil’s announcement, and during that time I’ve become increasingly involved in the daily running of the site to ensure there was a smooth handover. Many of our upcoming initiatives were put in motion under Wil's guidance, and we wanted to be sure that things would keep rolling forward under the new leadership. With the handover now complete, it’s time for normal service to resume.

"One question that I’ve left unanswered over the course of this article is one that I hope has answered itself."

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out a facelift to the site, and an absolutely amazing new content management system to boot. Although most of the changes will be behind the scenes, there will be some tweaks to the front end too. I’m not going to give anymore away for the time being though, so you’ll have to wait and see.

All of us here at bit-tech are glad you’ve stuck with us and made our community the vibrant exchange of ideas it is today, and we hope you’ll stay tuned as we embark on our next phase. Some of the ideas you’ll see taking shape are projects that were started under Wil, and we will be picking them up where he left off. Others that you’ll see are our own, and I and the rest of the staff would love to hear about your thoughts on them.

In fact, to that effect, our usual article discussion link has been pointed to a thread in the feedback forum. I want to hear where you would like to see bit-tech, as this is your community too. So do us all a favour and leave your thoughts with us.

In the meantime, I (and the rest of the staff) want to welcome you to bit-tech: The Next Generation. Enjoy the show!


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