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Comment by antisthenes | Hacker News Reader

This may sound harsh, but Gear Patrol looks to me like just another content farm with affiliate links, generating "Top X of Y" articles.

Sure it's got a premium feel of the website, but the lack of product specs make its value to me as a consumer 0.

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I've come across a few Gear Patrol articles in my mobile chrome feed and I must agree - they aren't very helpful. It seems like they just want to add to their network with a quality domain name.

> Will all DPReview staff join Gear Patrol? > Our current core editorial, tech, and business team is moving forward with DPReview. Gear Patrol is committed to continuing DPReview’s industry leading journalism, and we look forward to collaboratively investing in the site’s future moving forward.

As I read it, this is corporate-speak for 'no one from DPReview staff will join', so I'd expect it to become more bland content where you wonder if the writer actually used the products or just read the best buy product pages.

I think you read that backwards, move forward in this context means they will continue working with dpreview at it's new home.

Are there changes coming? change is the only constant, but, it sounds like everyone who had a job yesterday at dpreview (a wholly owned division of amazon) will have one tomorrow at dpreview (a wholly owned division of gear patrol) .

The question was "will all DPReview staff join Gear Patrol", and the answer said core as opposed to just simply affirming all, so perhaps not all staff get to keep their job.

For some reason I read the FAQ from the POV of Gear Patrol. I think the use of 'core' threw me off - it does feel like they are trying to avoid saying that some people lost their jobs. I do expect changes, and I do expect them to cryptically worded in a press release :)

Gearpatrol is the worst sort of website, because they do just enough of what could be called journalism to maintain a bit of integrity. Some of their reviews actually contain a critique!

But for every one of those posts, there’s ten where an advertiser clearly dictated the content.

I actually enjoy Gear Patrol. I have had them in my rss feed for years. I understand what you are saying but they do keep me up to date on certain things.

You’re right. I first discovered Gear Patrol many years ago and they featured some pretty cool products and I was a huge fan of the photography and aesthetic of the site. These days, I can’t help but notice just how often the same articles circulate the site and always with affiliate links. I have been visiting it less and less along with Uncrate.com (which did similar things).

I never heard of them before, but, their quality seems pretty good.

https://www.gearpatrol.com/food/a44258552/oral-history-big-g...

That's a whole article with extensive interviews/content/context without (as far as I could find) a single affiliate link (not even a buy link?).

But that whole piece is just a promotional item for the big green egg brand of barbecues. It’s entirely complimentary and written to promote the brand. It’s not journalism, it doesn’t help anybody other than the people who sell those barbecues

Everything is to some degree promoting something else. Are the myriad articles in the past few days promoting OceanGate Expeditions? Their competitors? Titanic tourism in general?

I think that only crosses the line from informational to promotional if Gear Patrol was paid to write/show that article and I see no evidence of that.

> Everything is to some degree promoting something else.

Does the concept of critical-evaluation not fit into your worldview?

And unless actual money is involved, all reviews are equally valid?

Sir, you lack nuance of thought.

Thats was dpreview entire business model though?

Dpreview's reviews from their golden era are of vastly higher quality and depth than anything I've seen on Gear Patrol's website, which also stretches itself thin over multiple domains, not just DSLR photography.

I have little hope that that quality or depth will be replicated in the future.

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