Van's Hardware is winding down

[3dGameMan]

"Winding Down

Dear Readers,

We appreciate your support for making us one of the biggest and most influential websites in the world. Running the website is taking its toll. Expenses, threats, attacks, conflicts of interest and intimidating phone calls are making it impossible to carry the site forward.

We will not be updating the site any further. We might, however, eventually release COSBI here and let it go for others to mind.

We have met many beautiful people and appreciate your support. It is because of your encouragement that we have continued to write and publish. Thank you and we hope that you will keep in touch with us.

The Smith Family" ~source (http://www.vanshardware.com)

Sorry to see another great site go :( Good luck in your future ventures.

[egarrard]

Sorry, but I won't miss the site.

I visited a couple of times. He had some interesting articles, but the site was programmed so poorly, it kept locking up my computer every time I visited. Just like the airlines, you don't make money making it hard on your customers. I don't visit Tom Pabst's site, either, and for the same reason. Too darned annoying. I'm there to get to the information, not put up with the junk. I can get the info some where else.

[egslim]

Van is a nice guy, knowledgeble, but unsuited to run a hardware site.

1) He takes things personal and puts his family forward. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but he also tackled controversial subjects without much - if any - tact.
2) He is unable to see the consequences of his actions. He couldn't even predict that publishing the AMD .pdf would attract many visitors, costing him too much bandwidth.
3) He is too idealistic. There are many objective sites that do use adds, but he insisted on not doing so.

He once claimed that when you strictly follow the truth, eventually you'll come out on top. Guess he proved himself wrong, it takes some tact and common sense as well.