Why DPR will be a Zombie site

I came across this article in the UK Guardian, which explains the death of Buzzfeed. Looks like it is not just our beloved DPR and other photo sites that are slowly becoming zombies, but a whole raft of sites based on the written word. The article talks about news sites, but I think it is valid for a much wider spread of content producers.

Looks like people are increasingly getting their information from YouTube and Ticktock video. It was striking to see in the later days of DPR, just how many people posted links to some video or other. Looks like "DPReview TV", was a desperate attempt to keep the DPR ship afloat.

Maybe it was not the "evil" Bezos, or a fall in interest in photography, but a shift in how people get their information.

I guess I’m just old. I hate watching video reviews. When DPReview posted them, I ignored them until a proper written review was done.

With the written word, you can skim and ignore the stuff you are not interested in. You can go back over a written review far more easily. Watching a video wastes so much time, most have the content buried in the presentation.

I find almost the totality of YouTube videos to be too superficial to be useful. But I quess it is less demanding to watch a talking head. Some wag told me the other days that "books are so old skool". I despair at times.

I fully agree with you 👍🏻

A superficial review is a superficial review. Regardless of the medium.

really?

I also thought of DPR when I read that, but the situation for now seems a bit different there. The article in The Guardian refers to a number of sites that are still accessible but frozen in time at a mostly abrupt closure. They are dead as the well known parrot. DPR is indeed more of a zombie, with an occasional item and some forum activity. What the purpose of this is, remains unclear,
But the article does not add much about the why of this demise

The article is quite clear about the rise in people preferring video, over those reading a written text.

I have to agree with every word above. Videos take far too much time to say what one can easily read. But then, the quality of written material is not always good, and I dread the advent of AI reviews, which presumably will just spout the bleeding obvious!

I suspect that most of those who have migrated here agree with us. If so, that will help to ensure that the site will persist. I notice that the argumentative brigade here have run out of steam, and hope this is not a temporary affliction! I have had my fill of the theory of exposure triangles and ISO settings...

David

Really, yes, really, in our society where ignorance must be "celebrated".

True. And intelligence is attacked and derided.

I honestly think there is room for both if that is what people want. I have used both, although if a video is very long, like most thorough ones are, I tend to lean towards organized written words. That way I can skip things like video capability.

One factor I haven't seen mentioned is the use of Ad blocking. At one point at DPR, there was no forum content visible without having to scroll down after opening the page. I got AdBlock Plus and was now able to read the top part of a list without scrolling past that big stupid banner. I assume that adblockers do reduce revenue - as I was bluntly informed by a DPR Mod ...

Except there is? 🤪

That was always the case.
In 1980, Isaac Asimov wrote:
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.