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News January 15, 2025: The day DSLReports died

Amiga

Amiga

Occasional Visitor
It seems the site's plug was pulled unannounced on DSLReports/BroadbandReports. Karl Bode is quoted as saying, "The owner has been completely checked out for years, I'm surprised it survived this long."

DSLR refugees appear to be migrating to the Ho-Lee-Fooks website (https://ho-lee-fooks.com), but it is missing a ton of tech forums. News and rumors can be found via https://www.reddit.com/r/dslreports/ .

DSLR Nuked.jpg
 
Do you know where any of the tools have gone or where there are replacements?
 
Yes noticed it was not working yesterday. To bad at one time it was a great forum.
 
thiggins said:
Do you know where any of the tools have gone or where there are replacements?
Click to expand...
Was on there for 25 years. Gonna miss it. It's long been a habit to check the site a couple of times a day and catch-up on things.
Most of the tools had quit working a long time ago. Justin, the site owner hasn't been seen or heard from in years. His username was actually not logged into for so long that it became available for someone to use. I used to talk with him, I think the last time was when he was creating the speed test and he asked me to help him with some testing he was doing. I've heard from some other long time users that the mods aren't answering emails anymore and all the domain stuff had the contact info changed so there's nothing listed that's valid. Looks like it's gone for good this time and it's a shame, it was one of the last old school websites.
 
thiggins said:
Do you know where any of the tools have gone or where there are replacements?
Click to expand...
AFAIK, they were all hosted by them, so replacements would have to be found. Their bufferbloat test for instance is probably best replaced by this:

www.waveform.com

Bufferbloat and Internet Speed Test - Waveform

Is bufferbloat causing issues with your internet connection? Run this test to find out.
www.waveform.com www.waveform.com

ATLga said:
Most of the tools had quit working a long time ago. Justin, the site owner hasn't been seen or heard from in years.
Click to expand...
Then who was paying for the hosting all these years? Considering their traffic, it must not have been a $5/month Linode.

If it's trully totally gone, it's a very sad day. I've been a member since forever as well (somewhere in the 00's, back when I was on a 1 Mbps DSL with Bell Sympatico). They've had a 24-48 hours outage a few months ago then came back, so I'm not ready to bury them just yet. Even with the disappearance of Direct Support forums for Bell/TSI/Ebox (which had been VERY helpful to me over the years), it was still a great place to go.

Maybe we need to start a push to move them on SNBForums? :)
 
RMerlin said:
Then who was paying for the hosting all these years? Considering their traffic, it must not have been a $5/month Linode.
Click to expand...
That's been a mystery for a long time that no one really knows other than the mods and they've never disclosed it.
 
For the past few years, DSLReports has been like the spaceship on the TV show The Starlost: The crew is dead, the ship is running on autopilot and heading for a star. Maybe it finally crashed into the star.
 
Bobcat00 said:
For the past few years, DSLReports has been like the spaceship on the TV show The Starlost: The crew is dead, the ship is running on autopilot and heading for a star. Maybe it finally crashed into the star.
Click to expand...
Yes exactly like Starlost. The older UI made it feel authentic. I had no problem with the site..showing the people like yourself posting are who really made it a good site.
 
RMerlin said:
Maybe we need to start a push to move them on SNBForums? :)
Click to expand...
Not sure if this is appropriate, delete if not, but I've been told a lot of the old timers are going to a site called Ho-Lee-Fooks dot com

It's a closed site so registration is required to view (and post).
 
What I don't understand is how people say the site wasn't making money. What were those full page doing that you couldn't even close sometimes? Were those just for unregistered visitors? How much does a forum cost to run? I thought it wasn't much given the text like nature of the site.

PS. I would love if this forum could be a new home for DSLR users. I would prefer that to Reddit which has a problem with trolls.

PPS. Does this forum have direct connection to the SNB review site?
 
Along with this site, it's been the site I frequent each and every day, multiple times. I too noticed it being down the other day and worried it was finally gone. Been going there as long as I can remember, probably 25 years or more back into the late 90's.

Sadly this is likely the future as sites like these go the way of the dinosaur, taking the joy of us dinosaur's with it.
 
ATLga said:
Not sure if this is appropriate, delete if not, but I've been told a lot of the old timers are going to a site called Ho-Lee-Fooks dot com
Click to expand...
I went there, saw it was a private site, couldn't even tell what the site was about, so I left. Nobody will discover that forum if it remains private, therefore it will largely defeat the purpose of a public forum such as DSLReports. I can't even tell if that site discusses tech, politics or knitting - why would I want to subscribe?

Optimus2357 said:
PPS. Does this forum have direct connection to the SNB review site?
Click to expand...
It used to be owned by the same person (Tim Higgins). A few years ago, Tim sold the website to another company, and he only owns these forums now.
 
HLF is a small social forum, mostly people from the DSLR social and political forums. Many are techies but the tech discussion is incidental; if you want a big tech forum you'll have to look elsewhere. You'll need a thick skin and a sense of humor at HLF.
 
MrMoody said:
HLF is a small social forum, mostly people from the DSLR social and political forums. Many are techies but the tech discussion is incidental; if you want a big tech forum you'll have to look elsewhere. You'll need a thick skin and a sense of humor at HLF.
Click to expand...
That's a nice way of saying it. Matches what I've heard.
 
A number of years ago, I found TechPowerUp. I've been there ever since. It's far more technical and gamer oriented with lots of hardware reviews.

Rest in peace DSLReports, you'll be missed.
 
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