Definitive answer given to why DPR is closing

[Mackiesback]

My sense is it's just an Amazon cut back, though how much can site cost them vs what they're getting from sales due to clicking on the Amazon link here. But the other thing that bothers me is that not one employee has said in any version, that I know of, HELP SAVE DPREVIEW!!!

You don't burn your bridges.

Don't see the connection

As a soon to be former employee of Amazon/DPReview, you are in a hunt for a job probably in a very similar line of work, maybe even working with or for some of your former coworkers. Going out kicking and screaming from this job will do you no favors in getting your next. They know it will not be saved, they know the numbers, and there is zero benefit in making a spectacle of it. Its not professional, this is 101 level stuff.

Kicking and screaming? Where the hell did you get that? I am speaking of a possible effort to keep DPR up and running. End of story

Be well

Rick

I dunno, all caps, bold, underlined and three exclamation points maybe? LOL.

Yeah you're missing the point.LOL

Well I saw the connection...LOL.

 

[RoccoHT]

as could be read on the Dpreview related news, and on the Aboutamazon page Dpreview linked in the said news, we could understand all of this is due to financial issues as part of the big operation of cost reduction the parent company is doing. is it still safe keeping an active balance on their website? do you think the products delivery can also suffer from those strong financial issues?

 

[Bob]

I suggest that a good forum should have members with a verifiable identity. Members should also be charged a monthly fee, starting at $0.25 per month, which increases by another $0.25 every time an AI moderator deems an offensive, toxic, or off topic remark is made.

 

[tbcass]

The $$$ earned by dpreview is less than the $$$ spent on it.

Such sensible pure logic is not allowed around here.

 

[RoccoHT]

I suggest that a good forum should have members with a verifiable identity. Members should also be charged a monthly fee, starting at $0.25 per month, which increases by another $0.25 every time an AI moderator deems an offensive, toxic, or off topic remark is made.

yes, indeed.

I would be happy to pay a monthly fee to keep Dpreview as it is (till 7/8€/10$ a month seems reasonable for full access)

 

[tbcass]

My sense is it's just an Amazon cut back, though how much can site cost them vs what they're getting from sales due to clicking on the Amazon link here. But the other thing that bothers me is that not one employee has said in any version, that I know of, HELP SAVE DPREVIEW!!!

You don't burn your bridges.

Don't see the connection

As a soon to be former employee of Amazon/DPReview, you are in a hunt for a job probably in a very similar line of work, maybe even working with or for some of your former coworkers. Going out kicking and screaming from this job will do you no favors in getting your next. They know it will not be saved, they know the numbers, and there is zero benefit in making a spectacle of it. Its not professional, this is 101 level stuff.

That is correct.

 

[Marty4650]

I suggest that a good forum should have members with a verifiable identity. Members should also be charged a monthly fee, starting at $0.25 per month, which increases by another $0.25 every time an AI moderator deems an offensive, toxic, or off topic remark is made.

In that case, I would be paying $200 a month for membership!

It would price me right out!

 

[tbcass]

I suggest that a good forum should have members with a verifiable identity. Members should also be charged a monthly fee, starting at $0.25 per month, which increases by another $0.25 every time an AI moderator deems an offensive, toxic, or off topic remark is made.

I will never pay to be on a forum. Your plan also gives too much power to the moderators because what is offensive or toxic can be quite subjective.

 

[John Fantastic]

I know this sounds like an absurd question when you think about it, but has there actually been a definitive answer given to why DPR is closing?

I thought it was obvious to anyone with a reasonable understanding of business economics.

I will not explain because if it isn't obvious to you, you are most unlikely to understand my explanation.

The Guy is asking an honest question. Your answer is quite rude. That is why I don't regret DPR closing down. It is because of people like you who thinks that just because you think you know the answer and others don't they must be idiots.

Hahahahahaha now you will definitely miss DPR because you won't have people to bully around. hahahahahaha good for us.

 

[mfinley]

I know this sounds like an absurd question when you think about it, but has there actually been a definitive answer given to why DPR is closing?

I thought it was obvious to anyone with a reasonable understanding of business economics.

I will not explain because if it isn't obvious to you, you are most unlikely to understand my explanation.

Then please give it in laymans terms.

The $$$ earned by dpreview is less than the $$$ spent on it.

I think people have way to simple an explanation.

If DPR earned $400 that is earning more than spent on it, that doesn't mean it's worth dealing with as part of a company that did 164 billion dollars in sales last quarter.

 

[egk4260]

There may some interest in paid forum sites for a select few, but I suspect the reason Amazon purchased this site years ago was to facilitate sales. They are looking to increase traffic rather than attempt to drive it away through some arbitrarily punitive membership fee structure. I imagine Amazon is generating a lot of traffic on DPR, but with too many users like me who have never purchased any photography gear through Amazon, is apparently not generating the required level of sales through clicks from DPR to consider it an ongoing priority in their restructuring.

 

[OpticsEngineer]

No, I don't think he personally made this decision. I think he made the decision some certain number of jobs were to be cut according to metrics that he set up. And it trickles down from there.

 

[Photato]

I'm pretty sure, not knowing details that the simple reason is that Amazon was losing money with DPR.

More likely Youtube, Tiktok, Rumor sites affiliated links were driving more sales and with less investment than this site to Amazon, plus Smartphone keeps getting better, although never a replacement for Pro work and folks here were not clicking the ads.
Add the fact that the camera market has matured, slowed down and the economy is in trouble, it all makes for the perfect storm.

Now, I believe there was potential to make this site profitable.
DPR should have tried as last resort, a subscription model with extra perks but still free access with limited features, or some other ways.

Looking at the large outpouring of comments, even emotional ones, gives me the impression that this site has room for profit and management couldn't figure out how to make it viable.
There are other sites like Imaging Resource with less readers that somehow have managed to survive. Go figure...!

Considering all that, I believe it was a bad, rushed decision.
Yes, corporations make mistakes. Otherwise we would still buying Kodak cameras from the Sears online store using IBM computers or a Motorola smartphone.

 

[Dallas Dahms]

I'm pretty sure, not knowing details that the simple reason is that Amazon was losing money with DPR.

More likely Youtube, Tiktok, Rumor sites affiliated links were driving more sales and with less investment than this site to Amazon, plus Smartphone keeps getting better, although never a replacement for Pro work and folks here were not clicking the ads.
Add the fact that the camera market has matured, slowed down and the economy is in trouble, it all makes for the perfect storm.

Now, I believe there was potential to make this site profitable.
DPR should have tried as last resort, a subscription model with extra perks but still free access with limited features, or some other ways.

Looking at the large outpouring of comments, even emotional ones, gives me the impression that this site has room for profit and management couldn't figure out how to make it viable.
There are other sites like Imaging Resource with less readers that somehow have managed to survive. Go figure...!

Considering all that, I believe it was a bad, rushed decision.
Yes, corporations make mistakes. Otherwise we would still buying Kodak cameras from the Sears online store using IBM computers or a Motorola smartphone.

This is unfortunately what happens when accountants are put in charge of decision making at a corporate level. They are myopic when it comes to the non-financial implications of the things they decide on.

An example of this reared its head yesterday when a non-photographer friend asked me about a problem with the mic on a Nikon D3100 he had sold to somebody. A quick search led me to a thread here. There are undoubtedly many more other questions about cameras that will lead people here, so how does closing this site down benefit anybody when it could be used to drive traffic back to its parent company?

 

[Grimstod]

With DPR being such a huge repository of data will there be any place online to access all the info that has been gathered on it in the future or will all this data just disappear ?

 

[Mackiesback]

I'm pretty sure, not knowing details that the simple reason is that Amazon was losing money with DPR.

More likely Youtube, Tiktok, Rumor sites affiliated links were driving more sales and with less investment than this site to Amazon, plus Smartphone keeps getting better, although never a replacement for Pro work and folks here were not clicking the ads.
Add the fact that the camera market has matured, slowed down and the economy is in trouble, it all makes for the perfect storm.

Now, I believe there was potential to make this site profitable.
DPR should have tried as last resort, a subscription model with extra perks but still free access with limited features, or some other ways.

Looking at the large outpouring of comments, even emotional ones, gives me the impression that this site has room for profit and management couldn't figure out how to make it viable.
There are other sites like Imaging Resource with less readers that somehow have managed to survive. Go figure...!

Considering all that, I believe it was a bad, rushed decision.
Yes, corporations make mistakes. Otherwise we would still buying Kodak cameras from the Sears online store using IBM computers or a Motorola smartphone.

This is unfortunately what happens when accountants are put in charge of decision making at a corporate level. They are myopic when it comes to the non-financial implications of the things they decide on.

An example of this reared its head yesterday when a non-photographer friend asked me about a problem with the mic on a Nikon D3100 he had sold to somebody. A quick search led me to a thread here. There are undoubtedly many more other questions about cameras that will lead people here, so how does closing this site down benefit anybody when it could be used to drive traffic back to its parent company?

Emotions and business are a bad combination. As much as we love to blame accountants for being heartless and soulless, driving traffic to answer questions in your example does not necessarily lead to any revenue generation. The only guarantee is that it will lead to costs.

Not sure why people can't see this.

 

[Mark B.]

With DPR being such a huge repository of data will there be any place online to access all the info that has been gathered on it in the future or will all this data just disappear ?

per the article linked at the top of the page:

"The site will be locked, with no further updates made after April 10th 2023. The site will be available in read-only mode for a limited period afterwards."

It doesn't say how long. So your guess is as good as anyone's.

 

[PHAER]

With DPR being such a huge repository of data will there be any place online to access all the info that has been gathered on it in the future or will all this data just disappear ?

Yes, sometimes I feel most of the attention is given to the forums/community. It is fair, of course! It's the "human" part of the site! But it's possible to find a replacement platform and rebuild the forums somewhere else.

But the same is not exactely valid for all the content, the gear database, reviews, ... the encyclopedia that DPReview has became on the last quarter of a century. That's not "rebuildable". If it's lost, it's lost. And also sad.

 

[tbcass]

Yes, sometimes I feel most of the attention is given to the forums/community. It is fairm of course,

What is a fairm? I couldn't find anything with a Google search and Grammarly doesn't recognize it either.

 

[PHAER]

Yes, sometimes I feel most of the attention is given to the forums/community. It is fairm of course,

What is a fairm? I couldn't find anything with a Google search and Grammarly doesn't recognize it either.

It was a typing error which I corrected, I'm sorry