Neowin
| Neowin.net's Official Logo | |
Type of site | News |
|---|---|
| Owner | Neowin LLC. |
| Created by | Steven Parker & Marcel Klum |
| URL | http://www.neowin.net |
| Registration | Optional |
Neowin.net is a technology news website that actively focuses on Windows, PCs, Mac and Linux. Neowin runs under the slogan, "Where unprofessional journalism looks better."
History
Neowin was started as a hobby in October 2000 by Marcel Klum and Steven Parker, known within the forums as "Redmak" and "Neobond" respectively.
Neowin has broken several stories, such as the leak of Windows source code onto the internet.
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On July 19, 2006, Neowin surpassed the 5 million post mark at or around 6:30am Eastern Time.
Versions
The servers hosting Neowin were upgraded during December 2005 and Neowin 3.9s was launched. This upgrade, codename "Swift", is a progression from the version 3 theme and introduces subtle visual differences as well as a major overhaul of the content management system, focusing on semantic XHTML and CSS technologies and replacing the outdated nested table design. The forum system was also upgraded to IPB 2.1.3 as part of this move.
On March 31 2006, the Neowin homepage went down for a few hours, leaving the forum and IRC open. When the site went back up, it seemed to the uneducated like absolutely nothing was new. However, the backend had been updated, and the Neowin staff had secretly uploaded Neowin v4 Shift, a new theme which looks very similar to the proposed Neowin 5 design. On April 1 (not as an April Fool's joke, as odd as it may seem), the staff opened Shift up to public beta testing. Shift is not Neowin 5 "Finity" but rather, a transition version, or a shift, to the new version.
The forums were upgraded again in December 2006 to IPB 2.2.1. This upgrade added MySpace-style social networking features to the community. As part of this upgrade the Swift forum theme was recoded (and re-optimized) as Swift Refresh to make full use of the new features in the upgraded forum software. A Neowin v4 Shift forum skin is also said to be in development that will make the forums more closely match the current default front page.
Current Version: Neowin V4.0 Shift PR8 (front page), Swift Refresh (forum)
Audience
Neowin is considered to be one of the great representations of the growth and concentration of enthusiastic users in computing, and of the omnipresent Microsoft Windows Operating System in all its forms. A hot topic of discussion currently is Microsoft's Windows Vista. The subject of this Operating System is debated exhaustively on a daily basis, motivating many users to imitate the appearance of this OS's GUI in Windows XP.
Moderation
The site is fairly strictly moderated, at least relative to some other sites. Neowin does not allow personal attacks between members and flamewars are quickly extinguished. Immature members will typically be banned after receiving five warnings although it has been known to happen much sooner.
Site structure
The website is composed of several areas which all provide different services:
News
There are three news sections that involve different areas of technology.
- Main - general news, featuring articles about various tech-related subjects;
- Gamers - news about both PC and console gaming;
- Software - features mostly Windows software, including updates and beta releases.
Articles & reviews
This part of the site contains content that is original to Neowin and not linked from other sites.
Forum & blogs
These parts of the website provide users an area to talk about technology and other topics.
The Neowin forums are Powered by Invision Power Board forum software. Neowin has an active technology forum consisting of 161,702 registered users (December 28, 2006) and over 6,457,963 posts. At its peak (August 5, 2006 at 21:17 GMT), Neowin's forum had as many as 4,997 users online simultaneously. According to Big-boards.com it is the 5th largest forum on the internet that is powered by Invision Power Board.
While the primary topics on Neowin are generally perceived as being Microsoft and Windows-centric, the forums have a large community for other discussions, including, but not limited to:
- Latest electronic technology: devices, gadgets, and other hardware.
- Customization and tweaking of Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
- Console and PC gaming.
- Discussion of real world issues (politics, religion, philosophy).
- Hardware related topics, such as overclocking.
- Internet and Web Browser discussion, such as Opera, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
- Sports and Automobile discussion.
- Linux and Mac technology discussion
The blog extension of the forum, which allows Neowin users to post things they find interesting in their own personal blog, was only recently introduced with the latest update to the website's forums (3.8). However, it should be noted that Blogs are currently only available for the forum staff, and regular users cannot make their own.
Podcasts
In 2006, Neowin.net debuted it's own podcast, branded the NeoCast. After copyright issues arose, the name was changed to the current NeowinCAST.
The NeowinCAST originated as a discussion based show centered around the video game industry (NeowinCAST Gaming Edition). The show was created by Paul Krevs and Todd Tanner. Weekly topics would range from newly released software patches to the latest gaming hardware. The show, however, was short lived and exited weekly production after only the fourth show.
Originally intended to expand on the NeowinCAST lineup, the NeowinCAST News Edition was also created as a weekly show. Early episodes featured host Paul Krevs and a discussion panel consisting of Shane Pitman, Christopher Vendemio, and Don Smith. As the name implies, the show would center around the latest news in the entire technology industry, with Paul leading the discussion while the other three participants shared their opinions on the subject matter. Paul soon left the show and Christopher took over the hosting duties. However, the NeowinCAST News Edition went on hiatus in September 2006 after commitment issues prevented the show from being done weekly. A consistent panel of hosts could not be found and the project was put on the side.
In January of 2007, the NeowinCAST News edition was brought back online with former NeowinCAST members Christopher Vendemio and Todd Tanner being joined by a new member, Rob Wright for episode 15. Returning to the former weekly schedule, the second version of the News Edition featured a slightly more light hearted vibe with deeper discussion and a greater willingness to go off on tangents. The show was also scaled back in length, shortening from an average of one hour to an average of forty-five minutes. Christopher has often stated this change in length was done to help cut back on editing time, thus helping to guarantee a weekly release.
Software contribution
Neowin has also been known for helping people to release new freeware programs to the public. Some examples of programs that started life on Neowin are AutoPatcher, HardDriveIndicator, WeatherAlert, Neowin UXTheme Multi-Patcher, Nexus Messenger, and Neowin Shift Linux