Foxpop PDA Site Closes Down

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.foxpop.co.uk/newsviews/News1.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.foxpop.co.uk/newsviews/News1.htm</a><br /><br /></div>Sad news, that PDA site Foxpop has closed due to continued health problems and a massive workload. As part of their farewell posts, their Palm Editor discuss their startup six years ago writing about the Psion in the early days of the Internet: <br /><br />"In this environment Foxpop flourished as a loose grouping of individuals doing it for fun, spending their own money on ISPs, software, hardware etc., just because it was a hobby for them. We wanted to find out what was good and what was bad in the PDA world, and writing about it was a way of crystallizing our thoughts. It was a pleasure to receive an email which revealed that someone had read what we had written. Two things have changed which explain why Foxpop cannot go on any longer: the internet is now primarily a market place, and the number of users is so vast that there is continual pressure for more and more content. It has always been the style of Foxpop to produce detailed, often lengthy, often comparative reviews, which is painstaking work and receives little thanks (let alone financial support) from the companies whose products we write about 'warts and all'. Compare what we did with a site like PalmInfocenter, where one in three 'articles ' is just a cut and paste job on a press release (I know, I get the original press releases too). I could mention other popular websites where the content is as illiterate and shallow as a conversation in a bar; but that is exactly what is wanted, both by the commercial interests and the vast majority of readers. In an internet where sites like that are successful, Foxpop is unsustainable."<br /><br />We wish the Foxpop team all the best in their new ventures. It's a shame when fellow PDA sites can't carry on any more. :| It sure is a busy, busy, demanding Internet out there. :? Is it primarily a market place as Foxpop say and is there a place for PDA sites that do try to go the extra mile? Thoughts?

[Tierran]

Heh, sounds to me like a bunch of sour grapes. :roll: 'We're too good for this jig, we're unappreciated'

[PR.]

:(

I've been visiting that site since it was for the Geofox One, the Psion sites were rare and this was a good one.

Good luck to them all in the future!

:( :( :( :( :(

[pcraigmile]

I really enjoyed Foxpop. I liked the idea of a website that came out once a month with a series of quality articles. They had a nice balanced look at different PDAs and laptops, and were big supporters of Psion in its hayday. When Psion passed, they focused more heavily on Pocket PCs. Coverage has been pretty spotty since the New Year, so I guess one could have guessed the end was near. :(

[Jason Dunn]

So I'm feeling a bit offended by that message because there are times when I'll do the "cut and paste" press release type of post, simply because it's impossible to make EVERY post a detailed, thought-provoking post - sometimes you just want to inform your readers as to what's going on and that's it. I think there are places for both in the industry, but slamming sites that take that approach seems like unnecessary bitterness to me. It would have been more graceful to bow out with dignity...

I think one important element is not trying to be everything to everyone - I thought Foxpop had a niche with detailed reviews, and that they weren't a news site, but maybe I was wrong. :?

Anyway, I know how hard it is to run a Web site, so I don't blame them for knowing when to call it quits - I hope they enjoy their "retirement". :-)

[Fishie]

With all due respect Jason, no one did nor does indepth like foxpop did.
Its quality all the way and as always pure quality is not fully appreciated by the masses.
It didnt have a corporate feel and in todays internet world looked way out of place but the people there seemed to have a real love for what they did.
Something that often seems to be missing from the more streamlined mainstream sites.

[Stephen Beesley]

I always liked the detailed reviews on the FoxPop site - I spent hours reading various psion reviews back four or five years ago when I first started thinking about moving from the Newton Platform. As It is I went for the Pocket PC, which given the subsequent history of the Psion I am rather glad of: to be abandoned by one platform might be considered bad luck but to be abandoned by two..... (you get the picture :D ).

I am glad to see that the farewell message on the site holds open the possibility of "...exploring ways to continue with the quality reviews and articles that are the hallmark of FoxPop". There is no mention of what they plan to do with the existing reviews, but I hope some new home will be found for them as they are a very valuable resource.

[ctitanic]

FoxPop was a great site and I think that many users don't understand how hard is to keep alive a site with that style. When you have a site like this one things are a little more easier because you have the news and you have a forum. If you keep posting dayly news linked to your forum you always will have traffic. If you add to every news or just some of them your personal opinion that opinion becomes a source of debate and the debate is what keeps alive your forum within other things.

Foxpop did not have that style. It was a source of good critical and proffesional reviews. They had to pay for many or the majority of the reviewed devices I believe. Many users believe that all OEMs are willing to send you items to be reviewed and that's far from the reallity. Just a few of them do that and those that do that are not those selling "popular devices". So to keep a site like that, paying for the web, for more bandwith everytime that you gain more addicts to your reviews, and on top of that paying for the devices that you are going to review is more than what any of you can do for a hobby.

I'm talking about hardware because they are more expensive than software. To write reviews about software is a little easier because programmer like to give free copies to reviewers. But a good web site like foxpop need to have both kind of reviews.

And the last point is time. We have all a job which sometime does not have anything to do with our hobby. A site like this one or like foxpop demand at least two hours everyday, counting Saturdays and Sundays. If you have a good team, a big team that two hours can be splited by all team members and that will make the job easier. FoxPop team was not so big like this sites team or like www.todopocketpc.com team so they had to spend a lot of time keeping the site alive. And at the end they discovered that they were not willing to spend that time anymore and they were not willing to pay anymore that huge amount of money for that hobby. That's all.

I'm very sorry about the material posted at that site if it's not keeped accesible in any other site because like somebody already said, it's really good and I hope that they are willing to give it somebody that could host it and keep it accesible for future users.

[JamesM]

Jason Dunn wrote: So I'm feeling a bit offended by that message because there are times when I'll do the "cut and paste" press release type of post, simply because it's impossible to make EVERY post a detailed, thought-provoking post - sometimes you just want to inform your readers as to what's going on and that's it. I think there are places for both in the industry, but slamming sites that take that approach seems like unnecessary bitterness to me. It would have been more graceful to bow out with dignity...

I think one important element is not trying to be everything to everyone - I thought Foxpop had a niche with detailed reviews, and that they weren't a news site, but maybe I was wrong.

Jason, that quote was from someone on the editorial board, not one of the owners of the site. I agree with you that FoxPop wasn't a news site at all - new material was updated monthly. It was a niche site to me, with unique detailed reviews of devices and software. Here is a quote from the top of the page, from Elisabeth Liddell, the founder of the site:

Due to continued health problems we have had to take the decision to close FoxPop. The workload is massive, and it is impinging on our health. As you may know, Mike had to retire from teaching on health grounds a couple of years ago and I preceded him down that road by quite a few years. As long as FoxPop was something that we enjoyed we could take the financial hit, and accept the workload/time involved. But continuing in what has become a full time job that not only doesn't pay anything but costs us - and also damages our health .... well maybe it's time to draw a line under the venture!

We decided that the best way was to simply stop, rather than letting the site dwindle and slide into decay due to disuse. And from the point of view of paying the maintenance bills, we can keep the shell in place for a while at minimum cost.

I hope the content can be saved in some form or another, and I will miss FoxPop.

-JamesM

[chirurgen]

Like all good things this had to come to an end. Nothing stays the same, sites come and go both in quality and relevance.
Having said that, the Foxpop site was one to which I would return whenever i required a decent, thoughtful and accurate review of software or hardware. From the Psion days to the PPC, it has provided a consistently high quality of indepth reviews.

I for one will sadly miss the site: though I am sure that something will take its place; perhaps not to its high standards alas.

[JustinGTP]

Wow - never heard of it ever, but I doubt I will miss it, the user interface and logo are horrible.

[Jason Dunn]

Wow - never heard of it ever, but I doubt I will miss it, the user interface and logo are horrible.

Content is king young Honda...but a nice layout + content is unbeatable. :mrgreen:

[JustinGTP]

Wow - never heard of it ever, but I doubt I will miss it, the user interface and logo are horrible.

Content is king young Honda...but a nice layout + content is unbeatable. :mrgreen:

What, like your sites? :twisted:


And enough Young Honda, that is ever so getting old! (So totally last year)