

The Inquirer reaches end-of-life - FpUser
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3084741/the-inquirer-reaches-end-of-life
The Inquirer is closing the curtains. This is sad, I loved their style.<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theinquirer.net&#x2F;inquirer&#x2F;news&#x2F;3084741&#x2F;the-inquirer-reaches-end-of-life
======
willvarfar
Once upon a time, long long ago, it seemed the post-cover-mag-and-bbs
programming world consisted of the reg, the joelonsoftware forum and then the
inquirer.

That was before proggit and then here, HN.

The inquirer started off as humour and investigation, but for many fans the
inq faded when Mike Magee (a founder of the reg, who split to form the inq)
moved on. I stopped following along when it became more and more corporate
sponsored PR. Well, we've abandoned the reg too when it fell to the same fate.

Still, this is a sad, sad day :(

Please hope the internet archive archives everything properly forever.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Back in those days, my list also included Tom's Hardware.

Especially before Tom moved on, TH's reviews were uncommonly balanced and
rigorous.

~~~
ksec
Oh yes, and Anandtech.com

It was the late 90s and early 00s. Those Pentium IIIs, Pentium 4s and AMD
Athlon 64 reviews.

I am surprised how many knew El Reg and The Inquirer. I guess The internet was
small then, I bet many under 30s may not have even heard of the two. We dont
even do searching. We just go to Yahoo Directory and randomly click on some
links. That was what _Surfing_ the internet was really about. ( Might not have
been the case if you are from US, from I have been told Surfing Internet was
basically surfing AOL at the time)

I think Ars was in similar time frame, but they were not really daily news
site, and focus more quality lengthy articles.

All these were before RSS was even a thing. I remember using a program called
Website Monitor to check for changes to website. Thinking of it now make me
realise how early it was my news addiction started.

Making a web page was basically GeoCities, doing anything serious on the web
meant Perl / CGI-Bin, Front End was just simple ( in relative terms ) DHTML.

While we might have other communication and messaging platform ( IRC ) before,
I believe ICQ was the first real "Instant Messenger". I remember my ICQ number
being 6 digit only. That was pretty cool for its time as it meant you are
early members.

Gosh this is bringing back lots of memories... While I dont read Inquirer any
more, much like OP I moved on once Mike left the site. Somewhere on the back
of my mind I know it is there, sometimes seeing links from Inquirer get posted
on Reddit or HN, and put a smile on my face.

I guess I am old. Sad to see it go.

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Angostura
I think we should raise a glass to Mad Mike Magee and what he has wrought,
First at El Reg, then at The Inquirer.

I used to bump into him quite a lot in the 80s when we both worked at VNU.
Really nice guy, but - as a young journo - also quite scary :)

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mprev
If I’m reading it right, the website will go offline after March. That seems
unnecessary if VNU are still the ultimate owner.

~~~
Deukhoofd
VNU doesn't exist anymore, it was completely bought out and renamed The
Nielsen Company.

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geek-advised
Oh, come on Santa...my wish list said gizmodo!

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peter_d_sherman
Thank you, The Inquirer, for your excellent tech journalism over many years!

History will remember you fondly!

------
adventskalender
Why shut it down and not sell it?

~~~
hobofan
Would you buy an online magazine that is (all assumptions) unprofitable, has
negative growth, and not a good brand image?

~~~
Apofis
Brand recognition and pennies on the dollar. I'm really surprised they decided
to shutter instead of sell it. It's definitely still worth something.

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hyperion2010
I'm fairly certain that exposure to The Inquirer during my youth is what
fostered my interest in the tech industry. Though I have not read it regularly
in years I would not be the person I am today without it. It will be missed.

~~~
moomin
That’s the thing. No-one’s read it recently...

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rl3
I'll miss it. The Mike Magee days were the best.

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FpUser
I will really miss those people and their quite refreshing writing style. Best
luck to them and may we meet again in some new online venture.

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a3n
There's something sadly dutiful about being asked to accept cookies on such an
announcement page.

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ngcc_hk
“ we're still waiting on 10-nanometre desktop processors after all.” or 7 ...
quite fun still.

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AltmousGadfly
Learn to Code ™

~~~
baud147258
If it's the same kind of authors as the register, I'd wager some already do.
Also I don't think those that wrote for the inquirer are the kind of copy-
pushers that gave rise to this meme.

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scarejunba
> ...due to a recent decline in digital advertising, along with a change of
> focus for the business, it was time for The INQUIRER to go dark.

Oh ho, well well well.

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rvz
To avoid becoming EOL'd these days it's about time to start inquiring about
learning to code.

