There's been a lot of talk recently about ethics, review styles, morals, and personal conduct in the YouTube sphere lately, so I wanted to state for the record who I am, what I believe in, and more importantly, the expectations I set for myself.
I'm Jeff, and I run the YouTube channel Craft Computing. I focus on a WIDE variety of interests, ranging from Consumer PC hardware, PC Gaming Handhelds and Mini PCs, to more professional topics like servers, workstations and enterprise IT.
As for my experience, and why you might want to listen to me, I worked as an independent contractor doing MSP-type work, as a helpdesk technician and manager, and later as an IT Administrator and IT Manager over a 20 year career.
I founded Craft Computing nearly 8 years ago as a way to share my knowledge, experience, and passion for technology. I feel I can add to the tech community by providing tutorials on subjects I have a great deal of knowledge in, and provide consumer advice around both hardware and its use.
That said, I'm also not attempting to be the forefront of authority, nor the most detailed review outlet. At it's heart, Craft Computing is literally a guy in his basement, drinking beer, and sharing his love for both good brews and good hardware.
The job of a reviewer is to advise consumers on potential purchases, to either recommend or dissuade certain choices, and provide a better value to the consumer, no matter what their individual needs are. And it's the last part I truly like to focus on, as not all consumers have the same needs.
People build PCs and Servers for a variety of reasons, and an even wider variety of situations. My job is to find if a product has any potential value for those use cases. That doesn't mean only the fastest, quietest, smallest, or cheapest parts, because everyone has different needs and wants.
Buyer's guides and consumer reviews means having an open dialogue with my community, to see where different needs are. Find out how people are using hardware, and what they're building, and then find the parts that best fit those use cases.
But part of my job is also having an open dialogue with the companies who make those products. Companies trust my insight because they value honesty above all else. If a product is good, I'm happy to recommend it to my viewers.
If a product is bad, or doesn't meat a use case I can match it to, I'm honest about that as well. But I also provide recommendations to the company on how they might improve their products in the future to better meet the needs of their customers.
I have certainly slammed my fair share of products, but I strive to always provide actionable, reasonable improvements that a company can make to improve them in future revisions. I'm also there to celebrate when a company turns a miss into a hit. That means I've done my job right.
I also run my channel with a strict moral code. I only accept sponsorships from companies and products I vet ahead of time, and constantly evaluate those relationships. I do not accept money for product reviews, as I don't like the optics of it.
If I make a genuine mistake, I believe in open, up-front corrections. I make those corrections as visible as necessary, depending on the impact of the mistake. A wrong number in a chart is not as egregious as collecting incorrect data. Updates, comments, or full retractions are all options.
So, that's my personal moral compass and ethos as a reviewer. If you're into bringing positivity into the world, being passionate about your hobbies, or even just enjoy craft beer, I hope you'll stick around, as I'm having the time of my life being able to share my love of tech with you all.
If you would like to support me and what I do here at Craft Computing, I offer a full range of hand crafted merch over at craftcomputing.store, or you can join the Patreon and get access to my Discord server, where I hang out nearly every day, patreon.com/CraftComputing
Craft Computing
There's been a lot of talk recently about ethics, review styles, morals, and personal conduct in the YouTube sphere lately, so I wanted to state for the record who I am, what I believe in, and more importantly, the expectations I set for myself.
I'm Jeff, and I run the YouTube channel Craft Computing. I focus on a WIDE variety of interests, ranging from Consumer PC hardware, PC Gaming Handhelds and Mini PCs, to more professional topics like servers, workstations and enterprise IT.
As for my experience, and why you might want to listen to me, I worked as an independent contractor doing MSP-type work, as a helpdesk technician and manager, and later as an IT Administrator and IT Manager over a 20 year career.
I founded Craft Computing nearly 8 years ago as a way to share my knowledge, experience, and passion for technology. I feel I can add to the tech community by providing tutorials on subjects I have a great deal of knowledge in, and provide consumer advice around both hardware and its use.
That said, I'm also not attempting to be the forefront of authority, nor the most detailed review outlet. At it's heart, Craft Computing is literally a guy in his basement, drinking beer, and sharing his love for both good brews and good hardware.
The job of a reviewer is to advise consumers on potential purchases, to either recommend or dissuade certain choices, and provide a better value to the consumer, no matter what their individual needs are. And it's the last part I truly like to focus on, as not all consumers have the same needs.
People build PCs and Servers for a variety of reasons, and an even wider variety of situations. My job is to find if a product has any potential value for those use cases. That doesn't mean only the fastest, quietest, smallest, or cheapest parts, because everyone has different needs and wants.
Buyer's guides and consumer reviews means having an open dialogue with my community, to see where different needs are. Find out how people are using hardware, and what they're building, and then find the parts that best fit those use cases.
But part of my job is also having an open dialogue with the companies who make those products. Companies trust my insight because they value honesty above all else. If a product is good, I'm happy to recommend it to my viewers.
If a product is bad, or doesn't meat a use case I can match it to, I'm honest about that as well. But I also provide recommendations to the company on how they might improve their products in the future to better meet the needs of their customers.
I have certainly slammed my fair share of products, but I strive to always provide actionable, reasonable improvements that a company can make to improve them in future revisions. I'm also there to celebrate when a company turns a miss into a hit. That means I've done my job right.
I also run my channel with a strict moral code. I only accept sponsorships from companies and products I vet ahead of time, and constantly evaluate those relationships. I do not accept money for product reviews, as I don't like the optics of it.
If I make a genuine mistake, I believe in open, up-front corrections. I make those corrections as visible as necessary, depending on the impact of the mistake. A wrong number in a chart is not as egregious as collecting incorrect data. Updates, comments, or full retractions are all options.
So, that's my personal moral compass and ethos as a reviewer. If you're into bringing positivity into the world, being passionate about your hobbies, or even just enjoy craft beer, I hope you'll stick around, as I'm having the time of my life being able to share my love of tech with you all.
If you would like to support me and what I do here at Craft Computing, I offer a full range of hand crafted merch over at craftcomputing.store, or you can join the Patreon and get access to my Discord server, where I hang out nearly every day, patreon.com/CraftComputing
Thanks everyone, and cheers🍻
2 months ago | [YT] | 1,284