Welcome to our community at Overclockers.com! This article is about who we are, where we came from, and what we value! It’s also a bit of an FAQ.

The Overclockers.com Mission

We’ve been online since November 1998, and we pride ourselves on sticking to the same ideals we were founded upon!

As put forth by Joe Citarella, Skip MacWilliam, and Ed Stroligo:

We are a team. We are a community. We are a fellowship made strong by mutual respect and shared dedication to the task of enriching all who come here. We are respectable, for we share our bounty. We will endure, for we continue to grow. We will continue to grow as long as those who come to us find what they need for their own betterment, and the betterment of those who follow after them.

We are a community of technology enthusiasts helping each other get the most out of our computers and peripherals while also upholding ethical and moral standards. Our forums are strictly moderated to maintain a friendly and helpful atmosphere where everyone can get help, have fun, and enjoy our hobby! If you’d like to be part of the group or you need some help cranking up the Mhz, anyone can create an account – once you are registered, the “New Member Welcome Mat” is a good place to say hello and get started!

Who runs the site?

You run Overclockers.com! The site is produced exclusively by its readers and members. Here is a small sampling of the technical aspects of what our volunteers do for the site:

  • Site Direction – Our values and focus
  • Topic Identification – Identifying interesting topics, finding members to write relevant material
  • Article Composition – Amateur members produce all original content
  • Editorial Production – Reviewing content to provide feedback to authors and maintain consistent quality

Our lead editors are listed on the Contact page. These individuals provide guidance, schedule publishing, and maintain a consistent focus for the site. They are regular members from our own community who volunteer their time, keeping fresh content on Overclockers.com in an effort to carry on the OC tradition and customs set forth by those who came before them.

Our forum staff is listed on the forum leaders page. The Red and Green guys enforce the rules in an effort to keep the place welcoming, friendly, and helpful for everyone! The gentlemen in blue are exceptionally helpful members who have been hand-picked to be recognized for their spirit and contributions – they set the bar, leading by example for how members are expected to act maturely, politely, and share what they know with others. It also acts as a bit of motivation – exceptional members who participate in the forum while upholding the site’s core values are eventually recognized and asked to wear the blue stars to formally represent our site within the community.

Everyone involved in our daily operations are regular members of the community, some have just volunteered their time and accepted a bit of extra responsibility to keep things running each day!

Who owns Overclockers.com?

A History Lesson

As mentioned previously, the site was founded in 1998. At the time, Overclockers was run by Joe Citarella, Skip MacWilliam, and Ed Stroligo on an old server in one of their basements. We eventually outgrew that, both from an administrative and hardware standpoint.

In September 2003, the site was purchased by iNet Interactive, a social media company that managed our bills, arranged advertising, and took care of the back-end hardware and software which kept the site running. In daily operation, iNet supported our technical needs as we expressed them while entrusting the community with full editorial control over content and focus. They were a relatively small shop that helped us keep the site running and supported the community. In 2015, iNet was acquired by a large media company called Penton. Then in 2016, Penton was acquired by Informa, a $1.5-billion, UK-based firm. Overclockers.com, like several other former iNet sites, were never fully integrated into the Penton or Informa portfolios. Ultimately, we were not a strategic fit as Informa sites tend to target industry professionals, rather than consumers/enthusiasts. I had been waiting for years for this opportunity to present itself and we sprang into action.

Current Ownership

After several months of back and forth, we were finally able to close a deal. Informa has been helpful in keeping the lights on and supporting us through the details. Big thanks to Informa, because as of June 2018, for the first time since 2003, Overclockers.com is independently owned and operated by three members-turned-owners; mdcomp, EarthDog, and ATMINSIDE. We keep the lights on through a company we formed for all the income/expenses to flow through; Overclockers Media Group, LLC.

What to Expect

Leadership

The blog will continue to be run by the same group of editors with key contributions from the community.

Moderators will continue to run the forums and actively participate in all community decisions alongside the new ownership.

Advertising

We will actively pursue partnership opportunities with relevant advertisers to help cover costs. Our vow is not to bombard the membership with advertising, we will do our best to retain the status quo in terms of the ad real estate on the page. One of the perks of registering for the forums will be limited ads for members, while guests may see additional ads.

Content

To the best of our ability, we will continue to bring you product reviews, industry news, and how-to guides. As was customary in the old days, community submissions are encouraged. We will invest as much as we can in content that interests the community. If you have an idea or would like to write for us, please contact us!

What runs Overclockers.com?

Overclockers.com runs on a dedicated web server.

I want to improve Overclockers.com. How do I get involved?

We have an excellent forum thread that explains how our content engine works at Overclockers.com – its a great introduction to getting involved! We handle our business casually as we are all hobbyists here volunteering our time, which has some great benefits. We are extremely flexible and we spend a fair bit of energy figuring out how to make new things work within the vision and focus of the site, and we are not quick to shoot down any solid suggestions. There are limitations to what we can do, but we look for ways to make things work first and only discard suggestions as a last resort.

I want to complain. How should I go about that?

Criticism is often the quickest path to progress, especially when it is constructive. We want to hear it! We have a feedback form which allows you to give us your feedback without jumping through any hoops. The form notifies the site leadership of your feedback and it is constantly monitored – all perspectives are taken under consideration, and this plays into the decision-making process as the site moves forward. Rest assured you are being heard – every feedback submission is replied to if you provide a valid email address!

When I click “leave a comment” at the bottom of an article, why am I taken to the forums?

We use a software plugin to automatically create threads in Overclockers Forums for each article. You can see what those threads look like in our O/Community Forum. In order to comment on articles or ask questions you must set up an account and login to the forums – once you post a message, your comment will appear in the forum and below the article. This makes it easy for community members to find and discuss articles, while also keeping the quality of discussion high – you will find no trolls, no spam, and no flaming attached to our articles! All guidelines and rules for our community can be found here.

What are these ratings at the bottom of product reviews?

The three ratings assigned to products in reviews are explained here. In short, Overclockers.com does not give awards to different products or arbitrary point/star ratings in our reviews. Instead, one of three ratings will be provided: Approved, Meh, or Fail.

Where else will I find the Overclockers.com community?

Overclockers.com members maintain a presence within social networking sites, participate in distributed computing projects, and also compete in hardware benchmarking. Some links for these items are listed here: