by Jason Snell
‘RIP Mac OS X Hints’
Mac OS X Hints founder Rob Griffiths:
The simple truth is that the need for OS X hints has tapered off to near zero over the last 14 years. And that’s a good thing…. The halcyon days were in the 2002 to 2007 timeframe, when OS X was still relatively young—the number of hints per year drops off rapidly after 2007, as OS X became more mature and established.
It’s been 14 years since Rob launched Mac OS X Hints, and roughly nine years since Macworld bought the site and hired Rob. Buying the site was a great move by Macworld’s president at the time, Rick LePage. Rob got to make a career transition and do his hobby full time, and Macworld got a fantastic contributor—not just to OS X Hints but to the main Macworld site and magazine.
Obviously I have no idea what IDG’s plans are for OS X Hints, or even if there are any. But the days of OS X as an entirely new platform to be explored are long behind us. OS X is, as Rob writes, “mature and established.”
[Update: I’ve heard from a few people who think we’re saying IDG is shutting down the site. That’s not true, so far as I know. In fact, given the Google ranking of the tips database at OS X Hints, it will probably stick around in some form forever. But as an actively updated site, it appears to have met its end.]