Epilogue
It is with great sadness and heavy hearts we announce the closing of Gizmo’s Freeware. After due consideration, we've decided to shut down this site tentatively by 15 July 2021 after which it will not be accessible anymore.
Many years ago Gizmo set out to be an independent, unbiased resource for anyone who wanted the best freeware. Along the way, we created an amazing community of readers and editors. We are proud of the site we created, and are even more grateful for you, the community of readers that made it grow.
On behalf of everyone who was part of Gizmo’s Freeware, a heartfelt thank you for making us part of your lives.
For many years, Gizmo paid the cost of running the site out of pocket. When that became too much, we asked you about running ads and you said yes, and we requested for donations and you wholeheartedly responded.
The ads and donations have kept the lights on, and our editors have been unpaid volunteers.
As the world has shifted away from desktops to mobiles in search of flexibility over the years, our traffic and advertising revenue declined, and the proceeds can no longer cover the costs of running the site.
This was a very difficult decision, as you, our readers and editors, have been the heart of Gizmo’s Freeware for so many years.
It’s been a fantastic journey with all of you and we’re heartbroken it has come to an end. We will miss you.
The Gizmo's Freeware Crew
We are looking for people with skills or interest in the following areas:
Comments
Hi Gizmo, only just found the sad advice of closure. If extra $$$ could help I'm happy to contribute - how far would $1,000 go?
We have spoken by phone in the past so I realise you live in a fine part of the world, nearly as good as the Central Coast. Pity we are all locked down for the present and our one time thought of catching up in Sydney isn't on at the moment. One day perhaps. You may recall I was once the Font Pharos in the Woody's Watch days. Otherwise stay well, as the days we were spring chickens are long gone.
I have used your site for many years and count it as one of my most important technical resources. I have donated many times.
I'm sorry to see you go, and you will be leaving a hole that cannot be filled except by your unique website.
If the support of all of us is not enough to keep you afloat, and as the copy is not truly functional, would it be possible to make available for download a functional dump of your website, for our personal use (in the hope that it won't be needed)?
I wish the best of luck for all the volunteers behind this website - your work was invaluable for me and many others.
Very sorry to see the site go. Gizmo's freeware is an honoured entry on my rss feed.
Best wishes to everyone involved.
Words can't describe how I'll miss you Gizmo. So I'll leave it at that and just say "Thank You" from the bottom of my heart.
As a 10 year user of this site, I'm truly sorry to see this great resource shut down. I've pointed many people to this site over the years and made many software recommendations on the reviews of the site. You will be a greatly missed resource. Thank you to everyone who generously gave their time and energy to this site for the benefit of many.
Very disappointed to see this site closing. Thank you for all your hard work and excellent recommendations in years past. Take care, stay safe and be well.
Sorry to see this. I've used this great and reliable resource for years. Never disappointed.
Fair winds and following seas to all!
Sam
You will be sorely missed. You have provide invaluable help and guidance for over a decade.
Breaks my heart that something so good has to shut down! I have been a member for many years and have been helped immensely by your site. I am self-taught, got my first computer in 2000. I understand totally what with all the changes in technology today, it's just a shame that it can't go on. Thank you so much!
This is very sad news. I do not know how much is needed to keep up going, but if the money for my holiday can help to avert this closure, I happily send it to you; After all, £500 will only allow me a week away, whereas "Gizmo" is to be enjoyed all year round. Please let me know.
If we all contributed £5 (the cost of a coffee and a snack), or whatever you can afford, we could avert this. "GIZMO" website is too good to let it go down.
Sincerely yours.
PS. I did wish to contact you personally but didn't know how to proceed. Sorry.
Thank you so much for your generous offer and kind words. Unfortunately the figure you suggest would not even cover one more month of existence. Sadly Gizmo’s has become but a dinosaur in the desert. The online world has changed and our model of honest, volunteer driven reviews without commercial manipulation has ceased to be viable. Such is the power of online marketing that promises everything and then delivers very little once they have your money or clicks. The only way our format could continue is if someone with the necessary resources can guarantee a long term sponsorship or maybe buy the site outright but in 10 days time this will be irrelevant since our ability to fund the site beyond that point will have expired. At our peak a few years ago Gizmo’s had 50,000 visitors a day and none of us thought the tree of free software would ever die. But here we are. The fruits have long since disappeared and the leaves fallen to leave just an empty trunk to remind us of what once stood proud and strong. I would just like to add my own personal thanks to everyone, members, editors and casual visitors alike who have supported our content over the years and endured my offbeat sense of humor. My own involvement will be a few days short of 13 years when the site closes and I’ll never forget what we achieved here or that you out there were the driving force that enabled it to happen. I suppose I’d better mention Gizmo too since somewhere back in the annals of time he had the vision and determination to start this whole thing off. He’s currently travelling round Australia in a camper van with his wife whose family time is now no longer restricted by the demands of his attending to the site. Hopefully they will both enjoy at least one sunset as good as the picture posted by Rhiannon in our closing article. With all best wishes, MC – Site Manager
I've sent several emails, but they are likely getting filtered. I definitely don't want to see Gizmo's shut down, and I have the resources to keep it running. I just need to talk to your admins with backend control. Would love to chat with whoever is running things to see if we can keep all the amazing content online! I have huge empathy for the amount of work it takes to keep a resource like this up and running. It's something I deal with on a daily basis...
Please check your spam folders for emails with "Gizmo Shutting Down" in the subject line, or just message me directly through this site. I'm confident we can do this!
Thank you for explaining this so clearly. I guess the thing that surprised me was that I've been here 13 years and 2 Months already - longer than You, Somehow - and it seems like just yesterday. I AM going to miss you fellow Editors ... but I will crawl the Site through Archive.org ... so, in a way, Tech Support Alert will be forever - just no longer updated.
C. Mc.
Like others, I'm very sad to see you go. Also, like others, I've contributed every time you've asked.
But, given the announcement, maybe the line at the top of the homepage that reads "Support this non-commercial community site for reviewing Best Free Software by donating." with "donating" as a link, should be removed?
Thank you for supporting the site, it's been appreciated more than you know. We aren't accepting any new donations and no new content will be posted on the site.
Gosh. I don't even know what to say... Others have expressed my feelings about this better than I can. I've contributed every year as I do block the ads and certainly hoped my donations would cover that and some more--apparently not enough. I've been a subscriber for as long as I can remember and have gleaned so much from this site, the editors and contributors. A lot of the apps/software I have has been from recommendations and reviews from here and I cannot think of a more important site for that information than what has been distributed here. I will truly, truly miss all of you and it will be with great sadness that I remove my bookmark of which I open every single day. My best wishes for all of you.
Thanks for many years of helpful hints, suggestions, and recommendations!
It was good working with all of you ... the site will be missed ... I wish you all Good Fortune!
(My alter ego *Software Santa will be getting use from the Archive for at least a year to come.)
Gone but not forgotten.
{* I will still carry on listing, without advertising, the best freeware I can find, over at softwaresanta dot com ... I have many many free items yet to cherry pick from this site's Archive: to add to my disordered heap of goodies.}
Terribly sorry while reading your communication.
Your help has been helping me for many years.
Terribly sorry but I undesrtand your difficult decision.
Many thanks for a lot of years of valuable help.
Peter
It's a tough time to keep anything good and worthwhile on the web.
All the best to you at Gizmo's!
Thankful to you for all the good tips people have found here and will most surely even on the archived pages.
Sad. :( One of the very few sites I've felt to be indispensable over the years. I'll miss you.
Thank you one and all for the years of service YOU WILL BE GREATLY MISSED
This really is a very sad day! I found you many years ago quite by accident and I've come to rely on you for truthful and accurate information - very, very sad news!
Sorry to hear that. Good luck! :)
So sorry to read this..and I sincerely wish there was some way to get you to reconsider, but I guess you wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't already explored all other options. Like many others who have posted replies here, this site has been a well-clicked bookmark of mine for many, many years. Sites came and went over the years, but Gizmo's was always constant..you knew you could depend on it for both reviews and links to the best free software out there, without clutter and bloat. This is really terrible news.
If this really has to be Goodbye, then just know everything you've done has and is appreciated very much..and you'll be missed just as much.
If we could generate enough income to keep the site going, we would. :-)
I can hardly believe this, techsupportalert has been with me for many, many years now and always the first source of looking for things I want. I wish you all the very best of everything but I am so, so sad to see you go.
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