The Robservatory:

Dearly beloved…

On this, the occasion of its 14th birthday, we’re gathered here to mark the passing of Mac OS X Hints.

While it can be hard to tell exactly when a web site has died, the signs are fairly obvious. It’s been over 45 days since the last new hint appeared on the site. There is no way for new users to sign up for an account. There’s been one new comment posted in the last two days. A sidebar box proudly proclaims Latest Mountain Lion Hints. The site design, logo, and icons were last updated when I worked for Macworld, over four years ago. To paraphrase a Star Trek character, “it’s dead, Jim.”

While Rob, the originator of Mac OS X Hints, makes a clear case as to why the site is no longer as needed as it has been in the past, it’s dormancy is still a shame. It was a site many of us relied on in the early days of Mac OS X to try and figure out the ins and outs of the new operating system.