[20-OCT-2015] Refinements of forum categories and rules on affiliate links / codes

SB just gave you what you wanted - a BLF without aff links. Why are you still stuck in ‘rant’ mode? :~ Come on, man, lighten up! We’re all here to have fun and enjoy our hobby together. Let’s not ruin that, okay? You won! You got what you wanted! Time to celebrate! :party:

I noticed there are very many threads that advertising GearBest in the title including a bunch that were started by GearBest. I mentioned it to sb, but he said that they didn’t violate the rules.

I personally find it troubling that there are so many threads advertising GearBest as they are widely recognized as one of the worst (if not THE worst) sellers of flashlights.

Unfortunately they are also one of the biggest vendors that frequently offers insanely good deals. Without banning them entirely, I don't see a way to avoid them generating a lot of buzz. For the record, this is the current GearBest rating page that I myself maintain:

Yep, that is strange. My silent protest is to never click on affiliate links when the non aff link is missing :slight_smile:

i hope to be the less worse pain in your * :wink:

i was also not happy with the rules (ask Sb how often i wrote him :smiley: ) because it was heavily unballanced…

i think the only shop who give the chance not to reward the guy whoms work you are using :wink: is banggood…

okay, some shops use redirects with “shareasale” (which can easily be identified) and a nonaff link makes sense - but i see them seldom here

BUT what do you do in all that cases where the affiliate is not honest and does not tell you that he participates from your order?
some get their share counted on the codes used in total - so everyone uses their “affiliate ID” and bring them money…

they worked around the rules before the great changes Sb made!
every deal now is in its “commercial” section where you can choose to see them or not

… the people who do not take money or points or free goods for their work will proceed and post their deals there also i am sure :wink:

no - not a job, but i invest a lot of time since i am unemployeed since 2 months…

its true - i make money IF i bring you guys deals you find worth to buy :wink:

That’s rather harsh!

I don’t see all affiliates as acting solely for themselves. Some, like M4D M4X, actively participate in discussions, participate in group buys, post reviews, and try their best to satisfy individual requests for discounts or product information.

That is interesting!

It even saves banggood 8% not to use a aff link, when you ask them directly.

So I guess it's just a matter of contacting Neal or GB directly to get the same discount. They will be happy to earn another 8%.

Btw Neal has been quite helpful with a problem I had with my Blf a6. So he is helpful.

I’m moved to suggest a forum subcategory — under Commercial — for reviews by people who got free or discounted lights.

I resemble this remark, recently, I don’t know if they’ve just discovered me somehow or if there’s a big push on.

I’ve heard today from the third flashlight company in a couple of weeks asking if I’d like a free flashlight and hoping I review it at BLF and/or Amazon.

When I checked today’s offer, I find literally more than a dozen topics already at BLF over several years about this same flashlight.

I would like BLF to be a place people critique, and take apart, and improve on — not just applaud — flashlights.

I was thinking of posting “How about a Big Group Review of the ” (until I realized how many threads already exist about the_).

That still might be a good idea, if a lot of us have all gotten today’s email offering a free hoping for yet another review.

Or, maybe, a subforum to identify reviews garnered by giving people free lights — which right now are mixed throughout the site.

Yeah, people do identify them, almost always now, early on in a review.

But it seems, somehow, like it’d work better for us all if these kinds of review got all bundled up together, as a group cooperative project.

Dunno. Whatcha think?

I’m in! I tried to make my review as complete and fair/balanced as I could, but you’re right that a forum category for this kind of review churn-out by manufacturers might help clear some things up. A group review sounds like an awesome idea as well. Maybe I’ll PM you the next time someone contacts me to do a review for one of their lights. Full disclosure: Olight contacted me about the light I reviewed recently and that is so far the first and only time I’ve ever been offered a free product and asked to do a review of it. I thought at first that maybe they picked me especially because I’ve already been a long-time fan of their products. I knew it wasn’t because I might do a quality review, because I’m not known for reviews around here or anywhere else. Yet, lots of other guys are. I still can’t figure out why they offered the same light to a half-dozen or so people on the same forum at the same time. Except that SEO gets a boost from so many people mentioning the product name in whatever (good or bad) context.

I do not review light at the moment, but I do get free stuff to review and I see no reason to post these reviews at another place than for the stuff I buy.

I have only done a handful of reviews… I like the idea of a central location and maybe even a group review. It seems that we tend to find different things we like or don’t like and compare these lights to different lights we own. I do not think that furnished reviews are bad, as long as they are honest, thoughtful and stated up front. Not everyone here will own a custom light, build a modified light or even have the desire to do so. I think that these reviews give an opinion from a sampling of people who have differing skills and desires and therefore may help those who are looking for a good over-the-counter light. When I first started with lights, I used opinions here and other places to decide what I wanted to buy and found it very valuable.

what about a “gentleman's agreement“ on BLF:

we tell IF the reviewed item was free / send as sample with discount without naming the source!

OR

was bought regularly (no chance for the manufacturer or shop to cherry pick)

i trust most blf-members ( and know the few i should not)

so no need to think the separation of reviews itno free stuff / paid opinion / trusted guy / whatever would help.

for sure the black sheeps would lie and the trusted members might get strange views because they say it was free stuff...

Yeh, I’m not suggesting separating reviews.
Quite the opposite — I’d rather see us with one or a few review topics, and as M4X says, those who disclose how they came by the light would get some respect for saying that.

Mainly, I’m suggesting we as a group contributing to one discussion find out more than if we each have our own.

Time will tell.

Right Hank, now all we have to do is figure out how a group review would be done… Small section up top for general specs and a couple of pics and a section for each person who reviews the light for individual pics and comments? Followed by maybe beamshots, I always like to do a comparison with another known light.

I’m amazed at how many reviews we’ve been seeing for the same light from the same manufacturer. I’m almost sorry that I did one now. This group review thing would really help cut down on the noise. And by noise, I don’t mean anything against anyone’s review. What I mean is the sheer number of threads started. Each review thread, good or bad, is gonna add another potential hit for their product in search engines everywhere. I’m starting to think that Olight didn’t even care to get “good” reviews. They were just going for quantity. Please, somebody make group reviews a reality!

One thought I had: Pick a person who would be responsible for the final format (for each review). Others who wish to review the same light can look at what is already written, and send the ‘Editor’ their suggestions, such as adding content, uploading a video review (that they’ve personally done), changing wording in the text to make it more clear, etc. Each contributor would also be allowed to make a concluding statement. Review conclusions are very personal, written from the perspective of the one doing the review. So, I think that would count as that person having done a review. I think it should only be after they’ve made other contributions to the group review. I’d like to know that if I promised a review to someone in exchange for product, that I’m not breaking that promise, even if there are ten other people reviewing the same product at nearly the same time.

Welll, that’s the same problem that got me thinking about this — a flood of reviews for each of several lights being given away free in hopes of reviews just lately.

I suggested our host could create a subcategory here — seller-funded reviews — then we could nudge one another to assign that forum category to posts.

Within that — yeah, we could cooperate more and better.

The first person to post one could call it a group review.
(Or, the first person to want to do that could go back and edit an original post — put “group review” in the thread title and try to gather up the scattered bits).

One shining example of doing it right — the consolidated thread about the ZeusRay — shows it’s doable, if someone makes the effort.
When you start a thread, you could invite others in and state how she/he would like others to contribute (but tolerantly, nobody reads the rules anyhow (grin)).

But honestly, I think sweeping ants or herding cats would be easier than having a rule set to corral multiple reviews.

I jumped into your review, David, and into someone else’s, posted my comments about the S1A and posted cross-references to the other reviews I saw for the same light around the same time — and I consider that enough honest effort. (And I appreciate that you weren’t ticked off to have my comments dropped into your review.)

If flashlight sellers are just wanting more individually posted threads to get more SEO hits, they’ll learn not to bother me. If they want serious comments, they can ask.

Yeah, truth is, if I’d known there were so many of us hit up by Lydia for a review, I would’ve probably considered doing just what you did. I do appreciate the many different POV’s in the various reviews, but we could’ve gotten the same effect (or even better) with a well-orchestrated Group Review. As it is, we got a bunch of duplicated effort and what amounts to just noise (multiple threads of the exact same topic) taking up space on our forum. Most of a review is simply observation, and it’s the same light we’re all reviewing.

David, I agree with most of your thoughts about this. I do think that we would still need to incorperate extensive personal thoughts for each light. Maybe 1 photographer per thread and such…

Yes, I agree. I’d like for all the specs and such to only be mentioned once, instead of multiple threads with the same info. But, of course, each ‘reviewer’ needs to have something significant to add on top of that.