I understand completely what you mean but to me its my stand because I refuse to work with a company that is lieing or selling fake products and I sure don’t want to give them any extra customers by reviewing there products.
How would doing a negative review give them more customers? It would help warn us about them.
Pushing Traffic to there website even if its a bad product people may still want to look or even buy to modify.
I’m asking because I sincerely would like to know, but given this line of thinking, do you think my very negative YT review of the COMETA and an explicit warning not to buy helped BangGood sell more or less lights?
Any review contains bias, it is up to a reader to discover what it is worth.
Maybe not buy but push traffic to the website yes for sure. Its. Like those x800 flashlight or is called the g700? How many of us just went to check it out because of that thread?
Well, that’s one reason people organize together — because any one single person alone isn’t going to discover everything.
Now your philosophy and national government may disagree — I’m only quoting the rules for people who advertise in the US.
Not what should be but what is.
I did a bit of searching, though, and you might be surprised how many other national governments also have consumer protection laws and rules — and which ones don’t.
At this point, I’m done and backing away from potential argument about what the world should be like because the potential is rather high I think.
Enlightenment is another form of light, it sometimes come as a flash too. 
I believe here you missed the purpose of my message. Of course I am doing because I like flashlights and it’s fun.
The rest of your post is right on, though.
The reviewer’s unbiased test results and his or her opinions/impressions, together, are valuable to me. When they are available, it doesn’t matter to me whether the reviewed sample was purchased or supplied. I’ll reach my own conclusions.
For me, a useful review must include runtime, output, and lux measurements, and mention either the presence or absence of PWM. As such, I find many flashlight reviews by gear reviewers on Youtube not very useful compared to those found here and on CPF.
This is a very interesting debate you guys have here.
Personally for me it is like Budda says, I have choosen lights to review that seemed interesting and to my liking, Also I accepted the Vollsion because the looks are great.
However IF a bigger shop like Gearbest or Banggood would send me a crappy light with fake LED in there I would write them that I am going to do a short review on it, and because the review would be honest thus a negative one. If the dropshippers are duped by actual shippers they deserve to know it and react to it. And the reaction I would also include in the review.
I just would not go into making tons of pics, so a reviewlike that would cost the most time in communication with provider of the crappy light (for me that is, the text typing takes least time of the reviews)
I disagree that traffic is good, if one publishes a negative review, people might want to see the difference between the advertisement and the review and surely nobody has bought the G700 after the Mhanlen review.
I get the feeling that if the reviewer does an honest review on a crappy light that they may miss out on further lights to review from that seller hence if they dont review a crappy light at all that they have received to review then they may well receive another light to review.
Well I would think if a larger vendor like Gearbest and Banggood does not agree that a reviewer that is honest and also writes negative reviews is not of more value then somebody who only cheers good riddance.
For example I wrote a blog about poor customer service and that nasty “shipped out” while it is only pre adviced AND i have posted very negative here about Gearbest (or well honest about how the problems were treated thus when it got solved in the end also reported that). They still mail things for review, so I think that is good thing.
I am sure all the vendors understand a credible review is more valuable for them.
Wasn’t it Pilotdog68 who wrote real negative reviews on Thorfire lights and they still decided to send him the S70?
Well it was a BLFer who got an S70 for review after posting negative reviews about other Thorfire reviews.
This I like, it speaks confidence and is a good thing, the best of course would be a manufacturer making lights so good no negative reviews can be made but welldealing with the downsides the propr way is second best
!All IMHO!
I tend to discount reviewer opinions that seldom have any negative things to say about stuff they are given for review. The objective information is still very useful (actual measured output, runtime, CCT, etc.). So, I still appreciate the reviews, but I don’t believe all the subjective opinions or recommendations.
Also, I think there’s a difference in expectations between a $10 light and a $100 light. On a $10 light, I can overlook minor flaws and still think it’s a good light (for the price). But those same flaws on a $100 light would be unacceptable. It would help put such things in context if the reviewer stated the price of the light and his expectations of it.
Agree!
Like i said in my Jetbeam review i will be biased because i like Jetbeam as a brand but that is about as biased as i get. But i still wasn’t fully impressed but about 95% But the light was cheap so you cant fault it! price does play a big factor also i expect a lot from a 100 dollar light more then a 10 dollar light!
Then we have a light Nitenumen i feel like i hate it lol i bought that from my own money to use a EDC and its just going to sit here.
OK I received three flashlights from Gearbest for review just one hour ago
I picked them since I am in search of good budget charging flashlights.
One is a NW 26650 On The Road, first impression good. Cell is now in the charger for a discharge test but for now this seems OK
The smaller On The Roaf Olight clone is funny and also OK so it seems.
The third is a less then $6 zoomie with build in USB plug for charging. The tint is awful blue, it has no lvp protection I think (box says charge when it gets dim lol) it is impossible to take it apart to see what cell is in there or measure how it charges
Of course i am going to make dome pics of it looking OK and then tear it apart to do this.
Right bow only price and handy USB vonnector are positive. Zooming, tint, feel all negative
This will be mentioned and whatever I might discover when taking it apart. Simple.
OK. This review reminded me to raise this suggestion.
The idea is the mention of the manner of acquiring to be a mandatory part of the review. If missing, there are probably bias in the review. At least that is my point of view.
It seems to me that there is consolidation of opinion on the need for such a declaration.
How to go about it - recommendation or a mandatory I can not tell.
Mandatory would not help,), how to enforce such a thing, who want that? But above all be not in the spirit of BLF 
Most do it as wished for and most agree to disclose or disclosure is logical and not disclosing is not done.
So let the rare exception do it different and get away with it based on well deserved respect earned from previous actions
It could make the motivation to gain respect based on new actions grow and that can be a good thing!
I guess, I am too used to freedom of speech and maybe in other countries, it’s fine to step on that, but no way would I ever even try to ask something like that. It’s a violation of rights.
Look, this whole thing is just a little off the mark here. Hell, almost every light I ever reviewed, was free. How the hell would I ever be able to pay for them, if I didn't accept free ones? If a manufacturer is going to give me something for free, I am going to take it. I have absolutely no qualms about doing that. If they want me to give a good review for that then they can kiss my arse, but I have never, I repeat, never had a seller ask me to do a good review, just an honest review. As far as reviews being biased?? Every review ever done is biased. We as humans are biased and if any review has anything beyond specifications and measurements, then it is biased. Can people not see this for themselves and just take it all with a grain of salt, or is there someone out here that still believes the internet is nothing but truth??
Sorry, bad day, but I have to side with the guys that get free stuff. Good for you, sellers, for the most part, are just greedy people who make tons of money and hardly have to do anything to make it, except hype it up, so if someone gets something for free from them, good for them.