Aug 29/15. The power was out for tens of thousands of people for days.
I like the gun analogy.
Some people don’t think they need one.
Lots think that if they have one they will be OK.
Some thing they need a lot more than one.
Some think they need a lot more than one AND they have to be powerful…
So there is
No need
Need
Want more
Obsession
We fall into the last category or we would not be here…
i was a 3-12 delivery driver for a long time? i slowly got into flashlights…
once i got my first zoomie? i was HOOKED… nothing like being able to light up house numbers and mailboxes at long distance with a small palm-of-the-hand light
i finally GIFTED a pretty decent 3-D throwy light to a muggles friend? (defiant 650) and it was him and his moms “favorite light”… year or two later?? gave it to me because he couldnt open it?
yep, alkaleaked it, as well as let it roll around in the bed of the truck like a tire iron… no saving muggles from himself.
he aint getting another one, its pointless. I finally gave him one of my last 4-D mags, with the “conversion” rayovac bulb? for LONG runtimes… its a matter of time till he alkaleaks it. and it already looks like a tank ran over it.
its just pointless… and he’s a “flashlight app” kind of guy.
@Hugh Johnson,
LOL
Quoted you in my signature, hope you don’t mind. You just summed it ALL up in a few lines!
Cheers,
Splott-Light 
Deliciously insane indeed! 
Now i know i’m not the only one going out at night naked. :partying_face:
No problem, it’s a privilege.
I think the closest analogy is the EDC knife. Useful at so many occasions - but most people are totally fine without one.
Even without a knife app on their phone¹. 
¹ Rumors say the upcoming xkcd phone 6 will have one!
If the Blade is not S30V or better I will pass.
if it is, I will take 3.
I’ve noticed that, too. Non-flashies act like a flashlight investment is so needless. Amazes me because they always come to me when they need to light something up!
“Why do most people believe they do not need a flashlight?”
Because most people indeed do not need a flashlight, it’s that simple.
I got through 3+ decades without one, which included living on multiple continents in various occupations, experiencing disasters, power outages, etc etc.
Most people in the world do not have or regularly use a flashlight and their lives go on perfectly fine.
When you have one you find uses for it, but if you don’t have one it usually turns out you don’t need one. Funny how that works, with almost everything.
Because most people are women, and the closest man is the utility :sunglasses:
One more answer to the title question: light pollution.
When I first moved here it was dark at night. I used a flashlight to get my mail from the roadside mailbox every evening in the winter. Then they built a shopping center less than a mile away, and put up more street lights on the road near the shopping center. I don’t need the flashlight to get the mail anymore.
2nd answer, the local power grid is much more reliable. We used to have power failures of 8 hours or more about once a year, haven’t had a single power failure in about 3 years now.
Cellphone apps probably are good enough for most people’s day to day needs.
Not owning at least one good real flashlight is still incomprehensible to me.
Hello, I have been reading and not posting anything in a while, but this thread intrigued me for a couple reasons so I will reply. Mind you, these things have already been said, and I'm kind of repeating them from my own perspective in a way. Actually it's quite pointless but I felt like writing something and it took me some time so eh might as well click "save"
A few pointed out that people don't think about getting a good flashlight because often they've never seen one. 100% agree. I was surprised as hell to have used a decent modern torch for the first time. It wasn't made of cheap plastic. It felt solid and I appreciated its smooth threads. I didn't have to fiddle with forcing three AAA batteries into some crappy spring container. It put out a LOT of light which also was not ugly blue! I could select a mode with less light when needed. WOW! Do any of you remember that first time, when you discovered how useful (and fun) it would be to carry one? Walking with a friend at night, we would feel like a police helicopter spotlight.
Those people who do see such light being used might google and learn it's an expensive military technology worth $100 (as proven by the G700 scam). They're not likely to just magically stumble upon a quality flashlight deal without reading BLF or CPF first. Even experienced hikers most often own an overpriced, underperforming Petzl (or other "big outdoor brand") 3×AAA plastic headlamp with a cheap cool white XP-G they bought back in 2010. To learn about how good and budget-priced chinese lights can be you really have to spend time searching and reading the forums, it's such a niche topic.
Can't help but quote what I think is a good answer
What interested me was that some of the people here took it to the other extreme and try to convince themselves it is needed to carry X-flashlights in case of emergencies and whatnot. While technically true, it smelled to me of that stereotypical prepper who buys things in case some 0,01% chance bad event happens. One youtube video made me think this way: instead shouldn't you worry about more probable tragedies like cardiovascular diseases and get lots of exercise outside, eat healthier, take regular first aid courses, study automobile safety, learn useful languages, you know? Point is, collecting flashlights, knives etc. is certainly fun. But let's not make it look like a reasonable "safety strategy" (cannot think of a better term sorry).
Please don't think my intention was to offend anyone. I'm myself checking Simon's store each week and would also probably purchase some crazy 26650 throwers just for shits and giggles if I could
Yay! I’m famous!
’Though as far as carrying X flashlights, each one serves a different purpose. My EDC is a “compromise” light, standard 1-mode ’502 with pill+reflector, so nice throw and “usable spill” (even though I hate that term).
I carry a WK50 if I need modes but nothing terribly bright, and bobofett just to burn through “dead” AAs. Retired my S2+, and most of the time I don’t even carry my VG10 in my bag. “On me” is just my ’502. No keychain lights or anything, even.
So, I’m pretty much covered without carrying half my collection on me.
Oh yeah… As far as “flashlight apps”, even though my phones have touchscreens, they’re not quite “smart”. More like “developmentally disabled”, so those apps don’t do me any good, nor would I use them if they were available.
Using a phone as a flashlight is like running your car’s engine just to sit in the car for heat/AC. Not only is it a waste, but it’s just not a very good solution.
I like to buy friends keychain flashlights and the first reaction is typically “uhhhhh, ok?”, in other words, everyone likes a gift, but they are a little puzzled about the utility of carrying a flashlight on their person every day.
The fun part is asking them about it 6 months or a year later and hearing how enthusiastic they are about owning it and how they won’t ever go without one again, needing a little more or a lot more light, happens frequently in life, less so perhaps for someone who lives in a condo and works in an office, than for people with yards and sheds and garages, pets, hobbies, and who work outside of an office, or who work into the evening.
Give a man or woman a hammer and suddenly they discover there are a lot more nails in the world than they were aware of before.
I leave most of my flashlights on the kitchen counter. I don’t have that many of them, but there are currently 5 of them there. What surprises me is that even though my wife is very similar with the awesomeness of the RMM Supfire M6, she will pick others from time to time to let our dog out in the backyard. It’s almost like she likes to try them out. She’s never said anything to me, but I’ve seen her use them. So I think deep down, she is now a flashlight fan. Not crazy like me, but it appears she now appreciates quality flashlights.
You know, lately I’ve been betting on simplicity when talking to ‘normals’, from personal experience: if they ask, I just say unless you need power for a very long time or to cover a lot of ground, you don’t have to be a collector (no such thing as a Portuguese version of “flashaholic”) like me: just pick a solid one that’s as uncomplicated as it gets. Nowadays I know of a small but growing number of people that are happy with the basic Lumintop Tool or Thrunite T10 - click to turn on, click to turn off, button mash lightly to pick one of 3 modes. I don’t even bother to list lumens or runtime, and no one’s complained yet.
(Still hoping Convoy someday makes a 3- or even 2-mode AA light, it’d sell like water bottles in a hot day)
I’m Portuguese and I’ve been recently converted to flashaholism So, we are out there 
First, I’m glad that I’m not alone in most of these feelings of needing/wanting light in our world and life! Without making it pollution, ’course!
Second, I’m glad to be in BLF, a place where it doesn’t matter how many lights we have, we can say we like or love them, share or borrow them, mod or create them, destroy or improve them, buy and sell them…a place where all of us use them! No matter how many times a day, week, month or year, for work, for fun, for whatever we like or need!
I can tell you, I don’t have many flashlights, but those I have I use them in such significant things as:
- put the key in the lock keyhole in my home (yeah, I could switch the hall’s light like everyone else does…no fun!)
- lighting my sitting room with my 2 S2+ with the diffusers just to read BLF recent posts (yeah, I could switch the room’s light…no fun!)
- going to WC in the middle of the night without waking myself (…same as above…no fun! :person_facepalming: )
- going for a walk and, just for fun, light some spaces to see what’s going there, even with “blinding lights” in cars and buildings
- checking my walls (at night) for bitting mosquitos in summer time (switching the room’s light would wake everyone… not fun, bad humour!)
- to strobe my face while dancing in a party and make people laugh!! (this was fun )
- just for fun, throwing light into a dark field with 100mts extension, and check…the nature!
- (…)
Some many things that make a flashlight useful!
Last Christmas I offered 4 lights to my family, to keep in the cars, to check the animals outside, to go to the backyard, to do whatever they needed.
Every time they see a new light I bring home it’s like “Another? Aren’t you tired of spending money?!” (hum…not yet!!! :laughing: )
Or “Why do you carry your flashlight inside even in the daylight?” (just…because?!…)
So…not all of us have the same passion, need or knowledge about lights, and lots of people probably wouldn’t understand it or wouldn’t want to understand it! But…that’s why we’re here :+1:
+1