I’ve just seen Zanflare pushing one of their lights on a thread where someone was asking for recommendations, and that feels borderline to me.
I feel that people asking for recommendations are looking for ideas from real users like them, rather than manufacturers pushing their stuff. The manufacturer’s vested interest in getting sales makes me nervous in that scenario.
Just PM the vendor, and ask. It helps if you can show examples of previous reviews. Some prefer new reviewers to review lower cost products first, and if they are happy, then they will allow you to review higher priced products. They also like it if you are on multiple forums (e.g. BLF, CPF, Reddit), post videos (YouTube), and are on multiple social media platforms. I’ve never had any issues from vendors with any negative comments in reviews, though I try to word things politically e.g. if a light overheats in 30secs, recommend it for “experienced users” who can manually step down, rather than complaining too much about poor heat handling.
if you click that link you will see at least NINE separate “reviews” of the Manker E02, just on the first page of the search result. I searched for “review marker E02”
this is another example of a Vendor using “reviews” for Social Media Marketing.
imo, ALL “reviews” should be in the commercial forum. When I click the non commercial link on BLF, I do NOT want to see multiple “reviews” of the same light, over and over, and over and over, and over and over, and over and over, and over…. (that was 9 times over)
if you go to page 2 of the search result, you will find even more E02 “reviews”
You would think the E02 is a very popular light, but actually its just a pile of freebies being distributed to “reviewers”.
As long as people continue to get free samples, they will continue to SPAM the NON COMMERCIAL forums with “reviews”.
People who get free lights are participating in SPAMMING, unless they post their reviews in the Commercial Forums ONLY!