Why are Aurabuy Shills so common?

Raccoon City shows it all in the Lights under $11 thread.

They obviously want us to be so annoyed that we never buy from them again.
I’m irresolute about the motive though. Maybe a cry for help from way over-worked employees which see their only rescue in going out of business? All very speculative. :wink:

It depends on your definition of a shill. Many members on BLF are reviewing free flashlight samples in exchange for reviews. Several seem to avoid drawing to much attention to the negative aspects of many of these free lights. By doing this, they hope to greatly increases their chances of receiving more free samples in exchange for positive reviews.

Can you pick them out? :Sp

I’ll just leave it at that…

The finish is paint, the tailcap bit my finger and its a three mode….low, strobe and strobe……I give it 6 stars.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/18830

I seem to be an shill for FastTech. They should start paying me :(

**I thought fastech had a lot of shills here but those ended up being just a bunch of “happy” customers. lol. how many other vendors give the actual capacity of their batteries? none that I know of. honesty goes a long way for me.

I think it just proves we are loyal customers when you treat us right .Shill and spam and you're going to get flogged here on BLF . One thing is for sure . An Avoid on BLF is seriously hard to get rid of .

I knew they were desperate if they had to ask me to do a review for them, but I didn’t realize they were that bad.

dx asked me to do a review. i agreed, but they would not let me pick the light. they told me it shipped, and a month later almost told me it had not been shipped. that was last week and still do not know if it has shipped or not.

the light was a TF A8 clone, and it was going to be compared to the BLF A8.

im really not too worried about it because if it didnt measure up to the a8 build quality, it probably would have been my last review with dx

im not sure why these dealers want people to do reviews for them? most of these lights are available at other stores also.

Well most reviews make you want to buy the light, and many will use the link in the review. Plus it shows up in search results.

Since no one asked, I'll tell you what I find weak and a complete sellout;

There are reviewers, elsewhere and more disturbing, here on our own BLF and not excluding among the top few that first come to mind, that in tone and actual word are obviously something more than objective reporters of fact and/or a reflection of what they honestly feel the truth to be.

More than a few sellers have reached out to me initially only to inexplicably fade away upon discovering, either through reading something I wrote or from me simply spelling it out for them, that the "generosity" of providing Foy a product to review will by necessity, be unceremoniously sacrificed on the alter of truth, facts, my credibility and my sincere desire for objectivity and an honest reporting of my actual feelings.

So far it seems, most sellers are more interested in the large number of people here they know will read a Foyreview, than they are in what Foy thinks of their product. And to be sure, there is nothing new or even wrong using a review to get the word out on their wares. As long as, A) their participation is resolutely limited to providing the light and B) the reviewer never rewards receiving a "free" light with an insincerely motivated review, a review that differs from their actual feelings or, as I see all to damn often, a review that so obviously panders, I lose interest as well as respect.

The few to whom this applies uncomfortably squirms, so much the better. Stop parlaying your popularity by cautiously unoffending the seller.

Foy

well said foy, with the one light I received foc for review, I tried to be as subjective and clinical as I could be, but tried to write it in an amusing way, net result….well as I say, its the one light I received foc for review.

It is difficult to be subjective, but for your own integrity its vital, lets be honest, your not going to receive many lights for review that you actually want or need, you have to buy them, the freebies, well at best its a nice gesture but not really worth whoring yourself out over let’s be honest.

Exactly

I have actually had sellers do the same. If you send me crap… I’m gonna say it’s crap. The whole ‘shill’ deal really isn’t problematic to me. I don’t read reviews by anyone other than a few in here.

the chance would be a fine thing, I like your reviews spas and definitely bravo on the lights you get hold of, I just find its too much effort for the whole review thing, my time is limited and precious so I tend to just give my opinions on a light that arrives in whatever thread I discussed it, then get on with ripping it apart and fitting what I feel it should have been sold with or assembling the host as I see fit, its why most of my recent builds have been hosts rather than modified lights, I’m a bit disillusioned with what tends to turn up in my price range, reviews would suffer a similar bias - its a nice light, but it needs this this this and this….

I do keep harbouring a desire to ship a couple of builds off to foy to let him cast his critical eye over, see if I’m blowing smoke or if they are as acceptable as I think they are.

mmmf, where did spas’ s post go?

I had second thoughts and decided it's probably best to not get embroiled in the debate. Sorry Graham :D

A man with your modding talent... there isn't going to be much to pass the gords appreciation factor LOL :P

Btw how has the feedback been on the gords special worklight ?