I have been reading a lot of reviews from our members. Some reviewer have been receiving free lights from the manufacturer or seller to review, but it not entirely 100% clearly in some cases that they have received their light free.
Some people put evaluation copy, review copy or per-production copy etc. I believe that this skews the review in favour of the manufacturer or seller. But then again I also ways take all reviews like this with a pinch of salt.
Only if your paying with your hard earned cash can you give fairer review as it is your money that your spending. The question is "Would you buy this light if you had to pay money for it?"
Can I make a suggestion. All reviewers that receive free lights or discounted light should put this in bold red so everyone can see.
I would like to know the your thoughts about this issue.
red or not, people have stated where their copies originated from. it's budget lights stuff after all. i even included screenshots of DD invoices to document my savings ggg. in my Quark review i wrote vaguely "( sponsored item )". i will correct this when i get to continue the ***ing review of the ***ing Quark. no prob.
Depends on who reviews and what. Some might not be able to get over a small thing becasue their expectations were very high and in the end the review concentrates on how the flashlight it is not worth it and all of the sudden the positive aspects are forgotten.
I find HKJ reviews very good, not emotionally involved with anything, many photos and a lot of testing and you draw your own conclusion. For new flashholics or one of time forum posters this might not be on their liking because they want others to recommend them something and not spend time to learn flashlight basics.
No matter how hard I try, I always feel differently about a light I pay for verses an evaluation sample and the reason is simple: the light they give me for review is never a light I would actually purchase. It'd be different if they would let me choose the light I want and give me that one to review . . . probably be more difficult to remain objective. For example; if Olight said, "pick whatever light from our line-up you want and we will give it to you . . . all you have to do is write a review." A few days later, Foy gets a knock at the door and it's a brand new SR90 Intimidator, free gratis.
I've never tried an SR90 nor am I suggesting it's all that but let's assume it was and I was fairly bowled over by it; if I wrote a glowing review, there will always be a certain percentage of readers with blinders on that simply will not accept my claims of objectivity no matter how well maintained my reputation is. The truth is, the SR90 and others like it would probably be a thrilling flashlight for any flashaholic to own and all I would be doing is what I always do; report the experience I had as accurately as possible. If I slammed it, would Olight give me another opportunity? Who knows. Xtar did. I roasted the Wk25 last year and before they sent me the WK21 and Wk26, they said in the e-mail, in essence, let us send you the Wk26, we think you'll like this one better.
It is fairly easy to see through a puffed up review, especially if there are other reviews from that writer. It's also not hard to spot someone merely fulfilling an obligation to write about a free flashlight, either.
Bottom line for all reviewers; there will be those that take you seriously and those that never will. There will be some that believe/like you and some that don't. This is a free site and the only credentials required to be a flashlight reviewer is simply to proclaim boldly, with as much self-importance as you can muster, "I AM A FLASLIGHT REVIEWER." Your hand gets stamped and you walk in. Whether people read you or not . . . that's what matters. You're not a reviewer until your readers say you are . . . and they do that by reading what you write. An ignored writer is not a writer. He is a diarist.
The world is left wing enough , Sample or Paid For ?
Its up to the poster , cos how you going to enforce it ?
Or go CPF route , all links removed and poster banned !
Oh ! , And you want reviews , from anyone , experienced or not , sort reviews , long reviews , any reviews ...
How much you put into what is written is up to you , everyone will have a different point of view , you can either be accepting of such or dismissive , that's your choice .
+ There is no rule against asking questions , if some one missed something that you wanted to know .
I made quite some reviews, got many things for free and paid for a lot more. I present the light just as i see it and hardly influence myself into forgiving reviews for flawed products. Much reviewed material was often my choice so i decided to go with something i knew i would like. I even declined some offers at ome time due to real lack of enthusiasm for a certain product and declined a few which required me to write a oversweetened review. I think many take my reviews with a grain of salt, espeacially if it was a freebie. I'm quite "religious" about writing a review and try to be about as accurate as possible. Granted, what i like in a product might not be the same for some1 else. Still haveing many options to read about the same flashlight one can get a pretty good overall picture of it. Perhaps it's my point of view that differs. I always look for the strong points of a flashlight instead of focusing on the cons. That itself works better for me for the final judegement as the strong poinst must prevail vs. the cons to be ranked highly. No light is perfect. There is always room for improvement. But if we tweak a budget light with a decent driver, multilayer coated leses, HA anodizing, perfect pill, exremely well done centering, premium emitter grade and whatnot you're better off grabbing a stock zebralight (Boaz would say a nitecore :) ) or other high class competitor for sure. ;)
It's a pleasure to review something that's decently made. Unfortunately it is not always the case. I must admit tho, that i'm pretty lucky in that aspect.
I have several lights more i could do a review but i'm not bothering since those are not really worth to write about. I prefer to write about the ones i'm positively impressed with.
Lastly, some reviewers here have gone rogue and do totally different reviews. Foy is one that stands out in colorful writing with a genuine passion for pros and cons. Paired with exquisite macro shots and standard ones are really something to enjoy reading. I like the short info he provides but that never made me to not read it throughly.
I enjoy about all reviews i can read here. There are many subjective points of view about a particular flashlight that adds up to having a greater knowledge of it.
Well I'll be blunt and to the point. And I won't sugarcoat it.
Anyone on here who gets a new light regardless even if it's a sample version for the sole main purpose for a review here only is probably not going to be objective and tell it like it is. The whole review gets iffy when you stop and think about it all being a motive standpoint from the free light in the first place. And I know there is a lot of this going on here. Hard to tell it like it is when you know more lights will be on the way. And that goes for even if you aren't getting the light for free but with a huge discount.
I believe you would be very hard pressed to tell the difference between my reviews where I got the light for free and the reviews where I bought the light (Except for the comment at the end of the review).
Well that don't mean all people, but for the most it will. Again it all goes back to the sole pupose of the intent for the review here. They are sending the light for the sole purpose to make some money down the road, and they are using someone that has some power or clout if you would to help them make money later on. Now if you or anyone else can honstly say they would remain 100% honest and tell all or not leave anything out that you wouldn't if you had to pay for the light is like trying to put a cookie jar full of cookies in the middle of a room full of kids and expect them not to eat any cookies. It ain't going to happen.
There are no doubt that review copies of product are a way to advertise the product, but for a reviewer the quality of the reviews is part of his/her reputation, i.e. the reviewer has some interest in doing a honest review (This is not true for all types of reviews).
What I often do, if I review a bad product (Bought or free) is contact the manufacturer, before publishing the review and give them the possibility to add some comments (See intl-outdoor battery review).
One of my reviews did even cause a product recall.
I do also sometimes test early versions of a product, where I am asked not to publish.
I am not trying to argue with you but again trying to get you to read what I wrote above. I have read your reviews, and I admit I do like most of them. But again it is hard to remain objective and expect all people to believe 100% what anyone is writing when the sole pupose of the review was based on getting something for free. If I was given a brand new Porsche and made an agreement with Porsche to do a review in order to get the Porsche in the first place, do you honestly believe I could expect myself to give a 100% honest review? In a court of law where there are jurors and in cases where gifts or money are given to one as personal favors with the intent to get that person(usually someone of high authority) to persuade or buy them to commit to buy from the one giving the gifts or to influence their decision on a matter only for personal gain is strictly prohibited and won't stand up well to jurors when the verdict is read.
I think if you were given a light to review and then you had to give it back, the review would be more objective, because you have on incentive to give a good review. It will not play on the back of your mind.
We all know in this messed up world we live in anytime you can get something for nothing were going to do it. It's not like your not doing nothing but heck put me on that list to reviews or better yet ILIKEFLASHLIGHTS does his own reviews with beamshots for the sole purpose of US........Which has made me buy several flashlights =) I think beamshots sells.
all you reviewers out there yeah every single one a ya do a great service for all us blf members an its appreciated , keep the reviews comin good luck to ya's an if ya get a free light for review ...so ya should !
I agree that every review should include not only whether the reviewer purchased the item, but the price as well. Of course they could always lie, but it would be nice to have a better idea of how much free stuff others are getting. :p
Depends on what you read on a review. If you look at runtime graphs then there's no way you can start talking about the reviewer that he interpreted that or the other, in some way. It's a fact and anyone can judge for themselves. There's also the personal experience that plays a role in how you interpret certain thing. Knurling for example cannot be understood unless you had good, very good, bad, and no knurling flashlights. There's a part where you have to judge for yourself, it is not necessary to look at the end of the review and see the + and - .
I think it is possible to remain objective when a light is provided free of charge. I've only reviewed one free light (the infamous dinodung light) and I pretty much tore it a new a-hole in my review. Any other lights I've reviewed were lights that I paid for and bought anonymously from various dealers (no ringer lights provided). That said, here are a few points I'd like to chime in with...
I don't purchase a light that I don't want in the first place so you could say I am already biased in favor of that light to begin with. The same can be said of anyone that reviews a light they spent their hard earned money on.
I feel I'd be far more objective on a random light provided to me for review. I'd rather not sacrifice my reputation for objective reviews by shilling myself for a $20-$50 freebie. I place more value on my self-worth to do that.
Ask anyone that has done a fairly comprehensive review of a light. It takes time...LOTS of personal time doing something that benefits everyone else but themselves.
Setting up and taking pictures.
Breaking down the light and taking many many pics trying to get just the right angle or focus so you can see the thread quality or blemishes in a housing.
Taking beamshots.
Uploading and organizing the chosen pics.
Taking current measurements.
Writing the review, adding links to the pics, struggling with the forum comment box trying to make it do what you want it to do until it looks like you intended.
Constant re-editing your post for spelling errors or rewording something that just doesn't look right after you first posted it.
Doing all that hard work that benefits all the members of the forum as well as benefiting the light manufacturer whether it was a complimentary review or not. I would NEVER begrudge anyone getting to keep a torch after all that work. They DESERVE it! Hell, halfway through some of my reviews I realize what a big pain in my ass it can be and wish I never started it in the first place but I do it anyway.
Anyone who doesn't think a reviewer deserves to keep a torch provided by a manufacturer or reseller after the hours spent reviewing it can cram it. God bless those of us who do it for nothing and even more-so those who review then give away the light whether they liked it or not because they feel they have to to satisfy the critics.