Im feeling a bit nostalgic tonight… so please dont mind my rambling.
@moderator007
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at least 250 BLF members had appeared in this forum after being banned from CPF. It happens all the time. Many of those refugees have become great contributors to this forum, with gracious personalities that we have all grown to love and respect. As we say, being banned from CPF is a distinguished badge of honor.
@ToyKeeper
Thanks for the interesting read. I dated a Clinical Psychologist for a number of years, who had more than a few things to mention about online forums. My take: Flashlight affectionados seem to define a certain type of person (me included) who finds a connection with illumination devices at the strands of our DNA. Perhaps it is a hardwired trait that is brought to the surface, as we find unlimited fascination with lighting devices. It must certainly be a part of our inherent survival strategy handed down through the eons. Most of us have a fastidious nature and many are absolute perfectionists. Then there are the large number of chronic nail biters that chew their claws right down to the bloody stumps and go OCD off the deep end, while beating a dead horse to death in ascertaining and discussing trivial minutia. Keep in mind that the professional consensus is that it takes roughly double the lumens for the human eyes to perceive a 20-30% increase in brightness. After reading hundreds of flashlight reviews, the OCD types becomes obvious and immediately identifiable. This is also often true for the low income and/or younger crowds who fester over low cost items, self justification and gratification over the spending of their hard earned pennies. There is nothing at all wrong with that… its just a phase of life for many, and some never outgrow it. lol. As we move up the ladder into more cost prohibitive hobbies (for some) this phenomena dissolves to a higher degree, the crowds are often far more mature and there is a cohesiveness in sharing information. Patriarchal senior members are usually an incredible wealth of guidance, with knowledge brought to bare through the successful professional experience in serving several decades in the field; and there is often no room for false conjecture. Age and maturity certainly come to play.
I havent looked into it, but I wonder if google analytics could shed some light on connecting successful search hits and respondents by domain. Over the past several years, most of my successful searches regarding the latest information in flashlights, emitter performance, drivers and supplies… takes me to BLF. But of course, that is of no surprise!
As an aside, Ive heard it mentioned more than once that a senior jet captain flying for one of the majors, has amassed roughly the same amount of knowledge and continued education as a neurologist. While I certainly am not near that level of pilot, many of my mentors and friends are. When I have questions that personal research does not provide, I know several people who can help with great accuracy and certainty.
@sb56637
Hey ol friend! Is that really a surprise? Thank you for your kind gentle demeanor towards others, and suffering through untold frustration in keeping BLF up and running. Just check out the blue line in TK’s graph. BLF continues to peak in recent history. That large spike near the end was probably attributable to the advent of the GT, however your forum will continue to gain dominance for its kind friendly people and wealth of relevant information that people are interested in sharing. Also, thanks for NOT permanently excommunicating me and several others when we have disagreements!!! :+1: 
@Enderman
Thank you for your thoughts. As I mentioned, the dark side of CPF wasn’t in its casual members, it was in its management predicated attacks against them. My “story” is similar to dozens of others. I was banned after sharing my experiences in converting expensive large 100 watt halogen off road lights to 100 watt remote ballasted HID’s. The simple transplant proved to be an amazing success far beyond expectations, and I wanted to log the modification so others could discover and follow. In doing so, I arose the attention of a mod who touted himself as a self proclaimed expert on the subject. He attacked me without provocation, and I proved him incorrect in all of his obnoxiously communicated assumptions. Of course, the proof was undeniable in my results, and not in his mechanical theories; that were irrelevant… espescailly given the type of conversion. This ultimately lead to him jamming his thumb up his anus, locking the thread and editing nearly all of my posts to suit his own purposes. This came as no surprise… the mods did that to many many members. We have seen it happen time and time again.
Also check my sig. I sold two AN/VSS-3A xenon arc searchlights to CPF members and successfully provided support in powering, switching and wiring them for operation WITHOUT the remote controllers that were meant to operate those lights.
Also keep in mind that an extremely dedicated crack team of BLF members created the worlds farthest throwing commercially available LED thrower… not CPF. And what a robust high performance budget beauty she is! Its just another of a huge line of successful BLF derived flashlights that sold well and are still available. Not so much from the other camp. Uber priced tiny production for a select few was usually their forte.
CPF had its time in history and was once the only place to share our hobby in a way that reached the masses. Their management repeatedly blew it hard and deserve to burn in the ashes they created. We will welcome any remaining members as they become banned from the dictatorial Nazi site! 
