Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Misleading Posts

uhhh Mark, I think you know this, but I was in NO WAY calling you a vendor, or anything near dishonest. In fact, I have always looked at your posts on new equipment as a SERVICE to us as well as potential promotion for vendors.


Jay
 
With the freedom for all to post an opinion on a particular product, I think Reduser offers as much protection as you can reasonably expect here.
Anyone who posts an opinion has some reason to do so. Their motives may be to be helpful, make a buck, put down a competitor, seek approval, self promotion, etc etc...

And the product may or may not have represented the best value for you.
For one reader, the product may represent manna from heaven, for another it may represent a rip off.
Of course it's buyer beware and you're a fool not to get opinions from many sources.

The bottom line is it's all just different forms of marketing and most people have bought something that representated poor value to them.
It was either poorer than expected build quality or their return on the investment was practically nil.
Either way they lost money. What do you do? It's your fault. Look after your money.
The guy on the other side of the counter aint going to ask you to present a solid business case before he sells you that $7,000 matte box. you life may have been much better off buying a $3,000 MB, $3,000 follow focus and taking the wife on a $1,000 dinner you both wouldn't forget. The ebay trader selling you his knock-off MB for $1,500 may be your wisest choice. can't say...everyones different. You're needs are different to mine and your build quality requirements are different to mine.
Who ripped you off more, the guy fooling you by selling you expensive goods way over your needs or the guy who sold you inferior goods? Dunno.
It's an open & relatively free market here. We protect each other somewhat because people post different opinions on the same item.
But having the option to buy a piece of equipment at $500 or $15K sounds alright to me.
D
 
Jay A. Kelley said:
uhhh Mark, I think you know this, but I was in NO WAY calling you a vendor, or anything near dishonest. In fact, I have always looked at your posts on new equipment as a SERVICE to us as well as potential promotion for vendors.


Jay
Click to expand...

totally understood - just wanted to comment as Offhollywood was used as an example - but yes, it is a very thin line - I try my very best to be as transparent as possible -
 
I don't think the line is always that thin. If you represent a vendor / manufacturer, or agree to give a product a review for reward, you should disclose that fact very clearly.

I seem to recall a certain well-known camera manufacturer creating a fictitious personal blog singing the praises of a much-anticipated camera just before its release, and "forgetting" to mention that it was a marketing ploy. It left a pretty nasty taste.
 
Moir hit it. This is much more the kind of activity I was trying to point out. It's a form of misrepresentation, which in and of itself is disingenuous.

Look, this is about business and how business is conducted. And in many ways about how business SHOULD be conducted, both to be honest to clients and to be fair to the products and their development. I certainly didn't start this trying to create any issues for legitimate business dealings, and I consider much of it legitimate. Abel and I myself traffic in this as well. Let me clarify:

Jay Kelley has become a good authority here on REDuser. He talks in great detail about how certain tools function and how they do or do not work together. Because of this, manufactures naturally seek him out to check out their gear. Jay will get access to the equipment long before others so that he can test it out. He'll offer up some opinions on certain functions and maybe will come up with something that improves the product. And then once the timing is right the manufacturer will give him the go-ahead to write publicly on it. There's certainly the understanding that if he hates the widget he'll decline comment out of good manners, but if he likes it he's free to tell everyone and frankly rather expected to.

THIS IS A GOOD THING. ;-)

It gets information out there to people. It also helps a manufacturer develop product. And there's nothing sneaky or nefarious going on. Wanna know why we all heard about "a handheld rig of some kind" from Element Technica for more than a year before the Mantis finally came out? That's because they were sending prototypes to guys like Steve Gibby who was then testing them in the field. And even though Steve was free to tell the forum about the device he also gave ET tons of feedback which they used to continue to develop the product. I personally think that's great.

Jay and Steve are not the only ones. Certainly Mark from OffHollywood, Evin Grant and a half a dozen others are notable participants on REDuser who offer their opinions on gear that manufacturers send directly to them hoping to get comment. I have done this myself with some of these people. When we made the first prototype with Switronix for their hotswap battery mount I sent the unit over to Mark for him to try out.

I think all of this interconnected activity is a good thing, as it helps to make better products and an effective conduit for getting the word out there to the community.

So what was I warning about? I know of two companies that have marketed here on REDuser in the last year by pretending to be an end user. In both cases it was an employee or sales agent pretending that he/she was not that but instead actually "just" a REDuser that had recently purchased the item and just loved it so much that he/she just had to post about it. This to me crosses a line and us not honest representation. And Jay noted, I'm in a position where I cannot be the one to point out exactly who it was, but I know some of you have figured out one of them and the other company is one that I know and I privately sent an email letting them know I didn't think what was done to be kosher.
 
So this thread boils down to no one wants misrepresentation or hidden agendas...yeah.

D
 
Abel rules (I'm not a plant). You've been a huge asset to have on the boards Mitch, thanks, and thanks for all the great gear!
 
Cheers for the praise Jay...appreciated. But don't forget the most important one...likes to protect redusers from bullshit artists.
Dave,

ps: what happened to your puppy video..my 7 yo really wanted one after seeing that.
 
david farland said:
Cheers for the praise Jay...appreciated. But don't forget the most important one...likes to protect redusers from bullshit artists.
Dave,

ps: what happened to your puppy video..my 7 yo really wanted one after seeing that.
Click to expand...

Sorry David,

I have to tease my friends cause my enemies keep beating the shit out of me when I do it to them...

You mean Joshua's video? It's alive and well... Broke 900,000 views so far.. When it breaks a million we're gonna have a party. here's the link, click on it a few thousand times for me will ya?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRM6gZ8Lw_k&feature=channel_page
This link is to a new higher rez version.. Only a thousand on this one

Your bud
 
Cheers Jay...watched it again.
there's no doubt we've had a rich & interesting history, so you'll know if the goods gets past my 'evil' eye...it's done alright.

Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top