I wish there was a concept of paid expert reviews on Amazon/everywhere. A general review system works well (ignoring review gaming) when your concern is "Does this shirt fit?" or "What's the build quality?", but fails when one expert review of "This device is fundamentally unsound," gets drowned out by reviews on the more easily testable aspects ("The band is really comfortable!").
A great example would be when Benson Leung was testing USB-C cables on Amazon to see which were standards compliant.
I considered doing this once, a few years ago, but I couldn't figure out a way to make it work.
It's pretty frustrating that when you're shopping for a laptop, nobody can tell you it'll suspend properly under Linux. Or when you're shopping for a bike light nobody can tell you whether over the summer it'll self-discharge to the point it bricks itself due to cell imbalance. Or when you're shopping for a microsd card, nobody can tell you.... you get the picture.
But to produce honest reviews, I couldn't accept free review units, kickbacks or affiliate money. And people shopping for laptops and bike lights don't need a $$$-per-month subscription to my newsletter/channel/patreon, they just need a few yes-or-no answers.
And there's a huge amount of churn in products on sites like Amazon; you wouldn't just pay for 40 bike lights, review them all, and solve the problem forever. Different models and brands appear all the time.
And even then, just because when I reviewed that microsd card and found it had great performance, nothing stops the manufacturer substituting cheaper components later on, without changing the part number; it's not like there was a specification promising the performance I observed in my review.
I get your point. But ever so often you stumble upon someone actually doing exactly that within their particular interest ___domain, such as the guy in Netherlands who buys and tests bike lights
Apparently something similar is used by Chinese customers reviewing restaurants. They would make a food sign from food pieces that spells "crap food" in slang, but otherwise leave a stellar review for the restaurant.
But this is a negative review that is literally not hidden, to the extent that it is being discussed openly on a site about a completely unrelated topic.
Seconding this, Project Farm absolutely rules. I’m not the target demographic for probably half the stuff he reviews but I’m always impressed with his videos.
That said I’m a little curious if any kind of Gell-Mann effect is going on since he never reviews products that I already have extensive experience with. I’m wondering if anyone has watched any of his reviews and came away feeling like he did a really poor job.
A great example would be when Benson Leung was testing USB-C cables on Amazon to see which were standards compliant.