Very interesting comments by the original poster. Also some very interesting responses, some of which veer off the main point.
FWIW, I agree with the original poster that reviews, or even comments regarding a product that do not constitute a review, must remain as unbiased as conceivably possibly. There are a number of ways that bias can and often does interfere with presentation of facts. It is incumbent upon the reviewer to excercise restraint to remain unbiased. It is not always the case.
edz
Hogwarts! This is BF not CN. Meandering is not only
allowed, it's encouraged.
Often a meandering thread ends up in a more interesting place than where it started. Look, I'm actually meandering about meandering!
Okay, off rant, back to the OP. Charles has opened a can labeled "
Lobbyist Worms" but as to whether or not there are any worms in the can, or whether or not the worms have been paid or perked to lobby support for ZRs, I don't know.
I can understand how such suspicions could arise from witnessing the shocking events that occurred in the financial sector over the past few years.
If "quants" with Ph.D.s and MBAs from Ivy League schools could pander their "toxic assets," why not forum members pandering Chinese bins?
However, my gut tells me that if there was any pandering on the forums about the ZRs by non-employee BF members, it was probably done out of a sense of loyalty to the brand and perhaps to a person representing that brand.
Misguided... maybe, maybe not, but unethical, no.
I have witnessed the frenzy with which the Zen Ray ED2s have hit the Internet.
Even
amateur astronomers such as Edz and Holger Merlitz are now reviewing these
birding bins!
Regardless of who or what started this frenzy, the fact that these new breed of Chinese open bridge ED bins fill a niche at a time when many of us who desire premium brand optics but who are feeling the recession pinch our wallets too much to afford them is good thing, IMO.
I have my own biases about Chinese products, and if I were wealthier, I could sit on my high horse and condemn those who buy them (and did, but in jest and parody since I'm one of them myself, not currently with optics, but in the cat litter and other items I bought today from my local Chinamart). The greeters even know my name!
But for some, the much anticipated ZR 7x36 ED2 was a disappointment, and despite the jump-on-the-bandwagon movement, both expert and amateur alike have come forth with their criticisms.
So that should help temper whatever bias there might have been in marketing these bins on Internet forums.
I should have a mug that says: World's #1 Nikon Binoculars Fan.
I am biased, I admit it (I am part human, after all
I like the "Nikon view" (Nikon's Japanese optics, that is).
So when I said somewhere someplace that the views through the Promaster Infinity Elite, yada yada yada is almost as good as through my LX, perhaps I was filtering that observation through my bias for Japanese optics, and in particular, Nikon Japanese optics.
Anybody who has read my posts knows this, but I did say that it was "almost as good".
And I was also one of the first to step forth and opine that the LX L was not on par with the original LX. I'm not afraid to criticize my own biased brand when the need arises.
I don't own a ZR, Hawke, or Promaster, nor did anybody pay me to say this, but the open bridge Chinese ED bins (based on my experience with the Promaster ED and providing that the views are very similar through the other brands) are probably the best bang for the buck out there today, a phrase that I here-there-to reserved only for porros.
And whatever the reason for their growing popularity, I think you have to look through one yourself to decide if it's hype or real.
As far as what to do with "SC" if the allegations turn out to be true? Tar and feather? The guillotine? Stretching rack?
And what about "CLR" if he has falsely accused "SC" of heinous crimes he did not commit? Sue for slander?
No. We don't need moderators descending upon us and policing the forums and causing members to start looking over their shoulders and watching every word they write 'ere they be declared a "corporate worm" themselves.
I believe that Bob had the correct solution.
Caveat Emptor!
