That guy's wearing an amazing technicolor dreamcoat!
Usually it's fairly easy to see when you're being fed a line of crap on any message board. When the praise or condemnation of anything is too extreme it makes me wonder if something nefarious is going on behind the scenes. There's just certain phrases which normal people who actually own the thing and have nothing to lose or gain by praising or slamming it, simply never use. When you see those goofy phrases you know you're getting probably getting a sales pitch. Although, this can backfire on you. For example, Norh used a quote from my SE-9 review posted here on their website. Does it make me a shill? Cripes, I hope not. Reading my words in that context made me feel just a little bit dirty, even though there's nothing dubious about it.
I learned a lot from the old softcover MAD book "Madvertising", which although it is a satirical work, does show many of the tricks used on us. The stuff is still relevant today! Marketing can take an honest, unbiased piece of text and put it in a different context and make the author look like a shill. That is what I find most annoying; that so many things we read are taken out of their original context and made to say something different. Movie reviews are the most gross example I would cite of this practice. They will even reduce a review to one word most of the time! What use is that? Well, apparently plenty. Stupid humans.
The difference I see with the vendors represented here is that most of them are devoid of the usual marketing cliches and for the most part they treat the buyers as intelligent enthusiasts and not "potential victims" as many others do. The most annoying, full-of-shit companies are usually found to have some cheesy stock photo shot on the index page coupled with a bunch of melodramatic malarkey about how this fucking box of bolts will transform their life and connect their souls with the beauty of music. Give me a break!
The companies who have offered up a demo model to be passed around seems like the best and most unbiased way to promote your stuff. (if you don't have a convenient dealership on every corner, that is) Unless the vendor has paid off everyone in the list you're probably guaranteed an unbiased review of the thing.
