non-sponsor product and vendor reviews forum

[Will]

I believe that it would be beneficial for our members, if members are able to post their experience with non-sponsor vendors and/or products. As currently this is going on in the reef keeping section, and after reiviewing some of the entries, and the official forum rules, they constitute violations. In order to promote the sharing of knowledge and information, it is imperative that members be able to share their experiences (if you want to just make them positive experiences that fine) with vendors and products.

Many other sites have this feature and are still able to get sponsors.

here is a link to nano-reef's product/seller review section

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showforum=53

After reading all of the forum rules i do not believe this post to be in violation.

[+ACampbell]

Will, thanks for your feedback.This is certainly a valid request and a popular trend on most aquarium forums. We have taken a different approach. I tend to give all stores, physical or online, the benefit of the doubt on their services and products. In all my transactins over the years I have never had a bad experience. That being said, people tend to only write a reviews online when they've had a bad experience. It most cases, it is very hard to verify the claims made. Also, moderating such a forum would put more stress on our volunteer staff.

Nano-reef does have a great vendor review forum, however they also have a very large user base. It is actually quite difficult to find sponsors for our small local forum, therefore we want to give them the spotlight whenever possible.