Lachlan, conductor of some of YouTube's finest video reviews of audio (and other) gear, essays the evils of the current review system...

“there is a subtle, industry wide bias towards saying positive things about a product and a brand. Reviewers who tend to say more positive things (within reason) are rewarded with increased exposure because they have access to more things to review. There is strong incentive to moderate negative opinions, but no real incentive to moderate positive ones.”

and what can be done to fix it. According to him, crowd sourcing is the best option:

“We tip staff in restaurants for a night’s service - why should we not be willing to tip people who are providing a service to the community time and time again with their reviews?

I started my campaign on Patreon and I think that is the best model because it is a crowdfunding website which supports small ongoing contributions to any person who produces any sort of content on a regular basis. Consistency and stable revenue is important if you want to keep the shark swimming.

But if ljokerl had a Kickstarter, I would pledge. If Tyll Hertsens had an Indiegogo, I would pledge. If ClieOS or Shigzeo or Tomscy2000 or any of the wonderful members of this community simply gave others a chance to support them, I would do it because I owe them for teaching me so much, and I want to see a situation where the people who spend so much time and effort giving to the community are paid not by external parties, but by the very people that enjoy their content.”

And with that, Lachlan kicks off what I think could be the start to a viable and more honest review system. Support him on patreon. I did.