It has been brought to my attention that some members have been soliciting others to join their "independent testing servers/groups" including promoting discounts and credits from various vendors.
This violates our rules regarding shilling as well as rules regarding unapproved vendors and restrictions on commercial activity.
NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANOTHER MEMBER OF THIS FORUM!
NEVER ENGAGE IN ANY KIND OF BUY/SELL/TRADE DEAL WITH ANOTHER MEMBER!
NEVER DISCLOSE ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION INCLUDING NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, ETC. TO ANOTHER MEMBER!
(Obviously these precautions don't apply to purchases from recognized vendors & sponsors, but instead to "regular" members soliciting your money and participation.)
There are already a number of well-known and well-established testing groups, servers, etc. operated by longstanding members of the community that provide transparency and are not funded by vendors and that do not require certain purchase thresholds to be met.
No matter how "helpful" people like this may attempt to appear when soliciting you, it is crucial to remain vigilant and skeptical! One of the unfortunate realities here is a seemingly never-ending parade of characters engaging in various methods to profit from regular hobbyists like you and me, often under the guise of being "helpful" or providing some needed service such as testing, but almost always with the almighty dollar at the core of their mission.
TESTING IS IMPORTANT
Testing is a critical component of safety and harm reduction. Crowdsourced/crowdfunded testing has become an indispensable means of making access to testing available to all of us and further advancing the pursuit of safety and harm reduction. We are rapidly reaching the point where there should never be a reason for anyone to risk experimenting with untested products, and we encourage members to get involved in testing and spreading the word to everyone they can.
TRANSPARENCY
Group testing without transparency should be viewed as "just another" business, and you have to assume that there is a profit motive at its core. I'm not saying that profit is incompatible with the concept of group testing, but that without transparency and disclosure it's impossible to know who you can trust.
We have supported vendor-funded testing in the past, but only when there was sufficient transparency in the process and the people involved could be trusted to remain independent and objective. It can be a slippery slope and such efforts need to be approved before being offered to members. We've even supported a couple of standalone testing projects that started right here, of course only after being contacted in advance and having the opportunity to discuss how things would be conducted and the transparency required to keep the process fair and trustworthy. The bottom line is that we are not opposed to new testing groups starting up, even if it's for-profit business as long as there is honesty and transparency and it's done with prior approval and discussion.
Please be careful out there folks! One of the undeniable aspects of our shared journey is that there will always be people looking for ways into our wallets and we can never let our guard down!
This violates our rules regarding shilling as well as rules regarding unapproved vendors and restrictions on commercial activity.
NEVER SEND MONEY TO ANOTHER MEMBER OF THIS FORUM!
NEVER ENGAGE IN ANY KIND OF BUY/SELL/TRADE DEAL WITH ANOTHER MEMBER!
NEVER DISCLOSE ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION INCLUDING NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, ETC. TO ANOTHER MEMBER!
(Obviously these precautions don't apply to purchases from recognized vendors & sponsors, but instead to "regular" members soliciting your money and participation.)
There are already a number of well-known and well-established testing groups, servers, etc. operated by longstanding members of the community that provide transparency and are not funded by vendors and that do not require certain purchase thresholds to be met.
No matter how "helpful" people like this may attempt to appear when soliciting you, it is crucial to remain vigilant and skeptical! One of the unfortunate realities here is a seemingly never-ending parade of characters engaging in various methods to profit from regular hobbyists like you and me, often under the guise of being "helpful" or providing some needed service such as testing, but almost always with the almighty dollar at the core of their mission.
TESTING IS IMPORTANT
Testing is a critical component of safety and harm reduction. Crowdsourced/crowdfunded testing has become an indispensable means of making access to testing available to all of us and further advancing the pursuit of safety and harm reduction. We are rapidly reaching the point where there should never be a reason for anyone to risk experimenting with untested products, and we encourage members to get involved in testing and spreading the word to everyone they can.
TRANSPARENCY
Group testing without transparency should be viewed as "just another" business, and you have to assume that there is a profit motive at its core. I'm not saying that profit is incompatible with the concept of group testing, but that without transparency and disclosure it's impossible to know who you can trust.
We have supported vendor-funded testing in the past, but only when there was sufficient transparency in the process and the people involved could be trusted to remain independent and objective. It can be a slippery slope and such efforts need to be approved before being offered to members. We've even supported a couple of standalone testing projects that started right here, of course only after being contacted in advance and having the opportunity to discuss how things would be conducted and the transparency required to keep the process fair and trustworthy. The bottom line is that we are not opposed to new testing groups starting up, even if it's for-profit business as long as there is honesty and transparency and it's done with prior approval and discussion.
Please be careful out there folks! One of the undeniable aspects of our shared journey is that there will always be people looking for ways into our wallets and we can never let our guard down!
