I was commenting in another trend (http://www.thefiringline.com:8080/forums/showthread.php?threadid=37959) when I was hit with a brainstorm of an idea on how TFL could raise some money and provide a valuable service to the gun community not found any please else.
We all pretty much know that the gun reviews presented in the various gunrags is slated to a particular viewpoint. We (the gun industry) does not have a Consumer Reports type publication that we can turn to for an honest review of a firearm. The cloest thing that might come to it would be GUN TESTS magazine but they only review one gun of a particular model which isn't a very good sampling size.
However, here on TFL we have hundreds of people who have experience with a particular model and we're constantly posting our experiences with various types of guns. This translates into a very good sample size.
How about starting a sister internet site to TFL which would have reviews of various guns. For example, the SIG P229 in 9mm would be one trend; the P229 in .357SIG would be another trend, etc. TFL members would post their experiences with each particular model -- it would be like having dozens of mini- reviews for each model.
TFL already has a lot of this information scattered all over the place. It would involve more work but it could be set up as a pay-site to cover the extra expense.
I mean people buy GUN TESTS and the other gun rags to read reviews about a handful of guns and those reviews are just of one person reviewing one sample gun from the entire model line. It's very possible that he got "stuck" with a good gun in an otherwise bad model line. With the approach that I'm suggesting, you would have dozens of different reviews of a particular gun giving the reader a very well rounded picture of what to expect if they buy that particular model.
I am certain that people would pay for this type of info since it would be much more valuable than what they are currently paying for when buying the gunrags. It would provide a usedful service not found anywhere else and generate some revenue in the process.
These are just my initial thoughts of this and in order to make it work, some ideas would have to be added and/or modified but this is the general concept.
What do others think (especially admins, moderators, etc.)?
[This message has been edited by FUD (edited August 01, 2000).]
We all pretty much know that the gun reviews presented in the various gunrags is slated to a particular viewpoint. We (the gun industry) does not have a Consumer Reports type publication that we can turn to for an honest review of a firearm. The cloest thing that might come to it would be GUN TESTS magazine but they only review one gun of a particular model which isn't a very good sampling size.
However, here on TFL we have hundreds of people who have experience with a particular model and we're constantly posting our experiences with various types of guns. This translates into a very good sample size.
How about starting a sister internet site to TFL which would have reviews of various guns. For example, the SIG P229 in 9mm would be one trend; the P229 in .357SIG would be another trend, etc. TFL members would post their experiences with each particular model -- it would be like having dozens of mini- reviews for each model.
TFL already has a lot of this information scattered all over the place. It would involve more work but it could be set up as a pay-site to cover the extra expense.
I mean people buy GUN TESTS and the other gun rags to read reviews about a handful of guns and those reviews are just of one person reviewing one sample gun from the entire model line. It's very possible that he got "stuck" with a good gun in an otherwise bad model line. With the approach that I'm suggesting, you would have dozens of different reviews of a particular gun giving the reader a very well rounded picture of what to expect if they buy that particular model.
I am certain that people would pay for this type of info since it would be much more valuable than what they are currently paying for when buying the gunrags. It would provide a usedful service not found anywhere else and generate some revenue in the process.
These are just my initial thoughts of this and in order to make it work, some ideas would have to be added and/or modified but this is the general concept.
What do others think (especially admins, moderators, etc.)?
[This message has been edited by FUD (edited August 01, 2000).]