Selfbuilt's Flashlight Reviews: the new and improved flashlightreviews.ca

[richbuff]

Thanks for popping in and letting us know that you are all good/ok/fine. A lot of people were worrying about you, and a lot of people were wondering how you are doing.

I started missing your regular contributions a while back, when I checked regularly for the appearance of your highly anticipated Meteor M43 review, and none ever appeared.

I feel very grateful that your past few reviews on recent products were provided by you to us, even though you were super busy at the time that you made and provided the reviews.

Your review of the Niwalker MM15 is what got me started on high-performance flashlights.

I think the flashlight industry should offer you double the income to wrest you from your current work; that is still not commensurate with how extremely valuable your contributions to this industry are. However large an offer, whatever it takes, would be the correct offer to get this done.

 

[kreisl]

when I was asked to take on a whole new bunch of responsibilities (and travel) - basically, doing the work of an extra 1.5 individuals on top of all my old responsibilities.

1.5 + 1 = factor 2.5 ? 😵
If you're getting now 2.5x of your original pay, then no complaints here

At least a 50% increase in pay, for a total 1.5x factor, would be great to begin with.

I hope things are working out for you, maybe you could review again some zebra lights for us on the very next occasion. They're always hot items on CPF.

 

[flashflood]

Hi all,
I know I haven't been around for a long time - sorry for not stopping by earlier to give y'all an update.

My work life got pretty crazy last year, when I was asked to take on a whole new bunch of responsibilities (and travel) - basically, doing the work of an extra 1.5 individuals on top of all my old responsibilities. Unfortunately, this will likely get even worse in the short-term as we loose even more people (and then I will need to train some new folks to help take some of the load off). Between that and my whisky reviewing hobby (http://whiskyanalysis.com/), I have had NO time to even test any of the flashlights I have on hand.

I feel bad about this situation, since I had more than a dozen lights in various stages of testing before the end of last year. I have since informed all the makers who have asked that I am no longer taking lights for the foreseeable future. I do hope to post at least a cursory analysis of the lights on hand, but not sure when I will find the time. :sigh:

I appreciate all the well wishes, and will try to check in a bit more frequently. :wave:

No need to apologize. You've provided an incredible service to this community, for years, for free. Given all the added work responsibility, we can certainly understand why you'd be focused less on flashlights and more on whiskey...

 

[desmobob]

<SNIP>I have had NO time to even test any of the flashlights I have on hand.

I feel bad about this situation, since I had more than a dozen lights in various stages of testing before the end of last year. I have since informed all the makers who have asked that I am no longer taking lights for the foreseeable future. I do hope to post at least a cursory analysis of the lights on hand, but not sure when I will find the time. :sigh:

I appreciate all the well wishes, and will try to check in a bit more frequently. :wave:

No need to apologize; you have provided the forum with an incredible wealth of information and a hugely valuable resource for members making purchase decisions.

I belong to several hobby forums and I can't think of any individual who has provided so much for the members. Best of luck with the whisky reviews! (I like Balvenie Double-wood.)

Take it easy,
Bob

 

[Crazyeddiethefirst]

Your service has been admirable, and I credit much of my knowledge base to your consistent approach and methodology of testing. I appreciate you letting us know what is going on-I wanted to write & inquire but my logic was if your time was stretched to it's limit then emails from a large group wouldn't help. I wish we could help...
Thanks for the years of evaluations you have provided!

 

[selfbuilt]

Thanks for all the support and understanding everyone. And no, kreisl, my work pay did not go up - although that certainly would have been nice!

This summer has actually been busier than before, as I'm now bringing new staff up to speed. But we've agreed that I will go back to a more standard work arrangement by next summer. But for now I'm still swamped!

I've just started a sales thread in the marketplace, for some of the most recent lights I've reviewed. You can check them out here. Depending on interest, I may do some additional sell offs in the future (time permitting!).

Cheers! :wave:

 

[Skylumen]

Hello Selfbuilt,

I will dearly wait for your return this summer. I have some exciting lights I would love to send your way

Vinh

 

[selfbuilt]

Sadly, still no time to get back into reviewing right now (we'll see how things go).

But I've just launched my most recent flashlight sale - a PREMIUM MYSTERY BOX offer. Check out my sales thread for more info. :wave:

 

[LogansRun]

Selfbuilt, it's been a pleasure reading your flashlight reviews these past years (I've been on CPF under another handle since 2008, which I can no longer access) and only recently returned to CPF. Thanks so much for your reviews - it has inspired many purchases.

Btw, I just checked out your whiskey review site - another unfortunately, expensive hobby I've gotten into - and enjoy those reviews as well.

I will raise a glass of Hibiki 12yr or Chichibu The Floor Malted from my collection to you!

 

[selfbuilt]

Announcing the new and improved FlashlightReviews.ca, as of 2023.

The last time I revamped my personal site was over 10 years ago (back when CSS were all the rage). 🙂

That old site was serviceable enough as a repository for all my reviews here on CPF, plus some background info and an overview of my review format. But it was very limited in functionality, since it was largely manually encoded in html.

Now that I've decided to start reviewing again, and post my own reviews here, I needed a significant refresh. So I dusted off my whiskyanalysis.com template, and rebuilt it for flashlight reviews. I will admit that even this template is a little long in the tooth now. But I find its "magazine format" convenient for posting reviews and articles (like this post), with everything easy to find on the main page and sub-pages.

How to Use this New Site

The main navigation bar at the top will take you to everywhere you need to be. As you mouse over each header tab, a sub-menu will open if there are multiple background pages to view. All the content from my old flashlightreviews site is still here, much of it updated and revised to reflect my new approach and format. Hopefully you will find the site's interface easy to navigate.

The Reviews tab is the main source of action – all my new reviews will be listed there, as well as historical links to all my old CPF reviews here. The new reviews posted on the site will be easier to navigate than my old forum reviews, with in-page links to the major sections listed right at the top. Much of the actual data will be directly integrated into the reviews now (i.e., true text tables, not images), and should display well across a range of devices.

One new bonus feature that I am able to offer is a full database of all the key measures of the lights I am testing. Everything you need to compare and evaluate the individual flashlights will be contained within the actual reviews. But I thought I would offer this little something extra for those who are kind enough to make a donation to support my flashlight testing.

You can check out my How to Use the Database page to see what exactly it provides, but it's basically a searchable and scroll-able table with all the key measures for all the flashlights I've tested (beginning with this website redesign in 2023). It also gives you a sneak peek at what I'm currently testing (or planning to review), as I plan to update the table with specs and preliminary results as I go, ahead of the full review posts. And you can download a full copy for your own personal use, in excel format (which, frankly, is the best way to view it, given the limitations of my site's plug-in).

Access is easy: all you have to do is make a minimum $10 PayPal donation to my flashlight review fund. 🙂

Your access continues until the end of the next full calendar year after your donation is received (i.e., you will have the remainder of the current year and the next full calendar year of access for a single donation). The site has cookies enabled, so the password will be remembered for up to one year in your browser (but do keep a record, so that you can access it across multiple computers, etc).

All I ask is that you please don't share it with others, or download and distribute the database from the site. I'm happy to make the database available to you as my little thank you for your generous support for my reviews. Note that as before, I do not accept payment for my reviews, and fully fund the website and all my review activities out of my own pocket.

RIP, old flashlightreviews.ca, long live the new site – and the new reviews!