I remember when I was a kid, playing with flashlights. I don't know why I liked them, I still don't why, and I'm not even going to try and guess. All I know is that I do. Then I found CPF a while ago, where I could find people with the same interest. It was great, I could come on this forum and read about what I liked most. Back then LED's were just becoming viable for flashlights, flashlight mods consisted of who could cram the most LED's into a single flashlight (remember the TREK 60? or was it 90? or 10000?) and possibly rewiring the switch, people didn't worry so much about trivial things such as what letters were stamped on the back of the LED's, who's got the most circular beam, is it HA2 or HA3, do the colors match, etc. It's was a simpler time, when you judged how bright a flashlight was by comparing two lights, not by poring over specs written on the internet, where you don't need to print out a manual to figure out how to turn on your flashlight, and where there was no such thing as a Human usability factor and all flashlight could be operated whether you were left handed or right handed. There were batteries and light came out of it, I didn't need to know much more than that to be happy. I'm not exactly sure when that changed, but somewhere along the line most of the familiar names have disappeared, a LOT of new ones came along, and the main direction seemed to have changed. For a while all I would read about is what company is suing who, which flashlight people are boycotting because they don't like so and so at that company, which flashlight manufacturer is going out of business because they don't make a specific light for their particular need, why this light is better because it fits one particular need, why this light sucks because it's doesn't have this, etc. etc.
Then along came the cliques and biases (I won't go as far as to say the brainwashing, but it's close) New users barely making their first post immediately hating certain manufacturers because it's the "in" thing, making up spoofs on their name trying to convince people to boycott them, but yet continue buying their lights themselves, or people immediately loving manufacturers and recommending them for everything without ever trying one of their lights. For a while I was tired of scrolling through three or four pages of recent post until I could find a flashlight related one, so I stopped visiting. But like any true flashaholic, I couldnt' stay away, so eventually I came back. I suppose I could just visit each individual forum to avoid the stuff I didn't want to read, but now there are so many that I can't even remember which forum it's in. General? General light? LED? Modified? Manufacturer? I know I have a bad memory, so the only choice is to try and remember when I last saw a post and do a search. I guess the only thing I really want to say is that I'm glad there is an Underground now, because maybe it'll help clear up some of the clutter that was polluting CPF. Honestly, I don't come here to read about politics, religion, or anything like that. I don't mind the cafe, because there are a lot of common interests that people share, but when it starts getting into debates completely unrelated to flashlights and monopolize the board, then I see a problem. I'm guilty of this sometimes, because it's almost like a traffic accident, once you see one starting, you just have to rubberneck. But if theres not one around, you don't even think about it.
Anyway, back to my point (I can't even stay on topic in my own post, sheesh) The only thing I care about are the flashlights. I don't care who makes them, whether they're made by someone in Arizona or china, or some guy in his garage with a hacksaw or lathe. If I like a light, the only thing I will look at is price. Narrow minded? Yes. Apathetic? absolutely. People can argue over IP, patent rights, lawsuits, but I'll leave it to the judge to decide those things, I have bigger problems in real life. And if you don't, then consider yourself lucky that you have the luxury of minding other peoples business. It's unfortunate that there are some people with unethical business practices, but then again nobody knows the full story of anything, so a debate is pretty worthless. And anybody that has ever worked in a real job knows that almost every successful company is guilty of some shady business practices at some time. That's just a fact of life. I just want to see more about flashlights, less about everything else not flashlight related. You know, I thought maybe this post belongs in the Cafe, but it would be pretty ironic posting about how I want to see more on-topic posts, but putting it in the off-topic forum. I'll end this now, holy crap it's a long post. I'm just suffering from insomnia.
Oh yeah, one more thing to get off my chest. People complain about a certain flashlight company for using "outdated" 20 year old technology, how they're never going to survive, how all these other companines will eventually run them out of business. All I can say is, if I am ever lucky enough to have a design that can survive 20+ years with no problems and still be one of the top sellers, there is no way in hell that anybody is going to convince me to change a thing. I bet there are quite a few companies out there that would love to go even 6 months without having to modify their design or fix a problem. What's that saying? "If it ain't broke.."
Then along came the cliques and biases (I won't go as far as to say the brainwashing, but it's close) New users barely making their first post immediately hating certain manufacturers because it's the "in" thing, making up spoofs on their name trying to convince people to boycott them, but yet continue buying their lights themselves, or people immediately loving manufacturers and recommending them for everything without ever trying one of their lights. For a while I was tired of scrolling through three or four pages of recent post until I could find a flashlight related one, so I stopped visiting. But like any true flashaholic, I couldnt' stay away, so eventually I came back. I suppose I could just visit each individual forum to avoid the stuff I didn't want to read, but now there are so many that I can't even remember which forum it's in. General? General light? LED? Modified? Manufacturer? I know I have a bad memory, so the only choice is to try and remember when I last saw a post and do a search. I guess the only thing I really want to say is that I'm glad there is an Underground now, because maybe it'll help clear up some of the clutter that was polluting CPF. Honestly, I don't come here to read about politics, religion, or anything like that. I don't mind the cafe, because there are a lot of common interests that people share, but when it starts getting into debates completely unrelated to flashlights and monopolize the board, then I see a problem. I'm guilty of this sometimes, because it's almost like a traffic accident, once you see one starting, you just have to rubberneck. But if theres not one around, you don't even think about it.
Anyway, back to my point (I can't even stay on topic in my own post, sheesh) The only thing I care about are the flashlights. I don't care who makes them, whether they're made by someone in Arizona or china, or some guy in his garage with a hacksaw or lathe. If I like a light, the only thing I will look at is price. Narrow minded? Yes. Apathetic? absolutely. People can argue over IP, patent rights, lawsuits, but I'll leave it to the judge to decide those things, I have bigger problems in real life. And if you don't, then consider yourself lucky that you have the luxury of minding other peoples business. It's unfortunate that there are some people with unethical business practices, but then again nobody knows the full story of anything, so a debate is pretty worthless. And anybody that has ever worked in a real job knows that almost every successful company is guilty of some shady business practices at some time. That's just a fact of life. I just want to see more about flashlights, less about everything else not flashlight related. You know, I thought maybe this post belongs in the Cafe, but it would be pretty ironic posting about how I want to see more on-topic posts, but putting it in the off-topic forum. I'll end this now, holy crap it's a long post. I'm just suffering from insomnia.
Oh yeah, one more thing to get off my chest. People complain about a certain flashlight company for using "outdated" 20 year old technology, how they're never going to survive, how all these other companines will eventually run them out of business. All I can say is, if I am ever lucky enough to have a design that can survive 20+ years with no problems and still be one of the top sellers, there is no way in hell that anybody is going to convince me to change a thing. I bet there are quite a few companies out there that would love to go even 6 months without having to modify their design or fix a problem. What's that saying? "If it ain't broke.."
