I'm sorry to hear that growers can't run tests of products and share their findings. There's so much hype on the product side of growing that collecting data from growers who run legitimate experiments -- two sets of plants grown under the exact same conditions except for a single variable changed -- would be invaluable for RIU members and potentially save people thousands and thousands of dollars over their growing lifetime. People who are interested in providing this kind of data take a lot of time and effort to ensure the results of their experiments are legitimate -- logging readings and measurements, taking pictures, writing descriptions. That information is worth gold. Even the scientific community, which has a history of not publishing negative findings, is learning that the cost of this traditional approach is in human lives. Being able to publish negative findings would save a huge amount of time for researchers everywhere, but everyone's too afraid to do it. I hope RIU changes its policy on this. Maybe creates a separate room for experiment reports, and has a sticky explaining a legitimate format for data reporting. This is important information, and it would be nice if RIU is a leader in this area, not a follower.
I couldn't put it any better if I tried, so I am not going to. There are a couple things I have to say about the whole thing. If rules and regulations (which are stated upon registering and can be found in the section titled Forum Rules - see below) are enforced equally, why wouldn't ANYONE who mentions ANY product be considered an advertiser and be found in violation of the forum rules. If you take the time to actually read the terms of use, you can see just how vague they are. I could not find justification for the actions taken that were described as a violation in the aforementioned terms of use.
I also was very dissapointed to hear that, not only was all the data my friend was using to keep track of his active and perpetual grow lost, but, ALL of the pictures and wonderful descriptions of them, which he had not backed up on a storage drive, as well.
The guy has thousands of posts deploring the victimization of mods/admins by shall we say, unstable members, and always take the time to clarify the reasons the rules about advertising, selling, trading, and buying are not to be taken lightly, and this is how he is repayed for his clearly selfless efforts?
The fact that, even now, another thread with the same legitimate side-by-side cannabis test is still actively avaible to view is not only insulting, but irresponsible. Selective rule enforcement leaves more than just a little something to be desired. I don't want to be a part of the problem, but rather offer solutions to help better the community. Hopefully, if this issue if further discussed, we can do something positive with it. If we can't give postive feedback about it, then I'd much rather move on and talk about the consumption, and cultivation of huge, dense, frosty buds. Cheers guys. Off to work.
-Parasite