I can appreciate the gist of what you are trying to do here, but I feel like this is reversing the means-to-an-end of the blog for this site. There wouldn't really be anything inherently "better" about our blog posts than any other review site, and that's part of our mission… to make this stuff better.

I always felt that, what makes these Stack Exchange blogs unique in the larger blogging community is their tie-in to Stack Exchange. I always felt like the content should always somehow tie back into the community and their activities. That's not really where most of these blog posts are going, but that's okay.

Having said that, I don't think this community's promotion funding should be used to generate product reviews for blogs. It's not what we do. It's not part of our mission:

Make the Internet a better place to get expert answers to your questions.

I am a big supporter of the folks who put long hours into the blogs. I can appreciate the desire to bring in a bigger readership, and I understand that there is a cause-effect relationship here. But using the site's promotion money to create yet-other-blog-post product review I feel loses sight of why we are all here — Using Stack Exchange to "make the Internet a better place …"

The idea of purchasing "review" equipment is to give users hands-on experience to ask questions in the context of Q&A. If blog posts were written about those experiences — a side effect of the Q&A activity — I could get behind it. But the whole "we'll buy products to review for blog posts" is going in the entirely wrong direction from the core purpose of Stack Exchange.

I'm not saying "no" — that's not really my place — I'm saying it's a poor precedent to set for this site. We need to stay focused on the real goal here.

It's not just to get more audience; It's to get more audience through generating better content.

I'm not sure this community's promotion funding should be used to generate product reviews for a blog. It's not what we do. It's not part of our mission to "make the Internet a better place…"

I can appreciate the gist of what you are trying to do here, but I feel like this is reversing the means-to-an-end of the blog for this site. There wouldn't really be anything inherently "better" about our blog posts than any other review site, and that's part of our mission… to make this stuff better.

I always felt that, what makes these Stack Exchange blogs unique in the larger blogging community is their tie-in to Stack Exchange. I always felt like the content should always somehow tie back into the community and their activities. That's not really where most of these blog posts are going, but that's okay.

I am a big supporter of the folks who put long hours into the blogs. I can appreciate the desire to bring in a bigger readership, and I understand that there is a cause-effect relationship here. But using the site's promotion money to create yet-other-blog-post product review I feel loses sight of why we are all here — Using Stack Exchange to "make the Internet a better place …"

The idea of purchasing "review" equipment is to give users hands-on experience to ask questions in the context of Q&A. If blog posts were written about those experiences — a side effect of the Q&A activity — I could get behind it. But the whole "we'll buy products to review for blog posts" is going in the entirely wrong direction from the core purpose of Stack Exchange.

I'm not saying "no" — that's not really my place — I'm saying it's a poor precedent to set for this site. We need to stay focused on the real goal here.

It's not just to get more audience; It's to get more audience through generating better content.

I don't think this community's promotion funding should be used to generate product reviews for blogs. It's not what we do. It's not part of our mission:

Make the Internet a better place to get expert answers to your questions.

I am a big supporter of the folks who put long hours into the blogs. I can appreciate the desire to bring in a bigger readership, and I understand that there is a cause-effect relationship here. But using the site's promotion money to create yet-other-blog-post product review I feel loses sight of why we are all here — Using Stack Exchange to "make the Internet a better place …"

The idea of purchasing "review" equipment is to give users hands-on experience to ask questions in the context of Q&A. If blog posts were written about those experiences — a side effect of the Q&A activity — I could get behind it. But the whole "we'll buy products to review for blog posts" is going in the entirely wrong direction from the core purpose of Stack Exchange.

I'm not saying "no" — that's not really my place — I'm saying it's a poor precedent to set for this site. We need to stay focused on the real goal here.

It's not just to get more audience; It's to get more audience through generating better content.

I can appreciate the gist of what you are trying to do here, but I feel like this is reversing the means-to-an-end of the blog for this site. There wouldn't really be anything inherently "better" about our blog posts than any other review site, and that's part of our mission… to make this stuff better.

I always felt that, what makes these Stack Exchange blogs unique in the larger blogging community is their tie-in to Stack Exchange. I always felt like the content should always somehow tie back into the community and their activities. That's not really where most of these blog posts are going, but that's okay.

Having said that, I don't think this community's promotion funding should be used to generate product reviews for blogs. It's not what we do. It's not part of our mission:

Make the Internet a better place to get expert answers to your questions.

I am a big supporter of the folks who put long hours into the blogs. I can appreciate the desire to bring in a bigger readership, and I understand that there is a cause-effect relationship here. But using the site's promotion money to create yet-other-blog-post product review I feel loses sight of why we are all here — Using Stack Exchange to "make the Internet a better place …"

The idea of purchasing "review" equipment is to give users hands-on experience to ask questions in the context of Q&A. If blog posts were written about those experiences — a side effect of the Q&A activity — I could get behind it. But the whole "we'll buy products to review for blog posts" is going in the entirely wrong direction from the core purpose of Stack Exchange.

I'm not saying "no" — that's not really my place — I'm saying it's a poor precedent to set for this site. We need to stay focused on the real goal here.

It's not just to get more audience; It's to get more audience through generating better content.