Free tools!
Two notes to start with:
1) This is a brief diversion from Safety Month so I can set up my review of some safety equipment, and
2) The title is for real. I will be hooking you up with bona fide free tools, and I’m not talking about fifty cent tape measures either. You gotta read through a bunch of crap about journalistic ethics first to get to that part, though.
Every woodworking writer worth their salt will write reviews. You may think that’s because there’s a high demand among readers; that our discerning eye can reveal the finer points of differentiation between identical-seeming products; that we can ferret out the good buys from the bad. Well, you’d be wrong. That’s not why woodworking writers get to write reviews.
It’s because they get to keep the free stuff when they’re done.
So, this poses a conflict of interest. My choices are:
Don’t review things
Pros: Morals intact.
Cons: No free stuff.
Review stuff, but pay for it.
Pros: Morals intact.
Cons: Not only is there no free stuff, but I have to pay for stuff.
Accept free stuff, write only articles extolling its praises.
Pros: Free stuff for me!
Cons: I sell out my ethical obligations as a journalist. Ha, ha, ha.
So I was all ready to proceed with my career as a sellout woodworking journalist loaded with free stuff, when I hit upon a brilliant fourth option: sell out, but make you sell out with me. That’s right, free tools for EVERYBODY!
It turns out this shouldn’t be hard. Usually vendors send two tools for review, and I am hereby making it my policy to notify vendors who I request tools from for review that one of them will be given away, for free, to a lucky NSY reader. The only catch is that you pay the actual UPS shipping cost, ’cause I’m not going to lose money on the deal.
So what does this mean to you? A few things.
1) I am a big freakin sellout.
2) So are you. Instructions will be provided most reviews so you can sign up to win that tool, free.
3) Because of this, I might not publish reviews of certain crappy tools given to me for free. Hey, if they’re giving it to me for free, I’m not going to slam it. I just won’t run the review.
4) I’m not going to lie about it either, though. If I say it’s great, it’s great. I won’t even leave out the bad parts. I just won’t write reviews of crappy tools.
5) The tool vendor doesn’t have any say in this at all.
6) If I paid for it, the gloves are off. Like remember when I was harshing on Ridgid? Yeah, that’s not going away any time soon. This just applies to the free stuff.
So, summary recap:
1) I get free tools.
2) You get free tools.
3) We’re a bunch of big fat sellouts, so…
4) If someone gives me a free tool and it stinks, I won’t write a review about it.
And with that, we’ll move on to the crown jewel of Safety Month: Nothing Severed Yet’s first review, featuring Free Tool! Coming next post.
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