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I've been daydreaming about a new sort of consumer's union to address this, among other problems (designed obsolescence, meaningless redesign cycles that make a
by abathur 7y ago
I've been daydreaming about a new sort of consumer's union to address this, among other problems (designed obsolescence, meaningless redesign cycles that make an existing product more cheaply--but not cheaper, astroturfed reviews, etc.)
The part I'm not so sure about is how to prevent infiltration/compromise/hostile takeover. I think I would prefer it to not exist than to make something useful and principled only to see it turned into a trojan horse.
- Misdicorl 7y agoI also have daydreamed about this on and off for the past couple years. In the end, it doesn't look much different from consumer reports, but with broader scope for both reviewed items and reviewers. Authentication is a hard problem, and I've not really hit on anything that seems feasible besides a paycheck.
- abathur 7y agoNot unrelated to CR, but I'd like to take it further than they do. A more comprehensive effort to cobble together a purchasing block as leverage to encourage better behavior from producers, develop lists of design/production/marketing/sales/support practices that'll earn blacklisting, distribute the costs of trialing new products, hire experts for teardowns, etc.
- clydethefrog 7y agoIn the Netherlands we have a consumer union (although wikipedia calls it a league) which quite some success. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.consumentenbond.nl%2Facties%2Fonze-successen%2Feen-trotse-terugblik https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...