Quote Originally Posted by Denvertoad
Travis...

Question for ya..

How do MMJ reviewers procure the product to be reviewed?

I'm thinking that a truly unbiased and honest review would follow the Consumer Reports type of model. Reviewer would not accept gratis product and would purchase unknown to dispensary or grower. Testing would be a combination of subjective and objective. Any comment?

... You posted while I was typing. Thanks for your comments.
denverToad, nice to see you on here too, i'm the same Travis on nationalweedographic as well.

I can't speak for all review sites, but the process worked like this for KR. We only purchased at the beginning, nobody heard of us, we were the first review site in CO, it was unclear what whould happen. Once stores started getting customers and calls asking about strains on our site, the next time we went in they wouldn't let us pay. We let them know that if it sucks it will still get a bad grade, period. Everyone that got a bad grade has accepted it, and many have received, in their minds, bad grades.

So, we discussed the pros and cons. It would be nice to buy eveything undercover, but it's also important to get as many strains from as many places as possible. Can we personally afford to purchase and still meetin our larger mission? The answer then, as it remains right now, is no. We can't afford to operate under that model, so how do we account for potential bias, how can we keep this as close to it's start point as possible? We decided to have multiple people go to different shops to avoid friendship scenarios as best as possible. We perform smell tests right away, but we then stagger and sort review samples across the calendar to avoid the reviewer thinking of the budtender hype that was given, most often using new reviewers altogether that never even saw that store or know where it came from.

I think you raise very valid points, DT, and I hope that things work out well enough so that we have the ability to purchase everything we review. However, under the current circumstances I think we've gone way beyond what any other site is doing (I know we have in fact) and that the safeguards we have in place do add value. To the honest point, we are honest, that's a definite. Buying or accepting plays to bias I concur, but what affects the body how is written meticulously and we will not post a review that doesn' have multiple people and we read the reviewer's notes to ensure they were taken with time intervals and our process was followed.

As an example of us doing our very best, we have chosen not to review any more of CCF's strains after the UrklexOG. We've heard from owners or growers before regarding the grade or review but this was the first attack on our characters and our veracity. They lied about grades we had previously posted and they refused to interact off the forum. I've spoken with Bryan's mother at CCF, I've left messages fro Bryan to call me, and I've emailed Bryan as a business owner explaining that I'd like to remove emotion and meet him in person so we can simply get to know each other better as human beings. He has refused to even respond. In light of the forum exchanges and the behavior display we felt there was toomuch of a chance for bias to play a role, so we have offered to return the samples CCF gave us.

This is a dispensary with a large online presence, good medicine, and broad marketing. It doesn't benefit KR.com to refrain from having them, it's just the right thing to do.

Since you are on NW.com please go in there and start a comment on my wall for how we can improve the use of the KR.com site for you, address any concerns, etc in light of our mission and the above realities. Even with all the negativity spewed by CCF and their ilk, we still listened to them and altered our site to better account for their complaints and desires. We're all ears...and occassionally mouths