There are people accused of being shills, co-conspirators, etc. to further the promotion of this vendor. The reason would be clear, money.
Then there are people trying to do the opposite and demote this vendor. The reasons why could be keeping the vendor accountable, harm reduction, vendetta, anger etc. but could also be money.
Let's assume the best and say it is to keep the vendor accountable. What if the incessant pushing and questions drive the vendor to say I'm done answering your questions, I'll post my results when I have them, feel free to test my product and I'll even fully reimburse you if you do (this is essentially where we are at I believe).
So if you're quite literally told that your post will not be acknowledged, what do you expect to accomplish? At this point are you trying to turn people away from the vendor? Again one could infer that this is at the behest of a competing vendor. Even if you drive away a few potential customers your addition to the post count probably offsets that and even if not I don't it makes any noticeable impact on the vendor's income.
You can't control the actions of the vendor or other the people in this thread and that clearly makes some people (whom I assume are used to controlling the people in their own lives) incessantly angry.
Now if there is some rule where people can only post XYZ in a vendor thread then that is different but I haven't seen anyone say that.
I don't think the people here who are repeatedly asking the same questions to the vendor or accusing other of being shills are "working for someone else". I also don't think the people being accused of being shills are "working for someone else". I could very well be naïve in this regard because
I haven't been around for 10 years (which is such a weird flex to me)...but it doesn't matter because I don't know the truth behind either side and I don't think anyone here will. I don't care one way or the other because
I can't control it. Even if the top were blown off and there was some big reveal that people were collaborating, who cares? What would it change? Because...
If you bought something and had it tested you're good. What is your risk aversion? If you trust another member's testing, fine (I actually think that is a big part of what this place is about and should be about). If you trust the vendor's testing without cross validating, fine. If you buy completely untested product and don't care, fine. All individual decisions.
I'm all for harm reduction which is why I came here. I've fixed my lipids and blood pressure which is awesome. I've also picked up orals and some niche oils (looking at you DHB) which was not my original intent so maybe not so awesome haha?
But I will say that since I've been here I've quite enjoyed the tom foolery and shitposting and random topics. I know that some will argue it doesn't belong here but guess what, you can't control it. Some will argue the repeated vendor questions are too much but you can't control that either. With that being said I think we can have fun while also testing product and sharing info on how to improve each other's health.
There are people on here I like and people I don't like (the likes and don't likes exist on both sides for me) and I just want to say I'm thankful for this community no matter how batshit crazy some of you are...but also fuck you to some of you

and I mean that in the nicest way, don't ever change (or do change and massively improve your life and the lives around you).
Toodles, and I wish a PIP free weekend for all the homies and homegirls.