While I am in no way a computer or water cooling wiz, by any stretch of the imagination, I do have some concerns in regards to sponsorship of any of the forum sections. While the idea is sound and could be mutually beneficial to both the forum member base as well as the sponsor, there are also a few points to be taken into consideration.
Firstly Toms forums have created a name for itself as a place that is noob friendly as well as a place where you will receive answers and guidance towards the best possible solution, in regards to not only what is the most popular solution, but instead the most worthy possible solution for you. That recommendation is most often based on the budget, intended purpose, and the amount of knowledge on the subject, at the users end. The members here at Toms forums take great care in their recommendations to other users based on a lot of factors, none of these factors involve personal gain. My number one concern about sponsorship is the addition of the personal gain factor. While sponsorship can carry with it enticing opportunity for savings, in the best case scenario, the worst case scenario must also be taken into consideration... Sponsorship can also carry with it the introduction of bias in the information and suggestions given in favor of the products the sponsor wishes to sell.
I am in no way trying to imply that the sponsor chosen here at Toms forums will act in this manor. I am simply voicing my concern that if not implemented and controlled properly there is potential to do damage with the addition of sponsorship. I have seen it happen before.
Once upon a time I had a hand in building a Jeep club. Our membership decided to allow sponsorship of our modifications section of our forums. What happened was exactly what I mentioned above. The sponsor also made deals with some forum members that offered additional benefits for steering other members toward purchasing from them. What happened is we had newer members that were interested in more hardcore rockcrawling, being offered solutions that would in no way benefit them in their goals. Then when the more experienced 'crawlers, like myself and others, tried to point out that these "solutions" were not what they needed, a division was created within the member base of the forums. While real world testing did prove our points to these newer 'crawlers, it was not until after their hard earned money was spent on lesser products.
Ultimately we had to end the sponsorship. At the time it was already to far gone to implement controls. Again, I am not saying this WILL happen, just that the possibility is there and needs to be taken into consideration. If the sponsorship is watchdogged to prevent bias I'm all in.
Thank you for your time.
~Brothermist.