Less has been creating separate threads for various VPN services that haven't previously been discussed. This is a great thing, for at least two reasons. First, many of us who discuss VPN services have settled on about five, and we tend to recommend the same five or so when anyone asks. So it's great to accumulate experience with others. Second, much of the past discussion about VPN services exists in long (some very long) threads. It's very hard to find stuff, and even harder to draw any coherent conclusions. It would be even easier if there were a "VPN services" subforum in the "privacy technology" subforum. That way, each VPN service could have its own thread, and it would be very easy to review feedback and discussion about each one. Is that a viable possibility?
Actually, this is not really that good of an idea, and I'll tell you why. By far, the single most "spammed" type of service that this forum sees is VPN services. Every Tom, Dick and Harry goes out, rents a cheap hosting service, and creates their "be all, end all" VPN service. Then they come here and try to spam it with a thread written like this: "I've just found the most uber cool VPN ever... MikesTopVPN.Gak - It's only $12/month! Try it!" Well, mostly they are much more subtle than that. But, we've seen all kinds of approaches. There are nearly 300 banned spammed VPN services here, and I stopped adding to the list when we converted to XenForo (it doesn't have the same kind of spam filtering available). I can't imagine creating a forum section specifically meant for people to post their "new finds" in VPN services. I am absolutely certain the vast majority of such posts would be commercially motivated spam in such a dedicated section. I'd rather not focus on VPN services in such a specific manner. The market space is just too loaded with scam and spam services.
Yes, that's very true. I do tend to mistrust posts from new users about cool VPN services. While I do freelance writing for iVPN, I'm upfront about it, and I don't advocate for them vs others that I've had good service from. Most of the VPN review sites are just pay-for-high-rating scams, and I can see how such a subforum could be similarly gamed. Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful response.