After having been contacted by some concerned fc members I felt obligated to share this information with the community.
To start off there's little doubt that trevorvapor on reddit is Trevor Vita, founder of the Zenpen vaporizer project, now renamed to Grasshopper. The argument could be made that his first three comments there(bottom of the page) are written as if coming from a random reddit user interested in the product. In the most questionable of the three he asks "Are those the final colors?" in response to a conceptual video of the product. After that he switches gears and starts answering questions as a founder of the project.
Why would someone in that position create a reddit account, do a little astroturfing and then shift into founder mode using the same account? If one was to play devil's advocate they might say that he:
I had heard some positive comments about the people behind the project from a friend in the know, so I gave Zenpen the benefit of the doubt and asked him about this collusion. I was told that it was his little brother who must have made an account and commented. It seemed unlikely to me, but again I gave him the benefit of the doubt. It turns out that I had foolishly mistaken the Zenpen for another conceptual vaporizer seeking crowdfunding, which meant that the endorsement from my friend was misplaced.
On November 16th, there were allegations of more astroturfing.
There have been a lot of questions surrounding the Zenpen/Grasshopper.
As a relatively astute, but entirely average looking fc staff member put it:
Their business model has also been called into question:
Am I posting this to hurt their project? Absolutely not. As a long time vapor enthusiast I revel in the emergence of innovative new vaporizers. However, over the years, the enthusiast community has seen more than a few new vaporizer companies promising the world and failing to deliver. We've also seen far too many companies deceiving the public with astroturfing campaigns and shill posters.
An important distinction here is that the people behind the Grasshopper have taken $176,452 (and counting) from excited vaporists without having demonstrated a convincing proof of concept. My allegiance lies with the consumer and I'm posting this with their best interests in mind. I sincerely hope that these are indeed misunderstandings, and not opportunistic entrepreneurs aiming to cash and run on a ripe new market. I hope that these newcomers truly have broken incredible new ground in portable vaporizer technology. But, as always, buyer beware.
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I'm going to leave this thread unlocked so that any discussion doesn't derail the Grasshopper thread. Let's be clear that this is not a place to bash the product or company. If you don't have something constructive to add in a civil manner, please don't reply. Please do not make accusations unless you have evidence beyond what was just posted.
To start off there's little doubt that trevorvapor on reddit is Trevor Vita, founder of the Zenpen vaporizer project, now renamed to Grasshopper. The argument could be made that his first three comments there(bottom of the page) are written as if coming from a random reddit user interested in the product. In the most questionable of the three he asks "Are those the final colors?" in response to a conceptual video of the product. After that he switches gears and starts answering questions as a founder of the project.
Why would someone in that position create a reddit account, do a little astroturfing and then shift into founder mode using the same account? If one was to play devil's advocate they might say that he:
- Didn't understand how reddit worked and that comments have permalinks which can be filtered by account
- Had been using sock puppet accounts to astroturf and accidentally made three shill posts under his personal account
- Forgot that he had made the first three comments with the account (June 27th and 28th) before deciding to answer questions as the founder on August 9th.
I had heard some positive comments about the people behind the project from a friend in the know, so I gave Zenpen the benefit of the doubt and asked him about this collusion. I was told that it was his little brother who must have made an account and commented. It seemed unlikely to me, but again I gave him the benefit of the doubt. It turns out that I had foolishly mistaken the Zenpen for another conceptual vaporizer seeking crowdfunding, which meant that the endorsement from my friend was misplaced.
On November 16th, there were allegations of more astroturfing.
There have been a lot of questions surrounding the Zenpen/Grasshopper.
As a relatively astute, but entirely average looking fc staff member put it:
Their business model has also been called into question:
PlanetVape said:
Am I posting this to hurt their project? Absolutely not. As a long time vapor enthusiast I revel in the emergence of innovative new vaporizers. However, over the years, the enthusiast community has seen more than a few new vaporizer companies promising the world and failing to deliver. We've also seen far too many companies deceiving the public with astroturfing campaigns and shill posters.
An important distinction here is that the people behind the Grasshopper have taken $176,452 (and counting) from excited vaporists without having demonstrated a convincing proof of concept. My allegiance lies with the consumer and I'm posting this with their best interests in mind. I sincerely hope that these are indeed misunderstandings, and not opportunistic entrepreneurs aiming to cash and run on a ripe new market. I hope that these newcomers truly have broken incredible new ground in portable vaporizer technology. But, as always, buyer beware.
--
I'm going to leave this thread unlocked so that any discussion doesn't derail the Grasshopper thread. Let's be clear that this is not a place to bash the product or company. If you don't have something constructive to add in a civil manner, please don't reply. Please do not make accusations unless you have evidence beyond what was just posted.
