Last month, Reddit updated their support page for "Redditor Highlights". You may have seen it on your feed already, the ads have started appearing for me this month.

It is an ad-campaign tool that allows advertisers to include an AI summary of only the positive redditor sentiments directly in a product ad, scraped directly from reddit threads about the brand.
Unfortunately, Vitamix caved to this feature for some bizarre reason despite already having great BIFL reviews in the past. The success story page literally references this sub. This has actually made more hesitant to purchase from them.

BIFL is already astroturfed by shittier brands daily because the whole internet relies on it for consumer purchases large and small. This feature will worsen it:

- Brands have already been trying to nudge the AI summaries of r/BuyItForLife on google and ChatGPT, and one way real redditors could previously combat that was just by posting negative feedback so the AI summary could consider it. It hilariously backfired in a few instances for the astroturfer. Reddit's feature negates this now because negative sentiments are not considered at all.

- The feature is currently only available to "brands and products that have already earned high positive sentiment among redditors". This encourages brands to manufacture their positive sentiment to access ad tools that are gatekept from them. And of course I don't believe for a second that they'll be transparent about what brands can/can't access this tool; they want advertisers to use it.

Reddit reviews are trusted because of nuance and discussion, and this feature saps all of that. But it's conveniently described as "real opinions" and "authentic community perspectives" while cutting a lot of the real stuff.

Any time a brand tries a new form of marketing, be suspicious of the product and what they traded to spend on their campaign. I wish there were more we could do besides just avoiding the feature, and telling our friends to stop trusting the AI summaries, but that's what we got.

Does your country make anything BIFL at all?

Edit: wow, I don't think commenters are aware this is the BIFL sub 😂

Replacing the sleds today. I have had the original pair for 5 years, wore them heavily first four of the five years with last year spending most of the time on the rack. Worth $210 ??? Ehhhhh hard to say but I’ve done it twice now. I don’t think footwear is meant to last.

Sent to cobblers direct at year three and in my opinion they made the shoes worse. I would not recommend sending sabahs to cobblers direct under any circumstance. They came back with a half glued insole, and a chalky new bottom that wore out quickly.

Despite my cobblers direct complaints, these are great shoes, which prompted my second purchase. If I get another five years out of them, I’ll most likely buy a third.

That is all.

I absolutely hate cutting vegetables. I know everyone says just get a sharp knife but I genuinely don't enjoy prep work and it makes me avoid cooking.

I'm looking for a really good mandoline/vegetable chopper that can handle multiple tasks dicing, shredding, slicing, julienne. The blades need to be sharp, like able to slice through ripe tomatoes without crushing them.

I'm okay spending more if it's genuinely worth it and durable. Any recommendations?

Hello! My electric kettle died. This makes number 4 in about twelve years. Not terrible I guess considering I’m a heavy user of it, but I’d really like a solid workhorse that lasts a long time. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Looking for reasonably priced satin/silk sheets that don’t pill. We have three dogs who shed who sleep in our bed (my husband wants them in the bed). My husband is mildly allergic and cotton sheets hold the hair which makes his allergies flair up (red eyes, runny nose, etc.). We’ve started using satin sheets and pillowcases which the dog hair doesn’t stick to, and allergies have been much better! However, we got 2 sets from Amazon about 6 months ago (satin polyester), and they’re pilling everywhere. We typically machine wash sheets once a week and alternate the sheet sets (i.e., wash set 1 and put set 2 on the bed).

Any recommendations on a better quality that won’t break the bank and will also last a while? The Amazon ones were about $50 a piece, so not really cheap if we have to buy every 6 months.

Hi all,

I am in the process of buying a house and am currently looking at sofa recommendations. I would love a stylish beige sofa, L shaped and slightly bigger BUT also easy to clean (not sure if this even exists haha). I am a clumsy person but I want a beige sofa for the living room as it’s quite a dark room…

Going to have a look around some sofa shops and would love some potential online recommendations. I love some of the sofas on Dusk/Daals however worried about the cleaning of these!

Please let me know if you love your sofa (regardless of colour) as I would love to check it out!

Thank you all :) x

So, I've been highly interested in ditching my smart phone and one of my main holdups is the gps abilities. I just simply cannot function without a solid gps system that understands traffic patterns and can properly reroute me if I miss a turn, etc. My research is telling me that Garmin is a high quality system, but all the recommendations are to get one that has Lifetime Maps. The current available model doesn't have that option, but there are plenty of refurbished models available with the LM suffix indicating that they have Lifetime Maps capabilities. To my understanding, Lifetime Maps means that your one-time purchase entitles you to all future map updates, without extra charge. Does anyone have any experience with buying a refurbished Garmin with LM? I'm curious as to whether the system would still honor the "one-time purchase" if this is the second time the same device is being purchased.

Decided to invest in some quality luggage given our current sets are getting close to their end.

Went back and forth between Travelpro and Briggs and Riley - ultimately settled on the Briggs and Riley Baseline for both carry on and checked rollers.

Altman Luggage was a pleasure to deal with and have us a great deal on the set!

When my Wife and I first got together she had a hand blender with a food processor attachment. It was £10 from Wilko's, so all in all it's quite crap.

I've been getting into cooking again over the last few years, and require a food processor and blender. I understand there are some combo options (such as the Ninja) which would reduce space usage.

We're expecting a baby soon so the budget is set at £150 for everything, with a push for £200 they're really good.

Comments are that Combo items are the worst of both processor and blender due to speed and functionality, but is it really as bad as people say?

I imagine a cheap processor is going to be of better value than a cheap blender.

What brands would people recommend within the budget, and maybe just outside the budget.

Thanks for your help!

For years we have loved the kids LLBean rash guards. They are very high quality, not floppy or thin, retain their shape and last through multiple kids despite my kids wearing them daily in the summer. I was very disappointed to see that LLbean is discontinuing kids swim wear. What are your suggestions for alternative? Every other brand we’ve tried is not thick, and stretches out really quickly. TY.

So my wife's birthday is coming up soon and I was wondering if I can get some recommendations as to which curling iron to get her. Her last one broke recently and I know she's been looking them online but I haven't figured out which one she likes. So with that said I have come here to ask for help from the experts on bifl because I want this one to last her a lot longer than the previous one.

Hi BIFL folks,

I am here before you today with a humble request, which entails a short story beforehand.

Within the last 5 years I purchased a set of CasaLuna linen sheets, foolishly tricked by the enshittification of linen material as of late. They worked well enough, but were thin- so much so that they've torn in several places.

Being a good cheap bastard who seeks quality above all else, i have now set off on a quest- to find a set of queen size linen sheets that are made with the long staple fibers that linen of the past was known for and which led to its durability as a material.

I came across this article on the NYT in my research, surprised to find CasaLuna in the first recommendations. They have the "European Flax" trademark, which when i dig more into might also not be a factor of quality?

I was digging through their site to see what their requirements were to apply this label, and came across the attached image "total utilization of the plant: eurpean flax is a zero-waste fiber, all parts of the plant are used".

Now my background is fashion and textiles, so i know a thing or two, but maybe I'm missing something: isn't part of the marker of quality linen that it only uses staple flax fibers, thusly creating some waste by its very nature? They don't specify where all parts of the plant get used, so perhaps the tow fibers are being put into different products- but if that was the case, wouldn't they be clear about that?

So far, the current best options I've been able to come up with are "buy antique ones" (they didn't used to have fitted sheets, and there's very few I've been able to find as well) OR "make them myself" which I'm not opposed to, but again, need to find a way to guarantee the linen i am buying to make them with is actually a quality fiber and not one that will fall apart in another 5 years.

Would love to hear folks thoughts on this, and also if anyone has suggestions on where to get Actualy Staple Fiber Linen Sheets, I would super appreciate them.

What's the least I should spend to get a quality BIFL suit? First time suit buyer btw.

In Australia

Images are for reference, bottle cap desired, old bottle that's broken

I've just broken my second high capacity plastic bottle as it was dropped while full and now I'm wanting to find a bottle that's both high capacity and metal or high strength. I've looked through the posts on here and haven't been able to find something that matches this in my country (australia). Yeti has the capacity, but not the lid unless i get the giant gallon bottle which is too big. Ideally closer to 2l capacity, if its a barrel, a handle built into its design would be ideal but that's probably closer to those 3l sizes

Picture of bottle top style for reference, as well as my previous bottle. Ideally I don't want the cap flapping about, the more rigid the better. If this seems ridiculously specific, I am autistic and feel of use/ergonomics is very important to me

I use this everywhere, just general at work, while at home on the pc, when I play sport, it's a do everything kind of thing

I returned some DT socks a couple weeks ago to exchange for a larger size.

When I put in my order number, it says returned, but so far I haven’t received the replacement or an email.

How long does it usually take?

Not complaining, just wondering if I did something wrong.

I had my first washer and dryer for ages. They started crapping out at the start of covid and so I panicked and replaced them, because, germs. I had to leave them when I moved.

The house I'm in has nightmare Samsung smart washer and dryer, without the smart toggled on. I hate these things so much. Very throttled on water, heat, time, etc. And they play a stupid electronic song at the end of each cycle. It's such a troll.​​

I'm looking to purchase a washer/dryer that let's me decide water level, temperature, duration, has a big load capacity, is not *"smart"*, and will last.

But, after looking around, this seems as likely as finding a unicorn. Any suggestions?

I have a trip to china coming and, wanted to know what BIFL items people bought while there.

I just bought this Tefal LOV Induction Cast Iron Green Lichen Stewpot 25cm/5L + Lid

It arrived in the post today.

If I run my finger nail in the notch in the rim of the lid, I can feel the difference in height.

Will this impact the performance and long term use of the pot? Or am I being overly concerned?

Thank you for your help! 😊

Hi all,

I want to buy my wife a new chair for her home office. She's on conference calls for 10+ hours a day, and suffice to say being seen using a walking desk on camera would raise eyebrows.

Given the fatigue and back pain she's been experiencing with previous chairs, I will gladly make the investment on quality craftmanship, but I don't want to get sucked by slick advertising.

I'm grateful for any guidance you can provide.

I’ve built up a pretty big mug collection over the years and I’m always looking for new ones that actually feel good to drink from.

I’ve also picked up a few from local ceramic shops and some random ones from bigger stores, but a lot of those ended up chipping or just feeling cheap after a while.

Where have you found your best mugs? Looking for ones that are sturdy, good size, and don’t lose their design after a bunch of washes.

Hello,

I already own the Philips OneBlade Pro 360 and I am very satisfied.

The Philips's marketing advertises Philips OneBlade Intimate as being better for intimate areas.

Is it worth it?

Thank you.

Unfortunately I need more cups because the last one broke and I don't trust or like plastic. I've also heard the old soviet facted glass cups are tough. Are these the same or better quality?