I'm not sure I agree with this, KB58. From what I've seen from the experienced PM lathe owners here, they tend to be quite honest about the shortcomings of their lathes. I'm not talking about a new guy with a few months under his belt; I'm talking about an experienced lathe operator with enough time at the lathe so they know the significance of a defect when they see it.
The reality is that you do not know a lathe until you've lived with it for some time. Once you do and know that something is not up to par, there is no benefit to hiding those shortcomings. On the contrary, the stuff I've seen tends to be nitpicky and they point out every single thing they find to be substandard.
When I look into buying a machine, I want to hear from actual users. I agree that you should find these opinions wherever you find them but there is a concentration of PM owners here and it is simple enough to PM them if you need more info. I feel the majority of the PM owners here will have the integrity to be honest, especially when a fellow member is contemplating a major purchase.
Another benefit is that Matt, the owner of PM, also posts here and addresses issues as they arise; that is a major plus in my book.
I do not own a PM machine but I am a long-time HM member (yes, I am biased towards this site) and if I wanted to know about a machine, I would actually trust the guys here before I would trust some guys I don't know at another site.