Thanks. :)

Thanks! :thumbsup:

:ditto: I have a seen a few sneek in here before but they are normally caught. :D

I couldn't agree more - I don't belong to an affiliate program because I don't want anyone dictating what I may or may not list, but if those who take the time to bring these books to our attention gain financially, then more power to them. Why make it more difficult to locate free and bargain books?

I don't like this new format at all. In the old way, whoever posted the book first got the affiliate link, and usually others are respectful about not posting the same books. I think we're going to get a lot more duplicates this way, and it's just going to be harder to skim through all the books and see what's out there. Koland and Arcadata spend a lot of time on this, I'm perfectly happy if they make a few bucks on it.

There's only one thing sneaky about this, and that's that people might not know that it's an affiliate link and the poster makes money. So instead of separate threads, why not disclose it IN EACH POST? Every time you put in a link with your affiliate info, you must state that your affiliate info is in there. Maybe along with a link that explains what affiliate programs are, for people who don't know. This way, the threads could stay the same and it wouldn't be hard for the posters to just paste in the same sentence every time.

eP

If this is a vote, I too disagree with this policy. I *like* the affiliate links; they don't cost me more and I like to "tip" people who find good deals for me. Why shouldn't they get some cash from Amazon for sending people their way? I never bought Kindle books until I started getting arcadata's deals, so zie deserves the commission. :)

If some people really don't want to follow affiliate links, it's easy enough to (a) post a disclaimer, (b) copy link, (c) paste into URL bar and remove the little tag at the end.

I would prefer everything go back to the way it was last week. :(

You probably already know this, but the eReaderIQ links are also affiliate links. That's how they stay in business. :)

I prefer coming here, because this site has more than just Amazon books.

Or have them add it to their signature - that gets copied into every message they post.

It's easy enough to remove the affiliate tag (if cloaking is not allowed) for amazon, which is about the only one that tags your session for 24 hrs.

I'm a little surprised that this decision was made based on some complaints to the mods without vetting it with the larger community? If there was a discussion thread on the issue, I didn't see it, but maybe I missed it somewhere? :o

I mean, the people in this thread have been pretty vocal about NOT liking the change, so it seems like the complaints were, ah, possibly not representative of the Mobile Read community as a whole. :o

I realize this isn't a democracy (and that's a good thing, I love Mobile Read, no complaints), but could we maybe get a vote/poll on this particular issue? I'd like my opinion in favor of the affiliate links to count as much as the people complaining about the affiliate links. :(

i think this is silly. i'd rather make it easier on the guys who spend so much time finding the freebies and deals. and since it doesn't cost those who click the links anything extra, and the free books are still free, i can't even imagine what people are complaining about.

I'm confused. There is something morally wrong with affiliate links? :blink:

At least I won't have to keep track of the affiliate links threads, since I never buy anything from the threads posted here, I only get free stuff. So I think we need another rule that nothing I'm actually interested in can ever be posted in the affiliate link threads, since I will never read them, and I would miss it! :p

On a more serious note, as several others I would be very curious as to why this sudden rule change came about. "Effective immediately" is usually reserved for when bad things have happened, and the tone of the post suggests that as well. This makes it a lot harder to find bargains and deals, and in the end will only make this forum more difficult to use, not to mention that it might dissuade people from posting deals and bargains in the future if they get nothing for their hours of hard work. Or was that the point?

I didn't think so either, but there's an ongoing discussion here.

I guess it's more contentious than we thought?

I'd really like to hear the opposing side, as well. I confess to being equally puzzled. :blink:

Att - ic - a!!
Att - ic - a!!
Att - ic - a!!

I joke, but unless there were legal reasons for this turn of affairs, I agree that it was probably a mistake to satisfy a few malcontents without checking to see what the general attitude was toward affiliate links.

Help us understand, complainers. Please? Why so quiet?

It's true that we make very little from these ... so we have to make it up in volume!

:thanks:

Keep in mind, many links you click throughout the internet are affiliate links (including many on places like facebook and google - where original aff links can be changed for google ones, from what I've seen). Each time you click one, the person or company getting credit for your shopping changes. Amazon never charges you extra for using an affiliate link (they just pocket the extra 4%, if you don't use one).

Some ebookstores only credit thru the first purchase, so if you buy the free book, the affiliate gets nothing at all. I've only seen one promotion (in many years) that gave affiliates credit for all sales, even those that were free, as a volume bonus, so it's very, very unusual for those links to result in much income).

ps. If you are wondering why anyone bothers with those links, in that case - it's often sheer laziness; if I've already created a link on my blog, I just copy it here, if I also post that book (and I often don't, on bargain books), rather than creating a new link without the aff tags.

Even if there are good reasons for disclosure, surely those could have been addressed by requiring disclosure in each post that includes an affiliate link, rather than this drastic overhaul that just makes life more difficult for everyone.

Exactly. Unless you're typing in the URL each time, you're probably using someone's affiliate link. What is the issue with the people here, who are saving us time and effort by posting bargains, making a few cents per book? For a free book, they get 4 percent of nothing. For a $5 book, the commission is a whopping 20 cents. Woo-hoo!

*quits day job*