I think this is a very bad idea and an overreaction, and should be reconsidered.

It means duplication and confusion for members looking for the deals and freebies. Now I'll have to look through posts in numerous threads, instead of being able to quickly scan the deals section by book titles or devices.

I think it would be better to have the individuals who post affiliate links include a sentence in each post disclosing their affiliate relationship, if the powers-that-be think some kind of disclosure is truly necessary.

Amen. Easy, straightforward, sensible. =)

why not just have them prefix the thread with (affiliate) or something like that. I much prefer the individual thread per book.

However, if it absolutely must be done with separate threads, could they at least each be stickied so it's easy to find them each day?

Another good idea. =)

^ That.

(Though, seriously, I don't see what the fuss is about - you don't pay extra for the book and they get like $0.10 or whatever when you buy a book using their link. I'd much rather subscribe to these person's blogs and avoid the unnecessary mess this new rule will create. Just my $0.02)

I think it's an overreaction as well. I think it will make it easier to overlook deals. I think it would be sufficient for the posters to somehow mention affiliate links, perhaps mentioning in the poster's signature that all Amazon, et. al. links in the posts are affiliate links.

^This! Plus if a poster chooses to stay in one thread, as Koland has decided to do, then having that thread also stickied would be a great help, as well.

I have no argument as to whether or not it is an overreaction or justified decision becuase it is not something I have ever really thought about, considered or realized.

The only links I follow on a regular basis are from the Free/Bargain Kindle deal threads. If Koland is getting a stipend for posting them, then I see no harm or foul. I appreciate his putting all of those links in one (or two places) for us to find.

Harry, can you please explain the nature of the complaints? I'm curious to know the cons of affiliate links.

Than you.

My take is that I am more than comfortable rewarding affiliates when they add value. However, when they are paid for listing books with no added value it may lead to link spam.

If I just want to pages of free or reduced books, I can go to Amazon directly, or Ereaderiq.com . Visits here often don't add much value for me.

Where I find value is when someone helps me find good books that are bargains/free. Rather than hearing about every possible free book (link spam IMO) I would rather hear about ones that were highly rated, or about ones that the poster recommended from their own interest. Or, even a post from an author as long as the book was a bargain (otherwise go to the self-promotion thread). Ideally an affiliate would start with the list of all bargain books and reduce them to those that they recommend.

Today, I handle this by paying more attention to posts from some people that are more likely to fit my definition of quality posters.

However, I have no complaints about the others. I'm a big believer in entrepreneurship and wish the affiliates success in their activities. I mean this post more as possible market research information that might tell these folks how this particular consumer makes his buying decisions. If my thoughts are representative, it could help them to improve their success rate. If I am a lone voice, then no problem.

Personally, I'd be fine with affiliate-linked posters continuing to post in regular-style threads, provided there was a mention at the top of each post before the links began that they would receive the click-through commission on (additional) purchases.

Sig-only disclaimers wouldn't work because some of us have sigs turned off.

As for authors posting "bargains" of their own books, I'd really rather all that stayed in the Self-Promo forum, because practically all of the authors who've gone and double-posted in both Self-Promo and Deals seemed to think that their $2.99 self-published backlist or 99 cent indie book was a great bargain deal that no one should miss out on, so that kind of thing would really just encourage flooding and clutter, IMHO.

Perhaps a thread in the Reading Recs forum for recommended bargain/freebie books that MR posters have read and enjoyed which just happen to be fortuitously discounted at the moment?

I agree - this is going to be a big mess. I don't see anything wrong with leaving things as they are with a disclaimer statement at the beginning. I actually thought everyone was already aware this is going on.

I have more of a problem with people pretending they are putting up deals and actually working for the company listing them - like the two (if they are actually separate people) who work at Copia.

I also definitely don't want to see the authors self-promoting on this forum for any reason.

I have liked and definitely benefited from the listing of the FREE books. So making it harder to find those listings would not be my preferred remedy. Not only do I visit most of the links but I also generally copy the info that is posted, that is the title, author and wordy description and copy that over to a booklist.txt file. That provides a quick summary of what I have grabbed.

I guess I should see what that's done down below to see how it works in practice.

But let me ask another question about the original post. If I follow a link to a freebie/discount and "purchase" the freebie, they get a "commission" but if I stay on Amazon and find something else to purchase, they get additional commission (for want of a more exact term) even though they did not like to this new item?

Me too; so out of left field :blink:

No - each book has a separate link. Try just clicking through one of their links and look at the URL at Amazon. It has their affiliate code in the URL. If you don't see the affiliate code in the URL they don't get anything for it.

Correct - it applies to all purchases made during that visit to Amazon, not just to the product linked to. That's why people use affiliate links for "free" books.

Yes. Anything you'd purchase during the visit that began from the initial link, the affiliate gets the commission, which is 4 percent.

It's not like the purchaser pays anything extra; it's just that the referrer earns a little bit from Amazon.

Yes, the initial link needs to have the affiliate code, but once I click on the link, if I stay on the Amazon site and buy something else, that other purchase is credited to the affiliate.

Oh thanks. I still don't see how they know who to credit it to if there is no tag.

This is a silly overreaction. Would the "complainers" please discuss their reasons for this?

I was not aware of these users having an affiliate relationship with Amazon :blink: I only use their posts to acquire Amazon freebies, so how much is 4% for $0.00 :rofl:

[QUOTE=emellaich;1756522]
Where I find value is when someone helps me find good books that are bargains/free. Rather than hearing about every possible free book (link spam IMO) I would rather hear about ones that were highly rated, or about ones that the poster recommended from their own interest. Or, even a post from an author as long as the book was a bargain (otherwise go to the self-promotion thread). Ideally an affiliate would start with the list of all bargain books and reduce them to those that they recommend.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I like hearing about every possible free book. I like have the choice of viewing all the free books available and pick it or not. I don't want someone else telling me that they liked a book and only list that book. Their taste in reading is not mine.

If I find a deal, or get an code in an email, I will post it here for benefit of anyone who would like it. No benefit to me, just happy to pass on a deal.

Well, I don't know if this is going good for anybody, but I think it's going to be bad for people like me, who follow the freebies. Anyway, I don't understand the problem. Is bad to get some money through a link that doesn't cost anything to me, if that person has given me an information I find useful?

I like it the way it was. Please change it back. I don't mind the affiliates links. These people do the work for me giving their time and effort that I had to do myself. Instead of having to go find the free and bargain books on my own I can just come here and find out what is newly discounted or free. If they get a tiny reward from it, to me it's much deserved for the work they put into it.

To make everyone happy. Here's my suggestion.
Maybe the poster can put two links instead of one. One that says My Affiliate Link and one that says Regular Link and let the person decide which to click on. Then I'd put a sticky about what an affiliate links are so everyone is aware and no more complaints.

The new way will inconvenience people and my dishearten those who posts freebies and good deals to go somewhere else and that would be bad.

I do agree with others that Author self promotions should stays in the other forum and not be posted here.

These are not the affiliate links you're looking for.
*waves his hand in a Jedi-like manner*

Seriously, I can't think of a reason why any complaints about affiliate links would even be considered valid (as long as the links aren't being obfuscated with url-shortening services).

Having to keep track of multiple freebie/bargain threads is going to stink. "Too many squeaky wheels spoil the soup"... or something like that. :p

Cookie.

I think the Moderation team needs to rethink this. There's some major overreaction here.

A simple disclaimer as the first line of the posting should give those who are bothered by the affiliate program more than enough information to bypass those postings.

I like that there are a few people who goes out of there way to list all freebies and bargains for us/me. If money is their incentive who cares, at least its being done. Its not costing me anything. if you want a list of only good books go to reading recommendations and make your own lists. I think thats a bit much to expect people to not only find deals but read them to make sure theyre good enough for your time.

No link from this forum has every made a penny off of me. My rule since I've been here has been
if the book cost $0.00 I click on it as is, if it's anything more I've always removed the referral part of the link.

Course the referral folks could be required to put a comment in their sig?

I agree. It's going to devalue the deals forum considerably.
I'd think a disclosure/disclaimer and non-obfuscation should be enough to satisfy those who object to someone getting credit for a referral, but if it came down to it, compared to this new policy, I'd prefer referral links just be banned entirely.

ApK

Authors will not self-promote on this forum - for ANY reason. They will self-promote in only one forum and that forum is the Self-Promotion Forum, and they will follow the rules for self-promotions.


Don
(Moderator)

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: