Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
I did actually like someones suggestion that the forum software just munges every product link to an affiliate link for MobileRead.
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I wasn't seriously for serious about that; not much more than I was about temporarily deleting the Deals forum* entirely if people kept complaining.
But it should be a relatively easy regexp type modification for at least the Amazon links, which seem to be the ones causing the most problems, what with their ability for linkers to potentially get a big payout 89 days down the line if they can just get a total stranger to click a tagged redirect to some random product said stranger may not even be interested in after seeing the actual description before going on to put in their Cart that $$$ deluxe turkey deep-fryer for Grandma's 69th birthday within the next 24 hours.
That kind of set-up rather encourages future random link-spam from hit-and-run newbies†, IMHO.
Anyway, if it really does come down to forum software modification, perhaps the mods could keep a list of the tag keywords used by any of our regulars who'd be willing to register theirs as an officially allowed affiliate so that they don't get auto-edited out?
And you could probably kill two orders of Dinosauria with one asteroid impact if the software also automatically looked for common ad-redirect link domains and url obfuscating link-shorteners, which I understand are strongly discouraged here on MR, and gave the poster an error message when posting with a big "It looks like you're using a link shortener or redirect. Here at MobileRead, we prefer to see the full original URL, even if it may seem rather long. Please post the full original link if you can." above the reply box.
* Although I still kind of think the mods should do that
for the lulz because I live in an area with very poor on-air TV reception and have to find my own entertainment.
† Bad affiliate! No cookie for you!