"Links policy" means what to us regulars here??

[Little_bear]

Originally Posted by sufue

I hope the moderators consider changing to the "old way with a disclosure right up front".

+1. It's much easier to find a book in individual threads.

[magicmonster]

I also want individual threads - that way I can only go after the stuff that sounds interesting.

[basschick]

i do, too - individual threads are so convenient.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm not saying that's what you mean by pointing out your threads aren't affiliate linked, but just to say that I"m not comfortable with this situation. Catlady calls it the "marginalizing" of the affiliate posters and I kind of agree.

Eh, I'm just annoyed with posters tending to go around wailing like it's the end of the sub-forum and that everyone will desert the place for lack of listings.

And I think it doesn't give anyone here enough credit, to make a kind of assumption that the only reason that affiliate-linking MR members would post freebies would be for the prospect of maybe getting some money back for their time, or that MR members in general wouldn't step in to help out their fellow MR members find deals and freebies as usual in spite of multiple proofs to the contrary which one can see in the current new coupon/deals/freebies listings even now, the latter of which Arcadata him/herself has been posting without his/her usual affiliate link.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm just not at all comfortable with these lists of who does and doesn't use affiliate links and who does and doesn't deserve karma.

I give people karma if they post a book I like and want. Not because of whether or not they use an affiliate link.

My suggestion regarding karma for Susan wasn't based on whether or not she used affiliate links, but for the fact that for quite some time now, she's been seeking out and posting both conventional and offbeat freebie finds for everyone to enjoy, whether it be in new threads or as updates to existing ones.

She does it with a great deal more consistency than I ever have; I freely admit I'm pretty lazy about updating freebie threads for extra stores even after I've gone and gotten a copy of the book there so likely some people here are missing out on their preferred store because of that.

Of course, if she happens not to have posted the kind of book you like and want, then obviously you haven't benefitted from her ongoing work and then the karma would be superfluous rather than appreciative.

And now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go update a bunch of Christian fiction threads for Kobo versions which will expire at the end of the month which I've known about for over a week now but haven't bothered to alert my fellow MR members because I've been pretty lazy.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And we don't even know the exact nature of their complaints, because NO ONE is speaking out.

I'll admit that although I wasn't concerned enough to complain to the mods, I was someone who was bothered by the fact that these affiliate links were not disclosed. I asked what they meant on one of the earlier threads (because at the time I honestly didn't know) and was either ignored or slapped down (I honestly don't remember - either response was IMO rude).

I felt (and still do) it was underhanded to not disclose that the poster was making money (or potentially making money) from the links.

So when I saw those posts (and hadn't got an answer on what the links meant), I just copied the book titles and did my own book searches on the mentioned site. I got my books, no one benefited from my visit but me.

For my part, though, a simple disclosure, even in the posters' signature line, would have been enough to appease me. It was the unwillingness to own up that bothered me more than the fact that the posters' were acting out of any self-interest in offering the links.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Eh, I'm just annoyed with posters tending to go around wailing like it's the end of the sub-forum and that everyone will desert the place for lack of listings.

Speaking as one of the "wailing" posters who is annoying you, I can confirm that if we stick with this system, I will have to quit the Deals Forums because it will no longer be the easiest way for me to glance through Daily Deals for me.

Since I really LIKED the Deals Forum... this is a big deal for me. I was actually really depressed about this last night because I had a good, quick-check system and now I'm going to have to rework it.

(I'm also pretty bummed that the LOTRO update has completely screwed up my Minstrel. It's been a week of changes-not-wanted for me, I'm afraid. Who moved my cheese indeed. Cheese-moving makes Ana sad.)

I don't expect everyone to agree with my feelings. But I would appreciate if you could not trivialize them and treat them, me, and the other concerned posters with respect and not like we're a bunch of over-reacting children because you can't/don't see why we're upset. Thank you.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I don't expect everyone to agree with my feelings. But I would appreciate if you could not trivialize them and treat them, me, and the other concerned posters with respect and not like we're a bunch of over-reacting children because you can't/don't see why we're upset. Thank you.

I see why people are upset; I simply don't subscribe to the extent of the expressed views that the deals will disappear because the bargain-posters will disappear because of this change. Especially not the "but what about the freebies!" ones, since that seems to be one of the main concerns, and those simply aren't being affected at all.

Your feeling that this change will greatly inconvenience your established and preferred personal workflow is entirely apart from that, and I don't think I've been commenting on it at all. If I have made a truly denigrating remark about that, then I apologize.

And I'd appreciate it if you in return didn't keep trying to turn my point about how MR posters in general are a very generous and sharing lot who are often willing to Help Random Strangers On The Internet™, regardless of whether or not they receive even so much as thanks in return, into some sort of affiliate vs non-affiliate list of Who's Deserving and Who's Not.

The Deals forum is not some sort of zero-sum game where people have to pick sides, and that if they're not With Us, then they're Against Us.

And it really does ignore and devalue the assorted contributions of the dozen or so different thread-starting OP usernames which I can see on just the first 5 pages alone who've taken the time to share a freebie or bargain they've found, to speak as if the moving of the particular contributions of a handful of prominent posters into a couple of megathreads will diminish the worth of the forum listings to the point of no return.

Some of that dozen may even also affiliate-link; I wouldn't know and don't care. But the important thing is that they've been posting and sharing their finds, too, even if those may not fit your reading tastes so you may not have looked into them, and people acting like bargain/deal the listings are all going to go poof! into hiding because a few posters may now choose to have megathreads are marginalizing those other contributors' work.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I see why people are upset; I simply don't subscribe to the extent of the expressed views that the deals will disappear because the bargain-posters will disappear because of this change. Especially not the "but what about the freebies!" ones, since that seems to be one of the main concerns, and those simply aren't being affected at all.

Sure the freebies are being affected; they had included affiliate links, so now they have to go into one of the "Affiliate Links for ..." threads (or more than one, actually--lots of duplication now).

Yes, some freebies were posted by people who aren't affiliates, and yes, those will still be posted as they were, but I still want to check the threads of the "old reliables" who posted most of the deals, which means wading through their affiliate threads.

So whereas before I had to simply skim the titles in the deals posts to find possible titles of interest, now I have to also open each individual affiliate thread.

And as to the freebies disappearing, well, if the affiliates suddenly find any significant drop in their commissions because of the change, is it completely unlikely that in a month or two they may decide not to bother anymore?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And as to the freebies disappearing, well, if the affiliates suddenly find any significant drop in their commissions because of the change, is it completely unlikely that in a month or two they may decide not to bother anymore?

Perhaps they'll be replaced by people who just like to help others, rather than being in it for the money? Time will tell.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Sure the freebies are being affected; they had included affiliate links, so now they have to go into one of the "Affiliate Links for ..." threads (or more than one, actually--lots of duplication now).

At the present date, I'd say actually no. Arcadata has chosen to keep posting Kindle freebie finds outside of their megathread, as individual posts without the affiliate link.

Checking the affiliate threads as a backup precaution is understandable, but not currently necessary.

Originally Posted by Catlady

And as to the freebies disappearing, well, if the affiliates suddenly find any significant drop in their commissions because of the change, is it completely unlikely that in a month or two they may decide not to bother anymore?

Then quite likely other posters would step in to pick up the slack, as they've done in the past and continue to do so for update alerts when books become available in additional stores.

I think that the posting history of this forum would show that while some of the affiliate-linked posters did contribute a very large amount of "first posts" of the freebies within the past 6-9 months or so, if you go back farther, there are a lot more varied usernames contributing new freebie threads.

Affiliate-linkers certainly had more incentive to be first on the draw and thus we were able to enjoy seeing titles show up practically as soon as they hit $0.00 at one of the Amazons, but even if they do decide to stop posting freebies, MR posters as a whole are very helpful about posting new freebie finds as they see them elsewhere (and thus the spate of duplicate threads we get sometimes because no one bothers to use Search).

The freebies might not show up as quickly, but based on past observation I'm pretty sure they'll still show up.

[apesmom]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Perhaps they'll be replaced by people who just like to help others, rather than being in it for the money? Time will tell.

Yeah well you would think, but I just got a post deleted for posting a link I found on Slickdeals. Sorry, I didn't scrub the URL but I didn't even know what I was looking for. Suddenly not feeling very helpful anymore.

[HarryT]

Look at the URL. If it contains text that says "tag=something", that's an affiliate link.

[koland]

Sorry your post got deleted (I thought you might want to edit, as I knew it wasn't your tag).

For Amazon, look for: "tag=AFFTAGHERE", "tag=AFFTAGHERE-20" (the "-20" part is a country code, but not all tags have them), or ""t=AFFTAGHERE" (can also have country code). Usually will have "?" or "&" just before the "t" in either form.

Anything you find at slickdeals, ereaderiq, inkmesh and almost any other website (especially deals pages) will have an affiliate tag. Finding the tags for non-amazon items will be a lot harder (and near impossible if a link cloaker/redirector is used).

[apesmom]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Look at the URL. If it contains text that says "tag=something", that's an affiliate link.

Sure, no problem, I'm going to dig through every URL looking for that string, remove it and check to see that the link still works correctly. NOT.

I surf, I find a deal, I post it. I don't pay attention to how I got there. I have a link that worked for me and works for others. You're making it harder for "those that just want to help others" with this policy.

Case in point, I was going to post the link to the $0.69 MP3s then looked at the short story that passes for an Amazon URL. Not going to bother.

amazoncom/s/qid=1317233585/ref=sr_pg_1?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A163856011%2Cn%3A%212334 092011%2Cn%3A%212334123011%2Cn%3A2662497011%2Cp_n_ feature_browse-bin%3A625151011&page=1

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by koland

Sorry your post got deleted (I thought you might want to edit, as I knew it wasn't your tag).

For Amazon, look for: "tag=AFFTAGHERE", "tag=AFFTAGHERE-20" (the "-20" part is a country code, but not all tags have them), or ""t=AFFTAGHERE" (can also have country code). Usually will have "?" or "&" just before the "t" in either form.

Anything you find at slickdeals, ereaderiq, inkmesh and almost any other website (especially deals pages) will have an affiliate tag. Finding the tags for non-amazon items will be a lot harder (and near impossible if a link cloaker/redirector is used).

Originally Posted by apesmom

I surf, I find a deal, I post it. I don't pay attention to how I got there. I have a link that worked for me and works for others. You're making it harder for "those that just want to help others" with this policy.

Yeah. I kind of have to agree with apesmom here... That's... a little overwhelming. So even people who WANT to help for free are potentially going to have to stop because they don't know how to scrub links they found elsewhere.