Before I start, I know I am one to use Affiliate Link a lot with Play Asia. After many months of poor Play Asia game sales I have decide to not do them anymore. When I think about it, it really should not be allowed on a great site like OZB
I am sorry if my posts made your crazy etc
Who else agrees with me on Banning Affiliate Link?
Mod — Moved to Site Feedback forum.
Before I start, I know I am one to use Affiliate Link a lot with Play Asia. After many months of poor Play Asia game sales I have decide to not do them anymore. When I think about it, it really should not be allowed on a great site like OZB
tl;dr : Now that I'm no longer making money from my affiliate links, I vote we ban them so that no one else can make money either!
OzBargain's affiliate link posting policy has been outlined in the deal posting guideline (which I believe all you deal posters must have memorised them by now :)
Basically,
And finally (although not documented)
As @wang has said, I don't think you are in the position of arguing against posting affiliate links after posting 70 Play-Asia deals over the last 15 months, almost everyone one of them contains affiliate links.
Moderators, however, have given right to modify people's posts to ensure affiliate link posting policy is upheld.
So you don't make any money from them, so you think they should be banned?
Sounds like it. Poor twisty
I don't understand why someone who has benefited from affiliate links all of a sudden wants to ban them. Was there an affiliate link intervention I missed? LOL
In order to stop it getting out of control I think they should be limited ie. you can post one affiliate linked post per month.
Too hard to monitor.
I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "and if you wanna help a fella out…"
Lets not
No, let's not. What's the harm in keeping them.
It wouldn't be so bad if you got a referral through a URL just once, but it gets a bit much when you get referrals plastered over a post when the deal isn't that great
I really struggle to understand why its allowed, it attracts the wrong kind of people to post on ozbargain.
I would be very happy if everyone was forced to make a separate post with the referral, that way the community can decide if its wanted on ozbargain.
For example why should someone get their affiliate link in the bargain just because they were 30 seconds faster then the many people on ozbargain who don't post bargains for personal gain.
I can understand an affiliate link for a post where its clear nobody else would have found it in time etc.
That's a fair argument, OP just wanted them banned for the wrong reasons.
On the other hand, when someone tries to take advantage of the situation, ozb users do not forgive and will downvote mercilessly.
I do like the behaviour that's sprung up around greenmangaming, where posters include a whole bevy of affiliate links for you to choose from rather than just their own.
Of course, then someone posts a deal from GMG with only their affiliate link, and I get annoyed at them for not following community practice.
I wonder if it's possible to make a generator of some sorts or something and have it randomly pick a referral link. Put like an entry box on the side somewhere next to the deal and let users submit their referral link. And then some script can randomly select a link to be used, once a link has been used drop it to the bottom of the pile or something and make it less favourable to be selected whereas ones that haven't been clicked on are more favourable.
That way everyone wins and not just the OP or whoever can publicise their link best/fastest.
Thanks for the suggestion — that would be a possibility. Some sites have tricky affiliate links for example Play-Asia that's hard to generate. Even if we do that it won't really be on high priority so don't expect it for a while :)
Yeah just chucking an idea out there, just thought it would be fairer for everyone who has affiliate links for the same sight that way.
I like that idea:).
i think affiliate links encourages people to spam the site with junk deals.
in the worst case, i think there should be posting limits for referrals (1 a week?), since essentially they are acting exactly as reps for a site and have a commerical interest. and if they do post they should need to tick an affiliate checkbox to show an affiliate icon or similar next to their name.
even better, i think there should be separate forum page specifically for referrals and no referrals at all on the deals page. the forum page could be categorised on a site by site basis, where people can post their referral codes for a given site.
I just realised, having posted in this thread a couple of times, that I would have affiliate links for a couple of places I've posted on behalf of. I've never actually thought to include the affiliate link in my posts.
I think Mattgal's ideas have some merit.
Maybe we have a box where affiliate links are posted which the inserts the text like this.
"If you like this deal you may select an affiliate link. Click here to choose a link"
And also checks against a list of banned affiliate links ie those on BS or Starthere
This reaffirming, that while we recognise that these affiliate links are benefits on the table, these links is also able to be shared with the community.
But next we would have to sort these based on what criteria?
or a formula based on some combination of the above.
The biggest danger is that people just join to post their link and never participate any more, hence criteria 5 above.
(Note this is my personal view - as indicated by the absence of the mod tag against my name)
As for which link to use, a simple randomiser (well apparently it's simple to do) can pick one based on how frequently a choice turns up, the more times it's already been chosen the less it turns up or if one's been chosen 2 times and the others have only been chosen once then that one will not be chosen again until all have been chosen twice. That eliminates 1-4 and basically ensures everyone be selected.
As for time limit… I don't think time limit should apply, just because you have an account here shouldn't mean you should be able to reap the rewards (other than ad free bargains of course). Base the restrictions on the number of posts or comments they make (forcing them to contribute to the community) or something like that. And to stop people from spamming, hide the required number, simply just say "you have not met the required criteria to post affiliate links". And okay to be fair to those who aren't extremely active I suppose you can have a long time limit of 6 or 12 months.
So I think the reasons you use dont have any sense to them.
Again I think only links that give a benefit to the purchaser would make sense. And by having them in a separate area, its more likely as why would a purchaser search out the affiliate link unless there was benefit to them.
perhaps it would just be easier to ban affiliate links so nobody benefits or have only ozb affiliated where the money is given back to the community. This seems a lot of effort.
I agree with this.
I agree too, get rid of the vultures…other sites ban them!.
You do forget that some affiliate links mean that the purchaser also benefits. So outright ban means that the purchaser cant get benefit of those links.
Eg use code get $5 off
Now if its a link that only the poster gets benefit from, I would agree that these shouldn't be allowed.
Again my suggestion seems to be the best one. Have all referral links go into a separate post.
The community can then decide if its an appropriate use of a referral link.
Also most affiliate links where the purchaser benefits are often not very useful.
Actually we in a sense do this, I have always encouraged other members to post their affiliate links in the post as well, so others can elect to use those instead. But again I do think if there was a limit, like we have on negative votes, that someone needs to be here for a little while before they use them, that way we discourage people coming here just to post the link. Yes some will wait, but many dont they just post and run.
I will use another's affiliate link if I get a benefit and then if I have a choice I'd rather use one that people I know contribute will also get a benefit (and I dont have to "like" everything they do here.
The latter is my personal choice and I'd like to have that available to me. Banning links might satisfy some who wouldn't use it, but again they dont have to anyway.
Why? I think users should have the right to post an affiliate link, as long as they give users the option to use it, then why not give someone a little credit for their deal?
Pointless post, imho.