Changed my signature to tell my own policy about referral links:
"Disclaimer: Above post might contain referral links, but only to items that I myself have bought, tested & approved."
I think that policy helps me keep unbiased, still allowing me to recommend known good items and possibly even gain some cents by doing that.
I’m only going to buy my DX stuff from Frans links from now on. Saves me the time searching DX. just more fake Internet etiquette to me. I might also start posting in all CAPS to see if I can make anyone cry.
I don't find it to be such a bad thing, If I can get it for the same price, Why would I punish someone who could make a very little proffit from doing it?
The only thing I would like is, when someone uses referrals, to do it being honest about the products, not trying to promote them over other products on other sites.
So, my vote goes for option two, which is not quite what is my opinion but it is the closest one.
I think the point to remember is that the members here have just posted referral links with comments like “new lights at DX”. Never things like “this light is super mega awesome and you are all complete smegheads if you don’t buy it too”. The difference is there is no intention to deceive our membership. Just posting links to give our membership a heads up? No problem with me, I like looking at new lights.
Absolutely no issues to me if anyone use a referral link. Anyone doing so must still follow the usual BLF practics being nice and objective and not simply spamming such links.
I'm not sure that it's necessary...........I don't want to see us creating another CPF because of minor quibbles.
Personally, I'm all about content. If someone posts a helpful tip or a review or even a quick reminder, I'm more than happy to use their reflink to buy stuff. If I see value in their contribution and I can help them out, then by all means, post your link and I'll use it.
At the same time, I hate spam. And I mean hate. In a previous life, I used to be responsible for running a semi-large network and the amount of work and lost productivity that went into fighting spam and keeping things running, before spam filtering was completely outsourced, was ridiculous. So, when referral systems more or less openly encourage active spamming (or any activity really, that crosses over into spam territory), I get cranky.
So what I do is this: if there's content I value and the poster uses a reflink, I use it. If I like the post and there's no reflink, I go to my bookmarks and use the reflink of someone who has positively contributed to the forum in the past. That way, the ref points (or whatever) aren't "lost".
If I come across a "shill" post that contains little or no content aside from a reflink and plug designed to get me to buy stuff, I remove the reflink, go out of my way to remove any cookies and LSOs I might have from that site and simply use somebody else's reflink.
Works for me... :)
Probably the most nitpicking group i have encountered..
Not that its all bad - but it's not good either..
Wow....looks like quite a number of people do not mind.
I put them in some of my links, but I don't post links just so that people will follow them. I post a review or whatever and include the referral link (not all the time). I'm not changing what I write so that people will buy the item; I just review what I buy. It's not shilling if you're not trying to sell merchandise. You can tell the referrals are there since they are part of the URL. I'm not trying to hide anything.
To me it is as much an experiment as anything. I don't think KD's program works at all (never registered one sale). DX's program does work and I earned $10 back in January. I'm due for another $20 soon, and as I mentioned long ago I will either do a raffle for a $20 DX credit or maybe support the board some other way. It's not a gravy train and I'm not getting much of anything from it. My goal is to use (most of) whatever is earned and churn it back into the board somehow.
Nobody likes a true shill who says good things about a product just to get a commission. So I am against shilling, but I don't care about referral links. It's a fine line I guess.
I agree with this and that is all Fran has done. Fran has also been a valued contributor to the forum so its not an issue. If someone shows up and all they do is post links, I might have an issue. I only use those links to look at the lights anyway. When I decide to buy something, I usually shop around on my own and decide where I want to buy it from.
...subject tells it all.
+1 in a case like this it’s one of our own, not some spammer.
I think if we allow this then a million one post users will spam this forum with referral links.
My name is Jamesearljonesisascab and im guilty of shilling.
my most recent post with a link is https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/3849
I think this was a successful post as a few of the members here at BLF was able to get in on this great deal.
i really don't know if i got any money from this but im glad that the guys who purchased it are getting them in are satisfied with it.
i post links that are interesting to me and i think might interest the others here. if i had offended anyone with this practice i apologize.
really, its up to mr mod... but who cares? it dont cost you anything, it makes them barely anything per person buying...
but it should go into commercial sellers spot, or a new "whats new in china" spot or such, because alot of times they are pretty stupid lights no one will want
I voted, "Yes, but only if the shill announces that their links will add benefit to themselves."
I think its important to explain why I voted that way. There are times when the poster says more than simply, 'Look at this'. It is at that point that one needs to know if his/her comments are in some way influenced or are completely unbiased.
I agree with the peep who said that one can tell by looking at the url. But I am not 100% certain that all members are aware of that or even understand it. Some people just use computers and do not under how work or even how links work.
At the end of the day anyone who is paid by a company for promoting that company should declare that. Perhaps we should have a rule whereby links which derive a profit for the poster can only be posted in the Commercial Sellers forum. Obviously they will still appear on the Home page but at least we would know instantly what we were looking at.
I'm fine with referrals, just state it in the post somewhere so that everyone who is not tech savvy can see it without having to painstakingly move their cursor over the link...
I'm fine with referral links but I'd like to see a BLF one that gives any revenue to Mr. Admin. He has put a lot of his time and probably a quite a bit of cash into keeping this excellent place going. This isn't CPF which is run as a cash machine for its owner. Nor, I believe, will it ever be. Let's face it - many of us here are cheapskates. I know I am. It costs us nothing to use a BLF referrer link - so why not folks?
Problem is that DX points are essentially worthless unless you are generating enough of them to exchange them for cash. I've spent more than ten thousand dollars of other people's money at DX (I promised my grandmother on her deathbed that I'd never be a hardware seller) but always at cost. Referral links on that lot would be worth a bit and I'd be delighted to donate it somewhere useful.