Title change by request: What's good about AFF links?

Thank you for that informative and helpful post. You are one of the greatest BLF’ers of all time! :wink:

Then again, it might raise some spirits! :party:

By the way, I’d like some popcorn with extra butter. And, if you’ve got it, some Barq’s! Do you have that yummy theatre candy as well? I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I had Boston Baked Beans or Mike and Ike’s!

Lol. You started this whole thread just so you could say “see, I wasn’t wrong”. Good grief. This is one of the dumber episodes of pointless hair-splitting that I’ve witnessed.

No Affiliate links will make BLF a better place!

Why would anyone accuse you of trollish behavior? 0:)

David you’ve taken this discussion from affiliate links to prejudice and bigotry :expressionless:
You seem to have your mind made up, I really don’t get the point of this thread other than you trying to sway the readers into liking affiliate links.

Rule #1 please.

The point of this thread is for people to think about WHY they dislike AFF links. If you have valid logic, then your opinion is valid. Yep, I said it, and I’ll own it. Prejudice doesn’t justify prejudice. So, an opinion based on prejudice alone is not logically valid. Saying “All _ are evil because I don’t like _!” is not valid. The hatred doesn’t justify the hatred. There has to be something else. A few here have offered something else. I have read every post. And, although I haven’t personally responded to each one, I do agree with a lot of the points that are being made.

I think it’s funny that people keep saying I’m aggressively promoting AFF links. I’m not promoting AFF links or anything but active thought and a little healthy (but civil) debate. I’ve already said that I have no skin in the game of AFF links. I’m not in any affiliate programs myself, and I don’t recall ever actually using any links to buy products either. I would not be opposed to banning AFF links from the site for good reason. But, ‘cause I say so’ has never been “good reason” to me. (I never liked it when my parents said it!)

I don’t know. Maybe because I look like this?

I knew it :slight_smile:

Oh, meant to answer this before. I think this conversation needs a little OT every once in a while to keep it from getting too hot in here.

The avatar was made in GIMP. Back in the day when even half-way decent cameras were way too expensive, I took a picture of myself with my webcam to use for avatars and such. Well, the picture was so grainy and bad that I decided to ‘fix’ it a little. I put it into GIMP and made a new transparent layer. Then, I basically outlined each major color or shape change and filled it in with one solid color. The eyes were beyond help, so I used a brown eye that I downloaded somewhere for my eyes, and made them large to give the whole thing a cartoonish appearance. I’ve used it as my avatar on a few sites, but my wife doesn’t like it. She says it looks creepy. :open_mouth: As you can see, the avatar needs a shave. That’s because I don’t like shaving, and I only get around to it every week-and-a-half or so.

I think there are enough reasons mentioned to completely ban them....

and 1 of them, is that its a heavy (money) laden topic.. and therefore should get banned.

No politics, no religion, so why affiliate links?

David, the whole thread is created on an erroneous premise, one that claims that affiliate links posting is the status quo, that posting affiliate links is the normal state of affairs which is not. A good forum is one free of hidden links and publicity, except in the designated areas.
If you would have created a thread titled like “Why do you like affilliate links?” you would have gotten a totally different response. Are you starting to see my point now?

I’ve got a really easy answer for that one. Politics and religion have nothing to do with flashlights! :wink: AFF links don’t need to be here in order for us to have a nice forum, but they also don’t need to not be here for us to have a nice forum. We can choose to have a nice forum with or without AFF links! In fact, I would go on to say that if we can’t have a nice forum in spite of AFF links, then we can’t have a nice forum… period. People make forums. We are the people. :wink:

I’m sorry if my title suggests that AFF links are the norm or the status quo. That is not what I meant at all. The reason I stated the question like that is really simple - that is the question I’d like to have answered. I really think it would be foolish to try to say that AFF links improve anything. But, by the same measure, I think it’s naïve to think that AFF links do any harm. They don’t have power to do good or evil. People do. One thing I was hoping to see in here is somebody doing a ‘history lesson’ of sorts about the evil beginnings of AFF links and how they were ‘always’ used in a bad way from since they were invented. I haven’t seen that. Something like that would actually sway my opinion (supposing it’s true, of course).

Affiliate links have NOTHING to do with flashlights either!

its a divisive topic, and therefore should get banned I would say, just becuase the former 2 topics are not allowed.

thats just another nail in the Affiliate coffin.

In fact, I would go on to say that if we can’t have a nice forum in spite of AFF links, then we can’t have a nice forum… period. People make forums. We are the people.

Hmmm don`t know where the logic is in that one.

I will quote again, but change the words.

In fact, I would go on to say that if we can’t have a nice forum in spite of Religion, then we can’t have a nice forum… period. People make forums. We are the people.


In fact, I would go on to say that if we can’t have a nice forum in spite of Politics, then we can’t have a nice forum… period. People make forums. We are the people.

Also a bit Naive,you`re thinking solely about the affiliate links themselves, and not the people using them, people posting them, and the companies behind these links...etc etc etc etc.

we are people.. not affiliate links ;)

sex is not wrong of itself.. but there are certain rules to keep it "good".

Drugs is not wrong of itself... just don`t touch it.

drugs can`t talk, can`t walk, can`t eat, can`t cheat... so no, its not bad at all..

just like affiliate links...

My view,
There is nothing wrong with AFF links provided they are plainly marked as such.
Then sb could allow us to mark any non declared, bogus reviews or overuse as spam :evil:

Cheers David

Actually, I agree that sex, drugs, and whatever else is not bad unless used incorrectly. Maybe you were being facetious?

And yes, I would also agree that we could have a nice forum talking about politics and religion, as political forums and religious forums can show. We just don’t need it here, because this is neither a political nor religious forum. One trait of such forums is that they are mostly one sided. Birds of a feather flock together. Most people that frequent a forum are in agreement with the overall topic of the forum. Here, our ‘one feather’ is flashlights. We may have vastly differing views of religion and politics, especially if you take into consideration that we have people from all over the globe in here. And here we are having an open discussion about AFF links, and it is mostly working (the thread hasn’t been shut down yet). And actually, there is another thing. AFF links themselves are not usually a topic of discussion. They are just a thing.