Title change by request: What's good about AFF 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.

I think that is probably a workable solution. Policy could dictate what use of AFF links is tolerable, and everything else could be dealt with.

The good deals are about to go away. Most of the people who post affiliate links go out and negotiate good deals for us. No affiliate links, no more deals. Maybe a special area on the forum where people could use affiliate links.

I kind of disagree with that. Some deals are negotiated by some that post AFF links. Not all of them. Quite a few of the companies have begun updating their own threads consistently with good deals and take requests from the people here. I don’t really care about AFF links, IF they are from somebody that actually contributes to the forum instead of using it as a store and as long as they aren’t posting up garbage products. All of the AFF links posted for craptastic items need to go away. Also, posting 20 links a days is some BS. AFF links, if published, should be clearly noted as such and should be for items a decent percentage of forum members would be interested in. If they don’t know what we would be interested in then they clearly don’t belong here.

If somebody negotiated a deal for a crate of Sony VTC5’s that were found and we got them for $5 a piece, I could care less if the person that got that deal for us made a $0.25 per battery. The cost to me would be the same whether they made the money of not. Suppliers have already factored that money into their pricing since there will be affiliate links posted somewhere even if not here. As long as companies support affiliate links, their pricing will include what they are having to pay out, no matter what deal is made. Some companies price items lower than others because they focus on quantity of sells. Making 5% per sale on 1000 sales is better than making 20% on 100 sales. They use thousands of affiliates to get their quantity of sales so they make money. So since that money is already factored into the pricing, I have no problem with the negotiator making a few bucks for getting us a special group buy code or whatever. Either the money goes to the negotiator or the selling company just makes more profit.

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Sorry, but I beg to disagree. No affiliate links, no more deals you say? Of course not…the more active vendors, like GB and BG, even have BLF accounts, and post deals here in BLF also…and I always send them a pm for coupons, just like anyone of us.

Some AFF members say they help us by giving us lower prices, I’d say that’s only half-true…Why?
Because they can be MORE HELPFUL by negotiating with the vendors TO FOREGO THE COMMISSION GIVEN TO THEM in a form of MORE DISCOUNT to the buyers. ( but that’s the aff member’s freedom of choice if they won’t, of which I have no issue with, same with the buyers who click on aff links)

It doesn’t matter if they forego their commission. The Chinese companies have to have that extra cost built into the price for the other people that come here and post group buy codes elsewhere with their AFF links. The only way to do that is if people only get group buy codes by PM which is time consuming and few retailers will do that. How do they know that somebody doesn’t join the group buy just to get the code to post elsewhere.

if there would be less deals, than it clearly shows what all those AFF link were for.

also, I dont think we had too less "deals" in the first 3 years of BLF

if we are looking for a light, we can simply ask all vendors we know and see which is the cheapest (with or without coupon), and when we find out, we can post it in the BLF deals thread if its a good deal.

nothing special about that.

I have 10,000 flashlights that prove otherwise :P

Ok. I nominate ChibiM to contact ALL of the vendors to find the best deal when we want something for a good price. Can we just PM you our requests?

I’ll go ahead with my first two here. I need you to get me the best deal on a 104mm aspheric lens, and find me a dealer with a great price on a Ledil Seanna optic.

that includes you.. if you want a light, ask your top 3 or 4 vendors..

why would you ask a person to ask for you, if you can just contact the seller?

copy and paste the question... whats so difficult about that?

But I have a 6 foot 3 inch red headed Asian wife and she wants this flashlight for our anniversary in a month. It sometimes takes a week or more to get a reply back from vendors. I don’t have all of their skype accounts to ask them quickly. I can’t afford this light without a discount. If I have to wait a week or two on their replies, it won’t get here in time. Why can’t you come to my rescue? Have you ever seen a disappointed and unhappy 6’3” red headed Asian woman?

Me either :bigsmile: just a hypothetical situation so I could mess with ya.

I can think of a few members whom I respect that use clearly labelled aff links. The fact that they use aff links does not affect my view of them in any way. I think of an affiliate link as a way to ‘tip’ a user with no cost to me. If I think that user deserves a tip for their review or deal, then I use their aff link.

I think there should be 3 rules:

  1. No aff links in the deal alerts thread
  2. All aff links must be clearly labelled
  3. Only use aff links for products you personally own and recommend

The 3rd could be hard to police, but it’s usually fairly clear when someone doesn’t have the product they’re linking.

Aff links also let a store know how many sales a particular user’s reviews generate for them. If a reviewer here posts an honest review and it generates sales for the store, it may mean that reviewer gets more products sent to them for review. More reviews are good for the forum.

I agree. And I’ll add no battling between AFF linking people. Post your crap in your own thread, and no links to them to show you are cheaper than they are. Maybe only include links with an actual review, not some buy this because I posted some pictures review.