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

(Edit) I asked a question about AFF links in SB’s thread about the new rule not to post affiliate links in the deals thread. Someone took up the question, and we started a conversation. It didn’t go well. I got accused of trollish behavior. I said goodbye to that conversation. So, I decided to start this one. Title changed to a positive question. Was asking what’s wrong with AFF links. Now, it’s a question about what are AFF links good for. (End Edit)

Guys, I know I tend to be a bit rough sometimes. I’m an extremely logical and critical thinker. If things don’t look right or sound right to me, I question them. I don’t really mean to be rude, crude, or trollish. It just comes out that way. Believe me, I notice it as much as anyone does. I just can’t fix it. I labor over every post I make, trying to be as polite as possible. Sometimes, I just can’t be polite. I am not diplomatic at all. When I converse, I do it for information. The information is all that matters to me most of the time.

So, here I am, being as transparent as possible, and asking if someone will be willing to talk with me about this affiliate link thing. I don’t have any skin in the game. I’m not involved in any affiliate programs myself. I just don’t see what’s so bad about them. I do see abuses of the system. But, I hate to see innocent people get grouped together with the guilty parties just because they use the same tool. To me, that’s just as bad as judging someone by their race, gender, religion, or whatever. It’s bigotry, and I don’t like it.

So, knowing what you do about me now, if you’re willing to talk with me about it, please post below your thoughts and feelings on the subject. Just know that I will be reading what you write, and I may ask for more clarification. I may even act a little trollish. For this, I apologize in advance.

SB says “Please strictly avoid all controversial and divisive topics such as religion and politics. Keep it civil please!” If this thread violates that policy, please feel free to delete it, MR. Admin.

Well, here’s hoping this topic won’t go sour. And if it disappears you’ll know what happened :smiley: Please keep it civil folks!

Selling > popcorn and drinks!

Geet yourr popcorn and drinks here!

Flogging a dead horse with the whole discussion.
It’s been done too many times, and it’s divisive.
I won’t be adding my 2 cents

Agreed.

Hijack:
David—I assume that avatar is a representation of your look.
How did you make it?
Is that a Wii-Me creation?

One large Coca~Cola and a large popcorn please!


Hey why are you giving away Bort’s Coke?

I’ll take one of the good Dr. Peppers that they make in Texas please. :slight_smile:

Haha….because it’s not Zero

What is this Texas Dr Pepper you speak of?
Natural sugar or ???

Sorry, took me a minute to fly to Texas. Only after I arrived did I discover Dublin Dr Pepper was discontinued in 2012. Building a time machine took another couple minutes.

One Dublin Dr Pepper. Pure cane sugar.

Can I have some Bourbon in mine, please?

I am permitted to serve alcohol, right SB? :party:
Though this being a thread on affiliate links it might heighten bad emotions. :~

That’ll work just fine. Thank you.

I tend to doubt the sincerity of paid positive or negative reviews of a product. It’s advertising.

I do not see anything wrong with affiliate links. This is a hobby for most of us, and not a paid job. So we have to spend our own hard-earned money on lights and accessories. Affiliate links is one way to get a discount on our hobby purchases. As a hobbyist, if I am willing to spend my own money, that should count as a product endorsement.

Now, if someone were to post affiliate links to something they did not purchase so that they can get points towards something else that they want, that would be wrong IMHO.

I’ll be honest. I’ve been given lights to review in the past. I tend to review the lights from a modder’s point of view, and not the general user. I never keep lights stock so it’s hard for me to recommend any stock light, but I will recommend a light just on modding potential. I don’t really care if it makes the manufacturer happy or not, if I find something bad I’ll say it. I have posted affiliate links for some group buys I helped start. Do I do it for a living, no. If people use it fine, if not oh well. Any money I do make, which isn’t much, I just consider compensation for the lengthy skype conversations and the support I give to the group buy. I didn’t have to mail out retaining rings for the 1504 group buy, but I did because it was the right thing to do. I can’t tell you how many trips I have made to the post office, etc. Some people post any and everything with affiliate links, and I do not agree with that. If it is truly a good deal, then I’m ok with it, but I’m pretty sure most of us aren’t jumping up and down to buy the USB driven LED light that had a price drop from $2.99 to $2.75. Several companies have started their own discount code and sales threads anyway, and I absolutely do not think any AFF links for items should be posted that were already mentioned in the company’s thread first. I think it’s rude, plus if I were a company I’d just stop posting here if others are going to post the same thing just with AFF links. It takes time to post here and why waste the time when somebody is just going to post over them with an AFF link costing them more money. Just my $0.02.

When I think of affiliate links, I think of this conversation:

That's what's wrong with affiliate links.

I see it like this . if my sister brings a boyfriend home to meet the family and we are all sitting at the dining table eating drinking and sharing than life is wondeful .we welcome him into our conversations and into our home as a cherished guest .

IF he decides to leave his business cards taped to the bathroom mirror and pulls each of us aside and discusses our need for insurance and again and again and again presses a business card into our hands each time we see him then IMHO he's a piece of trash that my sister needs to NOT bring to our table ever again .

Affilliate linkers have only corrupted something that never needed fixing in the first place . it only sought after a weakness in the system (mr admins kindness) and sought to abuse it for his own gain and greed ..All the time crouched and hidden under the guise of being helpful .

9 million members did it for free and were indeed helpful and i've mentioned the tens of thousands of deals found by Chibi M in the past as an example ..No one needed to pay him to offer up deals he'd found .

this isn't slick deals or a site just about deals ....the fact that many members are cheap asses and a bit stingy themselves only gives traction to these parasites. they are preying on peoples fears of NOT getting the super deal . well that;s certainly never happened .

it sends a crap message to new members ..one that says come and abuse a lax under moderated site to shill your ass off...the lust towards any and all decent vendors when they show up on site is evidence to the fact these scumbags live and die by sucking off of our members .

look at the people who are affiliate linkers . they post almost no helpful info . they participate only when there is something to gain and by being so obvious about it they spread the virus to ALL new members that they don't need to care about others ..naturally a new member has no reason to love or care for the site ..he has real affection to it ,so having a mentor that says hey get what you can and abuse the system while you can ...all this done on a site that has "budget " or cheap ass built right into it's name ..

I mean hey why not make a category named ..

* How to scam ebay vendors to get free stuff .

* How to coerce established vendors into giving you free stuff by using the buying power of 15,000 members as a tool against them .

* How to leverage a community of enthusiasts into paying for your stuff .

* How to see yourself as better than the person sitting next to you ...and how to use them to get what you want .

The POLLS have all been taken and every one of them shows that people are against it .

Somehow people reading the poll think that the people who vote >>"I don't care " means that it should somehow be considered a YES vote .

Any poll i've ever taken about what should we do . where should we go ....or what should we eat ....anyone saying ...I DON"T CARE < it is considered a NON - vote and is dismissed .

i have 40 other very good reasons that affiliate linking is a horridly stupid idea and will share if someone wants to PM me .

but suffice it to say ...that if some scum bag comes into my circle of friends or my families kitchen table and seeks to abuse them solely for their own gain .

they are asking for me to jump across the table ..grab them by the throat and kick their asses to the curb .

I've almost left this site a number of times over this issue and the repercussions from it .

And I know for a FACT that FOY and numbers of other older members have left because of it too ..

personally i wouldn't trade 1000 new members for one Foy or one Match .

Affiliate links hasn't done anything positive at all and instead has made the forum a much less friendlier place to be .