Signal boost on Lj code SNAFU
Mar. 5th, 2010 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sethrakI don't use LJ's earn-money-via-links function, and as far as I can tell none of the flist does either. But someone may know someone else who does. So.
http://vichan.livejournal.com/392527.html
Found this while wandering links-of-links-of-links. Quoting the more relevant bits, as my attempts at recapping came out sounding stilted and complicated.
" Links to about 150 e-commerce sites that users post to their LiveJournals are being redirected through a 3rd party website. These redirected links also open in a new window.
Among other things, this redirection strips any existing affiliate links and inserts a different affiliate link.
I first heard about this from my sister. At first, I wasn't having the problem she was talking about, but I poked around some more and finally figured out how to get it to happen on my end. If I click on this link: GlutenFreeBay.com (a website containing gluten free recipes) while logged out of LiveJournal, the link pops up in a new window and doesn't appear to be gluten free recipes at all. Instead, it takes me to eBay.
These links are being directed through something called "outboundclick.net." From what people have been able to deduce, this redirection is triggered by certain keywords in the URL such as "buy" and "free."
This is a huge, huge problem, LJ. It's sneaky, it's dishonest, and it's a violation of our privacy.
Why else is this a problem? It is potentially stealing revenue from LJ users. My band, Chief Bromide, will hopefully have our album available for paid download within a month or so. Hypothetically, if the URL that our album is hosted on has one of those trigger words, the link I provide to you guys will be directed somewhere else entirely. Let's say I've got just five people who aren't logged into LJ and want to purchase our album, but can't because they've found themselves over on eBay. That's $50 my band just lost. If it's ten people that can't get to the album's page, that's $100 my band just lost.
Another shady hypothesis: I know that in the past people have set up affiliate links through websites like Amazon to benefit specific charities. Let's say someone has recently set up one of these affiliates to benefit Haiti or Chile. Their charity affiliate link is stripped and another one is substituted. Instead of Haiti or Chile getting the funds, LJ or this outboundclick.net company does. *slow clap* Classy.
This is happening to free accounts and paid accounts, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's happening to permanent accounts. I pay LJ to not have ads on my page, and they've gone and snuck them in there without me knowing about it.
Fortunately, there is a way to opt-out of this. However, the opt-out is incredibly obscure, the change was never announced in the first place, and the fact that there is an opt-out at all tells us that this is something that LiveJournal purposely put into their code, and they never told us about it. Edit #4: Also, the opt-out means shit to people who aren't logged into LJ. URLs are still redirected, and affiliate codes are still stripped. "
Original post has a number of text links that didn't come through in my copy/paste. Take a look and pass it on if it's relevant to the interests of those you know.
http://vichan.livejournal.com/392527.html
Found this while wandering links-of-links-of-links. Quoting the more relevant bits, as my attempts at recapping came out sounding stilted and complicated.
" Links to about 150 e-commerce sites that users post to their LiveJournals are being redirected through a 3rd party website. These redirected links also open in a new window.
Among other things, this redirection strips any existing affiliate links and inserts a different affiliate link.
I first heard about this from my sister. At first, I wasn't having the problem she was talking about, but I poked around some more and finally figured out how to get it to happen on my end. If I click on this link: GlutenFreeBay.com (a website containing gluten free recipes) while logged out of LiveJournal, the link pops up in a new window and doesn't appear to be gluten free recipes at all. Instead, it takes me to eBay.
These links are being directed through something called "outboundclick.net." From what people have been able to deduce, this redirection is triggered by certain keywords in the URL such as "buy" and "free."
This is a huge, huge problem, LJ. It's sneaky, it's dishonest, and it's a violation of our privacy.
Why else is this a problem? It is potentially stealing revenue from LJ users. My band, Chief Bromide, will hopefully have our album available for paid download within a month or so. Hypothetically, if the URL that our album is hosted on has one of those trigger words, the link I provide to you guys will be directed somewhere else entirely. Let's say I've got just five people who aren't logged into LJ and want to purchase our album, but can't because they've found themselves over on eBay. That's $50 my band just lost. If it's ten people that can't get to the album's page, that's $100 my band just lost.
Another shady hypothesis: I know that in the past people have set up affiliate links through websites like Amazon to benefit specific charities. Let's say someone has recently set up one of these affiliates to benefit Haiti or Chile. Their charity affiliate link is stripped and another one is substituted. Instead of Haiti or Chile getting the funds, LJ or this outboundclick.net company does. *slow clap* Classy.
This is happening to free accounts and paid accounts, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's happening to permanent accounts. I pay LJ to not have ads on my page, and they've gone and snuck them in there without me knowing about it.
Fortunately, there is a way to opt-out of this. However, the opt-out is incredibly obscure, the change was never announced in the first place, and the fact that there is an opt-out at all tells us that this is something that LiveJournal purposely put into their code, and they never told us about it. Edit #4: Also, the opt-out means shit to people who aren't logged into LJ. URLs are still redirected, and affiliate codes are still stripped. "
Original post has a number of text links that didn't come through in my copy/paste. Take a look and pass it on if it's relevant to the interests of those you know.
