5 ms·
Nice catch. I used to think Quartz had some quality standards.
by mgiannopoulos 9y ago
Nice catch. I used to think Quartz had some quality standards.
- Raphmedia 9y agoI never understood the outrage behind referral links. If somebody is linking to Amazon and users start shopping, why is it so bad that they get a slice of the pie?
- sp332 9y agoBut now it looks like the article only exists to get people to click Amazon links, and not because there's any actual news.
- Kiro 9y agoAre those polar opposites?
- sp332 9y agoNo, it's just not a good look for a news organization to have content so entangled with income, especially if they don't even mention it. I think http://thewirecutter.com/ http://thewirecutter.com/ does a good job, and they're also way more open about the fact that the site is covered in affiliate links.
- justinjlynn 9y agoAt its heart, it is a conflict of interest and a clear violation of traditional journalistic ethics. At the very least, it is contrary to what one might assume to be a societal norm. Once one is aware of what they're doing, one feels taken advantage of and that is simply not acceptable.
- manigandham 9y agoDid you know all of those brands belonged to Amazon before you read the story?
- mgiannopoulos 9y agoReferral links are a form of advertisement. Quartz should have a disclaimer attached to the article since they mix their content with advertising.
- JoblessWonder 9y agoAlmost every major website is doing the exact same thing. Here is Wired's policy on affiliate links: https://www.wired.com/2015/11/affiliate-link-policy/ https://www.wired.com/2015/11/affiliate-link-policy/ They are almost assuredly added automatically so the author had no clue it was happening. I used to author a Wordpress plugin that did this for bloggers so they wouldn't need to worry about generating links through the Amazon website then going back to their Wordpress dashboard.