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> No to amazon affiliates. Thanks you! This shows character and actual, proper altruistic intentions. Before reading this, I was not even going to click the l

> No to amazon affiliates. Thanks you! This shows character and actual, proper altruistic intentions. Before reading this, I was not even going to click the link.

sanderjd 8y ago
Personally, I prefer not to use any project that has no way to make money. Life is expensive and time consuming. Projects require at least a little time and money. If that isn't reimbursed in any way, the rest of life will nearly always take precedent at some point. Affiliate links seem like a good way to solve this. I don't see where the conflict of interest lies.
- kovek 8y ago
  I wonder at what ROI do we consider an investment something more like philanthropy and at what ROI it is more like capitalism?
  - sanderjd 8y ago
    Philanthropy is great when it's done by independently wealthy people. If that's who the author of this project is, then that's great and I've misjudged this. But that's not usually the case. The majority of mildly useful little unmonetized projects are not made by independently wealthy folks, they are made by (usually younger) folks who are optimistic and whose expenses and responsibilities have not yet accumulated. I don't mean to be a debbie downer - fun little projects are great - I'm just saying that I don't associate something unmonetized with "great! this is altruistic!", I associate it with "bummer, this will probably not be sustained", and when I come across something with a natural and well-aligned monetization scheme, I feel positively about it and am more likely to use it.
- gits1225 8y ago
  I want myself and others to contribute because of the desire to contribute. I don't want to bring affiliates into the equation lest it brings the wrong incentives (however glimmering it may be). There are other ways to make money.
  - sanderjd 8y ago
    I'm honestly curious how you envision that affiliate links might create the wrong incentives. There are other ways to make money, but the ones I can think of seem much worse. Advertising sucks and clearly has more wrong incentive problems. Donations are less predictable and disconnected from the usefulness of the site. It seems to me that getting a small cut of "hey this book does look useful, I think I'll buy it!" is as well-aligned as it gets. But I'm interested in your thoughts on this!
    - gits1225 8y ago
      Ads don't suck. Bad ads suck. I love good ads. I used to wait for ads to appear on my Garena client back in the days when I played DOTA because they were so cool (and useful). If I know my audience, I don't have to compromise privacy to show useful ads clean and neat either (watertight curation is applied here as well). Good ads are relevant. On amazon affiliates: The iron rule of nature is: You get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor — Charlie Munger I don't want to reward the wrong type of behavior.
      - sanderjd 8y ago
        I don't get your point about affiliate links at all. What better ad is there than a link to a recommended book itself? I'd much rather see you get a small portion of the purchase price of a book you recommended to me than look at your ads, curated or not. But it's your site! I hope you do find success with the ad strategy, your site seems useful, and I hope it remains worth your time.
        gits1225 8y ago
        This comment puts it well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17789161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17789161.
        sanderjd 8y ago
4ad 8y ago
>> No to amazon affiliates. > Thanks you! This shows character and actual, proper altruistic intentions. I hate ads and every other scheme to extort money from people, but I have no problem with affiliate links and do not understand why would someone have a problem with them. Could you, or someone else who thinks like this explain what problem you have with affiliate links? Thanks.
- setr 8y ago
  It tosses in the incentive to start recommending things based on how valuable the affiliate link would be,diluting the value of the recommendations
  - gits1225 8y ago
    This
  - 4ad 8y ago
    As a general rule, I steer away from review sites, and instead I look for professionals using the product. For example I follow some photographers, carpenters, etc, and see what equipment they use for themselves and why they use it. They are not reviewing products, they are using them and posting a list of products for my convenience. If I decide to buy the same equipment, I see nothing wrong using their affiliate links.
    - gits1225 8y ago
      This is where I'd like to get to. Reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17793341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17793341. OT: I checked your profile but couldn't find an email to contact you. It'd be cool if I can ping once a while to get feedback on where the project is heading.

> No to amazon affiliates. Thanks you! This shows character and actual, proper altruistic intentions. Before reading this, I was not even going to click the link.

sanderjd 8y ago

Personally, I prefer not to use any project that has no way to make money. Life is expensive and time consuming. Projects require at least a little time and money. If that isn't reimbursed in any way, the rest of life will nearly always take precedent at some point. Affiliate links seem like a good way to solve this. I don't see where the conflict of interest lies.

kovek 8y ago
I wonder at what ROI do we consider an investment something more like philanthropy and at what ROI it is more like capitalism?
- sanderjd 8y ago
  Philanthropy is great when it's done by independently wealthy people. If that's who the author of this project is, then that's great and I've misjudged this. But that's not usually the case. The majority of mildly useful little unmonetized projects are not made by independently wealthy folks, they are made by (usually younger) folks who are optimistic and whose expenses and responsibilities have not yet accumulated. I don't mean to be a debbie downer - fun little projects are great - I'm just saying that I don't associate something unmonetized with "great! this is altruistic!", I associate it with "bummer, this will probably not be sustained", and when I come across something with a natural and well-aligned monetization scheme, I feel positively about it and am more likely to use it.
gits1225 8y ago
I want myself and others to contribute because of the desire to contribute. I don't want to bring affiliates into the equation lest it brings the wrong incentives (however glimmering it may be). There are other ways to make money.
- sanderjd 8y ago
  I'm honestly curious how you envision that affiliate links might create the wrong incentives. There are other ways to make money, but the ones I can think of seem much worse. Advertising sucks and clearly has more wrong incentive problems. Donations are less predictable and disconnected from the usefulness of the site. It seems to me that getting a small cut of "hey this book does look useful, I think I'll buy it!" is as well-aligned as it gets. But I'm interested in your thoughts on this!
  - gits1225 8y ago
    Ads don't suck. Bad ads suck. I love good ads. I used to wait for ads to appear on my Garena client back in the days when I played DOTA because they were so cool (and useful). If I know my audience, I don't have to compromise privacy to show useful ads clean and neat either (watertight curation is applied here as well). Good ads are relevant. On amazon affiliates: The iron rule of nature is: You get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor — Charlie Munger I don't want to reward the wrong type of behavior.
    - sanderjd 8y ago
      I don't get your point about affiliate links at all. What better ad is there than a link to a recommended book itself? I'd much rather see you get a small portion of the purchase price of a book you recommended to me than look at your ads, curated or not. But it's your site! I hope you do find success with the ad strategy, your site seems useful, and I hope it remains worth your time.
      - gits1225 8y ago
        This comment puts it well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17789161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17789161.
        sanderjd 8y ago

4ad 8y ago

>> No to amazon affiliates. > Thanks you! This shows character and actual, proper altruistic intentions. I hate ads and every other scheme to extort money from people, but I have no problem with affiliate links and do not understand why would someone have a problem with them. Could you, or someone else who thinks like this explain what problem you have with affiliate links? Thanks.

setr 8y ago
It tosses in the incentive to start recommending things based on how valuable the affiliate link would be,diluting the value of the recommendations
- gits1225 8y ago
  This
- 4ad 8y ago
  As a general rule, I steer away from review sites, and instead I look for professionals using the product. For example I follow some photographers, carpenters, etc, and see what equipment they use for themselves and why they use it. They are not reviewing products, they are using them and posting a list of products for my convenience. If I decide to buy the same equipment, I see nothing wrong using their affiliate links.
  - gits1225 8y ago
    This is where I'd like to get to. Reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17793341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17793341. OT: I checked your profile but couldn't find an email to contact you. It'd be cool if I can ping once a while to get feedback on where the project is heading.