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If something is "heavily promoted by influencers", it's garbage. Would it make a difference if this garbage was GPL licensed?

by zb3 2y ago

zb3 2y ago
Oh it gets even better: > Pie Adblock: Block Ads, Get Paid Really? Do people not understand how the economy works or something? Education failed so bad :(
- sodality2 2y ago
  From their home page: > Browse ad-free with Pie Adblock and earn cash rewards for the ads you choose to see. Sounds like they replace the ads with their own, paying you (and surely taking their cut). Sounds a lot like Brave Rewards, similar thing...
  - entropicdrifter 2y ago
    I was gonna say the same thing. Brave browser all over again
LordShredda 2y ago
I would never install anything advertised on youtube. Not claiming that I'm an elitist, but the audience on youtube would not have the ability to differentiate between a chocolate bar and a landmine.
- starttoaster 2y ago
  Not sure where to start here. You could have found Honey advertised basically anywhere on the internet, not just YouTube. YouTube users are common across most of the developed world at this point, so it's probable that there are millions of YouTube users that are more intelligent than you or me. And what you said implies you do differing levels of due diligence for the services you sign up for depending on the platform you heard about them from, which is ill advised; regardless of where one found out about Honey, you should have questions about how their business works. Someone who has been around the block a couple times would have deduced that a business that clips coupons for you is doing something to make money, and since it's not obvious what that thing is, it's almost certainly something shady.
nicce 2y ago
It works. The only reason I knew what Honey was because so many Podcasters and Youtubers have advertised it on their content. I have never used it, but I recognized the name and knew what it does.
- lesuorac 2y ago
  In case you missed the news, it doesn't work the way it was advertised. Honey _does not_ scour the web for discount codes. Honey instead partners with webpages to provide you a discount code (or not) with the advantage for the webpage being that less people will use a 30% discount code and instead use Honey's 10%. Of course the really funny part was that basically none of the influencers did due diligence on their counter-party and Honey also took all of the influencer's affiliate money as well.
  - cjbgkagh 2y ago
    They do crowdsource discount codes from other users which is how you get internal discount codes used for testers leaked to other users. I think this is a facilitation of theft, though the theft is hidden to the user so the user does not possess criminal intent while using the code. I’m not sure how illegal it is but it is clearly wildly unethical.
    - lotsofpulp 2y ago
      There is no theft as long as the “testers” or whoever are voluntarily installing Honey. The T&C of installing Honey surely includes the right for Honey to see and share the discount codes.
      - cjbgkagh 2y ago
        It should be incumbent on Honey to check if these discounts are indeed public. 100% discounts would be an obvious place to start. Given that Honey claims to search the public internet for discounts according to their claims they can in fact do this. At the scale and resources of Honey the claim of ignorance becomes unreasonable. It would help their case if they had a made a documented good faith attempt, but I think due to the obvious nefarious nature they would have avoided collecting such data because they wanted to continue the practice. But as mentioned, I’m not sure how illegal it is despite the TOS but it’s clearly wildly unethical.
observationist 2y ago
Yes, possibly a huge difference. If they provided legitimate work and contributed to the project, with diligence and respect for the licensing, and respectfully, transparently, honestly ran with some sort of referrals / adshare type program for monetization, it would almost be respectable. What they did was out themselves as garbage humans, with laziness, antisocial grifting, disrespect for the law, and general unpleasantness at every possible level. It'd be difficult to be worse people without adding murder or violence to the mix.
blibble 2y ago
personally I think it's hilarious that "influencers" were taking a pittance to unknowingly cut off their affiliate income and not just cut it off once, but cut it off forever and as a bonus: cut it off for all other influencers too
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  Adtech cancer grew so big it constantly gets its own cancers.
- notRobot 2y ago
  What's so hilarious about it?

If something is "heavily promoted by influencers", it's garbage. Would it make a difference if this garbage was GPL licensed?

by zb3 2y ago

If something is "heavily promoted by influencers", it's garbage. Would it make a difference if this garbage was GPL licensed?

zb3 2y ago

Oh it gets even better: > Pie Adblock: Block Ads, Get Paid Really? Do people not understand how the economy works or something? Education failed so bad :(

sodality2 2y ago
From their home page: > Browse ad-free with Pie Adblock and earn cash rewards for the ads you choose to see. Sounds like they replace the ads with their own, paying you (and surely taking their cut). Sounds a lot like Brave Rewards, similar thing...
- entropicdrifter 2y ago
  I was gonna say the same thing. Brave browser all over again

LordShredda 2y ago

I would never install anything advertised on youtube. Not claiming that I'm an elitist, but the audience on youtube would not have the ability to differentiate between a chocolate bar and a landmine.

starttoaster 2y ago
Not sure where to start here. You could have found Honey advertised basically anywhere on the internet, not just YouTube. YouTube users are common across most of the developed world at this point, so it's probable that there are millions of YouTube users that are more intelligent than you or me. And what you said implies you do differing levels of due diligence for the services you sign up for depending on the platform you heard about them from, which is ill advised; regardless of where one found out about Honey, you should have questions about how their business works. Someone who has been around the block a couple times would have deduced that a business that clips coupons for you is doing something to make money, and since it's not obvious what that thing is, it's almost certainly something shady.

nicce 2y ago

It works. The only reason I knew what Honey was because so many Podcasters and Youtubers have advertised it on their content. I have never used it, but I recognized the name and knew what it does.

lesuorac 2y ago
In case you missed the news, it doesn't work the way it was advertised. Honey _does not_ scour the web for discount codes. Honey instead partners with webpages to provide you a discount code (or not) with the advantage for the webpage being that less people will use a 30% discount code and instead use Honey's 10%. Of course the really funny part was that basically none of the influencers did due diligence on their counter-party and Honey also took all of the influencer's affiliate money as well.
- cjbgkagh 2y ago
  They do crowdsource discount codes from other users which is how you get internal discount codes used for testers leaked to other users. I think this is a facilitation of theft, though the theft is hidden to the user so the user does not possess criminal intent while using the code. I’m not sure how illegal it is but it is clearly wildly unethical.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    There is no theft as long as the “testers” or whoever are voluntarily installing Honey. The T&C of installing Honey surely includes the right for Honey to see and share the discount codes.
    - cjbgkagh 2y ago
      It should be incumbent on Honey to check if these discounts are indeed public. 100% discounts would be an obvious place to start. Given that Honey claims to search the public internet for discounts according to their claims they can in fact do this. At the scale and resources of Honey the claim of ignorance becomes unreasonable. It would help their case if they had a made a documented good faith attempt, but I think due to the obvious nefarious nature they would have avoided collecting such data because they wanted to continue the practice. But as mentioned, I’m not sure how illegal it is despite the TOS but it’s clearly wildly unethical.

observationist 2y ago

Yes, possibly a huge difference. If they provided legitimate work and contributed to the project, with diligence and respect for the licensing, and respectfully, transparently, honestly ran with some sort of referrals / adshare type program for monetization, it would almost be respectable. What they did was out themselves as garbage humans, with laziness, antisocial grifting, disrespect for the law, and general unpleasantness at every possible level. It'd be difficult to be worse people without adding murder or violence to the mix.

blibble 2y ago

personally I think it's hilarious that "influencers" were taking a pittance to unknowingly cut off their affiliate income and not just cut it off once, but cut it off forever and as a bonus: cut it off for all other influencers too

TeMPOraL 2y ago
Adtech cancer grew so big it constantly gets its own cancers.
notRobot 2y ago
What's so hilarious about it?