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Nope. I don't like this one bit. Who then gets the money? Reddit themselves? The people posting referral links? At that point, then the subreddit deteriorates a

Nope. I don't like this one bit. Who then gets the money? Reddit themselves? The people posting referral links? At that point, then the subreddit deteriorates and you are left with a bunch of spam consisting of competing affiliate advertisers trying to get their affiliate links visibility. I go to reddit for the variable content and subscribe to subreddits for information that isn't fueled by affiliate advertisers. If reddit (admins) took this approach (not sure why/if they'd use referely though since they could roll their own platform or use a pre-existing affiliate network like Amazon), then that makes sense (and I could get behind that), but I'm doubtful, as it'd take a lot of time and resources to prevent gamification. Source: I started and run a Top 30 subreddit and am constantly removing affiliate links from peoples' comments trying to sneakily earn money, although I do allow them when they put a disclaimer saying that they are posting an affiliate link.

dmor 14y ago
First of all, right now the bulk of the money goes directly to the merchant and 7% commission goes to EFF. Second, I am certainly not proposing that these go directly into the thread itself. What I think is interesting is if it were a separate store that curates the most highly rated that could be valuable. You'll see I did not include everything, only the highest rated or commented items where there seems to be consensus. I think it would still need hand curation. I also think if it belonged to Reddit then only their affiliate links should be allowed in the store, not affiliate links of Reddit users.