3 ms·

HN is not a movie community so it seems rather pointless anyways (cue "HN is always negative comments"). Seems like a cheap way to grab amazon affiliate money a

by aw3c2 14y ago

HN is not a movie community so it seems rather pointless anyways (cue "HN is always negative comments"). Seems like a cheap way to grab amazon affiliate money and I find that unethical.

raimonds 14y ago
Sorry if it feels like that. Main link goes straight to IMDB, it's non-affiliated. I show general opt-out link in the sidebar. Other pages have both affiliated and non-affiliated links in the lists of items.
rkuykendall-com 14y ago
That's funny, because a few weeks ago somebody did the same exact thing but with books and no affiliate links. All the comments were about how he should add affiliate links, and that HN appreciates projects which make money.
- raimonds 14y ago
  I think you mean this discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5485653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5485653. It's about the same project actually. It didn't have affiliated links then. Full disclosure: I'm the author.
  - rkuykendall-com 14y ago
    That's brilliant. :D Perfect example of HN's contrarian nature. Looks like the commenters will never be happy, so keep the affiliate links and hopefully get a beer out of it at minimum.
    - aw3c2 14y ago
      HN is a broad community. If you use some kind of average or "what is the top most voted post" as your "what is HN's verdict" you will get different results every time. It would be boring and a giant circle-jerk if every member had the same opinion. What would we discuss then?
barranger 14y ago
it's unethical that the OP is financially rewarded for building something? Considering the affiliate links offer the exact same user experience as if they didn't use affiliate links, I find you comment perplexing.
- _delirium 14y ago
  To me the dividing line is more a question of motivation. Some things with affiliate links are written because the person genuinely wants to say something about the subject, and then adds in affiliate links to get a little money without (as you note) diminishing the user experience at all. But other things are written solely as scaffolding for the affiliate links, content-farm style. The latter I think generally add noise, while the former are unobjectionable. It's not always clear which is which, though it's clearer at the extremes.
hobbescalvin 14y ago
I have no problem with him making money for posting something. I wish everyone on here was able to capitalize in some way for their work.

by aw3c2 14y ago

HN is not a movie community so it seems rather pointless anyways (cue "HN is always negative comments"). Seems like a cheap way to grab amazon affiliate money and I find that unethical.

raimonds 14y ago

Sorry if it feels like that. Main link goes straight to IMDB, it's non-affiliated. I show general opt-out link in the sidebar. Other pages have both affiliated and non-affiliated links in the lists of items.

rkuykendall-com 14y ago

That's funny, because a few weeks ago somebody did the same exact thing but with books and no affiliate links. All the comments were about how he should add affiliate links, and that HN appreciates projects which make money.

raimonds 14y ago
I think you mean this discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5485653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5485653. It's about the same project actually. It didn't have affiliated links then. Full disclosure: I'm the author.
- rkuykendall-com 14y ago
  That's brilliant. :D Perfect example of HN's contrarian nature. Looks like the commenters will never be happy, so keep the affiliate links and hopefully get a beer out of it at minimum.
  - aw3c2 14y ago
    HN is a broad community. If you use some kind of average or "what is the top most voted post" as your "what is HN's verdict" you will get different results every time. It would be boring and a giant circle-jerk if every member had the same opinion. What would we discuss then?

barranger 14y ago

it's unethical that the OP is financially rewarded for building something? Considering the affiliate links offer the exact same user experience as if they didn't use affiliate links, I find you comment perplexing.

_delirium 14y ago
To me the dividing line is more a question of motivation. Some things with affiliate links are written because the person genuinely wants to say something about the subject, and then adds in affiliate links to get a little money without (as you note) diminishing the user experience at all. But other things are written solely as scaffolding for the affiliate links, content-farm style. The latter I think generally add noise, while the former are unobjectionable. It's not always clear which is which, though it's clearer at the extremes.

hobbescalvin 14y ago

I have no problem with him making money for posting something. I wish everyone on here was able to capitalize in some way for their work.