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by Xylakant 3111 days ago
> Did it?

It says first thing on the top that links go to amazon. There's a link at the bottom to the full discussion. What's the issue if the links to amazon are affiliate links? It's not like they're forcing you to buy or that the value you get from the site is reduced by that. They don't hype a specific device either.

> Did I say anything even remotely close to that?

I very much understood your complaint about "spammy, since he links to a page that he's affiliated with" to go in the direction that nobody should link to a monetized service he's somehow affiliated with, yes.

2 comments

I'm of the oppinion that all links to amazon, for example, should be affiliate links. Somebody should be getting that cut.
Ideally I think it would be https://smile.amazon.com/ but I know it's never that simple..
This is a great comment. It disrupts the whole argument and turns it on its head.
It talks a lot about Amazon, but there's no mention of using affiliate links.

The issue is that there's a conflict of interest when a page that gives you advice on what to buy uses affiliate links. If they get a cut of my purchase, then they're incentivized to get me to buy the most expensive alternative rather than the best one, and to buy something rather than stick with what I have if what I have is adequate.

This is not an insurmountable problem, but disclosure is important so I know what's going on.