Affiliate links disrupting thread width

[Kaido]

I've been seeing this more & more, and now in one of my posts:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37249167&postcount=1

Instead of a nice short link like this:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Logitech-MK320-Wireless-Desktop-Keyboard-and-Mouse/15105359

It later edits itself to look like this:

http://c.affil.walmart.com/t/csepg01?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FLogitech-MK320-Wireless-Desktop-Keyboard-and-Mouse%2F15105359%3Fwmlspartner%3Dpricegrabber.com%26affcmpid%3D3045459651%26tmode%3D0000%26bcfg%3Da06155150b4b17c7336941f1fc1d4971%26veh%3Dcse

Also, my original link was to Newegg because they specifically sell one that has the newer micro Unity receiver instead of the larger legacy USB receiver, and it appears to have changed my link (to a specific revision of the part) to a random affiliate one.

 

[allisolm]

I just saw this for the first time this morning. A simple link to an item at Amazon.com became so long and convoluted that it broke the formatting. When I tried to replace it, that link, too, changed to the long one. Had to alter it so that it did not show as a link to keep it from changing. Dunno what the deal is. The original link was h t t p://amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Silicone-Whisk-9-Inch/dp/B00A2KDAJQ.

This is the link that replaced the original one (line breaks added by me):
h t t p://stat.dealtime.com/DealFrame/DealFrame.cmp?bm=137&BEFID=69&acode=134&code=134&aon=&crawler_id=521158&
dealId=1Bz1BiznmlaNhwAu8LV0Jg%3D%3D&searchID=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wayfair
.com%2FOXO-Good-Grip-10.5-Silicone-Balloon-Whisk-1244780-L659-K%7EOXO1642.html
%3Frefid%3DDTCPA49-OXO1642&DealName=OXO%20Good%20Grip%2010.5%22%20Silicone%20Balloon%20Whisk%20%28Set%20of%206%2
9%201244780&MerchantID=521158&HasLink=yes&category=0&AR=-1&NG=1&GR=1&ND=1&PN=1&RR=-1&ST=&MN
=msnFeed&FPT=SDCF&NDS=1&NMS=1&NDP=1&MRS=&PD=129975035&brnId=2455&lnkId=8070676&Issdt
=150315055156&IsFtr=0&IsSmart=0&dlprc=77.94&SKU=OXO1642

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2424827

Edit: I seem to be unaffected by this link-changing garbage. Kaido, in your linked post above, all of the links in that post seem normal to me.

I am using Waterfox, with NoScript, with anandtech.com "allowed", but the third-party scripts disabled.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37257511&postcount=5


Edit: I should note, for the record, that I am not against Purch or AT "monetizing" links - within reason. If they want to edit (either upon display, or embedded into posts itself) links, to add an affiliate code suffix, that's fine. AS LONG AS THEY DON'T MATERIALLY CHANGE OR RE-DIRECT LINKS.

Changing links from one site, to point to a completely different site, IS UNACCEPTABLE.

This new policy totally F's up the Hot Deals forum. Purch might as well close that forum right now, if they are going to continue with this policy.

Edit: What's next, editing "news" links, in P&N, to change links from conservative outlets, to liberal ones, or vice-versa?

Edit: It has been pointed out to me that this may be a problem with the ad-serving network, somehow. I still hold Purch ultimately responsible, since it's their site, but I'll cut them some slack if this issue wasn't intentional.

 

[rudeguy]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2424827

Edit: I seem to be unaffected by this link-changing garbage. Kaido, in your linked post above, all of the links in that post seem normal to me.

I am using Waterfox, with NoScript, with anandtech.com "allowed", but the third-party scripts disabled.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37257511&postcount=5


Edit: I should note, for the record, that I am not against Purch or AT "monetizing" links - within reason. If they want to edit (either upon display, or embedded into posts itself) links, to add an affiliate code suffix, that's fine. AS LONG AS THEY DON'T MATERIALLY CHANGE OR RE-DIRECT LINKS.

Changing links from one site, to point to a completely different site, IS UNACCEPTABLE.

This new policy totally F's up the Hot Deals forum. Purch might as well close that forum right now, if they are going to continue with this policy.

Edit: What's next, editing "news" links, in P&N, to change links from conservative outlets, to liberal ones, or vice-versa?

Edit: It has been pointed out to me that this may be a problem with the ad-serving network, somehow. I still hold Purch ultimately responsible, since it's their site, but I'll cut them some slack if this issue wasn't intentional.

I understand this is a for profit website. I really do. But ruining the forum in hopes of gaining ad revenue is not the way to do it. The majority of the users here are savvy enough that they will just disable all ads because of things like this and the top ad bouncing the links. So instead of AT having the chance of some click throughs, they have zero chance of any. Add in the loss in new users when they come here and can't click on a link and have the links they do post hijacked and I don't see how this is a helpful thing.

Here's an idea: better ads instead of more ads.

 

[jpishgar]

That's certainly not intentional, I don't believe. The link append for component stuff is supposed to be unintrusive, not change the actual text of the link. Let me look into this for you and see what the deal is. It may just be that one odd Walmart duck there.

-JP

 

[Kaido]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2424827

Edit: I seem to be unaffected by this link-changing garbage. Kaido, in your linked post above, all of the links in that post seem normal to me.

I am using Waterfox, with NoScript, with anandtech.com "allowed", but the third-party scripts disabled.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37257511&postcount=5


Edit: I should note, for the record, that I am not against Purch or AT "monetizing" links - within reason. If they want to edit (either upon display, or embedded into posts itself) links, to add an affiliate code suffix, that's fine. AS LONG AS THEY DON'T MATERIALLY CHANGE OR RE-DIRECT LINKS.

Changing links from one site, to point to a completely different site, IS UNACCEPTABLE.

This new policy totally F's up the Hot Deals forum. Purch might as well close that forum right now, if they are going to continue with this policy.

Edit: What's next, editing "news" links, in P&N, to change links from conservative outlets, to liberal ones, or vice-versa?

Edit: It has been pointed out to me that this may be a problem with the ad-serving network, somehow. I still hold Purch ultimately responsible, since it's their site, but I'll cut them some slack if this issue wasn't intentional.

Yeah, I'm not against monetization; I run a stock Chrome browser with no plugins or blocks. But the Cox banner is literally 50% of my screen right now (at the top) & the links are apparently not only going long enough to widen my screen (seriously, wider than an HD screen & making me do a horizontal scroll??), but it's changing links to what I ACTUALLY LINKED TO. I understand if a mod edits a post for an infraction, but to actually change what & where I linked to is totally wrong, 100% agree. Especially when one vendor carries a specific revision of a product & the link changes it to another vendor who doesn't have it. Grrr.

 

[jpishgar]

Hey there guys - this should be fixed.
Any reports of issues outstanding on this subject?
-JP

 

[allisolm]

I went back and replaced the original link that had been a problem and it appears to be fine now. VirtualLarry's links look okay and are working as intended. Thanks for taking care of this so fast. :thumbsup:

 

[VirtualLarry]

The Toshiba 3TB HDD thread that was posted in Hot Deals, that people said was going to serversupply.com, instead of Newegg (the original link), seems to be fixed on my Linux Mint 17.1 boot, that was re-directing links. Also, my thread in Hot Deals, regarding the Lenovo 2-bay Gigabit NAS on TigerDirect.com, appears to be linking correctly again as well.

THANK YOU!

 

[aman74]

So I can opt back in to that viglink site that was mentioned in this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2424058

Not even sure what that did?

I freaked out about this last night as I thought it was my computer...ugghh.