Skimlinks on Talk

Would happily part with a few quid a month to support MN in return for adfree version, and tif the app has very few ads anyway. Not in favour of a tool skimming my posts in this manner.

I'd rather just pay for the ad-free app.
Hell, i'd even subscribe monthly if there was a way of stopping the DM from doing their lazy 'journalism' thing.

Oh, I see now the colour thing has been suggested .

This I mean

Don't know if this has been suggested before, but maybe posters could come up with their own convention to distinguish intended links from the skimmed ones. A visual cue, like putting a * star in front and at the end, would mean for eg S&B posters don't waste time clicking dead ends which don't show the product being discussed.
Then we could all see this lovely thing instead of this generic home page!

YY to the different colour option - I've just clicked twice on tripadvisor on the hipster thread as I assumed it was a link placed by the poster taking me to the specific cafe reviews. Really frustrating to just go to the main tripadvisor page instead.

Test....

my local newspaper

@TheSnorkMaidenReturns

Did you deliberately place a link to your local newspaper, or have Skimlinks just outed your location?

MN.... really?

Will you be using them on the more 'sensitive' groups. I agree that it's one of the less intrusive ways of keeping you in gin paying the bills and better than big intrusive banner ads/popups etc but I'm uncomfortable with the idea that they would appear on threads in areas such as bereavement, relationships etc. Personally I'd also prefer them to be kept out of the health topics too. I'd be particularly unhappy if we got Skimlinks to some of the quackery that gets mentioned from time to time in say the allergy forum.

Do you still apply the same advertiser blacklist that you do to Adsense/Google ads - so no adult/sex ads etc. What are the current blackist categories btw?

Mumsnet have been using affiliate links to get referral fees from links posted by users for years as a revenue stream (I'm unsure how many other users realise this happens). Because of this, I don't click links anyway.

I realise that the users, user content and user data is this site's primary commodity, but to suddenly have lots of auto inserted links not intended by the poster seems particularly intrusive and - to use Mumsnet parlance - grabby.

I agree with Shopafrolic, it's really annoying to read a post on S&B where the poster says, for example, they bought a skirt from B oden and you click on the link because you think the poster linked to the skirt in question, but it's just to the website homepage.

I don't seem to be seeing any of these links? Is that because I have an adblocker?

I just think it's funny, because 99% of the time I see a brand mentioned by name, it is not in a positive light!!

I do find ti rather confusing, posting something or just mentioning a brand and suddenly there is a link to it.

I also question whether it prejudices some brands over another. Why does Boden link and not Other Stories for example?

I'm not sure if I prefer it to the rolling ads as it feels like my actually comments are being changed. I appreciate that it is difficult to find ways to monetise MN. I do think a different colour to our own links would help so we know it's unintentional.

MNHQ, I have asked some - in my opinion - valid questions about skimlinks, which I think as users we should be given answers on.

Margery

Its not the links you consciously post that they will make money on.
So say you link to a mug at wilko and it shows up like this:
Www.wilko.co.UK/mugs/barrellmug
Its not those links.

What skimlinks does is reads your posts, finds any product or company named within your post and then makes your post clicky.

So say ypou posted:
"Cadburys are rubbish now, since they were taken over by Mondelez I haven't bought any, I'd much rather gat ASDA own brand'
Skim links would read that, then could make cadburys clickable and li k to cadburys, mondelez click able and link to mondelez website, ASDA click able and link to ASDA website.

Then anyone who follows those links, in the post that you had no intention of linking in, anything people buy will be recorded by skimlinks, how much they paid and 'other order identifiers' basically building a database of peoples shopping habits with information that has been scummed and not volunteered.

Or at least that's how it reads to me.

I think it is a little naive not to expect MN to seek to capitalise on our links. It is a business after all. I will post links in good faith.

I am raging about this. As a frequent poster on a S&B page where we constantly link things, it makes knowing what are genuine links, and what are Skimlinks impossible. Very intrusive, and not what I want to be posting. I completely understand that you need to make money from advertising but changing the text of your users to link to things they aren't wanting to link to seems a step too far. Sorry.

They just need to look different to user added/promoted links.

People who say that they've had problems with skimlinks before, like what?
Most websites use links and ads - it's how free sites that are big enough to need staff run.
Yes, it's annoying to accidentally click something but you just hit 'back' or close the window and carry on.

I really can't see why this is so awful tbh. It's everywhere. We are lucky to have a free-to-use site like this and if they have to use skim links then sobeit

And the data stuff is really standard across the board now. At least MN are honest about it, many sites don't engage at all.

Wasn't this tried a few months ago and lots of people hated it so it was stopped?