Skimlinks on Talk

[AmyGMumsnet]

Hi folks,

Some of you might have spotted a few more links in discussions across the site - this is because we're testing out a programme called Skimlinks, which auto-converts some of your brand mentions into links.

This makes it easier for you to have a look at products that other MNers happen to mention on the boards, and, if you decide to make a purchase from one of these links, Mumsnet benefits from a small commission.

Thanks all - let us know if you experience any issues that you think might be related.

MNHQ

I DON'T WANT FUCKING LINKS IN MY DISCUSSION POSTS IN ANY COLOUR!

Can we not have discussions without being hijacked by your bloody advertising?

It is tacky, insulting... it may well finally push me off MN, after 14 years.

OK, have read the thread, you are pretty committed to it for a while, at least.

It's not for me.

Thanks for the good times,

Signing out.

Adblock, blu? It works :) I am very impressed with it and don't know why I waited so long to download it!!

AdBlock stops you seeing the links but doesn't stop them being inserted into your posts.

I use AdBlock (and Ghostery, would highly recommend both) but it's the very existence of the links that irks me. I don't want to be a vehicle for advertising companies/products/brands I don't choose to recommend.

(Any links appearing in this post other than those marked as my own have been inserted automatically by advertising software and may link to companies or products I would neither support nor recommend.)

my adblock doesn't seem to deal with these.

It's pretty awful. The translation isn't even ideal - sometimes a word triggers a link, and it's not even the link the poster was talking about, but some other company, which is confusing to those who are actually reading the post. Seems unfair to promote certain brands, particularly when not the ones the poster was actually discussing.

it's also very distracting and disrupts the flow of reading

hemi try checking the adblockers settings for "non-invasive ads"

I think MNHQ have just increases the number of ad block users.

And as for making it easier for us, if you are using MN chances are you can use google.

(No links are mine)

Ugh, MNHQ, really? This is so...grubby.

We're all gonna have to add nethuns style tickers with the "no links are my own" disclaimer in them!!

Ps, no links are my own in that post

Or this one

Hi Hemi, that sounds strange. Would you be able to point us in the direction of a post which is linking incorrectly and we'll take a closer look?

I will if I spot another one! My memory is that it was something to do with meditation, but can't remember where it was.

Amy, if you read further up thread you will see that my name is turning into a link! If that's not incorrect, I don't know what is.

Waltons

Aww waltons, you should be getting a cut at least?

What happens to users with names that get shortened to gin/cake/chocolate?

Do bolded words get linked?

Even if I n/c to WaltonsIAmNotASkimlink or WaltonsIDoNotSellSheds, people will still call me Waltons in their replies and I will be a skimlink or a shed-seller again.

Thank goodness for Ad Blocker Plus

It doesn't bother me at all, I would much rather have a skim link than either (a) have intrusive on screen adverts or (b) pay a subscription. Of all the revenue raising initiatives from MNHQ this is probably the least annoying as it doesn't interfere with my use of the forum at all.

For example, a thread in property on mortgages, someone has used the words 'smart phone', and it's been converted to a skim link to vodaphone, which is not what the initial poster was talking about in particular - they were just talking generally about smart phones.

oh it's done it on mine, too.

But it was nothing about vodaphone that I (or the original poster) was talking about - rather, just mentioning something that a smart phone could do, and it seems rather unfair to link to that company in particular. And similar has happened when the person is actually talking about a product, but uses a generic word (like the example earlier, talking about meditation) and it links to a very specific brand of product (in that case, links to meditation CDs) that aren't what the poster was discussing. It makes it confusing.

(and it's still doing it. I'd like to be able to discuss a generic concept like meditation without linking to the particular brand of headspace CDs, since I don't like/use/recommend them, but that's what comes up if I even mention the word - it is very hypocritical as sometimes it seems like you are recommending products that might be totally opposite to what you are trying to discuss!).

This is a bit shit mumsnet. Does 'mumsnet' skimlink to itself or would that create some sort of paradox and we'd go round in circles until MN disappears up its own backside?

Oh.........wait.........

@JustineMumsnet - how long is a few weeks to see how things go? What is the review process? Is it going to taken onboard what users think of this sneaky, inaccurate advertising scam, or just whether it's making MN money?

I wonder how many MNers will start using adblockers off the back of this? It could end up quite counterproductive.

I've blocked ads on MN for a long time on my laptop, but had MN whitelisted on my mobile Adblock. Kind of a compromise... feeling bad for blocking all ads when I use their service for free. But as soon as I noticed skim links on the mobile site I removed MN from the white list. It's too distracting.

I noticed the meditation thing too. Hemi makes me wonder how it's decided that a particular company is linked to when a generic term is mentioned. I suppose, logically, it must be currentn advertisers - but I'm not sure i've seen ads for Headspace on MN - maybe they're companies MN wants to draw in by proving they can provide clicks by users? So it's kind of speculative advertising, making words link to a particular brand so that brand picks up that they're getting mn tradfic and becomes a fully-fledged client?
I know nothing of this world, btw - just speculating!

Is anyone else still getting the skimlinks in the same blue as a normal link?

Yes me.