Quote:
Originally Posted by FightThisPatent
Affiliates have been shaved (knowingly or unknowingly) by various programs, and even when they hear about it on a GFY thread, there is always a huff-puff battle, but in the end, they still promote...
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The trouble with having all these threads on the same topic is that they start to overlap. I already wrote about some of my thoughts on the differences between shaving and scumware here:
http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showpo...&postcount=149
You are right of course and you could have added that most webmasters are incredibly short-sighted, because by turning a blind eye to dubious practises, we actually encourage them. It is possible that collectively we are sending thousands of unpaid sales to sponsors for no other reason than we have encouraged them to believe they can even get away with being caught.
The out-and-out crooks would be trying to stiff us whatever the circumstances, but by walking around carrying signs saying "mug me", I'm damn sure we have tempted a few more to oblige us.
There is another side to this issue which doesn't appear to be making much impression, namely that unlike shaving - which is between a sponsor and his own affiliates - this affects every program owner as well as every affiliate. It can affect sponsors' own consoles. Come to that, since a PC loaded with scumware reacts to keywords and domain names - it doesn't even know the type of site the surfer is visiting - it could affect traffic coming from search engines, clicks on paid-for gallery spots, traffic trades and traffic sales (to and from brokers). In short, everyone handling traffic is affected. It's ridiculous: a link to a content provider or graphic artist's site could trigger popup windows.
In other words this is an issue that everyone in this industry should be on top of, yet while it is impressive to see a topic going into its second week, there are pitifully few people apparently concerned enough to state their position.