jayeff

Your original post is reasonable on the face of it. The comments I have quoted more so. In another post you also, very reasonably, say that you do not know whether PIB shaved or not.

All of which neatly summarizes the problem that we all face. If you are not party to the internal workings of a sponsor, their plans, ambitions and accounts, then everything is guesswork. Knowing only what customers are charged and what a sponsor pays is not enough information to make assumptions - good or bad - about the honesty (or the viability) of a sponsor.

A sponsor may charge $40 and pay out only $20, but he could be shaving to stay in business because he spends too much on content or hosting. Another sponsor working on those same numbers may be shaving mercilessly just to make extra profits. Someone else could be paying out 6 weeks income, but be making very healthy, legitimate profits on the remaining rebills, cross-sells, up-sells, etc.

We are right to distrust. I can recall at least two affiliate software programs exposed on this board in recent months as having built-in shave features. It is very difficult to believe that such features are provided unless there is a demand for them. It is even harder to believe that when such features exist, no-one uses them. And a few sponsors over the years have been caught out. It doesn't help that some sponsors make outrageous claims for their programs while others have all the PR skills of a charging rhino.

It is a little surprising (and disappointing) that legitimate sponsors do not capitalize on this distrust by demonstrating their own honesty. If it gains acceptance, the initiative by PornPosse/ClickTruth is a small step in the right direction, but their audit methods are not - so far as I am aware - transparent and thus they themselves have to be taken on trust.