jayeff

A little bit ummm... obtuse? You are open enough about using short-term cookies: when someone asks. But it isn't mentioned on the front of your site or in your TOS, and it is hardly credible that anyone running a "recurring" program isn't well aware that a 14-day cookie is definitely not what the vast majority of affiliates are expecting.

I'm also curious how it can "work like a charm" for anyone. I believe most affiliates would argue that cookie-only tracking is a poor route in the first place. And since the near universal experience of revshare cam programs is that income builds over time (which is entirely logical, since you keep finding new customers while existing ones continue to spend), it is hard to imagine how anyone can make more money in only 14 days than if they were paid throughout the time a customer remains active.


That is the bottom line, but it shouldn't be the only thing which matters. While not every example of dubious ethics wipes out a sponsor's potential as a money-maker for affiliates, they all reduce that potential.

The greatest effect is that every time we accept doubtful practises, whatever form they take, we send out the signal that they are okay. They proliferate as a result and although not all traffic is sent to appropriate destinations, there must be many times that zero revenue would become positive revenue, if more sponsors were operating entirely honestly.

And such practises are small minded. It's 10 years since online porn began reaching a major global audience, yet we are still the poor relation of the adult entertainment family. One reason has to be that we spend so much time preying on each other, trying to grab a bigger piece of the pie which already exists, instead of being focussed on making the pie itself bigger.