Please tell me you will never... Do this....

[Adam Howard]

Skimlinks and VerticalResponse

So they've added adware and spam into the core product. Nice going Internet Brands.

1) Internet Brands decided to rely on a 3rd party product, rather then code something

2) Internet Brands decided we should be paying a 3rd party provider to use the product we already paid for from Internet Brands (vBulletin)

3) Security software does not like their 3rd party service provider (some individuals will get a warning or not even be able to access the 3rd party provider's site).

4) Use of their services (the 3rd party provider) has been blocked by some mail servers and by association, your community could also be blocked or classified as spam.

5) Some of the ads by Skimlinks have been flagged by security software, so using it can also get your site flagged

A job well done Internet Brands.

So I just want to know... That XenForo.... Would never do this to their customers?!

(The quote is from a post I made on vBulletin's Support Site)

 

[steven s]

Where I come from it's a rabbit, but I think we all understand the metaphor

Really? I had no idea. I guess my equivalent to rabbits might be squirrels. But they don't stare. They just dart out and change directions.

Oh I dunno, I've splattered way many more rabbits than deer.

I've had close encounters with deer a few times. Never a wabbit. Squished frogs once.

 

[iTuN3r]

I've had close encounters with deer a few times. Never a wabbit. Squished frogs once.

Same here they just show up in middle of Road at dark nights it's normal around here to see deers often at driveway.

 

[a legacy reborn]

I can assure u one thing...TOTAL EPICNESS!

 

[Adam Howard]

I'm rather perplexed by this reaction. Ignore the fact that it's vBulletin for a moment and consider a more abstract case.

If Forum Product X is well maintained, feature rich and continues to develop at a good pace, and then it integrates a product such as Skimlinks, which allows customers to quickly and easily generate income from their forums, that's a bad thing?

Because both Skimlinks and VerticalResponse is a nice way to get your community flagged as a spam site or even malware site. Heck, my basic security software will not even allow me to visit either of their sites.

Comcast, which is the leading ISP (Internet Service Provider) in America BLOCKS VerticalResponse through their mail servers... So using their services is a good way to get all your forum (community) e-mail blocked... You can add Google (Gmail) to that list.

The list of reasons goes on....

 

[Sethos]

I gave up on VB (for reasons many of you already know) and I started using some of the free forum software available. Anyway, I had heard about XenForo a good while ago and I decided to come and take a look , to see how the project is going.

I am not here to talk about how lousy VB got, but to see how the XF development is coming along and I like what I see so far. Let's hope we can have an official version sometime soon.

 

[Sadik B]

<snip>

As an aside, Sethos, that signature pic is an eyesore

 

[Grover]

As an aside, Sethos, that signature pic is an eyesore

http://xenforo.com/community/thread...ity-the-use-of-images-in-your-signatures.792/

(And yes, we can uncheck 'Show people's signatures with their messages' and yes we do need signature limits soon here)

 

[Shelley]

Agreed. Signature limits are really needed.

 

[Kier]

Because both Skimlinks and VerticalResponse is a nice way to get your community flagged as a spam site or even malware site. Heck, my basic security software will not even allow me to visit either of their sites.

I would suggest then that your 'basic' security software is too 'basic' to be considered useful or fit for purpose. Security software that incorrectly identifies legitimate business websites as sources of spam or malware is itself malware.

 

[Enigma]

As an aside, Sethos, that signature pic is an eyesore

$('.signature img').hide();

You can add that to a user script for xenforo.com

 

[RobParker]

Will I earn the same amount I would earn if I created the affiliate links myself?
Because of our scale we can negotiate the very best commissions for our publishers, which means you can earn up to 110% of what you would have earned if you managed your affiliate links programme yourself. Skimlinks retains 25% of the commission payment from the merchant, and the rest we pay to you.

This is slightly unclear. Is the 110% before or after the 25% cut?

 

[Sethos]

I removed my sig, so you can all stop crying now. An yes, I second the motion of signature limit. There's not even a spoiler to hide it.

 

[Phil Conway]

Hmmm. From my perspective it looks like the upset that followed vb's Google Adsense integration. I don't see what the problem is personally - Just like the Google integration it's an extra module that can be turned off at the click of a button.

I remember that there was some anxiety about the Adsense integration as it gave IB the potential ability to take commission from clicks and impressions made (although they stated at the time that they were going to use it for some statistical analysis only and not for revenue streaming). I'm not sure where I stand on IB earning commission from Skimlinks, but then again it works in Skimlinks favour as it gives people an incentive to integrate it into their sites and for developers to integrate it into their software.

I can see where people are coming from with regards to the complaints about IB's priorities. I'd rather they'd be fixing the problems with the platform than introducing new functionality (that could always break things further). I'd rather have a forum with minimal features and rock-solid stability than a forum with more features than you could wave a stick at and the complete inability of it to stay upright for more than four seconds. On the flip side, if it wasn't for 4.x's instability, I probably wouldn't have started looking for an alternative and found xF.

 

[Adam Howard]

I would suggest then that your 'basic' security software is too 'basic' to be considered useful or fit for purpose. Security software that incorrectly identifies legitimate business websites as sources of spam or malware is itself malware.

There are 2 issues with that statement....

1) The average user ("john doe") who most likely will come over to visit your community... Will be using something simple, free, or "basic". About 1/2 or more will get their security software either for free or from their ISP.

So if all those users think your community and / or services are linked or connected to something their "basic" program tells them is bad... Say good-bye to those individuals.

2) You are assuming that my software is to simple. Even if true, the above still applies to the majority.

I use: Kaspersky Internet Security, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, WOT, Hostman, PeerBlcoker, and AdBlock Plus (Firefox / Chrome Add-on). That's more then what the majority will ever use. But all of those individually, all flag those as issues.

 

[Elizabeth]

I use: Kaspersky Internet Security, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, WOT, Hostman, PeerBlcoker, and AdBlock Plus (Firefox / Chrome Add-on). That's more then what the majority will ever use. But all of those individually, all flag those as issues.

When I looked Slimlinks up, and I looked everywhere I could, including Kaspersky, it came up clean. Kaspersky gave it the green light, which means it's a trusted site.

Back when I first started in security work seven years ago, sites such as Slimlinks were automatically flagged as adware if not spyware. Mainly due to the fact that they used a call back function to third party sites without your approval. They've cleaned up their act since then adn now are a good clean way of getting ad revenue across. As much as one could want to find the opposite, Slimlinks is a clean trusted site. An above board site. And I applaud them for being that way. It's hard to stay that way in that niche.

Liz

 

[Rigel Kentaurus]

Sure, but if our hypothetical forum product is virtually bug free and customers are happy with the development direction, and they introduce a product such as Skimlinks in addition to everything else they are doing, that can only be a good thing, surely?

A couple of tricky things with this.

I really think that the options introduced are really good. Anything that helps monetize the community is good for the webmasters. The overall Google adsense integration was really nice for VB, and this paid links thing I also find them as a good thing to be integrated. The problem is, as usual ... execution.

The position in which VB is, is a little tricky. They own a lot of forums, as such, they are direct competition of some people (or they might view them as that), so introducing a feature like Google Adsense, connected to vBulletin, with the potential option of tracking visitors of other forums just smells bad.

Then, the introduction of skimlinks, and keeping a portion of the earnings, well, that is just not right. Seems like they are trying to monetize .. other forums .. for their own gain. Had they wanted to do the proper thing they would've added the option, but certainly do not keep some of the earnings. No matter if the member would make less if they register at the site by themselves, it is just shady.

If they really wanted to do it correctly, they could have negotiated a special deal, and then shared that with the vB customers. "If you register with skimlinks with this promo code you will get a preferential deal" or something of the sort. But instead, it seems pretty much that it is a forced "use this, give us money". That is the FIRST option. If you want something else, go through hurdles. Might be easy for the average Joe, but I just find it abusive and opportunistic. "Hey, let's abuse our market position, we can make money from all the forums that use our product".

Please note I am not implying that was the intention or how it went. This is just my personal feeling about the feature.

Today I was joking with a friend, the conversation went something like "oh, yeah, now Microsoft is going to start getting a commission for every sale made with a PowerPoint presentation". That extreme example is absurd, of course.

 

[RobParker]

Then, the introduction of skimlinks, and keeping a portion of the earnings

Is this true? Everything I've read just says they get a referral fee...

 

[Kier]

If they really wanted to do it correctly, they could have negotiated a special deal, and then shared that with the vB customers. "If you register with skimlinks with this promo code you will get a preferential deal" or something of the sort.

As I understand it, that is the basis of the scheme.

But instead, it seems pretty much that it is a forced "use this, give us money".

Not true at all. Nobody is forcing vBulletin licensees to use Skimlinks, they simply make it much easier to do so should you want to.

Today I was joking with a friend, the conversation went something like "oh, yeah, now Microsoft is going to start getting a commission for every sale made with a PowerPoint presentation".

That example is nothing like what is being offered by vBulletin and Skimlinks. A more accurate example would be:

"I can continue to use PowerPoint as I always have, but if I choose to sign up to SchemeX, whenever I make a PowerPoint presentation there is a chance that both I and Microsoft will get paid for doing so, without me having to do anything other than I would normally do."​

When you put it like that, where exactly is the down side?

 

[erich37]

who needs Skimlinks, when we can have Google-AdSense ?
never heard of Skimlinks before......there are thousands of similar companies out there.

The webmaster should be able to easily add Google-Adsense into the XF-software, without anybody else making a cut but the webmaster himself.

The Forum-Software-developer should not have any insights to the statistics of which Forum-webmaster is making what kind of money with Google-Adsense.

 

[Kier]

who needs Skimlinks, when we can have Google-AdSense ?
never heard of Skimlinks before......there are thousands of similar companies out there.

I'm afraid you have missed the point, Erich. I run both Skimlinks and AdSense on my own forums. They do not do the same job, and it's not the case that one must choose one or the other.