Click to Reveal Banned!

[Leeky]

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Take a look at the poll.

Lee

[Mogga]

Sorry but if you can't make time to come to the meeting to discuss something that you feel so strongly about then tough. I don't believe you care you just want to whinge.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jonsp]

Hero, I am sorry but it is not correct. Maybe only from those affiliates who don't know how to properly scrap pages. But for those who can programmatically scrap them - all the codes are within the source, whether click-to-reveal used or not. It doesn't make it a yota harder to scrap.

Makes sense if you're just using a simple javascript to show the code but surely if you had a voucher site and wanted to prevent other affs scraping it you'd use an ajax call to pull the code from the server? This way the the user gets his code instantly (no page postback) but it's never displayed in the source so can't be scraped.

[Leeky]

Remember when someone scraped everyones vc site last year for codes (including exclusive codes), to then put in a feed to distribute back to them on a 50/50 rev share basis.. can't quite remember who it was, but i'm sure they are the type to vote for ctr and call anyone who disagrees a whinger :tup

Lee

[loquax]

Personally, I'd have liked to see CTR banned rather than the IAB's "it's ok for this, but not for that" but I'd be very very surprised if this was ever going to be changed now.

But, considering that it wasn't so long ago that iframes opening on code sites was deemed to be "fine" by some networks and not in breach of their own "forced click" policy - the current CTR situation is a significant move forward.

It's also perhaps worth remembering the advancements that have been made in this area (and indeed spyware) is in part to affiliates initially kicking up a fuss on this forum.

It would be a shame if issues that affect affiliates are dismissed because they're brought up and/or discussed here and not in the presence of The IAB.

Jason

[jonsp]

Remember when someone scraped everyones vc site last year for codes (including exclusive codes), to then put in a feed to distribute back to them on a 50/50 rev share basis.. can't quite remember who it was, but i'm sure they are the type to vote for ctr and call anyone who disagrees a whinger

Now there's feeds of codes of available anyone can grab a feed and try to get ranked for [merchant + voucher code] use their best techniques to get a click and hopefully make some money. However that doesn't help the user who actually wants the best voucher code for [merchant].

So an affiliate might make the effort to establish relationships with networks/merchants and get some exclusive codes that actually deliver value to the user - ie my exclusive voucher will save you more money than this generic one.

If some "charlatan" then came along and scraped the exclusive code this aff had worked to get then surely "click to reveal" would be a good way for the aff to protect his exclusive codes?

[Leeky]

Yeah, click to reveal could be used to protect exclusive codes, but there is no need to force the visitor to get a popup window open when all they want to do at that point is view the code.

Click to reveal codes is fine, click to view merchant is fine, but if you are allowed to do both with a single click then this obviously opens it up for mass cookie stuffing abuse.

Lee

[jonsp]

Yeah, click to reveal could be used to protect exclusive codes, but there is no need to force the visitor to get a popup window open when all they want to do at that point is view the code.

But then you're offering a public service. Guy wants to purchase from [merchant] aff has an exclusive code that he's worked hard to get and delivers value. Of course the user just wants to see the code so he can enter it in checkout - but then aff doesn't get paid for his value add so he stops doing it.

Who gains from that?

[Leeky]

Very valid point on exclusive codes.. so perhaps yeah, click to reveal and open site on exclusive codes only, this would be easy to police and due to the small amount of exclusive codes per site then this wouldn't be open to abuse like the current method is where all codes can be click to reveal and open site.

Lee

[dougs]

Leeky

So put this proposal to the IAB to be discussed, turn up and put a valid point forward, rather than just whining on and on as you constantly do.

In the past I would have agreed about the ineffectivenesss of things but the IAB has been hugely effective in it's role, so let it perform it and not undermine it.


Doug
Ps And to rectify the fact Leeky, yes we collected codes from everywhere but the site that you were talking about was a beta one to show people what was capable. Don't believe we actually charged anyone for anything. Did Pagerank10 not start as something you said link to our site and we will share the revenue or something similar..anyway another thread that one is

[jonsp]

@doug
Assuming you could do it technically and would get commission, would you consider it "ethical" to scrape an exclusive code from an affiliate site and use it for your own purpose - either on your own site or to re-distribute?

Doesn't matter whether it's on a public forum or in a private meeting - it's either "acceptable" or it isn't.

[Leeky]

Doug, if it was run by someone who was impartial, then maybe I would travel a round trip of 600 miles to put my views across, but all you have to do is look at who 'thanks' who (for very weak arguments to keep CTR allowed, yet doesn't thank strong arguments to get it banned) on this thread, and other similar threads, just makes you feel it would be a complete waste of time and money.

Also to mention that my pm to the IAB, asking why they always seem to be one sided was unanswered, which doesn't give much confidence either.

Lee
p.s. and no pagerank10 didn't start like that, we gave what we promised (for the full 2 years) no money was changed hands, nothing was scraped / stolen and all the sites who sent us traffic benefited proportionally to the traffic / links sent.

[dougs]

John - irrelevant to this conversation - but no you should not do it. We have a team of people chasing down exclusive codes for our own stuff. And anyone who deals with us will tell you how ethical we try to operate. The site Leeky was talking about was a one that was built as an example, it had 1000's of codes in and only a handful were from other sites.

Leeky - Even a better reason to show your face and show us what we should be doing. You will find that putting 30/50 people in a room does not mean we all agree. Even if some of them are friends of each other. The IAB has done a great job to get most people to agree.

Simply the way this will be discussed is at the IAB so if you are concerned about the rules them please come and join in.

Doug

[BFG 9000]

Simply the way this will be discussed is at the IAB so if you are concerned about the rules them please come and join in.

Is the IAB an Official Body then? Has every affiliate/network/agency/merchant in the country been invited to join? or was it only open to those who were specifically invited or heard about it on these forums?


TTFN

BFG

[dougs]

BFG

The IAB meetings are mentioned on here often and most of the networks/agencies and some affiliates meet up every few months to discuss things. But it is an open door and anyone can turn up.

The IAB has been very effective in getting guidelines in place over the past year so well worth a visit.

Doug