Who is breaking Voucher Code guidelines

[Barry]

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I maybe throwing stones here as its been near impossible to find all 'offers' and upgrade all my sites to fit in with the new rules, (I am working on it) - but I am loving the way the rules are being bent or distorted.

Has it actually made any difference? I am loving this new 'hover over and click to copy' outdated codes. Or the 'we display the outdated code but when you try to right click to copy it it opens a merchants window' or even the slight change of wording from 'click to reveal discount' to 'click to reveal merchant'.

Or my favourite 'click to view deals' - when there are no 'deals' but 'deals' are not vouchers so are not covered in the terminology.

I do think its OK to post stuff on here, and although at some point someone will find a 'deal' listed as a 'voucher' on my sites (its inevitable with over 10,000 listing for me to go through) I am happy to change them. This is not a witch hunt and some of us voucher site owners do actually care about the future of programs and would like to be on the right side in order to keep them going for everyone.

Ta

Baz

[dougs]

Our database should be showing the expired dates that we were given from merchants...if anyone sees any that are a problem then please email or PM me and we will sort it.

The aim of this thread was to help people find issues, even on their own sites....as people have found with our feed. I actually thought most people would be trying to conform to the guidelines, not blatantly trying to find loop holes....that is surely just short sighted.

I am happy for people to tell us about problems we have, I expect hem, but we are trying to fix them, the same as Barry and that is the difference.

Doug

[Leeky]

At iCodes everyone can now keep an eye on who adds what codes and at what times via a live feed on our forum, so even less chance of anything slipping through the net.

Lee

[moneybackmadness]

Ok here are some from a quick look:

Thomson Voucher Codes, Thomson Discount Codes, Thomson Promo Codes - euVouchers.co.uk

AlphaRooms.com - Promotional Page. - this also causes a malware warning in my atin virus

Argos Voucher Codes Argos Discount Codes Argos Promotional Codes Argos Discount Vouchers From My UK Discount Codes. - showing expired voucher codes and still click to reveal

Alpha Rooms voucher codes , discounts & sale news - displaying offer as a voucher

Theres a few to be going along with anyway.

Dave:tup

Hi Travel Pixel,

Regarding myukdiscountcodes and the display on the Argos page, we currently show click to reveal all voucher codes because we have a valid code that expires tomorrow. Once this expires, then we will not show this button. We have approached a major network and been told that we are compliant. If we need to do any more work then we will. Our expired vouchers are clearly displayed in a different style.

Kind Regards,
Steve

[dougs]

Great Lee and Steve

Hopefully the issue of people looking for loopholes to the system will just go away, what do you reckon MP?

Doug

[Barry]

Nope I dont think so - a loophole is a loophole. If your a prudent business person these days, jumping through and using those loopholes is just good business practise. (puke!)

Ta

Baz

[gunneradt]

this thread was started and is continuing for nothing other than oneupmanship

[Barry]

I am sorry that you have read it like that.

I hope that none of my comments have been mis-construed to be any part in your post about getting one over on others.

The rules are needed and I am sure that they will iron themselves out in the end with a bit of give and take, however its not been as hard hitting as I thought.

Most the examples given so far have been rectified straight away and the site owners are obviously trying their best to balance between business and rules (or just simple mistakes), this is a thread we could do with, but it may be an idea to go through networks first and then if there are any further problems to give a bump to this thread.

Ta

Baz

[gunneradt]

not you mate

[renegade]

I'm not comfortable with this thread. It is a public witch hunt where self appointed vigilantes with vested interests are grassing up anyone they don't like irrespective of what the accused affiliate is doing, plans to do or has agreed with the merchants/networks.

Nowhere in the guidelines does it forsee affiliates back-stabbing each other on a public forum. If you really feel strongly enough about a specific affiliate report any contravention of the guidelines to the relevant network whose responsibility it is to police the guidelines.

There'a also a huge difference between websites which are not compliant and individual pages/items on websites which need updating.

Our website is compliant (and it has been since before the guidelines where first announced) and we have changed our database structure and admin backend so codes can be set up as deals, offers, freebies, etc.

New codes added will be set to auto-expire, where expiry dates are provided BUT with several thousand existing codes, deals and freebies in the database it's going to be a while before all the out of date content is weeded out.

And before anyone starts posting out of date content from our sites here I'd just like to point out to any network staff reading this that - as I have done for the last 8 years or so - we will promptly remove any out of date content on request.

[dougs]

This was never meant to be a witch hunt, as I thought most people would actually aim to comply.......obviously I was wrong. It was meant to help networks see what was going on and I would be happy for people to out our errors and mistakes as it saves me having to

As someone with a vested interest in this industry then yes I do want it to be cleaned up and for people not to abuse the guidelines, as that will allow me to have a long term business. If people want to abuse the guidelines then sorry but I will still be showing what you do in public because you are effecting my business.

As for reporting individuals to networks we all know that affiliates move links to more friendly networks to them. So next we can target the networks in public who don't conform, then they can explain it to their merchants

Basically most people want to sort this mess out and some people don't. If you don't then I will be delighted for people to make your life a pain.

Doug

[befuddle]

I can't recall the guidelines saying you have to remove out of date content. That would obviously affect every Internet site out there and not just code ones.
--<br>Posted via my Mobile Device

[dougs]

It does not....The guidelines were quite basic, don't take the michael

Tell a customer what they are getting by clicking on a link

Doug

[edwyn123]

As for reporting individuals to networks we all know that affiliates move links to more friendly networks to them. So next we can target the networks in public who don't conform, then they can explain it to their merchants

Just to say that regardless of what merchant/network an affiliate is promoting/using, if I see someone not following the criteria I will still get in touch and if they remain uncompliant then I will of course contact the network who is responsible for the merchant.

Our aim is for all the networks to work together on this and so switching links won't really get around it.

[dougs]

Brilliant Edwyn.

Pleased to see that AW are being so proactive with this. It's doing stuff like this that makes a network stand apart from the rest.

Doug