Who is breaking Voucher Code guidelines

[renegade]

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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

Doug, your thread title was pure link bait and you know there are some forum members waiting with long knives.

I too am happy to correct errors and for years I've exchanged MSN messages with other code sites owners giving them heads up on duff or dodgy codes and they've done the same for me, we don't need the "help" of code-hating affiliates grassing us up under the guise of being helpful.

[renegade]

Why not just get rid of them if they are expired? We do this on Travelpixel if an offer is past its expiry date it does not show - can you suggest a good reason why we should show expired offers and/or codes? Whats your experience?

1) Because many merchants renew their codes after a gap of a few days each month, often with the same code.
2) Users can guess new codes from the old codes, using codes is seen as a hobby by many bargain hunters, they have the thrill of getting discount like solving a crossword puzzle.

[renegade]

If it is someones livelyhood then why try to upset the paople who pay the bills.

To this extent I agree with Doug. The actions of rogue code site affiliates has caused a lot of grief and the loss of codes which is why the guidelines are a good idea. However this witch hunt style thread is not the place to report out of date content to webmasters.

[aga_marchewka]

Hi guys

As most of you know I am working at buy.at in the Affiliate Development Team, mostly in the area of voucher codes.

I know how hard most of you have been working for the past few months with Christmas and modifying sites in order to be compliant with the IAB guidelines. As well as contacting our Network Quality Executive Jon Brown you can easily get in touch with me in regards to any voucher code or voucher code website that promotes buy.at merchants that does not appear to be compliant. I am happy to contact the affiliates to make sure they react appropriately.
If you are not sure about any voucher code provided by a buy.at merchant or whether you can promote it just let me know and I will check with the merchant for you. I hope that all this makes sense and if you have any questions at all do not hesitate to contact me. My contact details are below

Thanks :-)
aga
Affiliate Development Manager
The buy.at affiliate network
aga@buy.at I msn: aga.e@wp.pl
02072998365

[Tel]

Happy New Year!

What an eye opening thread to set the scene for 2009 (sorry Doug for not listing non-complaint listings etc.)

I simply cannot believe that we are doubting whether infringements should be 'covered up' as its not doing the industry any good. Merchants know the rules and don't need to read this forum to clearly see that the rules are not being adhered to or are being bent.

Yes there may be self promotion in this thread and link building etc, but what it has drawn out is concerning.

Seriously - for those who are guilty of this, clean up your act as you are employing a short term strategy for the whole industry.

Thanks to all for the hard work in creating these rules guys.

Col.

[Hero]

Hi all,
Happy new year, hope everyone had a nice break

Just to reiterate what has already been said - the networks to have signed up to the IAB code of practice will be monitoring and intervenining to ensure the guidelines are followed. The best thing to do is contact a network rep and discuss your concerns about any affiliate - we will be able to investigate on a wider scale, looking at all listings and all sites that affiliate has and speak with that affiliate. If no action is taken from their end, networks will take action. All networks have appointed specific people whose responsibility is to investigate compliance to the guidelines.

For anyone wishing to contact Webgains about the voucher guidelines, please get in touch with me via email or msn or phone. Same, if you need any clarifications on the vouchers released by our merchants, any questions you have or if you want to discuss your sites.

Many thanks

[jemmag]

I just wish that Tradedoubler were being as proactive as the other networks in enforcing these guidelines.

Unfortunately I had to report the voucher code site 'vouchercodes dot com' for his blatant disregard for the new IAB guidelines. All Tradedoubler would tell me is that they will bring it up at the next meeting with the IAB (whenever that is?).

Not good enough!

[dougs]

Awesome...job done

Great post Colin from RO Eye

Doug

[Travel Pixel]

Dave,

I dont see the issue if they are advising the customer before clicking that the code has expired, it is then down to the customer if he wants to click or not. It is no different to archived news on forums etc.

Fair enough, point taken.

:tup

[edwyn123]

I just wish that Tradedoubler were being as proactive as the other networks in enforcing these guidelines.

Unfortunately I had to report the voucher code site 'vouchercodes dot com' for his blatant disregard for the new IAB guidelines. All Tradedoubler would tell me is that they will bring it up at the next meeting with the IAB (whenever that is?).

Not good enough!

Hi Jemmag,

If you drop me an email: edwyn.mcfarlane@affiliatewindow.com I will speak to any affiliates you believe aren't abiding by the IAB rules, provided you can give me a link to an example that is

Thanks

Edwyn

[bapages]

Is having endless code with 'end date unknown' acceptable?

[befuddle]

Why not just get rid of them if they are expired? ... Can you suggest a good reason why we should show expired offers and/or codes? Whats your experience?

Yes ... codes expire at midnight and I'm not staying up late to edit my site at that time.

Codes also expire and then you'll receive an email a few days or week later saying the code has been extended or even no email notification but you have to look at the various sources to see if there's an update.

It is also more efficient for me to spend my 2 hours of daily updates to replace expired codes for a merchant with new codes for the same merchant, or if that merchant hasn't got new codes, drop in some info from their newsletter about their promotions, than spend time removing content.

Now comes the promotion

[befuddle]

Is having endless code with 'end date unknown' acceptable?

Yes it is. Merchants and their agents need to provide as much information as possible when supplying codes.

[BFG 9000]

Why not just get rid of them if they are expired? We do this on Travelpixel if an offer is past its expiry date it does not show - can you suggest a good reason why we should show expired offers and/or codes? Whats your experience?

Yes ... codes expire at midnight and I'm not staying up late to edit my site at that time....

Although you could automate the removal of codes.....
Seriously though - I agree - here's a post from Kieron that put's it far more eloquently than I could :-
Kieron, why don’t your remove your old discount codes?


TTFN

BFG

[bapages]

I just wish that Tradedoubler were being as proactive as the other networks in enforcing these guidelines.

Unfortunately I had to report the voucher code site 'vouchercodes dot com' for his blatant disregard for the new IAB guidelines. All Tradedoubler would tell me is that they will bring it up at the next meeting with the IAB (whenever that is?).

Not good enough!

Be fair it would not be appropriate for them to discuss third party action with you but sure they thank you for the heads up. But what concerns me is they say they will bring it up at the next meeting, I suspect the way networks are going about openly discussing / Influencing others in individual cases with other third parties such as other networks breaks common law and t&c's in many cases. Irrespective of the affiliate breaking rules or not an affiliate/network/merchant has the legal right to privacy both implied and in express terms and also without checking, one standard term that appears in most contracts is 'Third party rights exclusions' which would possibly (I use possibly as this depends on how influence is applied) restrict the AIB influence. If you think this could be got around by claiming it is an individual representation then I suggest they either think again or get adequatly insured as you will be then deemed of using 'inside knowlege' which could potentially open up Pandoras box legally on several fronts.