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I think affiliate links should be banned or restricted from this instance (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago by SymbolicLink@lemmy.ca to c/main@lemmy.ca

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I noticed this Wealthsimple Community pop up in my "active" list today.

Clicked in and noticed its empty, but the sidebar contains a sneaky affiliate link for the moderator of that community.

Same thing with the Wealthsimple Trade Community.

I think this sort of activity should be banned from here tbh, definitely at the mod level.

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[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I tend to agree that they should not be allowed, but how would everyone feel about an exception if they're obviously called out?

I think of communities like churningcanada on reddit for example, where affiliate links / referral codes are intentional and wanted by the community.

IE, something like:

Any affiliate or referral links must be obviously called out as such, with a clear description of what the poster gains and what the user would gain by using it

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

I think this is fair. I'm not necessarily against referral links in communities where that's an expected and desired part of what people are looking for from it.

[–] SymbolicLink@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I can get on board with this, my main concern is the disclosure.

I think what you posted is specific can be a good start. And then if any other dark patterns emerge they can be dealt with.

[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Advertising has no place here.

If you want to contain it all in a specific place that can be blocked, okay. But if the instance starts allowing people to just post advertisements like that, I'm gone and it's getting blocked.

[–] Woofcat@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So you're saying if lets say GCPGrey moved his community here, he couldn't have links to his store here or other material as that would be "bad".

Let's get real here, Advertising is going to happen, donations are going to happen. If you don't like that you're going to have a hard time on the Internet.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah this is my thought too.

Is someone posting a YouTube video they made and are monetizing, advertising? Where do we draw the line?

[–] SymbolicLink@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah I think that would be an OK case and these specific things can be up to the moderators of communities. I know that some communities require mod approval before self promotion is allowed, so I think in the CGP Grey community case it would be a non issue.

I think starting with a super specific rule around affiliate disclosure as proposed would be good enough to avoid this particular problem.

[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like I said, if it's all contained in a community I can si.pky block, no problem.

If ads are allowed across the whole instance, I will change instances and block the whole instance.

I'm here to look at content, not be persuaded to spend money.

[–] Woofcat@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago

I'm not an admin, but I think an instance wide rule against links anywhere that are affiliate links would be insane and maybe you should go.