[Class A]

Falconeye made a post in which he used "Sony". This term was automatically embellished to link to sonystyle.com.

When he edits his post, he cannot see the link.

I tried to create a post with the same text but the embellishment didn't occur.

What is happening?

I agree with Falconeye that it is not acceptable that user provided content is altered. That it is apparently done with commercialisation in mind only makes things worse.

I find it strange to see Nikon / Canon adverts next to Pentax news on the PF home page but wasn't too concerned because I don't see that stuff when I'm using the forum. I also already pointed out that the "redirected" mechanism can get in the way of using the forum. I do hope that the Skimlinks issue is not yet another commercialisation attempt and will/was just a temporary issue.

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Last edited by Class A; 11-06-2010 at 10:43 PM.

[Adam]

Apparently they enabled something called "Skimwords" without asking my permission first. Let me see how to disable that.

[Adam]

Figured it out! I'm going to try to make the redirectingat thing look prettier, but at the moment there is no solution to get rid of it entirely.

[falconeye]

Apparently they enabled something called "Skimwords" without asking my permission first. Let me see how to disable that.

Adam, even if this is what has happened, then it's only a partial excuse.

Skimlinks make no sense and only create trouble for your users. Unsubscribe from this BS even if its from a company in your city. Moreover, skimlinks allow another company to know which user clicks what external link which isn't anybodies business to know. That's a violation of privacy, in particular in the off topic section.

Enough said, again, I'm not amused.

EDIT
Ok, so it cannot be disabled. Then I herewith formally REQUIRE you to disable the skimlink mechanism. I don't grant you permission to alter my content.

[Parliament]

so i have to mistype sorny every time i don't want to advertise for them? ....

[Adam]

I don't grant you permission to alter my content.

It doesn't alter your content- it's client-side. I'll see what I can do as far as them speeding up the removal of redirection of non-adorama/bh links. Those are the only ones we care about, so I don't get why they have to track all of them. The company we used for this before had a much nicer solution that used JSON; apparently these guys are a few years behind them.

[falconeye]

It doesn't alter your content- it's client-side.

Such sentences just make it worse. I don't care if it's a ****ing script running in your server or in my browser - as long ad it is your script rewriting what I did author without my permission.

And your first obligation is towards your members and not b&h. They create what you sell.

[Adam]

You're making it worse by ruining my weekend right now. I've had a horrible week (back of my car got totaled, pretty much) so don't add fuel to the fire while I try to find a solution to this.

[falconeye]

You're making it worse by ruining my weekend right now. I've had a horrible week (back of my car got totaled, pretty much) so don't add fuel to the fire while I try to find a solution to this.

My reaction is partially due to a bad week too. So, something we can share . Sorry for your car though and I hope you're ok.

[Adam]

Thanks I'm fine (it was just a parking lot accident), but the person that hit me was likely not paying attention to the road, and speeding. Looks like several thousands to damage to my car, but hopefully the insurance will cover it. Anyway, enough of that.

I've contacted my guy at skimlinks only to discover that he no longer works there. I've forwarded the e-mail to another rep, and hopefully he can either update us on their status of removing the two inconveniences that there currently are, or offer some other solution. I'll keep you posted- but I don't expect a response until Monday.

[falconeye]

Thanks I'm fine (it was just a parking lot accident), but the person that hit me was likely not paying attention to the road, and speeding. Looks like several thousands to damage to my car, but hopefully the insurance will cover it. Anyway, enough of that.

I've contacted my guy at skimlinks only to discover that he no longer works there. I've forwarded the e-mail to another rep, and hopefully he can either update us on their status of removing the two inconveniences that there currently are, or offer some other solution. I'll keep you posted- but I don't expect a response until Monday.

Good news. Knowing you take it seriously is all it needed.

Seriously though, I cannot imagine that the income through skimlinks is worth the trouble you and we are having with it. E.g., each time I click an ext. link I see a delay.

[Class A]

I'm fine (it was just a parking lot accident), ...

Glad to hear you are well. Keeping my fingers crossed that the insurance will cover everything without too much hassle.

Thanks for being proactive about the Skimlink issue. So it appears to be the case that the "redirecting.com" and "Skimwords" issue are caused by one and the same "feature"? Seems like an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone...

[Adam]

Thanks I did some reading, and it turns out that skimwords was an entirely new "feature" to their service, which they enabled on everyone's site on an opt-out basis, instead of the reverse. That should now be disabled. I'm not sure why they need the bounce domain, but hopefully they'll shed some light on it in their response.

[Adam]

Got a response from them- their implementation will be re-worked to behave similarly to what we had before, so that there's no visible effect to the users. They said that this is coming in the "coming weeks", which I take likely means by the end of the year