I'm just wondering about the announcement that was posted today by xper regarding affiliates in signatures.

I'm guessing that this includes the Opera affiliate program (get 250 unique referrals - get a free license of Opera). Am I right?

Does this also mean that we should remove any images linking to software? (For example, the GetFirefox links)

I'm just wondering why this decision was made. The Opera affiliate program is a way for me to get a free licence for a great piece of software, and I know that I get a couple of hits per day from the link in my signature.

If we cannot have affilitates in our signatures, would it be allowed to start a thread between members to help raise our affiliate counts?

Thanks in advance!

No referral/affiliate/advertising links are allowed on the forum including your "Frog Plague" and "Opera" images. Mods or xper, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well would it better to get permisson from like firefox and MSFN if we want a link in are signature that says get firefox or something like that. Well i see alot of people on these forums that are advertising. if you they get rid of there referral/affiliate/advertising then i will get rid of mine.

What about the links in my sig? I don't get paid for any clicks on them.

Any kind of comercial advertising/affiliates/referral should be removed. This is technology help/support forum. Not trade/comercial or whatever forum.

@hotmale
Your links are ok.

your sig is fine... read what xper said

So where does that put me? I'm still confused on this, since it's not me trying to make money or sell stuff. The Frog Plague is more of a joke than a trade program, but the Opera affiliate link has the potential to get Opera some revenue... Does that mean the Opera affiliate links have to go?

I'm just trying to get clarification to follow the rules.

Thanks!

As xper said, affiliate and referral links have to go.

Thanks for clearing me up

just edit the url a little like this

Ok now I'm a bit confused... maybe I should wait until the big boss (aka xper) makes a decision, because gamehead200 seems to think that both the links have to go, whereas MartinL gave me the code for my sig that still has me as the affiliate for Opera (which is the one I thought would cause more problems).

By the way... I've updated my sig as MartinL suggested.

Zxian, afaiac, I don't think you in any violation of the rules at all, for two primary reasons:
1. Spam itself is advertising of the kind of stuff you typically find in garbage cans.
2. You're not even trying to make money, you're trying to get a free license through legitimate means.

Imagine 50 new users come around who are using IE and see your signature, they think "Wow, there's a different web browser?" and so they try out Opera and end up loving it's ability to block pop-ups and avoid spyware. Basically, what I am saying, is that in your process of trying to get a new license, you're also trying to help people. You're serving a beneficial purpose.
My thoughts.

Cheers,
Jeremy

The reason for these adverts as you say is primarily in order to receive payment in the form of a licence, for a product he would otherwise have to pay for. This is no different to actually receiving the licence payment itself. If you understood the meaning of the word affiliate, you would see that the member posting the url is actually connected to the company for whom they are advertising, for the purposes of selling a product, a task for which they are seeking remuneration. This is advertising for commercial gain.
Spam as it was rightfully called, is sending the same message, in order to promote a product or service, to a large number of recipients who didn't ask for it.

Thanks for the clarification. Just wanted to be on the safe side.

I'm not sure why people have a hard time understanding what xper is talking about.

If you place anything in your sig area that in returns gives you items or makes you money by any user click on the link then performing an action, it must be removed.

I think that should cover any questions. So before posting anything about "Is my sig OK" just stop and ask yourself "If someone clicks my link or clicks my link and signs up, downloads or takes any survey, do I get anything in return"?

Here are a few examples. Look at my sig. It contains 5 links. the bottom 4 make me no money by anyone clicking on them or doing anything after they click on them. They are also free services. The first "top" link is MSFN sponsor link which produces money for MSFN to help keep it going therefore it is not counted in this new rule (wanted to get that out of the way before anyone started posting about me).

Yes XPerties, that's what I was saying, in less than plain English.

Yes I know Yzöwl, I just figured I would type it in a different approach. No harm done, you get all the credit.

Zxian, edit your sig links so that they do not contain a referrer link or affiliate link and they will be alright. Do as Martin L suggested.

Also:

Ok, I updated my sig with the code MartinL provided.

So I can't post a non active link just text to my new company page? What about a company avatar? I already pmd someone about this but, got no response.

You probably got no reply because they are tiered of answering the same question over and over. As it is stated:



Active or not it's a link.

Ok there is something not right here but, I will let the mods and admins deal with it. I would say it was simple but maybe not. I have looked at many sigs and I am not sure what to think.

Hey, with 50000+ members, it takes a while to remove these links from people's signatures... About 30 seconds for each member if you want things to go fast!

Wow I didn't know we had that many. Good luck. How long has this plavce been around? I was told to watch a wait for now by another mod so I will.

Just out of curisouty what kind of server is the board on. I think this might be the largest users database ever. I had no idea. Is all the main crew been here from the beginning?

The board has been in existance since August of 2001. I have been here since September of 2002.

Wow 4 years with 50000+ that is amazing. Most other forums came before that time. That is very good. I guess this forum has bnever had a buig crash like the others. Most of the others have usually had there user database wiped out at 1 point.

>>Any kind of commercial advertising
Opera banner in my signature can be considered commercial advertising, even though this is not a referral link. Unlike Firefox, Opera is not a free browser. I guess additional clarification is still needed, at least in the forum rules. Otherwise, members and mods who interpret the rules in this thread have to reconsider their interpretations.

For those concerned with Opera affiliate program. Opera sends the same serial number to all people who got 250 hits. The numbers, of course, are widely published on the Net