The past few days I've noticed that every single link now gets passed through a referral service. It can't be just me, since it's happening on different browsers and different ISPs.
Are you really selling our clicks now?
Not cool, ehMax. Not cool at all.
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Viglink has been on ehMac for well over 2 years now. If a user creates a link to a company that offers referral bonuses, Viglink adds-in referral code. This translates into a few bucks a month to help ehMac. A lot of Mac forums and other forums use this. (Macrumors.com, Appleinsider.com)
Revenue from programs like Adsense have really gone down for a lot of forum owners, so every little bit helps.
Usually, the redirect happens so fast, it isn't seen, but I think they may have been having some slowdown issues.
Sorry if anyone thinks this "isn't cool" but apparently there is the opt-out link above. I'd like to think that if someone clicks on a link that was posted on ehMac, and the user buys a product, that a few pennies going to ehMac to help support the site isn't a bad thing.
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You say it's been here for years, but I've never seen it hijack a link before. I always check the actual URL of a link before clicking, and never before have they been proxied through another site.
You're welcome to your opinion that we'd all like to support ehMac, but I certainly won't support it at the expense of my privacy. The opt-out above doesn't stop the links from being hijacked.
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You say it's been here for years, but I've never seen it hijack a link before. I always check the actual URL of a link before clicking, and never before have they been proxied through another site.
You're welcome to your opinion that we'd all like to support ehMac, but I certainly won't support it at the expense of my privacy. The opt-out above doesn't stop the links from being hijacked.
Both Macrumors and AppleInsider are in fact, using Viglink. I know this for 100% certain via my real life analogue travels, but here is a thread on Macrumors.com.
I think something may have been going on with the plug-in. I've de-activated and re-activated, and it seems to have stopped the behaviour you're describing.
ehMac.ca takes member's privacy very seriously, and would never implement any technology that compromises a member's privacy.
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Both Macrumors and AppleInsider are in fact, using Viglink. I know this for 100% certain via my real life analogue travels, but here is a thread on Macrumors.com. Appleinsider has very recently moved to the Huddler platform, so they might not be using it anymore.
I think something may have been going on with the plug-in. I've de-activated and re-activated, and it seems to have stopped the behaviour you're describing.
ehMac.ca takes member's privacy very seriously, and would never implement any technology that compromises a member's privacy.
They may be using it for referrals, but I haven't seen a link using a click-through. None of the threads I sampled recently had clickthroughs with Viglink.
About the plugin fixing it - I'm still seeing the clickthroughs on every link.
Adding clickthroughs definitely compromises privacy, as both the unique user (via a cookie or other identifying token) and the destination site are sent to an unknown, untrusted third party.
__________________ WARNING: If you see links to ads in the above post, blame the cheesy ad-linking software used by the owners of this website. I do not endorse these ad links. Don't click on them.
They may be using it for referrals, but I haven't seen a link using a click-through. None of the threads I sampled recently had clickthroughs with Viglink.
About the plugin fixing it - I'm still seeing the clickthroughs on every link.
Adding clickthroughs definitely compromises privacy, as both the unique user (via a cookie or other identifying token) and the destination site are sent to an unknown, untrusted third party.
Could you link to a specific post on ehMac that has a link and describe again what you're seeing?
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Could you link to a specific post on ehMac that has a link and describe again what you're seeing?
Using my earlier post with 2 test links to Macrumors/AppleInsider, you can see that the links presented to the user aren't actually direct to the site. They're being bounced through Viglink. This happens with any thread on ehMac that I can find. In fact, I can see it on the links below as well.
__________________ WARNING: If you see links to ads in the above post, blame the cheesy ad-linking software used by the owners of this website. I do not endorse these ad links. Don't click on them.
Using my earlier post with 2 test links to Macrumors/AppleInsider, you can see that the links presented to the user aren't actually direct to the site. They're being bounced through Viglink. This happens with any thread on ehMac that I can find. In fact, I can see it on the links below as well.
Doing some more testing, and it looks like the links are being hijacked if Adblock or Ghostery are turned on - extensions designed to block these kinds of shenanigans. I suspect Viglink thinks they're being clever with this...
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Viglink hijacking links in posts?
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