Skimlinks
 

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just googled the "redirectingat" and learned same thing. i believe last night was first time i started seeing it.

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
http://skimlinks.com/

werent posters not allowed to post referral links? so now IB can.

what if a poster did post a referral link, would it be changed?

i dont think this affects me, but i find it ridiculous.

Indeed I just noticed this the other day when I found redirectingat was blocked on the computer I was using and I was thus unable to open links.

Most annoying. I have hundreds of FAQ links on FT which I maintain and are now potentially useless. At the very least links to FT posts (and other parts of FT site eg wiki, TOS, etc) shouldn't go through this.

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even trying to fix the link after it doesnt work might be hard if there are %20 etc added in.

but you can always right click copy link.

I've just noticed this too - and it's really annoying and an extremely shady practice. I thought the computer I was on was infected with a virus or something.

Considering a lot of FTers use websites for their own gains where they may earn cashback etc. For example I earn a bit of money on Hilton bookings through Quidco. Presumably if I clicked Hilton links the money would have gone to FT had I not noticed the redirecting.at url.

Shame on FT :td:

so it automatically does it for you in your browser, and skimlinks overrides it? jesus.

also, so much for right clicking copy link, thats impossible.

so if a link is abbreviated, youre screwed.

i just seemed to be noticing lag with the service as well.

fun times!

I just noticed the redirect thingy. :eek:

I hate the fact it slows down the page load. :(

With this new IB "improvement", what happens to the conga or referral links in our SPAM Forum? Who's going to earn the referral credit now? :confused:

Just noticed it as well as the lag time.

I guess it's safe to assume that every single link, even to non-commercial stuff, will be redirected.

Pretty crappy, IMHO.

But this isn't Randy's FT any longer. It took nearly 3 years for them to start making wholesale changes, but they finally did it. If we keep reminding ourselves that this is a for-profit business, then nothing should surprise us going forward.

I too wonder what will happen with congas.

Along the same lines, what is adtmt.com, which seems to insert itself when I try to open threads from work for at least the last several months. About a third of the time, I get an error message, and sure enough if I hold the back-arrow dropdown, I see the site in the history. I usually have to hit refresh to get the page to link properly.

When opening up this thread, the backlink was:
http://view.atdmt.com/DEN/iview/1453045

When I try to open that URL up in a new window, work's controls refuse it. So can somebody tell me what they see when they go to that URL?

Hopefully me. :)

Some enterprising FT member with access to their own hosting might try creating a redirecting page of their own for a conga, and then people could post the links as:

http:// myserver.com/FT-conga.php?ReferringFTMember

Even better if somebody has a Lotus Domino server and they could make it a .nsf Lotuscript agent instead of PHP.

I bet that the IB redirection wouldn't know what to do with that.

When I do that I get the redirect link not the original.

It's a blank page of a size 1x1 pixel.

right >
if IB has an account for whatever site it is, they do. ill bet their people are running around making accounts at every site right now.

If that's the case, another big :td: from me to IB.

I bet IB never thinks of FT members' conga interruption when implementing this redirecting initiative. :mad:

The lag time is really really annoying. Every redirected page now takes almost like a lifetime to load! A very bad move in my book. :td:

I suspect quite the opposite... that they knew exactly that items such as congas could make them money without anybody realizing it.

If I was a conga-participate, I'd end up making a profile-type page with all my congas and affiliates someplace, and just linking to that instead.

I have an example if anybody wants to PM me, but it would be poor ettiquite for me to put my affiliate links to Priceline, etc. here.

Indeed:

But to give them at least some credit, their TOS also state that:

At least you are getting them to load. On some computers I use the redirecting site is blocked which means a painful process to quote a post then copy and paste the URL into another window.

:mad:

seriously.

ouch. although i didnt even think of that.

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Please pardon my ignorance.

I am using FF. Do you mean if I add "/skimlinks.js" to the end of hyperlinks in my posts, I don't have to worry about redirection any more? TIA

ETA:
I do have ....... plus in my FF. Just don't understand where to put the "/skimlinks.js." If not the end of hyperlinks, should it be under the preference or somewhere else? (Don't know what configuration file means.)

Thank you.

This turn of events is rather disappointing, although not surprising, I suppose. I guess the moderators didn't need to be so vigilant about undisclosed referral links since IB feels free to do something similar. :(

No, you need to install ....... plus and then put that item in the configuration file for it.

You should see the large, red ....... Plus icon (looks like a stop sign) to the right of your address bar at the top of your browser.

Right click on it, select Preferences and then Add Filter. You'll get a box called New Filter and then type: /skimlinks.js

Hit OK and you're good to go.

Thanks to ClueByFour for this tip that works, for now, on every website using Skimlinks.

Thanks for the clarification about adding it as a filter. ClueByFour, thanks for the headsup. ^

All you guys have to say is "adding /skimlinks.js as a new filter." I have no problem finding preferences and adding filters. Why do you guys have to make it so geekily difficult for us non-techies? :p
Bye Bye, IB redirection.

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Skimlinks
 

:mad: Skimlinks :td:

If you are using Internet Explorer 8, below is the XML code you can import as an "InPrivate Filter" to block the Skimlinks javascript code:

Save the above code into a notepad/text file with an XML extension (e.g., disable_skimlinks.xml).

Open IE8 -> Tools -> InPrivate Filtering Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Import the XML file.

Keywords:

how to block disable javascript IB Skimlinks redirectingat redirectingat.com ib.redirectingat.com lb.redirectingat.com

ClueByFour, thank you for the reminder about InPrivate Filters. ^

I guess the HOM is still looking it to it for us.

Just got this warning when clicking on what should have been a link to BD's website:

Now, my net nanny could be overly sensitive... but it's pretty poor that I should be getting warnings of adware as a result of IB's skimlink thing :td:

That is a Commission Junction url (I am a member of CJ for one of my websites) for Priceline and AIG TravelGuard. My network at work blocks CJ all the time as well.

So it would appear that IB is now an affiliate of BD. With CJ membership, I would assume Sheraton and Priceline as well.

So explain to a relative neophyte what that actually means in English please? ;)

When we click through to a BD link, because IB is an affiliate, do they get $$$ for the referral? Or do we need to actually purchase from BD for them to do that?

Is it like quidco, where the referring site (i.e. quidco) gets a kickback from the company from which you purchase the stuff - only of course quidco shares that kickback with its members whereas presumably IB would retain that?

Until someone offers some sort of an explanation, I'm no longer clickiing on any links thru FT.

Sadly, as a mod, that's not really an option for me.

And when people post images, unless you have images unabled, this website links through to the other website which is hosting that image...

Pretty much every link no longer works for me without manually quoting the post then copying and paster into another window.

A painful waste of time.

IB gets money for purchases, although there might be some sites where they get money for qualified leads or from purchases a few days from now.

Sounds like there is a solution. ;) Unless, of course, IB is going to share some of their revenues with you for the forums which you moderate.

Well, though Chrome is my preferred browser, I'm switching back to FireFox specifically to block skimlinks. This is really outrageous -- unethical behavior of the lowest sort.

Edited to add:

Done -- I'm on with FF (with, of course, ....... plus). FT is a lot faster and, of course, as a bonus, I don't have to look at any ads. Well done, IBB! We'll simply pass the word around that, because of your undisclosed browser hijacking, the preferred solution involves blocking all of your ads.

Anyone have the link to the chat IB had with users after Randy sold the operation to them? I recall some nonsense about "things won't change around here." Would love to find that if I could. If only for the comedic value.

Some of us have worked for Fortune +/- 50 companies who either acquired someone or were acquired themselves.

In 100% of those cases, nothing was ever going to change and in 100% of the same cases, everything changed. :rolleyes:

Are you talking about this thread?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/only-...flyertalk.html

Not sure you'll find answers (or action) to your satisfaction though.