Information on Skimlinks

Boards.ie: Niamh

Some info on Skimlinks for you:

Boards has implemented a service, Skimlinks, on the site (since last year). Skimlinks is software can turn certain standard web-links on Boards (typically links to online retailers with whom Skimlinks has a relationship) with into affiliate links, also known as tracked links. These tracked links are then marked as coming from Boards. If a member or reader ends up purchasing something then the retailer pays an affiliate fee which is shared between Skimlinks and Boards. It is important to note that the following always applies: posts on Boards remain as they were originally written, no content is altered; there is NO personally identifying information in the tracking code that the Skimlinks software uses, the only thing Skimlinks and the retailer knows is that the link came from Boards; the price on the retailers website stays exactly the same, no customer gets charged one cent extra because of Skimlinks.

Does this mean more ads?
No. It means that some of the links to products on a retailer's website posted to the site by our members will generate some revenue for us.

Are you giving them my details?
There is no sharing of any member's information from Boards to Skimlinks.

Are you changing my or other people's content?
The software for Skimlinks only activates when an outbound link to one of their affiliate companies is clicked. Otherwise, member's content remains unchanged in any way.

Don't your rules prohibit Affiliate Links?
Barring some notable exceptions, we do indeed ban affiliate links from being posted by members. The reasons for this are reasonably straight forward - when someone's earning something out of a link, you can't be sure you can trust that the advice given is genuine and allowing affiliate links in people's posts or signatures can create some more of that mistrust which is far more damaging to our communities in the long term and being blunt, our policy has always been if any company wants to advertise here, they can pay for it like everyone else. So what's different about us using a technology like Skimlinks to suddenly insert these affiliate links? When a single affiliation is appended on to all outbound links, then no one can accuse members posting recommendations or reviews of any product of bias or of attempting to make a few quid on the side. The other up side is that this is a means to pay our bills without asking our members to do anything different or without subjecting them to any more banners or the likes.

Is the an opt-out?
Skimlinks, like Google, Amazon and many others, will track users browsing behaviour across the web on any sites that have Skimlinks enabled. You can opt-out of this tracking at any stage by going to http://optout.skimlinks.com/

If you have any questions, you can ask them here. Thank you.