Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links
Hey guys,<p>Posterous partnered with Viglink.com back in December as an experiment to see if we could generate revenue by adding an affiliate code to links that don't already have one. We chose to work with Viglink because their technology doesn't interfere with the user experience at all.<p>1. Links in Posterous posts are not edited in any way
2. Viglink javascript intercepts clicks and adds an affiliate code when possible
3. Affiliate codes are not stripped or altered if they already exist
4. Copying links is unchanged<p>Before deploying this change, we tested it heavily to make sure we weren't doing anything that would be visible to the publisher or reader. The fact that it took 4 months for someone to really notice this is a testament to how unobtrusive it is.<p>Some people have commented that we should be sharing revenue back to the users. You are absolutely right. This is something we mentioned to Viglink at our very first meeting with them and something we will add when it's technically possible.<p>Admittedly, we should have announced this on our blog. This was definitely an oversight on our part. Our goal is to be 100% transparent with everything we do at Posterous, especially when it affects your blog and content.<p>From Posterous, we apologize. Going forward we will be sure to notify you of any changes we make to the site.<p>With regards to viglink: we really appreciate all your feedback and we're going to evaluate our use of the service going forward.<p>-Sachin
cofounder, posterous.com