Discussions » Creation Requests

($??) for a script that helps block or warn about sites/blogs that use affiliate marketing ❤

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Posted: 2017-04-02

($??) for a script that helps block or warn about sites/blogs that use affiliate marketing ❤

Ok, bear with me, this is a little long. Sorry!

Basically I have an idea, that I think would be extremely beneficial to those of us who are starting to go crazy trying to avoid all these stupid affiliate marketers & blogs that are just peddling crap because they get paid to. It could either work by blocking the results in a search (on the major search engines) or by at least putting an icon/banner/pop-up or something that warns you that a result comes from a site that participates in affiliate marketing. Or both. Also an alert could pop up when you are on a site like that as well. I know Ghostery is similar, but as far as I know, it doesn't really do this specific thing. It seems to block tracking, widgets & modules. I want to base this blocking system on a database of companies & possibly their tactics, links, & tools. (in that way, it's very similar.)

I can't write scripts yet, but I imagine it would work something like this:
-Compiling a list of keywords that together meet criteria for blocking (such as "disclaimer" or "affiliate links", or "honest unbiased opinion" lol - just for example)
-Compiling a database of the affiliate marketing companies, websites, domains & tools (probably also updating this occasionally)
-Checking for any links that point to said websites & flagging a site based on that
-Also probably needs to have a link un-shortener/decrypter (link shortening is one of their most used tactics to avoid being filtered/blocked/removed, as well as to track you)
-Probably other things, too, this is just the beginning of the idea & a dream I desperately want to achieve.
-Bonus would be a feature for stripping referral links (with a whitelist option) so that stupid content farm websites that aren't run by real people, and don't contain real content, do not earn those d-bags anything from my purchase if I happen to make one. They didn't do anything to earn that....

I think this is our next step in ad blocking/fighting on the web. I would certainly be stoked to eventually see an Adblock+ addon (like the element hiding helper, for example) or possibly even a regular FF/Chrome addon that does this. Or even better, maybe Ghostery would be interested in the idea, especially if we are able to implement it in some way first. Maybe we/you could even sell it to them!

I would be helping by attempting to collect the data needed. I think this would be an invaluable tool & personally it would reduce some of my stress & rage (something I really seriously need). :P
I'm fed up with this. There is no argument anyone can make to me that will ever get me to believe it is or ever was a good thing, and that it is all not just bullshit & lies, advertising in disgusting disguise. That it's not pretending to be an opinion or legit recommendation when it's so obviously not.

I don't know how much time or work this would take, so I don't know what I should be offering here. I would prefer, obviously, for it to be a joint project, but if I have to pay someone, I am not opposed. Just keep in mind that I'm disabled & don't have much. :) Thanks for your consideration/time! Please let me know if you're interested! Or let me know if I have somehow completely managed to overlook a tool that already exists to do this. I tried pretty hard to search, but just got nothing but guides on how to actually do affiliate marketing & it was extremely frustrating. I gave up and came here instead, hoping against hope that maybe someone out there shares my pain, too. ❤❤❤

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Posted: 2017-04-03

There seem to be three elements:

(1) An extension or script that marks or hides crappy links based on a list, and
(2) An enormous list of crappy sites hosted somewhere, and
(3) Some way to build and maintain the list

My script "Google Hit Hider" lets each user compile a personal block list of sites they want hidden in their search results, but it doesn't have any component related to sharing the list or expanding it with contributions by others. Someone could probably add those things so people could use and contribute community reputation information. Saying that makes me think of WOT (and the grief that came from bad privacy practices). I think it's something others will need to build; my script is open source if anyone wants to use the code.

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/gm/google-hit-hider/
https://www.mywot.com/

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