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Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

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Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#41

Post by mindslight »

bobthechef wrote: post #32
mindslight wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Affiliate links are a cancer along with the rest of the advertising-surveillance industry, and it's best to avoid contributing however you can. I do all my product research with a different nym (separate browser VM and IP address) from what I actually login and checkout with. In general the web was at its best decades ago, when people published because they knew things and were internally compelled to share. Despite…

"In general the web was at its best decades ago, when people published because they knew things and were internally compelled to share." What does this mean, "internally compelled"? If someone is providing systematic reviews of products, it takes time and resources to do so. Why would they do this for free?

I mean when someone's motivation comes from what they themselves are interested in and their wanting to pass along their knowledge to help others, as opposed to say the external incentive of being financially compensated. I know this seems completely foreign in this age of played out incentives, but such publishing used to be quite common before independent sites were drowned out by webspam. You'd do a search, dig through a few pages of results, and hit upon an information-dense (likely plain text) site of someone thoroughly geeking out about your topic.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#42

Post by callmeal »

soared wrote: post #5
coolso wrote: post #2

Wirecutter is essentially just a glorified, prettified Amazon affiliate link aggregator anyway. I have tried so many of their recommendations - always making sure not to click the affiliate links directly - and been burned or at the very least disappointed more than enough times, that at this point I just use their site as a starting guide, and then make sure not to actually buy their recommended pick if at all possi…

If you’re reading their content why wouldn’t you click their affiliate links? You’re costing them server hours and purposefully not giving them revenue despite it costing you nothing.

>If you’re reading their content why wouldn’t you click their affiliate links?

Because they blackmail companies into affiliate revenue with the threat of "unrecommending" their products. See: https://www.xdesk.com/wirecutter-standing-desk-review-pay-to...

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#43

Post by Cd00d »

karaterobot wrote: post #16
bryan0 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve found their recommendations to be pretty good in general. What products were you disappointed by? If both they and CR are in agreement it’s a pretty good bet.

I've gotten good recommendations from Wirecutter, but also very bad ones. I bought their recommended coffee machine, and it's $200, and no better than the $30 Mr. Coffee it replaced (except, I guess, in the referral fee they get). They also recommend an air purifier by Levoit, which performed demonstrably worse than a box fan with a HEPA filter bungee corded on to it[1]. In fairness, Wirecutter recommended a cheaper…

I have their recommended coffee machine (OXO Barista Brain), and have loved it for over 3 years. I recommend it to everyone I know that likes drip coffee as much as I do.

If you were so happy with a $30 Mr. Coffee, what even compelled you to spend $200??

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#44

Post by solarkraft »

callmeal wrote: post #37

Wirecutter is a pay-to-play operation. I stopped heeding their recommendations after I discovered that they were aggressively persuing kickbacks and refusing to review products that do not pay. See https://www.xdesk.com/wirecutter-standing-desk-review-pay-to... for example. Also note that wirecutter in their response do not deny this but try to weasel out by claiming that the word 'kickback' was misleading. https://w…

Oh shit. I used to consider them to be one of the most reputable sources.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#45

Post by errantspark »

bobthechef wrote: post #32
mindslight wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Affiliate links are a cancer along with the rest of the advertising-surveillance industry, and it's best to avoid contributing however you can. I do all my product research with a different nym (separate browser VM and IP address) from what I actually login and checkout with. In general the web was at its best decades ago, when people published because they knew things and were internally compelled to share. Despite…

"In general the web was at its best decades ago, when people published because they knew things and were internally compelled to share." What does this mean, "internally compelled"? If someone is providing systematic reviews of products, it takes time and resources to do so. Why would they do this for free?

I think there's truth to the nostalgia-goggles view here.

I think the early internet:

- was a more distinctly bounded subset of individuals - now it's closer to a random sampling of humans

- had less "background monetary radiation" so there was far less incentive to make low value content

- content spread mostly by human -> human interaction so the bar for something being shared and consequently your likelyhood of seeing it was set higher

It feels like the signal to noise ratio was significantly better as a combination of those things. This sort of product-shilling was less profitable. Also in general the profitability vector being "people click the buy link" vs "people's continued trust in my expertise" influences the sort of content that's created.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#46

Post by f0e4c2f7 »

solarkraft wrote: post #44
callmeal wrote: post #37

Wirecutter is a pay-to-play operation. I stopped heeding their recommendations after I discovered that they were aggressively persuing kickbacks and refusing to review products that do not pay. See https://www.xdesk.com/wirecutter-standing-desk-review-pay-to... for example. Also note that wirecutter in their response do not deny this but try to weasel out by claiming that the word 'kickback' was misleading. https://w…

Oh shit. I used to consider them to be one of the most reputable sources.

Oh no! I did as well.

Who is the current honest broker of product reviews?

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#47

Post by UI_at_80x24 »

callmeal wrote: post #37

Wirecutter is a pay-to-play operation. I stopped heeding their recommendations after I discovered that they were aggressively persuing kickbacks and refusing to review products that do not pay. See https://www.xdesk.com/wirecutter-standing-desk-review-pay-to... for example. Also note that wirecutter in their response do not deny this but try to weasel out by claiming that the word 'kickback' was misleading. https://w…

Is there any site that you do use now for recommendations? In the game of capitalism it seems everybody becomes a sell-out.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#48

Post by mikestew »

Cd00d wrote: post #43
karaterobot wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gotten good recommendations from Wirecutter, but also very bad ones. I bought their recommended coffee machine, and it's $200, and no better than the $30 Mr. Coffee it replaced (except, I guess, in the referral fee they get). They also recommend an air purifier by Levoit, which performed demonstrably worse than a box fan with a HEPA filter bungee corded on to it[1]. In fairness, Wirecutter recommended a cheaper…

I have their recommended coffee machine (OXO Barista Brain), and have loved it for over 3 years. I recommend it to everyone I know that likes drip coffee as much as I do. If you were so happy with a $30 Mr. Coffee, what even compelled you to spend $200??

If you were so happy with a $30 Mr. Coffee...

Parent never said that, and they're obviously not happy with the Mr. Coffee if they're willing to spend $200 on a coffee maker...which, BTW, better do a better job than a $30 coffee maker.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#50

Post by ev1 »

f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #46
solarkraft wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh shit. I used to consider them to be one of the most reputable sources.

Oh no! I did as well. Who is the current honest broker of product reviews?

Anything that contains affiliate, referral, or commission links I do not trust.
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