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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

#91

Post by BeetleB »

coolso wrote: post #88
BeetleB wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you saying I should be giving them revenue for not being terribly open about the fact that they only review products which can earn them a commission It's right on the top of their front page: "Wirecutter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more."

You missed the key word "only" in my comment. Yes, they certainly make it clear they earn affiliate commission, which is fine. But what they do not make clear is the fact that they will totally ignore products that do not allow them to earn a commission, or at best, they will put them very far down on the list for some strange reason that doesn't really align with their explanation or lack thereof. This is very misle…

Do you have hard evidence for the "only" portion? Based on their response to NextDesk, they do review items for which they don't get a commission:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/our-response-to-nextdesk/

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#92

Post by asdff »

gommm wrote: post #78
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…

Having tested the DIY option versus some other air purifiers (xiaomi not levoit though), I do think that there are other considerations to take into account. A box fan with a HEPA filter bungee is loud and is very annoying to have at home. An air filter that is much less loud for the same result, can be controlled via home assistant (I have an ESP32 connected to a VOC sensor and a decent particle sensor that I use to…

How much did you spend all in for your air purifier and sensor setup? Looking to do something similar but I don't know where to start.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#93

Post by intro-b »

hauget wrote: post #73
intro-b wrote: post #63

I think there's still a niche for a Wirecutter-like site. But I don't know what it should look like, and how it should function without invasive affiliate advertising. I like reading high quality reviews of practical goods as well as more specialized things. Right now, I just Google search "name of product" + "reddit" and browse through threads to get a general consensus of a product.

Q: Would you trust, or find useful, thumbs up reviews from people you follow online? Say you could see a collection of stuff people endorse via Twitter/IG, would that be of value to you?

Kind of. The only issue is that I only use Twitter/IG for personal friends and not "influencer" level people.

I think some of kind of organized curation would be nice. For instance, I follow https://fivebooks.com/ a lot, which asks subject matter experts on their recommendation. Something like that for nice consumer goods would be cool.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#94

Post by ethbr0 »

karaterobot wrote: post #65
thesausageking wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty sensationalist article. Wirecutter doesn't hide the fact that they make money off of affiliate fees. Almost all content sites do. Are there better review websites than the Wirecutter? I've found them to be solid and helpful.

I like RTings, but they only review a limited selection of products. Consumer Reports is not what it used to be, and I always wonder if they're about to go out of business. I'm not aware of anything better, though I'd love to hear other people's recommendations. I have wondered if there is even a way to sustain an organization large enough to review a wide variety of products, and have a business model that does not…

> I have wondered if there is even a way to sustain an organization large enough to review a wide variety of products, and have a business model that does not raise questions about your motives or integrity.

Costs: {average number of new products released per unit of time} * {cost per product}

Revenue: {volume of purchases per unit of time} * {affiliate marketing per product purchased}

Advertising is probably difficult, due to the "Buy something other than what we recommend!" issue with advertising on review sites. Although I guess there are options for cross-selling.

I can't believe there are many products that makes sense for, without the Consumer Reports "Pay for the report" model. And even with it, the economics seem dubious, and I feel like you'd always be barely getting by.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#95

Post by whywhathow1990 »

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…

You are late to the party. There was a thread a while ago debunking some of the misinformation in that case https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22141719

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#96

Post by coolso »

newfonewhodis wrote: post #18
coolso wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying I should be giving them revenue for not being terribly open about the fact that they only review products which can earn them a commission, and that furthermore, they deserve revenue from me for recommending products I spent about $500 or more in total for, only for them all to have significant flaws?

I don't know what you are referring to but plenty of times they link directly to a retailers' website where they don't earn commissions. It's also a reasonable way for them to make money that isn't: 1. Invasive tracking 2. Nasty ads 3. Direct subscriptions Take your entitlement elsewhere.

> Take your entitlement elsewhere.

What are your thoughts regarding ad blocking? Specifically, do you also find people who use adblockers (I assume you don't use one of course) entitled?

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#97

Post by debaserab2 »

mindslight wrote: post #41
bobthechef wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 th…

I think you're waxing nostalgically about a time that wasn't nearly as good as you think it was. There's orders of magnitudes of more useful information on the internet today than there was decades ago. Yes, it's more often on platforms and not usually personal websites anymore, but there are still plenty of creators doing it out of passion, even if sometimes - but definitely not always - they also have financial incentive as well.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#98

Post by pjz »

UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #47
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.

As far as I'm concerned, America's Test Kitchen is the gold standard, with Consumer Reports just a little behind them.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#99

Post by elliekelly »

kfreds wrote: post #67
is_true wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think they didn't get money from them?

Mullvad: I know it for a fact, because I'm one of the founders. IVPN: I don't know it, but I've met Nick Pestell (the founder) several times, and he's told me they don't pay for reviews. I trust him.

I hope you enjoy the random cards of cash I send every month! I quite enjoy your product!

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#100

Post by ziml77 »

vineyardmike wrote: post #28
aurizon wrote: post #7

What are their current wages, and what are they offered, but have declined? I am unable to support or castigate unless I know what side is in error. We have seen the huge loss of first class mail starved the US Postal Service of $$, and now the decline in printed page journalism with the ease of access by all manner of fake news/blogs has starved the news papers of $$ - yet on the other hand there is a hedge fund buy…

They want $300k increase in wages - split across the 65 person team.

Are they making enough off Wirecutter to do that? I have no idea how much Wirecutter brought in this year versus previous years.
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