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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

#101

Post by [deleted] »

ethbr0 wrote: post #94
karaterobot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 difficu…

[deleted]

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#102

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

noneeeed wrote: post #75
donmcronald wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole affiliate marketing space is a dirty business. Saying affiliate relationship is just softer language for kickback IMO. The incentives are the same. I think all reviews with affiliate links should have to be labeled as paid promotion. This [1] sleepopolis saga is an amazing read if you’ve never seen it. 1. https://www.fastcompany.com/3065928/sleepopolis-casper-blogg...

We need a new mattress, after about half an hour of searching for reviews I realised that there was no way I was going to find any genuinely honest reviews anywhere. Search results are packed with full-time mattress review sites that are all clearly getting affiliate payments of some form or other, many of them seem to have the same content. There might be some honest ones out there, but they are drowned out by all t…

Maybe we should have like… a place you can go feel them in person. Like a building where there would be a few of each model and you can test them BEFORE you buy one?

/s. Mattress stores and mattress shopping is the fucking worst. Ultra scammy and there is a clear reason that the industry was turned upside down once someone figured out you can fit a mattress in a box and ship it.

The last time I went mattress shopping, I was told by serious and expert sleep professionals [sic] that I should get a mattress with embedded diamond particles because it’ll help keep me cool, and silver thread at the seams that will be more hygienic.

For what it’s worth, I took a chance on a mattress and love it. I have never slept somewhere I like better. It’s an Avacado, but buy whatever you can that has a real return policy and try it out.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#103

Post by humanistbot »

wolverine876 wrote: post #84

I'm surprised Consumer Reports isn't enormously popular here. It's not personal, engaging blog-style writing - it seems written to help the broadest possible audience, but it's the most technical research by far: They have actual domain experts, labs (well-resourced), scientific method, and loads of objective data - e.g., for bicycle helmets, they have human head/body models, put all the helmets on them (I'd guess 50…

> What is not to like?!

People don't like paying for things, especially when there is a free, easy, and legal alternative. I am a CR subscriber, and that $39/year fee was a hard thing for me to pay at first. But then I realized that is less than an hour of work at my salary, and I had already spent more than an hour trying to figure out which review sites were trustworthy.

I do find that they don't review everything in a category and can take a long time to review new products, which is frustrating but makes sense.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#106

Post by hogFeast »

_jal wrote: post #57
hogFeast wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is typically the case in Europe, where (unsurprisingly) unions are more common. In the US and the UK, you see more militant unions, more wildcat strikes, more picketing, etc. which is why union membership went through the floor (I am in the UK, we also have unions taking positions on climate change, on Israel/Palestine, they own the party in opposition and last year the most well-funded union leader attempted to…

> strikes are very much a first resort I'm going to guess you don't know any union members. Strikes are very hard on the strikers. You're suddenly taking no income but still putting in a shift on the picket line. Not only is there the real risk of the whole thing being net-negative, but you could lose your job entirely. And a lot of time, you only strike because you've been squeezed financially for so long, you may n…

That guess is incorrect.

And yes, as I explained but will repeat, strikes happen within a political/legal/cultural/economic context. In some contexts, that has increased the frequency of strikes. By your account, the proportion of strikes just relates to the financial position of the strikers...I don't know how it is possible to be aware of the history of trade unionism and come to that conclusion.

For example, individuals do not choose to strike. They vote for strike action in a ballot or there is a decision taken by an executive of the union. Exactly how this occurs has had a huge role in determining the frequency of strikes (if you look at the labour history of the UK, the lack of democratic process in important unions was a major reason why they went militant, why strikes increased, and eventually why unions fell into decline).

The specifics of your account of striking is mostly wrong too (for example, it is not always true that strikers are unpaid). Most people today do not understand how unions operate...this is related to the fact that they live in countries where the labour movement committed suicide, and they are left with militant unions that misrepresent how unions can actually work effectively (again, Europe is a perfect example of this, the militant behaviour of unions today is a function of their irrelevance in society, and that is 100% a function of the use of industrial action by militant unions).

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#107

Post by acomjean »

hoppyhoppy2 wrote: post #55
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Consumer Reports has a long history of subscriber-funded independent reviews. They refuse all advertising, free/discounted items, etc. to prevent conflicts of interest. They review everything from cars and lawnmowers to mattresses and electronics, but depending on what niche of electronics you're looking at they may or may not have the kind of reviews you're looking for. https://www.consumerreports.org

Available in many libraries.

They rate products in a bunch of categories using a table and a circle which would be various levels of full color depending on how a product rated. which meant sometimes you wouldn't just go to the highest rated if one part of the product scored lower in a category. Its an interesting data visualization method. Plus the table usually has specs too.

https://www.consumerreports.org/consumer-reports/we-put-ours...

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#108

Post by hogFeast »

aurizon wrote: post #76
hogFeast wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you own a paper, and revenue starts dropping 10% YoY for multiple years then you are going to need to put in place changes to the business, finances, corporate structure that most people who owned newspapers do not want to do. In some cases, this has been forced due to high levels of debt. But even in those cases, some change in operation is usually required because something has changed quite significantly. So yo…

Yes, I see, managing a declining business can be done profitably, and they might have other assets the fund will sell.

I think some newspaper groups in the US had TV stations. I know some newspaper groups that own printing works have tried to sell those too. But, generally, no. The reason to buy newspapers is using the cash flow to turn around the business (again, it is very unlikely that you will survive doing this as a public company, so there is a reason to sell to a privately-run distressed asset specialist).

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#109

Post by Cd00d »

donmcronald wrote: post #54
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…

The whole affiliate marketing space is a dirty business. Saying affiliate relationship is just softer language for kickback IMO. The incentives are the same. I think all reviews with affiliate links should have to be labeled as paid promotion. This [1] sleepopolis saga is an amazing read if you’ve never seen it. 1. https://www.fastcompany.com/3065928/sleepopolis-casper-blogg...

I don't understand the problem with affiliate links, esp in this case. Wirecutter's recommendations, budget pick, and also great items are often all through Amazon, which as the largest online retailer isn't suprising.

It isn't like they're recommending some brand over another because Amazon pays them for the click-through traffic. I don't see the kickback connection here.

That said, I largely like Wirecutter recs - but also do external research. When those things align I've almost always been very happy with my purchase.

Re: Wirecutter strike and boycott Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday

#110

Post by Cd00d »

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…

That's simply not true. I've bought products from Wirecutter recommendations that simply link a clean merchant url - no affiliate link.
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