Is there a better option to Honey? The extension has saved me a good bit of money over the years, especially on newer and independent sites that sometimes offer deep discounts for your first order. But it does seem like the coupon codes come from the community and there should be a community version of the extension.
uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
411–420 of 469 posts
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#412Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems the voucher codes they 'find' are not the result of them searching the Web. They are simply codes provided by partnered businesses and may be beaten by codes you can get by searching yourself. If true, then this is them outright lying to the user. And you know, if they don't find a coupon code for you, one might still be at least a little annoyed that the original 'salesman' didn't get their affiliate commis…
I think in addition to the coupon thing, they had/have some cash back points? In any case, as someone who filters affiliate links, I can't understand why anyone would want to preserve them. Making them useless by having the user's browser automatically inject one seems like an awesome feature and a great social good, even without the user getting part of it. Affiliate programs are a direct cause of a lot of the spam…
Yeah, they pass on 80 cents of the $35 commission they get from Nord VPN when they hijack someone else's affiliate link. And it's 80 cents in "points." So you have to spend more to even use those.
It's a scam in partnership with the on-line shops. The consumer loses, the reviewer using affiliate links loses, and it turns out the extension goes further by occasionally making up discounts that don't exist (this will be in the next video it seems), so the seller gets screwed, too!
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#413Pie also removed its footer reference to being the team that made Honey and then deleted all of the team photos from the who are we page. They seem to understand cookies and affiliate links well but aren’t versed in the way back machine. The ethical standards of everyone involved with Honey/Pie are deplorable and they should be outcast from the software industry.
Great find. I noticed the photos disappeared yesterday, but didn't catch that footer reference change.
Sadly, Ryan Hudson knows how to play the game and Pie (with its charming .org domain) is on a roll --- already hit 1M downloads just 9 months after its launch and grown to 10+ Engineers/20+ employees.
Shameless.
On the bright side, LegalEagle also called out Pie in the video. Hopefully that'll help shine a light on them.
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#414Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait what? :) Are you proposing that amazon should have a “give me a discount on my purchase” check-box on their checkout page? Why would anyone not click that? And if people would click it why would anyone share affiliate links of amazon? That would completely undermine the incentive structure of the whole structure. > Which would be win for everyone. Except of course the content creators. It would not be a win for…
They would still get cut from those who choose to support them this way. Rest of the people would get discount. There seems to be plenty of people who click affiliate links so creators get money. Those same people would still give the cut to them wouldn't they? Or then just ban the whole scam.
> Those same people would still give the cut to them wouldn't they?
It is a very different proposition. In the current practice you get the product for the same price as everyone else and the creator gets a small slice of the shop's profit. In the system you are proposing where you could decide to pocket the money it would feel like you are giving the money out of your own pocket to the creator. It literally would make the product more expensive for you to purchase if you decide to not take the discount but give it to the creator. It would feel like charity with weird extra steps and a middle man.
Sure, some people would do it. I guess there are turbo-fans everywhere. But the income from affiliate links would collapse dramatically. Because if there is a button to get a discount easy then people will push the button to get the discount. They will justify it to themselves however they want it.
> Or then just ban the whole scam.
Ban as in with government force? Or ban as in the online shop decides to not engage in affiliate marketing anymore?
The first: ok? Why? I'm not that fussed about it, but I'm also not seeing why this would be a good policy. Or what exactly you want to ban for that matter.
The second: Presumably the webshops made their own calculations that they earn more money with affiliate marketing than without. I don't know how one would do that, but I assume they are not just doing it out of inertia, or goodness of their hearth.
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the wonderful part: you don't need to have accepted the deal or even have heard of Homey to be affected. There are some decently sized channels in that comment section of the class action That had no relationship with homey sulking about how othrt deals they took were in danger because of seemingly low click through rates.. And it's effect isn't limited to YouTubers. Y ou don't need have been socially engineer…
>you don't need to have accepted the deal or even have heard of Homey to be affected no you at the very least needed to install the addon for it to swap out your browser cookies. >And it's effect isn't limited to YouTubers the reason for the lawsuit based on financial damages very much does only effect them, the people who have referral programs which aren't the audience. ofc it also effects youtuber who didn't have…
> ofc it also affects YouTubers who didn't have a deal with honey
Yes, that was my primary point. And It may hurt them even more.
e.g If you're a tech YouTuber and Marquee took a deal, odds are you will feel the effects more than he would a A multimillionaire and industry known influencer. Because you'll probably have a huge overlapping audience with him.
Also, remember that a honey spent billions advertising this. I doubt this level of budget was limited only to YouTubers. Plenty of Instagram and TikTok and Twitter influencers to target.
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is excessive. Any fool taking legal advice from pseudonymous internet comments is getting what they paid for.
Ok. Got it. Next time, I'll leave probably false legal advice unchallenged.
It's fine and good to disagree with/challenge wrong comments. But you don't need to do this meta commentary cautioning the mere act of commenting. If Sephr is wrong, just say that!
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#417Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do we know when Honey started stealing affiliate links? Was it after the acquisition?
Before, this is how ALL coupon sites/extensions have worked for decades. I'm frankly baffled it weren't more common knowledge, despite being common sense, before the MegaLag video. Did people really think that sites like retailmenot.com or wethrift.com make you open tabs to the shop you're searching for coupons for before you can see the coupon code just for fun?? Affiliate code stuffing is the coupon provider busine…
All the YT creators are making a stink about this because surprise surprise, honey was stealing from them, not their viewers.
It's one of those open secrets that most youtube-peddled services are predatory in some way, and the creators happily kept pushing them on to their viewers because money talks. Now it turns out Honey is hurting their own bottom lines, so of course they all get on their moral high horses.
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#418I know it’s not necessarily the same people, but it feels contradictory for this community to say “copyright infringement isn’t theft” when we’re talking about movies, but use the opposite language when talking about GPL source code.
A community is made up of individuals who each hold their own potentially conflicting opinions.
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#419I know it’s not necessarily the same people, but it feels contradictory for this community to say “copyright infringement isn’t theft” when we’re talking about movies, but use the opposite language when talking about GPL source code.
Movie copyright violation: more people than intended can see the movie. GPL violation: less people than intended can see the code.
Isn’t this the difference between MIT and GPL?
Re: uBlock Origin GPL code being stolen by team behind Honey browser extension
#420Strange, an addon that was written to steal income by replacing affiliate links with their own, is found to also steal the code.
The headline says the team stole code, not that they stole it for Honey.