Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[Hans25]

You already decided how you felt about me long before I came here to respond, so I'm not going to clog up this discussion thread with a meaningless back-and-forth.

If this is the best "argument" or defense you can come up with you have proven my point.

[asksol]

I agree with Hans here, I think posting affiliate links on a forum is questionable, especially if you don't disclose it.

On the other hand, maybe the resellers (like Uncle E) should disclose their affiliation more clearly as well

[SalemBeatsKVR]

You already decided how you felt about me long before I came here to respond, so I'm not going to clog up this discussion thread with a meaningless back-and-forth.

If this is the best "argument" or defense you can come up with you have proven my point.

It's pointless to argue with someone who has already made up his mind.
You've already decided how you feel, and no amount of logic will change a feeling.
Almost every discussion thread on the Internet ends up turning into a bitter argument, and it becomes an exhausting waste of time to actively read and participate in these arguments. When was the last time you've seen someone suddenly change their mind in the midst of a heated Internet argument? I know I've never seen it!
Hence, why I don't come to the "gossip" section often.

You seem to be claiming that my links aren't adding value,
but I haven't seen anyone else mention the Waves Silver sale I linked.
You also haven't pointed out a cheaper source anywhere else.
If you can find a better deal (aside from a license transfer), I'm up for hearing it!

maybe the resellers (like Uncle E) should disclose their affiliation more clearly as well

If you pay close attention, you'll notice that ~80%+ of the posts in the Bargain Center are posted by developers, resellers, and affiliates. I don't have a problem with this. I've bought from JRRShop, MeldaProduction, and miscellaneous affiliates when I felt that the deal was a good one. No biggie to me, at least. YMMV.

-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)

[Hans25]

It's pointless to argue with someone who has already made up his mind.
You've already decided how you feel, and no amount of logic will change a feeling.

This is the most pathetic excuse I have ever read. Where did I post, that I have "made up my mind"? No, what I was waiting for was that you hopefully had a good explanation but you haven't.
You don't want to go into a discussion because you simply hasn't got any arguments. What I have stated about how you post in the bargains only thread is simply a fact.

If you pay close attention, you'll notice that ~80%+ of the posts in the Bargain Center are posted by developers, resellers, and affiliates.

Exactly and that's what the thread is for. Not for people obstructing the thread reposting bargains, linking to more expensive offers, giving misinformation about the value of a bargain, making the post fill the whole screen to get attention, not for someone pretending to be a private user, when he is not but just advertising to earn money from links etc. etc.

What Uncle E. and developers/other resellers do is just to post their own bargain. Uncle E. follows the rules. If someone posted a bargain, he doesn't repost it. And he always posts the best offers inspite of you, that only want's people to click your links to earn you money. Uncle E. has an offer that is interesting for potential buyers. You don't care about that. You only care about people clicking your links. What you are doing is notting better than questionable sites, that want you to click their links to earn some money. You definitely underestimate people, if you don't think your real intentions are clear for everyone.

[SalemBeatsKVR]

This is the most pathetic excuse I have ever read. Where did I post, that I have "made up my mind"? No, what I was waiting for was that you hopefully had a good explanation but you haven't.

The evidence that you've made in your mind lies in the fact that the Waves bundle I posted:

- Is the lowest price available from a reseller, and
- Hasn't been mentioned by anyone else in the Bargain Center.

You've steered clear of mentioning these facts in your dispute with me.

You're just rationalizing your pre-conceived distaste for me, which seems to be founded on your first impressions of some of the offers I linked.
Some of the first offers I posted may have been duplicates, as I hadn't seen that you can search individual threads until I had been posting for a while (You have to be logged in to see the search bar, and I'm not always logged in). These days, I make sure to log in first and hit "search" before posting an offer - that's how I know that nobody else has posted the offer I did on Waves Silver.

Furthermore, I post product descriptions so that people have an idea of whether they want to click and check out the deal further. If I really just wanted to fish for more clicks, I'd do the opposite of what I'm doing and leave the description off, so that people would have to click to find out more information.
Why do I do this?
Well, YMMV, but I know that when I visit the Bargain Center with cash to burn, I'm browsing a bunch of products that I might not be too familiar with. It's different from when I know that I'll need "Plugin XYZ" and I'm doing a Google search for it to find the lowest price. Hence, when I see a deal, I like to see a brief summary before I click - it saves me a lot of time and cuts down on the number of tabs I have open.

Like I said earlier:
Nothing I say, no matter how logical, will change how you feel.

-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)

[Fleer]

On the other hand, maybe the resellers (like Uncle E) should disclose their affiliation more clearly as well

Which is what Uncle E clearly does, using the JRR Shop logo.

[mchannemann]

Or to be spotted at his logo which is JRR...
People shouldn't have a go a people who clearly did not make a thing wrong on their end...

[Hans25]

The evidence that you've made in your mind lies in the fact that the Waves bundle I posted
If you had JUST posted the bargain as an offer for the silver bundle from normal bundle price to the offer price, then this conversation wouldn't exist. No what you did (if you some how forgot) was writing:

Includes:

- C1 Compressor (Reg. $150)
- DeEsser (Reg. $100)
- Doubler (Reg. $150)
- Enigma (Reg. $100)
- IR-L Convolution Reverb (Reg. $250)
- L1 Ultramaximizer (Reg. $200)
- MaxxBass (Reg. $150)
- MondoMod (Reg. $100)
- PAZ Analyzer (Reg. $150)
- Q10 Equalizer (Reg. $100)
- Renaissance Axx (Reg. $75)
- Renaissance Compressor (Reg. $150)
- Renaissance Equalizer (Reg. $150)
- S1 Stereo Imager (Reg. $150)
- SuperTap (Reg. $100)
- TrueVerb (Reg. $150)

By my calculations, that's $2,225 worth of software for $156.

Didn't you sum the individual plugin prices to make the offer look better than it is (so you could get your infamous clicks)? Didn't you post every plugin in the bundle, though this isn't doing anything than spamming and filling the screen out (on purpose off course)? I wonder what you would have done if it was the Mercury bundle?

- Is the lowest price available from a reseller, and
- Hasn't been mentioned by anyone else in the Bargain Center.
You've steered clear of mentioning these facts in your dispute with me.

The point is, that just because you once in your lifetime make a post, that actually has the best offer, doesn't mean that you get carte blanche for the 99 times you don't do it. And certainly not when you mislead people to think the bargain is better than it is. Furthermore the Silverbundle has just been on sale a few weeks ago, but when you make sum the price of the single waves, you try to make it look like something exceptional. Even Waves post the bundle before price and not the individual prices when they compare a bundle that has gone on sale.

Some of the first offers I posted may have been duplicates, as I hadn't seen that you can search individual threads until I had been posting for a while (You have to be logged in to see the search bar, and I'm not always logged in). These days, I make sure to log in first and hit "search" before posting an offer

You hadn't seen the posts two posts above your own? And you didn't get tempted to post your post at all, when you know that that will make you some money? Do you think people were born yesterday or what?

If I really just wanted to fish for more clicks, I'd do the opposite of what I'm doing and leave the description off, so that people would have to click to find out more information.

Oh my God. We have a real hero here. Only posting to help people! Everybody know that if you just post a link and nothing else, it would be considered directly as spam. And even you know that this wouldn't work. So that's another stupid excuse. It's so clear that the point is to persuade people to click for the sake of the clicking and nothing else. And you are just shamelessly sticking to your silly explanations.

[jsp1979]

Posting affiliate links without disclosure is bad form (*if* that's what's going on here). I've seen it shot down before at KVR although a mod would need to clarify if it's actually against the rules.

These other people are linking to *their own sites* so there's no deception (for lack of a better word) going on.

Even if KVR has no rule against it, you probably aren't going to win many fans around here if you do that. Joining KVR basically to post links to earn money off of the clicks doesn't strike me as contributing much to the community.

Others may disagree.

[SalemBeatsKVR]

Joining KVR basically to post links to earn money off of the clicks doesn't strike me as contributing much to the community.

Others may disagree.

I joined KVR initially to buy plugins from individual sellers in the Marketplace and have only recently been posting deal I've come across in the Bargain Center (search my username).

Cheers!

-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)

[jsp1979]

An easy question: When people click on your links (and possibly buy the product), do you make any money from that?

[asksol]

mchannemann, I don't have a go at anyone, I was using UncleE as an example of a reseller not as an example of someone
who is hiding their affiliation.

I don't really look at avatars though, so using that may not be so obvious for everyone.

[Hans25]

An easy question: When people click on your links (and possibly buy the product), do you make any money from that?

Look:

I have a financial interest in promoting plugin sales, just as many of the other frequent posters in the Bargain Center

If he didn't get any money by redirecting using his link-"service" then he wouldn't be doing it.

When you click his link you will get redirected to:
http://ez-link.us/waves-silver-deal

As far as I have read bitly.com has taken ocer ez-link. At least you get redirected to bitly if you put ez-link in. This service is for advertising with linking, so either SalemBeats has his own account or he is loggin into one, and get's a fee everytime someone get's directed through that service. That's how I think it works.

[SalemBeatsKVR]

An easy question: When people click on your links (and possibly buy the product), do you make any money from that?

Look:

I have a financial interest in promoting plugin sales, just as many of the other frequent posters in the Bargain Center

If he didn't get any money by redirecting using his link-"service" then he wouldn't be doing it.

And if Uncle E. (as an example, not trying to point out anyone in particular, but he comes to mind since he posts so often) didn't get any money by directing traffic to his site, he wouldn't be doing it either.

So...

Where's the rub?

With virtual goods like electronically-delivered software, there's basically no difference between an affiliate and a reseller. Depending on how distribution is handled, they're different terms for what amounts to essentially the same thing (albeit with some different API calls).

Are you telling me that you'd be perfectly fine with me promoting the exact same deals as a commercial "reseller"?

Finally, I agree that there's value in an affiliate disclosure when you're posting your opinion of a product,
because under those circumstances, your relationship to the company might affect your review.
However, if you're simply stating the facts about a deal,
like I posted about the Waves Bundle (Product + Description + Price),
this isn't really relevant.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the best deal out there.
If it turns out that it isn't, well - I posted this on a public forum, so you can correct me if I'm wrong.

-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)

[Hans25]

And if Uncle E. (as an example, not trying to point out anyone in particular, but he comes to mind since he posts so often) didn't get any money by directing traffic to his site, he wouldn't be doing it either.

So...

Where's the rub?

Uncle E. makes advertisement. His is employed by JRR-shop. He doesn't get any fees by people clicking his links. Maybe he get's a fee if someone actually buys something (I don't know). People can contact him by PM if they want to deal or go to the JRR-shop. Uncle E. hasn't got a greedy linking business, spamming the forum. He actually has the best service and prices and he is kind too.

YOU are NOT a reseller. And you are NOT a developer. I respect developers that have the intelligence to either develop good products or resellers that runs a business-shop and gives a good service and good prices. Your way of servicing could just as well be like a penis-enlargement mail in my spamfilter.

Are you telling me that you'd be perfectly fine with me promoting the exact same deals as a commercial "reseller"?

You ARE a seller. People just don't get any benefit from you. Like if someone by mistake clicks a link for fake-viagra, someone earns money but the only benefit is for the link-provider.
You are pretending to be a private person but instead you are making money by misleading people with reposted bargains and with offers often worse than the first bargain posts. Now that's what I call exploiting people for money.