On a serious note the only nitpick I have is that disclosure is ugly/not-nice-looking. For example I think the way Yahoo handles it on mobile is concise, not distracting, and looks nice (haha, yes I still sometimes go to yahoo :D). But that’s just like my opinion, man. 
Oh, so your new quickly formed opinion has replaced your prior hastily grasped at opinion?
Oh, so now you’re ganging up on them!
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For the record I would like to be paid to be in this thread, shall I just invoice you?
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Here here! I accept dogecoin, pinecones (FedEx only), and haiku.
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The benefit of not getting today off is that I too am getting paid for being in this thread.
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Are you talking about @Skeptic’s comparison to Godwin’s Law or your own comparison to Gamergaters?
Whatever the intended reference was, it’s not to be confused with this sort of non-twisting, good faith argumentation/observation.
(Unless there are a lot more people on BB’s payroll, I counted three paid employees posting and 11 viewers.)
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Endorsement + payment = paid endorsement.
Affiliate links are clearly paid endorsements. Hence why they are specifically included in the FTC Endorsement Guidelines FAQ.
[quote=“FTC Endorsement Guidelines FAQ”]I’m an affiliate marketer with links to an online retailer on my website. When people click on those links and buy something from the retailer, I earn a commission. What do I have to disclose? Where should the disclosure be?
Let’s assume that you’re endorsing a product or service on your site and you have links to a company that pays you commissions on sales. If you disclose the relationship clearly and conspicuously on your site, readers can decide how much weight to give your endorsement. In some instances, where the link is embedded in the product review, a single disclosure may be adequate. When the product review has a clear and conspicuous disclosure of your relationship – and the reader can see both the product review and the link at the same time – readers have the information they need. If the product review and the link are separated, the reader may lose the connection.
As for where to place a disclosure, the guiding principle is that it has to be clear and conspicuous. Putting disclosures in obscure places– for example, buried on an ABOUT US or GENERAL INFO page, behind a poorly labeled hyperlink or in a terms of service agreement – isn’t good enough. The average person who visits your site must be able to notice your disclosure, read it and understand it. [/quote]
Obscure placement, such as buried in a PRIVACY POLICY, as Boing Boing is doing, “isn’t good enough.”
I get that it might not feel like you are making a paid endorsement when you honestly recommend a product and add an affiliate link, but materially, that’s what it is. Endorsements are legally required to be honest, so that aspect of your recommendation isn’t materially different from any other kind of endorsement.
[quote=“FTC Endorsement Guidelines”]
§ 255.1 General considerations.
(a) Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser. [/quote]
Your satirical posts with affiliate links that are not endorsements may still count as advertisements that need to be disclosed.
I don’t have a problem with affiliate links, I have a problem with lack of clear disclosure that causes consumer confusion.
Does lack of disclosure happen elsewhere? Certainly. Is that a valid reason for BB not to have clear and conspicuous disclosure that’s trivially easy to do? No.
I, for one, will be certain to count them that way.
OH, WAIT.
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“You’re not understanding, are you? You’re refusing to deal with what I’m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.”
“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”
“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?”
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If you really were surprised by this you may want to change your username to “Skeptic-in-training” or “Wannabe-Skeptic.”
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Endorsement + payment = paid endorsement.
Tell us on what basis you dispute that simple fact.
No, I’d have to change it to “Cynic”. Not willing to go there, yet.
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my personal take:
When you buy a product, review it, and link to it, then that is not advertising, to me. But if you’re setting up a revenue stream based on that link, then that is something in-between an unbiased post and an ad, and something I’d like to see disclosed. A link in the footer to a blanket statement comes across as hiding it. I’m not angry about any of this, I’m just calling it as I see it. Although, if I was one of those in that thread that bought the VPN because they trusted Mark’s post was his opinion rather than an endorsement deal, I probably would be angry.
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ps- if we’re going to have radical transparency, I think we should try to guess how much dough Xeni has been making off of that 55gallon drum of lube in each holiday guide.
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We’ll, it would be rather funny if she actually did take the time to optimistically make that an affiliate link 
–Holy cynical, but sort of funny, bullshit, it is!!!
Even as a Boing Boing regular I genuinely did not know the enormous extent to which BB uses affiliate links, Rob’s claims of “loud and proud” disclosure not withstanding.
Using an affiliate link for a $1,300, industrial-sized drum of lube is the kind of thing I’d expect Boing Boing to make fun of, not do. As in “Blog thinks readers are actually going to buy a 55 gallon drum of lube - uses affiliate link” or some such.
Anyone who visits Amazon through your affiliate link, even to a jokey ridiculous product, and then buys something else in the same visit – that is still an affiliate purchase and will result in a credit to your affiliate account.
I have affiliate linked a ton of stuff on my blog since 2004 and never heard a complaint in a decade. With no disclaimers about it, either, other than the fact that there are some visible ads on the page.
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I’d say “never heard a complaint” isn’t the same as “disclosures are unnecessary.” People can’t complain about what they don’t know is happening, such as your making money off of the undisclosed affiliate links. Reminds me of that guy selling dodgy parachutes, “Nobody’s ever come back to complain.” Which surely must mean they never fail!
Also, if you are an Amazon Associate, you are required by Amazon to disclose your affiliation on your website. You can get banned from the Associate Program for failure to do so, though it doesn’t seem to happen often.
If people see visible ads on the page, they assume you are making money from their visit. Affiliate links are hardly a stretch at that point.
In general the rise of free, free to play, and ad subsidized everything is just accepted and assumed these days. The vast, vast majority of people are OK with ads and affiliates on everything, provided it means they get a “free” app or game or website or service.
