I’m not sure why you’re conflating curiosity with helping boingboing make money.
Just like I’m not sure how you managed to take my comment and read it as helping boingboing make money. All I did was enumerate a few experiments to run on the link-parsing algorithm.
Regular Amazon link, no affiliate code: https://www.amazon.com/Sluggy-Freelance-Not-Nifty-Book/dp/0966067657
Amazon e-mail shortened link: http://a.co/i9m2pIT
Alternative Amazon short link: http://amzn.com/0966067657
Bitly shortened link: http://amzn.to/2nKLP2J
Amazon Smile link, no affiliate code: https://smile.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventure-Hour-Ben-Acker/dp/1936393964/
Amazon e-mail shortened link: http://a.co/gWOv0Nf
Alternative Amazon short link: Can’t find how to create this link
Bitly shortened link: http://amzn.to/2p2cc49
Regular Amazon link, EFF affiliate code: https://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Be-Wizard/dp/015216250X?tag=electronicfro-20
Amazon e-mail shortened link: http://a.co/7YLVfdB
Alternative Amazon short link: http://amzn.com/015216250X?tag=electronicfro-20
Bitly shortened link: http://amzn.to/2nFdrFy
Amazon smile link, EFF affiliate code: https://smile.amazon.com/Picasso-Lapin-Agile-Other-Plays/dp/0802135234?tag=electronicfro-20
Amazon e-mail shortened link: http://a.co/bntljZf
Alternative Amazon short link: Can’t find how to create this link
Bitly shortened link: http://amzn.to/2o4BVv6
Results: Both regular Amazon and Amazon Smile links, long and short form, will have BoingBoing’s affiliate code appended to the link, over-writing an existing affiliate code if one exists. Short form Amazon links cannot be created for the Amazon Smile site. Amazon e-mail shortened links will respect regular Amazon vs Smile but do not carry any affiliate code information.
Conclusion: If you want to link to a product on Amazon in a way that both retains any existing affiliate codes, and allows linking the Amazon Smile site, you should use https://bitly.com/ to shorten the link.
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Thank you for doing the legwork! (I swear, I would’ve done it myself any other week…)
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