Testing... Autolinker... Testing...

[Derek]

We're been working the past little while on trying to generate a bit more revenue (to pay for increasing costs...) in an unobtrusive manner to everyone who uses RFD. We've come up with a script that will automatically add the RFD affiliate link to keywords when they are posted in the forums.

We're just testing it right now with just a couple keywords including:

Amazon.ca
Amazon
Amazon.ca's
Amazon's

CanadianTire.ca
CanadianTire.com
Canadian Tire

Chapters.Indigo.ca
Chapters.Indigo
Chapters
Indigo

Netlink
NCIX
NCIX.com

I just wanted to make this post so no one is shocked by their posts being automatically linked. Also, if anyone spots any bugs or problems with them could they please let me know by sending an e-mail to suggest@redflagdeals.com or just replying in this thread?

Thanks for your continued support of RFD!

Derek

[jerryhung]

Is this post itself supposed be searched & ad'ed as well?
Because I don't see any links =p

Hee hee, this is like Gmail, kinda of

Supporting RFD, go go go !!

[Carnage]

It's not working right now.

However it has been before.

If you read the "how did you find RFD" thread there's a few posts where we discovered that Amazon was turning into an affiliate link.

Edit: Worked for my reply at least, but not your thread post.

[Derek]

Hmm... that is strange... not sure why...

Chapters ... amazon

[Carnage]

Is it not turned on for admin/mods?

Chapters , Amazon ?

Edit: Seems to be picky about the word having no puncuation on either side of it,etc.

[NDman]

Depending on how the script is written, I see a potential problem. e.g. These chapters in that book is blah blah blah, amazon (the jungle). Well, those are the only 2 I can think of. Not that it'll cause a chaos by any mean. It'll probably make people go "WTH?" for a brief second upon seeing the post

[edit: the word "Chapters" doesn't seem to trigger the autolink]

[edit 2:... or it does... but like Carnage observed, no punctuations besides it

[mtevel]

I was just about to post a new thread as a suggestion for MODs to have the functionallity built in that if a member were to enter a website in a post that RFD automatically links it (ie underlines it and makes it an active link... without the member having to click on the ;INSERT HYPERLINK' button)....

[NDman]

Seems like the autolink is pretty much up and running. But I noticed in this Hot Deals thread that the autolink to the NCIX affiliate link doesn't work (as of 12:20pm EST anyway)

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/showthread.php?t=114827

[Ryan]

It is fixed now.

[Derek]

Everything should be smooth now. Regarding punctuation, we'd have to enter the keyword as 'Amazon?' I believe...

[re:load]

hey cool let me try:

amazon amazon AMAZON 'amazon'

[re:load]

so if you italicize, bold or underline the word, it will not link. Also, the case is automatically adjusted when it does link. the 1st and 3rd "amazons" were different case heights, the 1st being all lower case, the second all upper.

[sledbc]

Could you please provide a user option to disable this feature? It implies that we personally support a particular company where we might not. If I am going to order something from, say ncix I have no problem using the RFD affiliate link, but would personally rather not have these links auto-inserted into our posts. eg. if we post a complaint about Amazon's service it appears that we would like others to order from them by providing a link to order from them in our post.

[Derek]

Hi,

This isn't something that can be enabled and disabled on an invidividual basis as we'd have to do a lot more programming work to integrate those type of options and into the interface of vBulletin.

I think once everyone realizes that certain words are automatically linked there should be very little confusion about whether you support a company or not. Furthermore, you can still post links to Amazon.ca or any other retailer and their products as normal. The autolinking will only send users to the generic home page of the site and not to a particular product page.

Could you please provide a user option to disable this feature? It implies that we personally support a particular company where we might not. If I am going to order something from, say ncix I have no problem using the RFD affiliate link, but would personally rather not have these links auto-inserted into our posts. eg. if we post a complaint about Amazon's service it appears that we would like others to order from them by providing a link to order from them in our post.

On another note, we've added another set of keywords to the ones above.

[Derek]

so if you italicize, bold or underline the word, it will not link. Also, the case is automatically adjusted when it does link. the 1st and 3rd "amazons" were different case heights, the 1st being all lower case, the second all upper.

Hmm... this I think we'll probably look into.