Pi Hole killing RFD (Affiliated links fix)

I don't think we've changed anything with our links recently. Have you tried whitelisting our website?

There's a specific deal URL field in Hot Deals so it's not a requirement for posters to add the URL to the post body as well.

TomRFD wrote: ↑ I don't think we've changed anything with our links recently. Have you tried whitelisting our website?

There's a specific deal URL field in Hot Deals so it's not a requirement for posters to add the URL to the post body as well.

I just installed pi hole. new user. Its only the top deal link........ many links i cannot click into as they will be dns sunk.....

qaz393 wrote: ↑ I just installed pi hole. new user. Its only the top deal link........ many links i cannot click into as they will be dns sunk.....

Have you tried to whitelist our site? I don't use Pi Hole but it seems like it would fix your issue of our links not loading.

TomRFD wrote: ↑ Have you tried to whitelist our site? I don't use Pi Hole but it seems like it would fix your issue of our links not loading.

dell-dell-15-6-inspiron-15-5000-w-amd-r ... s-2444139/

Deal link goes to page

http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-749547-1 ... &sid=rfdcb



what is anrdoezrs?

grand-and-toy-asus-15-6-amd-ryzen-7-580 ... 0-2443952/

goes to

http://go.redirectingat.com/?id=2927x59 ... _3GHZ.aspx

bigger question is why does rfd need these redirect sites??

TomRFD wrote: ↑ Have you tried to whitelist our site? I don't use Pi Hole but it seems like it would fix your issue of our links not loading.

whitelisting redflagdeals.com will do nothing as the links are not rfd anymore........ there are at least two sites...........

qaz393 wrote: ↑ bigger question is why does rfd need these redirect sites??

If a retailer is part of one of our affiliate networks, our system automatically converts links to those sites to affiliate links.

My familiarity with Pi Hole is very basic so unfortunately I can't really offer any suggestions besides trying to whitelist the affiliate urls you happen to come across to see if that helps. Maybe someone else who uses it can chime in with more suggestions.

TomRFD wrote: ↑ If a retailer is part of one of our affiliate networks, our system automatically converts links to those sites to affiliate links.

My familiarity with Pi Hole is very basic so unfortunately I can't really offer any suggestions besides trying to whitelist the affiliate urls you happen to come across to see if that helps. Maybe someone else who uses it can chime in with more suggestions.

im reading into add on that clean links but have not found working on with chrome.......

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... ated?hl=en

sorry, but im sure this will help someone going thru the same situation.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... hlon?hl=en

This extension seems more updated and popular.

That is what whitelists are for. Affiliate links are used to track your purchases and Pi-Hole by default will block trackers.

i have the same issues, my pfsense dns blocker blocks all those links as well.
@TomRFD did you guys ever consider ditching the tracking links and just accepting donations for RFD? I would gladly donate $10/month , i bet lots of other people would as well

syncro2017 wrote: ↑ i have the same issues, my pfsense dns blocker blocks all those links as well.
@TomRFD did you guys ever consider ditching the tracking links and just accepting donations for RFD? I would gladly donate $10/month , i bet lots of other people would as well

Affiliate links are very important to the success of any deal site/network, and you'll find them on almost all popular news sites and blogs too these days. I understand where you and others are coming from, however the decision to modify or even remove them could have a huge negative impact on the site.

Your willingness to donate $10 per month is extremely generous, but for every person who might, there's probably 1,000 who wouldn't. It does bring up the idea of a paid premium membership which another user brought up not long ago though. This could potentially be a perk for that group (should we ever go forward with such a program).

The most straightforward way to resolve this issue for users of DNS based ad blockers such as pi-hole and pfsense is for an official list of affiliate link domains that RFD uses to be published and regularly updated. This will allow users to whitelist the affiliate links that RFD uses.

With the latest pihole is there an easy way to update the whitelists? It's no longer a text file.

Also, if people start using these extensions to strip out the referral links, then RFD will start losing money. So it's really in RFDs best interest to provide a list of URLs to whitelist.

For me changing the setting on my cell phone chrome browser to another DNS server fixed it (Googleadservices was also being blocked)

Many thanks indeed, no need to hire anyone now. I think they should having a membership fee, it would encourage competition and growth in alternative sites.

crimsondr wrote: ↑ With the latest pihole is there an easy way to update the whitelists? It's no longer a text file.

Also, if people start using these extensions to strip out the referral links, then RFD will start losing money. So it's really in RFDs best interest to provide a list of URLs to whitelist.

That's the plan.

As a temp solution, you could enable a VPN to get around your PiHole.
Actually I am looking to set up a PiHole instance myself. But I would allow my actual desktop machines to the whitelist, as the browsers have their own ad-blocking.
PiHole shines when it protects you from ads inside of phone apps, smart TVs, etc. Admittedly, it would still break RFD when browsing from a phone app.