Comment by dperfect | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dperfect | Hacker News Reader

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I've shared this before, but this has happened to me - 3 times - with different sites I created. One was very similar in nature to OP's (essentially a specialized tool/calculator with affiliate links to the products), and another was a very detailed guide for making a DIY electronics product. It was "creative" enough to be featured on the front page of hackaday.com, but I guess not enough for Amazon's affiliate program.

Traffic also wasn't a problem - in one case they pulled my program membership only after I had generated hundreds of dollars in referred sales (of course they didn't pay the commission). Needless to say, it has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since. In my opinion, if they have such a narrow interpretation of what "original" or "creative" means (applying only to blog-style content, or who knows what), then I frankly don't care to do anything more with their affiliate program or drive sales to them.

This is what you get when a company is the regulator of a market. I guess government regulation isn't so bad after all.

Or you could view it as the government is just the biggest corporation.

One that in theory at least you get to vote for representation on the board.

Doesn't work very well though when a lot of people vote to kneecap it and let all the corporations you don't have any say over run the show.

That's not really a fair comparison. Most western governments have an Ombudsman where citizens can complain if they are treated unfairly. A government acting against its citizens the way Amazon does against its users would be unlikely and unlawful, whereas Amazon can get away with it because they are not breaking any laws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman

I don’t know last time I complained about the dmv to the government, it felt about as useless as complaining to HR. Probably less so.

You probably have more agency to change a corporation, if it isn’t a mega corporation. Mega corporations, good luck, unless you have lots of money or influence.

Ok government is definitely just a mega corp. the other lesser mega corps have some influence, but not us peons.

In the US, maybe we citizens would have a slight chance at having influence if we eliminated the 17th amendment.

Or just don’t affiliate with amazon. Instead use an online service, that is dedicated to your niché and both profit.

Seems like government regulation against corporate control of markets is still a good idea.

Either one is no good if you allow them to grow too large to "see product level" to properly serve the "consumer".

Wow, thanks a lot for sharing your experience.

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