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0 pointswhyenot1mo ago0 comments

I think it's smart to be skeptical of any "review" site that depends on affiliate links for income. The incentive is no longer to provide advice, it's to sell you something. Anything. Click the link. Good. Now buy something. That's right. Add it to your basket. It doesn't matter what you buy. Yes, higher priced items are better. Checkout. We get our sweet kickback, nice.

Unfortunately, every review site uses affiliate links. Even organizations with very high ethical standards like Consumer Reports use them now. At least CR still gets most of its income from subscriptions and memberships. I guess that's something.

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nerdsniper1mo ago

> Yes, higher priced items are better.

This is the real reason I don't trust sources that make money off affiliate links. The incentive is to recommend the more expensive items due to % kickback.

astrange1mo ago

Wirecutter is part of NYTimes and depends on crosswords for income.

I haven't always agreed with them and sometimes the articles are clearly wrong because they're several years old, but they're usually good.

(I think I last seriously disagreed with them about a waffle maker.)

nerdsniper1mo ago

Wirecutter does an interesting thing where - I don't necessarily disagree with their review of the products they chose. But I'm baffled why they didn't choose to review the overwhelmingly most popular item in the category. Those omissions are what seems the most suspect to me.

godelski1mo ago

Sometimes at the bottom of reviews they mention a lot more products than appeared in the main review. Not always though. Not disagreeing with the decline in reliability but just stating because this can be easy to miss and when it is done I do find it helpful.

whyenotOP1mo ago

Wirecutter has stated in the past, maybe it was on their podcast, that they get a lot of their income from affiliate links. They have done some fairly suspicious things like their “gift guide”s for Christmas which are little more than long lists of products with affiliate links. Same for their “sales guide” for Black Friday, and there have been other cases. That doesn’t mean their reviews are bad, I just approach them with a certain amount of skepticism.

manwe1501mo ago

Seems in line with their original purpose still. They seemed to always want to be a source to suggest a product that is good enough for a consumer, to help avoid decision paralysis, and avoid fake products that are both expensive and flawed. Suggesting a list of gifts that are suitable and not deeply flawed is exactly what a lot of people are probably looking for around Black Friday.

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0 pointswhyenot1mo ago0 comments

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nerdsniper1mo ago

> Yes, higher priced items are better.

This is the real reason I don't trust sources that make money off affiliate links. The incentive is to recommend the more expensive items due to % kickback.

astrange1mo ago

Wirecutter is part of NYTimes and depends on crosswords for income.

I haven't always agreed with them and sometimes the articles are clearly wrong because they're several years old, but they're usually good.

(I think I last seriously disagreed with them about a waffle maker.)

nerdsniper1mo ago

godelski1mo ago

whyenotOP1mo ago

manwe1501mo ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse