New ePN Rules on referrals

1. 60

   Satsuma Potteryposted 13 years ago

   Hi all,
   
   Not sure if anyone has seen this message on the eBay Partner Network blog:
   
   http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/e … -than-302/
   
   I know that it mainly refers to the use of "cloaking" eBay links, which Hubpages does not do, but will HubPages be implementing any way of weeding out the "non-referring" traffic?
   
   This can be caused by so many different things, it might be hard to track, but could lead to your ePN account being TERMINATED!
   
   I will be removing all eBay modules from my hubs for now - just in case!

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2. 74

   relacheposted 13 years ago

   I don't think you clearly comprehended what eBay was saying about links and how they work on HubPages.  I will say this:  with all the eBay capsules removed from your Hubs, you won't be earning anything, and that can get your EPN account closed for inactivity.
   
   All my links to eBay from my Hubs are in capsules, and thus are not cloaked nor redirected in ways that eBay forbids.

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   1. 60

      Satsuma Potteryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I know the hubpages links are not cloaked, but If a visitor who has referrals turned off in his browser lands on your site and clicks the eBay capsule, then this is against the new TOS.
      
      The referrer can get blocked for various reasons:
      
      A person who bookmarks your site and returns later via the bookmark doesn't send a referer.
      A person who clicks a link in an email doesn't send a referer.
      In Opera, you can simply untick a check box to omit the referer from all page requests.
      Internet Explorer 6 didn't send the referer when a link was opened in a new window
      In Firefox, you can change a setting in the about:config file, or install any of several add-ons that let you blank the referer.
      You can even spoof the referer. You can make it look like you're coming from Google or Microsoft or the CIA.
      Many corporate firewalls and proxy servers strip out the referer.
      Some antivirus programs strip out the referer.
      Some Javascript links can cause the referer to be dropped
      In some browsers, some redirects can cause the referer to be dropped
      Bots normally don't send the referer.
      I've read (but haven't verified) that sometimes links in Flash or Java applets can cause the referer to be dropped.
      At least one Firefox addon that has nothing to do with referers causes the referer to be dropped.
      Apparently 302 redirects sometimes causes the referer to be dropped.
      Links from a site using SSL (https) won't send the referer
      
      And HubPages is not my only ePN site, I have many others using BANS and phpBay that now contain fixes to check if there is a blank referrer and then stop the user going to eBay.

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3. 74

   relacheposted 13 years ago

   Much of what you have pointed out are actions taken by visitors that are entirely outside the control of the person who built the web page. 
   
   How do you propose that someone building a Hub or web page takes control of or effects how an individual sets their browser or takes actions that aren't directly involved with your web page?

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   1. 0

      Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, relache EPN expects you to monitor your traffic carefully and not send them traffic from pages you don't own. I'm no expert on any of this and thus, only use Ebay on hubs now. I figure they know what they are doing with respect to all of this.

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4. 85

   Whitney05posted 13 years ago

   Even if you remove the capsules in the hubs, your websites still fall under the same TOS, so you could still suffer the same consequences with your website. If you're that worried about it, you should remove it from everything.
   
   I agree with relache, there's nothing you can do about the visitor.
   
   Even if you remove all ebay on hubpages, you still have them on your site, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it from happening there.

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5. 0

   Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

   I've already sent the HP team the info from the Ebay blog. I'm waiting to hear from them. They are really the only ones who can address this issue.

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6. 71

   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   I dont see the issue - the post is regarding search engine behavior ( and how we intentionally subvert it )  not browser behaviour.
   
   Does HP use 302 redirects?
   
   hxtp://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?campid=530000002&customid=little-black-bikini&toolid=10013&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2FNEW-Little-Girls-bikini-Black-Flwr-Hanky-Sz10-4518_W0QQitemZ370377636284QQcategoryZ49080QQcmdZViewItem
   
   Thats an HP ebay link - seems fine to me (withid changed)

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   1. 0

      Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Sunforged I was concerned with things like referral links - that I use to link to other people's hubs. Those are redirects I believe. But I think the right kind.
      
      I hope you're right and it's nothing to worry about. I'm going back to writing hubs.

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      1. 71

         sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         You are using a referral link to redirect to HP not to redirect to ePn

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7. 71

   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   I see no relevance to the OP's statements and HP/ePn link behaviour
   
   I would love to see know how it was relevant

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8. 85

   Whitney05posted 13 years ago

   I don't think that it really affects us here, but if it did, we'd have problems all around the board wouldn't we? Meaning, our personal websites and here?
   
   I guess I'm confused as to how we can control who finds us in searches and what those people have done.

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   1. 60

      Satsuma Potteryposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      If someone bookmarks your Hub, returns to that hub via the bookmark and then clicks an ePN link, no referrer is sent and therefore you are running the risk of having your ePN account for not sending a visitor with this referrer information.
      
      It is totally relevant IMHO, but do agree that we have no control over the searcher/visitor/browser etc.

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      1. 71

         sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         false

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      2. 71

         sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         false

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      3. 77

         MyWebsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         If someone was to bookmark your hub and then load the hub from that bookmark no referrer info would be passed to hubpages.com for that viewing of your hub. Once they clicked the eBay link then your hub's URL would still show up as the referrer to eBay as long as nothing else is being used to block this data from being sent.
         
         Referrer information that is passed to a web server only includes URL data for the previous page that the click came from, never more than 1 level deep. eBay's web servers have absolutely no way to know how a user landed on your hub without the use of JavaScript that captures this data on each hub and pass it along as GET vars in the URL. I see nothing in a hub's code to indicate this is being done.
         
         If this referrer information by default did extend beyond the previous page viewed then it would present serious privacy issues. As a webmaster I would then be able to view your browsing history including some things you probably wouldn't want me to know about.
         
         I can envision ways the hub's referrer data could be forwarded along to eBay with some custom PHP code and GET variables in the URL with the help of each web site. But thats a bit of work and I would bet there would be legal and privacy issues to contend with.

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         1. 0

            eternaltreasuresposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            good point and important one regarding referrals.

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