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These artists should switch platforms because the query string isn’t the only way they can track attribution. If they see people doing this they will just switch to something else if they don’t already use another method as well.
In general I use this app before I share or follow any links:
We need browser extensions to kill those tags automatically.
In general I use this app before I share or follow any links:
Firefox I believe does. If you right click on a link, it says something like “copy link without tracking”. It should do away with queries in the URL, but I’m not completely sure.
https://www.trishtech.com/2024/10/how-to-disable-copy-link-without-site-tracking-in-firefox/
This is definitely what it’s supposed to do (and a great feature) but unfortunately it doesn’t work that well. Have tried this many times, especially with Amazon links, and it seems to be a bit inconsistent in its effectiveness.
Good to know.
Oh nice, that is pretty new, but will have to see if it works on those gumroad links. I have an offline script (not a browser extension, I haven’t bothered figuring out how to write those) that edits urls to remove tracking and it’s quite a pain, since there are dozens of sites and tracking schemes it has to know about. Also, rather than creating a pasteable url, a suitable browser extension should just rewrite the link automatically before navitation when you click on it.
uBlock Origin filter or ClearURLs for example.
In the case of uBO, just search for “url” in the filter list and you should find it.
For those of you with Apple devices, I’m pretty sure current versions of Mac OS and iOS remove tracking arguments from URLs when you use cut/copy/paste/share.
https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/08/ios-17-link-tracking-protection/
Also this only applies in private browsing mode, which people usually aren’t in
A dumb policy with perhaps an even dumber implementation. Basing profit sharing percentages off query parameters 🫨 ?
The parameters are how you get to the store.
If the creator is driving the traffic, Gumroad takes 10%. If Gumroad is driving the traffic, they take a commission of 30%
I understand that. That approach is just really easy to manipulate.
Not any more than any other tracking method. They control it all.
If anything, the fact that they give you a method to alter how your purchase is tracked so you can still give the creator 90% when you get to them through their store is pro-creator.
The ability to alter the tracking is an exploit, not a feature. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it’s possible, but it seems more a result of a lazy implementation rather than a generous choice.
Not any more than any other tracking method.
This isn’t true. There are more opaque ways to track this like cookies, redirects (triggering an api call), and scripts. These could also be exploited depending on how they’re done, but it would be way less obvious than just changing the URI.
It just seems like they chose the simplest method, thus hampering the effectiveness of their greed.
Wait, you’re complaining that end users can change it?
Yes, there are ways the website could prevent that. I’m not sure why that goal serves any purpose, though. Defaults are going to get them the vast majority of the commissions they earn, and being simple and easy for users who really want to reward the creators more to do so is worth the negligible cost.
Getting commission on sales you make isn’t greed.
OK, I think the real solution is that I’m never using Gumroad again. Sad, as some really good and stuff was in there
https://bsky.app/profile/stargazerbird.pmd.social/post/3ld4tz3hllc2u
Based of that, it sounds like it’s affect people who had opted into the boosted discovery since that was already a thing and that was 30%+. The simplified wording doesn’t help but I’m feeling this got way blown out of proportion. Humanity does that nowadays.
Enshittification seems damn inevitable these days.
