I noticed that when I follow links provided in the deal forum, the HTTP Referer header is still intact at the destination site. I had thought that perhaps the purpose of rewriting the links was (at least partially) to cleanse the referer header.

Is there any potential problem with having the HTTP Referer show that a particular session came from forums.slickdeals.net? My concern is with respect to price mistakes and the like - would it make it easy for a company to determine which orders were the result of a post? The company could potentially a) selectively cancel orders refered from the "evil deal site", or b) decide to go after SD on some BS legal principle (BS or not, it would be a huge hassle - better if they never know it was SD).

Thoughts?

I noticed that when I follow links provided in the deal forum, the HTTP Referer header is still intact at the destination site. I had thought that perhaps the purpose of rewriting the links was (at least partially) to cleanse the referer header.

Is there any potential problem with having the HTTP Referer show that a particular session came from forums.slickdeals.net? My concern is with respect to price mistakes and the like - would it make it easy for a company to determine which orders were the result of a post? The company could potentially a) selectively cancel orders refered from the "evil deal site", or b) decide to go after SD on some BS legal principle (BS or not, it would be a huge hassle - better if they never know it was SD).

Thoughts?SD gets paid on referrals, which are tracked this way.

...so click every scamazon link you can!

SD gets paid on referrals, which are tracked this way.

I figured that was part of it too, but isn't all handled via some metrics company? IOW, the folks at OD (and RS) don't pay them for referrals do they? I'd expect them to block links from the deal sites (not too worried tho - they can't even get the damn prices right - it's unlikely that the know what a Referer header is).

I figured that was part of it too, but isn't all handled via some metrics company? IOW, the folks at OD (and RS) don't pay them for referrals do they? I'd expect them to block links from the deal sites (not too worried tho - they can't even get the damn prices right - it's unlikely that the know what a Referer header is).

Uhh, they definitely know what referral links are. Price mistakes are just that, price mistakes. Someone is bound to make a mistake about pricing sooner or later, and we capitalize on that. I believe www.coremetrics.com keeps track of a lot of the referral stuff.