Prime Day support MetaFilter July 16, 2018 12:21 PM   Subscribe

Don't forget to consider using an affiliate link for MetaFilter today & tomorrow if you are shopping Amazon Prime deals.

From the Help Fund MetaFilter page:
If you're shopping at Amazon, you can help support MetaFilter by using an approriate affiliate link to visit the site; we'll be credited with a portion of any purchases you make during that shopping session. We have different links for each of these major Amazon regions: I understand some folks are boycotting Amazon, but if you are not, don't forget this option!
posted by slipthought to MetaFilter-Related at 12:21 PM (11 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

For what it's worth the site appears to be thoroughly borked just now so if you're seeing odd behavior, well, you're not alone.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:38 PM on July 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


Amazon’s web site must have decided to join the strike.

I liked Prime Day before it got so commercial. We’re supposed to take this day to remember the birth of our savior Optimus Prime.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:39 PM on July 16, 2018 [21 favorites]


Neither 716 or 717 are prime numbers, although 1607 is.
posted by solarion at 6:14 PM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


I support this post and will try to remember to use the affiliate links in the future, but I'm going to do one of my fun rants and shares.

I'm such a doofus that I placed a rare, once in a year or so order for a gadget I just can't really get elsewhere.

Which is the fairly large 12V 18650 based battery pack I've had my eye on for about 5 months, that should power my little T-class amp and really nice cheap KLH thrift store speakers, so I can go DJ on the beach before the summer is out.

And, well, I totally forgot that A) Prime Day is even a (ridiculous) thing and B) that people might be striking, which is something I support because fuck treating people like actual robots with activity trackers and making them piss in bottles or get kidney infections to make metrics...

...and I placed the order sometime early last week and it still hasn't even tripped the "I'm in a box and being shipped" checkpoint yet, and I actually finding a perverse sense of glee in this, like I accidentally dropped a bit of tracking dye in an interesting phenomenon.

And since I really only want this gadget to make music/magic/art to share with people, I'd rather it get here as cruelty free and as easy as possible, and now I kind of hope it gets wedged in the machine somewhere and screws things up.
posted by loquacious at 12:20 AM on July 17, 2018


Ahh I left my basket full last night on my app and forgot to checkout so this is a perfectly timed and serendipitous reminder so that I can checkout through the browser and give Mefi some of that sweet sweet affiliate cash.
posted by like_neon at 1:55 AM on July 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


Also, consider supporting the strike against Amazon, and boycotting their website entirely.
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 9:28 AM on July 17, 2018 [10 favorites]


This post is weird and tone-deaf given the fact that Amazon employees have specifically called for a solidarity boycott; I'm surprised that it got approved, honestly. In the past, Metafilter has been less nakedly open to selling out on principles in order to remind people to use affiliate links. The idea of people feeling virtuous because some of the benefits of their scabbing go to their favourite website is pretty repellent, and reads more like a satire on slacker clicktivism than anything else. And I say this as someone who makes a lot of use of Amazon for largely disability related reasons; I'm joining the boycott, I recognise that some people can't, but that has no bearing whatsoever on whether this was a good post, which it wasn't.
posted by Acheman at 12:01 AM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


There is a post on the Blue discussing the boycott with different perspectives being shared. I don’t think it would have been appropriate to remind people of affiliate linking there but I appreciate the reminder here. What I don’t appreciate is shaming me of my choices as a consumer. I make a lot of choices in my life based on trying to do my best in the world. I’m sorry you don’t agree with my particular choice in this situation.
posted by like_neon at 2:09 AM on July 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


This post is weird and tone-deaf given the fact that Amazon employees have specifically called for a solidarity boycott; I'm surprised that it got approved, honestly.

The default case for a MetaTalk thread is to get approved. I think the timing/feel is inherently a little weird too, but I also think allowing both "hey, here's a reminder about a MeFi finance thing" and "hey, here's a critical discussion on the blue about an Amazon boycott thing" is the most consistent way for us to approach it as a site, and I'll note this one's lower visibility and has a handful of comments whereas the critical discussion on the blue, only the latest of many about Amazon, is 100+ comments long.

I have very complicated feelings about Amazon and Google both. I imagine most mefites do to some extent. They also pay significant portions of the site's bills, and we have spent the last month in particular talking about exactly that sort of thing; it would feel weird to me to try and enforce some pretense that that's not the case, however complicated it may be as a position for the site to be in.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:48 AM on July 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


I mean, the timing was simply that it was Prime Day, and some people spend a shit-ton of money on Prime Day. There were two "if"s in the post and a mention of the boycott for a reason. I figured the confluence of people who read MetaTalk and those who would take the extra step of clicking an affiliate link to support MetaFilter would be less than zero.

" benefits of their scabbing go to their favourite website "

MetaFilter to me is more than a "favorite website." It is a community, and it requires money, time, and talent to maintain. Mods cannot subsist on favorites alone.
posted by slipthought at 8:20 AM on July 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


Local cost is $80 +tax for the same part Amazon can deliver to my door for $20 (including tax; and no 40 mile round trip fuel expense). The business model for this is 'do I want to go out of business' ; or 'do I want to stay in business'.
Local would not entertain a small discount; but via Amazon MeFi receives a small offering. :/
posted by Afghan Stan at 6:08 PM on July 18, 2018


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