[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

Originally Posted by AddHandler

Somehow all the "B's" turned into "?" marks..

they show as the Greek character Beta for me, which is, I think, intended to make them less SEable.


This AM claims to be working on this issue. And supposedly finding friction from above. Above is going to have less affiliates soon.

[AddHandler]

SO if I type ebates the "B" turns into the Greek character Beta..??

Wow - I understand not wanting to give ebates any SE spidering -- but how about making it so we can give this info to merchants..? Or should we contact them directly...?

[AddHandler]

Moderators will likely not change your links, they are that way for a reason.

Well that doesn't make any sense at all..

How are we supposed to communicate this information to our merchants..??
How are we supposed to give this information to anyone that reads these posts?

You might as well just say "no threads about eβates.."


It kind of defeats the purpose of posting anything regarding eβates and other BHO's.. if you can not back it up with links to information on them..

Correction this thread started on OCTOBER 1st 2002... and still no changes..

[AddHandler]

Herb - No --- I am talking about the ABW BOARD if they do not allow any ebates links to show the activities and SE results and who is on EBATES and who is not..
Might as well just say NO POSTS regarding ebates at all -- if we cannot back it up with info...

[Leader]

You should be able to back it up just fine, just by linking to the threads. And, the ABW site search still picks them up.

Any merchant who says he can't tell it's ebates just because of a funny "B" is truly dredging for excuses...that'd be right up there with the "I don't read anonymous concerns" lameness.

[AddHandler]

Leader - the board is set so we cannot link to eβates..
You can't link to anything with eβates in the url..

This is an eβates link that won't work.. LINK

This is a link to a search for eβates that won't work.. LINK

It's ONLY eβates.. if I type bates the b is fine - type in
ebay fine too.. so it's set so that we cannot link to anything with eβates in the name url or whatever..

If Ben Edelman names a page eβates and provides new info on it..
no one can link to it from here..

(he probably wouldn't but the point is the same)

So it might as well just say no sharing info on eβates or no threads regarding eβates..

I understand that ABW does not want to give eβates a boost in the SE's -- but in my opinion it is critical that we be able to share ALL info with anyone about any parasites. It sucks to link to them.. and I do not do it very often.. but it's just something that has to be done once in awhile... IMHO

[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

the point we should be making is that this particular merchant seems to be in denial.

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

AddHandler,

Sorry for the delay in responding in this thread, I didn't see your posts as I personally have written barenecessities off eBates wise and thought of closing this forum.

Now, on to the funny "B" and why it was done and how it works ...

1. It's not a "linking" to eBates issue at all. The legal exposure to myself, my corporation, ABW and it's member base was at a point where it was prudent to get out of the SE's in relation to eBates and TopMoxie. I did have other alternatives, but they were not congruent to my ethics, nor offer any sort of obfuscation.

2. When a merchant comes to ABW and searches for ebates it will return all the relative results because it automatically translates the "b / B" to the "ß". So when linking just link to the thread (i.e. http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=33170 ) for this one ... there is no mention of ebates in the title in any way.

If Ben or anyone else writes about or links to them, we'll know to exchange the "ß" to "b / B".

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[I'm going to split the "ß" portion of this thread into a new one in the eBates forum]