[jackson992]

isn't Fat Wallet a bad seed? Or am I thinking of someone else.

[Trust]

Must be somebody else. Fatwallet is a great site, good clean affiliate.
http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_06/profile/?storm369

[ReallyBigGuy]

Originally Posted by TrustNo1

Must be somebody else. Fatwallet is a great site, good clean affiliate.
http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_06/profile/?storm369

Remember the fatwallet toolbar:
http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread...8&page=1&pp=25
that wasn't a nice piece of software from them.

[MichaelColey]

FatWallet's toolbar was clean. See Haiko's response:

Originally Posted by Haiko de Poel, Jr.

I can confirm that Tim's toolbar is NOT predatory!

Tim, also, was kind enough to ask me to help him QA it and I can say that it is clean, and that I seriously doubt, knowing Tim, that it will ever be dirty!

[ReallyBigGuy]

Not to get in an argument, and I'll let people decide for themselves, but I read a lot of the replies, and while it didn't stuff cookies, it provided popups to their site when users arrived at the store pages. I was under the impression that that tactic has been frowned upon too by folks here?

[MichaelColey]

I could be wrong, but I don't think their toolbar even made it out of beta, so it's really a moot point. FatWallet.com is a clean affiliate and always has been.

[Trust]

You didn't read the whole thread then. They never came out with it. Never had a toolbar. They're an example of how to do things right. How a rebate site is supposed to work, with people shopping thru the site, not thru some toolbar that just targets the merchant domain.

[ReallyBigGuy]

Originally Posted by MichaelColey

I could be wrong, but I don't think their toolbar even made it out of beta, so it's really a moot point. FatWallet.com is a clean affiliate and always has been.

Do you like this thing too:
http://www.fatwallet.com/fwnowsetup.php

So Clean

[Trust]

hmm. I haven't seen something like that before.

[tmartini]

Originally Posted by ReallyBigGuy

Do you like this thing too:
http://www.fatwallet.com/fwnowsetup.php

So Clean

That's new to me too. RBG, how did you get to this page:

http://www.fatwallet.com/fwnowsetup.php

I don't see a link to it on the front page of the site.

-- Todd

[tmartini]

Never mind I found the announcement:

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/18/645761

Looks like it was just released yesterday. It seems above board, as the user has to click on the FatWallet Now button when they are at a merchant's site to view a list of deals that are available for that store. Only thing I would be concerned about is if it sets a cookie when the button is pushed or does it require the user to click on one of their deals before a cookie is set. Has anyone tested this yet?

-- Todd

P.S. Mods, can we shift these posts about FatWallet Now into a new thread?

[MichaelColey]

I don't have any problem with the FatWallet Now button. It's only installed if a user requests it and it's only activated when a user chooses to activate it.

P.S. I split this out and moved it.

[UncleScooter]

Well this looks just like Pronto to me. Pronto works much the same way and was deemed as parasitic by AFP and many others. What's the difference?????

[Zeus]

What's the deal between a shopping site and Wiki? Are we talking Wikipedia? Wikipedia is a wiki, a term that is derived from the Hawaiian word for "quick"
http://beta.fatwallet.com/wiki/

The idea to associate Wiki and Fat Wallet is weird. Who is trying to take advantage of the other? A knowledge repository for products, merchants, manufacturers, services and any other information important to savvy online shoppers.
Is Wikipedia selling their soul? Are they trying to monetize their placement in Google?
Is Fat Wallet surfing on the success of Wikipedia by launching an ersatz?

[webworker]

A wiki is just a type of site that anyone can add to. There are scripts available, anyone can do them.

[simcat]

Yeah, wiki scripts, and sites are a dime a dozen.
I like the fatwallet site, but it's interesting that incentive sites are always drawn towards the tool-bars and downloads.

[MichaelColey]

Originally Posted by UncleScooter

Well this looks just like Pronto to me. Pronto works much the same way and was deemed as parasitic by AFP and many others. What's the difference?????

I don't know anything about Pronto.

What FatWallet is doing, from what I can tell, is no different than a fancy bookmark/favorite. You have to intentionally add it to your browser and you have to intentionally choose it in order for it to do anything.

[tmartini]

Originally Posted by MichaelColey

I don't know anything about Pronto.

What FatWallet is doing, from what I can tell, is no different than a fancy bookmark/favorite. You have to intentionally add it to your browser and you have to intentionally choose it in order for it to do anything.

I'm pretty sure Michael is correct, but my question is does it set/overwrite the cookie when the button is pressed or does it wait until the user clicks on one of the deals/coupons/links that pop up. If it's the latter I have no problem with it.

-- Todd

[ReallyBigGuy]

I don't know if it sets a cookie, but when I click the toolbar link when I'm at a merchant, the fatwallet popup happens, and my original page refreshes, so I am thinking it is setting a cookie at that time.

What FatWallet is doing, from what I can tell, is no different than a fancy bookmark/favorite. You have to intentionally add it to your browser and you have to intentionally choose it in order for it to do anything.

Well, don't you need to intentionally add the ebates or upromise toolbars too?

As to that wiki page on their site, I took a look just now, and it just seems like a mess to me. Maybe they're just using it to get more pages on search engines?

[Anne]

Tim is a very honest person , runs his business that way, and has always done so since it opened in late 1999. If anyone has an issue with fatwallet, Tim, or his new bookmarking software, you should contact him directly and ask, rather than speculate.

[tmartini]

Originally Posted by Anne

Tim is a very honest person , runs his business that way, and has always done so since it opened in late 1999. If anyone has an issue with fatwallet, Tim, or his new bookmarking software, you should contact him directly and ask, rather than speculate.

Actually I think that's a good idea. Who has Tim in their rolodex? (I only met him in passing at a conference one time)

Personally I'm 99.9% sure that this is all above board, but hearing how it works from Tim would still be nice.

[ReallyBigGuy]

Originally Posted by Anne

Tim is a very honest person , runs his business that way, and has always done so since it opened in late 1999.

I am not an evil person, but I don't really see why so many of you bow-down to him/his site? Sure they probably make 10x more money than the next biggest affiliate, but I have seen a lot of issues with that site over the years.
From the Store standpoint, they constantly allow unathorized coupons to be posted without removing them, to the point where they've been dropped by several merchants. They allow the users to post schemes about buying items at one store and returning at another; They allow other schemes that I've seen too.
On the affiliate side, Tim/Fatwallet undenyably did develop that initial fatwallet toolbar, although it didn't make it out of beta, it was around for a while and widely publicized on their site.
I do think for the most part, they're playing above the board, (but so does ebates most of the time), I just have a problem with so many people saying how wonderful he/fatwallet is all the time. There are plenty of other affiliates that I can think of that I've never heard anything bad about at all, including you two, Michael & Todd, whom I'm sure make a great living in this market too.
Okay, that's my 2 cents, you can bash me now.

[MichaelColey]

I installed and tested FatWallet Now, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. As I said before, it's nothing but a fancy bookmark. It doesn't stuff cookies. It doesn't even set a cookie when you click it. It just displays the promotions, forum posts, and rating for the merchant whose site you're on. You have to take an additional action even beyond that to set a cookie.

[Trust]

Advanced bookmark, Kellie tested it:

http://affiliatefairplay.com/newsblo...mmary/#more-20

[tmartini]

Originally Posted by TrustNo1

Advanced bookmark, Kellie tested it:

http://affiliatefairplay.com/newsblo...mmary/#more-20

Thanks Trust, that answers my question. (i.e. it DOESN'T set a cookie when you click on it)