Affil links cost the follower/buyer nothing extra, it's a bit irrational to think anyone is trying to put one over on anyone in this situation and no one has linked a bunch of "10% spammy sales" every day.

So, yeah, agree with Tizzy.

No.
I'm with everybody else that thinks you're making a big deal over nothing, and it's a bit annoying. The people that post the ref links don't give the impression of dishonesty and spamminess. You're just using a generality. I get that your name is Revisor, but your revisions are non-existent in importance imo. Your re-posting of deals through clean links are only useful to you it seems. Since by posting a clean link you show that you obviously have already been to the clean link, there really is no useful reason for you to post the same deal through a different link here

Payday will be 5$ on Amazon soon
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9388174&postcount=5338

It's been on sale quite a lot, and I hear it's a good game.

I'd give it a try if I didn't feel like it's Insane Clown Posse: The Game.

It's not. For one thing, these characters know how magnets work.

Payday needs more ICP feeling. A bonus level where you throw feces at a half naked bisexual reality star would be perfect.

I can't believe that you still maintain your accusations of dishonesty and "uncleanliness".

Look. I post links here with referrals to GamersGate. I do earn some blue coins from them. I use these blue coins to buy games (five so far) which will be given away to others here on GOG. I do this because I really like the community that we have here (which is, btw, a community in which accusations of dishonesty and personal attacks are rare). I can't see anything wrong with that. No one loses _anything_, but the community gets some free games.

If you post "ref-free" links under my posts, then the only thing that you achieve is that you'll lower the possibility of the community getting free games. The fact that you deprive others of free games while at the same time sitting on an incredibly high horse and trying to tell us what is "honest" and "clean" is ... baffling. The fact that you accuse referrals to lead to spam (for which I can see no evidence whatsoever here), while at the same time re-posting deals directly below a post that already posted the very same deal, is quite ironic. Who's spamming here?

Your bickering really takes the fun out of giving these games away to the community.

Gotta love regional pricing!

GamersGate deal:

Tropico 4

US: 6.99 USD
UK: 10.48 GBP = 16.6 USD
EU: 15.73 EUR = 20.9 USD


It bothers me so much I do not even post ref links, lol.

Thank you all for being mostly patient :) and explaining it to me. I haven't really thought of it this way.
Thinking about it some more, this is a deal thread and we all are posting deals, affiliate links or not.

I admit I come from a business forum where I see ref links almost exclusively in a spammy context, often hidden behind a URL shortener and similar; but GOG is different and I will try to adjust.

When we're on this topic - do the ref links (Amazon, GG, others) work only for new users or also for those who are already registered? Does it work for all purchases in the next 30 days, forever, or only for the first purchase?

I can only tell you about GamersGate ref links. Those work for everyone, doesn't matter if you are a new or old GG user. Also, it gives a different amount of share from the income the ref link generates depending on the 'level' of the referrer. You get XP at GamersGate using the site, buying games, and the higher your level is the more share you get. The minimum share is 2% the maximum is 10%. Ohh, and the GG ref links work for all purchases and they have no deadline.

How much was the complete edition? I know the deal is over but just for info...

And again :
Gothic Complete Collection for €7.49 @ GamersGate

Thanks for staying open to arguments. :)

I agree that reflinks _can_ cause problems in general, but so far the GOG community seems to have been mature enough to not fall into those traps. And if someone (or some site) tries something shady, then they get called out. That's the reason why you're not seeing "Game Getter" links here anymore - the site implemented a rather shady referral system, got called out on it, and the people in this thread stopped posting links to it.

So the self-regulation mechanisms in this thread seem intact. As long as it stays that way, there's imho no need to condemn reflinks on a general basis. And if it changes at some point in the future, then addressing the exact problem is probably the better solution.

Slightly cheaper at the UK site. 5.99 GBP which is around 6.16 EUR.

What is the problem with Game Getter? This site can not be trusted?
By the way, even though I am a freshman here and may not understand fully all aspects of the situation I think the following might be helpful. When someone posts a ref-link he can always add something like "here's the ref-link to the deal". This way those who do not care/mind will just ignore whatever is written there and those who do not want to use ref-links for whatever reasons will be aware of what URL they are following. Of course, one could always post both ref-link AND a clean link, but that could be just too laborous/space-consuming, I am afraid.