Book Group Online - Amazon Hyperlinks / Member numbers

Bill

11th July 2007, 01:35 PM

Many of you have been wondering about the Amazon hyperlinks, where book titles, author names and sometimes seemingly random words are underlined, and which link to an Amazon box advertising a product. If you click on this, you will be taken through to the relevant page advertised, and from there you can go to other parts of Amazon. If you go on to make any purchase during that visit, 5% or more of what you spend will come back to Book Group Online and help offset my running costs.

As has been noticed, they appear to be very hit and miss, with no apparent rhyme or reason to them. Sometimes they are there, sometimes they are not. In a list of authors, some will have hyperlinks, some won't.

Andrew Kenny and I have looked into the hyperlinks now. Since Amazon have only just brought this in, it appears there are teething troubles, and we are hoping that the system will become more reliable over time. So I have decided to stick with it, so please use click on the Amazon hyperlinks whenever you can.

The more observant among you may have noticed that, despite the influx of many new members in the past few weeks, the total number of members has just gone down. Like many other sites, we have been the victims of spammers, who join the site but never post - in fact, these new 'members' never properly join at all, as the confirmation email is never sent back. I have now found a way of deleting these non-members, starting with all those with a .ru email. I am just happy to be rid of them. I will be moving on to the .info ones soon, at which point members numbers will go down again.

So don't be alarmed - it isn't people deciding they don't want to be a member of any book group that would accept them as a member (to paraphrase Groucho Marx).

Grammath

11th July 2007, 03:27 PM

Thanks to the hyperlinks, I'm now off to buy a CD by The Members and a collection of Groucho Marx's writing. Or I would be if I was being serious.

I wonder why Andrew links to the Australian serial killer movie "Chopper". Is there something in his shady past he isn't telling us about?

Seriously, I hope the hyperlinks do the trick.

Bill

11th July 2007, 04:26 PM

I wonder why Andrew links to the Australian serial killer movie "Chopper".

Amazing value at £1.69.

atom-girl

13th July 2007, 10:51 AM

Hi, a quick question. I just signed into my amazon account through my faves and put a book in there that I wanted to buy, when I realised I could do it through this site and help you out. When I click on the banner at the top it goes straight into my account. Is this right, or should I have signed out from when I had gone in through favourites, and then sign in again, from the link on here?

Incidentally I think I'll get the Robin Friday book, it will just put me into the super saver delivery zone then! My other choice looks rather a boring one :( "Mastering Communication" but necessary for the engineering project I'm doing.

Bill

13th July 2007, 10:55 AM

atom-girl, yes the links will take you straight into your account as normal. Thanks for doing this via the links - it's much appreciated.

atom-girl

13th July 2007, 10:58 AM

No probs & thanks.

Rosiebunny

14th July 2007, 10:05 AM

I just bought 2 DVDs through the link... I wish it would tell me at the checkout or somewhere that you're getting your % though because it doesn't, so I ended up closing the window, and going back into amazon through the link, just to be sure!

Bill

14th July 2007, 03:47 PM

Thanks, Rosiebunny. Don't worry - as long as you went into Amazon via one of the banners or hyperlinks, it will work.

Bill

29th July 2007, 09:32 PM

Congratulations to Rowena Cherry, who has become the first BGO member to have her own hyperlink, just from typing her own name in the Please Introduce Yourself. The hyperlink might not be there now as, just like the women talking of Michaelangelo, they come and go.

Jeremy DEagle

30th July 2007, 06:50 AM

These links are dangerous. I've deliberately avoided going into book shops and charity shops and now links are appearing in text!

Must...resist....clicking the.....links.....

Bill

30th July 2007, 08:52 PM

If everyone followed your advice, Jeremy, BGO would go bust!

Jeremy DEagle

31st July 2007, 07:16 AM

If everyone followed your advice, Jeremy, BGO would go bust!

Not sure if my missus would see it that way but...

Woohoo! Justification for shopping!

iff

6th August 2007, 12:14 PM

i don't know. i made a dvd order (an oddity./ it's usually books or cds) with amazon by clicking the link fgrom here although the order items was totally unrelated to the andrew kenny link provided

it'll work

Bill

6th August 2007, 01:33 PM

Not quite sure what you're getting at, iff, but see my answer to atom-girl's question above. Thanks for using the links.

Thanks too to whoever bought a Panasonic DVD Recorder the other day! You've made a very wise purchase. I bought a previous model to that one with less spec and for nearly double the price, and it's one of the best buys I've ever made.

megustaleer

10th August 2007, 10:41 PM

Congratulations to Rowena Cherry, who has become the first BGO member to have her own hyperlink,Broos has now joined that exclusive club, thanks to Chuntzy using his name in a post on the Which Fictional Character thread.

Amanda Grange

13th August 2007, 03:52 PM

The 'lots of fun' in my signature links to "Lots of Fun at "Finnegans Wake" at the moment. Poor old Joyce will be turning in his grave :o

FirelightSpirit

23rd August 2007, 08:51 AM

Anybody noticed how, when you hover over the Amazon links now, you no longer get a little window with information about the linked product? You've got to click on the links now to be taken to the relevant Amazon page. It's a bit annoying actually, because you can't tell which are Amazon links now and which are links put in by BGOers.

Bill

23rd August 2007, 11:43 AM

Doesn't do that with me, FLS. It may be something to do with your computer, and its security levels. Unless this is happening to others too.

Hazel

23rd August 2007, 11:48 AM

I still get the little hovering window...

David

23rd August 2007, 11:57 AM

Still works for me!

Stewart

23rd August 2007, 01:20 PM

Doesn't work in Internet Explorer. Works in FireFox.

David

23rd August 2007, 01:22 PM

Doesn't work in Internet Explorer. Works in FireFox.
I'm on IE, Stewart, and it works fine here.

FirelightSpirit

23rd August 2007, 02:03 PM

I'm on safari and they used to work okay. Maybe they'll come back again. It's no big deal anyway. I just thought they'd stopped working.

Stewart

23rd August 2007, 03:06 PM

I'm on IE, Stewart, and it works fine here.
Version 6 or 7? I'm on the former.

David

23rd August 2007, 03:42 PM

Version 6 or 7? I'm on the former.
7. That might be the problem, then. You should be able to download the latest version from Microsoft - I do think they have made some great improvements.

Stewart

23rd August 2007, 03:46 PM

You should be able to download the latest version from Microsoft - I do think they have made some great improvements.
Oh, I have it at home. At work, IE6 is the standard though. Personally, I hate them both, as I'm a FireFox user through and through.

Hazel

23rd August 2007, 04:13 PM

I'm a Firefoxer too - it sounds like an 80s cartoon character, so I am loyal purely due to nostalgia.

Radders

23rd August 2007, 06:57 PM

Me Firefoxer too

megustaleer

23rd August 2007, 08:59 PM

Mostly Firefox these days, sometimes reverting to Safari.
Amazon hyperlinks working in both.

FirelightSpirit

27th August 2007, 10:39 AM

Lo and behold, the links have started working again. Hope this doesn't mean there have been gremlins in my computer. :scared:

Flingo

29th August 2007, 10:14 PM

I've never seen the links - I wondered if that was because I'm not in the right place at the right time, but could it be a privacy setting we have checked in Firefox? It seems odd that I've never noticed even one after all this time.

Flingo

27th February 2008, 08:24 PM

Ok, and tonight I'm having the opposite problem. Almost every post I've read has at least one! Is that just me (and the fact that I'm using different computer today) or has everyone got more of them?

David

27th February 2008, 08:37 PM

Seems about the same for me, Flingo. I certainly don't have one in every post, though I never did. I didn't realise it could be different for individual users.

Minxminnie

27th February 2008, 08:57 PM

It's different depending on when you go in - I've seen links in my own posts appear and disappear.

Having originally found them very annoying, I now find their randomness very amusing!

My Friend Jack

28th February 2008, 12:26 PM

I hardly even notice them any more.

Sasha Nein

27th March 2009, 01:02 PM

Thanks! Just wondering, in my post Dune has been linked to a book relating to Douglas Adams on Amazon... any reason for that? Will that happen everytime I type 'Dune' into my posts? And can I just ask a quick question about the boards. If I were to start a discussion about a book or author, and there are no threads for it (when searched), or a search turns up threads but they're very old and inactive, what would I do and where would I post?

Thanks.

David

27th March 2009, 01:10 PM

The Amazon links are a bit annoying, I have to confess! The links are sometimes highly esoteric, I'm afraid and often bear no relation to the post. It's generated automatically by software and there's not much to be done about it. You'll also find they appear and disappear with no rhyme or reason. Sorry!

If you find an old thread on a book or topic to which you'd like to add then please do! The threads are only old because the members at the time had said all they wanted to. As new members join we love to see them reviving old threads. If new threads are started on a book or topic where a thread already exists then mods will merge them, but we'd be grateful if you looked first!

If there are no existing threads then press on and start a new one: that's what this place is all about. Just skim down the sub-forums to see where it would fit best.

Rowena Cherry

28th March 2009, 01:06 AM

Actually, David, that is not quite true, assuming that I've understood the problem under discussion.

Here's what sometimes happens. Passionate readers, or authors themselves, may get a little bit carried away with entering tags and searches. If anyone feels that an Adams book is similar in some way to a Herbert book, they are quite free to make that suggestion using authors' names.

If enough readers agree, the number of Adams-is-like-Herbert tags may reach critical mass and start to be applied for the convenience of other readers.

Bots and human staff in Asia aren't always well enough read in Western fiction to distinguish an excellent recommendation from an annoying one.

You will find that there are "Communities" on Amazon, and in the right hand margin various titles rotate, and anyone who happens to be viewing that page at the time is invited to vote yea or nay as to whether they agree that this book or that belongs in the community. Possibly there is a Dune community (I haven't looked into it).

In theory, enough Not Appropriate votes would counter the Tags, which is why an obscure comparison might eventually disappear.

I think tagging by genre, topic, subject matter etc is helpful. Readers may want to search for, say, a castaway romance.

The recommendation bots are annoying on many sites. Because I read and write futuristic, the bots assume that I might like to read about werewolves as well. Not!

The Amazon links are a bit annoying, I have to confess! The links are sometimes highly esoteric, I'm afraid and often bear no relation to the post. It's generated automatically by software and there's not much to be done about it. You'll also find they appear and disappear with no rhyme or reason. Sorry!

Rowena Cherry

megustaleer

28th March 2009, 08:56 AM

David's explanation is correct.

Here is Bill's explanation (http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum/showthread.html?t=3139), posted when the Amazon Hyperlinking was first introduced. You'll probably find that the link has disappeared when you return to your post.

My main problem with the hyperlinks is that I ignore them, and presumably others do too, so actual member-posted links also get ignored.

(for those who are newish, Bill owns and pays for this website, but keeps rather in he background these days. He is the one to send subscriptions and donations to if you like it here)

David

28th March 2009, 09:49 AM

Actually, David, that is not quite true, assuming that I've understood the problem under discussion.

Quite how the Amazon software makes its decisions I don't know but it's clearly based simply on words that it sees and consequently offers bizarre suggestions. Sometimes, for instance, you'll find my location is hyperlinked for "South Coast" - no one's voting for my location as a good read! Nice place, sure, but difficult to shelve...

EDIT: In fact, as I popped back it was hyperlinked again, only on this occasion for a south coast T-Shirt. Usually it suggests a tour guide of the south coast. So as you can see if there's any human input at any level on this, it's irrelevant in terms of the likely usefulness of the hyperlinks.

Adrian

28th March 2009, 10:26 AM

I've stopped including hyperlinks in my reviews because of the Amazon ads. I put six well chosen links in this review of Cathi Unsworth's The Not Knowing (http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum/showthread.html?t=2003), but I don't know if other links are going to be added, causing people to not even hover over one of my links because of the automatic Amazon pop-ups. Even worse, I worry that my link might be overridden by an Amazon link, especially when the text is an author's name.

I'm usually on Firefox so I only rarely see the problem. It's that it takes just a hover-over, not a click, that puts it over the edge for me.

megustaleer

28th March 2009, 10:45 AM

causing people to not even hover over one of my links because of the automatic Amazon pop-ups.That's the main drawback to them - they are annoying in themselves, but the probability that our own hyperlinks are going to be ignored too is a real nuisance.

Incidentally, I'm on Firefox, too, but can see six Amazon links in addition to your six in that review. Are you saying that it's worse on other browsers? :yikes:

Sasha Nein

28th March 2009, 10:51 AM

Incidentally, I'm on Firefox, too, but can see six Amazon links in addition to your six in that review. Are you saying that it's worse on other browsers? :yikes:

I am on Google Chrome and can also see six addition links. I don't think the browser itself affects it, but there are probably Firefox addons that remove some/all of them. Perhaps we should come up with a way to signify what is an actual link as opposed to just one of the Amazon ones. Say, we colour our own links a different colour or something. Just a thought.

Adrian

28th March 2009, 11:00 AM

Incidentally, I'm on Firefox, too, but can see six Amazon links in addition to your six in that review. Are you saying that it's worse on other browsers? :yikes:
I'm pretty aggressive with my ad-blocking on Firefox, so I see just my links. I opened the page in Internet Explorer and also saw just mine. At work on Explorer, though, I see lots of embedded links. Due to the randomness of the links I couldn't say what it's like generally.

Perhaps we should come up with a way to signify what is an actual link as opposed to just one of the Amazon ones. Say, we colour our own links a different colour or something. Just a thought.
I like that idea.

MisterHobgoblin

28th March 2009, 11:49 AM

Perhaps the answer to avoid ambiguity is to leave the intended links showing as urls rather than cover them up with clickable text.

megustaleer

28th March 2009, 12:00 PM

Say, we colour our own links a different colour or something.

I had tried to do that, but it can't be done when typing the link into the drop down box - but have just realised that it is possible to change the text colour (http://www.dulux.co.uk/colours/index.jsp) after it is on the page, before hitting the 'submit' button. :D

Adrian

28th March 2009, 12:03 PM

Perhaps the answer to avoid ambiguity is to leave the intended links showing as urls rather than cover them up with clickable text.
No. That would ruin the whole readability of a sentence, as I explained in this thread (http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum/showthread.html?t=387). It's the whole point of having the hyperlink text: I try and make the sentence readable even if you were to copy it into Notepad or some other simple text editor.