Great deals, discounts, refferals and codes [dedicated thread]

Here you can share any information about a good deal you’ve encountered online, discount codes, refferal links etc.
Everything goes from hardware to software* if it’s related to this forum’s user base. Don’t constrain yourself to cameras, lenses and software. If you have a cool DIY project share your material sources here as well.

The idea with this thread is accepting that we are all pretty big hardware consumers in an expensive industry. With this thread we should try to help each other make smart purchasing decisions with information sharing.

Common sense applies.

*Any deal or link to any subscription based software is not welcomed unless it’s a lifetime subscription for free or dirt cheap.

If community doesn’t agree, a mod can close this. I think it’s ok tho? :slight_smile:

EDIT:

People are expressing some different opinions towards this thread and they make some good points.
Please read and join in the relevan discussion here:

And after you done that, cast a vote here :slight_smile:

Should advertising be allowed in this dedicated thread?
  • Yes
  • No
  • Only hardware
0 voters
Should advertising be allowed on Pixls in general (in all other threads too)?
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

Why do you write this (is not welcomed) while we are discussing that stuff in a different thread?

1 Like

I think this thread is a bad idea (just my 2 cents)

2 Likes

Let’s not discuss it here, let this be for deals and links. I’ll answer you here:

This is also for the others, please use the linked thread for the discussion and this one for deals and links.

Please, use the discussion thread for that.

Please note that “no ads” has been a specific intent since the inception of pixls.us. It started with @patdavid paying for things out of his own pocket, and we’ve been lucky enough to have some individuals and orgs step up to cover our costs so that we don’t have to think about ways to monotize.

6 Likes

Thank you Pat David, organizations, individuals and supporting pixls.us members!

Here’s hoping that pixls.us never needs to monetize…

3 Likes

Pat has said he’d pay out of pocket again, we’ll never monitize, just to be clear.

However we are lucky enough to have a great community that values what we do and step up when needed.

We try to spend donated money carefully and we try and be transparent about how it is spent.

I think we’d make it very clear if we needed more to cover our costs. :slight_smile:

5 Likes

-1 from me

this just opens a can of worms.

e.g. if you put in an affiliate link that benefits you in the end then this needs to be made clear before the link is posted. I dont want our moderator team to chase down all the things to find out who gets referral bonus from this link.

7 Likes

Good point!

I haven’t yet formally responded, because I consider “advertising” to have a specific meaning - that you are advertising something that (in many cases) you may have a commercial interest in plugging.

I think saying “Product X is currently on deep sale and many here find such a product useful” - for example, if someone found a good sale on ColorChecker Passports I’d strongly encourage them to post it personally, because while I already have one, I consider it to be a strongly recommended piece of hardware ESPECIALLY if you happen to own a camera that someone hasn’t already profiled. When discussing Glenn’s SSF measurement system, there was a decent amount of consensus that having source spectra measured with a calibrated device would be highly beneficial - and right around when Glenn was posting about that X-rite had JUST ended a significant sale on i1studio devices that we all missed (even though I think a lot of us were/may still be right on the fence of getting one, and would have gone for it at the sale price). I personally think that a product recommendation, or even pointing out that something you like happens to be on sale, is not “advertisement” as long as you don’t have a financial (or other) interest that leads to you benefitting from other people buying the product.

I will say - Any purchasing links that have any affiliate program linked to them should be disallowed. These present an inherent conflict of interest where the poster is financially benefitting from plugging the product, vs. “I spent money on this and it was worth every penny”.

Edit: Same goes for “referral codes” which I consider different from general “discount codes” in that the person who gives out a referral code benefits. Of course, there’s always a risk that a generic “discount code” is actually a “referral code” - this risk is reduced IMO if the company happens to, on their website, say something like “Limited time FooHoliday Sale! Use discount code FOO2021 at checkout!”

1 Like

Can of worms. Once the door is open, there is no going back. I will probably leave the forum (edit: if ads become a thing).

Should advertising be allowed?

I think one has to differentiate a little. Letting people know about some interesting deals is not the same as posting Amazon or whatever affiliate links. Generally.

But then again, not all links to own profit are bad. To me the numerous links to Youtube videos are certainly very welcome. And so are links to useful websites that have Adsense or other ads on it.

BTW, I believe Serif/Affinity does not work with affiliates as far as I know.

Wormy topic it is. But then, running a server is often not free, and a ‘but it’s about FOSS’ may not impress the server farm company. The idea of living of donations is a warm hearted one, but one that not always works out.

Would you leave if the admin would put a deals discussion on a dedicated page and even adds Adsense or any other form of page ads, while keeping the rest of the site free of page ads, there?

Of course, it is more nuanced than that but there is truth to the hyperbole; many publications and sites I respected in my lifetime have succumbed to shameless advertising, lowest denominator writing and echo chamber vibrations. Decline is a fact of life but I do wish better things for the communities I enjoy.

Great offer: 100% discount!

On this site, you’ll get a 100% discount on a bunch of several hundred of filters for tuning your images. Offer not limited in time.
Work for Photoshop, Affinity Photo, GIMP, Krita and others!

→ -> → Take advantage of it now!

(you can still do it in 5 years).

13 Likes

Howdy!

Just to clarify - I am absolutely not going to run ads or “monetize” the forum.

(holy crap that post was from back in 2015…)

So we won’t run adsense or any such nonsense. As this is my primary hobby I’ll keep the lights on even without any support (which we’ve been extremely fortunate to have from various people over the years). If I have to stop enjoying cigars then so be it. :wink:

On that note, I guess I should clarify some of my opinions.

  1. I am not sure what to do with affiliate links yet. I don’t think users should generally post them and I’m not quite sure if it should be ok for the forum to use them. On one hand it would be nice to have the occasional kickback through something like an amazon affiliate link, but I’d really want to community to know and be ok with it first.

  2. I actually don’t mind if people find a good deal on something and want to share it where appropriate and in moderation. For instance, I don’t mind it here in this thread where it’s pretty clearly labeled and people aren’t forced to seeing it in the normal flow of their other interactions. If someone doesn’t want to see it they can avoid this topic.

    It’s a different matter if it pops up in other threads where it may not have been explicitly requested. I feel like that could be annoying and should be frowned upon.

  3. Software “deals” - I’m not quite sure where I fall on this yet personally. I get that many folks might use some sort of proprietary link in their tools. At the same time, companies that charge for software surely have a marketing budget of their own? :wink:

I generally view this as a good thing, by the way. I think it indicates that we are reaching a larger audience then strictly FOSS users which hopefully means we are starting to raise awareness more to people that might not have otherwise participated here or considered FOSS options.

It’s a balancing act to welcome and encourage these users while not spamming the forum. (All while continuously nudging them towards FOSS tools and philosophy…)

5 Likes

@David_Tschumperle I could even settle with 50% discount!

@patdavid I share your thoughts, esp. wrt #2.

I was part of a thread here that mentioned first an astro tracker that could be 3D-printed. Later I shared what I ended up with, and where I got it from. In the same way, many threads speak about hardware - be it which OpenCL-supporting processor or video card, or indeed what glass or camera you are using and why you like it, and - if someone else is interested - where they can get the item for a good price.

So if software that is not FOSS is available for a task - e.g. proprietary video drivers (money free but not open), or a commercial software product by way of comparison with a FOSS tool, possibly as inspiration for a new or improved FOSS implementation to provide the functionality, I believe that this can naturally become part of discussion without necessarily polluting ourselves.

However blatant advertising is not cricket, in my opinion.

My mug of flat white’s worth (he types, draining the last of his morning coffee) :coffee:

This thread is not about advertisements ala adsense or any embedded ads. It’s about information sharing…