skim links hijacking my wordpress.com site grrrrrrr
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It seems that on this page of mine:
Example: https://blog.kothea.com/2017/06/22/renovating-a-rundown-property-where-to-start/
the anchor text: “RAC Home and Contents insurance”
which points to https://www.rac.co.uk/insurance/home-insuranceis being hijacked by skimlinks.
your terms of reference clearly state that you only will “Occasionally, some of your visitors may see an advertisement here. You can hide these ads completely by upgrading to one of our paid plans.”
ie you make absolutely no mention ANYWHERE of ALLOWING my links to be hijacked and yet you are doing it.
Please STOP ASAP.
FYI: the blog.kothea.com (ie kothea.wordpress.com) has paid for services with a recently renewed redirect and I have also paid for the CSS upgrade. I don’t mind the ad appearing at the end but I utterly object to my links being taken over. and I do not think that my objection is in anyway unreasonable.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi,
WordPress.com does show advertising sometimes, including affiliate advertising such as Skimlinks, on sites. These ads help keep the free features of WordPress.com free. :) To eliminate ads entirely, you can upgrade your site to one of the paid plans: https://en.support.wordpress.com/no-ads/
Since you mention you have paid services already on your site, I’ve tagged this post with ‘modlook’ so that a staff member can look at your account and let you know your options.
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Hi there,
Where exactly are you seeing this? If I click on your site on the anchor text, RAC Home and Contents insurance, I get taken to the link, https://www.rac.co.uk/insurance/home-insurance . That link is not being redirected to any other service, so I don’t see what you mean by saying that it’s being hijacked.
I also see no mention of Skimlinks in the source code:
https://cloudup.com/c1tnbrlPfzC
If you’re being redirected somewhere else when you click on that link it is most likely a malicious browser add-on doing it. I suggest you download a malware scanner like Malwarebytes to check for that.
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@kopkkieh
According to Supernovia, WP.com “sometimes use skimlinks with logged out views”.
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i think you need to dig a little deeper. Perhaps look at other forum posts (search SKIM LINKS or look at this https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-clean-up-affiliate-links-on-my-blog?replies=22#post-2941087) and consider the behaviour of wordpress.com’s advertising.
I would appreciate a formal statement “for and on behalf of wordpress inc” if you are certain that this behaviour is not happening BECAUSE of wordpress’s inherent behaviour.
I FULLY understand malware issues.
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Please read my reply properly. I said I see no evidence of skimlinks appearing anywhere in the post provided. I am replying to the specific issue in this thread, not making any statements regarding WordPress.com policies on advertising.
I checked that post both logged in and logged out and can see no evidence of Skimlinks being used. This means it’s likely not coming from us, but from another source.
Skimlinks also won’t hijack a link, which means redirecting it somewhere else than you intended for it to go. At most it would append the link with some affiliate code, but the destination of the link won’t be changed. If you don’t want that to happen, you can purchase one of our plans which include the No Ads upgrade.
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hi
I read your original reply properly, thank you. And in the op I clearly state where the behaviour is happening.
I also read this thread https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-clean-up-affiliate-links-on-my-blog?replies=22#post-2941087
clearly wordpress only show advertising intermittently and not in all circumstances. I am like you in that, personally, I cannot see the behaviour happening when I am either logged in or not logged in.
HOWEVER other people using my blog report this behaviour to me. It’s unlikely that 3 people from 3 different organisation are each infected with the malware you suggest (although possible, I admit).
However after reading the aforementioned thread from a few months back it seems clear that OTHER wordpress users have had the same or similar issues.
Reading your reply at the end you say “Skimlinks also won’t hijack a link, which means redirecting it somewhere else than you intended for it to go. At most it would append the link with some affiliate code, but the destination of the link won’t be changed. If you don’t want that to happen, you can purchase one of our plans which include the No Ads *MIGHT* well use skimlinks. and then you suggest I pay to upgrade to a service which stops something happening…which you don’t admit to it happening.
So i’m REALLY confused.
so the problem seems to be that neither you nor I can see the problem because of the way wordpress serves advertising. please can you dig a little deeper.
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I don’t understand what more you want me to do.
I don’t see any skimlinks being used on your site. But even if they are showing to other users, they’re not hijacking the links, they’re just adding affiliate code to the links while the links still go to the same place you want them to go. It doesn’t affect the way the link works at all.
If the skimlinks your readers are seeing are being added by us, adding an upgrade plan will stop those from appearing. But we are not the only possible source of those links, as there are a multitude of browser extensions and toolbars, legitimate and malicious/hidden, that use skimlinks to monetise links on websites viewed in the browser. In that case, the links will only be visible to the person who has the browser add-on installed.
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and if so I want it stopped
that is NOT advertising. it is the malicious interference with my content
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Your content is not being edited and the links are not being redirected. If we’re adding skimlinks to a link we’re just monetising the link, but it makes no difference to how the link works and does not affect you or any of your site’s visitors in any way.
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in the experience of 3 of my readers that is wrong
in the experiences mentioned in the thread referred to above that is wrong. -
If the link is being redirected, can you please tell me where it is going instead of the link you added, https://www.rac.co.uk/insurance/home-insurance ?
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one visitor listed these:
wordpress.redirectingat.com; awin1.com; zenaps.com; ad.doubleclick.net;
he said “. Screenshot attached. I use a tool called ‘redirect path’ which shows you the different places a link directs to before going to the correct place. ”
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Sorry to butt in, but just to clarify – in the previous thread, links were being redirected through http://wordpress.redirectingat.com/
While visitors were being redirected, they ultimately ended up in the same end location as they original link they clicked.
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