skimlinks no longer working

EnglishWelshie

I think the skimlinks is broken and there is nowhere to turn it on or off that I can see. I was going through this comp link here and it fetched up referral link as source=forums.moneysavingexpert.com when clicking on the link to enter the comp.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6469754/e-30-08-17-00pm-win-a-250-tribe-voucher

 I hadn't noticed it since the site upgrade until today but have been noticing recently when clicking on some links that the comp links show login for mse on my roboform toolbar before switching to the competitions website login. Are these hidden referral links does anyone know as if I drag and drop the link to a new tab that doesn't happen.

EnglishWelshie

It has been confirmed here that skimlinks has been turned off on the forum and won't be brought back until they can offer the option to turn them off in settings if you don't want them.  Another broken feature since the update 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80263096#Comment_80263096

mjm3346

A long while ago a particular competition left the "back-end" open so you could get to a spreadsheet where all the entrants were listed and email addresses and names were visible. In addition to that you could see the web addresses where each entry had come from including, where appropriate, the search engine and what search term had been used, what page on MSE had been used etc etc. This was a short weekend break in a local pub that had 1,000s and 1,000s of entries - it was clear from some of the e-mail addresses they had been hit by one of the pay to enter sites.
EDIT found some old info
 A week-end break for 2 at a hotel/pub with no travel expenses received over 24,000 entries (although approx 20,000 of those were from a pay to enter site).

The info from the Tribe comp appears to be standard tracking that would probably normally be hidden

Jenna_Appleseed

If skimlinks have gone, good - always been a bit dodgy that sites can hijack peoples links, sometimes redirecting them to completely different places, so the owners get extra affiliate money.

EnglishWelshie

Not sure if I've been getting myself a bit confused with the skimlinks. Just couldn't understand why a link posted here on a comp would show the source as being from moneysaving expert in the url when clicking through to the comp

mjm3346

EnglishWelshie said:

Not sure if I've been getting myself a bit confused with the snaplinks. Just couldn't understand why a link posted here on a comp would show the source as being from moneysaving expert in the url when clicking through to the comp

Don't know why they showed it but would expect them to know where ever you came from.

EnglishWelshie

mjm3346 said:

EnglishWelshie said:

Not sure if I've been getting myself a bit confused with the snaplinks. Just couldn't understand why a link posted here on a comp would show the source as being from moneysaving expert in the url when clicking through to the comp

Don't know why they showed it but would expect them to know where ever you came from.

I thought that they would only know where you came from if it was set up that way so that it showed where you came from with affiliate links. The comp I posted where I spotted the moneysavingexpert being the source in the url in my first comment does it if you click on the comp link but if you drag and drop the same link there is nothing showing that it came from mse. 

I've had to search a bit but these are the threads where I remembered it being discussed and always thought that there was no tracking involved with snaplinks turned off. This is what led me to think something was broken as I've never seen mse being the source in any links I've clicked through.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6187087/why-are-some-links-actually-redirects-and-not-just-straight-links/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76840928#Comment_76840928

mjm3346

It's doesn't usually show for you to see - I was a forum admin nearly 20 years ago and on the Admin side could see where users were coming from and could set up a block if required - I remember many years ago some competition sites (maybe some of the magazines) were blocking visitors from MSE (possible by accident) and this was long before skimlinks started. (not sure where this fits with GDPR)