I have to (respectfully) disagree with you. There is literally no difference between what you see as a user whether there are affiliated links or not. So how does letting the guy monetize his project cheapen the thing?
It's not just a random list of products - the site is still the same - a cool list of products determined algorithmically by their mentions on HN. So why not let the guy earn a few bucks for putting it together?
I'd actually argue this is in many ways the perfect use case for affiliate links. The site owner has no bias - he's written a cool script to extract "votes" from the HN community itself, and as a reward for doing so, he should have the right to get a commission on sales. He provides value to the end user by aggregating product mentions, and he provides value to the merchants by highlighting products that might otherwise go un(or, less) noticed.
It's not just a random list of products - the site is still the same - a cool list of products determined algorithmically by their mentions on HN. So why not let the guy earn a few bucks for putting it together?
I'd actually argue this is in many ways the perfect use case for affiliate links. The site owner has no bias - he's written a cool script to extract "votes" from the HN community itself, and as a reward for doing so, he should have the right to get a commission on sales. He provides value to the end user by aggregating product mentions, and he provides value to the merchants by highlighting products that might otherwise go un(or, less) noticed.
Thoughts?