On Affiliate Links, Advertising and Sponsors

I've always tried to be open and forthright here at The Tavern. Have I always succeeded? Sadly, no.

As many, if not most, of you know, clicking on links for RPGNow or DriveThruRPG and making a purchase generates revenue for The Tavern. Generally it's 5% of the purchase, but may be less if a Gift Certificate is used. What many of you don't know is that there is a cookie attached to that click, which will credit purchases made within the next 2 weeks to The Tavern, so long as a new cookie doesn't replace it.

Going forward, we'll be mentioning the presence of an affiliate link whenever one appears in a post. You can remove the affiliate link by using "copy" on the link, pasting the link into a new tab on your browser and deleting from the last "?" or "&" in the link. No one should be forced to use an affiliate link when they make a purchase, although I most certainly do appreciate it when you do. For reference, I make mention of the 5% revenue generated at the top of this page, under the header art and above the RPGNow banner.

The Tavern does not currently accept advertising or traditional sponsorship. To paraphrase The Pundit, "if we did we would still call your stuff shit if we thought it was shit." We'd also need to declare such a relationship prominently in any postings where it could be consider a conflict. Making a "tag" indicating it is "sponsored" wouldn't cut it. Does anyone look at the tags at the bottom of these posts anyway?

Generating revenue is important for the long term success of The Tavern, but not at the expense of the community that IS The Tavern.