How To Support the Site

[DaveWadding]

If it was a Barbie, then it showed up. Thanks for the three quarters! If everyone made such a gesture, I'd have no fear about this site working out indefinitely! But, they don't.

Still, that makes your gesture all the more appreciated!

It was *TWO* Barbies

[Luke]

DisneyFan, nothing showed up, but if you just placed the orders today, they won't appear until tomorrow.

Dave, only Barbie (Rayla the Cloud Queen) ever showed up. If the other didn't ship, then maybe it is still to come. Otherwise, UD didn't get credited for the referral.

Thanks very much to you two and anyone else who (intentionally or not) uses the links. I can't believe how long the Disney DVDs at list price phase has gone on at Amazon. We're approaching two months soon!

[Evil Genie Jafar]

Hey Lukie.... a couple of weeks ago I bought through the link posted here Justice League S1 and Batman Beyond S1 (as long as another DVD).

Do you get to know who, or at least when, someone supports the site this way?

[DaveWadding]

Dave, only Barbie (Rayla the Cloud Queen) ever showed up. If the other didn't ship, then maybe it is still to come. Otherwise, UD didn't get credited for the referral.

Nope, I surely order 2 Barbies. Got them both at the same time in the same box...

[Luke]

Bummer, Dave!

Hey Lukie.... a couple of weeks ago I bought through the link posted here Justice League S1 and Batman Beyond S1 (as long as another DVD).

Do you get to know who, or at least when, someone supports the site this way?

No, all orders are obviously (and happily) anonymous, which means no privacy fears.

The site was credited for a copy of Batman Beyond S1 and Justice League S1, both shipped out on May 3. If that's what day your copies shipped out (and I'd suspect that they are the only orders for either title this quarter), then you can rest assured that a portion of your order went to this site.

Thank you very much for using our Amazon link, Jafar! It is hugely appreciated. While a few dollars of support might not seem like much, when you consider the difference between that and nothing (which is what the overwhelming majority of site readers/visitors offer in the way of support) and multiply it by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit this site each month, even seemingly small actions can have huge effects.

If everyone did this on a regular basis, there'd be no need for bandwidth concerns, no second thoughts about adding on new features to the forum, more opportunities to provide new, exciting, unique content. Plus, all the site costs would be more manageable, we could even look into paying to advertise the site and ramp up forum membership, and heck, there's even the possibility of getting a snazzier and more uniform design to the site in its entirety.

Alas, all of those are far from becoming a reality, but when people care, they're all possible.

[Evil Genie Jafar]

Yep, that was my order.

Well, with this, it has been a couple of times where I have supported the site (and you already know).

But you don't have to thank me. Really. I mean, if somebody is already going to make a purchase with amazon... why not do it through the site anyways?

Just glad I could cooperate.

PS

1. Besides, this site helps me spend the time and have a blast with people here anyways.

2. Do you like or at least have seen any of these series?

[Disney-Fan]

Did mine come through eventually?

[Luke]

"Good to Great" showed up on .com and "Desperate" showed up on .co.uk. Thanks a lot for the support, DisneyFan2000!

2. Do you like or at least have seen any of these series?

I've seen at least part of one "Batman Beyond" episode that I can remember. Being a big fan of Will Friedle's work on "Boy Meets World", I was curious to see how he was in the title role. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons (probably time conflicts and me rarely getting to watch Saturday morning television), I never saw anymore, though I know a lot of people are quite fond of it. Never seen any of "Justice League" but I'm pretty sure Pals is a fan. Whether that's a recommendation or a warning sign, I'm not quite sure. Just kidding, Palio!

[Disney-Fan]

"Good to Great" showed up on .com and "Desperate" showed up on .co.uk. Thanks a lot for the support, DisneyFan2000!

Anytime Luke! As EGJ said, if I'm going to order off the web why not use it through UD's direct link?

[Kram Nebuer]

Okay, I think I might have supported UD the old way through Amazon when I ordered Disneymania 3 and Disneymania 4 back in late March or Early April 2006, so I don't know if that went through and if I supported or not. I certainly hope I did .

Anyhow, I got fed up with store prices, so I decided to order Animaniacs Vol. 1 through Amazon.

I hope I did this right...so instead of using this old code (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/INSERT NUMBER HERE/thehomeimprovemz) all I had to do was go to Amazon through the new UD link? Right? I did that and did not paste any codes. But now the address for the UD Amazon homepage reads:

Code: Select all

http://www.amazon.com/gp/homepage.html/102-8635470-4000142

and not

Code: Select all

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thehomeimprovemz 

Am I still supporting UD? I'm so confused.

[Luke]

The address of the link you click and the address of the Amazon page that you end up at are usually not the same.

This URL:

Code: Select all

http://www.amazon.com/gp/homepage.html/102-8635470-4000142

represents an individual session of a visit to homepage that may or may not have generated from UD's link.

This URL:

Code: Select all

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thehomeimprovemz

contains the necessary code to credit UD for the referral. When I click it, I get something like the first URL you posted, only with a different session number (the 3-digit/7-digit/7-digit identifier) at the end.

Sometimes you'll see UD's affiliate code (thehomeimprovemz) in the ensuing URL, and sometimes you won't. But if you clicked through a proper UD link and you don't have spyware/scumware on your system, whether or not it looks like an affiliate link after clicking (and the script that enables you to get the little window previewing price and availability likes to remove any evidence of the affiliate ID after the link is clicked), UD should be credited as the referral involves cookies and sessions which go beyond the visible URL.

Hope that answers your question, Kram, and doesn't confuse you with techno-babble.

If you ordered Animaniacs today (Tuesday), I can check and see if any orders went through for that in tomorrow's reports to confirm that you did it right. The old way of linking will work still, too. I just figure that's more of a challenge and since it no longer provides any extra direct-link incentive, it's just as easy to find things from Amazon's homepage through our homepage link.

[Kram Nebuer]

Hope that answers your question, Kram, and doesn't confuse you with techno-babble.

If you ordered Animaniacs today (Tuesday), I can check and see if any orders went through for that in tomorrow's reports to confirm that you did it right. The old way of linking will work still, too. I just figure that's more of a challenge and since it no longer provides any extra direct-link incentive, it's just as easy to find things from Amazon's homepage through our homepage link.

I think I got it all. Thanks for the speedy reply, Luke!

I actually ordered it 10 mintues ago. To make sure the link worked, I tried visiting Amazon through the UD link and then went by simply typing www.amazon.com; both ways I ended up with the individual session address posted above. I think this is because of UD link cookies (lol, I hoped I used that term correctly)? If it doesn't show up in your report, I hope I can cancel the order and do it over again.

On Sunday April 2nd, 2006, I ordered Disneymania 3, Disneymania 4, and The Chronicles of Narnia... 2 Disc Collector's Edition DVD. I don't remember if I did this the old way or the new since you told us the new way on April 1st. If it's possible, could you check reports from that far back to see if I did it right?

I hope I'm not annoying you with my curiosity and confusion. I just really want to help our beloved UD!

[Luke]

I hope I'm not annoying you with my curiosity and confusion. I just really want to help our beloved UD!

You're not annoying me at all; in fact, your willingness to provide support is one of the rare acts which keeps our beloved UD online and going!

Surprisingly, there were actually three orders placed for "Animaniacs" V1 yesterday (all through indirect links), so one of those is probably yours. But there's no probably way to be sure. (If you let me know when it ships, I can see if it shows up among shipped items the next day. That's when the credits actually goes through.)

Unfortunately, none of those items show up in the reports for April 2. But, all three show up as being placed on April 1. Was it maybe close to midnight when you ordered? I think the reports go by Pacific time, so if you were early April 2 on the East Coast, it was still the night before in Seattle, so that may account for it?

Thanks a lot for all of the above! Your thoughtfulness is heartily appreciated! Our fellow forum members (most of whom never purchase anything online or even consider giving anything back) have you and others like you to thank for having this well-maintained, friendly corner of the Internet to discuss Disney and other things (as well as all of the content provided off-site).

So, gratitude is in order for you and others who have, whether they reported it in this thread or not, made repeated efforts to give something back to UD!

[Kram Nebuer]

Surprisingly, there were actually three orders placed for "Animaniacs" V1 yesterday (all through indirect links), so one of those is probably yours. But there's no probably way to be sure. (If you let me know when it ships, I can see if it shows up among shipped items the next day. That's when the credits actually goes through.)

If one of them is mine, then I did do it right? If so, yay!
The confirmation e-mail said it should ship around August 15th, 2006.

Oh, and the things on April 1st were done around midnight Eastern Time, so that could be it unless someone else ordered the same exact thing before I did, but they did it right, lol. I'm glad those worked too!

Thanks a lot for all of the above! Your thoughtfulness is heartily appreciated! Our fellow forum members (most of whom never purchase anything online or even consider giving anything back) have you and others like you to thank for having this well-maintained, friendly corner of the Internet to discuss Disney and other things (as well as all of the content provided off-site).

So, gratitude is in order for you and others who have, whether they reported it in this thread or not, made repeated efforts to give something back to UD!

No problem, I'm glad to help! It's what I do best!

[Lucylover1986]

I hope I did it right. I just pre-ordered The Simpsons Season 8 but I clicked on an Amazon link from here to get onto the site and then did a search to get to the DVD and then pre-ordered it. I got more stuff to buy so if it didn't work I'll do it right next time.

[Luke]

I'll let you know tomorrow for sure, Lucylover, but from the sounds of it, that should have worked just fine. Thanks!

[Kram Nebuer]

Ah! Sorry, Luke; I forget to tell you when my Animaniacs DVD shipped. It came on Saturday, August 12. The e-mail from Amazon that said it had shipped was sent to me on Friday, August 11th at 5:10 AM. I'm not sure if that's when they actually shipped the DVD or if that is when they decided to tell me they did. So anyhow, it either shipped Thursday evening or Friday morning.

[Lucylover1986]

I don't know what's going on with The Simpsons. It came out today but it now says not currently available on Amazon. My order still is saying it'll be shipped the 19th though. I'll see what happens.

[Pluto Region1]

Well I hope someone is watching this thread.... I was about to order several DVDs through UD's Amazon links but what I am noticing and maybe this is the same thing that Kram was trying to ask about, when I clicked through one of UD's "buy this DVD from Amazon" links, the address did not have the usual "http://www.amazon.com/exec/oblidos/ASIN/(insert number)/thehomeimprovemz" that I was expecting to see. I was going to for example, the "high school musical" review page and clicking the "buy from Amazon" link right at the bottom of the DVD review, and what comes up is the Amazon page for that item but the link doesn't
say "home improvemenz." This is what it is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/ explorer/B0007US7C6/2/ref=pd_lpo_ase/002-2038430-7490404?ie=UTF8

Did UD change it's link code with Amazon?

Similar results with the link on the page for "Escape from Witch Mountain/Return to Witch Mountain" and Bedknobs and Broomsticks UD review link.

Also, if I plan to order a non-disney DVD set (2 that I am planning to order are The Thin Man DVD set and Astaire & Rogers Collection) do I follow the instructions for cutting the ASIN number out and pasting it into the "http://www.amazon.com/exec/oblidos/ASIN/(insert number)/thehomeimprovemz"

I have already pre-ordered a copy of TLM and 4 copies of Cars using the UD links so I hope the links are correct.

[hogsmeadhowler]

Hi Luke, just wanted to let you know that I've just ordered The O.C. series 3 from Amazon.co.uk. Hope the commission comes through ok as I really enjoy this site, and want to do my bit to support it. Also glad to see a fellow Father Ted fan - "that money was just resting in my account"