Free Amazon gift... so it says.. (need some help)

It's all good, I appreciate the discussion.

If one deems the site finances to be none of their business and doesn't care about that then I acknowledge anyone's right to such a viewpoint, but at the same time the moment there is any inkling of any questionable ethical practice or potential exploitation then I think it becomes the business of anyone who cares to make it their business. I certainly don't expect something like this to be run as a charity and I have no problem with a reasonable level of advertising and even soliciting donations through Patreon, but where I absolutely have to draw the line is with the affiliate/referral links that are injected into every applicable link on the site for the simple reason that it is profiting off of someone else's work/activities whether they approve of it or not. The "Referrals" setting in your account here is a bit of a red herring and is largely a placebo. That is to say it only addresses part of the equation and of what you would think/hope suggested by the name. It only disables referral/affiliate links for those that you click on and not for any link that you may have created that others may click on. That means that any link you've ever posted is essentially potentially 'hijacked' and injected with someone else's referral. I understand that there are people here who won't or don't care but I do. I am not okay with that. As a particular example, if I put in a bunch of legwork posting deals for the benefit of others I don't think it's right that someone else is profiting off of my work even if it was done as nothing more than a labor of love. It just seems dishonest to me and my view of such is a personal choice. And just as I would not try to tell someone else what their rights are with any creative work of theirs is I would hope that they would afford the same to others. At the end of the day this is CG's site and he can do what he wants with it, but that doesn't mean that anyone should have to be content with blindly accepting what is put in front of them or being made to be a mere sheep without questioning things.

Aside from this and so that one may understand where I am coming from, I will say that I have an innate distrust of business persons, corporations, or for that matter any party that stands to profit from something or otherwise has a conflict of interest insofar as the perspective of the every day down-to-earth average joe is concerned. It seems like people are always trying to screw or exploit one thing or another or each other all the time. I'm not saying it's everyone and there are certainly some legitimate straight arrows and genuine people out there, but as far as I am concerned there's way more than enough of the ugly/dishonest shit or bad eggs to ruin it for everyone else. Considerable life experience has taught me this and cynicism and distrust is my default position as a result. I'm sorry if that offends anyone's personal belief system or faith in humanity but I call it like it see it and that to me is the reality, bleak as it may sound. If someone thinks that makes me seem like a cynical bastard then so be it. I'm a realist.