I think the main problem we have here is we get the "first cookie win" argument without any answers to our actual questions then we don't hear about you guys for another 6 months after which you give us again the "first cookie rule" and so on.

Absolutely noone is disputing this first cookie rule. It is always nice to hear how the workflow works and can be useful to new webmasters but this is not that answer we are looking for here.

Cookies are domain based so the 1st cookie rule is true if you refer through a chaturbate.com affiliate link but is it also true if a surfer (unregistered user) is on your whitelabel (different domain), then clicks on a broadcaster's chaturbate.com aff. link?
I think in this case the original affiliate gets screwed because the chaturbate.com cookie has not been written by the original affiliate.

Related question: what about subdomains: whitelabel.chaturbate.com, en.chaturbate.com, m.chaturbate.com, ... etc are they all planting a cookie on the top domain also?

================

Your Example 3 requires attention:

There are 3 types of registered users: registered without email, registered with email, registered and paying.
The only thing that can tie a signup to a webmaster is the username, so how do you assess that a change of username would keep the tie with the original affiliate at the database level (which is what counts)?
Some sponsors tie an account to the credit card (encrypted) so in this case true lifetime is possible. But chaturbate's model is different (free signups).

You must have read in this thread that there are broadcasters who proactively ask customers to create a new username under their link "to support them". This behaviour would be exacerbated offline I imagine: (email, private message, c2c conversation, ..)

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Some broadcasters have stopped going live they just have a profile with external links (leaks) which in turn are bad for everyone even them in the long term.
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The website design is altered by the custom icons which not only is a cosmetic issue, but also interferes with core functionalities using overlays.

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Co brand is partially achieved since Chaturbate brand name is still on whitelabels (significantly more n the mobile version) as well as links to chaturbate, ie: more leaks. (I gave details in an earlier thread)

Yeah Drexl. What im wondering too is about example 3. Is our affiliate tied to chaturbate for life via cookie, ip address, email, credit card or something else?. I dont understand how it works when they create a new account at the request of the model yet still remain ours?

Models would not be asking their members to create a new account through their own affiliate link if this would not have the desired effect, meaning the models get the additional 20% revshare. The models can easily check this in their affiliate stats, while webmasters cannot check how and why their customer is suddenly "gone". It's plausible to assume that there is a way that the "first cookie rule" can be overcome. Otherwise models would not be asking for it.

Maybe the user did not come from an affiliate and just found the site via google etc?. If thats the case then the model is stealing the 20% from chaturbate itself

OUCH !!! That's so true , We don't make a penny out of those click or sale.

I had a chat with the rep of CAM4 a little while ago, I ask them the question about their banner traffic and she replied:
" Affiliate traffic dosent see the advertisement ".... :1orglaugh YEAH RIGHT ...
I beleive her so much..... i just stop sending traffic to cam4, It was Very short experienced LOL
she would have more success with a reply like " I don't Know " LMAO.

I agree Bongacam is a leak problem with their new site Spygasm.
( Im really not a fan of Bongacam since Alexandra Rep reply to me on GFY to send my traffic elsewhere few years ago LOL )
BUT at least i give them credit on this honest reply about spygasm: YOU DON'T GET PAY FOR THOSE sale.

That makes sense.

Yes I forgot that. Affiliates send traffic to cb who can then sell their ad spots: free traffic. Happy days!

I am unsure why they allow these links on the profile. One explanation is that it helps take users away from whitelabels to the main site with all the benefits for them we already discussed. Either it is deliberate and it goes against us or they don't know what they are doing (and it also goes against us)

Other sponsors don't allow this and in fact are quite strict about it. For good reasons.

I don't have a problem with them asking to sign up that benefits every one. But there should be no way in hell asking for them to sign up again that is just stupid.

After a few years or a new device the cookie will be lost and we loose them.

No point sending emails as they just seem mad with me when they bother to reply.

The customer is tied to the affiliate by username. The cookie and the device are irrelevant.

I think the cookie lifetime is 30 days. During that time unregistered customers will be yours if they sign up and for the lifetime of their username. Given that they remain on the same domain of course..

Yeah probably why that one model was asking people to sigbup under her affiliate code. Remember she was asking everyone to create the new account name starting with C_

Not sure what's technically possible but couldn't outgoing links to chaturbate urls (including models affiliate sign up links) be redirected to a corresponding url of that particular whitelabel if the room is shown on a whitelabel and not on chaturbate directly?

This issue wouldn't be solved as long as there is conflict of interest between affiliates and broadcasters
Affiliate links should be disabled for cam models but CB definitely won't this one, They care more about the money is coming than us. Then one solution would be left, They should extend cookie lifetime to forever, I'm not sure that it is technically possible or not.

According to this it should be no problem to set a cookie to expire in 2038.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-li...es-expiry-date

Cookies can be lost though. Logging on from a different/new device, reinstall, etc.
It'd be good to re-add the cookie every time the registered user logs in. This would beat some of those "re-registering under the camgirl" tactics.

But still not helpful when the visitor is smart enough to log off, and delete the cookies before re-registering (or simply starting incognito mode in the browser).
For this there should be additional tracking methods next to cookies, eg. some smart IP tracking.

Would be also very effective to move back users to original affiliate if a new user adds a credit card that has been used before on Chaturbate by a different member.

..but then models would block non-chaturbate sites. (they can do this in their settings)

:warning Allowing affiliate links on the site is an aberration!

we can discuss solutions, alternatives and policies all we want, if cb has decided to go down this road there's nothing we can do. we could be here another year.

Despite the setting to opt out of appearance on "chaturbate network sites", opting out of whitelabels makes no sense really. Some affiliates make own profiles, take a lot of snapshots, even video recordings. Some are hard to distinguish from pirate sites. I can see why models want to opt out of that. Also these profiles do not get deleted when the chaturbate model account gets deleted. And there is the issue of geo blocks from models, not sure if existing geo blocks get passed on to affiliates through the API.

But whitelabels, basically just copies of chaturbate, are anothr thing entirely and opting out of these makes no sense in my opinion. I'm all for giving people choices but the choice to opt out of whitelabels breaks the principle and purpose of whitelabels. Model geo blocks should apply to whitelabels too (if they don't, I don't know this).

I know what you mean. In my case i use the API to display live info (nothing that the broadcaster doesn't agree to share) and I don't store metadata even for short time caching.

Other sponsors I use have a technical solution to this: you pass on the current user's IP so the feed returns relevant models. And there is also a mention in the TOS that ip must be passed. Chaturbate could EASILY implement this.

You cannot opt out of the API and remain in whitelabels. The same settings control both.

Anyway, another constraint for webmasters as I see it, we can talk about all problems but then as Punk Barbie rightly said: "there is a lot of moving parts in this thread". So let's focus on one problem: the leaks.

Did Chaturbate change something in the API, or are they having issues?

All my IFrames are giving this error today:

And the thumbnails, some of them display and some don't, seemingly at random.

The Chaturbate Status page indicates no problems. So IDK if I need to do some coding to account for any changes to the API. Or if I just need to wait it out for it to be fixed.

Or, hmm, maybe I just need to restart my XML parser? It has been a while, come to think of it.

My API driven sites seem to be working properly.

.

Thanks sarettah it must be some fuckup on my end, then. I'll look into it. Thanks for the feedback.

Presumably some issues on your end, I tried the links in your sig and got an error.

The Chaturbate API seems to be working for me too at the time I am writing.

Megafapper, how about you apologize for your accusations that chaturbate worked together with Mila_ and some other broadcasters that you mentioned? You were given the tinfoil hat here already. Now man up and apologize for your conspiracy stuff that you spread here.

seriouslee, I wrote only that someone from cb support is working together. not all support.

Bots are still on the first places, good example
https://chaturbate.com/emilybrowm/

I will not write a fake viewers names here, because it was too hard to find them.
CB don't care about bots until it bring them money. So cheaters will be forever on CB.

P.S. Situation is much better right now, but does not good.

Are you morons?
do you really believe in this nonsense.
you think that someone is watching a model because he has a lot of people on the channel.
Morons.
If you do not like a model, you watch a different one.
Do you watch a blank screen on TV or switch to another channel where a nice movie is flying?
I did not know that there were so many morons here.

Condolences for support chaturbate - they must discuss with you.

You are a real people's person, you must be great fun at parties. Yeah, I'm sorry too for everyone at cb support having to read your mails assuming you will approach them with the same tone you write here.

They watch because model on top. Most of users don't scroll down, especially on the mobile devices. Fake viewers allow to stick on the one of the first places where the tokens flow.

More than 2 month many models cheated the system, and support ignored all abuses about it. How can I explain it? Only that someone in cb support works together.
If support did something in time, than it was totally different situation.

Maybe its only my conspiracy theories, BUT if I didn't write here and on the other forum (where I'm banned now), situation was the same.

CB support is DOING SOMETHING now. Final result will be seen in the nearest future.

I wish conversion rate will return to the previous good levels for all webmasters

:mad::( Holy crap, thanks for pointing it out. I am pulling the traffic on that one.

Fuck me once, shame on you.

Of course the model at the top gets the complete popup and
iframe promo traffic of all webmasters.

Im still hoping from an answer from Punker on how example 3 works?

I've narrowed it down to being a hosting problem. GoDaddy business hosting.

"GoDaddy? That's your problem right there."

I know, I know. When GoDaddy works, it works wonderfully. When it doesn't, you're pretty much fucked as far as getting tech support, or getting them to admit to a problem. The only realistic thing I can do is sit back and hope they get it sorted out.

For the record, the error messages I'm getting with the Chaturbate IFrames fluctuate randomly between the 503 error I posted above, and this one:

I'm nowhere close to my limits on disk space, number of files, or anything else. Nothing from Chaturbate, images or video, is saved on the server. All I know is the problem is somehow related to PHP, which I'm using the latest version.

I suspect they over-sell their overall hosting capacity. And instead of upgrading hardware when they reach limits, they try to come up with methods to just make it work. Hence, the baffling errors that pop up from time to time.

</rant>

GoDaddy business hosting ?
Why are you using such an expensive hosting ?
This is VPS or dedicated server ? I think by plans listed on GD it should be week VPS or even shared.

After many readings i decided to use Contabo VPS. I am on their server half a year and did not had any single problem by their side.

CPU: six cores Intel® Xeon® E5-2620v3, E5-2630v4 or 4114 processor
16 GB RAM (guaranteed)
400 GB disk space (100% SSD)
UNLIMITED traffic
400 Mbit/s port
DDoS protection
8.99 €/month

P.S. Sorry for a little off topic post.

These models show up in the iframes as "embed top chat room" so I gather a lot of surfers are watching them.

SO WHAT? embed iframe save cookie anyway. Fuck watchers spenders are important.

Did you read what shit you wrote?

I don't know how to call you, a fucking idiot or a fucking trash.

Good to see you're on track to resolution.

:2 cents: My advice would be to move your stuff over to a new hosting solution. The main issue you have is support is not answering. I recommend M3 Server.

M3 have a bad ass support team that will assist you promptly and they proactively monitor for any issues. :thumbsup

Il recommend Mojohost. Best i have used since i started owning sites

How is everyone doing now? More signups & less revenue for me. One guy vanished that used to give me a good amount... hope he comes back.

How many new spenders has everyone else had this year? I have around 6 new spenders this year but they don't seem to spend much.

Mila has started a campaign displaying her as the victim of discrimination from cb and that megafapper made cb manually take her away from the top spot and cb replaced her with other girls. Ridiculous claim but I'm sure many of her users will believe her.

Milarky_ on twitter.

Megafapper, you are clearly obsessed with a handful of models, you see conspiracies everywhere, you accused cb of cooperating, you published a mail that had "confidentially" in it.
I do not doubt your intentions were okay basically but the way you did it, the confrontational way you wrote created the potential of backfiring against you and it also have Mila a very good starting point for her conspiracies now that cb cooperates with you against her and other models.

So once again, consider an apology, at least towards cb, because they ARE doing something and have acted against bots in chat rooms. Very late and not quick enough but that's the way things are in life and in companies sometimes.