Help: Bookshelf
The Bookshelf is a new feature that we have added to suggest books (and other items) that might interest our readers. It is built on Amazon's Associates program, an affiliate system.
How does it work?
We configure an iframe to pull specific titles, along with information like the author, price, and an image of the cover, from Amazon.com. If you click on that link, a cookie is set by Amazon's server. Any purchase at Amazon that you make within the next 24 hours, or any item that you place in your shopping cart within 24 hours and then purchase later, will earn us a commision. It does not have to be the item that we originally linked you to.
The baseline commision is 4%. For certain types of purchases (such as MP3s) and for larger numbers of purchases, it is a higher rate. It does not matter if you buy directly through Amazon or through one of their other sellers.
If you click on one of these links and later decide that you actually hate 10stripe and wretch at the thought of indirectly giving us money, clear your browser's cookies and all will be well.
How are items chosen?
10stripe hand-selects a list of books and other things that we believe you might be interested in. To reiterate: these are individually selected from things we genuinely think you will like. They are not automatically selected by Amazon or anything like that. A real human being sat down and decided that each item you see was worth suggesting. In fact, you can read the full list (the HTML comments identify titles).
Our intent is primarily to display books. However, just like a real bookshelf, other items will occasionally find their way to the Bookshelf. We may eventually rotate in the odd piece of computer hardware (you may not have any computer parts on your bookshelf, but there are usually some on mine) and other such things.
If you would like to suggest an item for inclusion, or have other comments on this program (preferably something more constructive than "You suck, sell-outs!"), please contact us.
What about my privacy?
We do not know what items you shop for or what you buy. Amazon notifies us of items purchased by people refered from this site without any personally identifiable information. So don't be afraid to buy something embarassing; Amazon will know that you bought it, but we will just know that someone somewhere bought it. Amazon has a relevant privacy FAQ.
So 10stripe is now Amazon's shill?
No. 10stripe has a longstanding policy of not kowtowing to advertisers, and that will not change. If Amazon does something that we don't like, and it is relevant to the site, you will hear about it. Our policy of only displaying items that we think are actually good is intended to help prevent any conflicts of interest.
If at any point in time Amazon attempts to assert any editorial control over 10stripe, we will immediately terminate our relationship with them (rest assured that if this happens, you will hear about it). However, we do not believe that there is any reason to fear such meddling.