That's funny, because a few weeks ago somebody did the same exact thing but with books and no affiliate links. All the comments were about how he should add affiliate links, and that HN appreciates projects which make money.

I think you mean this discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5485653. It's about the same project actually. It didn't have affiliated links then.

Full disclosure: I'm the author.

That's brilliant. :D Perfect example of HN's contrarian nature. Looks like the commenters will never be happy, so keep the affiliate links and hopefully get a beer out of it at minimum.

HN is a broad community. If you use some kind of average or "what is the top most voted post" as your "what is HN's verdict" you will get different results every time.

It would be boring and a giant circle-jerk if every member had the same opinion. What would we discuss then?

I have no problem with him making money for posting something. I wish everyone on here was able to capitalize in some way for their work.

it's unethical that the OP is financially rewarded for building something?

Considering the affiliate links offer the exact same user experience as if they didn't use affiliate links, I find you comment perplexing.

To me the dividing line is more a question of motivation. Some things with affiliate links are written because the person genuinely wants to say something about the subject, and then adds in affiliate links to get a little money without (as you note) diminishing the user experience at all. But other things are written solely as scaffolding for the affiliate links, content-farm style. The latter I think generally add noise, while the former are unobjectionable. It's not always clear which is which, though it's clearer at the extremes.

Sorry if it feels like that. Main link goes straight to IMDB, it's non-affiliated. I show general opt-out link in the sidebar. Other pages have both affiliated and non-affiliated links in the lists of items.