I propose to whitelist redirection pages of meta affiliate networks like VigLink, Skimlinks, Adgoal/Bee5 (former adtago) and YieldKit. This does NOT influence any visible ads nor does it allow links to these networks to be displayed. However, these rules are necessary for whitelisted sites that use one of these networks.
Quick technical information:
Meta affiliate networks cover affiliate programs from different affiliate networks and allow webmasters to participate in many different affiliate programs without having to apply for each one. Instead of linking to a specific affiliate program you just add a link to the meta network's redirect URL.
Example: You want to link to Buch.de (German book store), so you add this link on your website:
http://redirect.viglink.com/?key=81e2e5 ... w.buch.de/
This link will be blocked by some filter lists but that's no problem. Now assume there is a website on ABP's exception list because it only contains text advertisement. If this site uses VigLink the tracking will not work for many affiliate programs.
Take a look: http://web-sniffer.net/?url=http%3A%2F% ... buch.de%2F
Instead of redirecting to the affiliate network, VigLink loads the tracking URL in an invisible iframe and redirects to Buch.de after 2 seconds. Without an ad blocker this would set an affiliate cookie but with ABP it will not, even if the original page is whitelisted on the exception list because the iframe is embedded on VigLink's site, not on the webmaster's site.
This problem exists with nearly(?) all meta affiliate networks. Some will redirect to the affiliate program's url which works fine with ABP but they do the same thing when the webmaster uses a deep-link and the affiliate program does not support/allow deep links.
Example URLs:
VigLink: http://redirect.viglink.com/?key=81e2e5 ... %2Fshow%2F
adgoal: http://api.smartredirect.de/api_v2/Clic ... %2Fshow%2F (redirects to /redir/clickGate.php?... first)
Bee5: http://bee5.de/goto.php?hash=uZ4EU&host=go.otaku.so
Skimlinks: http://go.redirectingat.com/?id=34208X9 ... 28724&xs=1
I suggest:
- @@||bee5.de/goto.php^$document <- Bee5 (part of adgoal)
@@||redirect.viglink.com^$document <- VigLink
@@||go.redirectingat.com^$document <- Skimlinks
@@||smartredirect.de/redir/clickGate.php^$document <- Adgoal
I don't know about YieldKit. :/