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Looks like Humble Bundle removed their current partner program
Liam Dawe Oct 4
Today I went to look at how this month was going for GamingOnLinux's Humble Bundle partnership and....it's gone. They removed it entirely. The support site FAQ entries for it are all gone too.

One page of the partner section now redirects to impact.com, so it looks like they're moving to an external provider for it (like GOG and Fanatical do). Problem is: Humble haven't said a word to partners on this, and they still owe payments directly for last month and whatever was accrued so far this month. Oh, and my impact account I seem to have from years ago was disabled at some point, so I'm currently trying to get them to unlock it.

This is a big problem, because it was quite a high percentage of GamingOnLinux funding.

So once again, I'm asking for your direct support: https://www.patreon.com/liamdawe

Honestly, if Humble really has entirely removed it and moved it elsewhere, a lot of the partner links from an external service will likely be blocked by plugins often like they are for GOG links, so even if I can get impact to unlock my account, it's going to be a big hit on overall finances.

Happy Friday, I guess.
BlackBloodRum Oct 4
Well that's just shit, isn't it?

Hopefully they pay out for the most recent referrals, and fix it. Not much I can do or say other than simply hope it gets sorted.

Sorry to hear it though, that sucks.
Liam Dawe Oct 4
Yeah, if this doesn't get sorted, to be blunt: there's gonna be some hard decisions to be made about the future.
BlackBloodRum Oct 4
Got to do what you gotta do.

Though, I guess for now try to remain optimistic. It might get sorted, maybe contact them or something. If not.. well. It's decision time.
d10sfan Oct 4
Hope you're able to get it sorted! Out of curiosity what are the biggest expenses? Server costs for the site, the time working on it, living etc?

If it is server costs theres probably some stuff that can make that can make that cheaper like using things like cloud flare pages or other static content hosting but that'd require a good chunk of work and thinking about how the interactive stuff of the site like comments and forum.

I've done some pretty cool things with cloud flare pages and their workers but it does take a architecture shift.

Last edited by d10sfan on 4 October 2024 at 6:05 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Oct 4
Living costs are the biggest expenses, this is my job.
BlackBloodRum Oct 4
Living costs are the biggest expenses, this is my job.
Life as a Linux news blogger:
- Write about Linux and Linux games all day. Goes home to play on windows to find a break from all that linux.

Just kidding!

Joking aside, hope that you get his stuff sorted.
Liam Dawe Oct 4
Humble confirmed they've moved their partner program to Impact, and say they emailed people on a specific mailing list I wasn't on. Sigh.

My Impact account seems disabled, so I can't do anything until Impact unlock it.

So basically any Humble Bundle purchases using our current (old) link after October 1st do nothing. I've removed it from the Support Us page.

Last edited by Liam Dawe on 4 October 2024 at 7:34 pm UTC
whizse Oct 4
Have you considered raising the subscription price for each level? It seems to have gone unchanged, at least from 2020?

What with cost of living increases, a smallish raise doesn't seem unfair.
Liam Dawe Oct 4
Have you considered raising the subscription price for each level? It seems to have gone unchanged, at least from 2020?

What with cost of living increases, a smallish raise doesn't seem unfair.
Yeah, good idea.

I actually reduced the starter Supporter level from $5 to $4 years ago too. So it seems like a sane idea. I've "unpublished" the current Supporter tier (just hides it) and put up a new Supporter tier at $5.50. For comparison, Phoronix monthly is $6.

It's only a $1.50 increase, but my hope is people still go for it (either new or some move over to it), and maybe it will get a few to instead pick the Plus option that's $7.

It does complicate things a bit though on the Patreon linker, but I'll keep that checking at $4+ for now for the badges and eventually see if I can actually get it to pick up the tiers rather than price paid by people.

Last edited by Liam Dawe on 4 October 2024 at 8:59 pm UTC
whizse Oct 4
It's only a $1.50 increase, but my hope is people still go for it
Already switched over. Only 97 others to convince!

Come on people, let's give Liam a raise!
Liam Dawe Oct 4
Currently working through their new one, reading all the legal stuff on it and going through approvals. All hope is not lost, but even once this is sorted, it's still a huge blow and much less revenue compared to Humble's original direct system. Sigh.
Liam Dawe Oct 5
Got approved on the new one, still have to work through signing the legal stuff, but new links are live. Let's see how it goes. Although the links are blocked right away by ublock since it's an external service *sigh*.
tuubi Oct 5
My paranoid browser plugins won't let me use the new affiliate links, but I upped my Patreon subscription to the Supporter Plus level to compensate. Not that I even remember when I last bought something from Humble. Anyway, hope that helps.
Liam Dawe Oct 5
My paranoid browser plugins won't let me use the new affiliate links, but I upped my Patreon subscription to the Supporter Plus level to compensate. Not that I even remember when I last bought something from Humble. Anyway, hope that helps.
Thank you so much! And to everyone else who ups <3
Ehvis Oct 5
Annoying indeed. Looks like Humble wanted more money and decided to take it from the partner program. Considering the audience of GOL and their stance on privacy and security, I concur with your prediction that this will take a sizeable chunk out of it as I highly doubt most people will play ball with such parties.

I personally wouldn't mind if you upped the plus a bit as well.
Thibug Oct 5
Joined the Patreon, thank you for your hard work Liam. The fact that they didn't even bother contacting the partners property... Humble Bundle has been going downhill for some time now
tuubi Oct 5
Humble Bundle has been going downhill for some time now

They were already on the way down when IGN bought them in 2017.
emphy Oct 10
Humble Bundle has been going downhill for some time now

They were already on the way down when IGN bought them in 2017.

Humble indie bundle 19 was the last bundle I got there, back in 2018. Have there been any core bundles (i.e.: native linux, drm-free) since then?

Last edited by emphy on 10 October 2024 at 6:14 am UTC
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