Does forum allow referral link?

[RapTarX]

As far as I know, referral link isn’t allowed on the forum, is it? But before going public on a particular issue I have in my mind (I don't want to share it now as it can harm user's reputation).
Do you know any such rules which have an exception for sharing referral link? I'm not talking about tracking link, BTW. People may use a tracking link to check out how there bitcointalk journey going on.
But what about sharing referral link of gambling sites? I guess it's not allowed. Please share if forum has any exception for this rule.

[Coyster]

As far as i know referral links are not allowed, and the only exceptions i can think of is adding a referral link to your signature if you are on a signature campaign, that is of course if the campaign manager agrees to such.
After i used the search button, i found this, they are old posts, but contains some information on your enquiry:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=987366.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5178992.0

[dkbit98]

As far as I know, referral link isn’t allowed on the forum, is it? But before going public on a particular issue I have in my mind (I don't want to share it now as it can harm user's reputation).
Do you know any such rules which have an exception for sharing referral link? I'm not talking about tracking link, BTW. People may use a tracking link to check out how there bitcointalk journey going on.
But what about sharing referral link of gambling sites? I guess it's not allowed. Please share if forum has any exception for this rule.

It's not allowed to post ref links in your post or spam with them, but there could be some exceptions if you follow the rules.
You can share your own referral link as part of your personal signature, or you can add it in one of empty spaces in your profile links.
Some people even have short links under their avatars, and that is perfectly in line with forum rules.

[RickDeckard]

Your question shares a lot of similarities with this[1] one posted some time ago by Lucius. Here are two views, one according to theymos and another to hilariousetc:

However, if you are using the forum as a publishing platform to host something really substantial and useful, selling ads in that substantial work is allowed. To be eligible for this, your post must be in a topic that you started, and your post must be substantial and long enough to make the ad seem entirely insignificant. If in doubt, ask me.

Technically they're against the rules, but people kinda started to get a free pass in the Gambling Discussion sub a while back. Personally, I don't really care about them regarding users like tipsters who are giving their picks away for free and include a ref link if anyone wants to put the bet through them. At least they're putting some effort or at least thought into their posts, but I'm sure many others (including mods) would disagree. If someone just signs up to post a ref link though that would be a different story. Theymos will probably say take them on a case by case basis but I'm sure everyone has a different opinion on in what context they should or shouldn't be allowed (especially regarding tipsters).

There are exceptions, but there's also room for interpretation between staff members. In this scenario I would say that we can't really help you further until you post the reason that led you to ask this question and then we can share our opinion regarding such evidence / referral link.
[1]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5178992.0

[RapTarX]

You can share your own referral link as part of your personal signature, or you can add it in one of empty spaces in your profile links.
Some people even have short links under their avatars, and that is perfectly in line with forum rules.

I should have mentioned on post 

There are exceptions, but there's also room for interpretation between staff members. In this scenario I would say that we can't really help you further until you post the reason that led you to ask this question and then we can share our opinion regarding such evidence / referral link.
[1]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5178992.0

Thank you for the links. It seems like there are exception and I wouldn’t be surprised if the thread I have in my mind is an exception as well. OP of that thread have some good quality overall though personally I don’t like his way of sharing referral links in his thread.

I will report the post; I would do it earlier but wanted to be confirmed whether there are exception. Will check if mod takes any step.
I'll lock the thread in few hours.

[tranthidung]

You can use it in

• Signature
• Personal text
• Website URL in your profile page

but referral links are not allowed in forum posts.

[LoyceV]

The "unofficial rules" show this:

4. No referral code (ref link) spam. [1]

The keyword there is spam. Many signature campaigns show their signature in the OP, including reflink. I reported (quite a while ago) a topic in Games and rounds with reflink, but it didn't get deleted.

When I was still a clueless a Newbie I also discovered the great money making potential of spamming reflinks. I posted 3 of them. This was the result:

Code:

Read 	June 30, 2015, 08:57:35 PM 	Deleted Post 	Bitcoin Forum 	
Read 	July 01, 2015, 07:11:10 AM 	Deleted Post 	Bitcoin Forum 	
Read 	July 01, 2015, 11:49:47 AM 	Deleted Post 	Bitcoin Forum

I learned my lesson

[Smartvirus]

You can use it in

• Signature
• Personal text
• Website URL in your profile page

but referral links are not allowed in forum posts.

This is correct. I've heard a few times when it's been done in signatures although, it's often against most company policies on signature participants and the company/campaign policies might apply if found out but, the truth is, it could be done either ways and the benefit that follows be accorded the participants. Other forms follows as quoted above.

Other than those, posting a referrer or redirectory link to some less moderated platform for a more precise and convincing discussion or a business oriented form of discussion is considered dangerous or could be regarded as a phishy link and the post could be deleted if reported. Exceptions could be given to posting links to informative links but, not referrers.

[Pmalek]

Thank you for the links. It seems like there are exception and I wouldn’t be surprised if the thread I have in my mind is an exception as well. OP of that thread have some good quality overall though personally I don’t like his way of sharing referral links in his thread.

I will report the post; I would do it earlier but wanted to be confirmed whether there are exception. Will check if mod takes any step.
I'll lock the thread in few hours.

Before you report that person's post, why not check with them first? I would personally not feel very good about myself if I got a good and contributing member of Bitcointalk into trouble because I reported him for referral link spamming. Imagine if the person got banned or temp-banned for that? If that's his only 'crime', it could be corrected before submitting a report maybe. Or perhaps the user in question already discussed it with someone from the staff and they are OK with it.   

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

I guess it's not allowed. Please share if forum has any exception for this rule.

It's not allowed and there should be no exception. If anyone have referral link in their posts and if the link is there to click and visit the site then this should be considered as breaking the rules for not putting referral link. You are allowed to have any kind of link in your signature area except phishing links. If caught on advertising phishing links then you could be banned.

The keyword there is spam. Many signature campaigns show their signature in the OP, including reflink. I reported (quite a while ago) a topic in Games and rounds with reflink, but it didn't get deleted.

My best guess is because they were not there to intent of getting clicks but to use the code, no mater they were under code tag or not. The rules will be applied if the referral link is there to get clicks on the site.

[Mahdirakib]

I reported (quite a while ago) a topic in Games and rounds with reflink, but it didn't get deleted.

I'm wondering why the moderators haven't taken any action on the reported topic. Moderators usually delete/edit the topic/post content which contains referral links. A few days ago, I have reported 4 posts of user martingalecalculator.com and all of those posts were deleted by the moderators. Check his post history: https://loyce.club/archive/members/340/3406525.html

Before you report that person's post, why not check with them first? I would personally not feel very good about myself if I got a good and contributing member of Bitcointalk into trouble because I reported him for referral link spamming. Imagine if the person got banned or temp-banned for that?

I agree with this part. RapTarX need to inform the user first if he/she makes good quality posts on regular basis. The user may get ban if he/she does it frequently. As example: user ProfHelps got banned for spamming with affiliate link in the forum.

Hi, I think action should be done against this user ProfHelps. the user keeps creating a thread with his referral link to nitrobetting.eu. e clearly does not care about the rules. if you check the loyce.club link below you'll see that this is not the first time that this user's post/thread has been deleted.
https://loyce.club/archive/members/344/3449772.html

[Quickseller]

The "unofficial rules" show this:

4. No referral code (ref link) spam. [1]

The keyword there is spam. Many signature campaigns show their signature in the OP, including reflink. I reported (quite a while ago) a topic in Games and rounds with reflink, but it didn't get deleted.

A good way of looking at if a post is ref link spam is if the post would have been made if the ref link was not in the post.

For example, in a signature campaign OP, there are sometimes ref links in the signatures so performance of the campaign can be tracked. In these cases, the post would have been made if the ref link was not present. In other cases, someone might create a thread talking about a site, or responding to a post with a ref link to the site in question. In these cases, it is probably fair to say the person would not have made the post if they were not posting a ref link.

[LoyceV]

A good way of looking at if a post is ref link spam is if the post would have been made if the ref link was not in the post.

In general, I agree. But not in this case: OP sent me which post it's about. In this case, I don't think it would have been made without ref links, because the entire service seems to be designed around referrals. But I also don't consider it spam, and it took a lot of effort to post.

[Pmalek]

OP sent me which post it's about. In this case, I don't think it would have been made without ref links, because the entire service seems to be designed around referrals. But I also don't consider it spam, and it took a lot of effort to post.

That got me curious and now I want to know what it is as well. LoyceV don't make it public please, but if you or RapTarX could PM me the link to the post in question, I would really appreciate it. Let's see if my opinion is different from yours. 

Quickseller makes a good point also.

[Mahdirakib]

That got me curious and now I want to know what it is as well. LoyceV don't make it public please, but if you or RapTarX could PM me the link to the post in question, I would really appreciate it. Let's see if my opinion is different from yours.  

Judging from the post of LoyceV. Maybe RapTarX is talking about some crypto casino review making platform posts (my guess could be wrong though). If this is the case, then there shouldn't be any problem. Because most of the review making sites are affiliated with the betting sites. And some of the review making platform gives exclusive bonuses to those users who create an account through their referral link. The affiliate sites are running a business and their whole service depends on the referrals.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

As far as I know, referral link isn’t allowed on the forum, is it? But before going public on a particular issue I have in my mind (I don't want to share it now as it can harm user's reputation).
Do you know any such rules which have an exception for sharing referral link? I'm not talking about tracking link, BTW. People may use a tracking link to check out how there bitcointalk journey going on.
But what about sharing referral link of gambling sites? I guess it's not allowed. Please share if forum has any exception for this rule.

It's not allowed, straight up,  and FYI, a tracking link that you use to monitor your bitcointalk progress is different from the general referral link we all know.
Personally, I was lucky last year to get just a week ban when I hid a/my referral link in a thread I created  thinking no one is gonna find out, but most of this forum members are wizards  , they sure discovered and reported my thread and that was how the thread got deleted and I banned for seven days, i called my seven day ban lucky because alot of members, even a friend I know, had got banned permanently cus of this same breaking of rules.

So conclusion is referral links are different from tracking links cus referral links are a way to earn money, while tracking links is not, if referral links should be allowed on the forum, spammers will paste it everywhere thereby create chaos on this forum.

My tip for you is that, if you have a referral link which you wish to share, then consider creating a signature code for your rank (its simple to do, just type "how to" on Google.com) and insert your referral link in the code, then wear the signature and start contributing meaningfully to the forum, you wil be amazed at how effective this works.
Goodluck.

[DaveF]

IMO context is important along with how it's done.
As a rule I do not post referral links, and when I do it's obvious and a non referral link is right below it. The few times I have done it you would usually see something like:

http://website/tip_dave   <-Referral link
http://webiste

I'm sure when copy & pasting links I have at times missed something, but I really don't care if others do it or not or how they do it so long as they are not spamming.

The mods, from what I can see vary in if they care or not.

-Dave

[1miau]

I've made a guide on this some time ago: Bitcointalk and reflinks: don't produce refspam, please

If you want to post a referral link, it's not forbidden if you do it according to the community standards. Reflinks can also be allowed in official [ANN]s or similar where it's sure, the reflink is not posted as refspam.
Of course, if people are just here for posting referral links, such posts will be deleted.