Referral Link In Post Is Allowed?

[Lucius]

Most of forum members know that posting referral links in posts is against forum rules, and any such post that is reported is deleted or edited. This would be a common practice, but I wonder if there are exceptions to this rule? The reason for this question is that there is a user who post referral links in hist posts for very long time, and every post I reported to moderators is stay unhandled indefinitely.

I recently had the opportunity to write something about it, and user stompix is post something from theymos, which may explain the exception to the rule.

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.

However, I think most will agree that this user cannot use an exception to the rule for his referral link posting. What is your opinion on this?

User profile : Joca97
Threads with referral links : 1 & 2

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[3dOOm]

Most of forum members know that posting referral links in posts is against forum rules, and any such post that is reported is deleted or edited. This would be a common practice, but I wonder if there are exceptions to this rule? The reason for this question is that there is a user who post referral links in hist posts for very long time, and every post I reported to moderators is stay unhandled indefinitely.

I recently had the opportunity to write something about it, and user stompix is post something from theymos, which may explain the exception to the rule.

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.

However, I think most will agree that this user cannot use an exception to the rule for his referral link posting. What is your opinion on this?

User profile : Joca97
Threads with referral links : 1 & 2

Hi, looks like his ref link is added only to see how many people are joining his services from the Bitcointalk forum.

[rosezionjohn]

I don't think it should be allowed but those threads have been running for years already and I guess the admin/mods has considered them as substantial and useful (to gamblers).

[SaltySpitoon]

There are exceptions to posts containing referral links being allowed. You are not allowed to create a thread for the purpose of posting your referral link. You may be given some leniency if your post contains a (non hidden) referral link but its just a minor part of the post. A kind of parallel example being Youtube home project videos where someone uses a product in their video and provides links to where someone can buy them.

Its safer to say that referral links are banned because more often than not people misuse them and spam. If you use a bit of care you can get away with using them.

I'm not super familiar with the gambling section's rules, but a lot of things seem to be given a bit of leeway. The thread that you linked could also be considered bump spam, but there may be a reason its acceptable.

[mk4]

Hi, looks like his ref link is added only to see how many people are joining his services from the Bitcointalk forum.

I get what you mean, but no. In the case of Joca97's posts, it's a referral link of NitrogenSports. I don't think we even know if Joca97 is directly affiliated with NitrogenSports or if he/she is just heavily advertising it for personal gain from the referrals.

There are exceptions to posts containing referral links being allowed. You are not allowed to create a thread for the purpose of posting your referral link. You may be given some leniency if your post contains a (non hidden) referral link but its just a minor part of the post. A kind of parallel example being Youtube home project videos where someone uses a product in their video and provides links to where someone can buy them.

But how would you surely know if the post was created solely to advertise referral links? There's no way to know for sure. As far as I know referral links in posts aren't allowed regardless of intention, but posting external articles with referral links is allowed as Theymos have said in a reply in the past.

[SaltySpitoon]

But how would you surely know if the post was created solely to advertise referral links? There's no way to know for sure. As far as I know referral links in posts aren't allowed regardless of intention, but posting external articles with referral links is allowed as Theymos have said in a reply in the past.

Moderators can tell. It becomes second nature after a while. 99.9% of posts have very transparent intentions. The ones that are questionable are very rare, and in those cases moderators will either ask for other opinions, or err on the side of caution and not delete the post.

If you are talented enough to disguise your spam to the point where a group of people used to seeing thousands of reports per day have to carefully consider it, then its not spam.

[hugeblack]

every post I reported to moderators is stay unhandled indefinitely.

It is unhandled, not bad.
This means that mod has not made a decision whether it violates the rules of the forum, in other words, are acceptable.
I remember that I posted a referral link when I was a newbie but relevant and gave the members the option not to use it *If s/he doesn't want to support me* and the post was not deleted.
So this rule varies according to the mod's opinion.

[Lucius]

SaltySpitoon, I do not see this user is doing anything except bumping his threads with referral links, there is no benefit for this forum or anyone else except him. Given the number of users of that board, Joca97 is making very nice profit from referrals, and personally, I have nothing against that.

What is problematic here is way how someone can do something that others are not allowed to do, because there were more of them who are doing same thing, but for some reason all are stopped in that.

If we look first post in one of his threads, we can see [mod note: removed ref spam], which means that such a thing was not allowed before.

I'd like to hear an opinion of mods / admins regarding this issue.

[malevolent]

Looks like refspam to me, nothing but pages and pages of his posts (>7k posts). As noted above, mprep has already removed his reflinks in one of this threads, and yet he keeps on posting them.

Another thing, why does he have two very similar threads?

[hilariousetc]

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).

[Lucius]

Looks like refspam to me, nothing but pages and pages of his posts...
Another thing, why does he have two very similar threads?

Exactly, nothing more or less than that, I never see why it is allowed for someone to operate in such way. Two thread is because he want more exposure, one is for soccer and other for tennis / basketball.

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).

Does this mean that anyone can open a similar thread (new members excluded), and by posting 2-3 free tips per day promoting referral link/s? To my knowledge, no other tipster promotes referral links in posts.

[hilariousetc]

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).

Does this mean that anyone can open a similar thread (new members excluded), and by posting 2-3 free tips per day promoting referral link/s? To my knowledge, no other tipster promotes referral links in posts.

It doesn't mean anything really. I am only one mod and others may feel differently. As I said, ref links are technically against the rules in most cases and they'll also be taken on a case by case basis but as you said there's not that many that do and I doubt many of them make much from them anyway. Again, I personally am not that bothered by them if someone is being helpful by offering tips but that's just me. Some users clearly put more effort in to them than others. Joca97's use of them seems fine to me, personally.

[eternalgloom]

I've had a question regarding this for a long time, but it always seemed not worthwhile enough to create my own topic about it.
I have an overview thread in the Altcoin Service Discussion board, where I could potentially add a single referral link in the listings.

Would that be allowed, since the thread itself is not meant to be used for getting referrals?

Here's the thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3242065.0 (Overview of Universal Basic Income Crypto Projects [24 Projects Listed])

I could only make the Manna listing a referral link, I mean it wouldn't even be worth it honestly, but it would be nice to get something out of it to keep updating it.

[Mbitr]

Sorry to bring up this old thread , but didn’t really want to start a new thread where this thread is almost the same .
I notice that frequently in the OFF TOPIC section of the forum I see posts with referral links
Today’s example
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5248379.0

I was just wondering if this is allowed ? This thread I’ve bumped concentrated on the gambling section of the forum, but I’m more interested with the OFF TOPIC section.
Referral links are officially against the rules , but in OFF TOPIC does it really matter ?

[Timelord2067]

User profile : Joca97

Funniest thing - I got contacted by Joca97 seven times today asking that I remove my red trust feedback (from four years ago) for his alt's ponzi activities that he claims he didn't do.

Does anyone else have any information on this user please?

[rhomelmabini]

Does anyone else have any information on this user please?

Hey guys, you all know me! I'm Joca97 and I am a tipster on this forum

He has considerable amount of post history so I dig on his history of created topics and I found that one. I think he's more likely an affiliate marketer, IMHO.

Referral links are officially against the rules , but in OFF TOPIC does it really matter ?

Off-topic still belongs in the forum so it still applies there, no exceptions, it's rules of the forum. If leave unattended they'll just exploit that board, best it should be still included on moderation.

[Mbitr]

Thanks for the reply @rhomelmabini.
Will report to mod as necessary 

[Csmiami]

I've been having a doubt for a couple of months, and this thread looks like the place for it...

I know that referal links are not allowed; but are they allowed IF you are:

1)clearly stating that it is a referal link
2)providing the same link with referal link

Example....
I'm talking about a website I use and blablabla. When I finish the text wall; I provide the link this way:

Link to the site: bitcointalk.org
Referal link to the site: bitcointalk.org/ref/903175

If you want to help use the ref link, blablabla.

Providing the ref link, with a non ref link option is allowed? For my reading of the rules, I'd say no; but it looks like a different case than simply spamming the link and hiding it under links

[Timmzzy]

Most of forum members know that posting referral links in posts is against forum rules, and any such post that is reported is deleted or edited. This would be a common practice, but I wonder if there are exceptions to this rule? The reason for this question is that there is a user who post referral links in hist posts for very long time, and every post I reported to moderators is stay unhandled indefinitely.

I recently had the opportunity to write something about it, and user stompix is post something from theymos, which may explain the exception to the rule.

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.

However, I think most will agree that this user cannot use an exception to the rule for his referral link posting. What is your opinion on this?

User profile : Joca97
Threads with referral links : 1 & 2

If he has come out full plain that its a ref link I believe the administrators have their methods of handling such matters at hand we should not condemned it yet yes we know Ref link is not allowed in Bitcointalk forum.

[hilariousetc]

Does anyone else have any information on this user please?

Hey guys, you all know me! I'm Joca97 and I am a tipster on this forum

He has considerable amount of post history so I dig on his history of created topics and I found that one. I think he's more likely an affiliate marketer, IMHO.

Referral links are officially against the rules , but in OFF TOPIC does it really matter ?

Off-topic still belongs in the forum so it still applies there, no exceptions, it's rules of the forum. If leave unattended they'll just exploit that board, best it should be still included on moderation.

It probably depends how you define affiliate marketer, but I've always just seen him as a gambler who is offering tips and trying to get a little extra coins to gamble with. I suppose using ref links can be quite lucrative but at the same time you usually only get peanuts but the more your post your links everywhere the more you'll collect and I guess that's why they're mostly seen as spam.

I've been having a doubt for a couple of months, and this thread looks like the place for it...

I know that referal links are not allowed; but are they allowed IF you are:

1)clearly stating that it is a referal link
2)providing the same link with referal link

Example....
I'm talking about a website I use and blablabla. When I finish the text wall; I provide the link this way:

Link to the site: bitcointalk.org
Referal link to the site: bitcointalk.org/ref/903175

If you want to help use the ref link, blablabla.

Providing the ref link, with a non ref link option is allowed? For my reading of the rules, I'd say no; but it looks like a different case than simply spamming the link and hiding it under links

Not really. Many people post them along with the regular link and they're still removed. It doesn't really matter whether they're hidden or out in the open as they're generally not allowed because they're just inherently seen as spam.