Referral Links

[CrazyLemurs]

Hey all who might be interested!
Before, I've posted links to websites but used my referral code/link in order to receive extra benefits for whatever it is I'm advertising.
And I've had 2 links removed now, on the grounds of "Please do not post referral links!"
I don't really understand why; if the only thing that can come of using a referral link is a benefit, then is there a downside?
And if there isn't really a good reason, I propose we change it to allow referral links xD

[Chris]

The rule itself does actually explain why they aren't currently allowed:


A11. Please do not post links to Internet Marketing which you involves your gain at the expense of our members ~ Referral marketing is a method of internet marketing that relies on gaining new customers by referrals, usually through word of mouth. Referrals can be an annoyance for members, and therefore they are not allowed, they are also not allowed in signatures. This rule also covers sites which pay you per click on certain links.

[CrazyLemurs]

I understand that the rule stops people from posting links that cause other people to get viruses etc or just have to go through a survey for no benefit.
But for some sites, the referral link involves no expense for that person, simply they might be clicking to a site they willingly want to and the referral link is a way for a second person to benefit.
I've got a good example with this site I'm telling everyone to sign up to on MSN xD
By them signing up, the work they produce still earns them the same amount of money (at the best of times, around $2 an hour) but by signing up using a referral link, their referrer gets an extra 10%, at the expense of the site rather than the other user.
So for $2 work, the site pays out $2.20; $2 to the worker and $0.2 to his/her referrer.
Is that banned, and if so which part of the rule does it come under?
For some sites, a referral link actually is easier for the user (as they dont have to google the site they're joining to find it) and doesn't come with a cost to the referred member.
I understand some people might find them annoying, but how much worse is it than linking the normal site itself, which I believe is within rules.
www.google.co.uk isn't that much nicer to look at than www.google.co.uk/abc123

[mrwoooooooo]

Keep them banned please

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Empired]

Keep them banned please
Absolutely agree with this. Alex stop being greedy. You don't need this money ;l

[Kardan]

Theoretically could you not create a loophole by having an image in your signature with the web address on? That wouldn't be posting a link ;)

I've never had a problem with these, never even knew the rule existed.

[xxMATTGxx]

Pretty sure they were banned in the first place due to users being annoyed by threads and posts with such links in. I would rather see them remain banned.

[hamheyelliot]

If we look at them in a slightly different way, referral links can potentially bias the way people recommend websites on the forum. Let's say someone wants a Graphics Card for their PC on a budget, Site A is more expensive than Site B, but Site A offers a referral program - if people are going to link to Site A to make a few pennies, the whole community nature of the forum is going to be put at risk.

[Chippiewill]

There was some referrals service at one point and EVERYONE had them in their signatures and were spamming threads over the matter. Within a week all referral links were banned because people such as myself campaigned hard to have them banned.

[CrazyLemurs]

Elliott, that's part that comes under the "expense of other users". If we make an amendment so that only referral links that cause expense can be removed (some genuinely offer no negative side to referring) then a problem like that wouldn't happen


I'm currently on my iPhone if you are seeing this message! I cannot participate in spam wars xx

[xxMATTGxx]

No one wants to see or click on such links. Hell, I didn't even click your link when you sent it to me on MSN. Keep it off the forums.

[Chris]

Oh sorry I didn't realise this was still being debated. The rule isn't being changed, they're annoying and they're for your personal benefit.

[CrazyLemurs]

I just dont see how personal benefit from a link is banned...


I'm currently on my iPhone if you are seeing this message! I cannot participate in spam wars xx

[Empired]

No MOD wants to spend ages looking for threads that have potentially dodgy referral links in just to check whether or not they're benefiting the referrer.

[HotelUser]

I just dont see how personal benefit from a link is banned...
I'm currently on my iPhone if you are seeing this message! I cannot participate in spam wars xx

If you want to post images advertising something within reason then that should be fine although the problem with links is that you can easily trick or misguide users into clicking them.

Allowing such links would only promote the creation of discussions wherein the original poster's only intentions are to motivate users into clicking on links for self benefit. Discussions should be created because original poster's want a thread for the merits of actually talking to other users, not to practise trickery on them or other marketing techniques.

Also I'm fairly certain Google's indexing algorithm frowns upon an abundance of spam links, and if allowed on the forum Habbox's page rank could likely diminish.

If you'd like to collect revenues from your referral links I suggest advertising them on a personal blog or another forum which has low standards for post content.

[CrazyLemurs]

Easily tricking and misguiding users should be part of the amendment to remain banned.
If the link is genuinely able to provide some benefit to other users of the forum, then it should be allowed.
It's like posting a youtube link saying "This song/video is really good"
Someone might enjoy clicking it and listening; others will just ignore the link completely...

[HotelUser]

Easily tricking and misguiding users should be part of the amendment to remain banned.
If the link is genuinely able to provide some benefit to other users of the forum, then it should be allowed.
It's like posting a youtube link saying "This song/video is really good"
Someone might enjoy clicking it and listening; others will just ignore the link completely...

That does not circumvent the problem of search engines demeriting the page ranking of Habbox due to such referral links.

Banning referral links does not deprive you of sharing links with other users. If you'd like to share a link but cannot because it is a referral link, simply remove the referral part of the url and then share that on the forum.

[CrazyLemurs]

But the referral section can provide benefits to the poster without an expense to everyone else around.
Are referral links rather more detrimental to ranking than normal links?

[xxMATTGxx]

It's not being changed.

[HotelUser]

But the referral section can provide benefits to the poster without an expense to everyone else around.
Are referral links rather more detrimental to ranking than normal links?

As aforementioned yes, Google drops webpages in the rankings when they have links to other webpages that they identify as spam, and many referral networks are considered spam webpages by Google.

It would be impractical to allow referral links on the forum. Again, if you'd like to share such links simply remove the referral aspects of the URL.

[CrazyLemurs]

But then the link isn't referral-ish then.
Are you saying it'd be fine to put say google.com and then "put this on the end of the link to help me out: />?123abc" rather than google.com/>?123abc

[HotelUser]

But then the link isn't referral-ish then.
Are you saying it'd be fine to put say google.com and then "put this on the end of the link to help me out: />?123abc" rather than google.com/>?123abc

No, I'm saying it's fine to link to this:

somewebsite.com

instead of this:

somewebsite.com/referral.php?u=34534534

You can already do this within the forum rules.

[Chippiewill]

It's the domain, not the url structure that would harm pagerank.

[CrazyLemurs]

So if the site isn't known to Google as problematic, the referral part of the link isn't going to affect us anymore than the plain link?

[Chippiewill]

So if the site isn't known to Google as problematic, the referral part of the link isn't going to affect us anymore than the plain link?

Well, other than maybe SEO issues, but considering habboxforum isn't using tidy urls to begin with I don't see it being an issue.

[CrazyLemurs]

Then that reason for the rule isn't going to be a valid one?

[HotelUser]

So if the site isn't known to Google as problematic, the referral part of the link isn't going to affect us anymore than the plain link?

It's problematic all the time. Google isn't the only crawler on the forum, and just because Google doesn't know about one website now doesn't mean they wont know about it tomorrow.

Because you can simply remove the referral portion out of a hyperlink, there is absolutely no reason to allow such links on the forum, when they only promote a more spam oriented environment both from the perspective of search engines, as well as from the perspective of other users.

[CrazyLemurs]

It's quite clear that there is nobody on this entire forum who supports my viewpoint (but really, is there ever?) so maybe we should close this thread before I start getting pissed off.
And, once again, every point I thought was valid has been refuted.
Maybe I should stop giving opinions to stuff from now on, they're never right...

[HotelUser]

It's quite clear that there is nobody on this entire forum who supports my viewpoint (but really, is there ever?) so maybe we should close this thread before I start getting pissed off.
And, once again, every point I thought was valid has been refuted.
Maybe I should stop giving opinions to stuff from now on, they're never right...

There's nothing wrong with sharing your opinions with the community, not every feedback suggestion can always be implemented.

[GoldenMerc]

It's quite clear that there is nobody on this entire forum who supports my viewpoint (but really, is there ever?) so maybe we should close this thread before I start getting pissed off.
And, once again, every point I thought was valid has been refuted.
Maybe I should stop giving opinions to stuff from now on, they're never right...

No one supports your opinions as they have always been silly and pretty pointless to be fair, I mean this rule came into place a while back when every single person had a referral link in there sigs, or posted them in threads, pushed people off the forum as you couldnt find a half decent post.

[CrazyLemurs]

But nobody ever agrees with me so I'd best not continue; all it does is get me frustrated, angry, and self-hating...

[Mr-Trainor]

Maybe I should stop giving opinions to stuff from now on, they're never right...
Don't say that! It's great that people are participating in feedback. Even if it might seem as though there aren't many people that agree with one of your ideas, and maybe it wasn't implemented; that doesn't mean that it's the same for all of your feedback threads :).