So
@HankLloydRight , I was just wondering if you still hold the same opinion about "site-wide ban on solicitation" that you held back in July 2015, or has it changed with time, especially now that you have your free referral award Roadster?
Has not changed one bit. But first, I feel like your trying to bait me into some sort of trap where you try and point out I'm contradicting myself. It's an amateur attempt that's not going to work. Did you read through this entire thread (390 pages and 7700 posts) looking for posts where I posted my referral code or offered an incentive? You're not going to find one.
In the post you
quoted from 2015, I was agreeing with Bonnie that some other post was out of line. Unfortunately, that original post was deleted, like many have been in this thread. I'm pretty sure that the 'solicitation' was simply a post with someone's referral code, not an additional incentive. In fact, up to that point, nobody posted their referral code in this (or any other) thread. I'm not going to go back and find the first (non-deleted) post where someone did. And here's one of my posts you didn't quote, but I will:
Besides what others have said, this would end up being a huge headache for the moderators to administer, and just another pain point for TMC members to complain about -- to the moderators. So I see this as a lose-lose scenario. The only policy is no referral links on the site. No exceptions, no discussion. That's what I would do.
You joined TMC
this year so you have actually no idea what it was like back then. The referral award back then was a $1000 'tesla credit' to the referrer, and a $1000 credit to the buyer. What Bonnie and I were objecting to was people posting their referral codes all over TMC, since the awards were so high, and I think that was the first post where someone simply posted "Hey, use my referral code and get $1000 off". I've posted elsewhere in this (combined) thread many times that I don't think referral codes
should be posted at all on TMC. But I obviously lost that battle, and even so, I've stuck to my guns and I have never posted my code or offered an incentive on TMC other than in my profile which is technically the only place referral codes are allowed.
Like many people, I've worked hard for every single referral I've received.
Why would the fact that I've received a Roadster award change my belief that people shouldn't use TMC to post referral codes or incentives? The referrals I've received have nothing to do with TMC, as I've never once posted my referral code here. And even if I did think it was OK to post referral codes on TMC (I don't), since I do have another outlet to generate referrals, I felt it would have been increased (and unfair) competition for everyone else on TMC who don't have other outlets like I do or other youtubers do.
The Referral program back then was like the wild west. There were
no rules. But I don't expect you to know that. Lots of people were spending lots of money on Google Adwords ads (and they still are), but just one tweet by Elon threw the entire program into a tailspin for a few days. See:
Elon Musk on Twitter
and:
Tesla Referral Program crackdown: Musk to "shut down" referral code abuse
Everyone went into a frenzy removing referral codes from websites, youtube videos, everywhere. There was a huge backlash from that tweet, since people running websites and youtubers were generating hundreds of millions of dollars of free advertising for Tesla, and with one tweet, Elon shut that down. Luckily, a week or so later, Tesla added the "OK/Not OK" list of what's allowed (cooler heads prevailed at Tesla), and everyone went back and put their codes online again. But Tesla still hasn't stopped the Google Adwords advertising or actually 'selling' or commercializing referral codes on ebay or craigslist.
I was doing the same thing by pointing out the nefarious things, like solicitations, something you too once felt should be banned. But it's funny how now you feel that I should "mind my own business" for echoing those same sentiments.
I had no real problem the first or second time you did it. But you clearly were misinterpreting the rules and posting that misinterpretation as a fact "
what you're doing is against the rules and your referrals will get denied". And you were doing it
every single time someone posted any kind of incentive, even if it was just giving away the Radio Flyer they couldn't use. But you never said '
in my opinion I think you shouldn't do this....' -- you kept posting the same thing that 'SELLING REFERRAL CODES' is not allowed.
But nobody in this entire thread has offered to SELL a referral code. Just because goods or money incentives are changing hands, does NOT mean that someone is
selling a referral code. What is actually happening is that the new buyer is
selling their referral. There's a big difference between the two that you have failed to understand. And my postings in response to you was to demonstrate (many times) that you are misinterpreted the rules, and in addition, we have never heard a single solitary case of referral points being denied or cancelled. But if you go back and read your posts, you claim that as a fact ever single time. It really comes across as jealous and petty -- "
mommy!! why should he get to offer an incentive, it's against the rules! WAAH!"
Oh, how time (and a free car from Tesla) will change opinions!
My opinions have not changed. And the fact that you keep posting about people offering incentives (which is still open for different interpretations) makes you sound envious because you can't, or won't do the same thing, and you think it's not fair that someone else can do it. That's why I said to mind your own business. You do not understand the rules correctly, and you're posting misinformation as fact. And the fact that you called me out in this very post comes also across as petty and jealous.
