Posting Referral Deal Guideline Trial Changes

neil on 10/01/2025 - 15:26
Last edited 10/01/2025 - 15:37 by 1 other user

We are making some changes to the referral guidelines as a trial.

Current System:

Deal Posting Guidelines:

If the retailer offers a referral program, you may post it as a deal (e.g. signup to ABC site via referral code and earn $10 credit) if all of the following conditions are met:

  • The referee also earns a benefit (e.g. credit, discount, etc.).
  • The current offer has NOT been posted as a deal previously.
  • It is a limited time referral offer for the referee or it is a new addition to the OzBargain referral system (added less than 7 days ago)

Recent example:

The offer runs from Jan 1 - Feb 28 so limited time referral offer, referee gets a benefit, and the current offer has not been posted.

Referral links are not permitted in comments or the deal. Only the referral system. The poster of the deal gets a higher probability of their referral being selected. On the opposite side, inactive users (those who haven't logged in for a while) aren't shown their referral.

New changes:

Guidelines change to:

If the retailer offers a referral program, you may post it as a deal (e.g. signup to ABC site via referral code and earn $10 credit) if all of the following conditions are met:

  • The referee also earns a benefit (e.g. credit, discount, etc.).
  • There is no existing active deal post for the offer.

  • For referral offer deal posts, there won't be a higher chance of the OP's referral link being selected from the randomiser. Everyone is on an equal playing field.

  • Past referral deals that are still correct, but have auto-expired have been marked as active & Long Running for most of the popular stores (300+ referrals). Future posts will all be marked as Long Running. So if you go to a store page, you should see the referral post as a long running deal.

Why are we changing?

We always welcome community feedback and we're going to see how this change goes.

References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5:

  1. OzBargain 101: Lesson 3: Referral Links. ↩

  2. Should We Allow The OP's Referral Link in Deals? ↩

  3. SUGGESTION: Ban comments in wiki referrals Before there was a referral system, we all used wiki pages which didn't work great. ↩

  4. Affiliate Links / Referral Links Rule Update (Oct 2013) ↩

  5. Scotty's' Comment in 2024 about mentioning referrals in post & OP referral prioritization ↩

Site Discussion

Comments

  • geekcohen on 10/01/2025 - 15:35

    For referral offer deal posts, there won't be a higher chance of the OP's referral link being selected from the randomiser. Everyone is on an equal playing field.

    So I assume that means that inactive users are also shown now and will be included in the pool?

    • neil on 10/01/2025 - 15:37
      +4

      No. Users who haven't logged in for a while are still excluded from the pool.

      • geekcohen on 10/01/2025 - 15:43
        +1

        Awesome, thanks for confirming.

  • tonester on 10/01/2025 - 17:24

    Referral links are not permitted in comments or the deal. Only the referral system. The poster of the deal gets a higher probability of their referral being selected. On the opposite side, inactive users (those who haven't logged in for a while) aren't shown their referral.

    so this no longer applies under the new system?

    • neil on 11/01/2025 - 06:51

      There are no changes to referrals in comments or deals.

      • tonester on 11/01/2025 - 11:02

        i didn’t think that there would be, but since you omitted that… :)

  • financialminimalism on 15/01/2025 - 20:17
    +1

    Hoorah. Common sense prevails. A welcome change.
    Explains why we're now getting more referral posts - seems they are very popular now that users can post them.

    • neil on 15/01/2025 - 21:26

      Explains why we're now getting more referral posts - seems they are very popular now that users can post them.

      We've only had 2 referral deals in the past week since the change. Both were/are permitted with the new changes and also in the previous guidelines.

      • financialminimalism on 15/01/2025 - 23:48

        Now 3…
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/889054

        3 posts in 5 days is a reasonable amount for a new change? And the one you shared is 11th most popular post this week.

        A Mod previously made it very clear to me they weren’t previously allowed (prior to the change) as the descriptions all draw attention to the referral system.

        • neil on 16/01/2025 - 09:25
          +1

          Now 3…
          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/889054
          3 posts in 5 days is a reasonable amount for a new change?

          That again would have been accepted with the old guidelines as the old offer was:

          Targeted offer
          Referrer: 30,000 Membership Rewards points
          Referee: 10,000 Membership Rewards points

          General offer
          Referrer: 10,000 Membership Rewards points capped at 200,000 points per year (maximum of 20 referrals)
          Referee: $100 Credit

          and the new is: 60,000 Bonus Membership Rewards

          So just to get back to the old guidelines just so we're all on the same page:

          If the retailer offers a referral program, you may post it as a deal (e.g. signup to ABC site via referral code and earn $10 credit) if all of the following conditions are met:

          The referee also earns a benefit (e.g. credit, discount, etc.).
          The current offer has NOT been posted as a deal previously.
          It is a limited time referral offer for the referee or it is a new addition to the OzBargain referral system (added less than 7 days ago)

          That deal meets all 3.

          A better example would be this from this morning:

          Referrer gets US$35, Referee gets US$10 (Min. US$10 Spend) @ TopCashback US

          The old guidelines:

          >>The referee also earns a benefit (e.g. credit, discount, etc.). ✅
          The current offer has NOT been posted as a deal previously. ✅
          It is a limited time referral offer for the referee or it is a new addition to the OzBargain referral system (added less than 7 days ago) ❌

          ~~New guidelines:

          The referee also earns a benefit (e.g. credit, discount, etc.). ✅
          There is no existing active deal post for the offer. ✅

          Update, it appears there is no benefit to the referee, so it DOESN'T meet guidelines. So we're back at 0. :)

          …

          A Mod previously made it very clear to me they weren’t previously allowed (prior to the change) as the descriptions all draw attention to the referral system.

          Correct, in deals that have nothing to do with referrals. If referrals are the deal then how would an OP put anything in the description.

          And just to point out the line in the guidelines:

          Do not solicit referrals by any means in your posts (e.g. asking users to PM you, drawing attention to the referral system, or linking to your own deal posts if you are in the OzBargain referral system for that merchant).

          I thought it would be obvious that the exception to drawing attention to the referral system is in a referral deal post but perhaps we need to specify it?

          • financialminimalism on 16/01/2025 - 22:38

            @neil: Me too. But I was put in the penalty box for this post about a referral deal because I mentioned that users had to use the referral system in order to access the deal (clicking the deal link wouldn’t work). I can’t see how it would have been explained any other way to people.
            But for the sake of removing ambiguity for mods and users, it might be worth clarifying it in the policy for referral deals.
            There should be a way to get users to use the referral system link rather than the deal URL for referral deals. Like in those new AMEX deal examples where the referral link is now in the description.

            • neil on 17/01/2025 - 10:51

              @financialminimalism:

              Me too. But I was put in the penalty box for this post about a referral deal

              This is incorrect. You were warned but the deal wasn't a deal about the referrals it was a deal about welcome credit and you alluded to referrals.

              $150 Welcome Credit for New Electricity Plan Sign-Ups (Paid in $50 Instalments over 3 Months) @ OVO Energy

              So

              Describing the referral in a deal about a referral OK
              Describing the referral in a deal not about referral NOT OK

              But for the sake of removing ambiguity for mods and users, it might be worth clarifying it in the policy for referral deals.

              Sure. I think what we think is obvious may not be obvious to everyone. I suppose that's why any laws written are so lengthy. Anyway…

              There should be a way to get users to use the referral system link rather than the deal URL for referral deals. Like in those new AMEX deal examples where the referral link is now in the description.

              If people want to link to the random referral in the description then fine but I don't think it's much to click on the referral box below it. I mean it's not possible to get the deal without going through the referral system.

              • financialminimalism on 18/01/2025 - 16:54

                @neil: Yep, I understand that now. I still think that letting users to know which deals can be stacked with other deals should be allowed in the description. Especially when it's not immediately obvious.

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