Fuck him. He already lied to everyone by secretly posting referral links. I mean,there is nothing wrong but he wasn't transparent about it.
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What I mean is, if he wants to post referral links to get games as compensation for his time and effort and for being the group owner, it's fine with me as long as there is a referral and non-referral link posted. But he lied about it. That is not fine with anyone.
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I would agree with that. In fact I told him those months ago that I thought it was okay if he got some free games for his efforts. The whole referral link business and not being upfront and honest about money that he is pocketing, along with whatever else he had/has going on behind the scenes is very shady and exploitative though.
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That final option on the first picture. Oh, my god, I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying.
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'Let's be as unsubtle as possible that I want your money'
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In case it vanishes, I feel the results of the poll must be known.
Edit: And it vanished. Good to grab this then.
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As with what was discussed last time, the issue was never really about the money, but the lying about where the money really went to.
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This group is newer than Hookups and they are not asking for anything in return. The service they provide is the same as Hookups.
The owner even made it clear which one is his GMG referral link.
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Because they've had problems in the past with Steam Admins labeling the links as spam and removing the link and game title so you end up with :
Awesome deals on the following games:
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
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The admins raging because their links got removed, some of which most likely were referral links. The later go on to say that because their links were removed, they weren't going to post links at all in the future until they find a more "permanent way".
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Advertising, begging and posting referral links are not allowed on Steam: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810
Does anyone have reported this person or group?
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And using bots to mass-invite people to his group was against the TOS too.
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Yea... I remember that.. I was spammed big time with invites from several bots. I was one of the people who reported it lol.
Glad I never joined due to that. If I was invited by an actual person and not spammed I would have actually considered it.. but like I said, glad I never did especially with what I have read.
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"No, I just want to be selfish and don't give a crap if the people behind the deals have to waste a lot of time, effort, and stress by giving me deals"
LOL, moron.
Also reddit.com/r/GameDeals or reddit.com/r/GameDeals/.rss
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Basically, they just repost deal announcements so everyone in the group knows what game deals are going on when.
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Joined the group a while back, never really used it, but the owner has come off as a total douche. I just left the group.
Just another example of how money can change people. I bet he thought "I got 29,000 members, if only 1,000 of them sign up for this, i can make $1,000 a month"
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tradersguild, opium pulses, cheapshark (No longer a member so can't speak to current activity) to name a few.
Also, just go to isthereanydeal website
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Many of the original admin of Hookups now run their own deal finding group http://steamcommunity.com/groups/OpiumPulsesSavings
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Salenauts is my favorite right now. It's a daily announcement and very well laid out. xboxer's post (fourth post) has a link. I'm too lazy.
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I joined them after the first drama post you made, but back then they used to announce 6-10 announcements a day and didn't listen to anyone asking them to stop, so I left. Now it seems they've chilled out a lot so I'm back in.
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I have too many friends in that group! lol.
edit - In his poll, he makes it sound as if HE is giving people deals. Like he made the amazon deal, etc. All he is doing is copying and pasting them from other sources. I am shocked so many of you are a part of this group.
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I don't understand... so he's using affiliate links for the games on amazon so he makes a slight cut of what you spend on them? It sounds like he's providing a service that people value and making money off of it at no additional cost to the people buying at the moment. If that is what is the case then he's making money for providing a service to Amazon, which he is. They have carefully determined that it's worth the money to get potential buyers that may not have otherwise bought from them. The fact that the affiliate links work on games that are on sale in the first place should be the first clue that there's nothing illegitimate about it. The subscription thing sounds silly, but on the amazon affiliate (not referral) links, you're basically saying that Amazon should spend its money how you believe would make sense, when you probably don't know the whole story of how it affects their profits or the details of their business strategies. Is there something I'm missing?
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There are places that give you the same deals without the shady practices.
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Left, cant remember the last time I actually used one of their deals.
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This owner is a COMPLETE asshat. I asked a simple question and got permabanned from the chat.
http://gyazo.com/1598e5bddbac7df8d38b464708200a8d has the proof I was banned from it.
Now we know it's the truth.
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I love how Sammy's constant bitching just digs deeper and deeper holes for himself.
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http://gyazo.com/0bc3c9aa1c0f6b563347283025b33652
pretty much.
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I always find his pretentious requests for people to "fight for him" hilarious. If you're going to be a douche don't ask folks to stick up for you. He needs to own his douchiness all by himself. It's fun to see he's still going on his childish self righteous tirade. It's mildly entertaining watching him put his foot in his mouth. So glad I left, should have left back during his earlier issues with Kriss-C and the Traders Guild.
Well hindsight is 20/20.
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"I dont know all the story"
Then, err... read up on it? It's all been explained many times over. With links for you!
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The issue was more about him not being upfront and honest about where the money is/was going, as well as being unwilling to tell anyone (even his own previous staff members before they all quit) about how much it is/was. He had people doing the work of scouring for deals and putting together announcements for him, and then he would go in later after the fact and edit their posts to put in his own referral links, which they understandably took issue with when they found out. That's just the tip of the iceberg as they say. If you want to know more you can always read up in the link above.
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just readed the whole thing and it doesnt actually change my opinion. IF he did it, the worse we can say about him is that he decided that everything was going to him while he couldve gave some to his staff but yeah, he started the thing and everyone could leave or stay, they made their choices and i think that he just decided to get the money he thought he couldve got sooner.
but yeah, you guys are too sensible from what i see... actually he only grabed what was his from source but i have to admit that he couldve gave some credits to his staffs...
Aren't ref links made to benefit the one that share it?
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"Aren't ref links made to benefit the one that share it?"
Usually ref link benefit the owner, who isn't always the same person that share it.
So if for example you post a link to something and I edit your message to instead use my ref. link, the one who will receive the the money is me.
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After the previous fiasco and given the tainted history of the group, this should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who knows of it:
Subscription fee poll [link to original]
Hookups Announcement [link to original]
Apparently the revenue he generates 'under the table' from the ~30,000 group members by inserting disguised referral links into all of the Amazon deal links, which he uses to "pay his rent" (previously in his own words), is not enough for his tastes. Making money off of the group members is what it is really about for the owner and always has been -- and without them knowing about it. And because the group owner has control over everything he can censor and delete whatever he wants to cover up the truth of what has happened previously and continues to transpire.
Edit: As a matter of further clarity, a big issue with the previous drama that went on at Hookups was about him not being upfront and honest about where the money is/was going, as well as being unwilling to tell anyone (even his own previous staff members before they all quit) about how much it is/was. He had people doing the work of scouring for deals and putting together announcements for him, and then he would go in later after the fact and edit their posts to put in his own referral links, which they understandably took issue with when they found out. That's just the tip of the iceberg as they say. If you want to know more you can always read up in the link above.
To anyone who may have a friend in the group, I encourage all of you to let your friends know (by posting on their Steam profile wall) of the story behind Hookups and the exploitative practices and hidden agenda of it's owner. Encourage them to leave the group and spread the word in the same way. If we all committed to doing this we could have a collective impact on things!
Edit: I got banned from the group lol. No surprise there. Truthfully, it actually happened shortly before I made this thread, when I simply posted "Agree 100%" as a reply to someone who left a comment in the group regarding the subscription fee poll. So, you see how it is.
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