Well, the difference is, a referral code is a method of associating to an account to give it perks for drawing in new users.

A reference code is a way of shorthanding a URL to a specific page.

www.g2a.com/r/dead-space-steam-key
www.g2a.com/dead-space-steam-cd-key-global.html

In this case, assuming it's a reference code, it could be a search/association function of some sort; to associate to the main page of that topic, or to keep the same page targeted even if its html page name changes.

Given that reflink=dead-space-steam-key doesn't seem likely to be the name of an account, it does seem likely that it is, in fact, a reference link, rather than a referral link.

Still, as I noted, it's just iffy enough that it's probably better to avoid short-handing URLs in those circumstances when posting, where possible, to be safe.

But, if you hadn't suggested it COULD be a referral link, I'd never have even considered to think of it as anything but a reference link, so..

Well, I've figured out over the last month on this site that, it's just not worth the time and effort to stress over what the admins will and will not care about. It's all a bit disorganized on their end, anyway :P

Lets just leave it to them to figure out, I'm sure they can explain their expectations better than we can- well, some of them, anyway. Some of the admins are confusing as heck to understand :P