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9:11 am
I have been monitoring the referral forum for a couple of months now, and I am amazed at the level of predation and greed I see. There are about 4 people who dominate this forum every month grabbing every single referral they can, obviously hooked up with a RSS feed or some other method of activating and sending referral numbers so they can respond the moment someone makes a request.
One particular "four letter" member, has supplied 10 referrals since August 1st. Now I know they weren't all used because in several cases several people replied at once (again mostly the same 3-4 names), but I am pretty sure they received over 3 referrals this month. And its like this month after month.
I know this doesn't violate the rules here (although I do notice some people are now using PM which does seem to not be offered as a valid process right now), and although Speakout only allows 3 referrals per month, it is obvious that several people here have more than one Speakout phone, but geez, how greedy do people have to be? Do you really need to hog $30-$60 worth of free referral time a month, every month until you top your 12 (plus 12 with the second phone) referrals a year?
You people (and you know who you are) know full well there are others who would like to share in participating here and get a few $10 referral in a year. I don't know what makes people so greedy that they aren't willing to share in the benefits offered? Does it always have to be a few who will grab whatever they "can"? Do we always have to live in a world full of predators and prey?
Honestly, it takes a really good concept which Peter has offered here, and which seems to have been designed to allow for a win-win situation for both newcomers and general users and made it into a competition where certain people feel they should go home with all the prizes. Personally it turns my stomach.
Marq
9:51 am
March 15, 2008
Offline
Thanks for your thoughtful post.
Unfortunately when a good deal arises, some people will do everything they can to maximize their profit from it. This is no different than people who use sniping software to win eBay auctions, or who create multiple IDs to get multiple $-off coupons for the same promotion, etc.
You can't change human nature.
11:27 am
I hear you buddy. Everytime I come here all the requests have been filled in a matter of minutes if not seconds.
12:18 pm
When you see all the people line up overnight at Futureshop on boxing day and snatch all the good deals. Do you call them greedy too?
This is just reality. Just get over it
12:22 pm
July 27, 2009
Offline
I totally agree...
I've been wanting one for so long and those members just have some bot or somthing that replies to the posts.
but i'd love to know more about "obviously hooked up with a RSS feed" the RSS feed thing how does it work?
12:32 pm
That's why such sale events usually have a limit of 1 per person or family. Imagine you are second in line at 4am for a TV and the first person bought 50 of them in one shot!?
I agree with the original poster. What these people are doing *is* perfectly legal. But it really ruins it for the rest of us. For example, I am down to $3 on my account and I spent the last 2 weeks monitoring the referral forum hoping to get a quick $10. When I saw *multiple* replies within the same minute of the request, I knew I had no chance! :`(
7:16 pm
March 31, 2007
Offline
Unfortunately I see no way of regulating this without making it difficult for people to even post in the forum. I can't force people to return to the site to say that they used a referral code in some way and I don't have access to Speak Out's database of referral codes.
You can all follow the feed for the referral code forum here:
https://www.speakoutwireless.ca/speak/?forum=referral-code-requests&xfeed=forum
How you "follow" a feed is different for each RSS reader. Personally, I don't use RSS readers, but then again I don't send out referrals either 😛
9:19 pm
Not all individuals are obtaining referral codes solely for themselves. A few of us are helping seniors in this community who are recent users but not new to Speakout service. These individuals want to remain independant and use their cell phone only in the case of emergency situations or to contact family/friends if the need arises. With the current promotion we saw an opportunity to help give them $10 - $20 in bonus airtime in order to cover their 911 fees for the year; while leaving their original airtime for placing calls. We encourage them to use their cell phone from time to time in order to learn how to use it; not wait until an emergency situation. It was not our intent to manipulate the SO forum; we have no advantage over other individuals wishing to give out a code; there is no special software or system to grab referral requests away from others; only a shared computer (sometimes two) amongst us. The forum's referral topic is there for anyone to use, and is a win-win situation where both the code giver and requester both benefit.
With that said, not everything is as it appears.
1:19 am
You can spin it whatever way you want. You can be doing this for seniors, relatives, parents, friends, or you can tell me that you add all the $$$ into your phone but you lend it to 10 others to use. But you have to admit that you are getting more than your fair share - and that is not right. How you "justify" it is really beside the point.
1:38 am
April 23, 2009
Offline
To Me, there see, you got one, it just takes patience. There is no such thing as 'more than their fair share' because that is predetermined by SO... only 3 per month, 12 per year, PER phone number.
.
And as for cheating with scripts, forget it. I have never seen a script that can parse an email in a random format me.AT.mymail.DOT.com and trigger an auto email.. it's not possible. And the RSS feed is the same, it stays static if you don't refresh it.
.
So I'll give y'all a little hint, there is no getting around the manual effort required, however learn the power of F5 key and have fun with it
😀
2:17 am
The only reason I got one is because I am spending my Friday night posting a reply in a not so cheery mood! That's hardly a consolation!
Actually, I am okay with people using some automated way to achieve their goal. As I said in my original post, it is legal and frankly I admire people who know how to work around the system legally. In fact, I'll learn how to do that when I get the time!!!
What disappoints me is not how greedy people can be (as pointed out it is human nature after all), but it is how someone tries to justify doing so.
Come and think about it, can we RECOMMEND that people only grab one per month? This still allows the limit of 12 per year, but gives others a better chance.
2:48 am
The fact remains that there are more people giving codes than requesting code. Even if you can recommend/apply rules or restrictions, requests will still be filled quickly. That's life.
4:08 pm
July 21, 2009
Offline
there's nothing one can do about it, it's human nature.
They can easily use a different guest name to piss less people off, thats it.
10:10 pm
As a senior, send a little help my way and let me get one in. I'm trying to help myself. 🙂
10:11 pm
January 18, 2009
Offline
Not all of us seniors are helpless! 😉
10:25 pm
July 21, 2009
Offline
Dmiller: it's always easier to get one at the end of the month, since every person can only get 3 codes per month and $120 per year
5:49 am
As I mentioned in my original posting, I've been monitoring this referral list for a while, and I could actually indicate pretty closely who had how many referrals per month.
So, I am having a bit of a snicker at some of the responses, because the people who are most defending the way things are, and that "Speak out restricts the number of referrals anyway", are the biggest "users" of this forum.
One in particular, who responded at length got 5-6 referrals last month. That's $50-60 worth of referral time. This person did mention that one is only allowed 3 per month PER phone number. In other words, he/she has two phones, and likely switches between them, having two referral code at any one time. Thank goodness they don't have more!
It has also been mentioned that there are no tricks to getting the referrals through here. That's simply not logical. Unless these people literally are continually logged into this forum and continually looking for every single new posting, there is no way they aren't using some type of "system" to be able to respond at literally a moment's notice.
Either that or their lives consist of watching this forum, answering referral requests, getting new referral codes, and I guess, talking on their cell phone to use up all that time they acquire. 😉
Simply put, people can justify bad behavior all they want, but at the end of the day its about finding ways to push others out of the way so you are at the front of the line, because for some reason they think they deserve more than others.
I won't call it "human nature" because it sure isn't mine, but it certainly reflects a certain segment of people. That's way systems are always needing to be devised to control for it
Marq
12:22 am
I agree with Marq. I was lucky enough to get only a single referral so far (a couple weeks ago), but that was not the case a couple months back when I was monitoring the forum.
I did notice as well as with Marq (and others who have been monitoring the forum would notice, too), that there are only a FEW names (2-3) that would pop up as replies to requests. I don't even know if this person rotates user names.
As per the argument that they are "doing it for seniors", etc... you know it's DIFFICULT enough to get Bonuses for your own phone, so I really don't believe that there are people out there doing it often for other people's phones! And to gaurantee/promise that you get a JUST ONE senior a referral within 15 days? That means this person is VERY confident in getting the referrals (especially for multiple people & themselves), that they must be "cheating" in some way.
For example, I got a referral for my phone a couple months back, in hopes that I COULD get someone to use it in 15 days. I tried, and I can assure you, with the F5's and all, I just wasn't able to get it at all. So WHY is it that a selected few could even afford to do this for other members of their community as well??
1:50 am
Yeah! I even tried a free service that would monitor the forum and notify me. It worked so well I never got notified but hey they got my throwaway email address. I was lucky enough to get one referral for my wife's phone a while back but I guess I'll just give up on the game.
Reminds me when I was a kid in Winnipeg Manitoba..Old Dutch Potato Chips had a weekly program...Kids Bids... I save up the points/bags from the product and had a few but it was obvious within a few weeks that there must have been grocery store managers or restaurant owners or somebody helping some out because they had thousands. Anyway I learned that life lesson and I don't think anyone should Bitch about it. You just move on.
🙂
9:58 am
Come on people. There must be a way to defeat these bots. Let's put our heads together!
How about generating decoy requests? It sure makes everybody's life difficult, but it looks like everyboy's life is difficult enough as is with all the F5's. At least in this way there is a random chance that your reply will go through.
How about recommending the requestor to not simply select the first reply - but to check against bots (e.g. replies within the minute) and/or randomly select a reply? The drawback here is that the requestor mailbox may be flooded with replies within the hour.
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