Just received 5 special 1-time Promocodes

Hey Guys,
with over 20 direct referals Im sort of a platin user for DreamHost, so I just got the following E-Mail from them, offering me 5 special onetime Promocodes, which are only valid 2 weeks. Here is the message I received today:

A post to these forums for the purpose of (or the primary function of which is) distributing, or touting, anything from which you make money (or, for that matter, to drive traffic to your site) is a type of forum spamming.

These invitations are basically "mega promo codes", and you are paid $97 when they are used, so posting here to distribute them (circulate them, offer them to others, etc.) is no different than posting to distribute a promo code or a referral link.

Think for a minute how the "noise to signal ratio" of these forums would increase if everyone did that. To me, they are the same as promo codes, referral links, etc., which have been considered acceptable only when they are:

1) Not the primary purpose or content of the post
2) Not part of the content of the post.
3) Restricted to inclusion in your signature.

Another thing to consider is the warning that accompanies the grant of those invitations:

In reply to:

Please note: if anybody who used one of your DreamHost Invitations is ever disabled for fraud/spamming/illegal activities, you will immediately lose all current and future invitations... so please be discriminating with these things!

I surely would not be offering them to anybody unless I was 100% sure they would not end getting disabled!


--rlparker
--DreamHost Tech Support

In reply to:

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Please note: if anybody who used one of your DreamHost Invitations is ever disabled for fraud/spamming/illegal activities, you will immediately lose all current and future invitations... so please be discriminating with these things!

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Yeah, I've been wrestling with this rule and was trying to figure out whether it was prudent to offer this to:
1. a total stranger who asked (say on this board)
2. an acquaintance from some other web forums I participate in
3. a friend at work
4. the iffy part of my family
5. the "good" side of the family (no question here)

It's not so much that I think people will intentionally engage in spamming, but that they will accidentally violate one of the spamming rules (and Dreamhost is really good about holding its customers to the highest anti-spamming standards while still enabling reasonable commerce).

Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
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I've also received the codes. But we need to be careful with the codes. Probably we should give the codes to somebody that we know.

I also recieved 5 invitation.BUT NOWHERE on the mail was mentioned that these are valid for only 2 WEEKS.I just read my mail again to confirm it and also checked on the panel.Could anyone who also got invitation please tell me about this? And i'm also confused about the fraud/spammer/illegal referral,so i still didn't give any invitation to anyone!!

But.. these invitations are too awesome to exist forever! In fact, they
expire in just two weeks, so you should probably get to telling ASAP!

Are you sure that line wasn't in your email? I don't know, I didn't get one. :(

As far as fraud/illegal/ etc I'm sure that if they have to close down the account for legal reasons its not something they can afford to pay you for setting up... Same goes if someone gets a refund and doesn't end up paying.

Best bet is to find someone you know, otherwise you're taking a risk on it. If time was running out, well, I might just take the risk personally ;)

~
website building website building & discount coupons
my obligatory dreamhost discount coupon

Yea,i'm sure.There isn't any time limitation mentioned,neither on the mail nor on panel.What about others who already got invitations?

As long as i don't have anyone to give invitation,i either can take risk or just forget about it.'No risk no gain',but also remember,'one risk can harm for life(of dh invitations!i)'.So should be DISCRIMINATING with these things.

In reply to:

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Yea,i'm sure.There isn't any time limitation mentioned,neither on the mail nor on panel.What about others who already got invitations?

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My email definitely mentioned a 2 week expiration period in the same wording as the poster above. The expiration is not mentioned in my panel.

Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
More Dreamhost coupons here!

In reply to:

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My email definitely mentioned a 2 week expiration period in the same wording as the poster above. The expiration is not mentioned in my panel.

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Here's the mail i recieved from dh:


Hey xxxxxxxxxxxx!

This email is to let you know that you, yes you, have just been given
five (5) oh so special DreamHost Invitations you can use to invite your
friends and colleagues to DreamHost!

Of course, they don't NEED an official invitation to sign up, but if you
email them and tell them to use one of these five invitation codes:

1743xxxxxxxx
1967xxxxxxxx
6080xxxxxxxx
6746xxxxxxxx
3854xxxxxxxx


... they will get all these super special advantages not available any
other way:

* They will get four (4) times the normal disk and bandwidth!
* If they choose our five-year plan, they'll get $150 off!
* If they choose our ten-year plan, they'll get $200 off!
* YOU will still earn a full $97 for each person who signs up!


That means these five invitations are worth like, $485 in your pocket!
(Each code is good for only ONE sweet DreamHostering referral!)

Tell your invitees to use the 12-digit code you give them in the "Promo
Code" field when they sign up at:

https://signup.dreamhost.com/


If you lose this email or forget how all this works, you can always
visit our Rewards page here to be reminded:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.rew


Thanks for helping spread the word,
The Happy DreamHost Evite Team!

P.S. If you'd prefer not to be notified by email in the future should
you be given any more invitations, please visit our contact preferences
page here:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/id/?tab=contact

And select to not receive "DreamHost Promotions" anymore!


I don't find any time limitation here. Do you?
I don't know if its a mistake from dh. If my invitations are long lasting,that's good. If not ,that's also ok!

(Sorry i unknowingly published the last code.So removed it.)Edited by 007 on 06/16/08 01:49 AM (server time).

Here's the relevant part of the email I received:

In reply to:

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That means these five invitations are worth like, $485 in your pocket!
(Each code is good for only ONE sweet DreamHostering referral!)

But.. these invitations are too awesome to exist forever! In fact, they
expire in just two weeks, so you should probably get to telling ASAP!

Tell your invitees to use the 12-digit code you give them in the "Promo
Code" field when they sign up at:

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Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
More Dreamhost coupons here!

I've just sent a support ticket. Lets see what support answers. If my invitations are also time limited,i think, i'll also give them away(upon request).

Here's the message from support:

In reply to:

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That user got the first round of invites that had time limits on them, he owner changed the offers t remove the time limits, so if your invite otification email did not have a time limit warning you about the 2 week ime limit you are ok and there is no limit on your invites.

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Its nice! But unfortunate for those who got limits. Okay, next time their invitations will not be time limited

If that's a direct copy/paste of a message from Support then I think someone over there has spilled coffee on his keyboard

Good to know they're dishing out some more awesome deals.

Mistake by me:

In reply to:

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The owner

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Mistake by the support guy:

In reply to:

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offers to remove

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He's blue because he's dh employee and i'm green because i'm a customer.hahahaha. But we both are HUMAN. So we can make mistake. Maybe we both were on hurry.