Recent Spamming Issue

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Barry Theal

Barry Theal

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Fellow Autopians,



It has come to my attention that various members of this detailing forum have been schilling for detailedimage.com For those of you unsure who detailedimage.com is. There a online detailing supply company.



They have arranged to have various professional detailers create a blog on there website to help there customers out. This is a great thing for them to do. It helps there customers get advice from some very top notch professional detailers. Now what no one told the entire detailing community was that. The average person could sign up and become an affiliate to them and receive benifits with this affiliate program.



So what did this include?



Simply put. An affilate would post on various forums about whatever deals they had that day with links. If you look at our good deals section you will notice all the great deals that were advertised by one of there affiliates bogi098. Upon doing more reseach I found that there were several other forum members here doing the same thing. They were trying to sneak these deals in so everyone would see them. I find this to be schilling and will not be tolerated on autopia. The owners of autopia really care about this forum and its members and want nothing but to keep it and open and honest. I feel this was a very dishonest thing to our members. If you care to read more about this please feel free to check out this link.



A member here bashed autopia for being banned, but after being called out and proven wrong he admitted his guilt. I really respect anyone who the integrity to say I was wrong.



Banned from Autopia...



Just to clear up what had happened. Have a great day my fellow autopians.



Barry Theal
 
I just wonder what kick backs they got from doing this. Whats crazy all links have affiliate codes to that person. Completely dishonest and sneaky!
 
CGDetailing said:
good job doing your job admins.
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Very much so. Individuals making money off links without disclosing their personal interest is certainly spam - something no forum needs.



I don't think the title of this thread is very appropriate though. While I myself am connected to DetailedImage.com (Ask-A-Pro Blog author), I see no financial gain through there sales. While I can not directly speak for detailedimage, I can pretty much assure you that the last thing that DI would want is to gain a few extra sales at the expense of completely destroying their reputation. Being an online merchant of detailing supplies is a very competitive field in which reputation means A LOT with loyal customers. Because the majority of sales occur with hobbyists / enthusiasts, the last thing a company should do is having a falling out with that potential customer base. Again, I can't speak for DI because I'm not them, but this is the simple logic behind it.



I do know they have an affiliate program. Some information was posted above about it, and to provide some additional info, it basically gives you a unique code to add to URL's (links) to track views (and therefor purchases) to your account. You basically make a % off the sales that were made because of your link / referral. While I can't say with absolute certainty, I'm pretty confident in saying that I don't think this program was created for this type of abuse / spam.
 
MarcHarris said:
Individuals making money off links without disclosing their personal interest is certainly spam - something no forum needs.



I do know they have an affiliate program. Some information was posted above about it, and to provide some additional info, it basically gives you a unique code to add to URL's (links) to track views (and therefor purchases) to your account. You basically make a % off the sales that were made because of your link / referral. While I can't say with absolute certainty, I'm pretty confident in saying that I don't think this program was created for this type of abuse / spam.
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You contradicted yourself. This is a textbook case of spam. Spam is spam whether you disclose it or not. You are trying to push and profit from the sale of an item. Detailed Image created this shaddy business stradegy to profit and trickle the $$ to their affiliates. It's disrespectful to the forum, their customers and their contributors like you. They should be ashamed of their tactics and everyone should know about it. In case everyone wasn't aware of it, DJ Mayo aka Got_Leather was included in the spam crew that was busted. He's probably one of their King Shill Pin-heads.
 
<"//>< said:
You contradicted yourself. This is a textbook case of spam. Spam is spam whether you disclose it or not. You are trying to push and profit from the sale of an item. Detailed Image created this shaddy business stradegy to profit and trickle the $$ to their affiliates. It's disrespectful to the forum, their customers and their contributors like you. They should be ashamed of their tactics and everyone should know about it. In case everyone wasn't aware of it, DJ Mayo aka Got_Leather was included in the spam crew that was busted. He's probably one of their King Shill Pin-heads.
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Non of the DI "Ask-A-Pro" blog authors, including myself see any financial gain through there sales....as Marc already stated above.
 
<"//>< said:
You contradicted yourself. This is a textbook case of spam. Spam is spam whether you disclose it or not. You are trying to push and profit from the sale of an item. Detailed Image created this shaddy business stradegy to profit and trickle the $$ to their affiliates. It's disrespectful to the forum, their customers and their contributors like you. They should be ashamed of their tactics and everyone should know about it. In case everyone wasn't aware of it, DJ Mayo aka Got_Leather was included in the spam crew that was busted. He's probably one of their King Shill Pin-heads.
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Whoa whoa there Mr High-N-Mighty. I know you plan on being the Autopia Savior with your 41 posts, but let's get a couple things straight first.

I never contradicted myself. At no point did I say it's OK to spam if you disclose it. I simply explained how the program worked for those that didn't understand, came into this thread late, or wanted additional information on how these individuals were getting money in return for their spammerific posts.



DetailedImage certain did create this program, but I highly doubt (maybe because I'm a half-full / optimistic person) they did it as a "shaddy business stradegy" with intentions of having a clan on secret minions patrolling the free world of forums in order to rape the weak. More likely, they were probably trying to give the average person more of a reason to promote their business. As I already stated, being an online merchant of detailing supplies isn't easy and has some stiff competition, so trying to get an edge is an ongoing thing. The last thing any merchant would want to do is to ostracize themselves from their potential buyers by having a bad reputation.

I'm sure we can all look at this as an example of what happens when good intentions leads to bad results. Individuals abusing a referral program doesn't mean that the implementation of that program had sinister goals from the get go. To state is does makes as much sense as someone stating "Glock developed the Glock 19 model to shoot innocent people and local Congress women."



At the same time I don't know you and maybe you are the type of person that believes it is guns that kill people, not people that kill people. Regardless, my point is that there's still no evidence that this DI Affiliated Referral Program thingy was meant for people to spam boards for as long as possible before they're banned. Be upset as much as you want toward people that broke the forum rules, but don't let your anger blind simple facts.
 
Oh, ok then. I guess I need to build up my post count to have credibility with the DI crew as they try to defend their leaders. Bottom line is they created a program that is engineeered to shill forums to earn $$ for them and their affiliates. I know for a fact that their Pros receive benefits from their work on their blog. Only denying that further makes you and the company look worse.
 
<"//>< said:
Oh, ok then. I guess I need to build up my post count to have credibility with the DI crew as they try to defend their leaders. Bottom line is they created a program that is engineeered to shill forums to earn $$ for them and their affiliates. I know for a fact that their Pros receive benefits from their work on their blog. Only denying that further makes you and the company look worse.
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So please share with the forum what those benefits are.
 
<"//>< said:
Oh, ok then. I guess I need to build up my post count to have credibility with the DI crew as they try to defend their leaders. Bottom line is they created a program that is engineeered to shill forums to earn $$ for them and their affiliates. I know for a fact that their Pros receive benefits from their work on their blog. Only denying that further makes you and the company look worse.
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RaskyR1 said:
So please share with the forum what those benefits are.
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Oh no, please don't get me wrong, you have a lot of credibility with me. You're 4 months on board here on Autopia has been industry changing. You obviously know mass amounts of insider knowledge that you're desperately trying to share with the rest of the community.



I look forward to your response to Rasky's post, especially when kept in mind that with order sizes that pro's put in, we can get discounted rates anywhere we shop, and the FACT that I've received more free detailing supplies from Autopia and its owner 3D than I have from DetailedImage.



FYI, when this leads to you talking of the shady business practices of autopia, I will be writing back in their defense as well.
 
something that I dont understand, maybe you can explain it <"//>< :



what is the difference if someone recommends a product from autogeek, detailersdomain, detailedimage, properautocare, etc with a link to the product on that specific site VS someone linking a product to that same site with an affiliate code where he may get a small kick back for doing so other than the fact he was smart enough to sign up for the affiliate program?



Havent you ever received referral fees, or bonuses for selling products/services for someone else? Its the same thing as an $8/hr worker folding clothes in store #1 while selling the clothes and someone else making $8/hr folding clothes in store #2, but telling his and her peers to come into store #2 because she gets commission on her sales. Is that deceitful? NO, its smart business. If store #1 wanted to keep up with store #2 in terms of sales, then some other sales tactics would be put into place...
 
Rasky here is a thread for you to look at:



http://www.autopia.org/forum/good-deals/125798-detailed-image-20%-off-fs-between-12-7-12-8-a.html



Go to Got_Leathers post and look at the link. Now scroll your mouse over the link and look at the bottom of your screen and see the URL link. Look at the code This is Got_leathers code for the affiliate program. His code number is 5202



http://www.detailedimage.com/wax.php?id=5202&url=detailedimage.com



You can also see this by placing your curser over the link and right clicking and click on properties.



This Rasky is Spam from a Detailedimage.com pro blog affilate.



I understand not all the pro's have done this. Trust me I looked, but before anyone says the pro's aren't doing it here. I just wanted to show you. It happens.
 
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