Do Referrals Deflate User Interactions Online?
Many consumers today look at referrals as a just a part of business culture and marketing tactics. For example, legitimate businesses use them for example Tesla and Binance. One main reason for them being so popular is the systems can acquire new customers quickly and cheaply. But they don't come without having a few downsides. Many times people think of the systems as an easy way to earn fast money. Viewing others humans as a paycheck, versus the normal interactions people have when they meet each other.
The behavior is something I have been exposed to more than my fair share of in the past. The problem grows each and every month as more and more businesses pile into using the tactic to promote and gain customers. As a young teen, I remember the Internet craze of "free iPod", "free PS3", and "free laptop" scam websites of the early 2000s. The Free Giveaway websites gained a lot of views in a short period of time as many people worked for free trying to give out referrals to as many people as they could.
In reality, the webmasters of these websites just bought a simple script and took pictures of some electronics to make it seem legit. They never even had any prizes to give out. The users worked for free, onboarding and building up the website then got nothing in return for it other than making the webmaster rich. Today all of the sites are dead and gone. But the referral systems they helped pioneer still exist. What I'm getting at here, Is that not all ref systems operate in similar ways.
People will continue to be burned by bad acting referral systems in the future, making for a complex economically and socially driven problem that I rarely ever see people speaking about in the business world. Social interactions involved with this tactic can be harmful in some cases to personal relationships. Especially between that do not know each other as well. I believe a better to interact is not promoting any referral links unless the person is a really close friend, given how many of them are scams today.
As now we are in the age of the international Internet Ponzi scheme, one has to be extra cautious to what they sign up to. Are you tired of referral links being sent into your DMs? Let me know in the comments.
I think it's a scourge, generally. You have definitely put some thought into showing both sides of the coin, but I don't like the direction it's heading where everyone is chasing some version of selling Amway. I don't think the referral systems, and people earning based on "spreading the word" is a bad model. I prefer word of mouth information from someone I trust, compared to traditional advertising. I think the problem comes in when people don't take their responsibility seriously. If people were willing to take a stand and only promote things which they understood well and truly benefit from, the world would be a better place. Plus, the flying pigs would be a nice touch, since that will likely happen first.
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
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that awkward moment when you realize you change all your bytes to steem and didn't let anything left to do referrals anymore..... LMAO
Yea haha, I don't think Byteball is a bad project at all. Just sometimes people push a bit too hard for the sign-ups. Nothing against anyone who uses ref links. Most I've seen use them have been very respectful with it in the discords around steem.