After the previous fiasco and given the tainted history of the group, this should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who knows of it:

Subscription fee poll [link to original]

Hookups Announcement [link to original]

Apparently the revenue he generates 'under the table' from the ~30,000 group members by inserting disguised referral links into all of the Amazon deal links, which he uses to "pay his rent" (previously in his own words), is not enough for his tastes. Making money off of the group members is what it is really about for the owner and always has been -- and without them knowing about it. And because the group owner has control over everything he can censor and delete whatever he wants to cover up the truth of what has happened previously and continues to transpire.

Edit: As a matter of further clarity, a big issue with the previous drama that went on at Hookups was about him not being upfront and honest about where the money is/was going, as well as being unwilling to tell anyone (even his own previous staff members before they all quit) about how much it is/was. He had people doing the work of scouring for deals and putting together announcements for him, and then he would go in later after the fact and edit their posts to put in his own referral links, which they understandably took issue with when they found out. That's just the tip of the iceberg as they say. If you want to know more you can always read up in the link above.

To anyone who may have a friend in the group, I encourage all of you to let your friends know (by posting on their Steam profile wall) of the story behind Hookups and the exploitative practices and hidden agenda of it's owner. Encourage them to leave the group and spread the word in the same way. If we all committed to doing this we could have a collective impact on things!

Edit: I got banned from the group lol. No surprise there. Truthfully, it actually happened shortly before I made this thread, when I simply posted "Agree 100%" as a reply to someone who left a comment in the group regarding the subscription fee poll. So, you see how it is.

11 years ago*

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Fuck him. He already lied to everyone by secretly posting referral links. I mean,there is nothing wrong but he wasn't transparent about it.

11 years ago
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Remember his entire staff quit a few months ago when they found out the stuff he was doing behind the scenes. That to me speaks volumes.

11 years ago
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What I mean is, if he wants to post referral links to get games as compensation for his time and effort and for being the group owner, it's fine with me as long as there is a referral and non-referral link posted. But he lied about it. That is not fine with anyone.

11 years ago
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I would agree with that. In fact I told him those months ago that I thought it was okay if he got some free games for his efforts. The whole referral link business and not being upfront and honest about money that he is pocketing, along with whatever else he had/has going on behind the scenes is very shady and exploitative though.

11 years ago
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That final option on the first picture. Oh, my god, I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying.

11 years ago
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'Let's be as unsubtle as possible that I want your money'

11 years ago
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In case it vanishes, I feel the results of the poll must be known.

Edit: And it vanished. Good to grab this then.

11 years ago
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Thanks! I was wondering what the results of that would be.

11 years ago
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lol

11 years ago
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There are sites that do it better than his and they get money only through donations and referrals. I don't know why anyone would support him.

11 years ago
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Thank you for this xD

11 years ago
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I'm okay with that, I kinda want money too!
He's a bit of a twat for making the poll THAT biased though.

11 years ago
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As with what was discussed last time, the issue was never really about the money, but the lying about where the money really went to.

11 years ago
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But everyone want free money, even if they do it in hard way

11 years ago
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at least he didn't split the "no"s so it came out with a yes having the highest total(and then used that total as the chart displayed instead of treating the nos together). I've seen polls do that

11 years ago
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This group is newer than Hookups and they are not asking for anything in return. The service they provide is the same as Hookups.

The owner even made it clear which one is his GMG referral link.

11 years ago
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why dont they have clickable links in the announcements? otherwise, yes thats an amazing improvement honestly... way more deals posted

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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done, if he start doing that, itll be perfect.

11 years ago
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Because they've had problems in the past with Steam Admins labeling the links as spam and removing the link and game title so you end up with :

Awesome deals on the following games:
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]
[SPAM LINKS ARE NOT ALLOWED]

11 years ago
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"Funny Steam is Funny"

The admins raging because their links got removed, some of which most likely were referral links. The later go on to say that because their links were removed, they weren't going to post links at all in the future until they find a more "permanent way".

11 years ago
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I hate wasting stress!

11 years ago
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LMAO!

11 years ago
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Advertising, begging and posting referral links are not allowed on Steam: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810
Does anyone have reported this person or group?

11 years ago
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Even if that isn't enough, surely it's against the rules to have people pay $$$ for access to a Steam group?

11 years ago
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I think the idea was to move things over to a hosted website.

11 years ago
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And using bots to mass-invite people to his group was against the TOS too.

11 years ago
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Yea... I remember that.. I was spammed big time with invites from several bots. I was one of the people who reported it lol.

Glad I never joined due to that. If I was invited by an actual person and not spammed I would have actually considered it.. but like I said, glad I never did especially with what I have read.

11 years ago
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thx for letting me know o.o left it.

11 years ago
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Seriously? Are the thousands of dollars or so he makes from shady referring not enough for him?

There's no end to this idiot's greed.

11 years ago
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"No, I just want to be selfish and don't give a crap if the people behind the deals have to waste a lot of time, effort, and stress by giving me deals"

LOL, moron.
Also reddit.com/r/GameDeals or reddit.com/r/GameDeals/.rss

11 years ago
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This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

11 years ago
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Basically, they just repost deal announcements so everyone in the group knows what game deals are going on when.

11 years ago
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Why don't people just google/use slickdeals/use this site/indie bundle wiki/etc as opposed to dealing with a site like that?

11 years ago
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cause these groups will steam announce deals and sometimes you might forget to check some deal sites but probably are always logged in to steam, so you wont miss the annnouncements unless afk

11 years ago
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No comment.

Suffice to say I left the group ASAP.

11 years ago
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I was in the group but I never actually used it. Left it now... rather not inflate their member numbers. That poll just screams pretentious.

11 years ago
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Joined the group a while back, never really used it, but the owner has come off as a total douche. I just left the group.

Just another example of how money can change people. I bet he thought "I got 29,000 members, if only 1,000 of them sign up for this, i can make $1,000 a month"

11 years ago
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I forgot to leave this group after the last fiasco. I'm out now.

11 years ago
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What an asshat. But Im not really even surprised. Thanks for the warning mate.

11 years ago
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I notice the announcement has now vanished.

11 years ago
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This comment was deleted 8 months ago.

11 years ago
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tradersguild, opium pulses, cheapshark (No longer a member so can't speak to current activity) to name a few.

Also, just go to isthereanydeal website

11 years ago
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Many of the original admin of Hookups now run their own deal finding group http://steamcommunity.com/groups/OpiumPulsesSavings

11 years ago
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Salenauts is my favorite right now. It's a daily announcement and very well laid out. xboxer's post (fourth post) has a link. I'm too lazy.

11 years ago
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I joined them after the first drama post you made, but back then they used to announce 6-10 announcements a day and didn't listen to anyone asking them to stop, so I left. Now it seems they've chilled out a lot so I'm back in.

11 years ago
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I have too many friends in that group! lol.

edit - In his poll, he makes it sound as if HE is giving people deals. Like he made the amazon deal, etc. All he is doing is copying and pasting them from other sources. I am shocked so many of you are a part of this group.

11 years ago
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I don't understand... so he's using affiliate links for the games on amazon so he makes a slight cut of what you spend on them? It sounds like he's providing a service that people value and making money off of it at no additional cost to the people buying at the moment. If that is what is the case then he's making money for providing a service to Amazon, which he is. They have carefully determined that it's worth the money to get potential buyers that may not have otherwise bought from them. The fact that the affiliate links work on games that are on sale in the first place should be the first clue that there's nothing illegitimate about it. The subscription thing sounds silly, but on the amazon affiliate (not referral) links, you're basically saying that Amazon should spend its money how you believe would make sense, when you probably don't know the whole story of how it affects their profits or the details of their business strategies. Is there something I'm missing?

11 years ago
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see my reply below

11 years ago
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Those that stay in the group don't really care about shady practices.
They just want the deals.

11 years ago
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There are places that give you the same deals without the shady practices.

11 years ago
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people still in the group probably joined long ago when they were doing group giveaways with open entry to the group, and just never bothered to leave

11 years ago
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Left, cant remember the last time I actually used one of their deals.

11 years ago
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This owner is a COMPLETE asshat. I asked a simple question and got permabanned from the chat.

http://gyazo.com/1598e5bddbac7df8d38b464708200a8d has the proof I was banned from it.

Plus he said this in the chat too: =^[(O){d_b}(O)]^=: I am sick of fighting alone
=^[(O){d_b}(O)]^=: http://www.steamgifts.com/forum/JAtCQ/owner-of-hookups-steam-group-wants-your-money
=^[(O){d_b}(O)]^=: ♫ Title: [Owner of Hookups Steam group wants your money] Version: [XHTML] Links: [97] Images: [2] Size: [35.91 KB]
=^[(O){d_b}(O)]^=: Go there and help me
alsetho is now playing Team Fortress 2. Click here to join.
=^[(O){d_b}(O)]^=: People think i am scamming or am scum of the earth

Now we know it's the truth.

11 years ago
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He tries to play the part of the victim but it's just a ruse.

11 years ago
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I love how Sammy's constant bitching just digs deeper and deeper holes for himself.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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I always find his pretentious requests for people to "fight for him" hilarious. If you're going to be a douche don't ask folks to stick up for you. He needs to own his douchiness all by himself. It's fun to see he's still going on his childish self righteous tirade. It's mildly entertaining watching him put his foot in his mouth. So glad I left, should have left back during his earlier issues with Kriss-C and the Traders Guild.

Well hindsight is 20/20.

11 years ago
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I love the poll choices. It sounds so hokey. I also love the results xD

11 years ago
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LOL

11 years ago
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guys comeon... he's spending time on this. I dont know all the story but I think that you arent losing anything by going on his ref links and it gives motivation to the group.

11 years ago
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"I dont know all the story"

Then, err... read up on it? It's all been explained many times over. With links for you!

11 years ago
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what i've been told is that he putted ref links to sales. What could change my opinion is if i'm not right about that it doesnt cost more from buying with his links that normal links.

11 years ago
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The issue was more about him not being upfront and honest about where the money is/was going, as well as being unwilling to tell anyone (even his own previous staff members before they all quit) about how much it is/was. He had people doing the work of scouring for deals and putting together announcements for him, and then he would go in later after the fact and edit their posts to put in his own referral links, which they understandably took issue with when they found out. That's just the tip of the iceberg as they say. If you want to know more you can always read up in the link above.

11 years ago
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Why inquire about something, when you can state your opinion on the abstract idea you did about it in your head, before knowing what you're talking about?

11 years ago
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just readed the whole thing and it doesnt actually change my opinion. IF he did it, the worse we can say about him is that he decided that everything was going to him while he couldve gave some to his staff but yeah, he started the thing and everyone could leave or stay, they made their choices and i think that he just decided to get the money he thought he couldve got sooner.

but yeah, you guys are too sensible from what i see... actually he only grabed what was his from source but i have to admit that he couldve gave some credits to his staffs...

Aren't ref links made to benefit the one that share it?

11 years ago
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"Aren't ref links made to benefit the one that share it?"

Usually ref link benefit the owner, who isn't always the same person that share it.
So if for example you post a link to something and I edit your message to instead use my ref. link, the one who will receive the the money is me.

11 years ago
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Closed 11 years ago by Shad0WeN.