VrFanatic2k has pm'd me on his site asking me to post this here. His posts aren't showing up (shadowban?)
" Hi! :)
Our competiton was to help promote the site. I'm spending quite alot of money to give away a Rift (if only it was cheaper :() for a prize this big, we needed a method to help advertise and promote the site.
We're a new site, with as of the other day virtually no members. I have big aspirations for the site not only as a resource of VR content but for a community.
The purpose of our giveaway was to promote the site and help it on its way, hence why I am investing the money and giving away my own preorder of the rift so there has to be some reward for the site in return for the investment I am making. (and by reward, I mean some site growth)
There was a good chance that only 10 people might have signed up for the giveaway and then our site fading away into the nether... which would be disastrous and result in me giving away $599 with very little in return for our community. I would love to be rich, and give away a Rift freely with no strings but I'm not sadly.
The referral system is a proven way of helping bring new people to a site. It's not ideal but it's one of the only options. I'd rather not spam the site myself everywhere and be hated in the process. The referal system is ideally for users to share with their friends, over their twitter, email and social media to help grow interest in the community. It's sole purpose isn't just to spam everywhere. Sadly thats a consequence because of how some users use it. And it's up to the moderators of wherever the referral links are posted to take decisive action on whether the referral link was posted in the right way or not.
I have invested some money in advertising on reddit over the next month, particularly this reddit... so there's little need to post actual links to the competition and rub people off the wrong way in the process.
I can only apologize for what's happened. It's not my intention to cause a stir. Just trying to grow my new community. "