*AHEM*
50m over sell orders that is available if and only if you buy through the link is:
"extra,"
it's
"ISK,"
and it's
"for buying through the link."
i.e. exactly what Somer promised not to do.

3) Why wouldn't Somer go to the community team who they have talked to many times before? Why go to someone far less likely to be well versed in the nuances of EVE?

It looks like Somer clearly overstepped the bounds of the agreement, but to be fair that proposal should never have been given the green light. Even if it was followed to the letter it still constitutes RMT.

What if Somer is guilty and maliciously thought she had a loophole to make money and sell isk or whatever. has that personally affected you? Would her doing RMT out weigh the good SomerBlink has done for the community and players? If it doesn't out weigh the good how do you punish? Because realistically if you ban somer a lot of parties get punished by proxy. Is that nessesarily fair? No. But it's the reality of the situation.

Neither has Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme

I'm sure their is fault on both sides to some extent. I think we can all agree upon that. But what I encourage people to think about is, Just to play devils advocat for a moment. What if Somer is guilty and maliciously thought she had a loophole to make money and sell isk or whatever. has that personally affected you? Would her doing RMT out weigh the good SomerBlink has done for the community and players? If it doesn't out weigh the good how do you punish? Because realistically if you ban somer a lot of parties get punished by proxy. Is that nessesarily fair? No. But it's the reality of the situation.

No, Somer RMTing hasn't affected me. Neither has Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme, and he was quite widely known as a philantropist as well. Still doesn't mean he didn't break the rules and shouldn't be punished for it.

2) The proposal is neither vague nor misleading. Even if it were, it would be in CCPs responsibility to ask about anything they think is unclear before agreeing to the proposal. Meaning you are wrong again.

To rephrase your devils advocate proposition slightly "Would the discovery of a legit way to RMT isk for $ out weight the good SomerBlink has done for the community and players?".

CCP had two choices, they could either declare the scheme legit and watch as every RMTer in the game moves to some variation of this scheme, or they had to declare the scheme not allowed, close it down and hand out appropriate punishment.

If it was offered at Jita buy prices, or even (at a stretch) sell prices, it would be fine. Somer would have actually been providing a "let me be your Jita alt" service. But then that's not a particularly good incentive since Jita alts are so ubiquitous, so Somer wouldn't have stood to make nearly as much money.

It's not the buyback program in principle that's the problem, it's the premium Somer was paying to encourage purchase through the affiliate link. (And a buyback program would be a horrible pain to keep on the right side of RMT because of constant market fluctuations.)

Thats a pretty big stretch don't yeah think? like come on man :/

So do what was done last time. Just don't have the plex service. maybe ding the somer corp wallet for the isk and be done with it. Would that not be the fairest corse of action without hurting the community that plays somer?

So do what was done last time. Just don't have the plex service. maybe ding the somer corp wallet for the isk and be done with it. Would that not be the fairest corse of action without hurting the community that plays somer?

So do what was done last time. Just don't have the plex service. maybe ding the somer corp wallet for the isk and be done with it. Would that not be the fairest corse of action without hurting the community that plays somer?

So do what was done last time. Just don't have the plex service. maybe ding the somer corp wallet for the isk and be done with it. Would that not be the fairest corse of action without hurting the community that plays somer?

So to sum it up Somer tried to play CCP sales rep, got burned for it and closed the business while giving back some of those hard scammed ISK for his cows ?

Anything I missed when I skimmed the last 20 pages ?

Anything I missed when I skimmed the last 20 pages ?

I have to disagree with this. RMT is not just defined by making a profit, it's the trade of any in-game items, services, or currency for out-of-game items, services, or currency. Trading the services of a Jita alt for the use of their referral would still constitute RMT.

This is a service, in keeping with CCP's new guidelines that ETC affiliate link rewards should be service-oriented.

I just think banning somer having blink be dead does more harm to more people than good.

*AHEM*
50m over sell orders that is available if and only if you buy through the link is:
"extra,"
it's
"ISK,"
and it's
"for buying through the link."
i.e. exactly what Somer promised not to do.

3) Why wouldn't Somer go to the community team who they have talked to many times before? Why go to someone far less likely to be well versed in the nuances of EVE?

I'm sure their is fault on both sides to some extent. I think we can all agree upon that. But what I encourage people to think about is, Just to play devils advocat for a moment. What if Somer is guilty and maliciously thought she had a loophole to make money and sell isk or whatever. has that personally affected you? Would her doing RMT out weigh the good SomerBlink has done for the community and players? If it doesn't out weigh the good how do you punish? Because realistically if you ban somer a lot of parties get punished by proxy. Is that nessesarily fair? No. But it's the reality of the situation.

So to sum it up Somer tried to play CCP sales rep, got burned for it and closed the business while giving back some of those hard scammed ISK for his cows ?

Anything I missed when I skimmed the last 20 pages ?

Maybe it's just me, but I think this is most obvious and both sides - CCP and Somer - should have avoided leaving this open.

I'm assuming that Somer was truthful when he said this:

Indicating that CCP is OK with providing services as affiliate link rewards. Whether that's good policy or not, I'm not sure.

I didn't miss that line about "no extra ISK". And if you take this one sentence out of the context of the proposal I would agree that it sounds like saying one thing but doing another. But this line isn't stand alone. And if you reread the proposal you should realize that it means "no extra ISK in addition to the price paid for the PLEX".

The problem with the proposal is that it doesn't state how the price for PLEX is set. It just says that Somer will give the "best price anywhere in EVE". With this wording Somer could offer 10 Bn per PLEX and still would be within the boundaries of the proposal. Maybe it's just me, but I think this is most obvious and both sides - CCP and Somer - should have avoided leaving this open.

I'm sure their is fault on both sides to some extent. I think we can all agree upon that. But what I encourage people to think about is, Just to play devils advocat for a moment. What if Somer is guilty and maliciously thought she had a loophole to make money and sell isk or whatever. has that personally affected you? Would her doing RMT out weigh the good SomerBlink has done for the community and players? If it doesn't out weigh the good how do you punish? Because realistically if you ban somer a lot of parties get punished by proxy. Is that nessesarily fair? No. But it's the reality of the situation.

I just think banning somer having blink be dead does more harm to more people than good. Yes somer closed blink not CCP I get that but the two are related obviously.

I didn't miss that line about "no extra ISK". And if you take this one sentence out of the context of the proposal I would agree that it sounds like saying one thing but doing another. But this line isn't stand alone. And if you reread the proposal you should realize that it means "no extra ISK in addition to the price paid for the PLEX".

Justification: Blink provides no extra ISK or bonus Blink credit for buying through the link. Instead, we make it easy to sell your PLEX and get your ISK quickly, no matter where you are-- no Jita alt required. This is a service, in keeping with CCP's new guidelines that ETC affiliate link rewards should be service-oriented.

Because the community team is most certainly NOT the correct counterpart in getting formal approval for such an agreement.

You have a point there, I assumed that line was a bit of marketing wordsmithing. I'm not aware of any new policy or guidelines regarding affiliate links, do you happen to know what that's in reference to?