Yes. That is correct. No one claimed otherwise. That affiliate link language is a courtesy notification that if you choose to follow that particular link and go through the process to become a fee-paying member, that the person from whose post you followed said link will receive a tiny bonus for having referred you from their page. I receive about $2 or so a month from that affiliate link.

Seriously, no one is scamming anyone with that affiliate link. It just takes folks to the platform's application to join – and records that it came from that affilate link so the author may receive that bonus. The bonus does NOT come from the person joining. The person clicking on that link is in no way obligated to actually become a member, nor obligated in any conceivable way to the author on whose page the clicked the link.

I joined from someone else's affiliate link – even though I'd held one of the limited free accounts for several years before joining.