IMO:
1) Do you support SMAS? If so, you should mention it and/or your stance against spam in this thread.
2) You should kill that referral program. It causes more damage (e.g. spammers spam your name everywhere) that it is worth it.
1. I'm using it as a guideline, not as something that will make me either accept or deny an applicant, I'm currently in the process of starting up my own blacklist.
That isn't coherent, i.e. looks like you don't use it at all. You can't "use something as a guideline" which was meant for blocking users from relevant campaigns, but then not use it for denying applications.
2. True, have seen a lot of referral spam recently, I want someone to refer me because they truely think I'm a good manager, not just for some money.
I've also seen at least 1 more manager (I think) use it, thus it might set a bad precedence in general. We lack proper policies around here as is.
The list is up to date, and users remain on that list unless they ask for a review and pass it. The spam problem can't be tackled if managers do not participate for nonsensical reasons. 
