Can you point me the post? theymos didn't said it must be official representative or owner.
This topic always enter into a debate, as there are some exception for ref links, you can actually see it on many ann threads, i found this thread not from theymos but from 1miau.
There are some
exceptions, where reflinks could be tolerated like if you are including it in a very informative reply / description which adds value, a site owner who wants to track traffic coming from Bitcointalk or similar where it's very clear that it's no
ref-spam.