My advice: drop it, but don't use the same people as references again. Whether a reference is good, bad, or mixed is entirely in the eye of the interviewer/ref

My advice: drop it, but don't use the same people as references again. Whether a reference is good, bad, or mixed is entirely in the eye of the interviewer/reference checker. The interviewer could have asked some question like "tell me about a time @anonnystate went above and beyond in this role" and your reference proceeds to tell about the time you left an after hours party to fix the thing that broke the site. In your reference's mind that showed dedication. In the interviewer's mind you worked on code while partying. They could have asked your references to describe your role, if it doesn't match up with what you claimed your role to be: mixed reference. And it's entirely possible that the people you asked to be your references didn't want to say no, precisely to avoid the followup question of why.