Your approach to giving to users who mantain a good ratio

Mostly whitelist, curated by only adding people with a good ratio, then sometimes level (3 is the right one, in my opinion), but on the latest community train I don't think I set any level, cause the event works better as a true free-for-all (leeches included) fest!

Whitelisting people is the better way to make sure that your games are in the correct hands - you decide who is on your list and there is nothing easier than that. At least thats my opinion :)

i personally think it's uncool to request a new winner due to bad ratio. Doing a leveled giveaway is the most obvious choice but if you want people who mantain a good ratio, creating a steam group with such requirements is the next best choice.

I got nothing against leeches, I used to be one, but I try to give back as much as I can.

But bots and autojoiners, that's a different story, that's why my minimum level is 2-3. Worse than leechers

Whitelist or your separate group on Steam - and you only gift games to your friends or favorites you are confident in.
The rest is easy to get around

Sgtools works nice, sadly link can leak for good games as you can't really find who did it. But chance is low, I use sgtools often and only once I had two invalid entries when it was unbundled game. You may try SG pillars group which is made to put together people with good ratio, but even there are leechers, which just know how to magicaly increase CV with low effort.

Whitelist is probably the only option. Cause some people bust their stats with unbundled asset flips with high price in steam:(

I think its either Sgtools or WL.

Whitelist may be the easier choice on a personal level- that or actually higher lvl requirements (not just 2 or 3).

But the lvl thing kinda bugs me, because i noticed higher level users are generally people with larger libraries- and i personally prefer to give more chances to those with less. But then theres the leakers and bots on the lower level.

Theres nothing stopping anyone from having large whitelists. Adding is pretty easy. The only downsides is having to personally add each and everyone, and if you really care about their standing upkeeping ends up becoming increasingly harder.

Id say whitelists but, end of the day, groups who are already stabilished and stable outwins the trouble of laborious whitelisting and later checking whos in the list.
Theres lots of groups where theres already a bunch of people helping mantain.

Someone mentioned SG Pillars and by your post it was the first that came to my mind- but then sg pillars get into the 'generally users who already have lots of games' category.

My personal pick has been Playing Appreciated for quite a few years now. The downside is theres nothing on PA about user ratios, but i could be mistaken- but it cares more about wether or not people play their wins and are entering for things they want rather then just hoarding, wich i personally care more about then whatever cv or real cv ratio wouldve been (and includes nonbot newcomers who very often cant or wouldnt have a higher level or good standing yet)

Also theres nothing foolproof. End of the day is just wich option is less prone to unwanted entries. Id say you could guess or expect at least a 1-2 entries who arent as good standing as youd wish no matter the method. All of them are valid frankly (minus re-rolling, that only would work with very obvious leechers/bots)

Level, usually. It's the easiest and most effective.

WL GA's would be the best way in my opinion, as the others (as you said) come with some drawbacks.

I use the levels not for ratios checks at all, but just because making GA's in level 2 and above severely minimizes the amounts of re-rolls due game already owned and phony the key didn't work requests.

Just be aware, if you only do whitelist GA's or group GA's then you sort of become part of the problem you are trying to combat by doing it. Elitist WL/Groups tend to kill the influx of new good people as they are more and more excluded, and therefore not incentivized to stay on the site or perhaps even pushed into the behavior we would rather not see here. There's quite a lot of people here, good people who think certain groups or White Lists are just as bad as leeching, as those take away from the fun for us all the same way in the end. And they will target those GA creators just as you are trying to target leeches.

Ii's not always easy to cover ones bases, to navigate the SG sea safely, but as long as you do anything in moderation, I think you'll be good. Have fun, and good luck.

whitelist

Calling someone with ratio below 1.0 a leech is stupid. If you really want 1.0 ratio - you are on a wrong site, the one you need it steamtrades.com
You see, to achieve ratio above 1.0 you need someone to go below 1.0. So, without people who have ratio below 1.0 we inevitable become steamtrades, because nobody will be able to go above 1.0. There is no other options.
I don't care about user ration. I don't even care if people play the game they won from me (but that is, unlike ratio, is sane and understandable requirement). All I want it for winner to be happy about what they won, even if that's just for the sake of hoarding. I use level-restricted or sgtools-restricted giveaway not to request some giving per se, but just to make sure that winner at least know how the site works, and will activate game and mark it as received. I hate doing rerolls, and I hate when people trade/regift their wins. If there was some way to filter only "good" users from lvl0, I would gladly give a bit more to them. But bots, multiaccounts and just idiots unable to read rules are way to common to make public giveaways without restrictions, alas.

Bonus question, is it ok to request new winner based on winner ratio? (I didn't even use that option yet).

Nope, that's not a valid option. Support will deny this request. If you wish to exclude entrants you'll need to use other options like sg tools, groups or whitelist.

I'm not technical enough for any of that.

Join & Enter for my group! That's it, thats the rules

All have upsides and downsides, you grabbed that correct.
It doesn't give a perfect solution. Sadly.

It's a fact that 40% of the level 0 accounts have infractions for unactivated or multiple wins (= reselling wins and such stuff) + the ammount of used autojoiners are much more as in higher levels.
You can check each account, special the winners, on infractions with https://www.sgtools.info/activation and https://www.sgtools.info/multiple-wins

https://www.steamgifts.com/stats/community/users
Scroll down to the bottom and look at the "per level" info and you see we have on sg 965k accounts that never gave one game away that weren't free and only around 165k that gave something.

Of course aren't all 165k of the lvl1+ accounts active but the 1.0 ratio that you brought up are far from the reality.
With a 1.0 ratio you have maybe maximum 2k (i assume the half) as possible recievers for GA's.
And to call all below that as leechers sounds very hard, special when you look on the 965k that never gave something on this site.

I assume you done that to provoke and to start a discussion and not because you really think each one below the 1.0 ratio is a leecher.

Besides that is it very easy to fake the ratio and the $ send with shady ru shop games that costs cents and bring really big ammounts.
The people that use that method are listed in each group that don't restrict such stuff on page 1 but in the end they give overpriced, sg cv system exploiting, crap away to win normal/good games. The same counts for the people that use 30 accounts on all freebie sites to grab as much copies as possible and to give them away on sg before the staff set them to free -a part will be set to free after X ammount of time but a other part will be never set to free because the staff don't seen that freebie and not got a ticket to add it-.
They look like heros, as long as you don't look under the surface.
I can't give you examples on sg because it would be seen as calling out but write me on steam and i give you a few names, then you can check it with your own eyes and see very easily what i mean.

My solution against all the abuse and exploit on sg was to create a safe zone were i am able to close all loopholes and have a intense check of new people before they can win something. That way are the black sheeps outside and in the group is it relaxed and stress free. I don't need to set a minimum level (we have a few ones below the min. req. too) or think twice if some $%§%§ will win the GA and make the support and me afterwards extra work (that don't happen) :)
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/C3vvd/join-masafors-group-of-friends

Of course is that not a perfect solution too because it needs time to manage a group but for the normal members it's not more time investment or something else.

And yes, with each measurement or way it hits the friendly level 0 users, that exists too, but that is the price because the lower levels are INFESTED with black sheeps (and cg not really do something against it).

Whitelist and certain groups are my primary tool for the games I consider most worthwhile and where I really want to see someone play them and enjoy them.

For the games that I don't care about so much I'll just level restrict them so the winner will have at least given something away, even if it is less than they have received.

I use mainly groups and levels. But I guess others options are good too (although I does not use sgtools even if this give more flexibility),
Whitelist options sounds good too, but I think it should not be a only option as you need to manage it actively and manually and there will be the same winners over and over again. Also if it would be a only way to make GAs this site would die very fast (but the same for groups, that is it is better to mix some options :) ).

Ps. You can not reroll because of bad ratio and I think such option should not exist - you should set rules at a start of GA not on the end of it..

i've created some trains myself here(7 the last 2 years i've been more active) and i usually use sgtools to allow users with >0,4 real ratio in. it is quite a good method but not perfect, i've seen many users enter that built their cv with only overpriced games from russian stores and russian giveaways and not a single decent game from bundles in fanatical/humble, i blacklist some of them.
but i was thinking that next time instead of a forum train i'll maybe create a group for my giveaways but i'm just too lazy to write down rules, maintain the group, constantly checking users and kicking out bad apples.

I don't mind "leeches" participating and winning my GAs but I don't like ppl using bots, scripts, etc. to access every possible GA, even worse when they spam their "thanks" messages upon joining this way. I'm also kinda annoyed by ppl who don't thank when they win or don't redeem their gifts for a very long time after GA has ended, even though I check their profile and see them being online frequently (probably bots...). I think it's kinda rude but I don't do anything about it, only making my GAs minimum level 2, as I believe it cuts off majority of such accounts without impeding much chances of joining for the honest users. I don't use any other methods, even my whitelist and blacklist are both perfectly empty, no private, sgtools, group GAs. Sometimes I just pump minimum levels up, like on the last SG birthday - I made special GAs for every user level with different games but they were still public and with no other limitations.

Levels will filter out most of the bots but not most of the leeches (case in point).

Sgtools and WL are solid options in my opinion but I honestly think nothing beats directly gifting games to your actual friends on Steam, especially coop ones. As for bundle games, it's better to go on barter dot vg to exchange those for a wishlist one. You don't really need to limit yourself to Steamgifts is where I'm getting at.

On the other hand, if you really want to grow the community, creating engaging events is the way to go. That Halloween game one was top notch for example. Giveaways gated behind events remain inclusive enough to foster belonging without giving in to the seedier part of the community.

I don't even take users < level 2+ into consideration any longer. When you think about it all members have the money for hardware and internet access but are to poor to give away a game once in a while? Come on.

That's why I joined Masafor's group. He does the membership vetting process and I can be confident my gifts aren't taken by people going against the spirit of SG.

As I don't want to wholly exclude members feeling uncomfortable joining a group I do some invite only giveaways on ongoing threads from time to time.

Level, anything else is pain...

Groups that fit your ethos is probably the best way to go and whitelist if you set your whitelist up in that manner.

I don't do many public giveaways any more, since the incidence of rule breakers and people who take ages to mark as received is higher. I prefer forum giveaways and things like the community train.
Leechers don't really bother me, as long as they play their wins, which is why I like groups such as Playing Appreciated and Playing Matters and the Play a Game You Won on SteamGifts events.