In the past few months, I noticed a slight increase in requests for deleting user giveaways. Most of the time, it is related to already used or invalidated keys and this is where our slight problem happens.

As a giveaway creator:

  • You are responsible for every giveaway you create and it is assumed that you are providing a working key or a gift copy to the entrants
  • In case the key is already used, the request for deleting the giveaway should be the very last thing you consider after you used all the other options

You should first notify the key store where you bought it so you can possibly get a replacement or try to find another code on official third-party sites. Only after all of that, the request for delete should be the next option

As a winner of a giveaway:

  • You are within full rights to not give the creator your consent for deletion if you feel like they haven't done enough to salvage the situation
  • Any giveaways that have descriptions like "by entering this, you automatically give your approval to have the giveaway deleted if the key is not working" are ridiculous and only you (as a winner) and SG support have a final say in this

With all that said, honest mistakes are fine and they do happen from time to time. Keys get revoked every now and then and we can all work around this and fix such mistakes.
In any case, this PSA only serves as a gentle reminder of the responsibilities that both giveaway creator and giveaway winner(s) have and any user-created rules in the giveaway description that are not covered in FAQ and Guidelines are just silly.

As a reward for taking your time to read all of this, here is a picture of a small cactus that looks like an obese Bugs Bunny:

View attached image.
1 year ago*

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I hope one day we will get to point where support instruct people just to use the feature "Not Received"

1 year ago
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This could certainly be an option to lessen the load of the moderators while keeping the show moving.

1 year ago
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Any number of Not received could give you a "bad reputation".

I think deletion process should be automatic without any moderator interaction. If a creator deletes an ended giveaway, "winner" should get a notification about the deletion request and on the Won page the "winner" can select between Agree/Not Agree.If they agree, the site deletes the giveaway. If not, it sets the Not Received status.

Forcing the giveaway creators to give replacement keys just decreases the number of giveaways IMHO.

1 year ago*
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Personally I don't worry about having a bad reputation here. If people look at my profile and cannot see that I am truly giving, I will not lose sleep over that. :)

I certainly would agree with automatic deletion as well. Although I can think of possible reasons why not, if the giver could send an official SG request asking the recipient for deletion.... if the recipient clicks "Yes, I agree... delete this giveaway"... why not automatically delete the giveaway without it ever needing to burden a moderator?

1 year ago*
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When I wrote "The site deletes the giveaway", I thought that it deletes automatically without any moderator interaction.

1 year ago
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THIS! just option:

  • Received
  • Not Received
  • I agree to delete GA (creator just need to confirm "Delete this GA")

And for those who abuse 3rd option (activate key and don t chose "Received"): Ban

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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no, this will encourage key sellers

1 year ago
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I think there should be then a visible list of all deleted giveaways. I think that would make reasonable compromise.

Just show if it was deleted before or after the end.

1 year ago
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If deleted giveaways are shown, then we have two statistics that gives you "bad reputation". Then we do not need the deletion (after the end) at all.

1 year ago
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+1, yett a winner could accidently delete a valid GA with a working key and the giver gets no credit.
Make it an effort of both the Giver and Winner to delete.

Have sent, not sent, delete as an option for the Giver.
Have received, not received, and delete as an option for the winner.

Winner has final say.
Both need to select delete for it to auto delete. This would ease up on mod time expenditure.

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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+1
That's a great idea!

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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+1

1 year ago
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I believe such bad reputation is entirely deserved. Either source a working copy or accept it as fact of life.

Or why not entirely get rid of feedback system. No more CV, no more any guarantees of getting the game. Just random people making random giveaways. With some ending delivered and some not.

1 year ago
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Why do you think in absolutes?

The current system is good enough, just need some tweaking. Maybe only showing the not received after a threshold (if for example, 10% of your all giveaways are not received, it marks your account with a note: "Too much not received giveaways")

1 year ago
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Yeah I think some tweaking is required. I suggest simply showing all deleted giveaways on user profiles. Easiest option that will make everyone happy. They can still request deletion and not get "Not Received" and others can observe what games have been deleted.

1 year ago
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Any number of Not received could give you a "bad reputation".

No, they can't. No sane person checks if you have not received or not, unless ALL of your giveaways are NOT received. And bad reputations among insane people is a good thing imho.

1 year ago
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My reputation is good or bad with 24x not received from 3.000 games gived? (I don't delete giveaways when key is bad).

View attached image.
1 year ago
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I'd say your reputation is very good. But maybe some people only look that one number (without context), not the whole picture. That's why I suggested in one of my previous comment that the site should only show the not received number after a percent based threshold. With your numbers, the not received number wouldn't appear at all.

I think that modification would help to decrease the deleting jobs.

But maybe Ryzhehvost is right. Bad reputation among those people who does not see the whole picture might not matters.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Yes. Try to stay in the nice middle where you make giveaways with keys you know work, and don't coerce winners into "agreements" by writing "deletion is the only option" or "this key did not work, allow deletion".

View attached image.
1 year ago
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Good thing to remind, support has already enough work, so if some can be removed it would be good for everyone. If not sure about a key, just drop it in the discussions instead of creating a GA...
By the way...what's up, doc ?

1 year ago
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Any idea why the deletions have increased.
(Maybe, and it may be due to something else.)

Recently, a certain "Steam Key" store is suspected to be nearing the end of its service.
There seems to be an increase in "gifts" related to them.
After giving gifts to winners from those stores, there are rare cases where the keys are faulty.
Usually, this is resolved by consulting the store's support ticket.
(Winners receiving unopened gifts from the store should contact store support....)
If it is not resolved, they are usually given another game key to replace it.
(If it is completely out of warranty, you will be informed of this)
γ€€If the key is exchanged for another key, you will need to inform the sender and "mark as not received" with a screenshot or other proof.
In some cases, the sender will exchange the key for a different one.
γ€€Those who are unaware of those exchanges may not make any comments and may be a bit "rude".
γ€€In such cases, too, the sender will be consulted as a suspicious response to the winner, which will increase the SG support workload.

It seems that an effort should be made to verify information on both sides.
Well, as far as I know, it seems to be an extremely rare event.πŸ€”

1 year ago
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IG Feudalife Keys and Lootboy Keys aren't 100% sure ok.
A lot, nearly, only give this ones away, so they have from time to time problems.

I assume that are the biggest sources of the "not ok" keys.

1 year ago
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IG Feudalife Keys and Lootboy Keys aren't 100% sure ok.

As a personal note, it would be better to avoid giving away Steam keys from "old keys" or "suspicious stores" to reduce the number of gift-giving accidents.
Perhaps there is a common understanding there.


Even gifts purchased at the store and sent directly to the recipient have caused confusion when winners who do not understand the "redemption method" have told us that they have not received the gift.
πŸ›ΈγƒŸπŸŽγ€€πŸ“­πŸ‘β˜Ž<Not Received! γ€€πŸ“žβˆ‘(´Θ`)Oh..?

It seems that more and more places are including a "Store Buy Gift" button these days.
It seems to me that information on the location of functions that are convenient when those are sent to winners by SteamGifts would be expected to reduce the total number of support tickets.

1 year ago
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Even gifts purchased at the store and sent directly to the recipient have caused confusion when winners who do not understand the "redemption method" have told us that they have not received the gift.

At that point the creator can (typically) show that they've delivered the game and as such support can just mark it as received. Any issues with redemption are between the winner and the store in question and if they can't or won't resolve them then the impending suspension for not activating the win is on them.

1 year ago
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It should be.... I have seen two exceptions where this has not been the case.
One case seems to have been resolved later, but one still remains.
It seems that some people are not comfortable discussing (and checking for problems) in the comments section for various issues, some of which seem suspicious from my point of view πŸ€”.

1 year ago
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Thank you. Actually, I think it might make sense to pin this post for a couple of days.

1 year ago
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I think this group was approved by mods, wasn't it? I mean as an actual rule for the giveaways that are created there to be deleted if the key is not working. So it's a way of doing this without bothering all you busy higher ups.

Edit: so it wasn't approved by mods. I thought it had been.

1 year ago*
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It still causes work to moderators. And the rule has no standing on SG.

Only thing group can do is to kick members who don't follow that rule and "approve" deletion.

1 year ago
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Even with the group rule, it still doesn't supercede the rules of SG. The winner still needs to clearly state they agree to deletion, if they don't we can't delete it.

1 year ago
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Like Fate said. This group is "wonky" I'd say as they don't break any rules (asking for donations, asking for whitelists etc.) but also their rule is not 100% enforceable.

User needs to agree on deletion to stay in the group but nothing stops them from saying "I'm leaving not received for this Withcer 3 GA". Group owners can't coerce them into decision change or file ticket anyway requesting deletion. What they can do however is remove such user from the group after GA ended and they stopped to follow this "rule".

If we would have rule in guidelines against "by entering you agree on deletion" this group would not be allowed. But as winner can still choose to delete giveaway now - they can stay.

1 year ago*
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If we would have rule in guidelines against "by entering you agree on deletion" this group would not be allowed.

Depends on how you look at it. From my perspective its just a rule that the group can enforce by kicking a member that dont follow it. But on SG it would just be an unspoken rule that you wouldnt have to follow. :)

Wouldnt be any diffrent than having to create X amount of GAs every month or certain ratio etc to still be in the steam group.

1 year ago
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by kicking a member that dont follow it.

Caveat is that if I win GA today and not agree on deletion - they can kick me but they can't re-roll giveaway as "no longer group member". I was in group when GA ended.

If group gathers people that would agree on deletion anyway it doesn't really matter. And if someone would not agree on deletion - we would not grant it. We do not deal with group moderation, it's up to the group owners to keep their members to whatever rules they want.

The moment "you can't write in description to allow deletion" rule would be live it would by proxy apply to all groups as well. Same as we have "don't ask for whitelist" rule. If you'd try to make group with "WL me first and then I will accept your group application" rule thread would be closed as it does not follow our guideines.

1 year ago
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I made a lengthy post below. What happens if a gifter has multiple "Gift not received" due to bad keys?

In my particular case, and based upon my experience so far I have given away about 200 keys. Perhaps 10 have been bad. I have perhaps 300 more that I want to give away. So perhaps 10-15 of those will be bad keys. I imagine those giveaway will be completed in about 1 year or a little more.

If in a years time, I have 300 giveaways and 15 "Not received" among them (thereby saving the moderators the need delete giveaways), would my SteamGifts account be penalized?

That is really the point of my post below. I simply want to be able to give away the keys I have without having to worry that I must spend $$$ to be able to give away my keys. I have keys, I don't have $$$. :)

1 year ago
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This is a non-issue. Any giveaway group that uses any kind of ratio is therefor "wonky", as someone can be obliged to create a giveaway to remain in the group. If I have a key and I'm not sure it works what's the problem? That group is fine. I understand there's mental cases who WILL go and make a giveaway knowing full well that they don't have a working key and then use that "if the key doesn't work you agree to delete" or whatever, but that's only a public giveaway issue. There is no issue and we're here to give away games not to worry about upsetting moderators with workload. If you don't have the time to moderate or delete giveaways, you shouldn't have accepted the role in the first place.

Wonky my ass. Who cares.

1 year ago
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Careful, now. You may damage their fragile sense of importance.

1 year ago
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heheh

1 year ago
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Users who write

by entering this, you automatically give your approval to have the giveaway deleted if the key is not working

Should be temporary suspended for making invalid custom rules. There is one thing if you kindly ask when it comes to it. But all those messages most users make nowadays are really annoying.

1 year ago
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Unfortunately there's a lot of people in the community that aren't that familiar with the rules and believe they need to delete it because of something like what you've mentioned is in the giveaway description. When I notice these things in the giveaway description for GAs running I'll often comment letting the GA creator know that the winner doesn't have to agree to it, and hopefully the winner sees that.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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I definitely wouldn't be doing it if I thought it was against the rules of SG, so I don't believe there would be an issue. If I was made aware that this wasn't allowed, I would immediately stop doing it.

When I do post something, it's along the lines of "Please be aware that your custom rules do not supercede the rules of SG. The winner does not have to agree to delete the giveaway if something is wrong with the key and can choose to mark it as not received if a new working key is not provided." Sometimes it's shorter than that, but you get the general idea.

1 year ago
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no they should not. they have the same right to write that as you have to not follow that rule

1 year ago
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The problem is when they dont ask but lie. They try to make it look like its enforced by just writing it. If a user believes its true they might just agree by default.

1 year ago
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Thanks for the PSA, helped me understand this whole "if the key is not working" thing better.
As a reward for taking your time to write this, here is a picture of a small cactus that looks like a cactus:

View attached image.
1 year ago
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That's one prickly cactus. ;-)

1 year ago
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View attached image.
1 year ago
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I was going to post a Rabbids pic, but your pic is perfect! lol

1 year ago
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I certainly understand your message and the reasons it is necessary to have such a structure. And I most definitely do not want to create more work for you and others that volunteer their time here to keep the site running. I have been on that side of things many times and understand fully the burden on you all!

But there is no perfect system. For example, the structure here might swing the pendulum too far in one direction as basically all the responsibility falls upon the giver. Although you mention responsibilities of the giveaway winner, you only mention the giveaway winner's rights and it seems you push them to deny the request to delete a giveaway with such descriptions as "ridiculous" and "silly".

I would like to comment that for those, like me, that

  • do NOT care about what user level they attain
  • do NOT have the financial resources to purchase additional keys
  • DO have a collection of keys and want to share with others until that collection is exhausted

This is to say, for people with big hearts but small wallets, this is a push toward the exit door because it boils down to saying that only people with discretionary funds are allowed to give to others here. 😒

After a few less than satisfying experiences giving gifts via Reddit etc. I encountered SteamGifts when I was searching for a site where I could give away my extra keys with some hope that it would not be to resellers. That I have been able to receive a few games from others is certainly an added and wonderful bonus. And that aspect would keep me here - but perhaps only as a leacher, and not as a giver.

When the desire to be generous and kind to others becomes an absolute legal obligation whether one has the financial recourses or not to fulfill that, then the joy (and ability) of giving/sharing is killed Surely this will ultimately result in more giveaways being taken out of open giveaways... meaning that fewer people will have the benefit of receiving games and some people will receive more than their "share" because they happen to be in a small group or whitelist.

I have been an active donor in my time here. I actually have my first real train going online today or tomorrow. Based upon this psa, it very well may be my last. 😒

Perhaps I am in a very small minority, but to me this makes Steamgifts a lesser place, a less joyful place than it has been. At some point, I believe, those who are generous should have the opportunity to be generous without that generosity becoming a financial burden.

Why can't SteamGifts give a helping hand instead of a lash to the gifters? For example, recognize in the guidelines the ability to have "as is / no guarantee" giveaways under certain circumstances. This is one way that could help. Perhaps another would be to simply not penalize for several "Not received" on record for a giver. And I have seen posted that this might be true? Although I don't like the "stigma" of "not fulfilling my responsibility", wanting to give away what I have is something I value more than my public image here. The only current alternative at SteamGifts is to simply post the keys in an open "first come/first served" forum where bots steal most of the keys.

I WANT to give away my 300+ keys. But I cannot afford to pay to do so. 😒

1 year ago*
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Have there actually been lot of cases where people are punished based on "Not Received" feedback?

I haven't yet seen too many cases. Or at least I cannot remember such.

And actually working feedback system is good for the site. Otherwise people could just throw random giveaways for jokes and that would make site simply worse for everyone.

1 year ago
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Have there actually been lot of cases where people are punished based on "Not Received" feedback?

No. Only if you're (repeatedly) using big tickets games to promote your group / curator and don't make good on the giveaways.

Some of the more "elitist" (for the lack of a better word) groups might not accept members with a history of Not receiveds but if you're strapped to farm Lootboy or Alienware for Freebies to give away here those groups wouldn't accept you anyway.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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You're taking this way too serious imo. Yeah, sometimes keys don't work. Not a big deal. You might get a "not received". Not a big deal either. Nobody really cares for those. One of the biggest givers and organizer of the advent calendar has several of them. I also have one (giftee was an asshole). Nobody ever cared.
The whole not received thing is to protect the site from large amount of fake giveaways with malicious or advertising intent without actually giving anything.
And usually people are happy to cooperate when keys are not working, even without this silly disclaimer. It's just common sense.

1 year ago
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Yes, you are probably correct. It was the tone of the original post which didn't mention the "Not received" as an option that caused me to speak up. For those who are not well versed in the consequences of few "Not received" contests, it sounded so dire. Now a few posts have mentioned that "Not received" are not a huge issue. That is reassuring. :)

1 year ago
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It should probably also be mentioned that leaving feedback pending indefinitely (i.e. until the next sale) is also a completely viable option.
I think most people would prefer to get their price 3 months later than not at all.

However in that situation you might wanna hold off from entering more giveways for the game in question OR allow the creator of the pending giveway to delete it if you happen to win the game while waiting for the first gib to be delivered.

1 year ago*
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However in that situation you might wanna hold off from entering more giveways for the game in question OR allow the creator of the pending giveway to delete it if you happen to win the game while waiting for the first gib to be delivered.

iirc you can't enter giveaways for games that you've won while waiting to get the key. you have to mark it as 'not received' in order to enter more giveaways. this also leaves open the option to mark 'received' later, so a bad key could always be corrected in the future (assuming you haven't already obtained a key from somewhere else.) a 'not received' never has to be permanent.

1 year ago
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You're absolutely right.
Thanks for pointing this out.

πŸ˜‰

1 year ago
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1 year ago*
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Happy cakeday!

1 year ago
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Happy cakeday :-D

1 year ago
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This is to say, for people with big hearts but small wallets, this is a push toward the exit door because it boils down to saying that only people with discretionary funds are allowed to give to others here.

That's not true. "Not received" mark is not a stigma, and not a punishment. It's just what it says - game was not received, key did not work. Unless you intentionally put outright wrong key, or provide no key at all - there will be no consequences. You are writing about " no guarantee" giveaways - that's ALL giveaways here. But even "no guarantee" giveaway needs a way to finish it. If key works, it gets "received" mark and you get CV (or not, if it's in no-CV list), and if the keys don't work - it gets "not received" mark and you get nothing (and it's nothing indeed - nothing good, but nothing bad too).

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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No, I do not think I have lost sight of why I am giving games away. No, not at all. Beyond that, nothing you mention is news to me as I have heard and/or learned all that from experience. But thank you for trying to help. :)

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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My recommendation is to buy games only from reputable sources, so that if you do have an issue with a key, you can get a replacement. If you can't afford to give stuff away, then stop doing it.

This works for people are from rich countries, while people are from 3rd world countries like me will most likely gift region locked games via steam system for just small region. I used to do it, then people have complained about how we are exploiting system by just giving away regional games instead of worldwide.
So I have to find keys that work worldwide but are equal to our regional pricing on Steam. You can't expect us who received 180usd/month (me as a radiology residency) to pay 10usd for a game worth only 0.5usd here.

1 year ago*
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Can't even have Steamtrades as a reliable source of decent and affordable bundled games these days. It used to be like "here's a list of 10k games, pick any for 10-15 trading cards", and now it's like "oh, you want Bad Rats? It's gonna 3 TF2 keys, take it or leave it". Not a lot of options for... frugal people these days, unfortunately. Not like this absolves anyone from responsibility for what we're giving away, of course, but still.

1 year ago*
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1 year ago*
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1 year ago*
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I disagree.

I am creating giveaways to get rid of my spare keys (I don't need them, but someone might enjoy the games). The way I see it, if the key works, fine. Happy gaming! If not, sorry, but you don't lose anything. When I creating a giveaway, I am doing you a FAVOR (give you a potentional gift), it is not a CONTRACT. If a key does not work, I don't owe you anything (except an apology).

And I expect the same from everybody on this site.

There is no sense to advise to stop doing giveaways just because a low percentage of the keys are not working.

1 year ago*
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1 year ago
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Same advice to you. I am actually disagreeing with you.

Whether you have no money, or spend too much money, the responsibility of giving away working keys falls on the gifter.

I disagree with this line completely. Since there is no way to check whether a key is working or not, I question the gifter's responsibility. It is joke. Force this guideline and the end result is a close circle of rich people who buys and gifts games for the member of the circle.

Also, don't give away keys from bundles you bought years ago

I disagree with this as well. Why not? Most of the keys are working. If not, and there is no replacement, then what? You lost nothing, except some artifical points that you gain automatically.

1 year ago
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1 year ago*
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1+ πŸ‘
Feel the same way! 🀠

1 year ago
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I know i won't make friends by writing this, but as Dominicanoed i regret that the system actually tends to be punitive for gifters.
People are nice to offer their games here rather than to their relatives, friends or to resell their keys.

In practice i already won 2-3 giveaways with invalid keys and wrote to the gifter that i agreed for the giveaway to be canceled.
If they state in advance that key can be faulty, i agree to cancel if it doesn't work because it's nice of them to warn in advance.

1 year ago
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Until now I managed to replace any faulty keys but I'm sure in due time fate will hit me and I'll get a "not received" where I'm unable to replace the key. In that case my only hope is members and mods won't grab their pitchforks and burn me on a stake πŸ”₯

1 year ago
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I was you several months ago... :) Due time has arrived for me.

Perhaps in due time, there will be another change for the financial better. But until them, I am likely to get some "Not received" on giveaways.

1 year ago
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Don't diminish yourself. Looking at your profile you gave away a lot of brilliant games which not everyone around here can say for themselves.

1 year ago
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View attached image.
1 year ago
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Communication is really a big key in a lot of these situations. Leaving a comment on one of the winners GAs, reaching out to them on Steam etc. to let them know that you're working on replacing the key is a really good idea. I am aware that sometimes it's not possible as some will blacklist people, block on Steam etc. etc. in these cases maybe a friend can reach out to them to let the winner know.

1 year ago
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And I was hoping that it will be forbidden at last. Well, explanation from support member is fine too.

1 year ago
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i got chungus'd once. never again. . .

1 year ago
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I am glad we got this clarified -- I really thought at first it was an eggplant badly disguised as a short-armed prickly avocado signaling a touchdown!

What else did y--- SQUIRREL!!!

View attached image.
1 year ago*
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I never had that kind of problem and I get that mods want to reduce their workload. Though cg could easily let winners and giveaway creators sort out if a giveaway should be deleted, without involving any mods.

But honestly, in case of Humble I'd always prefer getting the giveaway deleted instead of risking that someone on Humble's support team decides that the giveaway creator is a trader and should be banned.

1 year ago
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that the easiest metod

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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That time when I found out that the key I put up for the giveaway (that my cousin sent me as a gift) was used. Asked the winner to wait and quickly bought a new key from GMG and sent it to him ....

And the best part was that it was my very first giveaway. Man, I need to make new giveaways .... I have keys gathering dust somewhere ...

1 year ago
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(I'll just Bookmark this to have something to link to next time it comes up.)

I've said this before and I'll say it again- if there's a problem with a key, there are very few edge cases where I'd agree to a deletion. While deleting and forgetting is the "short easy route" (for the creator, at least) it sets a bad precedent- whichever site they got the key from effectively scammed them and got away with it! I refuse to allow people to just overlook that because they were too lazy to do anything about it. <.<

Meanwhile, this trend of people spamming made-up guilt-tripping rules in their descriptions makes it seem like they expect the keys to not work. I know that in most cases it's just them not knowing better, but that's the impression it creates. If they're out of options and absolutely must get it deleted (for... OCD reasons I guess...), the least they could do is wait for the giveaway to actually finish before "asking".

Anyhow, that's a very cute fat cactus bunny.

1 year ago
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I think it should remove the limitation of 7 days before pressing "not received", if SG really want people to use it.

1 year ago
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Or alternatively only allow created Deletion ticket after 7 days.

1 year ago
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the issue with this would be people that would mark it "not received" after less than 1 day. not that a lot of people would, but there are those who are impatient and/or don't understand timezone differences.

1 year ago
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Totally agree.
It's just too long for I already tried the invalid key and giveaway owner is also not willing to do anything, BUT I still need to wait for another 5 days before I can press "not received". What I only can do is to stare at the red circle hanging there for 5 more days.

1 year ago
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I really hated when they implemented that only because they also changed it so that you cannot enter any other giveaways for the same game until you marked it as not received. That means, if you get a bad key, all your entries for other giveaways of that same game are removed and you cannot start entering for other giveaways for that game for 7 days. The only quicker way is to agree to delete the GA and hope support gets to it quick. You can get a bad key and have giveaways available to you that have extremely good odds to win from a small group or whitelist, but not be able to enter because someone gave you a bad key and now you have to wait. I understand that this was done to make less work for support, but the old way was a better user experience.

1 year ago
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yes, and that's why people agree that owner can have their false giveaway deleted

1 year ago
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Agreed, this and only this is the reason for winners choosing to delete their won giveaways bc otherwise they get punished for having received an invalid key.

1 year ago
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that pic looks like big chungus

1 year ago
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Whenever I was asked about the giveaway deletion I always agreed and I find it natural to do so.

Nothing is certain and if one cannot replace said key, any type of entitlement and rudeness towards the creator only serves towards driving them away from exposing themselves to any future drama. As with anything, there are people that abuse this mechanism from both sides but pointing fingers once the unexpected happens is always a bad choice. It can be argued that there are key sellers that mark valid keys as "Not Received" and demand replacements but also creators who knowingly make giveaways with used keys, but I consider these being particular cases and not representative of the whole community.

Maybe creating a special tag for such keys or introducing a dedicated system even with its own points or with discounted entry points that doesn't require any moderation would bring more life into the site and find new homes for awesome games gathering digital dust by removing the fear of drama that comes with the uncertainty of those keys possibly being used or even revoked by the devs. If everyone understands and accepts that using that dedicated category comes with no guarantee such situations would be avoided.

In the end this is SteamGifts and a gift by definition is "a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present". The giftee is not a client that purchased a good, nor should they be. Things happen and often without any intention whatsoever. The creator can be as disappointed as the winner when something goes wrong. Sometimes it's simply not possible to settle it. It's important to be understanding with each other and have common sense and that will ensue a less toxic environment.

If the issue is the amount of tickets being created asking for giveaway deletion, the easiest thing that can alleviate the situation is to add a button for the creator, something like "Cannot provide replacement. Request deletion from winner." and for the winner to have another option on the "won" page, that automates everything without the need for any support ticket to be created, for instance once you click "Not Received" to be asked "The giveaway creator unfortunately cannot provide a replacement and kindly requests the giveaway deletion. Do you agree? Yes | No". If the winner picks "No", the creator keeps the "Not Received", if the winner picks "Yes", the giveaway is automatically deleted by the system without the need for any moderation. Simple, easy and no tickets being created.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Thanks for addressing this. I find it really annoying seeing so many giveaways that write something in the description about allowing them to delete the giveaway if the key doesn't work because it is pretty much meaningless. Users are seeing other users write it, so they start writing it too and it is showing up everywhere now just like in the past where everyone though they had to write "Thanks" on every giveaway they entered because everyone else was doing it.

1 year ago
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I guess giving away my repeats from lootboy is no longer viable then, I legit thought that group rules were a workaround for this issue but it seems like that was never the case. Welp, I might as well retire from making and entering giveaways, I had a good run.

1 year ago
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Why would you stop using the site? This thread is basically just informing people that you cannot force anyone to agree to delete a giveaway. That is how the site has always worked and you have managed to use it that way for 8 years, nothing has changed.

Users can still let you delete the giveaway if they want to and if they choose not to, you will just have to live with a "not received" feedback on your account which is not a big deal. With almost 350 GAs sent, having something like 10 not received feedback will not be a big deal. Having not received feedback on your account has pretty much no affect on anything. Hardly anyone will even look that closely at your stats to notice it and if certain people do, the worst they can do is blacklist you.

You can still create giveaways restricted to the groups that require users to allow you to delete the giveaway. Pretty much everyone in those groups will allow you to delete the giveaway because it is a group rule. If they refuse, they will be kicked from the group.

1 year ago
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Yeah, uhm, sorry for the late response and the general vagueness of my original comment. I should probably clarify some things.
I've been thinking about temporarily quitting giveaways for some time now, not the site at large tho, I'll still visit the forum almost every day as I've been doing for the good part of a decade. The reason for this is a bit more complex than just this post, this was just the final push I needed. I've basically run out of things to give away: I exhausted my key stash and barely buy bundles anymore so it's not getting restocked any time soon, I can no longer gift things through Steam to anyone outside of my country, and because of high taxes on digital goods and our ever depreciating local currency any site that sells international keys in foreign currency is starting to get prohibitively expensive. For the last year or two most of the keys I gave away had came from lootboy, I'm not proud of the fact that I've been essentially just regifting freebies, but it allowed me to continue being active, or more accurately, pretending like I was.
I don't see myself being able to keep making giveaways, at least for a while, and if I keep on entering them then that makes me feel like too much of a leach. This wasn't so much of a dissonant think to me in the past, but during the last sale I ended up reaching 4k games, and I had a minor crisis of conscience. I can't bring myself to keep adding gifts to the ever growing pile of unplayed games that it's my backlog, it feels wrong, so I started to think about quitting. And then we get to this post, the perfect excuse to quit, because I've had to delete four GAs in the last year.

I hope that sorta explains where my earlier comment was coming from. And sorry for the wall of text.

1 year ago
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I understand. It's definitely getting much harder to give games. It's not even worth the effort trying to gift something directly through Steam because they made it so difficult and there haven't been many good bundles in recent years. I mostly just give the leftover games I get from buying bundles, but I don't buy many anymore because they don't give that many good games and most of them are kind of expensive now compared to what they were in the past. I feel this way and I live in the US where I don't have to worry about region restrictions nearly as much as most other regions. Region restrictions can be hard to figure out and I can only imagine how difficult it is trying to gift games from other regions that have more restrictions.

I also have a large backlog of games to play. I only collect games I am interested in playing and my backlog of games to play is currently over 900. I'm sure it will take decades to get through them and my backlog is still growing. I feel bad sometimes about winning games, but then I consider that I only enter for games that I have an intention of playing someday and think about all the other users here who just enter anything for the +1. If I stop entering for games, all those people entering just for the +1 or to idle them for cards will continue to enter. There are so many users with many hundreds of wins and almost nothing sent and they don't even want them to play them. When I think of that, it makes me feel like it is okay to keep entering even if I don't give a lot anymore.

I don't have an issue with people giving away games they got for free. If there are people entering the giveaways, they want the games for one reason or another and you are making somebody happy no matter what you give. They probably don't know where the games were given away or may not have access to get them, so you are still giving them something they otherwise would not have gotten themselves.

I originally thought you wanted to leave just because of this announcement which didn't make much sense, but now I understand. Just do whatever makes you happy :)

1 year ago
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Well, I'll still take part in events and mass giveaways, those are fun. But I'll stop visiting the main GA page, at least for some time.
Thanks for reading through my ramblings :)

1 year ago
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+1
I'm always happy when I got free keys for games I've wishlisted that I missed from sites GAs, such as alienware arena, intel, steelseries etc...
Most keys from events are US/UK prioritized and some GAs exhausted very fast due to lags, bots...
There are events that if you get this game key already you can't get another one blablabla.
Luckily I always win spare free keys from the collectors' group I join ^^

1 year ago*
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I usually give away keys for games I bought 7 years ago, some from stores that don't even exist anymore. I have had to ask for the deletion of 2 or 3 giveaways in the last couple of years because developers decided to revoke the key for whatever reason. My solution is usually to use backup keys from a different bundle bought on a different site just to find that they also revoked those keys as well. If that doesn't work I try to find someone to trade with.
And if that doesn't work, at this point my only solution left is to contact Steamgift's support. Don't know why I wrote this, guess I just wanted to share my experience.

1 year ago*
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I usually give away keys for games I bought 7 years ago, some from stores that don't even exist anymore.

You must be very brave. Most stores have in their small print a passage that keys will cease to work after x months or devs/publishers delete unused keys because they can.

1 year ago
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Xarabas trying to reduce his work load in a subtle way, i say nay!

1 year ago
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this!

1 year ago
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I suggest they just remove the third option of deleting giveaways and everyone will be happy.

1 year ago
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Those descriptions are ridiculous indeed, but damn bugs bunny really let himself go..

1 year ago
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