Should giveaway creators be required to provide any sort of proof in order to request a new winner?

After 7 days of sending the key, no.
That's the rules as they are written. There are no rules that givers have to track down or harass the winner until they claim their gift (as far as I understand it).

If someone wants a new winner before that time because of an expiring steam sale and the new gifting restrictions, right now they are being told that they have to wait. Instead, in that case, it would make sense for them to be asked for proof of attempted contact, i.e. when it is done to justify making an exception to the 7-day rule.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit:
To clarify on the FAQ, I was reading that procedure as more a recommendation rather than something enforceable on its own. Evidently, that's not how the moderation team reads it. So my bad, I guess.

As Avantyr said, after 7 days we shouldn't have to provide proof of anything.
I'm just glad we (giveaway creators) can now see that a key (or gift link) was viewed.
Then we can check the users games list and file a report / blacklist if the key was viewed and not activated.

Well, after 7 days the winner is like going against the rule so that's a proof itself. Sooo, yes... of course the creators must provide proof.

Only in the time before 7 days should be required, after there's no need for it

SG now sends an email when you win something. And you get the space cat. And the red badge on the top bar. Trying to contact the winner in other ways is a strange requirement if there ever was one.

In any case, it's always stressful for the creator to get a winner who ignores their win (while being frequently online on SG of course), so the rules should probably make the creator's life easier, not the winner's.
In the rare case when the winner doesn't visit SG at all for 7 days after their win, it's nevertheless obvious that the game would probably more welcome in other hands.

EDIT: Okay, the above was written with respect to the key having been sent through SG. If there's no key, the rules should probably guarantee that the winner was in fact contacted.

To those saying, "after 7 days, no" ... how is this not ripe for abuse? Someone doesn't like their winner so they simply don't send their key for 7 days and then they get a new winner...

I think even after the 7 days it's still important, in the log term, in case the winner has took notice of their win but didn't have the time to activate (those that come up online every other hour to enter more GAs but never actually claim until a day or two later), they could lie and attempt to make the host look bad instead, by providing proof right away when requesting a new winner you're safe from this, even if such a scenario is unlikely to happen.

Even if this were to change I'd still continue to provide proof on every request and report I make, I think it's better that way.

I would say depends. If the GA creator sent the key via SteamGifts but it wasn't claimed by the winner, I don't think the creator should provide any proof, otherwise yea. I mean someone could just claim "I have a Steam Gift for the winner, tried to contact him, didn't answer" while he didn't do that at all.

I'd just like to add that my Hotmail email keeps sending my win notifications to spam.

I would say that proof is always needed, but on the other hand I am aware how easy it is to fabricate such proof. You don't even need to photoshop things (which could be spotted, but again with suport load it's hard to require you to analyze screenshots whether they were tampered with), but you can simply edit webpage in your own browser to show whatever proof you want - like email sent, invite sent etc, then just make a screenshot. In this situation, as much as I am against PM system avaiable SG-wide (because so much potential abuse, scamming and begging), I think Support Staff should have a way of directly contacting any member via SG. Sure - you can find some old GA and comment there, but for once it could be viewed by third party, and 2nd it won't help with all leechers/bots who never created GA or commented at all, just run script to enter all GAs they can. Support could contact winner via PM and ask why they refused contact - no reply? Then you have your own proof, there is a reply? dig deeper to see who is lying.

Just to clarify, email notifications can be deactivated.

Not sure what the right thing here is but I'm all for a little more back-up than less. It just makes it that much easier for our admin's to approve the re-roll asap. And really, it doesn't take a lot of extra time to screen shot an email or a notice on the winner Steam profile (if they allow comments).

I also occasionally communicate with a winner via a post or GA that they've made if the GA is a few days old - though this can be hit or miss if all of their GA's are for groups. Frankly, I'd prefer if the email notification of a win would NOT be optional.

Lastly, it irks me when I have track someone down and beg them to accept my gift so I can certainly see why many are voting for the "no proof" option. But as cbones stated, there are always going to be people looking to scam whatever system is in place - both from the winner and gifter side of the equation.

Rules should include stating everything in GA thread; as it is SG 'territory', it would be a solid proof. Mods see deleted comments and history of edits.

If winner asks in GA thread the status of gift on 3th or 5th day, gifter can't then say that they tried to contact winner and it didn't work, right? They need to answer to winner's comment for that at least.

We just need clear guidelines of how situations should be solved if people don't seem to react on attempts to contact.
Otherwise (with rules saying to communicate in GA) if winner is away for more than a week not responding in GA thread, no proof needed. You can't really get solid proof that winner was contacted through Steam or mail anyway. If there are hidden reasons, it is not hard to forge something.

One thing I can say is that I shouldn't have to send a screenshot of the key on steamgifts to get a reroll. The key is already on the site, you should be able to tell I sent it.

I think the best way would be if proof is required if the giveaway creator is sending the game to the winner outside of SG.

I think proof should not be required if the key was added directly to the giveaway on SG, has been sent through SG, and 7 days have passed.

The problem is if the giveaway creator waits till day 6 to send the key and then tries to get a reroll on day 7. Maybe there should be another timer where the winner gets 5 or 7 days to activate the game after the giveaway creator clicks the "sent" button.

In my opinion, the following would make sense:

In the case of a key or link which is stored on SG, no proof is necessary. Mods are able to tell if the key is available and whether or not it was revealed. If the key was never revealed by the winner, then he or she didn't bother to claim it. If the winner had wanted to claim it, he or she would have. If the winner wanted the game but was unable to log on, he or she would have contacted the creator or left a post or done some other thing to announce the difficulty. In such a case where the winner has not claimed the prize, he or she has effectively abandoned the win.

In the case of a Steam gift, arrangements would be required to deliver the gift, so there should be some record of that with the creator. It should be easy to take a screenshot of the Steam chat, or friend invite, or email. As the Mods cannot be expected to access such information on their own, the creator of the giveaway should have no complaint about providing it.

In the event of strange and unforeseen circumstances, the Mods have only one way of understanding what is going on, and that is collecting information from the parties involved. Again, those involved should be neither surprised nor upset when asked for such information.

^ nvm, the above comment shows the right procedure, that will be helpfull in the future

Inconveniently i have provided multiple shots has proof.
Personally support should be able to check if the keys has been displayed on the site or not.
I speak of my own experience, but so far a good portion of the winners have been online, had time to sign to steam and entered for more giveaways in between those 7days, meanwhile ignoring friend requests.
If anyone does this, without even commenting the situation. I will take it as intentionally delaying the process

it's as if a script entered for those GAs and they have no recollection of ever winning

In case of any dispute, the winner should always have a chance to voice themselves in case they aren't even aware they are being rerolled. It's by far most common for winners to wait silently in order to receive their win, which means they'll never speak up unless informed. I've had valid wins being rerolled on me for seemingly no reason and not having any chance to speak up. At the very minimum, the mod handling the reroll request should attempt to contact the winner once through SG, just in case the creator has malicious intents.

At the very least, the mods should check the comments in the GA.
Absent some kind of comment, 7 days after the GA creator has revealed the key on SG, no proof needed.

If it's a direct gift, I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the GA creator - especially those who create a lot and have a sterling reputation.
But if it's a relatively new GA creator, or one known to be difficult, or one who has submitted many reroll requests, then yes, proof should be required

Absolutely, 100% yes, in all cases.
Anything else could (and probably would) lead to abuse.

I say, if it is a key, and obviously hasn't been viewed, then after 7 days let a reroll happen no questions asked. Really want to be generous have a popup on the site/email on day 6 saying you have one day to redeem the key or you're out. Maybe keep stats on it to see if some people are abusing it in private ga's and shit but beyond that, meh.

Gift Links, Trades, etc, then yes, proof.

Yes, as others have said it could be abused otherwise. Of course its different if the site tracked the key was available for a week, but that is not always the case. As winners are forced to wait patiently there is nothing to show they were eagerly awaiting the key/gift with nothing being sent.

If seeing rampant abuse, then it may be necessary.

Otherwise, those who pointed out about e-mail notifications aren't wrong, IMO, although, are we positive that there is no chance for the e-mail to get incorrectly marked as spam, or other events that could deprive a legit, active winner of their win?

of course they have to provide some proof, like:
sending the winner an email, adding them on steam, commenting on their profile, or sending the key in sg.

if the ga creator has no reply from the winner using one of these methods, he should get a reroll after 7 days passed since he tried to contact that person.

TBH, I'm not really sure how big a deal this is. Virtually all of my rerolls have been due to the winner posting a comment asking for a reroll, which is proof enough for anyone. I have one key from months ago that was never marked received, but I'm not going to lose much sleep over losing 1/501 keys to the winds (and in any case, after three months of non-contact, I gave it to someone else).