Here's a giveaway if you are not interested in reading.

Now I suppose it's common knowledge that people do not read giveaway descriptions. But what about threads? Surely the forum goers read the threads we create, right? If you feel like finding out, then read on!

Few weeks ago I created three threads that all had something in common, besides all of them having the word test in the topic. Every one of them had giveaways that I put in the comments in addition of having giveaways in the OP. The results I got from the first and third thread in particular were interesting.

The first thread only had one giveaway in the OP for This War of Mine (level 3, 380 url given in SGTools). The custom filter I made for that kept the url number at around that level, but I did use the same filter on every giveaway on all three threads so we can compare the numbers.
I wrote in the OP that "I'll probably add another giveaway", which I did in a comment 16 minutes later. I also edited the OP that people should scroll down a bit for that second giveaway. The giveaway itself was Renowned Explorers (level 4, 159 url). Okay, so a bit higher level and less than half wanted the link compared to the first giveaway.
On the comment where that second giveaway was, I wrote that maybe there will be a third one, which was added three hours and 12 minutes after the OP. The OP was again edited that there is a third giveaway if you scroll down a bit more. The third was The Elder Scrolls Online (level 0, 162 url). Well clearly the level didn't have much impact on the number of url given. It was about the same number of people who noticed both additional giveaways

For the third thread I decided to keep it really simple. No edits were done in the OP or in the comments, I just let everyone know exactly how it's going to happen right from the start. I had four giveaways in the OP and at the end I wrote that I will add one more giveaway later in a comment on this thread. Then luckily I made a mistake.
I meant to have five giveaways in the OP but I forgot one. I added it four minutes after the OP, in the second comment of the thread. I also said in the comment that I forgot to add this and this does not count as that extra giveaway which will be coming later. The proper extra giveaway was in a comment created 45 minutes after the OP.

Now for the stats from the third thread. The four giveaways in the OP were: Planetary Annihilation: TITANS (level 0, 194 url), WASTED (level 3, 123 url), Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (level 3, 126 url) and Cibele (level 6, 34 url). The forgotten giveaway on the second comment was Steredenn (level 0, 58 url) and the extra giveaway was CLANNAD (level 5, 63 url).
Comparing those two level 0 giveaways does show an interesting difference. Even if people just weren't that interested in Steredenn compared to Planetary Annihilation, that's quite a drop in the url numbers considering that the Steredenn giveaway link was almost immediately below the OP. I'd say it's pretty clear that there are quite a lot of people here who won't or can't read the threads and just check the OP for giveaways before moving on.

Feel free to give your opinion regarding that conclusion. Anyways, just for reading this far, I'd like to reward you with ten more giveaways. I will keep posting comments on this thread with one giveaway in each. I will wait until there's at least two comments from you folks after each giveaway before adding a new one. Two comments is enough and any additional comments added before I have time to post the giveaway will not count towards the next one, so no need to spam right away. The custom rule from the giveaway up there will be on all of them.

Edit: Here's the link for the results of this thread.

7 years ago*

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What if i just clicked the link and did not read even the senence after the link?

7 years ago
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Well, that's a nice experiment.

7 years ago
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I didn't notice any threads with "test" in them XD

7 years ago
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I spend all my time hollow. Thanks.

7 years ago
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I've seen your threads and also found all the additional GAs. I believe that many users, as you said, won't or can't read the threads and just check the OP for giveaways, but (except for the ones who can't) they miss a lot of interesting stuff, and I'm not talking about the additional GAs, but all the contents and stories that this forum offers us! This is one of the best communities I've bumped into so far (and I've seen similar comments in many thanksgiving threads) and so it's the perfect place to meet and know new people.

7 years ago
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I think if you want more accurate results, you would need to give away the same game. For example, in all the games you mentioned (and linked) I am only interested in 1. Your conclusion implies I don't read, which is not correct. Correlation != causation.

A separate issue is the forum itself (as others have mentioned) ... it's hard to track which threads you have read and how much of those discussions without using additional scripts (I'm not sure how many people use those).

7 years ago
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imho the problem is that you added the GAs later..
for what I've seen in the forum, it's pretty common for people to update the thread's title to let everyone know there are new GAs.
You may have stated so in the OP but (and this is my personal experience) there are a lot of thread in the forum and staying up to date with every of them is hard. Either one can:

  • keep that thread open in a tab (not so easy; as I write I've 107 active tabs on chrome only, and I keep finding week(s)-old thread in them);
  • get a reply in that thread to be reminded of it and go look at it again.
    I also have a spreadsheet where I collect links of invite only GAs and threads, and even so I miss some.

In your case I would have probably opened the thread, joined GA, left a comment and moved on. After that, I'd say it's 50-50 chance of returning to it. =P
All of this, assuming that I had visited your thread before the new GAs were added. Otherwise (like this thread) all of this would make no sense =P

(and now that I've seen the games you have given away I'm kind of sad I missed your thread.. luckily I didn't miss this one!)

7 years ago
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Bump because I can read :3

7 years ago
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Bump for being able to read, but obviously not generous enough to the public :(

7 years ago
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Or just super-generous to your groups and whitelist! ♥
[Edit: I just checked, and I barely made his criteria at 67.2%. Only entered one wishlisted GA, though.]

7 years ago
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Eh, I slightly miss it with 59%, but ah well, none of the gibs would have been on my wishlist anyways.
shrugs

7 years ago
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Same here, not enough public GA:(

7 years ago
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Bump

7 years ago
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Bump!
Thank you :D

7 years ago
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Have a bump just because I can and do read but still only entered one. So I'm completely messing with your results I guess :)

7 years ago
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up

7 years ago
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Bump!

7 years ago
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I can't say that it surprise me unfortunately, I like to lurk the forum, but I guess a lot of people are only here for the GAs. Now that a lot of people use the forum for giveaways, it's only sad that a lot of people can't seem to take the couple of minutes it take to read the OP before entering the GAs and it's safe to assume that even less read the comment. Well it's not the quantity that's important but the quality...

7 years ago
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bump

7 years ago
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It is a shame that people can't read on the internet. Sometimes I wonder how they can navigate it.

7 years ago
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Glad I passed some checks.
Take a bump because I like reading too.

7 years ago
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Have a bump. =)

7 years ago
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I always read threads I enter. I've seen decent amount of threads where people say they'll add games later (I missed your previous test threads I think). I usually don't bother, since I have no idea when they will add them and what games they'll be and I don't want to bookmark and then keep checking those threads non-stop. Not to mention some people end up not adding games to their thread, I guess they just forget about it.

So I basically only return to read comments in threads with interesting topic, regardless if they have giveaways or not and if the creator said he/she will add more or not.

7 years ago
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And bump!

7 years ago
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Now that the giveaways are over, let's look at the stats. Jade Empire was the giveaway in the OP and Origin gave it away for free seven months ago, so one would think it would be one of the least interesting giveaways in this thread.
Here's the giveaways in the order I posted them, the levels of the giveaways and the number of people who got the url from SGTools:

Jade Empire (lvl 1, 302 url)

Mighty Gunvolt (lvl 0, 102 url)
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (lvl 0, 92 url)
Fallout 2 (lvl 1, 75 url)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (lvl 2, 87 url)
The Orange Box (lvl 2, 87 url)
Left 4 Dead (lvl 2, 66 url)
The Sims 3 (lvl 2, 74 url)
TrackMania United (lvl 3, 67 url)
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (lvl 4, 97 url)
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel + Season Pass (lvl 7, 79 url)

7 years ago
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