I was wondering EXACTLY the same thing... took me a week to find out when that happened once.
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Because they are lazy, they are stupid, they cannot speak English properly, they don't care and just want the free keys, or a combination of these. So, when it shows a duplicate product in their client, they just leave it at that. Most don't even bother to mark it as not received, just let it sit there.
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well if they are NOT* contacting you for a reroll than blacklist is first option
sorry i forgot to write NOT*
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Read the post the users dont even contact them and mark them as not received. If they contact why will you blacklist them.
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If you don't bother contacting this person and just blacklist - then you are not better then they are.
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Well i dont think so you are creator of giveaway and they are luckly winners.
Also lots of people are creating dozens of giveaways (trains)
i saw 1 man created 35 giveaway himself so in my opinion you dont have to but he must
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Yes, please do so. It's very much in your interest to say something and make an attempt to contact the GA creator is some way.
Very frustrating.
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Bump for more visibility. It's almost as if hoomans don't want to bother making contact with other hoomans.
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Maybe because there's little hope to get another working key?
But you're right. Letting GA creator know is the least we can do.. All it takes is comment on GA.
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They could do like Valve and make a SG app for your phone, with a verification code that changes every 10 seconds. You'd have to enter it every time you did anything on the site. That would make everything safer for giveaway creators.
Edit: just in case someone can't tell, I was joking. That would be a horrible idea, just like it is with Valve already.
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yea agree, this will finally bump out all the script and bot users :D
should be like that -> every 15-20 GA a user joins, he need to type the code :D
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and just make site unsuable for anyone who cannot use an app? or have someone make a windows app for people not owning smartphones, then someone else make modification to this app that auto confirms everything and we're in the starting poit just added a hitty thing for all fair users, adding nothing to bots and excluding shitload of potential great users who just dont own newest Android/iOS smartphone...
great idea indeed -.-
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please no. captchas are punishing an annoying normal, fair users as well for the sake of trying to combat bots. let's say usual captcha means 10-15sec lost for me - which is not even true, graphic recaptchastend to lag out for me recently, it's more like 20-30 sec to solve them because waiting for images to load). That would mean that I would have to do captcha on SG 4089 times so far, aka waste 11,3-34 hours(!!) of my life just to solve SG captchas...
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So it is ok when we waste our time with your puzzles, but when the tables turned it is a problem :(
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the difference is noone is forcing you to waste time with any puzzles, it is your choice to do or not to do so. captchas are mandatore for everyone whether they like them or not ;)
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Just... no.
Anything involving apps is a huge no. It's already bad enough with Steam's.
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Yeah, I was being sarcastic. I really dislike apps in general, and having so many hoops to go through for every little thing is painful.
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My bad XD
I'm just too used to seeing people enjoy Steam's crazy security methods
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There are people who actually enjoy using the mobile authenticator?
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There's people who'll worship anything related to Gabe and still prophetize about HL3
They're far from the majority tho
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The principle of it, yes. I use 2FA for my email, password manager, amazon, GOG, HB, and pretty much everywhere it is possible.
The rest… well, auto-confirmations took care of those with the Desktop Authenticator. I really don't like the market part, indifferent about the trading part (used email confirmations before that regardless).
My current gripe is that the Store cannot seem to get a cookie working properly so I'm logged out every 30 minutes or so. :S
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Steam Guard was 2FA. Mobile Authenticator is just a huge annoyance. Especially since after they implemented it, suddenly my browser Steam starts logging out automatically every couple of hours, then I have pull out my phone just to log back in. Oh and then there's the fact that you have to enter the code for every single item you place on the market.
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Yep, this is why I use the PC emulations. Both are nice, work better than the phone apps, and portable.
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If everyone uses desktop authenticator, then there's no point in mobile authenticator. Why not just go back to regular Steam Guard?
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Mobile phone number. It's todays unique ID number - kind of Social Security Number for USAnians. It's quite valuable information
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Because emails accounts are not too difficult to hack, especially since people tend to use the same password for the "big" sites. (The use of password managers with a secure password is still way too rare.) Email as a secondary authentication works nice only when you are logging in to something where you don't store money and/or credit card information.
As I said, the principle of offering token-like 2FA was great, the execution was beyond horrendous, downright extortion-like. And it showed as it really put the last remaining shreds of Valve's credibility and the people's faith in them to the test.
Plus, well, it was an easy way to get phone numbers. I assume it is used in some advertising manner for Murican Steam users.
Altogether, it could be great if it would work similarly to GOG's or Humble Bundle's 2FA, but with a soft token, like on amazon. An optional layer of security that could have the added benefit of Steam support revertin stolen item transaction for the users, so traders could have a safety net if they want.
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I bet it was all about phone numbers (and whatever else that app will be able to gather and report in the future). It is incredibly valuable piece of data for some parties.
(I know of developed system for shopping malls that tracks mobile phones location with pinpoint accuracy - what shops were visited, where and for how long you stopped to look at things, what you bought....)
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Check if you are logged in to your Steam account in another browser on a different PC. The browser logs you out if another session is currently active elsewhere (having a browser open on another machine is enough for logging you out).
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Ugh that explains it. I use sg and visit steam groups on Firefox but ever since enhanced steam stopped supporting Firefox I use Chrome to find bundle information and sg profiles
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Especially since after they implemented it, suddenly my browser Steam starts logging out automatically every couple of hours
Me too ;_; not exactly since they implemented it, but since I started using it a couple weeks ago. And I don't have an Android phone so I have to get get my tablet every time, so I just don't bother using Steam in browser most of the time now.
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You'd rather take the Not Received that easily instead of trying to see if you can get a working key for them?
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You could always try to trade for one, buy other bundles, etc.
Those out of the picture as well?
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You can have the giveaway deleted from your profile if the winner agrees with deletion. Pretty easy to get agreement if you just apologize and offer a replacement key for something else.
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Oh I did not know this was possible! I got a duplicate key, contacted the GA maker and got a key for something else instead and they told me to mark it not received and apologised! You can absolutely delete that, I'll contact the creator through Steam again and submit a ticket! They were super friendly and apologetic and it was obviously a mistake.
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I'm having considerably less issues when I require level 5+ for entry.. level 0 GA's mean reroll request 50% of the time for me :x
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This is more of an issue that affects support tickets. Winner marks "Not Received" and blocks the giveaway creator on Steam and ignores all requests for contact. We get a reroll request that states he can't contact the winner. These are by far the most annoying and time consuming requests in that queue.
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And I guess another problem is, that there is a small chance that such winner could regift or sold extra key (although that is forbidden), and to find out if that is the case or not is very difficult to settle.
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depends on where you gret the key ;) if you purchased a key on official store, not Kinguin, G2A, HRK etc, or bought it from official bundle site all you have to do is contact the support. They will issue revoke on the key that ended up being duplicate and provide you with a new key. And if winner traded it to someone else? It's his problem then - he will have to face reports, -rep, scammer mark on SteamRep etc ;) Not your problem ;)
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Well I hope I'll not need to, but thank you for the idea. I always thought shops take it as "your key, your problem", haven't got the idea they can revoke and send the replacement.
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that is a difference between official stores and grey market ones ;) official stores have contracts and direct contact with devs / publishers and can easilly resolve such issues (dev/publisher can easilly revoke a steam key). So if you buy from an official store / bundle you can easilly get a new key via support (on IndieGala only for 60 days after purchase, other stores/bundles afaik anytime). If you bought from grey market someone bought it from someone else before so there's no direct way to contact thus in these cases you're out of luck. And that's why you buy from official sources if you intend to make a GA :>
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Yup, I ware kind a eager for GA and such ones when I saw lover prizes, but I've read reviews and now I'm trying to avoid them. Those few extra cents are not worthy the risk and all possible dramas.
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Why are there so many people who don't bother contacting the creator and just mark "Not Received" after a week has passed!?
Because it means they have to do something other than just activate a free game. :X
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Jatan, an interesting counter-question: what happens if the key MAY be used, it gets marked as not-received (after a month after the GA ended and was marked as received previously), and over five attempts to communicate with the person fails (email, Steam profile message, later Steam chat message) with no reaction despite the person being actually there online (playing CS:GO naturally). Can I submit a forced feedback ticket?
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it gets marked as not-received (after a month after the GA ended and was marked as received previously),
I'd submit a Misuse of Giveaway Feedback report also. If the person continues to do this and multiple users report him, it's a perma-ban.
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It was his first win and all other after that were redeemed normally. I suspect he activated on an alt/friend or some other mishap and now tries to mask a rookie mistake. I don't want someone banned for a newbie mishap, but the non-activated on my account bothers me.
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I understand your position and I agree - people make innocent mistakes. He wouldn't be banned just for your report alone (simply because it's impossible to prove with one report), only if it becomes a nasty habit.
Having those reports on record with support makes it easier for other users who have to deal with similar occurrences in the future. Ultimately it's your giveaway, your decision, though. :)
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sigh I just want to clear this up. Had a case with an immediate not received at 168 hour mark, similarly silent Russian guy, but finally managed to clear it up. This one… zero response to anything. And that one-month delay was what set me off.
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Well I certainly hope you're able to get it cleared up. I just had the same thing happen last week - a fellow marked my giveaway Not Received to "fix" his profile (and did the same with another user's giveaway).
Support fixed the feedback pretty quickly. Good luck. :)
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yeah, i can feel with you. sadly he seems not to be interested to solve it as you have written on his steam profile 20 days ago...
can you ask the support with a screenshot of your comments to try to solve the issue, to reroll or to delete the giveaway? (you would have to get a second copy, but at least the not received would disappear)
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Normally I'm not too keen on buying another key just because it may be needed. Although I think it is in a One More Bundle now. Still, his lack of communication on all fronts doesn't bode well.
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Did the winner acknowledge the key at all? I don't usually do Request for Received Feedback tickets, so my experience is limited to the cut-and-dried cases in that queue, but you can try to submit one.
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The key was marked as received for almost an entire month before it was set back to not received.
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It could be that they only realized recently that there was an issue with the key (if they received a different game but with a similar name for example), but it also sometimes happens that an user will change their feedback out of spite after getting suspended for non-activation. It's worth submitting a feebdack ticket so we can check if there is any relevant suspension or ticket from them. Even if there is not, we can try contacting them via an unrelated ticket from them, sometimes users are more responsive when they are contacted by us.
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Thanks, I'll submit the ticket then. If you guys can get at least some for of reaction out of him, you'd be infinitely more successful than I was. :/
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Worst case scenario, if we can't approve the request but you really want to get rid of it, you can request a new winner whenever you have another copy of the game since you can't contact this one
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sigh Luckily, One More Bundle put it up a few days ago, and I'm buying a pack now just in case.
Sent the ticket. I am grateful if you can just make an attempt on it. It's not the lost slot that bothers me – I have more than enough to do my planned 600-key drop anyway – but the principle of staying silent and just marking it as such after this much time. As someone whose job is to receive and process information, this is practically killing me.
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Frakkin' good reference (if you're referring to what I think you're referring)
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I learned that the hard way after replacing a couple of keys because Steam activation was glitching for the winners.
Since then, I don't make GAs that end on Tuesday evenings. :X
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I had the Duplicate key issue once ...
Turns out someone forced his way into my humble account and stole it ...
Thankfully the winner was reasonable person andtold me it was dupe key ... so i found out in time that my Humble has been compromised .
Explained him the situation and he agreed to w8 till i find him a replacement key >.>
So there are Normal ppl out there :D
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Did you try contacting Humble Support? Because there was a big security breach at Humble a while (~1year) ago, a lot of users (me included) found their gift copies claimed (I lost 10-12 games) and Humble Support simply requested a revoke on all stolen keys and gave me new ones.
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I did contact them , cus i was confused since i had bough the bundle like couple days ago ... and didnt understand how come 1 of the key isnt working.
Thats how i found out that my account has been compromised and been logged in from Lithuania .
Had to go trough some verification that im the real owner , but eventually the issue got solved .
And yeah the key got revoked and i got a fresh one ... but that took like a week in all to take care of , mostly cus i was busy tho .
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People are weird sometimes but the correct thing to do is to contact, yes. In my defense, I haven't contacted one guy because is never online
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you may be in different time zones. Did you try simply adding him and then posting on his profile page even if he's offline?
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Definively the same time zone. We are in the same steamgroup, a group that cames from a forum and recently has become very active in SG. So it should beeasy for me to talk to him (well, at least to send him a PM)... Problem is I never saw him online. When this happened he last online time "was one month ago", so impossible to say something.
Suddenly, maybe a couple of weeks before, added a key, an invalid key (and also I think is desura's) and never went online again, sadly :S I guess I'll try to befriend on steam, because I can't write to him on steam
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ill probably not contact creators for what happened recently,
won a GA, dup key, got a replacement for a different game i dont own, asked him to change the GA so he gets the CV value, he asked me to request deleting it, he blacklisted me and kicked me from his group. GG
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He probably asked you to agree to delete (the wrong) GA because as far as I know the last Change GA ticket has been pending for over a year and still hasn't been processed. Why didn't you agree to delete it if you don't mind me asking ? You still would have gotten to keep your substitute game and it would have even been better for you ratiowhise...
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i did agree, and he kicked me is soon is his support ticket has been processed
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Sorry I got that wrong then. Well that's weird... In the other case I would have maybe understood the blacklist but it's not like you can do anything about being given a duplicate key...
Well, any group who has people like that in charge is not a group you wanna be part of anyway.
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To be fair most giveaway creators are not dicks, but it sounds like you managed to find one that was in this instance.
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actually this was like the 13th guy so far that did a similar thing, i mostly thank GA creators if i won a GA with low entries or lot of entries ( over 2k ), but most of them dont even care even if u try to contact them, i once tried to contact a creator over 5 times for a reroll and he blocked me on steam, SG support still declines the reroll because that same creator wont even bother typing 1 word
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It's not that we declined the reroll - we literally can't force rerolls if the creator doesn't submit a request. The request is tied to the ticket itself and there's no other tool to force a reroll.
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I dont know what the problem is... I mean the SG Rules are clear and there stands nothing about "You have to do this or that in case of....". On one side the admins and moderators talk about the rules like they are the bible you have to follow and its not allowed to differ (e.g. say that ppl have to contact you via steam to receive the gift, because you can send it to their mail), but on the other side they say the winner has to contact the giveaway creator if there is any issue like a dup code? Srsly? Makes no sense for me. Another fail in my opinion is, that the site allows you not to determine your own rules about giving away games, but with tools like SGtools you can create private giveaways with your own determined rules. A minimum value between won and sent gifts? A minimum CV Value? Stuff like that and moderators dont care about. Ah I forgot that some of them using this tool too, abusing their own system... thats ad absurdum
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And I assume it is totally not saltyness speaking because SGTools blocks you out for those two duplicate wins?
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I dont care about blocked out by SGTools, but its very decadent talking here about what ppl have to do or not if the same ppl allow other stuff like SGTools. You cant measure with two measurements...
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Why? SGTools is an external site and SteamGifts allows private link-only giveaways. It's up tot he creator how they share it. Or do you have the same stance on free keys where you need to join a group or raffles where you have to like a facebook page or any similar activity that is not strictly entering the raffle? Because if yes, at least I can accept your consistent view on things.
Plus, well, if you win something you cannot use, do you also sit there silently and don't complain at the person/site/company you won it from? Because the current discussion is about that: winners who cannot use the key and not even telling it, they just sit there and expect the problem to magically solve itself.
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Why is the giveaway creator not contacting the winner after 2 days when he did not mark it as received? Same point...
Only rule here: Giveaway creator has to send a working key/gift and as winner you have to do nothing. Just activate the key and mark it as received or not. Thats it. Nothing more, nothing less.
The discussion ist about, that ppl should do things they dont have to just because its "logical" or "normal", because they want something. Same moderators told me, that the hint in the description of giveaways, that the winner has to contact me via steam so I can send the giveaway directly, is against the rules. Where is the difference? I see no difference. The winner of a giveaway can do a minimum of work to get his key/gift, but he must not and if you say he has to, its against the rules. So this discussion is about the rules and the rules are abused a lot of times in other ways and directions.
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Well, because they expect a somewhat sensible direction in the flow of information. By creating a giveaway, you promised to deliver a key of that game to the lucky winner, which is your responsibility to give them in the form you find the best. Telling them to look for you is like if you win a car and they tell you that to claim it, travel to the factory in France. It should be their responsibility delivering it to you.
Same goes if the key is delivered but not working. Your responsibility ended at delivering the key. If it is not working, the winner has to complain about it using the preferred channels (usually a comment in the giveaway itself). To use the car analogy, if you find that the ignition key is missing, it is your task to tell them that they delivered a non-working product.
Just marking as not received here without any complaints is like if you just wrote your complaint on your blog. Even commenters would say why whining there, tell them to fix it.
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Same moderators told me, that the hint in the description of giveaways, that the winner has to contact me via steam so I can send the giveaway directly, is against the rules.
It's not against the rules to write that in your giveaway. However, since it counts as a special rule on the giveaway itself, if the winner doesn't contact you within a week and you request a reroll with the reason "because the winner did not contact me", the reroll will be declined.
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Thank you for clarifying this! Bookmarked for future quote usage.
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I dont know what the problem is... I mean the SG Rules are clear and there stands nothing about "You have to do this or that in case of....".
Actually the FAQ states: "If the gift is not received after one week, you can mark the gift as not received, and attempt to contact the giveaway creator on Steam to follow-up." So yes, it does say that you should try to contact the creator. Note that I did not state a timeline in the OP.
Another fail in my opinion is, that the site allows you not to determine your own rules about giving away games, but with tools like SGtools you can create private giveaways with your own determined rules.
We don't allow custom rules in giveaways, but you can distribute private links however you see fit. There's a big difference.
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I can but I must not attempt to contact the giveaway creator.
"We don't allow custom rules in giveaways, but you can distribute private links however you see fit. There's a big difference." So if I join a giveaway with a leaked private link and I win, the creator cant ask for a reroll and has to deliver it?
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No one here said you must.
If you join a giveaway and did not get the link from the giveaway creator, they can get a new winner.
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Yes and when I did not contact him I just can mark it after one week as not received, because I didnt received a working key to activate the game. I have these two options given by the system from steamgifts. And once more: After 2 days the creator can contact the winner as well.
With a seperate and new giveaway? Or just a reroll? A reroll dont show up in his statistic of undeliverd giveaways (is there a regulation how often someone can do this?) and maybe SGTools (or another external tool) will create a rule for that....
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Yes, but again, I'm not sure why you are arguing about this, no one is saying you can't do this, it's just good etiquette to let the person know there is an issue and try to sort this out rather than just waiting a week to mark "Not Received" then ignore any contact attempt from the giveaway creator, which is what many users do unfortunately.
It's a standard reroll, there is no new giveaway. Private giveaways are private for a reason, if someone else shares the link with people that where not meant to receive it, they shouldn't have been able to enter the giveaway so they're not valid entries.
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I am not arguing about "good etiquette", I am arguing about the measure with two measurements with my own experience about how the site and the rules are working.
So the only thing I have to do is to make a private giveaway and can make every rule I want? So now I can decide to create a forum post with the hints "Contact me after winning", "Be black/white/yellow/every other color", "Have an IQ higher than 100" and if people join my giveaway and when I find out that they broke the rule, its a reroll?
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Can you please shut the fuck up? I had the case that there was a reroll for a link shared at the forum FOR EVERYONE but the moderator now tells me that I can join every link which is posted at the forum even if its made with SGTools or any other rule. It doesnt care. But if it cares, I will make my own thread with my own rules and only private giveaways. So that people like you with inappropriate behaviour can not be part of it even if they win something. And you are not god who can tell others whats the right option. Maybe its the right option for you, maybe not. I never said what I do... so learn to read and to understand or to ask. Anyway I hope you get suspended
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I don't think you could even. Despite him saying on his profile that he lives in Germany, he seems to somehow do CIS-only giveaways – how he does that is a mystery – or already private ones for some time now.
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Or works with a company proxy to Russia (theoretically possible, even though what would a Russian company doing in Germany hiring German people for 15× salary unless they are a front for intelligence gathering is beyond me), fakes store region, uses grey market, or trades for cheap CIS keys specifically. I know my few CIS giveaways were from sadly region-locked trades (but hey, it was nice unbundled CV), although all of those were… not intentional.
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As you can check my profil, you can maybe also check the amount of market transactions I made and you`ll realize that I am very active and you can combine that the CIS gifts are from trades I made in the past. And I dont care aber the CV, Level or being blacklisted. So that was not the intention. Just cleaning my inventory after I stopped trading and gifting the games to ppl who want to play them or just want to have them.
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Yes, I mostly suspected trading. I find it strange to trade for stuff outside your region, but I cannot say it's the first time I see this. Or, well, run into it.
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As you can see: I just have done it after I ended my trading carreer. Before I was trying to trade them again and made giveaways without ROW only.
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Out of curiosity: did you know going into the trades that they were region-locked keys/gifts or just learnt it the hard way afterwards?
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First time: Hard way. Later often just because I was stupid and didnt checked every giveaway and sometimes only as "extra" to complete a great trade.
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Heh. Sounds about right, and, well, usual. Looks like sooner or later everyone runs into a CIS guy trying to trade without telling he is CIS/has CIS stuff.
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At some point everyone is stupid and believe in the good in people but often its only naive to think you dont be "cheated" sooner or later ;)
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Reroll will be accepted if the winner should not have had access to the giveaway. Let me give some examples for clarification since it seems you aren't interpreting our posts correctly.
A) You post the link to your giveaway in the forum, but say only people with less than 10 wins can enter. You will not get a reroll because this link was accessible by everyone.
B) You post the link to your giveaway at the end of an Itstoohard quiz. If you can prove that the winner did not solve the ITH to get the link, you will get a reroll, because the link should not have been accessible by the winner.
C) You make an sgtools restriction on your giveaway. If you can prove that the winner did not access the giveaway through sgtools, you will get a reroll, because the link should not have been accessible by the winner.
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But where is the difference between A & C? Is it only because I did not create a site which is automatically checking if someone has won 10 giveaways and hide the link? That makes no sense! I understand B, because you have to do something to get the link. Its like a jigsaw or any other puzzle. I understand when a bundle is rerolled because the winner has already the base game and only joined for the DLCs. But option C is only a script checking if you have the requirements to see a link to a private giveaway? And you can theoretically check nearly everything?! Maximum wins, minimum giveaways sent, highest win, real CV sent/won etc.. And if i check it manually it would be allowed too, because I can chose if the winner can have access or not.... Thats just absurd and stupid hiding a link behind a script and say thats okay, while rules you cant check with a script or depends an action by the winner arent allowed. In this form the rules/FAQ are an reductio ad absurdum
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Well, what would you say then about the Touhou (or 2hu as they like to call themselves) way of handling giveaway link distribution if you think SGTools can get absurd? :)
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What is the "Thouhou way of handling"? Dont know it.
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Well, these are the general rules, but the entire system is handled with a site that is a lot more sophisticated in regulation and user-check than SGTools will ever be: https://touhou.justarchi.net/about/rules
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Rules sounds strange (people seems to have to much time checking all these rules), but hey its a seperated site with their own system?!
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No, it's a very sophisticated way of posting SteamGifts giveaways, but with an additional layer of rules.
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Okay. Thats even more stupid for me, because it shows how far the regulations/controlling can reach, when you allow script checking giveaway creations. But seems to be legit.
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The whole "no special rules" rule was created to reduce support workload. It's faster for them to just check sgtools invalid entries than to manually go to the winner's profiles. Especially if it's something complex like win:sent ratio.
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The point is that if you create a private giveaway, you have complete control over who you allow to participate in it. You exert this control through your ability to share the link to the giveaway, that only you and the participants know about, and the participants are not allowed to share it.
Now, if you want your giveaway to be accessible only to people who satisfy certain conditions, you are free to do so. You are also free to either manually* check whether those conditions are satisfied, or do it through an automated system. Why do you see this as absurd?
*Note that if you do the checking manually, and someone unauthorized enters and wins, I'm not sure whether you'll have to somehow prove to support that the winner wasn't legit, and if so, whether there'll be a way. I haven't used them, but I think ITH and SGT have ways of providing that proof.
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We often had people crying about entering 1000 giveaways and winning nothing. I really really often thought about making giveaways only for people with 750 entries and 0 wins or something like that. No great deal, but hey that doesnt matter But the only way to realize it (as we figured out now), is to make a privat giveaway, making a thread and select the people manually. Thats absurd in that way that its much more work to check it manually than to declare the rule and check if the winner was allowed to participate. Its absurd that a link hidden behind a script counts as "control" about who can join and who cant.
Unfortunately: You can NEVER set a rule for the handling after winning a giveaway. Just an example which would be funny (maybe only for me): Giving away a AAA giveaway (f.e. Borderlands The Pre-Sequel) and set the rule, that only people can join who has played Borderlands 2 (must be checked manually) and after the giveaway ended, the winner has to play some games with/against the giveaway creator. I mean its not so hard to do it and its not all about and only about giving away and winning games. Lets create a giveaway for 3 copies of Left for Dead 2 and set the rule that after the ending we play some rounds. I hope you understand what I mean. Its not a living system. Its to static
I mean there are a lot of scripts you can use to join giveaways. Most people dont read your description. If you set an easy rule to control it, because you dont like script-using-people, thats not so hard and not to much. And thats what I cant understand and what is absurd in my opinion: Rules you can check before someone join a (private) giveaway and set only from some informations depending on your steam or SG-account are allowed, but rules you cant check before someone join a giveaway with an script (like post a funny picture, tell me a joke) are only allowed if you create a forum thread and check it manually and give everyone the link via steam - because you cant send a private message here at SG and you can not post it into the thread. If I make a train and set the rule: Tell me a joke/post a funny picture for every giveaway you join - how can the users know the amount before? I can tell them the list and they can think about, but it lose the excitment if I tell them everything before. So I have no choice or I cant set the rule. Thats annyoing and still absurd for me.
And sry if I make a lot of misstakes. I didnt argueing so often in english and as an non native speaker its not my best ;)
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I'm really not sure if I understood what you meant here.
You're saying that it's absurd that you can't just write any rule you like in the giveaway description and then have the winners who broke that rule rerolled? As others have mentioned, that puts the burden of checking the winner on support members, who are volunteers, and already have a lot of work as it is. Having to manually check winners for arbitrary rules would increase their workload greatly. They used to do this a few years ago, but they stopped precisely because it was too much work.
Also (and once again I may be misunderstanding you), do you consider private giveaways in general to be absurd or just the ones that use some form of automated rule checking, such as SGT and ITH, and why?
EDIT: Also, there is a more primitive way of doing the arbitrary rule thing: put any rule you like in the giveaway, and if the winner doesn't comply, since you can't reroll them, you blacklist them instead.
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I guess that the workload wont be that high, if there are some instructions what to do. You can now chose a category, set a title or chose something and add (optional) a description of your problem. No hint what can make the work easier for the support like screenshots, links or other stuff. If you always have to ask for things, the workload is higher than it should be. But ok if they tried in the past and think its to much work.
Private giveaways once (so I remember) were used to invite friends. Thats not bad, its okay. Its okay if you have to do something like a puzzle (you have to work for the link) or to use it for trains. But SG added several methods to control who is joining your giveaway. If the site itself wants more methods to seperate, they will add them. SG can check the won:sent ratio or other criteria. So why isnt it part of the creation sheet? Otherwise everyone has to accept the methods and rules which are declared by the site (level, groups, etc.) or you have to allow every rule and not only for joining a giveaway as filteroption by other sites. In my opinion the private giveaway method is used abusive to set own rules not accompanied to the SG intention.
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It's not abuse. Private giveaways worked like that since the beginning - there is no fundamental difference between posting link at ITH, jigsaw, steam chat, SG forum, gamefaq or SGT website or emailing it to friends. SG just creates the framework with most basic rules and giveaway creators work within it
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The guideline says: "Respect the privacy of invite only giveaways, and if you're invited to a private giveaway, do not share the link with other users unless given permission by the giveaway creator." For me its a difference reading about "invite only giveaways" and "nearly public giveaways with special filter option". You are invited if you fit the rules... For me thats against "You cannot ask users to perform any special action in order for their entry to be considered valid, such as liking a Facebook page, or following a Twitter account.". You have to check if you pass the rules/filter. Its a special performance you have to do.
The guideline also recognizes puzzles explicit: "If you're taking part in a puzzle, do not leak or hint towards any information that should remain private, such as the game being given away, or the URL of the giveaway." And again there is a difference because you have to work (sometimes very hard) to get the link. Its not only an action.
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SG[Tools] can check the won:sent ratio or other criteria. So why isnt it part of the creation sheet?
Because cg, the owner of the SteamGifts website, didn't implement it. Why didn't he? I don't know, ask him.
Otherwise everyone has to accept the methods and rules which are declared by the site (level, groups, etc.) or you have to allow every rule and not only for joining a giveaway as filteroption by other sites.
This interpretation is not in the rules of the website, and is thus incorrect. I don't see where you get it from. Is this how you want things to be? Well, we don't always get what we wish for.
In my opinion the private giveaway method is used abusive to set own rules not accompanied to the SG intention.
The fact that support members officially support private giveaway link distribution via SGT, ITH and similar sites very much indicates that such use is within the intention of the SG rules, so therefore there is no abuse.
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Lets create a giveaway for 3 copies of Left for Dead 2 and set the rule that after the ending we play some rounds.
Yeah, good luck with that if your winner is from Australia, SEA, or the Western coast of the Americas, and is an adult with a normal job. Even weekends would require a lot of scheduling, assuming the weekends are even free.
And if it works, have fun with the lag. Steamworks isn't really known to work that great along Hamachi to circumvent some of the latency/insane ping issues.
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Was only an example ;) If i can set the rule that only europeans can join the giveaway and have play with me, the problem is solved. But both rules are rules I cant check by a filter before ;)
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Well, region-restrictions are already a thing, although Europe-only is not among them. (Sadly, to be honest.)
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Keep in mind that the reason we reroll is due to the private giveaway being leaked.
A) You have placed the link in a public forum where everyone can see the link and access your giveaway. Therefore, this giveaway cannot be leaked and the reroll will be denied.
C) You have placed the link behind a filter and only those people who meet the filter requirements can access the giveaway. If someone enters the giveaway, but not through the filter, it is definite proof that the giveaway has been leaked and therefore the giveaway can be rerolled.
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Yes its only a filter but after the winning, I am the filter checking if the person who entered and won the giveaway meet my requirements I set before but can only be checked after. Because for some rules you cant set a filter before entering a giveaway. Only the time for the check is different. Or am I wrong with this?
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I think you are still not understanding that we reroll if the giveaway is leaked.
If you filter only after the giveaway is over, there is no leak
If you filter and restrict access to the giveaway, if someone enters from somewhere else, it is proof that the giveaway is leaked
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I understand that. I dont understand why it is allowed to filter before someone can join a giveaway and not before he is winning a giveaway. I dont understand why you can set a rule to join, but not to participate. I know why you can set a rule to join a giveaway and not before someone win a giveaway. Same for the participation. But the only reason is, that you as support can control it very easy (checking via script) and it makes no work/not much work. And sorry that is something I can not understand.
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Ok, I make a public giveaway for Half-Life 3, and then a lot of people join. But my rule in the giveaway description is that only users with the username "SleepyCat" are valid entries. That way I get CV but the user of my choosing wins.
It's also a measure to prevent CV farming with stupid rules so that only one person can join. Also, in the above scenario, since there would be hundreds of entries, you'd have to make a lot of reroll tickets before you have a "valid" winner. BUT if you stop those people from entering in the first place, it's a lot less work.
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what about ppl who barely speak englsh ?
the site owner do not care to check if ppl know the rules or know english enough to solve basic problems so other ppl do not care also
what do you not uderstand here ? its really simple, allow all kind of ppl to enter, watch the fire burn (judging by that you created this thread the problem is bigger then spilled milk)
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We have this:
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/Lxhj4/polish-corner-v2-polskie-faq
i suppose there are similar translations for other languages made by users.
Only problem is visibility. Maybe pin them somewhere?
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I wish we could pin threads... but cg seems to be really against that idea.
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Does anyone know why? They seem like they could really help out
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He's kinda right (when it comes to faq). Users might get the idea to write support tickets in their language
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If pinned is forbidden how about a sub-forum with translations and guides?
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So, out of curiosity I clicked on the FAQ button and for the first time bothered to check in which languages it was available(since I can read english I never had any need for a translation) and to my surprise I found out that the only language besides english is russian.
Adding some more translations doesn't seem that hard to do. Why don't cg just uses us, a large community of users who speak english as second tongue to translate the FAQ to a myriad of languages so at least some of this issues are avoided?
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Russian is there because one of the staff is Russian, I bet. There's not really a good way of fine-tuning translations without being on the support end.
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I don't know, it looks doable to me. There are a good chunk of users that would gladly help to at least translate it to some major languages, it's not like you can't crowdsource that.
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Because there's no way of sending messages to someone on Steamgifts and there's no way of messaging people over steam without friending them first.
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That's what leaving a message on the giveaway is for...
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I used to think that was the case, but after having some beggars adding me on steam, I'm no longer a supporter of this. Could you imagine what would happen if you had an even easier way of telling people that you want free games from them? For this reason, and the actions by the members of a certain G-group, I'm against direct communication like this.
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It'd surely lead into people make some beg scripts D:
find: userlevel">7"
find: giveawaypublic"<less_than_my_level>"
open: https://www.steamgifts.com/user/falcon/privatemessage
type: "Hi, do you have by any chance free Fallout 4 key?"
repeat from step one
after 600 messages cease script
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Oh gods… I am already half fed up with the amount of generic thanks messages every week, and I'm doing bundles only. What would happen if there really would be PMs here…
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The begging would never end. "QQ pls gibbie ur level 9 can I has", etc. A lot more suspensions to issue for begging too...
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If there were PMs here we would all be having PMS symptoms. LOL
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I guess people would constantly beg to get another copy of the game you're giving away or beg to get a GA link for a puzzle if they can't solve it etc...
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Yeah, I really wonder how hard it is to click the link next to key. Then write something like "Hey! Steam tells me that key is dublicate, could you help me or what you prefer me to do?" And click a button...
I don't think that is too much to be asked...
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YOu can literally say your problem on the giveaway's page telling it's a duplicate key. They can even use Google Translate for that.
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I always add the winner on steam and send key via steam chat
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that's what I do too. and I inform the users of this, and if it is a key or gift or gift link, in my GA descriptions... so that they accept my friend invites and don't ignore/block it.
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Shouldn't it be normal? If the winner wanted the game, then he'd contact the creator so he can send him a working one, it'd be dumb to do otherwise.
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Nah, but i at least didn't think it'd be such a common problem that it needed to be addressed like that :)
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But with things like google translator one should at least be able to understand the most basic things. And if not, there are enough people who speak other languages and would be willing to help here so that the only thing to do would be to ask. But not even doing that is just plain lazyness.
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You write short sentences. Few syllables. Simple present tense. Google Translate can handle those. It is decent from English to any language.
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The only time I had a problem due to a duplicate key, the winner of my GA told me right away during our chat.... I always add the winners and give them their key/gift/gift link via chat.
I contacted the BundleStar support, got a new key to send my winner and everything worked out quickly and without much fuss.
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Seriously!!!!
Why are there so many people who don't bother contacting the creator and just mark "Not Received" after a week has passed!?
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