Making GA's level 1 or above solves alot of non-activation and regifting problems.
And, promotes others to join in the gifting to raise thier own level as a good side effect.
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^ this. Getting level 1 or 2 takes no more than a couple decent 1$ bundles, thus it's not a question of whether you can afford it, just the effort of creating giveaways and gifting keys, as to understand properly how everything works.
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2 Days ago I've lost one of my giveaway slots because I have requested the support to delete my giveaway because an idiot got from 2 keys, first one was activated on his alt and the second one I don't know what he did with it and he never marked the giveaway as received, I want my slot back now, what can I do because a stupid russian didn't activate his gift?
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It'll come back with more created giveaways.
In the future, don't delete the giveaway due to the misdeeds of others. Report it to support. You just let him get away with stealing your key.
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This is b*st, want back my slot, it's not my fault...They got a ticket from me but they take to much time for a reply, now the ticket is closed and my slot is gone...GG Steamgifts Support.
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Normally, you would re-open the ticket by clicking on it's button and selecting "Re-Open Ticket" from the drop-down menu.
Also, do not request deletion of a giveaway if you do not want the giveaway deleted (using up a slot in the process). You are getting angry at us for doing what you asked us to do.
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We're keeping an eye on that user.
I recommend delivering keys via Steam chat when the winner is online and requesting prompt activation. Of course this won't help with people who are lying to steal a few wins.
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Thank you, from what I see you deleted my giveaway, now, what about my slot?Can I have it back?I have a open giveaway which will make me level 3 but I still want back what's mine.
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We cannot edit the database, unfortunately. You will get that slot back after 3 completed giveaways. If you run out of giveaway slots for any reason, the site will allow you to create an Increase Giveaway Limit ticket which will allow us to give you 3 extra slots.
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I've been doing so ever since I ran into a guy who didn't activate the gift or was a regifter and you solved my issue by rolling another winner and suggesting to handle things by chat. I've even been using additional precautions such as checking whether the user had unactivated stuff but with the tool and manually, politely asking people to activate the keys immediately, and screenshotting the entire process.
There are however several issues with this system:
1) It is, of course, awfully time-consuming;
2) Some people don't like to be added on Steam, some people refused invitations and had the comment section open to friends only so I couldn't say "Hey, I'm adding you because you won XX", one even called me a scammer - and then checked and corrected himself, but still...;
3) Some people will get mad for getting added, or for getting removed after the key has been delivered, because they apparently don't realise that not all are friends collectors, and some people will suspect scams and go "why don't you just send the key via steamgifts/mail" etc.
And mind you, I ran into the problems above with level 6+ giveaways. Meaning people that are supposed to know how things work by then. This led me to stop making giveaways altogether for the time being. Too much stress, too much of a time investment.
Any suggestion on alternatives other than Steam's chat? I mean, sending keys with SG's built-in system should be a viable option. I mean, having to go through a third party site and then again through Steam kinda kills the purpose of having a third party site to begin with.
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Every delivery method has its problems, there's no perfect one. When dealing with keys, there will always be risks and annoyances, both for the winner and for the gifter. I hope that in the future the SG key delivery system will become better and more convenient for the gifter.
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Of course. One thing though: is there really a difference, support-wise, between
Checking the winner and after that delivering via Steam chat
and
Checking the winner and after that delivering the key via SG?
Sure taking a screenshot of that chat offers some form of safety, but it's not a 100% foolproof system either - besides, it might not be available should winners refuse to interact through Steam. Sure, screenshotting a pending friend request is handy for the support I suppose, but what's the difference between screenshotting a sent-key and a user's online / last online status here on SG?
Thanks for your time.
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If you deliver the key via SG and the winner visits the site regularly, there's no way to be sure if the key is still unused in case you decide to reroll the giveaway (if the winner does not respond to attempts at communication, for instance).
If you deliver the key via chat and request immediate activation, you can be sure that the key is used.
As a gifter you have the right to choose the method of delivering your gift. If you're comfortable with delivering the key via Steam chat only, failure to accept your friend invite on Steam can be grounds for reroll.
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Very true. As a matter of fact I knew that already, but I needed a permalink with an official explanation from a Support user to attach to future giveaways. Figured it would be a good way to fend off the barrage of "why not just sending the key", "how is delivering by chat safer", "did support really tell you that" sort of questions though.
Pity these can't be stickied... perhaps suggest someone to include a "safer delivery methods" to the FAQ or something? Just a thought. Thanks again for the replies.
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If you deliver the key via SG and the winner visits the site regularly, there's no way to be sure if the key is still unused in case you decide to reroll the giveaway
I'm sure this has already been suggested before, but it would be helpful to have a system where the key is displayed to the winner after they click a "show key" button, and the creator would be aware if the key has been shown or not so they would know if it's perfectly safe to reroll or not.
failure to accept your friend invite on Steam can be grounds for reroll.
Do you have ways of preventing abuse of this ?
Let's say I don't like the winner of my giveaway for some reason. I send an invite, take a screenshot and cancel the invite. After 7 days I request a reroll, saying I couldn't contact the winner and showing the screenshot as evidence.
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Yeah, the "show key" button would be a great addition. Hopefully cg will consider implementing it.
We ask the gifter to email the winner as well, requesting contact. In addition, if the winner is visiting the site regularly, he's bound to notice that his win is gone, and is very likely to contact support asking for an explanation. If it turns up that the giveaway creator falsified evidence, it's going to end up badly for him.
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I ran 10 test GAs with some explanations and a link redirecting to this thread. They worked better than the other one, with some of the winners getting in touch with me on their own, which had never happened before, so this is good. The bad side of it is that I checked every single entry thoroughly and spotted some bots and, I think, some regifters (or rather I should say people who boosted their CVs by keeping regifting without activating to each other... I won't make names of course but it's kinda unsettling seeing that people get into very small groups and up their CV like that. I wonder whether there are means to prevent it).
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That's exactly what happened to me a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know it was possible to submit a ticket for something like that, next time I'll do it
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I was a victim of a regifter, even though I set my GA to level 1+. Even 2+ isn't probaly safe enough. Working to get myself to level 3, so I will feel justified making level 3+ GA's.
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there are even lvl 4-5 regifters - never feel safe ;)
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That's why we need a permban for regifters, not puny 7 days ban. Regifting is basically stealing.
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If they keep doing it after getting suspended a first time, they'll eventually get permabanned. But a permaban for doing that mistake once is too much IMO.
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Well, I understand and respect forgiving attitude. Still I stand by my opinion - ban the living shit out of regifters. Two regifts = bye! I'm fine with adding regifter to my blacklist, which is a great feature. But not everyone knows that ...... is a regifter. And SG forbids public shaming. Either let us call out regifters so that everyone who wants blacklists them, or ban them. Ban!
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I've seen an interesting case. The guy never activated any of his wins, and even commented many times on a topic about re-gifting, even providing the link to check activated wins. He/she does not seem to care about activating his wins (did not check if he regifted them). Making a mistake is fine to me, as we all make mistakes, but doing that all the time should not be allowed.
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Level 4 user got 30+ days of suspension because of 7 (!!) unactivated giveaways. Sadly even experienced users can't obey the rules.
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i have still on my blacklist level 5 user with permanent ban for not-activating, regifting, making private group for fake boost CV and i think alt accounting :)
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This so much, been doing it for quite a while. Only do public ones every so often now.
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It's always sad that SG support always gets shitted on.
Especially since you guys all do it for free and stuff.
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Yup. I don't get some people.
I understand shitting on Steam Support, because those guys gets money for sending those automated messages.
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Thanks for your post. Got a question, isn't it possible to make the rules sticky,
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There is a large FAQ button at the top of every page. Would making a sticky post really get any more people to read?
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If you see how many people post the same questions over and over. It might help. Because they find the discussions but not the faq
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If they fail to see the FAQ button located a few centimeters from the discussions button, why would they notice a sticky post ?
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You should ask them. I do not know. If you don't try, you never know and you keep getting the same questions over and over.
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I think what users above are trying to say is, some people can't be helped regardless of how easy it is to get the info, they're too lazy to notice it.
Want to bet if a sticky were in place, some people would just ignore it anyway? Probably the same who don't check the FAQ...
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The difference is that people often only look to the toolbar when they are in search of a specific tool, and disregard anything not fitting what they're after. However when somebody is browsing a forum's index, they are actively reading and considering the subjects.
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Perhaps it would help if the site prompted you to read the FAQ when you sign up.
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I think part of the problem is that some people wouldn't think that a site's rules would be in the FAQ. It does stand for Frequently Asked Questions, after all, and if they don't have questions why would they look in there? Some people are probably unaware that rules exist at all.
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I joined a couple of days ago, and I can confirm that I found out about the rules through discussions as well as people stating them on their GAs, because I had indeed not expected the rules to be in the FAQ. Had there been a separate link to site rules, or had they been in a pop-up window upon registration, I would have probably found them sooner.
Luckily I wasn't really planning on breaking any of the rules, but still. I created two giveaways and one of those ended before I learned the rules so... :)
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This only makes perfect sense.. I do personally check the winners to make sure they don't already own the game I'm giving but I have to admit I don't always go and check previous wins to make sure those were activated.
Just a suggestion .. couldn't be possible with a little time to add a cross-reference check-up that compares the "Gifts Won" of a Profile with the Owned Games that are already listed on the site when we Sync our profile. Add to that a little red flag on games that don't show up as owned even though they're on the Won List of a user. I understand some games don't work properly this way (Special Edition, DLC, etc..) but it would still be a good start to make it easy to spot some culprits.
Until then I'll take the habit of at least checking the last few wins from my winners even though I never really had any problems so far with whoever won my games, at the exception of some already owned situation for which I asked an easy re-roll since the proof is kind of obvious in those cases.
Keep up the good work.. Love what you made with the place ;)
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http://www.sgtools.tk/ has a tool to check if all wins of a user have been activated. Be careful, there is "false positives" with some games, so always check manually if a game is displayed as non activated.
Edit: note for myself, next time read the whole thread before posting something that has already been said/
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I saw this tool mentioned the other day but when I tested it on my own account it came up with a ton of games that I supposedly didn't activate.. even though I always activated everything right away. The only thing that should trigger a false-negative is an old Dev Giveaway for Tryst Beta which has been gone for a long while now.
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Most of your wins that don't show up are DLCs, and it's because of the Steam API being quite broken when it comes to these, that's why it's often possible to still enter giveaways for these even when you own them. So the tool is not really to balme for that.
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I just checked again and I only get 2 red flags this time.. but that previous try I really had a mega-list of red unactivated stuff.
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Wtf? I just used this tool and it told me I don't have Sonic 3D Blast activated... I'm 100% sure I activate all my wins so I go to my library and search "Sonic" and it's not there. I go to the store page for Sonic 3D Blast and it tells me that I DO own it. It even has the "Play Now" button and everything like a normal owned game. But it's just... not listed in my library. What the actual fuck? Now I'm kinda paranoid that someone's going to find this weird bug and report me :(
EDIT: Oh. After googling, people are saying that it gets classified as a game under SEGA Genesis & Mega Drive Classics and is available there. But I don't expect most people to know that so I'm still paranoid people will think I didn't activate a win -_-;
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We are a bit more thorough when checking for non-activations, so Sonic 3D Blast would not fool us if somebody reported you.
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some ppl may not know that, but gus around long enough and especially support are well aware of that and won't take consequences based on it. There are several games that redult in false negatives because they are not visible in Steam API - one example you just found is Sonic 3D Blast - but this will apply to all SEGA oldies - hey all get listed as Sego XYZ Classics. Other examples are old Serious sam Games, Indie Serious Sam Games, The Tower, some copies of WH20k DoW2 Retribution, some GOTY or Digital Deluxe editions (listed as normal editions in API), The Cursed Crusade and so on and on ;)
Generally a strategy I use to check if somethig is not a false-negative is:
- I see winner has persumabole not activated game XYZ.
- I go to the store page of game XYZ - at mid-right I can see list of my Steam Friends who own this game.
- I pick up one of these ppl.
- I check if game is listed in his library.
- If it's not (yet store page claim it is) it means it is false positive and winner from 1. is not to blame. If the game is listed in friends library it means winner did not activate XYZ.
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There are some rare few games that will only show up if you've got some playtime in them. (Or if you've actually played them in the last 2 weeks) but your method will still be effective 99% of the time.
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Ones that show up for me are Painkiller Black (one of the long term known not to show ones), Crazy Machines 1.5 (2 entries in library both take me back to same store page which doesn't show that I own it) and Grimm (have time played in it but doesn't show up probably because each episode is listed)
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for me there's even more :D:
26 false negatives :D:
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Thanks for mentioning this. I missed the previous mention :) I haven't seen this link before. Lol on another note it made me sad to see my 'real' CV. Oh well, something that can be fixed with more giveaways at least...
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I check the winners of my giveaways before I send, really simple to do. Only had to reroll twice because of it.
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Hey, Khalaq, I really appreciate your heartfelt and impassioned post. Sadly, I feel a lot of people are going to skip reading it altogether. To be frank, I even half-expect a couple of "tl;dr, lol" responses underneath. I know most SG users are better than that, but the good ones didn't need to read it in the first place.
I think the proper way to address the less diligent is: "Hey guys, please help make the site a better place by checking the winners of your giveaways for rule violations and consistent abuse. That is all, thank you."
Thank you again for taking the time to bring up the subject and for all the work you guys have been doing. Keep it up. ;)
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Here's a tool that everyone can use to check if their giftee has any unactivated gifts. http://www.sgtools.tk/activation
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That tool works well.
I have a Sonic the Hedgehog game that is actually listed as Sega games or something like that and this tool found my activation of the Sonic game.
Edit: or does this tool look for the "received" mark on SG profiles??
EDIT 2: This tool doesnt work for me if I use SG name and Steam name, both are identical and I only have 1 Steam nick
http://www.sgtools.tk/nonactivated/wykydvamp/wykydvamp
It gives false positives for all my wins lol.
But if I use SG name and Steam number ID it gives back 1 positive
http://www.sgtools.tk/nonactivated/wykydvamp/76561197996289709
B4 you go and make a ticket on me here proof I have game in my account
proof
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I'm not exactly sure what it combs through, but it's seemed to be pretty accurate the few times I used it. It is in beta though, so there could be a few Steam game package stub related issues.
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Even if you mark a giveaway as not received it will be displayed as a not activated win by this tool, so you need to check carefully the results when using it.
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Did you make sure to use your real Steam ID as well as your SG name? It's that string of numbers in the link that appears when you view your own profile.
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That's odd, I was able to check out mine. Here's a link to yours, see if that works. it does have trouble with some DLCs, so it's got two of your DLC wins as being unable to detect but probably activated. http://www.sgtools.tk/nonactivated/BlankTerrent/BlankTerrent
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Thank you for including that. I think others will find it helpful.
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No problem, it's also being actively developed right now so there could be some more useful features in the future. i found it in the forums though, so I don't know who to properly credit.
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http://www.sgtools.tk/nonactivated/Chuchma/Chuchma
Its showing that all Games i won i not activated but its not True ---> http://steamcommunity.com/id/chuchmatbg/games/?tab=all
(sorry for Bad English)
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thank you really good link, but i have to say that tools not very reliable
shows me as not activating like 11 games, and 20+ DLC. yet ive never once broke the activating rule. i have always activated my wins
but i do understand many games and DLC dont show up but still. the fact it shows so many makes me worried people will think its true and report me even though i did activate them
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it's not tools fault, it's because of Steam API problems (it does not show some of your games, neither tool nor SG cannot pick these up).
http://www.steamgifts.com/go/comment/VfE9NiG for referrence.
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I double-check the profile for the DLC but are soundtracks shown in the library? I think not, right? How can I check those. D:
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soundtrack as well as most of the DLCs do not show in Steam API. It's very rare for any DLC to be shown (for example Borderlands Story DLCs will). So basically you're only able to hunt down not-activated games - again it's not the case of flawed tool or SG system - but a case of flawed Steam API. As long as Steam API does not list these there is nothing we can do about these.
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You can check for DLC activations after you add your winner to friend list by trying to "gift" him the item in question using Steam gifting system. But that requires quite a bit of effort, of course.
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this is assuming that person you want to check will accept your friend invite in the first place ;) and there is no way to force someone to accept it - plus any non-activator/regifter being aware that he broke the rules won't accept invites ;)
Funny fact - after I ran featured GA for SS3 Bonus Pack 80-90% of ppl who deleted me from their friendlist right after they received their win were ppl who later on tried to regift this win on SG or on GM ;)
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How can I check if it's not a Steam gift ? I know that if I go to the DLC page on the store, it will tell me how many of my friends own it and display a random selection of these friends, but I can't see a complete list. I can refresh the page to get new friends displayed but that still doesn't allow me to be completely sure the winner doesn't have it.
The only thing I could think of is checking the page again after giving them the key to see if there are +1 friend owning it, but of course at that point it is too late to reroll.
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Add the DLC you want to check to cart. Start the checkout process. Select the "Send my gift directly through Steam" option and find the suspect in the list. Steam will tell you if he owns the DLC or not. Of course, you don't actually buy the DLC for him, you cancel after this step ^_^
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The problem with 10 of those is that they're all basically DLC for a Genesis collection, but Steam also counts them as separate games for some reason. Not sure what's up with the other one, but the tool isn't perfect. It does say to check any non-activations yourself to make sure they're legit, and support has a better method that they use to see what people haven't activated. The tool's a handy way to see if someone might be re-gifting, but support would still have to look into anyone's profile though.
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Thank you for this :D. Just tried it myself and the only false positives were all dlc so it looks like it is working :D.
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It's very useful, but would be even better if there were a way to report | warn false positives. And they could be checked. Of course regifters will do false warns|reports, so a barrier to pass them.
I wanted to do some of those warns after checking myself as a test of the tool.
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Well the page already gives a warning about games that are not detected properly.
I don't think it can be fixed since it is a problem related to the Steam API and not the the tool itself.
Anyway, if you want to make some suggestions, here is the thread for this.
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i didn't know i had to check if the winner activated their previous wins and mine after a week. it would be a good idea to add this to the rules, at least people could quote it.
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It's not a requirement, just smart practice. I check that the gift has been activated at the time I am giving it. If the person hasn't activated it by the time they mark it "received," they have already violated one rule.
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If the person hasn't activated it by the time they mark it "received," they have already violated one rule.
That was what I thought, that you were supposed to have the game activated as soon as you marked it received, but in one of my recent reroll request, SleepyCat answered me that the winner had 7 days to activate the game, even if they already marked it received.
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Both the winner and the gifter have 7 days to complete the gifting process. During those 7 days the gifter must send the game to the winner, and the winner must activate it and mark it Received. So we don't enforce the activation rule before the seven days are up.
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Yes that was what you told me, but Khalaq seems to be saying that if you mark a game received and haven't activated it, you are breaking a rule no matter how long it's been since the giveaway ended
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Technically, you are, but we do not take action on it until after the seven days have passed. This is an overlap of two different rules when this happens and it needs to be clarified.
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Yes, that was what I thought as well
Winners should correctly mark their gift as received or not received within one week of the giveaway closing
So if you mark it received before actually receiving it, you are not marking it correctly.
But yes I can see how it makes sense to allow the winner 7 days to activate, as the creator is allowed 7 days to send it. But as you said it needs to be clarified, as in the rules this is only mentionned for the giveaway creator.
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Sorry for what should probably be an obvious answer, but no risk that a reroll request takes longer than the 7 days to answer, right?
I have 1 outstanding right now and i'm 99% positive, but it is my first time in the situation and a support confirmation would probably also soothe any other user who might have that concern. :)
P.S.: I really, really feel for you guys. Despite all the mudslinging you guys get sometimes, try not to let the the rest (the credit you also get) go unnoticed, so it won't wear you down.
I've been in a similar role and i know it's easier said than done, but you do get credit as well, so take solace in that. ;)
EDIT: Nevermind, moot question, issue was solved quite dilligently (for future reference for anyone concerned).
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Thanks for all the work you guys do to protect SG users from scammers and troublemakers. I'd just like to know though, is the 1 month non-activation limit for a reroll pretty set in stone? My situation is that someone who won one of my giveaways didn't activate a game about 2 months ago, but has won 2 others since and activated them. Would the proper thing to do be to report them, ask for a reroll, or do both?
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If it were me, I'd probably ask for a re-roll due to non-activation. This person will either get dinged for non-activation, or you will get a re-roll, or both. In the event that any re-gifting has occurred, that will also be noted.
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Ok cool, thank you for the advice. I'll try that and see what happens.
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alrdy replied to sleepycat with a aquestion so here is a question for you. Do u guys take measures against the people who mark gifts as received but those gifts are usually given out free but made as a complete game giveaway such as ibomber bundle or the warlock master of the arcane game
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If there is anything that catches our attention (one way or another), we check it out thoroughly. This takes time, of course, and sometimes it also means having to wait for something else to happen, first, but we also work together on issues. That means very little gets by us, and even if one person misses something, another will find it. We also double-check, so on the rare instance that we make a mistake, other Support members catch it and fix it.
We're not perfect, but we make a good team.
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i think u guys are doing a great job i was just curious thats all :) .
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If someone did not activate wins and has not been suspended for it, we apply the suspension and then proceed with the reroll. If someone did not activate wins but has already been suspended for it, we check if this happened during the past month. If it did, we reroll the giveaway. If the non-activation is older than that, we decline the reroll.
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You forgot to include this with your post.
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Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense not to punish users twice by re-rolling if they already got suspended.
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I think it would be better if the 1 month thing wasn't mentioned when creating a ticket, because first it is confusing, like this user I used to think you could only reroll if the non-activated wins were not older than that, and I'm sure many others think that too, and second we have no way of knowing if the user has alreaby been suspended or not so we are going to create a ticket anyway.
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But if we remove that, people are going to start complaining about the 1 month rule that isn't mentioned anywhere ^_^
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It could just be added to the FAQ
under The winner has not redeemed my gift, and I'm unable to get into contact with them. How do I proceed?
there could be something like The winner has not activated some of the games he previously won. What should I do?
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Dang, knowing this might have spared me having to report a user who regifted my game (he had some regifts like 2 months before my GA, but I thought I couldn't request a reroll for it) ><
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Just submit a re-roll request.
If they haven't served their suspension for the non-activation, they will be suspended and you will get a new winner.
If they've already served the suspension and haven't re-offended, they are considered a reformed winner and an eligible winner.
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If there's a way to abuse something or find loop holes, some people will do it. Unfortunate, but that's the way it is.
I have considered giving away a used key as the initial key.
But, it seems like a dick move, so I didn't do it.
It would be an interesting feature though, for Steam Gifts to automatically send a fake key initially and have the user type in the name of the game the key is for. Kind of like a "Capcha". But I don't know if people would be down for that because it's such a strange concept.
Scratch that, if it's a standard, then that kind of defeats the purpose - people will find ways around that too.
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"...people will find ways around that, too.."
Therein lies the problem. That is why the exercising of sound judgement is almost always superior to the application of a specific rule.
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tl;dr:
Put CV level on your giveaways. And support guise, check my half-of-year-old tickets pl0x. Thx
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Except that does not remove the problem, merely lessens the chance of it to occur. I have seen people with high levels and non-activated gifts.
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As the guy above me said, it's less likely to happen but you still have to check the winner, I already had problems with 2 level 3+ giveaways. And if the tickets you are talking about are user reports, there's not point in asking support to review since they cannot access it
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I find it problematic that currently every giveaway creator has to do this every time. The tool mentioned above is immensively helpful (thanks joejoebuckbuck) but such occurrences should be marked in the profile. Once it has been found out that you have regifted or not activated the gift, it should be marked on your profile with the possible suspension mark. The data is available anyway (not the suspension info thought) if one decides to do the investigation so why make it harder on purpose? Now when I spot non-activated win, I have no idea has the user already been suspended it for not. This results in a) waste of time for gifters because of checks, b) unrequired reports and waste of support's resources and c) likely more problems for people who have already suffered their penalty.
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I know support is swamped with tickets and all, and i am glad SGv2 gave option to blacklist people so we can do our own "mini support" and potenitally share info about abusers with friends/groups.
I personaly stopped sending tickets since i have pending reports that are almost 3 years old and it is sort of disheartening.
And yeah it is better to reroll abuser that won if you find one than see that you screwed up and gave game to abuser after the fact, since there is big chance he won't be punished :P
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Don't be mad. When I said Support staff really only sit around, drinking champagne and smoking crack with hookers, I said it with a tone of admiration and envy.
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Private profiles. :(
Btw, I haven't seen this mentioned: http://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/6fClz/userscript-links-on-profile-to-steamgifts-tools-real-cvnot-activated-gifts/search?page=31337 (or I missed it?)
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If your winner has a private profile and does not accept your friend invite, request a reroll, we'll check his profile ourselves.
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it's already month and half :c with my ticket still pending about something similar to this matter
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If it's a user report, the Support team cannot see those, only the site admin and the moderators can work with user reports currently.
I see no pending reroll requests on your profile.
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yeah it is user report, since it is outside of giveaways or at least my giveaways, but it concerns re-gifting, or in this case, winning and making trades with it.
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Wait, wait, really? What reason would be used to request a reroll?
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Im new to creating giveaways but a "do not allow private profiles" option would be fantastic.
Seems like such a hassle for all involved.
Edit: Mostly just wishful thinking after reading this topic since it seems there is a lot of bad eggs.
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and then you would be punishing all the ppl who have profiles set to private for legit reasons.
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I assume that's part of why it's not an option.
I have a few friends that have went private and i respect their reasons for it.
But what I meant. Is that, if it was an option, and people chose to use it, then it would just be another thing that gets chalked under, "tough cookies cause the bad seeds ruined it for the good". Not that it would ever become an option anyway.
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You would have people changing their profile to public, going into the giveaway and then setting it to private again.
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I always try to do that and it's the reason I did the not-activated checker in sgtools.
The problem is that steam api is a big mess and fails to properly detect some games and MOST of the DLCs and "deluxe editions".
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Haven't read your whole post, but do you know if as gifter, one can chose to reroll a winner without having to give a reason?
If yes, what to expect apart from probably being blacklisted by the initial winner.
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Re-rolls are not done without a valid reason. The creator must either get the permission of the winner, or the winner must be ineligible to receive the giveaway (e.g. serving a suspension for failing to activate a win).
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Would have been odd if it was.
Was just asking, because there wasn't any word about it in the FAQ/rules (I think).
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no need for, as you have whole list of valid reasons to check from when requesting a reroll. Not activating / regifting is listed in there as a valid reason
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ive rerolled many people just cuz i didnt like how they didnt activate/ regifted a giveaway in the past. ive always been approved for reroll's based on that. if your a past sinner, i will request a reroll.
i refuse to have my game go to someone who didnt read rules lol
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this is just the post i wanted to see. got a question (if you got a minute):
currently, there is no way to know if someone got your key, activated on another account and told you that you gave him a wrong key. right?
i mean, someone will have to be a real jerk, but what about adding an option to "mark" someone who claims he got a duped key, just to see if it's a repeat pattern. users can't do that, cause it's calling out and such.
had twice in the past wrong keys (my GA). all sorted out in the end, but i couldn't shake the though of abusing the system.
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That is exactly why we introduced the "key holding" mechanism in SG. You click "show key," and we know the person has seen the key. It has also been suggested that we add another button on the winner's side called "see key," but it hasn't yet been implemented.
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You missed the point.
he got a key. he says it's duped. i.e. i gave him a used key
no way to prove for both of us... stale mate.
i could be wrong, or he could
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BUMP. I think u guys are doing a great job. Personally i wish the regifters would just get banned instead of suspended for a couple of weeks. but thats just me :).
I do feel the number of regifters seems to be growing a lot faster.
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What happens after someone regifts or resells the win? The key/gift is used already. xD Poor GA creator then.
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That whole text up there is trying to tell you to check out the winner BEFORE handing him the gift/key/whatever.
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Semi-offtopic, but I have a question, Khalaq (not really related to this thread):the second guy who won my Detour giveaway accepted the gift, activated it, but didn't mark as recieved. He logged on the site, he also is online on Steam but I cannot ask him to mark it because I cannot contact him - he declines my friend invite. I know that the CV for that giveaway is not much, but c'mon - you got the gift, mark it! What should I do: wait until those 7 days end, and contact support?
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Have you tried mailing him? Might be worth a try I think.
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And if he still doesn't put received, just contact the support with proofs that you sent the gift, the fact that it's activated and support will mark it as received.
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^^^ This.
Support > Create a New Ticket > Request Feedback > Winner Unavailable and Gift Redeemed
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Or try to find a middle man who can message the winner. Thought don't strain yourself too much, not worth much hassle ;)
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Just learned my lesson yesterday.
You guys are totally awesome. Support was there for me immediately, even though I was totally panicked (and not quite understandable, probably). Although the problem will stay with me for a while, at least I know now what to do to not make it happen in the future.
Thank you for this safety net we got here.
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I once checked my previous winners, found one, reported it
1 year has passed and no response from support so i never checked again :|
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Support cannot view user reports
But if you check your winners before sending them the game and request a reroll because they have not activated some of their previous wins, they will get suspended when the giveaway is rerolled
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- Support can't view user reports? So I should close the ones I've made then?
- That seems legit, by asking for a reroll and state your reason as a not activation of previous gifts support can issue suspensions faster.
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Support ≠ mods
Support cannot view them but mods can, so only 4 people including cg. So no, don't close your tickets.
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TL; DR: Please check the winners of your giveaways before gifting, and we highly recommend you make sure they activate your gift.
ADDED: A couple of people have offered scripts for checking winners: the SGTools Activation Checker; and SilentGuy's Sidebar Script.
Yes, this is yet another topic about re-gifting. I am creating it because we just discussed this topic thoroughly a couple of days ago, and it seems a lot of people "didn't get the memo." It is somewhat frustrating when the same explanations have to be repeated over and over, again, but not everyone reads the forum, and even those that do cannot be expected to read every posting. I dearly hope that you guys all read this one.
Your Support staff tries their best to deal with infractions as quickly and efficiently as possible. Despite common opinion, we are neither "asleep," nor are we "idiots," nor "power-tripping," "lazy," and long list of other unfavorable adjectives. We knew that signing up for this position meant we would suffer unwarranted abuse, but we did it, anyway, because we wanted to help make SG a better place. We cannot, however, do it all on our own.
The "weakness" with the way this site is currently run is that it relies upon the users of SteamGifts to do their due diligence. Unfortunately, people give away their gifts and keys without first checking the winners of their giveaways for failed activations, and then also fail to ensure those gift are activated. Later, they complain that their gift has been misused, absolving themselves of all responsibility and dumping it on Support. Everyone has the power to make things better, but nobody wants to take action themselves. It is like a roomful of people sitting in the dark, every one of them saying, "Somebody really should turn on that light," but none of them are making any move to do so. And everything wrong is the fault of Support.
That is oppression.
This site is mostly run by its users, and that is a good thing. It gives SG flexibility and allows for the pursuit of both generosity and fairness However, if we as individuals do not take it upon ourselves to keep things in order and point out abuse when it arises, then it is unfair for us to complain about "how bad it is." We are the ones who choose to either let the mess pile up or clean it.
Speaking for myself, I thank God that I have never had too much trouble with my gift giving. I'm fairly certain that the fact I check each winner before handing over my gift, and demand that the gift be redeemed directly after it is received, has something to do with that track record. I am neither omniscient nor omnipotent, but I can tell you that if you win one of my giveaways, you'd better have your ducks all in a row because you're going to be checked thoroughly.
SteamGifts has thus far been successful because you, the users, have made it that way. More rules and restrictions will not solve our problems, individual responsibility will. Goodness is stronger than evil, but evil will spread and take hold if goodness does nothing but stand by and watch. If we want this to continue being a great community, then I suggest we stop waiting for other people to do the work for us. If we all choose to be active agents for the good of the site, then we need never fear that the challenges will be greater than our combined might. If everyone is reaching for the light switch, then that light will definitely go on.
I hope that what I have written here makes sense to you all. Thank you for your patience.
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