How to decide the level requirement for a giveaway?

I vary mine, just depends on my mood at the time I make the giveaway.

Normally the minimum is lvl 1 because there seems to be lot of bots around there at lvl 0, and a few of them even at lvl 1(thats why my minimum gets to +2 always). and sometimes if the game i give is triple A, I like to give more chances to the people with more lvl, there is a discussion where you can see the stadistics of % people at X level so maybe you can get guided by that, so as an advice try to do +1 lvl.

For example if you are giving away a 150€ Collectors edition of something, you may like the "most generous" people from here "lvl 10" to get the chance to get it instead of no lvl requirements.

+1

It's entirely up to you, there is no system, some people will make everything lvl 0 because they want as much attention and entries as possible, some people will make same GA mid-level just to avoid bots and rulebreakers which flood low levels, and another person will make the same GA for high level because want to give it to someone who gave a lot himself.

Only one thing plus kind of personal thought - you will not find anyone on SG who "don't have any games in the first place" - in order to even register an account you need to have over 100$ worth of non-bundle games on your account (it's anti-multiaccount system, but it's in place nonetheless). And here comes my personal thought - there are really no (or almost no) people on SG who cannot afford to give away anything, there are only people who choose not to give anything. Ofc not everyone can afford to give away a lot, to get high level etc, but everyone can afford to give back anything to the community. You got hundreds of dollars worth gaming PC, you had to buy over 100$ worth of nonbundle Steam games, you earn steam wallet basically for free just from selling cards and other items on market, yet you want me to believe you cannot afford a few cents (that's how much the cheapest bundle games cost) to make a GA? Not to mention taht for massive cost of 1$ you could buy Tier one of let's say Humble Bundle, give away actually good games. few cents to one dollar is amount of money anyone can afford (I mean anyone who has SG account, ofc if you live in third world country, starve, make less than a dollar per day etc you cannot afford it, but in such case you are even less likely to afford gaming PC and 100$ worth Steam account, so you cannot have an SG account),

There surely are people at level 0 who just can't afford to buy games due to region, no/minimum wage, being kids..but also many leechers and bots. There are ways to get to level 1 with only spending a few cents. On the other hand, there are bots at higher levels and people that abuse CV. Therefore you couldn't relate it just to their level.

If you want to exclude bots, use puzzles. If you want the games to be played, use groups like "Playing Appreciated" or maybe the wishlist functionality at SGTools. If you want to reward nice users regardless of CV, create your own group or use the whitelist. Or likewise, if you still want to create public GAs, sort people behaving badly out by using the blacklist.

Personally I only use gifts for WL only, since I can rely on them regarding reaction time. For keys it mostly depends on bundled/unbundled. And I'm checking all winners on SGTools regarding rule-breaking (except of whitelist GAs).

If you want to give the most chance: level 0.
If you want to filter out those that never give: level 1
If you want to make a compromise between opening it to as many people as possible while also shutting out the majority of the bots: level 2
(Or just do a region-restricted by removing a few certain places from the country list and you will also shut out most of the bot users.)
If you want to further minimise the amount of bots and want the active user base to participate: level 4 or 5
If you want to maximise the chances for the game to be played: level 5 or 6

There is no real point to go over level 6.
If you want a good midway ground, level 1 or level 2 is letting enough people in to quell your conscience. (Even though level 1 shuts out 80%+ of the user base).
Still, level 0 with some patience and the active use of SGTools to check every single winner is not that of a deal.

Some people just roll a random dice between 0-10 and then chose from there. Its really up to you as there is no correct way. Do what you think is right.

It also depends where you make it
In Groups and puzzles I normally add no restrictions as people have earned the right to join the ga through other aspects
Puplic better lvl 1 or 2 so most bots get removed

If you want that the games reach real users and not bots/autojoiners/bad script users and extreme leechers then avoid public GA's. You have there often such people (i would say at lvl 0 90%, lvl 1 70% and lvl 2 50%). Up to lvl 4 you have a lot of bots and so on too (and it give a lvl 10 autojoiner/bad script user too -open "secret"-, i gave him the name "Pink Rabbit" because no one can say his name because it would be seen as calling out.... and you get punished -yes strange...-). When you avoid CIS/RUS region you avoid a lot of the bots/autojoiners/bad script users/extreme leechers... but maybe a bit "unfair" to the nice people from that regions -i have a big part of nice steam friends from there so i avoid that step-.

My solution is to make sgtools Giveaways with a real CV ratio of 0.5 and checks for Trade Bans, Multi Wins, Not activated wins.
You have then nearly no problem and each one from lvl1+ can join WHEN he/she gave anything (sometimes) in the past and not only take over years.

Normally I don't care about the lvl (although I was recommended making lvl 1 GAs just to avoid the bots). What I do care is the winner not breaking the rules, so to avoid my gifts going to people who don't care about the site rules (multiple same game wins, VAC and all that jazz), I do custom GAs using SG Tools and always check the winners manually.

For public giveaways, unless I'm making a honeypot... never really low levels! It's just more hassle than its worth. Not saying that high levels is hassle-free, but there's less hassle involved.
For forum giveaways I usually keep levels relatively low, to allow more people to enter

For better giveaways, I'm far more keen on giving them to groups dedicated to playing games. So there level is not required.

How do we choose the lvl of giveaways? I haven't figured it out. When I did create them I only saw these options :
Who Can Enter
Everyone
Invite Only
Whitelist / Steam Groups

but I don't see where we can choose level? (ie: Lvl 1, 2, 3..).

I can never decide the level requirement.

The rule of thumb is your giveaways your rules, it's that easy. ^^

Even high level users on public giveaways don't open giveaway page (only ~5% do this).
If u warry about scriprs/bots/non-readers description - make forum "invite only" giveaways with any level u want.

Really its a personal choice and many factors can come into play:

• In order to use this site you have to have $100 worth of unbundled games on your account, this indicates some form of disposable income, not to mention your PC. How long ago you obtained these things, and how, may be a different story.
• After a few wins you should be able to accumulate enough cards to sell on the market in order to afford a giveaway to achieve level 1. This may discriminate new or unlucky users, but will avoid a portion of the bots.
• There are sites like TremorGames where it is fairly easy to achieve some credits to get games, it is mostly how I reached level 5.
• How much did you spend on the game? To ensure someone actually plays it you may want to check out groups like Playing Appreciated. While it may not be a level restriction, it does gate your giveaway a bit.
• Rule breakers tend to be in the lower levels, though they do occur in higher levels (especially if they regifted to gain their levels). I personally keep my public giveaways at level 5 to avoid a large portion of rule breakers, typically no restrictions for giveaways of regulated groups.

"I feel like everyone should have a chance of getting the game."

Agreed.

Where mine classification. It'll help you I hope
Disclaimer.
Where also some other unclassified people which I can't classified cause of many reasons like small number, hide motives, etc. I'm not against people who use sgtools, puzzles and jigidi, etc. who are part of 1-8 groups (except group #3) or who use it for fair and good purposes. I don't trying to insult anybody by this classification.

1. Some people have no enough money (where are could be too many reasons), so they able to have no giveaways or have very chip giveaways.
2. Some people have very low free money so they able to do and make giveaways rare as it allow their financial situation.
3. Some people have enough people to buy games for self/friends and for giveaway, so they do it time-to-time cause they want and ABLE to give back games and wins/surprises.
4. Some people have enough money and giveaways very much. Most of them do it cause of the their view of charity mostly as I know.
5. Some people have enough money and make lot of kinds groups. This kind of people giveaways people to own (social) groups, groups of followers, groups of subscribers, groups of friends, etc.
6. Some people make giveaways and have phobias. It's not possible blame. They sure where are big number of bots who want their games, so they like to shout about it, make private giveaways (fair choice), shout about own phobias.
7. Some people who have enough money and make giveaways just cause they want it no matter why.
8. Some people who make giveaways to get redemption. (I'm think it's cool to support them/trying help them. It's not mean I'm against other groups above).

Time to talk about opposite groups of people. I not lost any groups above in the text I hope. Well, 2 other opposite groups are kinds of bad people in my opinion.
First group farms games by unfair methods like using multiply accounts, special plugins to avoid rules/limits. They use it to get max number of games as it possible or use it to regift it to other for money ("sell", by other words).
Second group is very hard. Some people of it's group are hypocrites, some of them ask you to dance or do something else to participate in their sacred giveaways. some of them are haters. some of them replace sg rules by own, etc.
P.S.: I have more than hundred blacklists of last group people mostly and I sure I'll get about 30+ for "mine vile try to insult them" (as they believe).

Dont make them below level 6 if you dont want to waste your time dealing with bots

use groups like "Playing Appreciated" and Unlucky-7 , you will know your games will go to people who play it and need it and dont make it higher levels it will go to rich who love hoarding games

It depends on how valuable I consider the giveaway.

The most valuable ones I give either as a invite giveaway to some of my bluehearts who wishlisted it, to the whole wishlist or a few favourite groups. There the level doesn't matter.

Other better games I give as invite only giveaways here at the forum or as public giveaways to level 4 or higher (sometimes using random.org ;))

If it's more a crappy game or a not so popular DLC I give it to lvl2+ public.

If I just want to be sure to get rid of something I choose lvl0/1 public.

I mostly just do whitelist giveaways and don't bother with level requirements.

Talgaby posted a fantastic list, so I will copy it with some changes:

If you want to give everyone a chance: level 0 - It is trivially easy to get to level 1, so this level really is full of bots and leechers.
If you want to filter out many bots and those that never give: level 1 - Because it's so easy to get to level 1, there are still lots of bots, but much fewer.
If you want to make a compromise between opening it to as many people as possible while also shutting out the majority of the bots: level 2 - You could reach level 2 just off of Steam cards.
If you want to further minimise the amount of bots and want the active user base to participate: level 4 or 5
If you want to maximise the chances for the game to be played: level 5 or 6 (Or the Playing Appreciated group!)

There is no real point to go over level 6.

If you want a good midway ground, level 1 or level 2 is letting enough people in to quell your conscience while shutting out most of the bots.

I usually do level 2, and at the very least, level 1. Level 1 requires giving away a single game with CV, which you can literally get off DIG for 5-10 cents. Those who are level zero either probably don't realize that or don't care enough to do it. I more often choose level 2 than level 1 though because it isn't that restrictive but still hopefully filters out a decent amount of the bots/auto-joiners.

I find 2 is pretty safe for making sure its marked as received. If its a really good game I'll raise it so those who contribute have a better chance.

If it's a game I don't care much about, that I received for free, or just doesn't look good at all - lv0. If I care about the game I go up. If it's an invite only or a wl/group giveaway, lv0.