Should I?... the idlesoftware question

ASF is safe to use.

I never had any issues with ASF nor do I know anyone else who got into any problems because of it.

I'm sure most would say ASF is better but I prefer IdleMaster when I just have to idle a couple of games. Is easier to use in my opinion and gets the job done pretty well.

From my personal experience:

Are there rules against using such software?

Valve has never explicitly stated that game idlers are not allowed.

Are there any negative things that could come of it? Is it completely harmless?

They have acknowledged that Idlers are VAC conflicting, but I've personally never seen anyone get anything besides a server kick while idling with IM or ASF.

Now, there is nothing protecting us from trouble in the event that Valve suddenly decides that idlers are not allowed, with a zero tolerance policy to current users. But is that likely to happen? I'd say no.

Now, which one to use?

Idle Master was my go-to until my account became restricted (Takes 3 hours for cards to start dropping now). Since IM will only idle games simultaneously up to two hours, I had to switch to Archies, which let me do 3.

• Idle Master pluses: it is much more user friendly/easier to use when compared to ASF. Also allows you to choose the games you want to idle.
• Idle Master Negatives: It's no longer supported, and has been know to trigger VAC kicks.

• ASF pluses: It's still supported, it dosent need Steam running, ect.
• ASF negatives: No UI, harder to get set up, not a ton of customization options.

It's up to you to decide which one will work better for you. You can also Google all the ups and downs between the two.

thanks for all the responses

there's a big problem
someone voted "BAD"

You can even idle on your phone through the app called: "Idle Daddy"

why you buy games you can not run on your machine? o.O

ASF is the superior program for idling, and Idlemaster is being slowly but steadily being left behind.

I recommend reading up on ASF on the ASF wiki here. The wiki covers features and performance comparison with Idlemaster. Personal opinion, the only reason you'd use Idlemaster over ASF would be because you can't setup ASF (some people find it too complicated) or you want to abuse a Steam glitch that occasionally allows cards to drop every time you start/stop a game (Idlemaster has a skip button so you can abuse it very easily, but ASF relies on commands so it's much slower).

But in general; ASF is constantly updated, supported, and reliable. I can say with certainty you can't go wrong with it - But the fact remains, it's really up to you. Personally, I have both but now only use ASF since I just leave it running in the background and forget it, plus I make use of the other features it offers (activating keys, adding licenses, etc).

PS: Wasn't your name "GreenTomato"? Did you change it or am I going insane? :D

Idlemaster doesnt work for me, it says completed when I have a shit load of games that have cards left to drop. So it maybe worth trying ASF

Just to preserve accurate play times on my account (and because I pledged to myself as soon as they started to not care about Steam Levels), I don't idle on my main. However, I do have a small number of alts (not on SG of course, they're from my TF2 days), and I'll occasionally idle on them. ASF is excellent, as long as you're patient enough to read through the setup guide.

Especially since you can't run the games on your machine, I see nothing wrong with idling them in ASF for their cards, if that's important to you.

Others have already mentioned the requisite disclaimers.

Well i just use IdleMaster ...
Obviously everyone here will just keep spamming you about using ASF . But both work i guess, and i never had issue using IdleMaster

I'm using hourboostr/singleboostr and I have no problems at all. It is a grey area (all of the idling softwares are, I mean) but afaik nothing bad ever really happened. Will it never happen? That's impossible to say.

Based on Valve's change earlier today to block achievement spam games, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the next change is an idling software ban to make sure their metrics reflect real gameplay

I was hesistant for a while with using such things, but month ago I decided to give a chance to ASF, dropped aroud 1,4k cards. It took couple weeks but no vac ban or anything bad happend. Only foiled card could drop more often... XD

I have never heard of a confirmed VAC ban due to idlers. I have used Idle Master many times over the last 2-3 years and I have never been banned once.

I think ASF needs good user interface.

important to know: if you get a card worth 7 penny, you still make no profit, if you have to play 7 penny for the power to idle the card :(
but if someone other is paying your power Bill, you gain money (would be like stealing money from the other)

If you want pure theory answering your question then you can refer to ASF's FAQ where I evaluated Steam ToS, online conduct, related articles and all clues that we've had until now, together with my interpretation.

If you want practice then you can consider the math, probability and statistics - ASF is (or was, if you're pessimistic) used on over 460k of accounts today, with my own account being primary and the very first good example of valuable account powered by ASF since day 1. It's not some kind of secret information, everybody knows that, including Valve.

Answer yourself how likely it is for Valve to wake up one day and decide they'd like to ban half a million of Steam users with one button. And that is ASF alone, all other idlers combined would most likely add another 100-200k to that list.

Is it possible? For sure is, but if I were them, I'd rather shoot this Archi guy a nice e-mail, ceasing further development, giving opportunity to post announcement, discourage users, and then, eventually, if situation doesn't improve, ban remaining users.