Not getting 5 entries can be kinda annoying, since its not necessarily the giveaway creator fault it didn't get the 5 entries. I think it could be an useful feature to create an "overtime" feature that doesn't close the giveaway until it reaches 5 entries or adds few hours to giveaway completion. That way, no one is punished for giving away a game that someone missed.

Granted, this is usually mainly a case for private groups giveaways or DLCs so I can understand why such feature may not be implemented, but private giveaways do happen and quite often they are high value non-bundled games that some may not choose on account of groups rules (ratio) or omission.

9 years ago

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It's the giveaway creator's responsibility to ensure they have an appropriate number of entries, otherwise they shall suffer the consequences \o/

9 years ago
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This. If private GAs are for forum events / puzzles they will always have more than 5 entries (well maybe not if it's for super-hard and long puzzle). Otherwise it's your call that you give games in small 1:1 ratio groups.

9 years ago
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but why ? The giveaway system is supposed to be fun. Punishing someone for participating in the fun feels counter effective. Its one thing to punish the cheaters who try to abuse the system, but another to penalize someone who made a poor judgement call on whatever people will or will not enter the giveaway.

The alternative is that people will continue to delete their giveaways and people will be losing their points because someone didn't get their 4 entries (you apparently won't recover points from deleted giveaway). Instead of doing that, where everyone is punished, I think my idea serves the fun better.

9 years ago
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I don't like the idea of hand-holding. Poor judgement deserves punishment. If people lose points because of the giveaway creator's lack of foresight, oh well. If a giveaway creator deletes a giveaway, they are punishing their own entrants. It's not the site's fault.

Also, I think people should delete all the giveaways they want. Do it enough and they'll run out of giveaway slots. Honestly, people who are incompetent enough to expend all of their giveaway slots should just give up!

9 years ago
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This is not an army, This is not a job. This is a fundation - with difference that you can't take it out on your tax deduction but you do get the levels which are actually only arbirtrary - they don't hold any real value, since they don't give you any guarantee and it is people who create opportunities, not levels (on level 1 giveaway, it doesn't matter if you are level 10). As such, punishing people for mistakes seems like a wrong approach to all of this - you can punish someone for not doing his job, but you shouldn't punish someone for wanting to share a game with you.

I agree with 5 entries rule - otherwise we would be just people making fake giveaways for one person and getting to absurd levels and also defeats the purpose of this being a lottery. But it has to be truely directed on those who would abuse the giveaway system, not hitting everyone blindly.

9 years ago
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I f you delete your giveaways because your giveaways don't reach 5 entries, the fault is yours, don't blame the system....
I hate people that do that (and I have lost $63 real CV with my puzzle giveaways)

9 years ago*
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But people do that. And thats not ok because then people will invest all that points into such a giveaway and lose it. Several times I was in giveaways that someone has deleted and I never got a reason why.

And you may have lost that $63 real CV, but there is no reason why you should continue to lose. You should have a chance to decide whatever you are ok with losing $63 or if you want to give it a bit more time.

9 years ago
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It's not for losing points (lol they are free) but because removing a giveaway with less than 5 entries is breaking the illusions of the people who joined (even worse if those people won their entry after solving a hard puzzle).

Also I didn't lose $63 of real money, I just lost $63 of CV, and I don't care too much about CV because I enter mostly 'invite only' giveaways. I know people that post the link to puzzle giveaways minutes before they end if they have less than 5 entries, that is always better than removing it, althought I don't like that too much neither.

9 years ago
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If you want lots of entries, make sure the game you are giving away is popular and that people can enter. Why complain about something that is entirely within your control?

9 years ago
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thats the thing khalaq, its not about getting lots of entries but enough

9 years ago
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Sad but true.

9 years ago
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Look at it like this: the rule is here to encourage people creating GAs for the other users, not only for your few chosen friends \o/

9 years ago
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Group giveaways are being done and are basically encouraged by this website by existence of levels, group recruitment and possibility of making group giveaways - making a level 6 giveaway is basically also a private group giveaway, it just that it doesn't have any strings attached like in some other groups.

What happens here though is that if I were doing it for few chosen friends, you would always get the 5 entires. I personally would just ask them on facebook "hey, click on my giveaway". I do that for my whitelist for which I have around 100 people on the list. Here we are talking about giving away to people who are basically strangers to you and you had agreed on some terms on giveaway, or you just made a giveaway for a public group with bit too hard requirements (level 5 and Steamgifts group members, for example). Now you can choose to delete the giveaway, go with it and be punished for your mistake or the giveaway could just..not end till it gets 5 entries. Feels like a more friendly solution.

9 years ago
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Receiving no CV is not a punishment. Gaining CV is simply a bonus. Just because something is given as an extra (for free) does not make it an entitlement.

9 years ago
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the punishment comes from inability to gain the points by time extension, not from not recieving the points. once giveaway ends nothing can be done but send it and get over it. I suggest the possibility of not concerning yourself with it at all, by gaining additional time to make your giveaway count. thats abou it.

9 years ago
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I still feel that four weeks is plenty of time to get five entries.

9 years ago
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Usually helps, but for each rule there are exceptions. Some people, me included, use those long and high value giveaways as points storage. You don't have enough points ? Just remove your entry from that 6 week Snow Light (100P) or GTA V (60P) giveway and you get your 60 points back. Although I no longer push my points on public GTA V giveaways, some of them get deleted without warning and who really wants to win Snow Light..then again, lots of entries on that one.

Had that with one giveaway - did a 4 copy bundle for a game (8bit trader). Wanted to get my entries, made it one month long. But 3 weeks later, the game became bundled by Indiegala for 1 dollar. My entries dropped from 40 to 12, and even then I had to reroll 5 times because some people got it/won it and forgot to remove their entry. I was lucky, but kinda made me no longer want to make long giveaways.

There is really one safe method and thats to make a really expensive giveaway. Even 1 hour long GTA V giveaway will get 1000 entries in no time :)

There is also just one easier reason to for 3-4 day giveaways. I want to send the game at a period of time I know I will be avaiable to do so and that I will remember that I have to. They are just so much more convenient to not have that commitment on your head.

9 years ago
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Good suggestion, it'd definitely ruin fun if I made a private giveaway, and ended with 4 person, there's no way to extend time aswell, or somehow delay the giveaway, so +1

9 years ago
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I don´t care if I get sometimes less than 5 entries, cause I´m not a CV hunter.
But a feature like a GA is closed after time x + at least y entries or it´s closed early after z-entries would be a nice addition to do events....I could even deal with it, if those kind of GAs would give 0 CV

9 years ago
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that actually is an interesting idea for a feature - instead of time rush, its "first man gets oysters" kind of thing and also gives the possibility of finishing giveaways faster. Especially since I see that you make a lot of invites only - I'm guessing puzzles ? That would work perfectly for those.

On the CV thing - I donate blood - I do it because people need blood, its as simple as that - don't care if it will be a drug addict who gets it or someone who decided do drive his honda bike 120 kms in populated street. But I DO get chocolate for it and opportunity to deduct my taxes by a bit. And while its not all necessary and doesn't motivate me to donate blood and wake up at 6 am to get there, its always nice to get rewarded and recognized.

The levels in steamgifts are like that chocolate. They are aribtrary and not all that necessary since groups exist - just because you're level 7 doesn't mean they will be any level 7 giveaways to enter unless someone else makes it. There is no guarantee for that. But its just kinda nice to know that you are recognised, even by such non-meaningful way. Now you miss your chance on recognition because time run out before you got enough entries...thats kinda bad.

9 years ago
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PlayBlink used to have a few limited entry giveaways that would end when all the slots were gone, was pretty cool :>

9 years ago
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If you care so much about CV, just make public giveaways.

9 years ago
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I do make them

9 years ago
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if you are making private/group/wishlist GAs with few eligible users, let it run for a week or more.
also, the game choice will make a difference.

9 years ago
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that is a method but what i propose simply makes such actions unnecessary

9 years ago
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but there's no need to extend the GA if you can prevent that situation...

there are many ways to get 5+ people on a GA, either make a thread in the forums for awareness or invite friends to enter.

9 years ago
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I get it, but why do we have to ? I actually do all that, but its exhausting. I come up with some extra keys of a game, i make a giveaway, and i really want to be just that. i agree 5 entry thing is necessary, bah, personally would have made it ten, but sometimes you may not get it throug random chance. why not get a second wind and fix it ?

9 years ago
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well, if you make a GA that lasts 7 days and gets less than 5 entries, i doubt a 3-4hour extension would get you one more user.

9 years ago
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yeah, probably it won't, but at least you get a chance. Normally I don't really follow my giveaways at all (I guess lot of people don't either). They made a giveaway for several days and they will visit to send the key when the time comes..or not, because they will forget and they will delay it for day or two. Nevertheless, once you see "Shit, there was only 4 people ? I thought there would be more", he can then send an invite saying "Hey, desperately need one more entry for my giveaway to count". Either he will get it or not. At that point, steamgifts isn't concerned if he succeeded or not, because they already gave me a second chance and he/she didn't fix it.

9 years ago
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you know what would also fix this problem? if we just removed the contributor system altogether :D

9 years ago
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true, but don't you think its tad too extreme :D

9 years ago
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many would say so, but I would love to see it removed :D

9 years ago
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I can see your point, creating a level 6 giveaway is really just making a group giveaway, but for a group that acutally paid money to enter it ;p

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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basically that. Doesn't sound all that bad to me.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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I get sarcasm, you just fail at it ;p

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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seriously, though, yeah - people do mistakes and while they should probably plan ahead better, this is exactly what the whole ticket thing exists for. Because you made a mistake. You put a faulty group, you made two giveaways by accident or you made a poor estimation of time for your giveaway.

And this is exactly what you said - Yes, I made a mistake. Yes, help me fix it. Yes, it was silly of me and yes, probably should have expected it since I made to a group that only has like 100 people in it, but since its all fun and games, maybe I could get that one or two hours more to get that one more entry.

9 years ago
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You're the reason that everyone gets a participation ribbon nowadays.

The system is fine, you have more than enough options at your disposal to make sure you get the entrants for you to get CV. Being a member of a site or a group does not mean that said site or group has to do everything that you do not want to.

9 years ago
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A ribbon comment works if we are talking about competition, Mystic, but steamgifts is not a competition. Its bit of gambling, sure, but ultimately its more about fun and giving games and getting opportunity for giving games. And funnily enough, the concept of getting ribbon for paticipation is implemented in steamgifts since you automatically get level 1 for even making one giveaway for 5 cents ;p

And yeah, I am guilty of not working hard on getting my entries - 99% of times I get them, so rarely I need to, but when that 1 in 200 cases happens, I like to know that we are not playing by some dead serious rules and stuff can be negotiated with everyone being happy and reaching a good conclusion.

9 years ago
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My vote is no, lots of members are getting free CV creating only giveaways for small private groups and meanwhile they are abusing the system entering every single high level public GA. They always give games to the same 20-50 members while they get games from everyone.

I would vote for no CV at all when giving games to private groups. You should be grateful to receive CV for only five entries.

9 years ago
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Perhaps they shouldn't, I do actually understand your point there. The fact is though, those groups did motivate me to start making higher value giveaways to begin with - before I was here to dump spare keys from bundles and get a chance to win something, but they also made levels obsolete since being level 6 still doesn't give me better chances than in a group.

The groups should probably be pre-approved and moderated for cv count and the cv should count for 10 entries at least, but thats a completely different discussion. For now, I'm only discussing the possibility of overtime.

9 years ago
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Let me understand your point: you've joined private groups to get better chances to win. But, why do you want CV at the same time? Probably because you still want to be able to enter public high level GAs too, so you prefer to be Level 6 than Level 1.

I think you are not required to reach 5 entries on all giveaways to stay on most private groups, am I right? Then, why this obsession with CV?

9 years ago
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Well, yeah. Because I CAN get CV and as consequence later join the Level 6 giveaways, I want to get the cv - I don't think its shameful to think that way, this is basically how steamgifts currently works. Its really as simple as that. Since the option is avaiable, I want to gain merit from it. Thats why I actually agree with you, if group giveaways didn't get cv points, the Level giveaways would be so much more exclusive and better. But they do allow the cv to be gained, and because of that, they aren't.

Word "obsession" is bit strong. I had giveaways that didn't earn me CV. Tough titties - no biggy. Its more of a "ok, I did lose the opportunity to gain cv - my mistake - but what if there was a possibility to avoid situations like that". The only way I noticed you can do that is to delete giveaway, which is an asshole way to do it because people lose points on the entry and don't recover it - so when I'm stuck between deleting a giveaway or just going with it, I will choose to be stuck with it and hope for best. But is there a need for that ? Thats why I suggested the overtime (or additional time). Not because I have to have CV, but feels weird not to even attempt to earn some, since it is allowed.

I think it would also be really great for puzzle giveaways - people want to challenge and have fun while trying to earn an giveaway, but why shouldn't they also earn cv to get better opportunities on steamgfits, since its allowed.

9 years ago
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"Its not necessarily the giveaway creator fault it didn't get the 5 entries"... that's BS. It most definitely is the giveaway creator's fault. If you're not sure if your giveaway will get 5 entries, then make it last longer, or don't give it away in a small private group.

9 years ago
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So his fault, ergo, no reason to help him out ?

9 years ago
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I see no reason for such a feature. Creator of the giveaway already has every required tool available. You control who gets to enter. Just extending it few hours would have very little impact. If it becomes important to get those five entries, and it is not getting them, simply delete the giveaway before it ends. You can state such condition in the description so it doesn't even come us surprise.

9 years ago
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Closed 7 years ago by Kolox.