Update 22nd January

Our "mini" event was a success. Despite the new Steam Gifting policy and a smaller duration than usual, we've had 874 giveaways and about 900 gifts sent. We also had a "consolation" round where we gifted the three unluckiest of us a game from their wishlist.

Created 3rd December

Hello again community!
Some of you may already know what this thread is for, so if you do please skip the introduction part, but read the rest: Due to the new Steam Gifting policy and my lack of time we had been hibernating for a year, but here we are again. Since we are a bit late on schedule (recruitment should have started about 2 weeks ago), this can be considered a "mini" event, which will be a test to see if we can also handle the new Steam gifting policy.

Group Introduction

First of all you should know that this is not a new group, it was first created during Christmas 2012 and since then we've had nine successful events (we skipped Summer 2017):

• New Year's Eve 2016 Event
• Summer 2016 Sales Event
• New Year's Eve 2015 Event
• Summer 2015 Sales Event
• New Year's Eve 2014 Event
• Summer 2014 Sales Event
• New Year's Eve 2013 Event
• Summer 2013 Sales Event
• New Year's Eve 2012 Event

The group's stats page can give you a glimpse of that success.

So it is obvious by the repetition pattern, that we operate close and during big Steam Sales. The goal of this group is to gather a certain amount of members that will create unique quality giveaways and share them with the rest. The tricky part is that ALL of those giveaways will end at exactly the same time, regardless of the time zone.

For that to work there are some rules to follow:

• Members must comply to SteamGifts rules.
• Every member must create at least one giveaway that fulfills as "primary" (explained below).
• Primary giveaways must not be bundled or exploited games and should at least get 1/5 of the group size in entries. They should also have no contribution requirement.
• Created giveaways must end at a specific time and date and for this event it is on 1st of January 2017 16:00 UTC. Giveaways should be created and valid at least 48 hours before that time.
• There should be no giveaways for the same game (so that people can't win the same game twiceto keep a diversity of games, but multiple copies are ok).
• All giveaways must be region free.

It's simpler than it looks, the hardest part is for me and the mods to organize and make sure people follow the rules.

For those that need more details, you should check on the group's profile here.

Also take a look at our Group Rules in Detail and our FAQ.

How to enter the group

• You must ask for an invitation on this topic, but first read the rest of the bullets.
• I will not reply to you in this thread nor if you are accepted or rejected. You will either get an invite, or be contacted in person by me.
• To avoid having untrustworthy people that could ruin the event for others, there is a restriction of level 4 or higher required for me to consider your application, as well as being a member of this site for at least 3 months.
• Even if you are eligible due to above requirements, you are not guaranteed an entry, those are just a way to avoid random invitation requests.
• You should NOT add me on Steam to ask an invite.

What you should also know

• If you haven't read the rules don't apply for this group.
• Like it or not, there are already people that have had a great course through our last events that will be on priority line. People I know personally and that I trust that they will fullfil the requirements of this group will be prioritized too.
• People that have been in past events, are not automatically reinvited upon their request.
• The maximum member cap is 50, but this could be lowered if not enough applicants meet the group's standards.
• The invitation process is an one man's job, so be patient... (probably no invites until tomorrow)

What's the group's timeline

(read this if you get to be a member of this group)

This time around I added some Steam group calendar events (which still needs to be updated) but the general idea is as follows:

• [Cleaning group phase] All previous members are asked to leave the group. Those who fail to do so are kicked. This is done so that only those re-interested apply here and probably get reinvited.
• [Recruitment phase I] First there is the recruitement phase where I put up a forum topic and gather applications and send out invites. Minimum duration a week.
• [Recruitment phase II] When we reach 45 members the last 5 will be picked from a list of 20 remaining applicants by votes of those 45 members.
• [Reservation phase I] A giveaways topic will be created were you can only reserve one giveaway you plan to make. This phase lasts for 48 hours.
• [Reservation phase II] You are now allowed to reserve as many giveaways as you want.
• [Giveaways creation phase] You can start creating your giveaways ending at the specified time. This phase probably overlaps with previous two.
• [No more giveaways phase] 48 hours before the giveaways ending time, the giveaways topic will be locked and I will check if members fullfilled the rules. If needed there will be kicks (hasn't happened so far).
• [Happy winners phase] Giveaways have ended and most of us feel happy with their wins.

Group Site

Since we started this group I've been using Steam Groups and Spreadsheet to handle the proceedings. One of our members TheTimmaeh is kind enough to trying to take us to the next level of having a site to handle our event. We do our best to have it ready for this event but nothing is certain. If we do, some of our procedures might change but the mods and I will be around to guide you. Participating in our events is considered easy regarding the procedures on your behalf, but hopefully with the new site coming up, it will be made even easier.

Few last words

Our last event had 70 members and 1870 unique giveaways (also on our new site ) (average of 27 giveaways per member, which means also an average of 27 wins per member). Two members managed to not win anything but only entered for about 1% of all the giveaways.

tl;dr

This group is not for you