should i apply limits to my GA's?
No matter what you decide to do with the levels, use this site: http://www.sgtools.info/ to check for multiple and non-activated wins on anyone who wins one of your GAs, before you give them the key/gift.
Even setting my giveaways to Level 1+ I've had scammers, resellers etc win them, and the staff seems pretty quick to reroll when this happens.
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aha! i ve heard the site but didn't know this feature. thx, it'll help me a lot. so, we can say this is not a rare case?
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Seems to happen a lot, unfortunately. The staff generally doesn't find out about it until someone gets around to reporting them.
Also, I just looked at your profile...185 GAs in 3 weeks? You're putting the rest of us to shame...
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bad really, bad...
no, not really i'm putting u to shame. i'm new here but i ve seen a lot great shares, generous guys... yes we can say, i like to share games, as long as my budget allows... i could share classy games but they'd be a few, so i preferred to share some small bundled games that many people can enjoy.
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I'm just joking with you...but even if they're bundled games, that's a lot of giveaways for your first month!
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yep, saw that joke anyway :) ok, lets hope this great community keep on sharing...
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You've been extremely generous in your short time here so far. Don't let the bad users bring you down. I try to do a variety of levels in my public giveaways, but the most important thing is to check your winners. Use that SGTools site and check them for non-activated and multiple wins. I always check their games list on steam too, since they could have won it from another site and just didn't sync their account. If you have any issues you can ask for a new winner and let support decide.
Just keep being awesome and make your giveaways for whoever you want. If you have a bad experience just blacklist them and move on. Sometimes people do wait the full 7 days to mark as received, but most people are pretty quick. Also I whitelisted you.
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Thx, im pretty fine after this thread coz i received a vary of great and different ideas and received support of the great guys like u :) yep, i ll use sgtools actively as it was recommended here before too. Btw, id like to say thx again for the whitelist add :)
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Level 1+ is nothing - just one cent gave away.
From what people say, even level 4 is not safe from scammers or resellers.
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hmmm. so, we ll keep observing, and use blacklisting or complaning (to mods) opitons if we encounter.
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many people are "online" with their smartphone and not with the regular steam-client...so they can´t activate a game/check if it works and also can not (at least they should not) mark it as received.
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yeah, that's another idea which seems pretty logic. but at least they can make a comment about it when they win, right?
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If it's just a day or two, there's no need for them to comment about it. You just gotta have patience. And else, you can always add them.
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yes.. maybe i'm unpatient a bit... if u mean adding them on steam, as i explained above i was talking about the ppl whom i tried to add but refused or sth. as far as i know, here u can add ppl to ur white/black lists. and there is no direct messaging chance here, too.
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Just gotta learn to be more patient. Yes, sometimes they don't accept, just have to wait then. Nothing more you can do.
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You can direct message users by browsing their profile, and clicking on any giveaways they've personally created, and leaving a message on those giveaways :)
And yeah, sometimes people just don't have time to do anything but enter a few giveaways, and it takes time for the system to 'log them out' of showing as active; and of course, smartphones can be limiting in what they let you do [and some are just a pain to type on :X]
Give people benefit of the doubt when you can, always, but at the same time, if you feel someone is causing you unnecessary grief- intentionally or not- blacklist is not a dirty word.
When you blacklist someone, you're not necessarily saying they're a terrible person- but just that, for whatever reason, it's easier on you to filter them out of your giveaways. And that's your right, and noone should get offended for that [though they totally do].
In the end, if they don't seem to have any other negative factors [very high win to sent rate (I've gotten 25:1 several times :X), leaving generic responses, etc], probably best to just assume they've got real life concerns.
Of course, if it DOES bother you, you could write 'Please leave a comment or mark the game as received within 24 hours of winning the game, or I may add you to blacklist!' on your giveaways.
Then, people [who bother reading, and you don't need to worry about the rest anyway] would know why they were blacklisted. :)
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ah, i really like here. another good piece of advices that make me consider...
"You can direct message users by browsing their profile, and clicking on any giveaways they've personally created, and leaving a message on those giveaways :)" that's fine and considerable way, sure if they created one :ppp
'Please leave a comment or mark the game as received within 24 hours of winning the game, or I may add you to blacklist!' that seems pretty threating! and as u said, best part is ppl will say "thx" for it without reading :) but i may think to try, though inviting system seems me better for the moment...
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Sooth, I don't think I've seen paragraph 4 put so succinctly before. I wanna quote that. :-)
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I think, the people who will get upset with you, will get upset with you no matter what :/
But you're welcome to try whatever you'd like =O
Certainly usually better to clarify that nothing negative was intended, just to be safe.
(I think those blacklist giveaway events are helping change that mentality more than anything else- maybe :) )
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I didn't encounter these once I set all GAs to at least a level 1. Maybe I was lucky, but all winners since then seemed to mark as received as soon as they got online. I'm always anxious about my keys being bad and stuff so I monitor their profiles and wait for them to come online and stuff, so I'd notice.
By the way, don't apologize for the GAs you make. They're all good:-) Bundled or not, you did more than the vast majority of users in here already. And in such a short amount of time.
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yes. weird thing is if they don't get u start to feel bad... at my first week, that had happened. i had mixed the key list, a few guys had suffered with used keys! it was bad, coz i was new here (still new :p) and i was like a scammer. i apologized, solved and even gifted extra keys in order to fix the mess. so, when they mark, i feel relieved as u described.
edit: thx for support!
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Glad to hear you were able to overcome that bad scenario :-) Mixed key list is one of my nightmares haha
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yeah! especially when u re new! total nightmare :) but good guys warned and also supported me despite the mess.
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sorry about that guys - i tend to mark received as soon as i can - still have some giveaways i need to receive - was on the road all day yesterday so i didn't get a chance to. I'll definitely do it today
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it's ok and not the biggest deal but still wanted to share. and at the same time, i'd like to tell my thanks to the guys of the community like you :)
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patience loading..... :))) yes, we can't ask everyone to wait here of the GA's they attended. this was the one of aims of the post, so experienced ppl can tell their stories or inform us about different ideas. like @onk did above. btw, isnt one week too much :ppp (kidding)!
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Oh, you had the same method to giveaway as me. (Not as many as you did though)
It can potentially reach the future contributors of the community. I think it's great that everyone can enter GAs so far, so I'm sad you came to think that way. I'll be optimistic until some bad things happen to me someday.
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yep. as u said, i had thought that, this may make us more closed environment. and getting closer could lead us to extinct. it's always better to expand, reach as much as ppl we can (especially for the ppl who are unable to get more games) but, sometimes u really feel to use that way (scammers etc... making u sick, u know?)
i havent decided anything yet but poll says most ppl think this way. and, keep being optimist, i ll try to be as much as i can...
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yeah i was a bit like you until one day i was on the other side of the fence :=) I won a game, and obviously i check sg quite often but wasnt at home so i was unable to login and claim my game for another few days. So it appeared like i was online a few hours ago, or even online at that moment, but i couldnt quite mark it as received yet (:
havent thought of leaving a reply on giveaway makers topic though, but then again i was on holidays so i didnt really have much time to think about it either way :)
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oh, u re very welcome :) it's nice to hear sth from the other side of the fence :ppp but it seems, u had a lot time on this side too! to be honest, with the high profiles like urs don't make me concern about it ( even a few GA's could be enough for this). but somehow, when i see won:20, sent:0 on the profile, i start to scare :ppppp
thx for contrubuting with ur experiences to this post, with ur games to this community!
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haha yeah well, but then again you could also think of it this way... you see 20 won and 0 sent... and then think about it. If it says won 20, that means he already won 20 games and marked them as received ! So your giveaway is probably going to be marked as received too soon :)
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:p this thread is really broadening my mind... :)))
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I had 37 GA's going last week and the last one finally marked as received - phew! For the final two that were playing lingering Larry, I sent them an email with the key and asked them to redeem and mark as received. I'll also write on winner's Steam wall if they have it open to comments. That generally tends to work.
BUT, I agree that it's really, freaking annoying, especially when you know they've been on-line but still wait until the 7th day to get around to marking it as received. On one GA. I finally took screen shots of all the ways I'd contacted the winner and was ready to ask for a reroll when the winner literally marked it in the last hour. Yeah, "eff you", winner - don't make me beg you to take my gift. Then when he didn't thank me, I blacklisted his rear.
I also give winners seven days to thank me for a gift (after they've marked it as received). If they don't thank me, they go on my blacklist. I truly believe the world is better off with some basic manners in place. And this place runs on the goodwill of its members...
However, I will say that a ton of peeps here are amazing, fun, smart, silly and for the most part, honest, rule-abiding members. I've learned to be more patient with winners (afterall, both sides have seven days to gift/receive) and also to use SGtools to help weed out the others.
Lastly, welcome to SG and congrats on becoming level 4 in well under a month!
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i see i'm not alone, moreover, i see worst cases than mines. "don't make me beg you to take my gift" - yeah thats exactly what i feel when i try to write his/her wall or try to add friends on steam!
oh, blacklisting non-thanking members seems real harsh, i don't expect them to thank but when they do i sure get happy and i write back congratulate likw "yw, enjoy the game" . but sure, its ur idea, i respect.
absolutely i agree what u said about being of sg a fun place, sometimes i forget to enter GA's when i was struggling with the impossible puzzles or just fooling around with fun topics, discovering silly gifs :ppp
lastly, thank you for comments and warm welcoming :)
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As to blacklisting for not thanking me, I guess I feel like it's such a simple gesture to thank someone that for those that can't be bothered, I really don't want them to have access to any more of my GA's. I mean, if someone held the door for you or did some other small act of kindness, you'd thank them, right? Just cause it's a cheap bundle game of a gift, it still meant that I paid for the game, took the effort to post the GA and then sent the gift... how hard is it to say "thank-you" on the GA page when redeeming the key? But hey, that's just my personal credo... heck, I almost always thank a gifter when I enter a GA (on trains, I try not to spam thanks to the same person over and over again) and I definitely thank them again if I win :-)
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yep, i got what u mean and i don't question it. seemed harsh to me, but i cant say its a wrong thing, as it should be the normal way. but somehow i got used it, maybe 15-20 out of 200 ppl (approx.) thanked, so i'm just ok as long as they claim in time. i^m also open to being spammed, i do same sometimes though :p
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I'm new and feeling a bit ashamed only taking atm. (Can't await to make GAs on January/February).
I think revilheart's experiments are quite interesting:
http://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/XZ3KG/updated-experiments-results
To make it short: It seems that most actually read what private giveaways said and I guess you can conclude that those people are more aware of the guidelines and how Steamgift works.
Maybe making your GAs private (and creating private trains) will be an in-between solution?
No level restriction. Your GA won't be showed on the main page and only a few will enter brainlessly.
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nope, nothing to feel ashamed or whatever. as long as u get ur gifts in time, we (i guess most of the gifters think same) expect nothing more (sure, a thx would be nice, but not a must :p). in this thread, i saw ppl may not get gifts immediately, may have some obstacles etc.. but cases like @momo1991 told, are just bothering.
yeah, recently im attending trains and enjoying rides, i may try this way too. inviting system without levels maybe could filter some. thx for idea, this may work really!
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I understand why people don't like to make unrestricted GA's. For the most part, level 0's are alright, perhaps not the most helpful for keeping the site going but everyone was level 0 once. On the other hand, there are some people who are either unrepentant leeches who basically say "I'm going to take your games, and only spend my money on myself" who make contributors a bit bitter and those who don't follow the rules of the site and frustrate people who do follow the rules (though these people are not all level 0, unsurprisingly).
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my idea was to make all GA's unlimited, actually it's so far what i ve done. and to be honest, i didn't like when i saw a private GA, no matter group or level restricted. but as long as u hang out here, u can get why some ppl do that (sure not all guys doing it for same reason, but same). but sure, we can't ignore everyone who hasn't shared anything yet. as i stated above, i may think making trains, inviting system may become a better solution.
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Creating giveaways for certain contributor levels or groups encourages a certain part of the community; it rewards people who give things away and actively engage instead of just skimming the surface of the community so they can get free stuff. However, most people get engaged through the open gifts of others, and completely accessible giveaways are also important for the health of the community. I think you can have your giveaways have a purpose; you can reward devoted or charitable members with certain giveaways while still giving everyone a chance with others.
I'm a bad example, because lately I've been getting more and more exclusive, mostly because I keep hearing horror stories from other users.
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Private GAs are not bad itself because they're mostly for the active members of the forum. I usually create a mix between public, private and whitelist/group giveaways, depending on the game or the event they are destined. Private giveaways are also used to create puzzles, take a look at the "puzzles" category to see what I'm talking about. Every kind of GA has a reason behind.
My advice is to create restricted GAs at least to level 1+, because almost anyone can be level 1, they only need to give one game to reach it. Almost all Level 0 are new members or leechers. A person with 20 wins and 0 giveaways is a leech, a selfish person for sure.
Welcome to Steamgifts and thanks for your generosity.
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I don't necessarily view leechers as a bad thing though. Some of them are just kids who have no money, and the thrill of getting my bundle leftover probably makes them happy for a week. Some leechers are just from really poor countries and don't have the cash to spend on swanky contest prizes or bunches of bundles (though it costs less in their region).
The incentive to level up in SG is the quality of giveaway games, not the quantity. So even though we've got kids soaking up our bundle-dregs, the high-cost games are reserved for people with better ratios.
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I can understand that, in fact I don't usually blacklist "leeches" but I think almost anyone can give at least one game here to reach level 1. But of course I know that there are lots of kids and people from poor countries who can't afford games. But they're the minority, remember that you need more than $100 dollars of non-bundle games in your account to register here...
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All I can recommend is to lay off the public giveaways and create private giveaways on the forum instead. That's what I do, and I think it definitely eliminates a lot of trouble like this.
Spooky dragon stares at you
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ummmm... yea... aaaahm.. yes, better not to tease the dragon do what it says :/
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All my giveaways so far have been public with no level requirement, and I've had no problems. The rules say to wait seven days before contacting someone, and I only had to do that once, recently, and after I left a comment on his Steam profile, he marked the game as received right away. Maybe I've just been lucky?
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hmmm. maybe seven days seem a bit more to me (and ppl like me). im not experienced one here to name u as lucky or not, but u still look lucky :p coz it seems, i'm not only one to complain about it...
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I see. That's another applicable approach, setting GA levels according to own level. And u re right that reaching l1 etc. is pretty easy if u intend to. Anywy, im still ok with l0 as long as they get just in time and cause no deliberate problems.
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I had a guy wait a full two weeks to tell me the key didn't work. And I know what happened to it, so he wasn't trying to scam me. Some people are just really ridiculously slow to action on these.
I always check people out before I release the key though. It's up to the more experienced gifters to catch the violations happening on level 0 GAs. I use this to help: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/10120-add-links-to-sgtools
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Ummm 2 weeks? Yea, ok... u look like a real patient guy :) ah, sgtools as add-on? This looks handy! Thx for the link buddy!
Edit: a bit hard to try to write with smartphone, put message wrong place and ve corrected yet.
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I never had a problem like that (I have not created many GA's either just yet). For me they always marked as received within a day. I would suggest making private GA's on the forums and making GA's for whitelist. If you really want to do a public one, maybe add a lvl to it (I would pick 1 or 2, depending on the game).
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Good and hope u ll neve wait :) yep, private ones could be better.
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I've actually done this once or twice, although not for more than a day. Basically, what happens is I see space cat, I check and don't see a key, and then I just ignore that red 1 at the top of the screen until the next day. Meanwhile, the other person sends the key right after I check and then wonders why I'm online and not claiming it. It would be nice if we got some kind of separate notification when the key is sent. Right now, we have both space cat and that red number. It would be better if one was for winning and the other one was for "marked as sent"
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Yes, actually u made a good remark about the gifters' conditions. I generally prefer to do 1h GA's but sometimes i did 12h or sth because of bwing busy, sleeping etc.. so, turning back could take some time and winner may suffer as well. I really liked the idea, so u can see immediately whenever key is sent. I dont know if mods take that idea into consideration or if they see it necessary, but i d like to see this kind option. Maybe later we may make a poll and check what other guys of the community say. Thx a lot for additions and great idea ;)
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I don't see how the winner suffers if he has to wait another day. He gets a free game, so in my opinion, even if he has to wait the full 7 days, he still doesn't "suffer." I always send the key as soon as I notice that the GA ended (and after checking the winners ofcourse), but when I win something I really don't mind waiting. It's not like I have no other games to play :p
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Yep u may have a lot pending games but u know, lets say u won Gta V or Fallout 4, wouldnt u suffer to wait? :ppp (u still may not, but i guess most of the guys would :p)
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I still fail to see how one can suffer. If you pay for it and it takes long, sure. But if you get a game for free, I don't see what's so bad about waiting another week. Even when you have to wait a month you still get it for free!
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i get ur point, but still i cant agree with u buddy. even if it is for free, waiting is not good from my point of view. for both parties.
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I agree with that, but my point is that you don't "suffer." You have nothing to complain about, even if he takes six days to deliver (if he doesn't deliver at all, on the other hand....).
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I'd sometimes the same problem than the author and i'm not very patient too when i see the winner connecting multiple times and ignoring the requests. It's clearly a point that often makes me hesitate to give here : i feel the system more binding for the gifter than for the winner.
Except one or two games, i know i've only gifted bundles keys, however i prefer make the giveaways opened and low levels, precisely so that those who have fewer resources to benefit. Problem is what you know : low lvl public giveaways cause more hassles.
To author not many solutions :
- try to send a mail to the winner
- try contact the winner on one of his giveaways or one of his trade topic
- try add the winner on steam.
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it's nice to see some unpatient fellows here :ppp and the situation u describe after, almost same as mine. about solutions, i just try to reach that person on steam, either using wall or adding friends but somehow i didn't want to write mails directly. it feels like i'd enter his/her private more. if they wanna talk, already they can response my attempts on steam, if not, has nothing to do except waiting...
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yea happened to me 2 times in a row now, even while setting level requirements to level 1. they are online on SG and steam 24/7 but no reaction to messages on SG or steam. it really annoys me and i put those ppl on my blacklist once they got their key. really ungrateful imo, yea its np if u have other stuff to do but as OP said, if ure online all day everyday u could at least react to a message telling the giveawayer about the situation. since one doesnt know if the key didnt work now or what drives the person to such behavior
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Oh! I had already forgotten this post, its a nice reunion after a year :)
I'll make it short. After a year, i chose my path :p and became a group-only guy. I have a few great groups and mostly im making GA's there. Rarely making public GA's and if i do, i generally put minimum L3 limit. Its not hard to be L3 and if someone gets higher level, we can say they tend to spend more time here, more active than enter-and-forget-or-dont-care L0 guys (though they are miniority out of all L0 guys, i think). Sure still there will be exceptions, u can face a douchebag L7, as i heard similar cases before, but im just making a generalization of my observations -despite all generalizations are wrong :p
Tl;dr dont allow some ppl to bother u, similar things happening in every aspect of life, try to enjoy here more, involve puzzles, events and dont forget to bump threads, thats what i do here mostly :p (man, this could be the worst tl;dr of i ve ever seen!)
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yea i thought why make a new post :) yea its a good idea, but im too lazy tbh, i think ill climb to lvl 3 and make public level 3 only giveaways. im so salty i cant even.
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Yep thats a good idea rather than writing a new post, also made me remember memories :) good luck on ur own way, hope less troubled guys win ur GA's :)
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Winners should correctly mark their gift as received or not received within one week of the giveaway closing.
If they're not marking it within the given time period, I can understand your frustration.
I do recommend patience, though, and give them the full seven days before contacting them ...
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hmm, it reply is for me, i can say i got through the process, honestly not care about this as i did before when i was a rookie here. but u re right, patience really solves ur problems in general. i dont remember exactly but probably i wasnt patient because i wanted to level up fast (for example BAA had required L5 to join).
Btw, somehow i liked ur Xmas avatar more than ur regular one:)
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heya guys, since i'm idle i decided to make a thread and hear ur responses about a thing that bothers me sometimes. i'm just a rookie here, so i'd like to hear ur experiences.
recently, i've been enjoying making of GA's. most of them are bundled indies. i know they re not AAA games which i'd like to share really but pricing issues making me think 3 times more as my local currency 3 times less valuable than usa dollar currency. so, i might not be sharing the best games, but still good guys of the community appreciate these and we spend good time here. i'm glad to be here and glad to having friends as well. before joining here, i had no friends on steam wher i was a rookie too, and now i have around 10 whom not only talking games with, but also cultures, countries, sports and sure games :p i'd like to thank you all; site owners, tireless mods :p and awesomely generous guys of the community!!! i love you all :)))
after salutation of the good friends, i can ask my question. some people, despite they win and they re online here, they don't claim the game or they don't mark it as received. i'm fine with the guys who never visited here after win, so its normal they re not aware of the win. but can't understand a guy who gets game, who s online and waits for days to approval. i try to contact them on steam by writing profile wall (if its not disabled!) or adding as friends, and still can get no response. so does same thing happen to u? is it a frequent or rare thing? i really wonder.
and a poll... the people i complained are mostly l0 guys who never shared sth. so far, i had a thought that making all giveaways without any limits (especially level limit) so some guys who would like get the games but can't, could access some of they wanted. but nowadays, i'm thinking to adding level limits. what do you say guys?
oh, btw, i gotta add a GA for my first post. it's still without any limits, but could be the last one as well. here;
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/ag7xH/crystals-of-time
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