What do you think of SGtools giveaways?

Steamgifts, where receipt of generosity comes with a twenty page set of terms and conditions.

The site lets you have exclusive groups and invite only giveaways where you can rack up full CV with whatever entry requirements you like, even just amongst your friends. You can also blacklist people for any reason under the sun.

SGTools is okay in theory, frustration with rule breakers who haven't reformed. But in practice it's a big source of drama and has most recently set itself up as an extrajudicial authority.

I haven't been around lately to know fully what you're talking about, but in general drama generates because of pretty much anything. People will twist any good idea and exploit its flaws (cough the Contribution system cough). And drama will result. That's just how people are.

As far as I understand this tool gives giveaway creators more options, right? Well, that's always nice. Why not? More options is always a good thing. As long as its secure and there is no exploit that can cause some form of danger to the users I see no reason why people "shouldn't" use it if they want to.

I think sgtools is useful at times and I can see why more people are using it, but for me I kinda hate it as a lot of people go by the CV gifting/winning ratio. Coming from a guy who occasionally makes giveaways and wins a game almost every other week it can be a little frustrating to find out you don't qualify to enter certain giveaways.

I think SGTools is a perfectly fine way to limit who can enter a giveaway. I have yet to create a giveaway using it myself, but I probably will try it within the next few giveaways I do.

I think the permanent ban for a first offense is going a little far, though. Someone could conceivably click on a leaked link without knowing it was leaked, and BOOM, permaban, which seems a little extreme to me. Even SG goes the route of suspensions for a certain length of time instead of one strike and you're out. (However, I am fine with those who leak giveaways getting a permaban. That's just not cool).

But I've never had any problems with the SGTools-protected giveaways I've entered, and I look forward to testing it out as a giveaway creator in the future.

I'm indifferent. Just a few more clicks, that's all :P

As a person who is "excluded" from most of SGTOOLS giveaways because of ratio stuff i am okay with it, i mean i dont consider myself a leech i mean my ratio is awfull but i am a lucky bastard and i also do giveaways whenever i can and its something really bothering to not be able to join giveaways because of that but i've seen some uses of it that were really rediculous... i think there was one where you couldnt join if you were from south america and that is really dumb and i dont understand it, also there is CV and real CV and stufff... there is a point where that doesnt matter to me, if someone does giveaways its cool for me, thats why i never use sgtools and i only made a giveaway that was LV3+ once every other was lower than that, i think always thought that this site was for givingaway games too people, i dont feel good letting people out, ofcourse i like to reward people for what they do but thats why i make whitelist giveaways well only one for now

TL;DR: its okay i guess, tho i never use it since it goes againt my believe about what this site is about tho sometimes it is missused

I used it only once and recently, I don't see anything bad about it, to me every user should be able to put all the restrictions he/she wants

I think it does more good than bad for SG. And it's new-- it can still improve. It's not without a downside...the most notable is the division in the ranks of SG....pro-SGT vs. anti-SGT. We don't need more politics in the world, and certainly not in SG!
So far I've only used it to keep out rule-breakers and VAC bans. I got tired of having winners with non-activated wins just to be told (in a day or two) that they already served their suspension. With SGTools, it causes less work for me and for Support for the initial rule-break check, ticket creation, investigation by Support, and response and closure to that ticket.
The bans I know are controversial. I admit-- I like the idea: there should be consequences for leaking SGT GAs. On my 200-plus car train I had 4-5 invalid entries. On my subsequent 100-car train, I didn't have any. That could in part be because of the ban system...who knows? But the problem is that it permabans possibly innocent/ignorant folks who just follow a link, or don't speak the language well enough to realize what's going on, and may not have the language skills to appeal, etc.. I support the idea of making it optional to exclude banned folks. And I've already suggested softening the "banned message" to make it less accusatory and include a, "if you think this may be in error, then please <instructions>."
Oh, and kudos to you for omitting the potato option! Let's start a movement!

SGTools (SGT) essentially act like a turnstile for those who want to limit the traffic of in-coming users to increase the winning chance for those who could enter, and/or the creator just wanted to allow only a certain group of people entering the giveaway with a specific requirement. While personally, I’ve never had a problem with SGT, in fact, I have a positive outlook on the great system. I’ve used it a couple of times for some of my giveaways and the platform did exactly what it was supposed to, so I have nothing to complain about. At the end of the day, SGT is just simply a tool that makes everyone’s life easier, or at least, its original purpose was (in my opinion). Whether or not such convenience was used for a good intent or a “bad” one is not exactly up to SGT, it merely tries to block out as much loopholes as possible. The only way it could improve is through suggestions and maintenance, otherwise, creating unnecessary dramas does not help to improvise the situation and would only create more problems and tensions between one another.

I think they're dumb. I'm pretty sure I've never entered one; and I don't make them.

I do use the Rules Checker, because it saves me a lot of time. :)

It's way less than 100 words, but it's concise and the truth:

If I'm going to spend my money on a gift, I'm going to give it away in the manner I see fit. That's all there is to it.

Having said that, I've never used sgtools.

Personally i don't like it much, but people is free to use what they want and how they want it.

And i'm against some features of the sgtools like the ban part or suspend, SG already have some options that help on that, banning or suspending others using a tool is taking a more serious impact on what the page means and wants you to do.

It needs more work and improvement honestly, and yeah drama for things will be always around, people will never think the same as others do, too bad people prefer to make a big deal for bad things, when they could give some feedback and help things be better.

Anyway this is how i think, hope no one gets affected for this or decide to go berserk for a few words.

Enjoy and have fun :3

I'm actually a maybe. Ideally it should be something directly Incorporated into the giveaway creation process. If you want to add restrictions, you should be able too, and sgtools is an excellent approach to that...

On the flip side, it's extra steps that not everyone wants to do. If I'm giving away crummy bundle games, it's not worth the effort, especially since people who want those most would probably fail the check...

I'm really new to all this, so my opinion might not be that valuable...

I think that this tool is great ^^ Aye, I guess I can't enter the major part of the giveaways, but who cares? I could rant because I can't participate, but that would be silly. Instead I'll be just happy for the people that actually can enter and, most importantly, I feel happy for the creator because he has a nice tool to help him make a giveaway for exactly those people that he wants to win.
I can understand every single person who decides that he or she doesn't want to give a game to someone that maybe sells a key, or whatever the reason for not activating a gift might be. Or to avoid people with any kind of bans because at some point, they must have broken the rules. Or winning games multiple times... no one needs a game more than ones, expect to give the second gift away.
I don't quiet get this ratio-thing, so... I simply asume that it feels nicer to give something to generous people instead of those that only take without ever giving something in return.

The only thing I dont really like is when people hide those protected giveaways behind a (kind of hard) puzzle, and refuse to announce the conditions for entering beforehand, but that also applies for any regular giveaway. It's a tad frustrating if you just solved a nasty little puzzle just to realize that you can't enter. Don't get me wrong, puzzles in general are pretty fun (I have two cats, so there's no way I could finish a real puzzle because every time I tried, some parts mysteriously vanished), but some pictures are just... no fun anymore and it's a not so nice feeling if you finish something hard just to realize that you can't enter.
But that is not really part of the question anymore, sorry ^^"

I don't understand why the tool causes any drama and I will read through this thread / forum in order to find out.
Whether the giveaway is protected and I can't enter or the giveaway doesn't exist at all makes no difference for me. There are so many things I can never experience. I'll never know how it feels to be tall, or what it's like to be male, or how a celebrity might feel. There will be people that don't like me because of how I look, or the things I value in my life. There is no need for me to be mad about things that are out of my reach. Instead I'm happy and grateful about the things, in this case the giveaways, I'm allowed to enter. So, no drama ^^

Sorry for the bad english ._.

I love it!

But in more detail, I prefer to give to people who have also contributed to the site. What I find most annoying is the number of people who enter everything possible they can. Which after dozens of wins start to be stupid as those games really end up not being played. And I think most people here prefer the winner really wanting the game. As such I see ratio based rules as positive and easy way to handle this situation. And realistically beggars can't be choosers, it's not like there isn't massive amount of giveaways they can join, even at level 0.

On bans, once kinks are solved I don't see anything wrong with banning people. Ofc, trapping is possible, but I trust that admins can be responsible with their actions. It's a problem that fixes itself overtime as people become more aware of what it entails to enter private gibs.

And I still don't have my captchas, so SGtools is really an good option there too.

If you head to the SGTools thread, you will see a looooooong debate between me, Dragonmania, Beryllinthranox and some other users. Read it if you like; it is basically my thought about how SGT is at the moment.

i really dont like it
my first winning is 2 same apps and both have more or less same time winning too (same day i think)
already got both, 1 used for myself and the other i make for another GA
at that time i dont know the rules work too, already got suspended and also support have removed above GA (from double winning)

this will stuck like forever!!

back then before sgtools exist, i also got a few blacklist, but usually not a problem (sometimes ask poletily and youll removed from bl)
and now with sgtools, that's impossible
obviously because most (if not 90%) sgtools use "no multiple wins" check

although i said it like that, i dont really mind it much though, since surprisingly my winning is more than my gift lol
and i dont lurk in forum much now, especially since now i know how to get game cheaply anyway
besides, if it's only bundled games, more or less i already have it. and for AAA games i dont exactly have much hope for winning either

that's just my 2 cent though

oh btw, with my story like this, am i a leech with lv 5?

SGTools does provide some useful features to the members of the community such as looking up your real cv value or determining if someone has been breaking SG rules with not activating wins or multple wins. As for giveaways, I have no problem with people using it to create their giveaways. The system does allow for some leniency in this regard as you can retry once you meet the criteria. Yes, there are ways around some of the rules like marking a game you didn't activate as not received or other methods but no system can be made perfect.

As for the problems with SGTools that I think are most concerning are the one strike permabans that could definitely be used maliciously or could end up punishing people that did not know that they had done anything wrong. If someone legitimately goofs up one time and is willing to apologize and learn from said experience they shouldn't be punished forever because of a small mistake. Perhaps a suspension system would be better in this regard which would increase the punishment up to a permaban if necessary would be more appropriate in this regard.

The other concern I have is the fact that the simple presence of many sgtool rules can and likely does influence how people choose to giveaway their games outside of sgtools. If I need to improve my public ratio to enter do I make more public giveaways and forego any group giveaways. What if the only games I purchase for giveaways are region restricted yet that prohibits me from entering a giveaway that only allows non region restricted giveaways to be counted.

I haven't followed up much on the forums lately so I don't know what's the big fuss about it.

I'm not creating many giveaways lately except from bundle leftovers since the recent region lock on Steam and don't enter as many giveaways for the same reason since games are cheaper for me now, and I would feel bad winning a game someone spent 30 bucks on it when i could've get it for half the price. But before I would spend money to specifically create giveaway and more often than not winners would be people with hundreds of game won. I would've prefer the winner to be someone with less win who doesn't enter every giveaway he sees but only enter games he genually wanna win.
So i guess it's a good thing providing more options than the ones available on SG to the giveaway creators to weed out people they wouldn't feel comfortable giving to (no matter the reason, his giveaway, his rules)

I haven't created a giveaway with it yet, I used to only use it to check the rules breakers (multiple wins and non activated giveaways), afaik if you use SGtool as a barrier for your giveaway these peoples are exluded immediatly? I was more lenient doing the check "manually" as i wouldn't ask for a reroll if the person didn't activate his win more than 6 months ago or if it happened only once, as it's okay to make a mistake if you learn something from it.

But nothing is perfect. So I guess sometimes it will give false positive and other problem i haven't thought about, so the permaban for one mistake is a bit too much, SG is too lenient for multiple offenders, but SGtool seems a bit too harsh. I think the system could be a bit better, yellow card for first time offense, second yellow card gets you permaban and red card if it's a big offense. What constitute a big offense though? I'll let others who are more interested in this matter think about it.

Some people might feel it's an other hurdle to the sweet giveaways when before all they had to do was just click on forum link and see if they had the required level. But I feel it's like the itstoohard puzzles giveaway or the ones we recently see popping up with the jigsaw puzzles, if you don't want to or can't success just move on with it, it's not the end of the world, there's lots of gibs out there. (I rarely can do the itstoohard puzzles but i like the jigsaws from time to time though)

Anyway. I didn't want nor expect to write that much about it hehe, but all i wanna say is YES. His/Her giveaway, his/her rules.

There's a question that's been on my mind lately: Why can't sgtools simply relish the fruits of its own labors and let other people relish the fruits of theirs? I mean, sgtools has never been trepidacious to leave the terra firma of reason and venture out into the open sea of termagant teetotalism. As this post will make clear, the main dissensus between me and sgtools is that I assert that colonialism is a source of livelihood for sgtools. Sgtools, on the other hand, proclaims that sin is good for the soul. We get more from sgtools than we do from most lackadaisical weasels. We get more lies, more distortions, more fear, more execration, more division.)

Sgtools demands that its apostasies be discussed in only the most positive light. To ascertain that this injuctive authorization is met, it sends its club after anyone who fails to show the utmost deference when planting immense, wet, sloppy kisses on sgtools' behind. Sgtools execrates people who find the inner vigor to anneal discourse with veracity, clear thinking, and a sense of moral good. It wants such people nabbed, prehended, and thrown out of the site. It's not that there's anything erroneous with fighting in all its daft forms—there isn't—but it's paramount to realize that you might verbalize, “My motives are unimpeachable.” Fine, I accede. But my love for people necessitates that I solve our quandaries over a negotiating table in lieu of resorting to the battlefield. Yes, I face opposition from sgtools. However, this is not a reason to quit but to strive harder.

In sgtools's quest to increase society's cycle of bellicosity and violence it has left no destructive scheme unutilized. I had mentally conceived the world was free of infantile, amoral jackanapes. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that sgtools wants to regulate pessimism. What conclusion should we draw from sgtools? How about that sgtools' peevish inclinations reflect the moral and perspicacious onanism that is accepted by abusive, cullionly schnooks as a legitimate expression of faith? And that, in my view, is our quandary.

SGTools is a a tool which can help some people manage their giveaways, nothing more, nothing less. It has its flaws, but is maintained by someone who will listen to problems and address them.

As someone who has created an "SGTools drama" thread myself (no need to link it here, but it served its purpose educating me about how SGTools works and raising some concerns about its flaws, some of which knsys addressed), it's not something I use myself (as a giveaway creator), but I fully support people who want to use it. My main concern remains that people creating giveaways using SGTools should be aware of its limitations (as well as the functionality it offers).

Threads like this partly serve this purpose (with the downside that "discussions" can get out of hand), but will not be widely read by SGTools users (people entering SGTools-created giveaways). knsys as author/maintainer of SGTools is fairly typical of someone writing "featureful" software in that he sometimes misses the viewpoint of less experienced (i.e. typical) users. It has already been pointed out elsewhere that there is some natural self-balancing here, whereby knowledge of (often temporary) flaws is spread and reduces usage, and cool features that work well spread adoption.

I would simply suggest that people feed their experience with SGTools back to knsys, and hope that he can hear and address the genuine concerns from among the criticism, given the limited resources available to him to keep this tool running.

is your giveaway, so put the rules that you want.
and what is all about potato. i'm from latin america and new here can you explain what that.

Generally I don't have any issues with SG Tools but more with how it has been used in some puzzles. Typically, you can check a person's profile to determine if you are eligible to enter a giveaway, based on level requirements, however with SG Tools adding more complex requirements this is no longer the case. So this is purely on the creator not listing the requirements in the puzzle information and not on the tool, or its capabilities.
I really like the ability to filter out those that win a game multiple times and ratio is an interesting twist on level requirements. But some of the ratio requirements seems to show that people forget the original intent of the website is for people to giveaway games and some strange form of trading. Some use number of gifts, so a $1 game is equivalent to a $100 bundle to some, whereas others use CV or real CV, which still doesn't balance based on how much each person paid. But I digress as these requirements could be setup through group requirements and be enforced that way so the only thing the tool does is making it much easier on the creator to setup giveaways., which is good
I did take issue though where a giveaway creator made a long train with multiple entry points and it got some people flagged as rule breakers and banned. Yes, they are getting unbanned as they are found but it is a hassle on everyone's part and prevented them from entering giveaways they'd normally be able to. To me that should be a ban on the creator from ever creating any more SG Tool giveaways.

unless its a triple A title...your the donkey of the day for using SG tools

Those filter options are great! Although I haven't used anything but the basic rules, with the exception of my whitelist recruitment and the giveaways I made for the "Haven't won anything" thread, I'm glad to see those options for people to use on their giveaways. If these options motivate people to make more giveaways, then it's good for the site.
I completely disagree with people who are against SGTools because these filters restrict people from joining giveaways. The single biggest move you can make about restricting people from joining your giveaways is cranking that level requirement to 1. That's what, hundreds of thousands of people already filtered. Now if the people being against restrictions in general have themselves done nothing but public giveaways without level requirements, then I'll respect their opinion but still disagree with it.

Now about these bans. Frankly the way SteamGifts does nothing about people who use leaked links has bothered me, but I can see why they do that. The way invite only giveaways work here would make it impossible for them to know who used leaked links. If SGTools would be integrated completely to SteamGifts, then it could be made that uninvited people wouldn't even be able to enter where they shouldn't.
But as it is now, I would never make invite only giveaways without SGTools and I'm glad that they are doing something about those who use leaked links. Still, going from nothing being done to permanent ban does seem like going from one extreme to the other. The two suggestions that I saw in the SGTools thread, warning suspension before a permanent and an option for giveaway creators to allow banned people to join, I'd be completely fine with either or both being implemented. If anyone has more suggestions, I imagine now would be a pretty good time to present them in the SGTools thread.