A better way to make forum key drops

This would indeed be cool, but you are correct on the fact that it would take some serious work to implement :)

Maybe something simple like :spoiler: text that you need to click to reveal (like some forums already have). Nobody would be able to "claim" the key but it would be one extra step to prevent it from just sitting out in the open.

Flaming!

I think that this is a brilliant idea. I would love to know whether keys have already been taken before I got there, although in theory script-scrapers might still be able to get it unless there was a re-captcha or other form of verification.

I had seen someone drop a Dead Space 3 code earlier and what he/she did was spell out some of the numbers. Not sure how effective that was though.

Would probably be easier to just code it as a new giveaway feature where the first person to "enter" wins and it doesn't give cv. That would also let you use all the giveaway limitations like group or cv. So then you just link to the giveaway and the first person to enter gets the key.

You could create a topic and say something like "First person to comment their favorite will get a key for ". That should be able to beat scripts/bots.

Hide it behind simple itstoohard puzzle, which could say what is the game that is given upfront.

I am a programmer and I can tell you that simply hiding the key from the eyes doesn't means the key is truly hidden, it's still in the page source code which is easily accessible (Ctrl+U on Chrome).
My proposal is to implement a hidden key funcionality where whoever wants to get it would need to type a captcha or something similar and checking if the user is really registered on Steam Gifts, then the key should be fetched from the servers and inserted into the page. For now I suggest applying a simple cipher to the key such as ROT13 or reversing the letters, taking care to warn people about it, won't stop unregistered people though.

I think your idea is implementable.
Firstly, the key can be stored directly on a database instead of the site, meaning no ninjas in source code for the page.
Secondly, this prevents sad people from trying the key when it's claimed and the ungrateful ninjas.
Thirdly, I believe this doesn't take more than a week to implement, considering it's just going to be implemented on the forum side of SG.

Thx for skyrim

I quite like it! Steam admins and mods listen up!

I like the sound of this. If you could also inform Steam to allow users to see which account the key is activated on, that would also be of great help!

I thiNY52Pnk, that the way peoM5ple drop their keGX0ys is theGFir own buiQJIsness

Good intentions and initial idea. But, I would also be concerned about this adding to CG's workload in one way or another.
Seems this thread is stirring up some good options.

You could always set up elaborate puzzles! :D

I think it's a good idea, but what happens to people who drop keys not knowing if they were used before (where a pastebin of keys gets posted and it's user-driven for them to delete the key after it's been used)? It would be unfair punishing them.

I've found that doing a simple ROT-13 encoding on the key stops people from claiming it too quickly. If they don't read the thread and see that's what you'd done, then they will get a legit-looking key that's just invalid.

I like this idea a lot but it might not be easy to implement.

I like it! I can't comment on how to improve it / implement it, bit my only comment is that the bold / italics buttons are only visible with SG+ iirc so it would need adding the site 'mark up' so that people without SG+ could add keys. Something like {KeyDrop}[Game Name](Key to be dropped)?

some time ago a russian site implemented something like that to support key drops on the forums. while it is a nice system, it looks like it is coding intensive (database, accounting, etc). besides it would basically create a channel of giveaways parallel to the normal one, based on requirements (account age, CV level, etc), not random but based on speed. even if nice an idea, i cannot see how to sell the idea to the web creator and administrator.