How are the winners selected? No, it is not random.

I suggest you have a read here and here before you talk crap about things you know nothing about.

An Eydeet calculates random winners.

It "cannot" be random? Girl, please.

If it was being pulled from the server's kernel entropy pool, it's pseudorandom as opposed to random, but given the number of submissions, the number of entries, the number of users, the points system limiting entries, and the lack of repeatability, it might as well be random. And if it's really that much of a problem, random.org has an API, and SG can't be using THAT many bits of entropy that it would be a costly solution even if it exceeded random.org's free API limits.

This thread sounds like "how come I never win games and others do" dressed up as a computer nerd question.

Gaben is actually a medium and reads all steam users minds. He sees who wants the stuff the most and he gives it to him.

Mistery solved.

Like all random calculators, it is based on the time on the machine, the RAM, the name of the sender or other random factors.

Inb4 IT IS RANDOM!

42

eff the damn "inb4".....

Why should anyone know, there are a lot of ways to select a winner. You could, for example, write a simple MySQL query that selects a random entry and done? Would be the easiest way imo.

Don't feed the troll.

I think they print every name, put it all in a hat and pick one.

That's the easiest way I can think of.

I will let you on a little secret. The 69th entrant is always the winner.

I do, actually.

cg personally takes a look through every giveaway that ends, and chooses someone who's name looks the least n00bish and stuff. That's why you rarely see him around; he's so busy.

You win by length of ones neck

Wrong! It can be random if it used an external source of random signal. Atmospheric noise is commonly used for these purposes.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere on this site that they used "random.org" service, which provides fully random number generator (NOT pseudo-random). I can't find it now though.

You'd have to talk to the person who programmed that part of website if you wanna know how it works.