The problem:
Currently, after syncing, a user can have new games in their account and entries in giveaways for those new games. Thus, the user can win a giveaway for a game they already have.

The solution:
After syncing, the system should go through the user's entries and remove the entries for those games that are present in the user's account.

EDIT:
Many have pointed out the Free Weekend problem. I suppose it's debatable whether inconveniencing users who sync during Free Weekends and want to enter giveaways for the Free Weekend games is worth the increased convenience of almost every user (because we pretty much all enter giveaways and sync our accounts regularly), so I've come up with a slightly modified solution that avoids that particular problem.

The alternative solution:
After syncing, the system should go through the user's entries and display a warning and the option to remove the entries for those games that are present in the user's account.

9 years ago*

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yes please

9 years ago
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Agree, it makes perfect sense.

9 years ago
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Considering the current rules about selling or otherwise giving away your winnings, I have no reason to say no.
So yes.

9 years ago
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Hmm, wouldn't free weekends screw this up? Don't they appear in your library as if you actually owned them?

9 years ago
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Free weekends will always be a struggle here :P

9 years ago
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perhaps manual checks on free weekends? I really like this idea :)

9 years ago
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Free weekends have always been a struggle. There is unfortunately no way to prevent it from appearing in your license page so damn it. T_T

9 years ago
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I guess they would, but it would be a temporary inconvenience. I think the benefit of this outweighs the inconvenience.

9 years ago
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not really.

9 years ago
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I don't think so. It's not that hard to go through your entries and manually remove those, and even if you forget there's still the reroll option.
On the other hand, if people get removed from giveaways because of free weekends and can't enter again before the giveaway ends, I think they'd be pretty annoyed.

9 years ago
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It may not be hard to do it manually, but why do it manually at all if it could be automated?

True, on the one hand, some users would be annoyed during free weekends; on the other, some users would be less annoyed at all times because they no longer have to do something manually and no longer run the risk of breaking the rules unintentionally.

9 years ago
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why do it manually at all if it could be automated?

For the reason multiple users already pointed out.

no longer run the risk of breaking the rules unintentionally.

How do you do that unintentionally ? Winning a game twice doesn't get you in trouble, it's claiming both wins that does.

9 years ago
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For the reason multiple users already pointed out.

So as I mentioned, basically it's a trade off. The inconvenience of users who sync during free weekends and want to enter giveaways for the free weekend games for the convenience of all users, because pretty much everyone enters giveaways and syncs their accounts and is bound to run into this.

Winning a game twice doesn't get you in trouble, it's claiming both wins that does.

Sure, you should ask the giveaway creator for a reroll in that case. However, if I'm not mistaken, there have been cases of mass-giveaway creators not wanting to bother with rerolling. And mass giveaways are a significant case where this kind of thing can happen; consider all the current giveaways for Super Distro and the new Flying Bundle, for example.

9 years ago
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The difference between these two inconveniences is that one is manually fixable and the other not. If you get removed from a giveaway because it's on free weekend, you're screwed because you can't enter it again.

About mass giveaways not being rerolled, we're aware of this issue so you don't have to worry about it.

9 years ago
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Yes, I suppose you're right. I've made an edit to my original post to suggest the same functionality, but to make removing the entries user-initiated.

9 years ago
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How about if after you sync and there are entries for games you now have in your Steam library, you're prompted to abort, retry, continue? Erm, I mean "the following giveaways for which you have entered now appear to be in your Steam account. Remove entries?" with all of them checked by default and a remove button. but individual items can be unchecked before you press Remove.

Removal is therefore convenient, but not automatic. Sure beats having to check through all your entries manually after you win or buy anything.

9 years ago
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That sounds better. Fully automated systems are generally not a good idea for SG because of all the false positives, but I don't see any problem with something like that.

9 years ago
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I think it would lead to support being inundated with tickets asking why all of their entries were removed >.<

9 years ago
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Free weekends and refunds would give problems though.

9 years ago
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Well it's not a perfect solution, but IMO it's a step in the right direction.

As for refunds, I assume once a game is refunded, it's no longer listed as activated in your Steam account. So another sync should clear that up.

9 years ago
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With what you proposed, since it can take up to a week for the game to be sent, there's still a week window of time when the entries would not be removed. Also, some DLCs and free weekends can cause issues.

It seems that some people don't think it's that much of an issue though because of the rarity of winning multiple giveaways of the same game combined with low effort needed on the user's part to remove entries/ask for a reroll.

Also apparently Steam API screws up a lot.

9 years ago*
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Ah, you mean it won't actually 100% prevent double wins? That's true but it will prevent some

9 years ago
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I'm not talking about marking as received, I'm talking about syncing your SG profile with your Steam account.

As for doing it manually, why do something manually if it can be automated? Besides, it can easily happen when there are mass giveaways of a certain game and a bundle that contains the game at the same time; a current example being Super Distro and the new Flying Bundle.

9 years ago*
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Steam API never screws up. Human error on the part of parsing or incorrectly reading the JSON returns is the only thing that "screws up a lot". Even then, SteamGifts does not use the Steam API -- it uses someone elses attempt to index the prices much like this http://backpack.tf/developer

9 years ago
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Agree. Because now (at least for me) if the entries in the new games remain after sync ,are not listed on my entered giveaways page so it's even worse.

9 years ago
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Free weeks are already an issue, I don't get why everyone keeps bringing that up. I like this idea

9 years ago
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Free weekends would screw up this site even more because then all of the giveaways of the free game would have entries removed. So if the giveaway creator makes the giveaway end during that weekend then they would have no winners. At the minimum people would have to reenter the giveaways they already entered before the weekend.

Free weekends already cause issues with people being unable to enter giveaways, so this bug would affect more people with the proposed system.

That's why people are bringing up free weekends because it would make free weekends on this site even worse.

9 years ago
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All you have to do is not sync during free weekends. Hell, you could even have the site prevent syncing on weekends in general.

9 years ago
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That would render some users being unable to enter any giveaways at all for that weekend if they set their profile to private and need to manually sync after a week. Those users would have to be unlucky to need a sync over the weekend, but I myself sync over the weekend because that's when I have the most free time to browse this site. I think that updates should not introduce additional problems for the users of this site.

9 years ago
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Yeah , that sounds like a great idea .
I keep having to go and check my entries each time i get a new game , if i mby entered a gib for it :x
Luckly i enter only a few lately , cus so few whishlist stuff gibs, but still it would be a nice future indieed

9 years ago
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yes

9 years ago
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Would be great

9 years ago
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Check out my userscript

7 years ago
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Exactly what i was searhing for thanks :)

7 years ago
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Thanks! This will be useful in the meantime until this turns into an official website function (if it ever will).

7 years ago
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I agree.

Also, there is a bug where my owned games list does not update after I sync.

7 years ago
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