Is regifting really that bad?

You ask for a reroll.

regifting = exploit CL system
also related to being ungrateful since most people assume you enter a giveaway to play and enjoy that game.

you can reply in the giveaway so the creator gets a notification, or try to add that user in steam or post a comment there.

you can leave a message on the giveaway and ask the gifter to re-roll, or you can also send the gifter a message on steam

This would be way too much effort and regifting is a more viable option.

It's hardly any effort at all. Should take you a few seconds to add the person as a friend, and then a few more seconds to say "hey, I already have the game, please re-roll".
Also, if you leave a message in the GA asking for a re-roll, the other person will see it in his or her message feed. Just remember to not reply to any messages in the GA, but leave it in the "root".

Send the guy who posted the GA a message asking him to request a new winner? As far as I know, there is no message function on SG and OPs rarely check their ended GAs, so you'd be obliged to send them a message on Steam, right?

That's rarely true. The creator will get a message notification when you post on any of their giveaways, ended or not. They will likely also check why you have not marked the giveaway as received after some time. The only exception are developer giveaways. Also, a lot of people will feel angry/annoyed/insulted if you regift the game they gifted you.

If you own the game, you just leave a message on the giveaway for the creator telling them that you purchased it after entering and let them get the giveaway re-rolled. Giveaways are for your Steam account only. Since you would already own the game, you thus have no right to owning the key you won.

And the giver will receive a message notification on SG for any new posts on their giveaway, even if its after the giveaway ended. It just shows up as a reply, much like the posts in this thread.

You can always add the GA creator, I see no problems.

This happened to me with one of my first wins. I bought the game and then won the same game withing a few hours of buying it because I forgot to go into my entered games and remove the entries for the game I bought.

I just added a comment on the giveaway page for that giveaway and explained what happened. He requested a new winner.

If you give the game away yourself then you are getting credit for a game that you didn't purchase and this allow leechers to gain levels by entering for giveaways they don't want and then regifting them. Then the entire purpose of the contributor value/level is pointless and people are just passing around games they don't want to increase their level while the people that actually wanted that game to play don't win it.

lolwut

I've had this happen before to me, the user simply added me on Steam and asked me to reroll it as he had recently purchased it in a weekend sale.

If it is too much effort for you to message me after winning a game that I graciously put up here for someone to win, who would hopefully play and enjoy it, then it's too much effort for you to enter my GA's and I am pretty sure I am not the only one who thinks this.

No, it's not that bad. It's better than activating a game you don't care about just because you have to. But the majority seems to disagreee and think that "don't enter GAs for games you're not interested in" is the solution to this issue. The case you presented is very niche and easily solved so it doesn't seem very meaningful to me.

No. There is no point in arguing about the morality of it, since there is no objective answer. However, in order to use this site, you must not regift as there is a rule against it. Very simple.

Regifting has only two functions:

One, to exploit your user level by pretending to have given away more games you yourself purchased, than you actually did.
All this does is encourages people who never gave anything at all, to be able to enter more and more giveaways. That's strictly counter to the structure of the site.

Two, it's used to redirect won games to a single account, by using multiple farming accounts. This gives a single user a lot more opportunities at winning games, and is clearly cheating.

.
You can ask for a reroll at any time [by opening a support ticket], by choosing not to do [regardless of how much time has passed] so you deliberately indicate your exploitation is intentional- in huge part because you're still laying claim to a key that you yourself didn't use.
That's selfish greed, not to mention entitlement wherein you indicate you believe you are better than the rules- and that's still assuming you're not actually deliberately farming out extra wins.

Moreover, you can message users at any time by messaging them on one of their previous giveaways, unless they have you blacklisted. If they do- and really, they probably do, if you were a jerk who decided to enter a contest and not follow through with it/deliberately exploit- then your support request will have support contacting them regardless.

Past this, the other replies above all are useful reads :P

In the end, it boils down to two things:
Disrespect for other site users, and intentional cheating/explotation/scamming users.

While you can argue how MUCH hate these actions deserve, there definitely doesn't seem to be any call to cater to such users :X

"Hey guys, I know the site has rules and every user agrees to abide by them, but is breaking them really THAT bad? Surely it's the fault of SG that a user breaks those rules, and not the user's."

There's no discussion to be had here, no arguments that you, or anyone else, can bring to change people's minds, it's against the rules and it's disrespectful to the creator of said giveaway. People give games away here so others can enjoy them, not exploit them to farm CV or worse, sell/trade them off.

Contacting giveaway creators is fairly simple and, even if they're the kind who block&ignore random friend requests, as others have pointed out, someone who wins a giveaway for a game they've already bought can simply leave a message on their giveaways after they end, furthermore, even if they somehow miss those, simply don't mark as received and they will notice eventually and contact you.

OPs rarely check their ended GAs

Rarely check their ended GAs? You HAVE to check your ended GAs in order to send keys. lolwtf

this is the spirit of this site. Enter for games you would like to try and enjoy if possible even, but just for yourself. Nobody will check if you played, reviewed, and 100% achievements. Rules are clear, follow them. The end.

If someone wins my giveaways and I don't know or rely in (and usually even them too) get a check on my part if they already ownthe game. Then if they have it, I may ask for a reroll counting with their help if it seems they just won it, or else a reroll asking for a ban, and a blacklist mark.

This reply may help you.

It seems like we're talking about two different points here. A lot of people are upset because people win games and don't activate them, and that's problematic. However, if you buy a game and then win it and then regift it, I don't see a problem in that particular case because you wound up with a copy of the game- its the same (in my opinion) as winning the game and then buying a copy to gift to someone else. That's cool. Now, if you bought the game, win it, and then trade/sell/hoard the copy you win, I think that's a bit sketchy and that would be against the rules in most peoples' books. If someone gifted you a game, and then you hoarded it away even though you already had it that would be like snatching away the chance to win from someone else.

So, for example, I won a game the other day, and I plan on giving two copies of it away. In theory, I could give away the key that I was given- I've activated the game on Steam, no one would know, but I'm going to give away the game I won in place of the game I activated myself. Some people might be upset that I'm doing that, but the economy is identical (I win a game, I give away two copies) whether these copies both copies I bought or a copy I bought and a copy I won split. Now, I personally ask for a reroll if I win a game I activated before winning, but that's more because I know some people get upset and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be respectful in the context of their expectations, provided it's reasonable.

Also, you may give people a new chance to win that certain game which have been left empty-handed before.

Same with a reroll, except only original creator gets CV.

Agh...no, re-gifting is a douchy thing do, since there are options. All of that is "too much effort?" Really? No offense, but that's kind of a douche way of thinking if u ask me. It doesn't seem like too much effort, AT ALL. The only way re-gifting can be sort of acceptable, is that you don't make a giveaway for the key you got and just give it for free to a friend, while still marking the giveaway that you won as received, so that the one that made said giveaway still gets the CV. Even so, you deprive a person that maybe really wanted that game and can't afford it of the chance to win it. Which isn't very nice.

"Is regifting really that bad?"

Yes. You get the CV and the credit at the expense of the original gifter. It's a dick move.

If you decide to buy a certain game and you know you entered giveaways for it on this website the best thing to do would be to click on "Giveaways" in the left top corner of the website, then "View Entered" and remove yourself from all the giveaways for that game.

That doesn't take any real effort, it's quick and it wont cause any inconveniences to anyone.

"you may give people a new chance to win that certain game which have been left empty-handed before." -> Ask a reroll. :-)