Thanks to everyone that signed up for the beta and for all the feedback that we received! The beta is now closed, although it'll likely be returning in a couple of weeks.

Hey everyone, we're planning to do an open beta for the upcoming SGv2 during the weekend of the 30th. This will give everyone a chance to view the revised site, along with the changes we've been developing. During this time we're hoping to get some feedback and insights from the community. The open beta will simply last for a few days, and then we'll gauge the response from the community and see what remaining changes need to be completed, or if the site is ready to launch during the month of June. A few notes...

1. All content on the beta site will be removed prior to launch, and you should assume all giveaways are fake, and created for the sole purpose of testing.
2. The same rules from SG apply, so please avoid posting spam, referrals, or any inappropriate comments.
3. You can leave feedback on the beta site, but you won't be able to access it after the beta closes. Therefore, you might want to post feedback here on the SG forums. If so, please keep all the feedback in this particular topic.

I'll be updating this topic throughout the week to talk about some of the new features we'll be introducing on the beta site! If you have any questions about the posted features, you're welcome to comment here and I'll try to answer them. Let's start with one below.

Whitelist / Multiple Steam Group Giveaways

The new site has some improvements when it comes to controlling who can enter your giveaways. First off, you can create a giveaway for multiple Steam groups. It's fairly straightforward, you're presented with a list of your Steam groups, and you can select any number of them. Users can enter if they're a member of any group you select.

There's also another addition, called whitelists. You can click a button on user profiles, and add that person to your whitelist. When creating a giveaway, you can select your whitelist in the same way that you select a Steam group. For example, I could create a giveaway for the S.Gifts and S.Trades groups, and also my whitelist. Now, my giveaway is running and I discover John Doe seems like an upstanding member of the community, although he's not a member of my Steam groups. In a simple click, I can add John Doe to my whitelist, and he'll now see my whitelist enabled giveaways on his homepage.

You might be wondering what happens if John Doe enters my giveaway, and I then decide to remove him from my whitelist. In that case, his entry remains valid, since he entered at a time when I gave him permission, and I can't simply invalidate or remove his entry at will.

Blacklist

I'll mention this now, since a number of users were asking about it in the comments. This feature is available on the new site, and you can add anyone to this list by clicking a button on their profile. Once added, they can no longer open or enter your giveaways, and your giveaways are removed from their homepage. If they have an existing entry in one of your giveaways, it's valid, and you can't use the blacklist to remove their entry.

Key Giveaways

The new site offers the ability to incorporate Steam keys into your giveaways. When creating a giveaway you have the option of pasting in a key list, with keys separated by new lines. The only limit is based on your feedback score. If you have 50 available giveaway slots, you can create a giveaway for 50 copies.

For giveaways below 100 copies, the keys will remain hidden to the winners until you check the sent box. This gives you an opportunity to review the winners before the key is visible to them. You can also add/edit/delete keys for the winner of any giveaway after it's closed. For convenience, giveaways for 100 copies or greater will automatically make the keys visible to the winners by default.

Keys can also be Steam redeemable URLs, or Humble Bundle gift URLs. The winners will see a link instead of a key to redeem their gift.

Stay tuned for more information coming soon!