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!

9 years ago*

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Add SteamTrades.com to SteamSocial.com and it will be the best website ever.

9 years ago
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tHANKS MEN

9 years ago
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damn!! the site is just awesome i even created a giveaway for testing it just awesome with new template's and all :D

9 years ago
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It's very good. A blacklist to prevent certain users from entering a giveaway would be a nice touch.

9 years ago
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there is a BL implementation already - read OP ;p

9 years ago
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I mean a selectable blacklist when creating a giveaway as there was only the option to select groups and whitelist.

9 years ago
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your blacklist work on all GA's - you don't need to toggle it :>

and if you mean having BL and still allowing blacklisted ppl to enter SOME fo your GAs - then read ChangeLog :> it's already there, as I suggested it months ago ;p "Ability to toggle blacklist on individual giveaways."

9 years ago
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  • Add a responsive design for mobile phones with a smaller display
  • Add back CV
9 years ago
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You CV is there. There's just no contributor's giveaway anymore.

9 years ago
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Yeah, that would still be nice as an option

9 years ago
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As much as I like contributor's giveaways, after seeing all the drama they cause I will not mind that much if they go away. I was using SG before they were possible and the site was doing just fine.

9 years ago
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the "drama" will simply be replaced by people bitching about inclusive groups and black/whitelists

9 years ago
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No one knows they are on a blacklist except if someone links them to the giveaway directly, so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

9 years ago
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Based on what? I allege there will be the same, if not more, forum threads/complaints about wrongful white/blacklisting.

9 years ago
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Suggestions:

  • Add a responsive design for mobile phones with a smaller display
  • Add back CV
9 years ago
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Im fearing the blacklist.... thats a great way to make people avoid commenting, which i will try to do.

9 years ago
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i think avoiding commenting is a good way to get added to blacklists

9 years ago
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Now there are reply notifications for giveaway pages though. I predict the braindead "thanks" posts will be hugely frowned upon and punishable by blacklisting after the launch.

9 years ago
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What...? People who just say thanks will be punished? I dont get it...

9 years ago
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Yes, I've been kinda obscure. Here's my thinking:

  • All comments (plain thanks included) end up in the inbox. (Which shows a notification until you mark them read)
  • Gifters start getting tired of wading thru thanks to see comments with actual content.
  • Gifters start asking participants to not comment only "thanks" if they don't have more to say.
  • Participants do it anyway because they are used to it.
  • Gifters start blacklisting auto-thankers to cut back on spam in their inbox.

Mind you, I'm just talking about one-two word thanks here. You know there are scripts out there that makes posting them a one-click issue. It's not actual gratitude or communication. It's just about post count and habit.

Oh. This is also why we don't have replies notifications on GA pages, here in SG-v1.

9 years ago
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I see... i understand. Once again not commenting is the best idea.

9 years ago
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However, if you don't comment, some gifters will blacklist you too. Everyone is in a lose-lose situation now.

Protip: read the description of the giveaway always :P

9 years ago
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What :O ?! How can that be a good way to blacklist a person?! Blacklisting is meant for bad behaving people.... right?

9 years ago
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why is commenting bad behaviour? I think not commenting kinda shows disrespect to the gifter, at least when he asks for comments.

9 years ago
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I think their implication was that it will prevent people from saying anything, out of the fear of saying the wrong thing and getting adding to people's blacklists.

9 years ago
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Yeah, what you said...

9 years ago
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Same as me.

9 years ago
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Smart

9 years ago
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Suggestions:

  • Would be nice if hitting [TAB] in the comment textbox moved the focus to "Submit Comment" button for mouseless spamming. I'm kinda used to typing "thanks for skyrim", hitting [TAB], hitting [SPACE] to submit.

  • Attached images use a similar format for links, but the display text is never rendered. The links are always displayed as "View attached image". Now I have no problems with that, because it would be beneficial to make them distinguishable from plain links, but the link text could at least be added as html "title" attribute -- to be displayed as a tooltip (this would also be a nice venue for puzzlemakers, heh).

  • This one's a biggie: Apparently creating a new discussion does not actually use form post (ajax?) so if you hit submit and get a connection error, you're screwed. Upon refreshing the page, the browser cannot offer to re-submit the form contents and you're greeted with a blank page. Since discussions now support polls'n stuff, oh well.

9 years ago
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Will the usernames and accounts from SG V1.0 transfer over? Or will the accounts from V2.0 Beta carry over? I'd really love to be able to get my proper name (Sisyphus) rather than what I was stuck with (Sisyphus17), especially since that user doesn't seem to have been on the site in a year.

9 years ago
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on SGv2 you can change your username once a year. In special circumstances you may also ask support for changing of username.

9 years ago
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Great. But that didn't answer the first question. Are the Beta usernames carrying over (since we had to essentially recreate our accounts on there), will V1.0 usernames get switched over automatically, or will we have to create new V2.0 accounts once it comes out of Beta?

9 years ago
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Everything from SGv1 will be converted over to SGv2. Everything on the beta site will be cleared. The domain will stay SteamGifts.com, and the domain SteamSocial.com will be unused after the beta.

9 years ago
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Hey cg, are you planning on maintaince of current data in sgv1 when you go to transfer into v2?
I mean like cleaning ultra long time ago closed threads, removing users who never won/commented and haven't been active in like 1 year... etc.. I think it might help a little. :3

9 years ago
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A little disappointing, but I suppose converting is easier than having to deal with a bunch of people rushing to create their usernames and then filing Support tickets when they don't get it. V2.0 is looking good, though. I like that there's an integrated search function on giveaways. Makes it easier to find comments.

9 years ago
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cant enter the site for some reason

9 years ago
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i liked the new site, good work guys :D

9 years ago
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Right, then. I'm trying to access the website but I can't seem to be able to.
Regardless I feel this a good step, Great job.

9 years ago
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Same here

9 years ago
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+1

9 years ago
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  • The filters are saved on the server, I have the same ones from work or home
  • It would effectively be nice to have some import feature.
  • The "Add to filter" was obviously an SG+ addition here. It's been discussed on SGv2 but I thing cg felt it would add clutter to the front page. I'm still hoping it can be added to SGv2+ though.
9 years ago
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-limit 250 points is low.
-25 giveaways for page is low(40 in old web is better choice). maybe not now, but in final version definitely.

9 years ago
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The maximum price of large packs has been reduced from 150p to 100p. Unless you enter for everything in sight, 250p would be more than enough.

Less points forces users to enter for games they really want and in return increases the odds of winning something.

9 years ago
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I don't get one thing. Steam gifts can be given in the form of an URL, a fact which is emphasized both in the post above and in the SG2 giveaway creation page. But still, when creating a giveaway there you have to pick between key and gift, and if you pick gift you don't have a chance to include an URL in the givaway. On the other hand, if you pick key, you can then include a Steam gift URL.

Isn't this a bit confusing and contradictory? Personally, I'm in favor of automatic delivery, so every move in that direction is welcome. But it seems to me that people giving away gifts will be induced not to use the "automation". No?

9 years ago
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Please enlighten me, how can I gift a Steam game that's in my inventory via URL? I only have the option to send it via email or gift it to someone from my friend list. As I see it cg did everthing right because gift means a game from my inventory. Everything else is considered a key.

9 years ago
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You can't. You have to give it manually or email it to the winner.

Although giving a Steam Gift automatically can be implemented (trade to a bot, which will gift it to winner), it requires extra servers to run the bots, so it isn't very likely this will happen.

9 years ago
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I don't really like using a bot anyway. A lot of trouble for not much gained.

9 years ago
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I think you can send a gift to your own e-mail and then forward that redemption url (that will be displayed in the mail) to someone else.

9 years ago
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I think I will try this but my feelings says it won't work. We will see! ;)

9 years ago
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It will work because that's the way people give away gifts with bot on one particular forum I visit.

9 years ago
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Like TheDopefish said, you can send an email to yourself, copy the URL you receive, ideally strip your email address from it and you have obtained a gift URL that anyone can redeem. Try it and see for yourself! :)

9 years ago
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Thanks for explaining. Now we can go back to your original question. ;) Now I agree with you that there should be an option for a gift URL. The next question that comes to my mind though is what the difference for both gifting options is. You could choose the key option and put in your gift URL but then why would we need a gift option at all? It would be enough to give a text field for optional keys/links and if it's left empty it means the game will be given in another way (email, chat) no matter if it's a key or gift. Of course unless there is a difference on SG's side between keys and gifts but since the bundle list and CV giveaways don't exist anymore I don't know what it could be.

9 years ago
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Well, if you ask me, there should be no gift option at all. Users should be encouraged to keep it simple and straight; including the game in the giveaway, in key or URL form, is a way to reach that goal. No need to send emails, no need to add people on Steam (which will not accept because they don't realize they're being given a game) and so on...

9 years ago
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While I think it's good to encourage people to keep things easy I wouldn't like it if people would not be allowed to gift a game directly. I for my part prefer the direct contact because I had a lot of interesting talks this way and met wonderful people. In addition if a game is directly gifted you can be sure it was received. If a key is included in the giveaway there is still the possibility the winner might never revisit SG or even worse, activate the game and not mark it as received. In case of a key you can't tell if it was activated or not leaving the generous gifter in a very uncomfortable situation.

9 years ago
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You make some good points. So let's say I wouldn't force people to use an automated delivery methods for their games, but I still find it misleading that when you pick "gift" in the giveaway creation page, there's no option to include a gift URL.

As a side note, in case of a key you can indeed tell if it was activated, because the game will be in the user's library. And if it was already there before he got the key, he shouldn't have been able to enter the giveaway, anyway. :)

9 years ago
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While this is generally true it's not safe. Someone could activate that key on a different account. I don't say it's very likely but I think it has to be considered. I just read Zomby2D's response and think it's a quite good call to call it mislabeled.

9 years ago
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All right, let's agree on that.

9 years ago
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This is a bit of a mislabel I think. You can send a Steam gift URL by choosing key and putting the URL there. The same way, you could choose gift and deliver a key at the end. (Or multiple keys if you're giving a multi-keys pack.)

Choosing gift only means you will be delivering the gift yourself, while choosing Key means you will be using the automated delivery.

9 years ago
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Yeah, we can call it a mislabel. I shouldn't have to choose key if I want to automatically deliver a gift. :)

9 years ago
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I can't access the new site. I click on the link and i wait like 2 minutes and then a blank screen appears and it says that page is loaded.

Edit: It's ok i made it. First of all i like the new look. But i dont like that brown color around my profile when i click on my profile statistics. Also when you enter a giveaway it appears pale like here. But when you put mouse over it it should retrieve normal color

Edit 2: Can anyone tell why is CV removed?

9 years ago
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The background is based on your profile picture. For example, in my profile page the background is red. It'S the same dynamic background that's used for giveaways.

My best guest on why CV giveaways haven't been reimplemented is because of all the drama surrounding it. (Mods are also probably getting tired of answering the same "my CV is stuck at $30" questions over and over again.)

9 years ago
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Whoa! That's a sweet feature!

9 years ago
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I like the look of it so far. It would be nice if we could have underscores in our usernames.

9 years ago
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I really like the new site!
Only 1 little bug so far: the fake GA was created before I pressed the "Confirm giveaway" button. Has anyone run into the same problem?

9 years ago
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I miss the ability to create giveaways for contributors. This does nothing but encourage the leechers!

EDIT: But other than that omission, I love the new site!

9 years ago
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+1

9 years ago
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and it does a lot to disencourage CV abusers.

9 years ago
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There are an order of magnitude more leechers than CV abusers.

9 years ago
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Tell me how you define "leecher". According to my definition you would be a leecher,too.

9 years ago
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To be honest, I love the slim interface of Steamgifts, the new site seems to overloaded with features for me (personally).

9 years ago
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well - noone force you to use all these "features" so you lose nothing while ppl wanting them profit :>

9 years ago
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But if you don't use them, it easily gets messy and annoying to use the overall site. I'm a bit torn, as I like the functions, but not the overall design.

9 years ago
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fromt he reply below i could see it becoming overwhelming for some users. maybe there should be a page setup in the settings for invdividuals

9 years ago
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Sorry if this has been mentioned but will those in the blacklist of a user see their names on it?

I prefer avoiding retaliation to preventing users to enter my giveaways.

9 years ago
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They will know only if they try to enter using direct link to giveaway (for example private GA posted on forum). Public giweaways are hidden for users on creators blacklist.

9 years ago
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nice

9 years ago
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Goodbye sweet Beta!

9 years ago
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;(

9 years ago
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Closed 9 years ago by cg.