Hi SG, we just rolled out an update to the way blacklists work, and I wanted to create a quick announcement to explain the difference. Previously, if you blacklisted a user, they would not be able to enter your giveaways, or see them on the homepage. Now, there is one addition: If you blacklist a user, you will also not be able to enter their giveaways, or see them on the homepage.

There are two reasons for the change...

  1. It's more fair to giveaway creators, and it prevents users from quietly blacklisting a giveaway creator, while continuing to enter their giveaways.
  2. It will encourage users to put more thought into their reason for blacklisting another user, and it should discourage blacklisting over minor grievances.

This might leave you wondering, is there anything preventing you from unblacklisting a user, entering their giveaways, and then blacklisting them again? Yes. When unblacklisting a user, there is a delay between one second and one day week until you once again see their giveaways on the homepage, and have access to entering them. If you try to directly open their giveaways sooner, you will see an error, such as "You do not have permission to view this giveaway for another 35 minutes, since you previously blacklisted the giveaway creator.". The length of the delay is proportional to the amount of time you had the user blacklisted (i.e. if you blacklisted a user for 5 hours, you'll need to wait 5 hours after unblacklisting the user), up to the maximum of one day week.

6 years ago*

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However, I think the time should go farther than 1 second minimum and 1 day maximum. Seems too minor of a consequence.

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6 years ago
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I can understand the 1 second minimum thing b/c you may accidentally click "blacklist" on someone and go "oh shit." Or you misclick the wrong name and realize it a few seconds later.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Awesome change, thanks <3

04:57 - Archi: delay should be longer though
04:57 - Archi: a week would be sufficient.
6 years ago
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I agree. One week max and at least 1 day min.

6 years ago
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I agree with a week max would be much better, but a 1 day min is a bit harsh if you misclicked and had them blacklisted all of 3 seconds.

6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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+1

The 1 second delay is to prevent a long wait for a simple mistake. The reality is that if someone truly blacklisted someone else, it's probably for at least a day, and so their delay will equal that, and be at least a day as well. I'm betting that in most cases, people will max out at the 1 week period because they've likely had someone blacklisted for a while.

So, in short, the 1-second minimum probably won't affect anyone who is a habitual, reactionary (i.e., juvenile, hyper-sensitive baby :D) blacklister. Those people will all have long delays, even after they remove people from their blacklist.

I know that I have only blacklisted 3-4 people, and in all cases it was because they blacklisted me for something silly, usually some kind of honest mistake when I was brand new around here. Even so, I would consider removing them now if said people can find it in themselves to settle down a bit. :)

TLDR; the 1-second minimum is great and is there for misclicks; it won't benefit blacklist-happy jerks. The designated time period is a good one. :)

6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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+1 I like this idea too.

6 years ago
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I'm open to extending the maximum to one week if people prefer.

Edit: It has now been updated to one week.

6 years ago*
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Basically most of the giveaways are a few days tops, so a week blacklist delay would ensure that nobody unblacklists somebody else only to quickly join that giveaway and keep him blacklisted.

Making it a week long would also be a good indicator saying "if you want to ensure that people that blacklisted you won't enter your giveaway, made it last for a week or less".

Personally I vote for a static week of delay, not randomized one up to 1 day. But that's me, you should definitely listen to other people too.

6 years ago
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i agree, that 1 week would be better

6 years ago
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If I understand correctly, the current system is proportional to blacklist duration, not randomized.

I personally feel the proportionality is a benefit of the system (edit: for reasons such as this), but I'm less concerned about the absolute durations.

6 years ago
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Another idea, maybe make blacklist delay depending on blacklist length?

I agree with a week max would be much better, but a 1 day min is a bit harsh if you misclicked and had them blacklisted all of 3 seconds.

You could e.g. calculate number of seconds that passed since blacklisting until now, and use it as number of minutes of delay, with max delay lasting a week like I suggested initially.

This way if I accidentally blacklisted X for 10 seconds, I'd get delay of only 10 minutes, solving temporary issues while still enforcing a week of delay for "normal" intended blacklists.

That week max is still a good idea though, just dynamic "up to 1 week" and not static one :3.

Basically we need some minimum length - for example 3 days, so we know how long we can make giveaways ensuring that nobody who blacklisted us can enter them (while at the same time solving mistakes).

6 years ago
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The length of the delay is proportional to the amount of time you had the user blacklisted

*cough*

6 years ago
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I know, I didn't miss that part, but that length is still 1 day max, and not explained in detail, so I can't know whether I should make 8h, 12h or 16h gibs right now.

(not like it matters for me, but it'd be good if it's explained better)

6 years ago
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This is how it currently works. You can try blacklisting a user for one minute, and you'll see after blacklisting them, you'll need to wait one minute before viewing their giveaways.

As a more complicated example, if I blacklisted you 20 hours ago, unblacklisted you 5 hours ago, reblacklisted you 2 hours ago, and unblacklisted you now, then I'll need to wait 14 hours (15-3+2).

6 years ago
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That's excellent, thanks for explanation cg! Then the only thing that is left from me is extending max duration to a week, so I can make 2-3 days giveaways without having to worry about serial blacklisters. Thank you a lot for considering it in the first place, this change is already truly awesome as it is.

6 years ago
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You should edit this explanation into the OP. :3

6 years ago
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Is today the SG anniversary or something?

6 years ago
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depends on how you look at it ;) SG must have been in development/alpha/beta long before actual launch, noone creates website like this in just one day, so for actual SG bday most ppl take the date of first non-fake GA created: https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/34qu2/aaaaaa-a-reckless-disregard-for-gravity which is June 5 2011, so in 5 days :>

6 years ago
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so today is the birthday, and 5days from now is hospital release day. ^^

6 years ago
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or you could consider it a lonbg birth ;) and your birthday is not the moment the birth process starts but when it ends ;)

6 years ago
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lol true. =)

6 years ago
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1 week would probably be appreciated by people who do long running giveaways, so I'd say it's worth a shot.

6 years ago
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To tell truth, I would be fine with even going as far as making "keep someone for a year in blacklist, delay would go for a month" rule.

No proportions about that, just "keep him for 364 days, still one week delay, one day more to make it a year, delay jump to a month".

Unless people micromanaging their blacklists to make sure they'll never get the month-delay would be too much of a server strain?

6 years ago
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Yes.

6 years ago
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A week seems fair to me. A day is a bit too short in my opinion.

6 years ago
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I think one week would be more appropiate maximum because of the event / forum-givaways as well.

6 years ago
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I like your new feature very much and I would also prefer 1 week so the chances on a quick un-black list and a quick entry in most of the SG giveaways\events\trains is small.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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I'm all in favor of extending it to a week, one day still seems to me like plenty of time to enter the giveaway and then blacklist the user again.

6 years ago
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Definitely a week.

6 years ago
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Yes, please!

6 years ago
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happy cakeday

6 years ago
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Make it 3 days minimum and i'm happy :)

6 years ago
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Yes, I agree.

6 years ago
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Take into account that setting a minimum punish misclicks (whitelist button is next to blacklist button...)
EDIT: Oh you mean a minimum for the maximum? Yes, 1 day is too low.

6 years ago*
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Just add popup - "Are you sure you want to BLACKLIST that user?" :)

6 years ago
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Or "Are you sure you want to BLACKLIST that user? You won't be able to enter their giveaways if you do."

6 years ago
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That's even better :)

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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I think it should be more dynamic value. Because what if somebody made ga that is one month long?
For me it should be like:
Delay is long enough to prevent from entering any ga of that user active in the moment that he was removed from blacklist :)
So if user have 1h ga, and 2 weeks long ga alive - block should be lifted after 2 weeks and one second :)

6 years ago
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That's an interesting thought as well. That way you'd have to know in advance if a user is going to make a GA you want to enter if you want to unblacklist for that.

6 years ago
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6 years ago*
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Wow nice!

6 years ago
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That's phenomenal!

6 years ago
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This is pretty funny timing, considering I emptied my blacklist last week 😏

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6 years ago*
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Seems reasonable. I've avoided entering giveaways by users I've blacklisted anyway, just on principle. Otsukaresama! ^_^

6 years ago
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Thank you, cg!

....

Though I actually think this kind of backfires. Now, once A blacklists B, A will never even see B's giveaways, so A will never give a second thought to the blacklisting that was done. Personally, I think A should see B's giveaways (well, if A so wishes, maybe?), but not be able to enter them. Not as spite or anything, just to give A a chance to change his/her mind.

Disclaimer: I never ever blacklisted anybody, and I would not mind if the few people which blacklisted me entered my giveaways... I would actually like it, because that would give them a chance to unblacklist me, in case they blacklisted me for ratios or not giving enough or whatever.

There is also the case of the user who blacklisted me because I won 1 of her giveaways... See, it was not that she did not like me or anything like that, she just wanted to give gifts to different people, that is all. I actually have her whitelisted, and I really hoped that someday she would win one of my GAs! I wonder, what happens to her in this case? Does she see my giveaways?

But anyway, there are also benefits, so, once again, thank you for all the work, and the fantastic site!

Cheers!

6 years ago*
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The only problem is this: Oh this person is giving away a AAA game 2 days from now, lets unblacklist and then reblacklist after the giveaway

6 years ago
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In my case, I totally would not mind. If I ever really really feel like someone should not participate in my GA, I will blacklist that person... Though, as I said, I never had that feeling so far, and hopefully I never will.

6 years ago
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If the maximum delay is extended to 1 week, that wouldn't be much an issue.
Otherwise, making the blacklistee virtually invisible to the blacklister doesn't give the blacklister much chance to reconsider their blacklist later.

Edit: although, let's not forget the way it used to work until now: blacklisters could just enter anything they wanted. So that's a nice step forward already even with just a 1 day delay: now if a winner has the GA creator in their BL, the GA creator will know the winner is fooling the system and didn't just enter by accident / without noticing he had the creator on BL.

6 years ago*
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Wait, so you want the blacklisted to see the giveaways they can't enter? To... make them feel bad or something? I'm not quit sure where you're going with this, but I doubt anyone is going to "learn a lesson" from being blacklisted.

6 years ago
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I edited my post, trying to make myself clearer. Again, NOT as a punishment, not to make them feel bad or anything... See my third paragraph, which describes one possible situation I am thinking of.

Other situation: "A" blacklists "B" because "A" thinks "B" is a leecher. Next week, "B" posts 10 AAA giveaways. "A" sees that, and changes his mind, unblacklisting "B". "A" wins "Half-Life 3" from "B", they start to play MP together, fall in love, get married, have 2 kids, one of them becomes president. Ok, maybe "Half-Life 3" was a stretch, but the rest of the story is totally plausible.... :D :D :D

As it is, the situation in the previous paragraph will never happen... Fair enough, I am thinking of exceptions more than the usual BL reasons, but... anyway, the 2-way thing is probably a good change, in most cases.

Cheers!

6 years ago*
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You raise some good points, points that I feel are relevant even to the blacklisting system before this change. Hiding giveaways, while I see the reason for it (per doctorofjournalism's post about seeing GAs you can't enter just sort of rubbing salt into the wound), definitely discourages people from ever revisiting blacklists and potentially removing people from them at a later date. It makes both the blacklister and (now) the blacklisted invisible to each other, so there's very little opportunity for remonstrance or reconciliation, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

6 years ago*
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Ah, thanks, you expressed my feelings way better than I could.

Cheers!

6 years ago
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Then I think the point to take away from this, is that blacklisting is not to be used lightly.

6 years ago
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Great change!

6 years ago
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I had you initially whitelisted in the hopes that I would one day create a giveaway for a game on your wishlist. I wish whitelist giveaways would be an exception to this change.

I guess now, there is no longer a point in whitelisting someone that has blacklisted me anymore. :(

6 years ago
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Do you think constantly publically shaming someone for simply blacklisting you from hypothetical giveaways you probably wouldn't even win will make me remove you? 🤔 You just make my heart race once a week and ruin my day, trying to guilttrip someone into doing something is seriously messed up. If you think that being blacklist justifies the way you treated me for months, constantly posting on every single one of my comment even after I told you that it's not okay for my mental health is seriously messed up. I told you once to stop it, I won't say it again. You can't even be bothered to play 10% of your wins, why do you think you deserve more games in such a way that justifies harassing people for it?

6 years ago
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The most I had ever messaged you, was in one giveaway you had won only, asking as to why I was blacklisted. Up till now, I had left it at that. If my whitelisting you bothered you, for that I am sorry. Even if this change is ever overruled by a whitelist, I have removed said whitelist.

I am looking to close this off and leave it at that.

6 years ago
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finally! thank you!

6 years ago
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Fantastic change! Keep up the great work cg :)

6 years ago
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seems fair to me! great job cg:)
also in my mind I call you cj because of gta

6 years ago
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Personally I'd created this as an option. Just because someone hates me enough to blacklist, doesn't mean I hate them. But that's just me and my opinion.

edit: Hmm.... What happens if a pair whitelist/blacklists each other?

6 years ago
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You break the spacetime continuum and Biff Tannen becomes President of the United States.

6 years ago
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Technically he did, just with another face.

6 years ago
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Just read this now and ma laughing my ass off.

6 years ago
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Hmm.... What happens if a pair whitelist/blacklists each other?

This is an interesting question hahaha.

6 years ago
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I am curious about this as well.

  1. I have never returned a BL
  2. I know a user on my WL has me on their BL
6 years ago
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If they have you blacklisted they can't enter your whitelist.

6 years ago
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I think this is a good change.

Now we need two way whitelists: whitelist a user and you can automatically enter all their whitelist giveaways.

6 years ago
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yoyo,this

6 years ago
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I hope you are joking.

6 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

6 years ago
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Yeah, white lists are being discriminated here.

6 years ago
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Actually I think this is good. Cos I had a whitelisted user who blacklisted me from March or April idk, but he keeps on entering my WL giveaways like it was nothing. I didn't even noticed it until a few days ago.

6 years ago
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Maybe it's their script entering the GAs like it was nothing ;>

6 years ago
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Haha - same situation here. Unfortunatelly I found out after user have won my wl GA :) With this change it's not going to happen again so I guess I'm happy :)

6 years ago
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I'm so happy this was implemented, as it has been suggested so many times! Fantastic change, and hopefully we will see more blacklist clearing threads ;)

6 years ago
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I read it as Fyantastic change lol

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Thank you!
It feels incredibly unfair to be blacklisted but the user can still enter my giveaways. I used a script to find out who blacklisted me and blacklist them back. Thanks to this change, my blacklist is completely empty!

6 years ago
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Can you tell me what scrip is it?

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Thank you.

6 years ago
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Automated revenge blacklisting hehe.. kudos

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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I'm with you on this, and normally wouldn't mind. I even had two such users whitelisted until this change, but now that they can't technically enter my GAs, I removed them.

6 years ago
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Ditto. Would be nice if there was an option in the user profile that had 3 options. The options would be "users blacklisting me can't see my giveaways (default)", "users blacklisting me can see my giveaways", "users I whitelisted can always see my giveaways".

6 years ago
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Thanks :)

6 years ago
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"Previously, if you blacklisted a user, they would no longer see your giveaways on the homepage, and they would also not be unable to enter your giveaways."

Don't you mean "also be unable"?
Agree with the time span being too short.Some people will probably unblacklist to enter a train or huge GA then when that has ended bl again. Probably not that many but there will always be a few who aren't below such things.

6 years ago
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Thanks, it's fixed.

6 years ago
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I liked creating GA's from the wishlists of people who blacklist me, just to see if they enter... this messes that game up.

6 years ago
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Chose me :P

6 years ago
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