Humble Bundle Warning

I have added games to my account. given games not as much as others. plus have a ton of unused keys.

also the reason for me using gift links was some people in past discussion recommended for easier tracking if used.
i like that if you give link, you can see if redeemed. keys, they can say dupe and you have no way of knowing.

also I do not sell! only use myself or give.

based on comments, seems best not to contact support on behalf of someone you gave a key or gift. even if you write that you gave to friend.

And who do you think buys their bundles, exept traders?

Unless OP is purely buying bundles to gift, and creates dozens of gift links in one sitting, I don't know why he'd be flagged when there's countless other people like me who have given over 400 gifts in one year, many of which are gift links from Humble.

I guess it'll just be one of those mysteries of the universe, but it definitely makes me think about doing purely key generation instead. I just know that if a gift link is not working it seems easier for Support to handle than a key not working.

It seems it's the opposite they can monitor though, gift links. Only Steam itself should be able to track key activations and not third parties.

Damn. I thought using gift links was the correct way of sending games. Guess I better hope I don't need to contact support for any reason in the future!

They just don't care about their ToS:

If you receive games you do not want or already own, you are free to gift the key to a friend using the regular "Gift to Friend" feature from the Humble Subscriber Hub.

This is what I was afraid of. I know they say use the links but I don't want my account flagged as "suspicious" for giving away stuff I already own (which is all I ever get rid of, plus I don't trade - only gift). So tossed up what to do. So far I just reveal them and say nothing to support. If they don't want us using their own gift links, then why do they have them?

I thought it was the other way around. I'm sure I've heard from people in here who ran into issues revealing the key since there was no support for a revealed key that you gave away, but that there's been no issues with gift links and where revealed keys sometimes expire gift links almost always work.

Why then do this function at all?
Punishing you for using legitimate functions is ridiculous.

using HB's "gift link" option to send gifts will get you flagged as a trader/reseller... which makes you wonder why they have that feature at all.

Consider that if gift links weren't available at all, then Humble would have no easy way to identify and suspend/ban potential traders & resellers from using its service for more than infrequent gifting to friends & family such as "where you gift a game to receive a reward/
payment of any kind (which would include things like rep or points on certain trading sites)." (in HB TOS) Gift links do also help Humble control to some degree which regions get which key types (SubIDs) and what the region restrictions or exclusivity should be when a key is given.

Whether we like it or not, it might be in Humble's best financial interests to mitigate traders & reseller activity so that non-purchase & grey market means of game acquisition aren't bolstered further. In order for this to hold true, the financial benefit of mitigating traders & resellers would need to be higher than the financial benefit of selling to traders & resellers. Humble could plausibly be wrong about this, such that if they piss off a bunch of traders & resellers they could be in for a world of financial pain - We just don't know for certain the financial details.

only give or use myself. never sell.

I've created a few gift links, but it's probably 98% keys and 2% gift links for me. And I've never had a problem.

What's your plan for games from Humble Choice? Are you subscribed? I believe we have no choice but to generate gift links for the games we don't redeem -- there's no way to generate keys that I know of.

EDIT: it was pointed out to me that I am apparently crazy. You can generate keys when you click "Get Game". I guess now the question is... if you click "Get Game" and then do not redeem the key to your account, will that cause a problem later...

There's someone on here who always sends gift links and has never encountered an issue, and several people who have run into issues sending keys. It seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of thing.

They can't easily check it if you decide to set your account or library to private, which a lot of people do. It's far easier to see who and even from where clicked on the gift link.

Humble is far from a monopoly. They may be a market leader, but that's different.

Interesting, I had no idea that they got this into their rules. I wonder if any of this would stand if someone were to take legal action.
Which law would grant a shop to rule how a customer is allowed to use their property? I doubt that they'd manage to maintain this by EU regulations.

I was going to say, I wonder if they want only affiliates to gift at that level because its likely to bring in business.

SteamGifts giveaways violate both sections

At most only one, actually.

SteamGifts doesn't violate the first section if all you make are level 0 giveaways [public or otherwise]. It only excludes giveaways with any sort of contribution requirement. Not sure if SG still requires a certain amount of account value for creating an SG account, but that wouldn't factor in regardless, as that wouldn't be a payment related to the raffle. That is to say, it'd be similar to saying "this is a raffle for everyone who has a blue hat! Take a photo and show it!". There was a purchase involved at some point, but it isn't considered relevant for these kind of considerations.

Raffles for instance can use Humble keys as a reward, as long as you do not require
some form of payment as entry.

Gifting keys is perfectly acceptable. The gifting function is meant to give a game away to a friend or family member. We do not support situations where you gift a game to receive a reward/payment of any kind

Unlike the first section, the second section only states an exclusion of support for keys gifted non-personally, not that it's a violation of terms. Had they wanted to prohibit, they would have used "accept situations" or similar, not "support situations". Hence, while their intent may not match their present presentation of that part of the ToS, Steamgifts is nevertheless not presently violating that section.

Ergo, by the phrasing provided, you should be entirely safe to use SG for gifting if you only make giveaways without a CV/level restriction, and don't expect support to be provided for the keys gifted.

Also, do note that the change to the ToS is rather recent, so it's likely less "people don't want to hear it" and more "people aren't aware that Humble finally made their stance official".

but it looks like legally speaking you're better off leaving those extra keys unused,

Finally, ToS wouldn't relate to "legally speaking". ToS can't in any circumstance override laws, thus the danger isn't in engaging in a legal violation, but of annoying Humble and having them restrict access [similar to being thrown out of a grocery store or restaurant, companies have the right to refuse service]. However, Humble would still be legally required to ensure (for a reasonable period) that your purchases are working and would theoretically be required to provide you with some notification prior to denying you access to your purchases [if their intent was to close your account entirely]. Since other forms of support aren't legally mandated, they would however not be required to provide you with any other support.

So I guess the correct phrasing would be.. "Humbly speaking"? :P

Ok, I get the trading part, and why they want to restrict key sellers / traders. What reason would they have for banning giveaways though? We're buying their games & bundles and bringing attention to indie developers, and it's not like we're profiting off them. From both an ethical and financial standpoint, it makes no sense. Stupid rules like this is how you encourage piracy, not cool Humble IGN® Bundle.

I dont get it. "not require some form of payment as entry", there is no payment though. Points on steam gifts are no payment, they are limiter, not payment, nobody gets the points when you enter their giveaway, you dont recieve points for giving games, level 0 and 10 have exactly same amount of points, its to limit the amount of entries. Literally only thing you need for steamgifts is steam account, which i dont understand how they could consider it form of payment. HB themself require working email adres when giving out games for free.
And there is literally no reward for giving games here. Contribution value have no real value what so ever, its more like statistic to show other people with high statistics if they want to give away to more active or less active people. Even if you spend 1 trillion dollars on steamgifts, you can NEVER increase or decrease amount of games that you gonna earn, if people dont make those high level giveaways, SG will not provide you with any single game or coupon or anything just because you "contributed".

Further inquiries regarding this account will not be responded to? Would it be so difficult to provide an avenue for further discussion? Or at least more specific information? What good does it do to leave people guessing?

This is common practice, it's meant to protect the systems that detect abuse from being probed and circumvented.

Sometimes, the firm being accused will respond publicly with hard data. IME, that's invariably tons of fun, whenever I've seen it happen.

Money. Having that trading ability attracts more people to spend money on HB.

Steam values their customers even less than Humble tho, so no buying Steam games elsewhere either.

And Chrono.gg. A real person responds usually within 24hrs and is always polite and agreeable.

Yeah, HB is responsible for making sure that they abide by the laws governing trade and licensing, so it's kind of their job to stop anything that could put them in a tricky legal position. The upshot is those of us who want to get a couple games on the cheap and pass on the ones we know we won't use have to be judged the same as those who want to violate the rules.

no VPN or TOR. only buying on one account.

Thats what im thinking too

There is no law saying that sites can't ban you for breaking their rules. Just as it's perfectly legal for you to sell the key you bought it's perfectly legal for them to ban you for it. So what is there to test?

By the same logic selling all SG wins could never get you disabled here.

the new EU "right to trade games" law.

The recent case in France was actually based on a ruling made by the European Court of Justice in 2012, there's nothing new about it.

no, not trying to get any bonus.

no, did not use word steamgifts. I had a train and gave 42 gifts out. only 1/3 or 1/2 were gift links.