An idea came floating through my mind about losing points permanently when you lose a giveaway. I feel that it could be handled a different way.

I believe that once you've lost a giveaway you should be refunded a portion of your points, not all of them, obviously. That might encourage more people to either participate in giveaways and might encourage more giveaways to be posted (somehow!).

So say you 'bid' on a giveaway that was 10P. The giveaway closes, you're not the winner, you get refunded 5P for losing. If you win, you obviously don't get refunded anything.

There could be a minimum you have to spend for your points to be refunded. So, any giveaway that's less than 10P, you don't get refunded, but anything higher you do.

What do you guys think? Bad idea or good idea?

1 decade ago*

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Well, when the site first started, we had people madly entering everything they could click. The point system has drastically cut what people enter for. I'm sure we'll tinker with it in the future, though.

1 decade ago
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I really don't think its needed. Right now you get 10% of the cost of every giveaway created (although a bit more because its rounded up). This keeps the number of entries in any given giveaway reasonable. As soon as you give people more points, giveaways will go from having 200-300 entries, to having 1000-2000 entries. Personally, I would not bother entering a giveaway if I had a one in 1000 chance.

1 decade ago
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this

1 decade ago
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Indeed. But I have to say, that's kinda already happening.

1 decade ago
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Because the number of users has increased quite a bit. Now imagine if points were more readily available. You would be seeing 2000 people entered in some giveaways.

1 decade ago
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I dont think you should be refunded at all, your using those points at a chance to win something, simple as that. Do you get your money back when you go to a carnival and throw balls at bottles to try and win something, NO.

1 decade ago
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I don't think we need anymore points. Infact I think the opposite might be the better answer.

Points are there to make sure you govern your entries carfully. Just because there's 20 copies of portal up for grabs doesn't mean you should enter each of them.

Loss is a bases of the site and it should be seen as such. Does it really matter if you lose when chances are there will be another oppunity in a few weeks?

A wise man once said "Losing is fun". It makes sense in this context as well, consider yourself privileged that someone open the giveaway out of their own generosity and that you have an invite.

Anyway, if you're anything like me who has a decent collection of steam games and/or picky about games then you'll often be beset with a large amount of points. Which you only then dump the points into a game or an invite because you don't like "sitting" at 300 points.

1 decade ago
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Saying it might encourage more giveaways to be posted "somehow" is pretty naive. This whole post can be summed up as "I want to enter more giveaways," but you didn't think it through. Every one would get more points and more people would be entering the giveaways you are entering, lowering your chances of winning. Keep the point system the same until we run into problems with it.

1 decade ago
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Considering many people have claimed they already basically enter every single giveaway of any game they don't already have and that isn't a 50 dollar game, I don't think this is necessary. Remember, people still get points for games posted that they already own, which they obviously then have no reason to enter for, thus basically giving them 'free' points in terms of their actual pool of games they could potentially enter. One should be entering for games that you really want, not just any game you can get your hands on. If everyone enters for everything even if they don't even want it, that's a progressively smaller and smaller chance that a person who really, desperately wants the particular game will get it over someone who is indifferent.

1 decade ago
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That's actually pretty interesting... Maybe points should be given based on if someone owns the game or not. People who own lots of games wouldn't be able to enter too much, and then the games like portal could give points to people who don't have them and allow those people to enter more than just every single portal giveaway. There's flaws but I think it's interesting to think about.

1 decade ago
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So punish people solely because they own a lot of games? The site isn't here to cater to people who don't have the means to buy games, so no. The site is here for fun and generosity. Be glad you are a part of the community, and that's that.

1 decade ago
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His idea about punishing people for having more games than others was silly yea. But I am seriously starting to get pissed of by all this "Be glad you are a part of the community" rant a ton of people are preaching around.

1 decade ago
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I think a lot of - scratch that, nearly every idea that is brought up on the forums is either nonsensical or self-serving. The only thing the site needs is better moderation.

1 decade ago
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This right here.
Not that the mods do a terrible job, they just aren't omnipotent and a better system is needed to easily find problems and inform the mods rather than just letting them bumble in the middle of a problem.

1 decade ago
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I think the rewarded points for a giveaway made needs to be lowered.

10% of in points per the price of the giveaway is a lot. Especially when a lot of giveaways are just the same. How many Portal giveaways are there on here? Personally, I think 5% would seem reasonable. This would definitely get people to think about what games they want to enter and what they should save their points for. Is there going to be a $50 game giveaway in the next few days or do I want to go ahead and put myself in for multiple 3p entries.

I also think any giveaway that isn't valued at $10 or more shouldn't produce points, not even fractions if that may be the case. I doubt it would affect anyone making giveaways for these items, but it would also add more caution with what to do with your points.

1 decade ago
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Don't agree with the last point here at all. I'd prefer a steady trickle of indie games coming through rather than one triple A game once a month.

1 decade ago
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That's like entering the lottery and saying "uhhh I didn't win I want half my money back". It's not going to happen

1 decade ago
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i think we should only be refunded if the giveaway appears to be a scam in the end.

1 decade ago
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that does happen.

1 decade ago
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Only if it is cancelled before its time runs out, otherwise the points are lost forever.

Edit: This is not my idea how it should be, it is just how it is currently.

1 decade ago
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Agreeing with echo here. If you get those points back because someone didn't give the gift out then it lessens the point of having negative feedback, possibly would even encourage people to lie and say someone didn't give them the gift so they can get all their points back too.

1 decade ago
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It's easy to check if the person gifted the game to the person.

The feedback system wouldn't be affected by this either. That only affects the user making fake giveaways, and doesn't have anything to do with the entrants.

If you put points into a fake giveaway, that seems legitimate but turns out being fake, you should get the points back, because there wasn't anything you really entered for in the first place.

1 decade ago
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It's hard to argue with the logic in skzorak's last sentence.

1 decade ago
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When a giveaway is first created everyone gets points and spends them around. So when it is revealed to be fake everyone (who had an active account by at the time of that giveaway's creation date) should first get the same amount of negative points, to remove the points they gained because of the fake giveaway, then the ones that put points in this giveaway should get their points back. Otherwise we'll never get ahead of people who spend fake points as soon as they are generated.

There is NO POINT and NO PENALTY for having negative feedback. The site is governed so leniently that there are many people with negative feedback, ones that obviously and continuously act against the rules, create giveaways with "mistakes" and nothing is being done. A couple of people can only manage things so far, more people need to be employed as mods and iron fist and ban hammers need to be brought out. This leniency isn't helping anyone but distance people more and more everyday.

1 decade ago
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A harsh (but fair) point of view. I nominate myself :)

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by Storm.