Check if you already have the game or DLC, I won't reroll if you already have it, so take the key, give it to a friend and mark the GA as received.
Any kind of additional rules for the giveaways are not allowed.
If winner does own DLC they won - they need to request re-roll. Accepting the key and marking giveaway as received is against SG rules. You should not tell people to break the rules, as it's inconvenient to re-roll DLCs because they are improperly reported by SteamAPI. If we have a report that user is accepting keys for DLCs they already have - we will investigate, and suspend them if necessary.
I will ask you to remove this point from the giveaways, as it's asking users to break the site rules.
What should I do if I win a game more than once, or if I win a game that I already purchased?
When this occurs, you should contact the giveaway creator and inform them you will not be accepting or redeeming the gift. Explain the situation, and ask the giveaway creator to request a new giveaway winner. During this process you should not mark the gift as "Received", or reveal the key if the option is available. This will help inform us that you are not accepting the gift, and it will prevent you from being suspended for not activating a gift you won. Once the ticket from the giveaway creator is approved for a new winner, the win will be removed from your profile.
I will do that (on future GA, there are a few in progress), but let me explain why I added that.
First, people don't check, I had a problem with a GA where it was needed to delete the entry Since there weren't enough winners to reroll, the winner (who already had the dlc) was upset at me for the time it took, was rather rude and set it as not received while they did receive the key during the 5 or 7 months it took to just delete the entry.
Second I have 7 tickets waiting, 4 since over 4 months, there aren't enough moderators and super moderators, I would rather have you guy going over those tickets waiting since months rather than adding another one which is bonus work for everybody.
While I do understand the rules, what would be great is to have SG checking for the dlc on account to avoid the annoying double or triple work just because some people aren't bothered to spend 4 seconds clicking on a link. I don't know how to propose rules, but until the dlc check possible, I would say that people could keep dlc under $2 even if they have it would be less work for everybody.
I'm sure you can understand that this bonus work isn't what you and me are here for. I'm just tired to spend my time making tickets every few days, I would rather see the old ones being taken care of
I do understand creators annoyance, that's one of the reason why I never focused on making DLC GAs. But making DLC GAs (same as giveaways for Feature Profile Limted games) "carries" higher risk of having to make re-roll ticket. Same as making giveaway for a game when key expires in 3 days carries risk winner will not be able to receive it, and need to mark giveaway as not received.
While I do understand the rules, what would be great is to have SG checking for the dlc on account to avoid the annoying double or triple work just because some people aren't bothered to spend 4 seconds clicking on a link.
That's not something site admin can change, as SG relies on SteamAPI. And all it's limitations. I know it's possible to get list of all DLC user has on account, but it requires to have access to said user account. When you're logged in Steam Shop you can request version of your library in "plain text". It will list all games and DLC you have. Sites like bartner use it to get accurate list of DLCs user owns.
Problem is user needs to be logged into correct account on the sync. So just this fact makes it unusable for SG, as site synces library every 24h. It would also require SG to have some script that will parse user /Steam-shop page, and SG would need to be open in the background for the operation.
If you'd be logged in another Steam account when sync would happen - SG would sync library of whoever is logged in. And we have no way of check if proper account is synced, as page I write about does not show any userID.
I do know people keep writing "bartner / isthereanydeals etc. can sync, so why SG can't??". Problem is we can't rely on information stored like that. It needs to be tied to specific user, and accessible at any time. I would be able to keep myself disciplined, and it would work. But a lot of users would not. I think you can imagine what would happen if SG is allowed to sync random games lists into it's database.
I would be all in favor of having more complex "hidden" feature, or another tool where users can paste content of their /license page from past month or week, and SG would automatically add all positions from there to the hidden list, if they are not synced with database. But right now we need to work with what we have.
If you have any proposition you can post it in the suggestion sub-forum. But you'd need to explain it properly, as I'm sure people will dislike any change that would allow some users to take their games (or DLCs) and re-gift or re-sell them just because they are cheap. And it would require change to very basic (and simple) rule on SG - activate everything you own, otherwise suspension.
I understand both sides of the fence and if I were to listen to myself, I would request 12 hours of suspension if a reroll is requested because a user already have a DLC or a game and didn't bother to check. Sure, it would piss off all the people who are clearly using bots to auto join everything and anything, it would piss off all the lazy people who can't be bothered to click on a steam link to see if they already have that game or this DLC, but it would be for the best.
A lot of people, me included, lowered the amount of public GA they are making and augmenting the level of those because there are a lot of people here who just want to earn $0.03 in cards by getting something free. And somewhat that's sad, both the fact we eventually restrain our GA and the fact that some people like to have free games other people paid with money just to farm 3 cards.
When you begin to realize that X or Y is using a bot and that A & B are in fact the same person, that you are in the middle of people who not only keep cheating but also are angry at you for not instantly repair their mistake, you really wonder what you're doing here.
I'm sorry for the rant, I'm getting tired over all that. I did stop to make DLC giveaway, but it doesn't stop people from being buttholes at times.
I would request 12 hours of suspension if a reroll is requested because a user already have a DLC or a game and didn't bother to check.
I think site admin wants to keep rather easy going atmosphere here. And this kind of requirement would introduce a bit of an "army discipline" around here :P And for some time we would do nothing else but suspend people because they did not check they own DLC.
Plus some time ago we did not have problem with Feature Profiles Limited games. User can honestly expect SG will not allow them to enter games they own, if they chose "Hide games you already own" in the giveaway options. But SG is unable to see those games on their profile. We have a lot of puzzled users who write bug reports to support, that they see (or were able to) enter giveaways they added to Steam few days earlier. We don't know what kind of limits will Valve put on the SteamShop in a month, that will make it even harder for SG to keep up to date.
A lot of people, me included, lowered the amount of public GA they are making and augmenting the level of those because there are a lot of people here who just want to earn $0.03 in cards by getting something free. And somewhat that's sad, both the fact we eventually restrain our GA and the fact that some people like to have free games other people paid with money just to farm 3 cards.
I do understand this sentiment, and because of it for some time I was making giveaways only for groups as well. It's similar as with say social system - if you make barriers high and complex it will weed out "bad apples", but also make it hard for people who need help to get it, as they are often with basic education and withdrawn from seeking help. Make rules loose and more people will get help, but it will also be prone for exploitation. I know it's far-fetched comparison, but I hope you see underlying issue.
You may have 95% of users that have 1k+ games that enter giveaways for 3 cents worth of cards, and add all bundle shovelware to farm cards as well. But you also can have 5% of users with 1k library, as they were given bundle leftovers from friends over the years, as they have little to no income. And thinking they can find something worth playing among this may be bright point in their day. Winning AAA game on SG they would want to play would be truly amazing, and they would surely play it without delay. I don't have answer if it's worth it to block those 95% users, if this 5% will be swept away as well.
SG started as a page to share extra keys outside of reddit free drops etc. There were no limits. Those were added later to reward people who gives. If we'd have limits of "no more than x games" "played wins" etc it would be more like sub-page than SG itself.
Hey,
Any kind of additional rules for the giveaways are not allowed.
If winner does own DLC they won - they need to request re-roll. Accepting the key and marking giveaway as received is against SG rules. You should not tell people to break the rules, as it's inconvenient to re-roll DLCs because they are improperly reported by SteamAPI. If we have a report that user is accepting keys for DLCs they already have - we will investigate, and suspend them if necessary.
I will ask you to remove this point from the giveaways, as it's asking users to break the site rules.
Comment has been collapsed.
I will do that (on future GA, there are a few in progress), but let me explain why I added that.
First, people don't check, I had a problem with a GA where it was needed to delete the entry Since there weren't enough winners to reroll, the winner (who already had the dlc) was upset at me for the time it took, was rather rude and set it as not received while they did receive the key during the 5 or 7 months it took to just delete the entry.
Second I have 7 tickets waiting, 4 since over 4 months, there aren't enough moderators and super moderators, I would rather have you guy going over those tickets waiting since months rather than adding another one which is bonus work for everybody.
While I do understand the rules, what would be great is to have SG checking for the dlc on account to avoid the annoying double or triple work just because some people aren't bothered to spend 4 seconds clicking on a link. I don't know how to propose rules, but until the dlc check possible, I would say that people could keep dlc under $2 even if they have it would be less work for everybody.
I'm sure you can understand that this bonus work isn't what you and me are here for. I'm just tired to spend my time making tickets every few days, I would rather see the old ones being taken care of
Comment has been collapsed.
I do understand creators annoyance, that's one of the reason why I never focused on making DLC GAs. But making DLC GAs (same as giveaways for Feature Profile Limted games) "carries" higher risk of having to make re-roll ticket. Same as making giveaway for a game when key expires in 3 days carries risk winner will not be able to receive it, and need to mark giveaway as not received.
That's not something site admin can change, as SG relies on SteamAPI. And all it's limitations. I know it's possible to get list of all DLC user has on account, but it requires to have access to said user account. When you're logged in Steam Shop you can request version of your library in "plain text". It will list all games and DLC you have. Sites like bartner use it to get accurate list of DLCs user owns.
Problem is user needs to be logged into correct account on the sync. So just this fact makes it unusable for SG, as site synces library every 24h. It would also require SG to have some script that will parse user /Steam-shop page, and SG would need to be open in the background for the operation.
If you'd be logged in another Steam account when sync would happen - SG would sync library of whoever is logged in. And we have no way of check if proper account is synced, as page I write about does not show any userID.
http://store.steampowered.com/dynamicstore/userdata/
I do know people keep writing "bartner / isthereanydeals etc. can sync, so why SG can't??". Problem is we can't rely on information stored like that. It needs to be tied to specific user, and accessible at any time. I would be able to keep myself disciplined, and it would work. But a lot of users would not. I think you can imagine what would happen if SG is allowed to sync random games lists into it's database.
I would be all in favor of having more complex "hidden" feature, or another tool where users can paste content of their /license page from past month or week, and SG would automatically add all positions from there to the hidden list, if they are not synced with database. But right now we need to work with what we have.
If you have any proposition you can post it in the suggestion sub-forum. But you'd need to explain it properly, as I'm sure people will dislike any change that would allow some users to take their games (or DLCs) and re-gift or re-sell them just because they are cheap. And it would require change to very basic (and simple) rule on SG - activate everything you own, otherwise suspension.
Comment has been collapsed.
I understand both sides of the fence and if I were to listen to myself, I would request 12 hours of suspension if a reroll is requested because a user already have a DLC or a game and didn't bother to check. Sure, it would piss off all the people who are clearly using bots to auto join everything and anything, it would piss off all the lazy people who can't be bothered to click on a steam link to see if they already have that game or this DLC, but it would be for the best.
A lot of people, me included, lowered the amount of public GA they are making and augmenting the level of those because there are a lot of people here who just want to earn $0.03 in cards by getting something free. And somewhat that's sad, both the fact we eventually restrain our GA and the fact that some people like to have free games other people paid with money just to farm 3 cards.
When you begin to realize that X or Y is using a bot and that A & B are in fact the same person, that you are in the middle of people who not only keep cheating but also are angry at you for not instantly repair their mistake, you really wonder what you're doing here.
I'm sorry for the rant, I'm getting tired over all that. I did stop to make DLC giveaway, but it doesn't stop people from being buttholes at times.
Comment has been collapsed.
Hey,
Sorry, I did not have time to reply earlier.
I think site admin wants to keep rather easy going atmosphere here. And this kind of requirement would introduce a bit of an "army discipline" around here :P And for some time we would do nothing else but suspend people because they did not check they own DLC.
Plus some time ago we did not have problem with Feature Profiles Limited games. User can honestly expect SG will not allow them to enter games they own, if they chose "Hide games you already own" in the giveaway options. But SG is unable to see those games on their profile. We have a lot of puzzled users who write bug reports to support, that they see (or were able to) enter giveaways they added to Steam few days earlier. We don't know what kind of limits will Valve put on the SteamShop in a month, that will make it even harder for SG to keep up to date.
I do understand this sentiment, and because of it for some time I was making giveaways only for groups as well. It's similar as with say social system - if you make barriers high and complex it will weed out "bad apples", but also make it hard for people who need help to get it, as they are often with basic education and withdrawn from seeking help. Make rules loose and more people will get help, but it will also be prone for exploitation. I know it's far-fetched comparison, but I hope you see underlying issue.
You may have 95% of users that have 1k+ games that enter giveaways for 3 cents worth of cards, and add all bundle shovelware to farm cards as well. But you also can have 5% of users with 1k library, as they were given bundle leftovers from friends over the years, as they have little to no income. And thinking they can find something worth playing among this may be bright point in their day. Winning AAA game on SG they would want to play would be truly amazing, and they would surely play it without delay. I don't have answer if it's worth it to block those 95% users, if this 5% will be swept away as well.
SG started as a page to share extra keys outside of reddit free drops etc. There were no limits. Those were added later to reward people who gives. If we'd have limits of "no more than x games" "played wins" etc it would be more like sub-page than SG itself.
Comment has been collapsed.