well it could be a nice copy pasta, but the time stamps though...
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Same situation I posted about a week ago. I feel you, and if my poll was accurate, most people here as well.
It's not against the rules of this site to use scripts that automate entering giveaways. So blacklist, move along and start making private/ whitelist giveaways.
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I will sit here, build a camp fire, and roast some kernels of corn. Pop they go, into my mouth, just like all the others before.
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While automatic entry is a dick move that no one likes, they aren't actually breaking any site rules. Feel free to blacklist them, but there is nothing you can do about reporting them.
Its also possible its just auto comment on regular entries.
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The new Terms of Service states:
- the Content is not spam, is not machine or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
cg says this does include bots that will enter and/or comment for you. So it's technically against the rules, and I've shut down some of the threads I found linking to them, but I don't know what, if any, action we may take against users. So don't submit reports on people you suspect are running these bots just yet, but just wanting to say that it technically is against the site ToS.
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I'll just stick to blacklisting then, thanks for the info.
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Invite only ga works quite well at dodging bots too
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/zof6m/defy-gravity-extended
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Thanks for the clarification !
(Never understood why someone would be so lazy as to not even type the comment themselves.)
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I'm glad to see some steps are being taken to counter the problem. I hope you will get the tools to crackdown on these people.
In the meantime, closing threads promoting such scripts is a good first step.
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Good stuff. Glad to hear this is something that's being looked into :)
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ctrl + c -> ctrl + v
Just saying. Not necessarily an automated system, maybe just laziness.
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All at the same instant? Thats very fast, too fast to be manual.
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I'm aware this is what a lot of people are doing, but copy pasting in to three different giveaways in less than a second seems unlikely.
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Could be multiple tabs open, but does look suspicious.
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CTRL + V, submit, CTRL + TAB, scrolling down, CTRL + V, submit, CTRL + TAB, scrolling down, CTRL + V, submit. I'd say it takes more than a second.
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- Open and enter every giveaway.
- Hold the End key and click through every tab.
- Copy a Thank you.
- Hold down Ctrl, press Tab, click on comment field, press V. Repeat.
- Hold Ctrl, press Tab then click on Submit. Repeat.
This way you can manually submit several comments in the same second. ;)
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I have done it once before because i am no script kiddy but goddamn that one looks too hella fast... lol.. def an extension or script maker or some sort of automation of some sort.. haha
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Maybe if they open all your giveaways first, then copy paste their comments and hit the submit button, one tab after another. I'm just saying that because I did that myself sometimes. Point is they may not be necessarily automated
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I'm not really sure how this is evidence of automating anything. Sure, it looks like somebody entering a bunch of giveaways and just ctrl+v the same comment into each one, but I'm not seeing what the problem is.
If you're visiting the site to use up your points, then its going to look like a bunch entered in sequence.
Even if its automated, why is that a problem ? Because other people are then pissy at how much time its taking them ?
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The evidence is the two occasions where he enters three different giveaways in less than second. You can't copy-paste that quickly.
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As this user is a member of a group for a script that auto enters, it's very likely he used it.
However, the timestamps are not 'evidence' and I would hate to see people punished due to that alone.
Timestamps on websites like this are based on the time the data was received by the server rather than when the data was sent and these can differer quite a bit in certain situations.
For instance, imagine if the person was suffering from a bad connection. It makes sense to open GA's in separate tabs and leave them loading whilst doing something else. Once loaded, they comment and submit each. As the network connection is bad or even dropping occasionally, these data packets could buffer up on their side and then be sent in a batch. This would seem from the server side to have all come at the same time.
Another example is if the server itself was being overloaded. The data packets would have buffered up at the server end and when the load eased, they would have all come through at the same time.
As to whether you should blacklist or report them...
I personally wouldn't as what is the real difference with someone doing this or typing quickly? Where would the cut-off be? Should we report people who don't look at the giveaway for more than 2 seconds?
If you really want to do something though, then I think you should blacklist them rather than report. SG seems a bit bogged down with reports at the moment. Maybe once the total number of unresolved issues drops, start reporting them. At the moment I feel adding more reports for issues like this will not actually help anyone out.
Anyway, nice bunch of GAs ;)
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I understand why it would be an issue from SG's point of view, because they're not getting tbe ad impressions from automated views probably.
But from a users view I don't see it making any difference.
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If someone can't be bothered to at least go to the length of manually entering giveaways for games they might actually play, I don't see why they should deserve the chance to win games from a community they have 0 interaction with, taking away from users who at least even knew the giveaway existed. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't enjoy the thought of someone winning my game from a giveaway they didn't even know they'd entered until they saw the "you won" notification.
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Unfortunately even them showing up and manually clicking doesn't preclude that possibility either, just quickly joining any random giveaway and then moving on.
That being said, there are so many interesting games that I would love to play and others I would definitely not that I could not imagine entering random giveaways. I don't mind taking chances on some games that look interesting, otherwise let someone else win it and now I have more chances at stuff I could actually enjoy.
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So you mean like some sort of list specific kind of automated entry.. like one where maybe you wish for those certain games.. a wishlist if you will ;) wink wink nudge nudge say no more say no more haha lol.. sometimes i think feel and think that like some people have not seen monty python and then i accidentally make myself sad and cry.. haha lol.. ngaww :(
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I think Invite only GA's through forums are best... it may not be a permanent solution but at least they go to people who will at least appreciate the win.
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Hold on, isn't that actually me? I post similar copy pasta around, but can't remember joining any of these giveaways, moreover, I own most of these games already.
Anyway, why you didn't contact the guy first?
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It's not. I've checked it out and quite frankly I was surprised to see someone still using a bot at that CV level.
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http://puu.sh/gJ8jN/040a51e708.jpg
It's not you.
I don't see what contacting him would achieve? It's not like the person is going to admit to automating entries, I'm not really interested in what their excuse would be.
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That guy had no way to defend himself. And I'm not defending him myself (I don't even know him), but there are always two sides of the story.
Anyway, technically, if he wanted to do so it's possible - I very often open all giveaways I'm interested in, in new tabs, and whem I'm done I just quickly spam CTRL+TAB (next tab in chrome hotkey) and join giveaway. Second batch for comments, so it's possible that there may be even 2-3 coments at the same second.
But of course, he would have to actually try, this case doesn't look like he wanted at all, more like bot automation.
There are some scripts already available that make SG easier. Most notable: Easy SteamGifts, it allows joining to the GA on the main page + auto-comment, I'm using it myself sometimes, but I'm in private groups that have their own rules, so I need to check description/group before joining anyway.
Well, it depends on you. You can blacklist such people, but I'd probably do the same if I was him, because ESG helps me a lot (saves time). Especially if I had access only to public giveaways, where you simply join blindly.
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Personally I just blacklist anyone found to be using Easy Steamgifts. It you're lazy to the point that you can't be bothered to take 2 seconds to look at the giveaway description, I'd don't want you anywhere near my giveaways.
Fortunately, with the new terms of services such thing is now prohibited and I'm hoping the support staff will be given the tools to crack down on these people.
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It's not prohibited to use automation tools ATM. And if you call me lazy for doing so then you should also blacklist all guys who do not leave comments, because they're even more lazy than me. Unfortunately you'd exceed your blacklist size.
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It IS prohibited ATM to have a bot or script enter and/or comment in your place, as Bobofatt mentioned earlier. They are not yet suspending users for doing it but they're already closing any thread that contains such scripts.
And I honestly prefer someone who manually enters my giveaway and leave no comment than someone who use a script to do so and leaves a comment he didn't even write himself. At least they open the giveaway page to do so and will see any comment I wrote in the description.
The captcha requirement to enter giveaways is sounding more and more like a great idea.
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Well, I disabled auto commenting then.
But, again, it's not possible to find people using automation tools in reliable way, as I very often join all GAs at once as mentioned earlier. And ESG does the same thing - it opens new tab, joins GA, then closes it. It's client-sided tool, and without some captcha you won't be able to reliable tell who is using ESG, and who is not.
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I think putting a level requirement on your giveaway is better way of restricting it to people giving back and participating in "the community" if this bothers you.
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In this case though the guy is level 4, which is why I was a bit surprised (and probably the OP as well).
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Do you use Steamgifts++? This script has bunch of nice features, like it marks new posts in threads, automatically loads more posts or giveaways when you scroll to the end of page or it also has button to enter giveaway and say thanks in one click. Is saves your time and make you comfortable.
It's logical to use automated script that enters giveaways for you. You have points so use them all.
Personally I am too lazy to write bot and I’m choosing only some giveaways. Sometimes I read the discussions and very rarely comment on them.
But if you feel you don't want to give something to those people, just make a puzzle giveaway in forums. Then there's no way a bot or script can enter it.
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I would imagine this adds an enter button against each game in the search results list, which would make it quite possible to enter giveaways within a second of each other by quickly clicking down the list.
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There is another script which does that, but SG++ is clean.
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feel free to try it http://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/7euKx/
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I would suggest caution after what bobofatt said regarding the ToS
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There's nothing wrong with Steamgifts++, it doesn't do anything that's against the ToS.
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The content is machine generated which is against the ToS.
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Which content is machine generated?
You have to type your own thanks message, then click a "Submit and Enter" button.
I really don't think SG++ breaks any ToS and if it does, I'm pretty certain SG will waive it as this is a very useful tool that SG has taken inspiration from.
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You could say the same thing about the scripts, you can type in your own message with them. I would be leery of using it until we are told if it is acceptable as it does automate some processes which would imply breaking the ToS.
I would rather not risk it when all it takes is a couple extra clicks and some key presses. You could make the argument that Steamgifts++ is halfway between manual and the scripts as it automates some processes but still requires some manual input.
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Yeah, I suppose.
The guys making SG++ are pretty responsible though and are doing it to help make SG better rather than trying to cheat the system in anyway. If it becomes clear that this is breaking ToS, then I'm sure they would remove the feature.
I also doubt SG would ban everyone who is using SG++ without a prior warning as they would lose a hell of a lot of members (including a lot of the very high level ones)
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we are using machines to talk about this! its a paradox!
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You never know, someone could have hacked IBM's Watson and have it solve the puzzles for them.
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sure, there is always a way... but you will greatly limit automated entries, probably to zero.
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However, Steamgifts++ does not leave an automated comment in your place or allow you to enter without opening the giveaway page.
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Just noticed this is the 666th discussion in the Bugs/Suggestions category :))
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it is technically possible without bots -i tried with 5 ended giveaways and i have a very slow connection, yet i managed to do it, so believe me i know- but who would get in that hassle to make the giveaway creator confused anyway. .-.
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AFAIR it was not all within the same second. All I can tell now is that it was within the same minute as history doesn't show the exact second the post was made unless you're seeing it within the first minute.
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3 of them were in the same second, other 2 in the next second. so 2 seconds in total. you don't believe me? :/
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i think... but i think.. that if a guy can make a automated script for enter in a ga.. then him can add a feature that this script must wait some seconds before post a new "thanks" and... can add a feature that the message is never the same.. but take it random in one array of string...
now... or this guy open all your ga in a browser tab and then go to ctrl+c and crtl+v... OR... is not a good programmer...
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Simple solution: reduce amount, or rather rate of points income, like 10 times. That way everyone will have to carefully pick games they really want.
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Been said before. but i still think some people use copy paste and very fast.
i open several tabs and close them very quickly. 3 in one second? i can do it if i really try - no reason to do that.
i always leave a personal comment.
hell, i used a bot i wouldn't leave a comment. whats the point? it's not like i care anyway
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To me, 1-click entry falls in the same category as bot users. Fortunately, it's against the terms of service now.
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Sometimes, when I mechanically enter giveaways, I feel like a bot.
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Just curious as to what SteamGifts' stance is on people who are blatantly automating the entering of giveaways. I had stocked up almost 100 keys which I've been giving away over the course of a few days and I've noticed on multiple occasions situations like this:
http://puu.sh/gJ6hC/153c8655f7.png
Where it's painfully obvious the person may not even be visiting the site at all, but is just automating entries to keep his points below 300. Should I be reporting these people or is it my own problem and I should just blacklist them?
Edit: Some people seem to have missed the key information in the screenshot. I'm not referring to the fact the user has copy pasted the same comment. In two occasions, the user has opened three different giveaways and pasted the same response all three times in less than a second. This is not realisticly possible.
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