Dilemma between making private/public giveaways

I do public giveaways because everyone deserves to win. Even my private giveaways are open to everyone (because I post them in the discussions). Just because there are many rule breakers and bots, it doesn't mean that you should block all the others by preventing them to join.

I make public giveaways, but I've been scammed twice, most notably by someone who got three keys out of me for the same game. On the second key he told me it was not valid, so I tried it and it activated to my account >_< I still gave him a third key, but... Ugh

I do mainly public GA, but thoughout all levels, and good stuff more likely for higher levels.

Although public giveaways tend to be more depressing for all of the reasons you can probably think of, I still try to do a mix of public, invite-only (trains or otherwise) and group giveaways. I don't do any level 0 or 1 giveaways anymore, though, nor do I do many very high-level GAs anymore (for reasons). Most of my public giveaways are Humble Monthly extras, but not the cream of the crop. If it's something a little more decent, I'll give it to a group or protect it behind an SGTools rule. My celebration trains are of course invite-only. And the better games tend to go to groups and certainly whitelist.
If simple SGTools-checks (rule-breaking) were integrated into SG public giveaways, then I'd make more of them...not that I think it should be integrated, but I would make more public GAs that way.

I still haven't done a lot here, tbh

Mostly I do public giveaway because they're mostly the giveaway I enter (a lot of private giveaway are of a way too high level for me), so it seem 'right' for me to do it this way. A couple of HOG games I've given only to my WL/a HOG group I'm part of, always because I've received a lot from that group and I wanted to give something back.

I'm thinking about a puzzle, but I'd rather do it for a 'whorty' game than just some bundled stuff, so I'm waiting

I can't make giveaways all the time, so I stick to one or the other. For me, it's private giveaways so I have an excuse to use the forums because I never have anything to say. I've made publics before, though.

I tend to post nicer GA's rip that sounds conceited I mean I'm not making AAA GA's most of them are from humble asfk my point is...
I prefer sending GA's in playing appreciated because I want them to actually be played. theirs other groups as well with similar functions but but I like the rules for PA and it has a high number of members. level has nothing to do with it as long as people want to actually play the game and not idle them for cards/+1 I'm happier. (altho I've started making some of those have a small level restriction for reasons). it doesn't feel elitist because even a level 0 can join as long as they commit to the group rule and there isn't a member limit.
if a game look trashy or has bad reviews I just send them in Public GA's but it gets annoying when people get suspended or mark as received after 7 days (after activating on their account after a few minutes) or have to get re-rolled and you start to feel like its not worth it.
I guess I feel really weird about making GA's that are above my level for the most part so I'd rather not post high level good stuff and feel like lower leveled group GA's are fairer.
all in all I like making low level group GA's in PA. Theirs also the whole part you mentioned where all my wins are from group GA's so I feel more connected to that community.

I'm more comfortable in doing giveaways for my main groups, but if I have a good game to give away I do make them publicly, though in the future I'll probably stick with forum trains and puzzles. It might be selfish and attention seeking, but I like my winners to at very least show gratitude, at least for games that others would be happy to play. I don't know, lack of common decency is just a pet peeve of mine I guess. I should probably do more public giveaways to have a more fair judgement tbh.

I'm at the point I'll only do public giveaways for games I think are garbage. This is mainly do to the fact I see the mass majority only win games to farm cards or have a huge collection, and not actually to play and enjoy the games. If I give away a game I think is enjoyable, or could be enjoyable, it's going to private/group giveaways, and if I give away something really good, it's for whitelist or strict groups I know play games, like Actually Playing Games.

Weeeeeell, you could post the trash games on public and post the nice games in group and invite-only giveaways ;) (am gulty of this. accidentally bought a shit game or two. was surprised that people actually wanted the game.)

I started with two public GA's - on one of them the winner told me the key was used and then hounded me relentlessly to buy it for him full price - immediately! He reported me to support but since he'd already marked it as received, Support suspended him instead. I was able to find another key from a lovely friend for that game... but yeah, no more public GA's for me after that :-( Life is too short....

While I do reserve my "best" games for the forum and/or my groups, I still give stuff away to the general public. I see no reason to hold back from gifting the level 1 "pubbies" with a nice game. Besides, I still retain the (possibly futile) hope that my giving away a high-quality game will inspire others to do likewise, even if they have no track record of giving.

I do mostly public (95% or so) and some group/whitelist.

I don't do very many invite-only because I don't like the attention from making forum threads (I've made 8 threads in almost 3 yrs). If I do invite-only, it's usually to add to someone else's thread.

Bump

Edit: I made public GAs to increase my public ratio (I notice there's rule for entry on Sgtools) although I mostly do group GA

I used to do public gibs only but the majority are bots/leeches and the winners oftentimes don't mark as received. I even have one person that marked as not received (which I've opened a ticket for but it's been 3 weeks and still no response from support). I used to do public only because it felt more like giving purely for the sake of giving but now I pretty much only do trains or group/whitelist

Bumpy :3
And yes, all of it

All my giveaways, although not much, have been public. Never thought about making them private because I've never been scammed and all have marked received even though I don't know whether they are bots or not but I don't care since I don't know the people who have won. In fact I've never entered private giveaways myself until a few weeks since I never tried to go to discussion and explore this website. But now after knowing it is way easier to win games when you're privately entering, so now I mostly enter privately myself.

I do private/group mainly, its the easiest way to filter out bots and/or people just not interested in your giveaway. Ends up sometimes with me getting 0 CV but it depends what you are giving things away for? To level up or to give to people interested in your games? A further layer of security is SGT which I'm on the main too lazy to implement. Also I find making puzzles more fun to make than arbitary ratio/level locks. Any games I do not care about(eg, bundle keys gathering dust) I make into trains.

Don't let others dictate how you should spend your money, if you don't like public GA's any more then do not do them. It amazes me that people think there is any "wrong" way to give things away. I'm confused as to why someone would report Talgaby for making too manu GA's for example.

Only public! Through the rocks to the sky!

I think privat GA is bad. Its like "friend to friends only". Everyone must have equal rights to win. Or what the point of all this?!? To give smth to little community? You can do it without steamgifts platform. And how about ppl who dont know english well? Or dont know about your group? Or how to get your invite? I entering only public GAs. I dont know how to enter another way, my eng not enouph good for exploring forums, i have not so many time to look all trains with hope "may be i found game i want". So i make public GAs for same ppl as me.

ps: Ofc there are lot bots or else bad ppl BUT its not a reason to crash idea of steamgifts. if most GAs will be privat or invite only - ppl start to go away from this site. And this is what you want? Stay at almost dead site?

I feel like most of my wins are from private and group giveaways

You don't have to 'feel' that, SGT offers a handy chart to accurately check it. In short, your impression is understating the matter. :P

So my question is what are the reasons that you do public giveaways?

Obligation for my own public wins- while I don't feel inclined to keep that entirely even, given what I view as a disagreeable attitude toward public GA creators by the site, I do try to keep it somewhat balanced (though I won't normally do publics lower than 3+, and generally stick to 4-6+). Past that, I may post public giveaways (even low level ones) for the sake of events, or for those rare instances where I end up with a game I genuinely don't care about (and couldn't manage to trade away for something I felt better about giving away), I may throw a game out at a lower level.

Generally speaking, if I want to give back, I use private giveaways- not only can you manage some really fun forum events that way, SGT makes sure that GA creators have the basic protections that all site giveaways should have available by default. Likewise, I'm part of quite a few very appreciable SG groups, as well- giving to such groups regularly leads to very positive encounters, as they tend to not only filter out rulebreakers and autojoiners, but even more morally deficit types [bigots, etc] as well.

In the end, the most important part of the site is to give away wherever you feel most comfortable doing so. If, as you indicated, private giveaways feel more desirable, then you should pursue that path. Don't consider outside elements, just go with what lets you feel most positive about your site use. Likewise, while I can't fathom it for myself, I don't begrudge anyone who solely makes level 0 publics- they're doing what's right for them, and kudos to them for it. Everyone contributes to the site in their own way, and every bit helps the site remain vibrant. :)
..well.. except the exploiters- they generally put little consideration toward things like contributing.. :/
In the end, I feel the community is the strongest part of SG, and as such, supporting private/group giveaways ends up doing more for the site; others feel that public giveaways do more to keep the site afloat, due to their visibility and ease of access. Good thing is, with the site as large as it is, all these different perspectives blend over each other to support every angle of the site, thus freeing everyone to take their own preferred approach without having to worry about the effects upon the site as a whole.

I do public lvl 0 giveaways to support my friends channel, mostly. Occasionally I will do a lvl 5 giveaway. I find myself doing group/private giveaways more often though. I like the private giveaways because then you can make people go on a scavenger hunt for the link. ;3

I did 1722 GA so far and a healthy 557 of them are for public. Public is what keep this site alive since it take time for the new Giver to grow into elites and a lot of people giveup once they reach level 10.
Most of my GA are however level 5+ so I can tell for certain my game will not be won by bot user.

I won 2921 GA so far yet only 188 of them are from public because group GA with limited member pool (100-150) is best to win games.

Public.
No thanks necessary, as long as they hit the "receive" button afterwards.