Is this a feature you'd make use of?
This suggestion was made multiple times over the last years.
The owner of sg (cg) don't done something and i am absolute sure it will not be done in the future too.
And your winner that visit the site multiple times a day but don't react on his win etc., will be most likely a autojoiner, the most of them check after 4 - 7 days their wins.
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Due to that possibility I face a dilemma. Seems that even "autojoiners" are given the luxury of seven days. Alas, it'll be impossible for me to offer the prize to somebody else in such a case because I'm not willing to purchase the game at full price for somebody else after the sale period ends. Do the moderators make exceptions for cases like this or should I just allow the prize to disappear into the void?
Perhaps just as frustrating is the fact that your amount of new giveaways will be reduced by 1 during the wait, even if the winner is a botter holding you back.
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Theoretical you are forced to buy the game for the winner after the sale ended IF this is in the 7 days timeframe that the winner have to claim his prize.
So if you not deliver the win it give 2 ways what will happen.
1) The winner mark the game as not recieved. This kills one of your GA slots (You start with 3 and for each 3 delivered GAs you earn +1 GA slot)
2) The winner create a ticket and accuse you that you made a "fake GA" (Accusing you that you never had intention to deliver the game).
When the mods believe that it was a fake GA you would get really big trouble because this could lead to a perma suspension.
I don't think that, nowadays, the risk, for the second way, are high but not zero.
I personally wouldn't buy a game for the full price and accept the "not delivered" mark. And if someone would create a ticket about a fake game i would explain the timeframe of the discount and that the winner not reacted for X days after he were online on sg "all the time". And i would suggest them to check that winner for autojoiner use (the chance that they find something is near 0% when you don't deliver a lot of evidences for the use of a autojoiner program -but maybe it is enough that they not believe you made a fake GA-).
And all this problems are the reason why a lot of gifters changed the min. level in public GAs higher as you do it at the moment.
With level 4 or 5 the problematic situations are much rarer.
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Good advice, thanks. I thought about raising the minimum level above 2, but I know there will be some genuine non-botter people who cannot afford to reach level 4 or 5 but are still worthy of the prize, they're just not in a financial situation of reaching that point. If CG actually did something about this problem it would work out for everybody. (Except the autojoiners.)
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There are level 10 autojoiners just because they have been here for 10 years and the mods only reduce cv for the past few months so everyone that has been here years has some golden untouchable status while everyone else just constantly gets knocked down. So most of the autojoiners are old hats with multiple accounts that nothing happens to besides a few days suspension at best. The problem is so easy to fix but nothing will happen because these bot accounts generate a lot of fake traffic.
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You could message the winner in one of their public giveaways. That's usually the first answer regarding this topic, but I don't see anyone bringing it up yet. Of course, if they never created a public one and aren't active in discussions, you're out of luck.
How to avoid this: Use keys foremost. Only use gifts if sale endures more than 7 days (14 days is max) or if you can live with paying full price (cheap games).
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You can add them on steam.
Or reroll and blacklist.
If people dont notice they won a game now, they wont notice if you sent them a message on the site either.
As masa pointed out - probably an autojoiner, so dont feel back about not sending the key.
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Well I had to add them on Steam anyway since the GA in question is a Steam gift. It's unfortunate that email delivery was retired on Steam. If only SG had a way to identify autojoiners and automatically limit their account. Too bad that CG doesn't update the site anymore. Oh well.
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It gave, 6 years ago, a autojoiner check.
So cg have all needed tools etc..
He only not use them since 6 years and come up with excuses explanations why a assumed autojoiner isn't one.
Feel free to search in the discussions of the last few months for it. I wrote there a lot and linked to the old thread of cg about the one and only autojoiner hunt that he done (and punished them in a absolute bad joke way).
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I think I found the thread in question. Why on earth would CG only run such a useful feature for only a few days and then disable it for good? That's pretty suspicious. I'm now considering using the tactic of a public GA placeholder which contains a link to the real GA. I might pull my Cyberpunk 2077 GA and redo it that way. At least this way I know it's far less likely that some opportunistic asshole will win the game.
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i would be carefull with useing bait GAs unless you intend to still deliver them.
i believe the easiest solution to your issue would be by making private GAs and either make a new discussion for it or post it in some other discussions dedicated for these cases like this one.
and while youre at it also usie some sort of puzzle to make it harder for bots to join.
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That's true, though I think the feature could be useful in other scenarios. Let's say it's a genuine human non-autojoiner winner who is accidentally delivered a key that cannot be redeemed in their region. They'd be able to let the GA creator know about this. Maybe they don't know that they should write in the GA comments that they are fine with the key being given to another winner (as far as I know that's the procedure), this could then be communicated in private messages.
I imagine there are more scenarios where the feature could be useful. Either way, I realise that CG isn't very open to improving the site which is a pity. So I guess this feature or other features much better than this one won't be implemented.
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Actually region locked keys cannot be rerolled as far as I know. You either have to get a working key or if the winner accepts the GA can be deleted and then you are supposed to set up a new one with proper region restrictions. Rerolling in such case would net the risk of choosing another winner from excluded country
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I fully understand why private messaging isn’t a feature, as I wouldn’t want someone to be able to message me privately.
They can still do it publicly on one of my previous wins or giveaways (and if they can’t do that, then they must be blacklisted, lol).
As for the giveaway… it’s really unfortunate, but I tried to warn you 😕😅
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i read through some replies here and looking at the games that still need to be activated ... so my 2 cents
so far i can see only 2 of your giveaways that are still awaiting feedback
Dragon Age II: Ultimate Edition - ended 1 day and 16h ago
River City Girls 2 - ended 11hours ago.
first of all, both of them only just ended recently. 1 day ago is really not much of a time that would require being concerned.
second, neither GA has any form of description that tells anyone that this is supposed to be a steam gift. so the winner may very well be waiting for you to finally send the key through the SG-own system. since he doesnt know any better he may not know that he is supposed to check for a friend invite on steam to get his win.
also not everyone checks steam often, maybe only to actually play, at home, at their PC, when they're not busy with other stuff. SG can be accessed through the phone as well, so coming online multiple times per day but not so much on steam is very well normal and doesnt mean they are a bot. though its still possible.
btw... a lot of ppl are vary of accepting "random" steam invites from ppl in case it could be some scammer.
i would suggest doing the following (if you havent alreeady done so).
if your winner has made GAs himself, then comment on one of their GAs - like someone else already suggested - and explains whats up. that way they will receive a notification and understand why you wont send a key :P
update your GA description with the fact that its being given away through steam and that the winner needs to accept your friend request. better do this for all the other GAs that are still on-going/awaiting feedback and you are also giving away through steam. hopefully your other winners will see the description and know what they'll have to do
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Private messaging for contributors isn't exactly needed as they are provided with the winner's email. This offloads the necessity of granting some access to private messages in cases of abuse, which of course can lead to its own abuse.
That being said, providing people's emails brings their own problems. There really isn't a reason why I still have access to people's emails years after the giveaway I made was marked received. Once it is marked as received it should be removed. That would solve potential problems if someone's account got hacked, for example one of the dev accounts with thousands of giveaways. Another potential problem would be someone posing as a dev and doing one of the massive giveaways, not sure what protections are in place there.
A public message board could be added to everyone's profile. It could then be easily moderated and that would allow everyone to be contacted in case they haven't done a giveaway or left a comment you can find.
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Cheers for any suggestions, guys, but there's no need to offer them anymore. Over the past day I've learnt a lot more about SteamGifts, including but not limited to its administration and its culture, and let's just say that my favourable opinion has taken a 180.
I know that some people will oppose my viewpoints here because of their loyalty to the site and I get that, but are you really happy being a contributor to a site that treats you like a second-class citizen while opportunistic botters reap all of the rewards? And how the site is working against you because of an admin who doesn't wish to develop a fairer system (he already developed an anti-autojoiner system but deactivated it), probably because he's simply happy with the advertisement and Fanatical revenue. The real heroes here - including many of you - are treated like crap.
I haven't been here actively for long. I think I've given away a decent amount of games, but honestly it feels empty when they're claimed by people who run scripts en masse. People have come up with workarounds for the autojoiners (such as a placeholder giveaway that contains a link to the real invite giveaway) but it seems they may be penalised for trying to do the right thing. I joined SteamGifts because giving away games to friends or acquaintances directly can be a bit awkward. You won't always find people who want what you're offering, it can take a while, and maybe they think you want something in return. The anonymity of SteamGifts is appealing, but the system is marred by bad actors who wish to scoop up everything, including games they'd never touch with a bargepole in reality.
That's about the end of my little rant. I expect I'll be banned soon for one reason or another. It's been an interesting if slightly frustrating past few days and I'm glad that I was able to give games to at least some genuine people. But I'm not a fan of how things work here so I'll choose other means of this goodwill in future.
Thanks and good luck everybody.
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You might also take a look at groups available and join some of them. Groups will solve many issues you might experience with public giveaways, as they filter users they accept in the group. Eg. you might join Unlucky group as a gifter only to create giveaways for new users. As another example, you might also start with this group.
Another option is, you can build up your Whitelist with users you see active in forums and then create Whitelist only giveaways.
I would suggests you stick around Steamgifts, check those options above, have fun and enjoy the ride.
Regarding your giveaway, do not worry too much, one of the following will probably happen:
I would also suggest that in your finished giveaway, you change key to have text something like "This is Steam gift, please add me as a friend to Steam or accept my invite." and send it. That way winner will have flashing icon in Giveaways Won, and when it goes to check the key it will see the text. And you will see when winner has seen the text as there will be new eye icon next to the Key text.
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You should indicate in description of giveaways that this is a gift and the winner needs to be added on Steam. SG users love to win games, but they don't always have time or opportunity to play, so they may not log into Steam very often. User is probably just waiting for the key. When you win a giveaway, it is displayed by a notification on top, and when the giver sends the key, this notification flashes.
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You kinda need to be patient when it comes to the winners activating their wins since it can sometimes take a few days, that's why it's usually better to limit the reach of the giveaways involving gifting things directly through Steam to people that will at least read the description and be aware that you'll be adding them to deliver the gift. About how you restrict said GA, that's up to you since there's several methods of variable usefulness, my suggestion is private giveaways put behind a puzzle of some kind, if they have to use their brains to access the GA then there's less chance that they'll mindlessly click that green button without paying attention.
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I guess it could be useful but you also can write to him on one of his GAs and he will get message. Of course it is not so fluent as chat but good enough for basic communication needed. F.e. you can write to him I try to add you on steam with nick XX, please accept etc
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Private messaging could be a very useful feature on SteamGifts, mostly for contributors. Let me give you a real example that I'm sure a good number of you can relate to. I have a winner of one of my GAs who isn't claiming his prize. This is different to most of my GAs in how it's delivered as a Steam gift rather than a key, therefore it's necessary for me to add the winner on Steam to deliver the prize. I've done other Steam gift GAs and this hasn't been a problem until now, but I notice that the winner doesn't actually use Steam often, so either they haven't actually seen my friend request or they don't realise that the request is to deliver the prize. However, they do seem to visit SG several times a day, therefore this probably wouldn't be an issue if I could send them a private message to let them know they need to follow the necessary steps or they'll lose the prize. Unfortunately I'm not so hopeful about a happy ending here.
Regarding the whole concern about people including creeps and scammers abusing the feature, a simple fix is to make it so that PMs can only take place between the GA creator and the winner. It could be more flexible than that but I think that's one way of eliminating any concerns about the feature.
I don't like to necro an old suggestion, but honestly I think it's wild that this feature still doesn't exist. I hope it'll be reconsidered in the future.
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