Please do not think all the community is like these dumbsh*ts.
We appreciate all the hard work you do. It has been invaluable for a collector like me, that is always keen to grab a great deal.
You will be certainly missed! I only hope you find the same, or even more enjoyment on the next thing you decide to do.
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Please do not think all the community is like these dumbsh*ts.
I do not.
The SG community has always been very polite and kind to me. There are probably some who dislike me, but thankfully we don't cross paths often. I'm not even aware of who they are - if you ask me, I can give you no more than 3-4 names out of hundreds of people active here.
I'm deeply grateful that the comments on bundle threads have been drama-free (mostly). This provided for me (and probably for others too) quite the safe space.
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Don't take into consideration what others could say about you on Internet, they are usually cowards and bullies. You are a valuable member of this site. You can see the expressions of gratitude from so many members here.
Thank you for everything, you will be missed :(
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Thank you for your hard work the past 7(!) years! I haven't been here long but I always recognize your pfp in the deals section and you truly are a pillar of this community. I'm sorry to hear you've had a rough year, I hope you can take some time for yourself and that things improve for you! Thanks for everything and please take care of yourself! 💜
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You are the 2nd reason why I enter Steamgifts, the first of course is the giveaways. But I knew that every time I entered, there would be some thread of bundles updated by you and that is priceless.
I thank you for all your work and for so much love and dedication to the community all these years and if the decision is irreversible, I hope you find peace and happiness doing what you like most.
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Thank you so much.
It’s because of you that everyone knows the details of the bundle.
Thank you again for your dedication.
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Sorry to see you go. While I haven't been active on barter for some time, I appreciated the summaries here. Thank you.
Moreso, I regret to hear of the online harassment. It's unfortunately everywhere, even SG. If there is anything that I can do, let's connect on Steam and Steam chat to start.
I hope that the change is everything that you hope for.
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Thank you for volunteering your time so selflessly all these years. Nobody expected you to do it forever. Everyone here is grateful for everything you've done for this long. Sorry you had to deal with any abuse. There's always gonna be people like that but I think they're the extreme minority and it's best to ignore them and not give them any thought.
Barter and SG are always one of the first places I look to find info on bundles, pricing, etc. All the details are there and it's so easy to look up and reliable. We have you to thank for that. You made our experience on these sites so much better.
So don't feel bad or sad. You did an awesome job!
Maybe a good idea if you haven't thought of it is to leave a guide or tips for future volunteers on how you gathered and posted all this info so it'll make things go smoother.
Again thanks for all you do and have done. The sites wouldn't have been as good without you!
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Maybe a good idea if you haven't thought of it is to leave a guide or tips for future volunteers on how you gathered and posted all this info so it'll make things go smoother.
Someone else suggested the same thing here. Any tips on how to best do that are much appreciated.
Otherwise, thank you for the kind words and for your encouragement.
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Honestly I don't know. If you don't really have a set method on how to do things then I guess all you can do is say how you generally approach it and what sources you use. Take the last bundle thread you did. How and where did you find the game titles, the alternate titles for different regions (if there were any), the region lock & availability info, how do you format the charts for the games, ratings, achievements, etc., do you get the chart info straight from steam store or is there a better place, etc.
If all that's too much then of course you don't have to do it. I'm sure others will figure it out. Hopefully there will be others 😬
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OMG what a loss of gaming community!!!!!!! Thanks for your time, effort and commitment for the bundle posts. I believe they have helped thousands of thousands people around the world. I can't imagine how can we know about region-lock info without this. 😰😰😰
People will only know to cherish after losing. Anyway, I wish you all the best. See ya around, my friend. 👊
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Thank you for all the handwork you have put into them over these years! It is going to be hard/possible to find a replacement for them.
I hope you will enjoy your retirement.
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Thank you for all the hard work you have put in. Your information was always much appreciated.
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Thanks a lot for maintaining these bundle threads over the years they have been a huge help, I can only imagine how much dedication this required and how much free time you had to sacrifice for it.I wish you the best of luck in your life.
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I don't comment much, but I have followed your bundle posts for YEARS here. They were my one-stop-shop to figure out what game deals were going on and what was worth getting. Your links and tables made browsing everything so easy and have saved me dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of time. The extra time you put into them was saved ten-thousandfold by the people who benefitted from them! The humor you put into your polls was a constant source of cheer!
Thank you so much. You've helped more people than you know.
Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, and I wish you the best as you move on to something new. An ending is always a new beginning! Whatever you decide to focus on next will be lucky to have your level of focus, care, and dedication.
I have nothing but love for you and your efforts, Lilly. Thank you so, SO much. 💜
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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
There goes the most important person to me in this community... I mean it, your work was the reason i kept tagging along here long term.
I understand your situation, people can be pretty evil/selfish, specially when it comes to a place where we do not have to show our faces. Which makes it even easier to bully others and pressure them with negativity. It's sad that people have nothing better to do with their anger, wasting energy bringing others down when said energy could be used elsewhere to make things better for themselves and others.
Anyways, all good things come to an end, eventually. Thank you for the dedication/effort put into all of this Lilly, be proud that you helped many people out there, without even knowing them.
Go take that well deserved free time back, game on and travel a few! It will help you break free of these problems that could be in your mind. I hope we will continue to see you around in the future here on SG.
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Thank you so much sensualshakti, for all the time and dedication you’ve put into steamgifts over the years. I'm honestly kinda shocked to hear about the bullying and harassment you had to face, it makes no sense that anyone would treat you this way after all you've done for us...
As someone who follows the bundle pages, just want to let you know that I really appreciate your hard work and it’s super clear how much better you've contributed to the Deals section. Wishing you all the best as you take a step back, and I hope you continue to enjoy being part of the community!
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Dear SteamGifts community,
I'm sad to announce that I have made the decision to step down from creating / maintaining bundle threads starting 01 Jan 2025.
I am not quitting SteamGifts, but I will remain active only through comments and giveaways.
This might seem sudden for you, but it’s a decision I reached after lengthy consideration. For seven years, I’ve been the main person to create bundle threads and I would have probably been able to continue for many more, if not for some external factors that were out of my control.
2024 was one of the more difficult years of my life. I’ve continuously been the target of online harassment and untruthful / unfounded accusations, in many of these cases without a way for me to disprove them. I considered explaining myself many times, but past experience shows that those who seek to harm me aren’t looking for an explanation, and anything I dare to say in my defense would only be twisted into even worse lies. It’s understandable that without opening up and showing my side of the story, some of you might have negatively changed your opinion about me. This was a risk I knowingly took, as the least bad of the two options.
Seven years of doing bundle threads is a long time and aiming to keep these bundle threads as informative as possible and posting them close to the bundle launch time required a lot of sacrifices on my part. My sleep was the first one to be affected, as trying to be online when a bundle might (not necessarily would) launch often meant cutting down on my sleep, shifting the flow of my entire day (thus affecting the schedule of my family and friends too) or even scheduling trips in order to accommodate bundle threads as much as possible, all that not even knowing the bundle schedule in advance, as this is rarely made public. Obviously, no one forced me to do so, but in regards to bundle threads, I always wanted to give my best, and for me that meant first and foremost creating the thread as soon as possible, especially in the Humble BTA era - a habit that I continued even after it, throughout the years. Balancing bundle threads and work never was (and still isn't) an easy thing but at least it improved my ability to handle multiple mental tasks at the same time.
Aside from bundle thread creation, additional time went into maintaining these threads too: reading all the comments & continuously updating threads with the information you guys kindly share (coupons, subs, free DLC to claim, out of stock items, etc.). Together with my daily activities on Barter.vg (syncing this information between the two platforms was primarily done by me), these ate a significant chunk of my free time, similar to an unpaid part-time job. I’ve never received any monetary compensation for it, and I never wanted any compensation in the first place. My reason for doing this was always to help the two communities and keep the information as comprehensive as possible. It’s the kind of work that would be boring for most people, and get even more repetitive over the years, but I’m the kind of person who derives satisfaction and a feeling of stability from doing the same thing over and over again. I've always struggled to find my place in this world, but bundle threads (and Barter to some extent) gave me the feeling of contributing to society in a way that suited me.
Looking back at all these, I realized that a change is long overdue, as scary as that change might be. Firstly, due to the current online harassment situation, being a public person brings me more harm than I am willing to accept. Needless to say, I shouldn’t let myself be affected by what others think of me or say about me. To some extent I can do that but there’s still a line when too much hostility actually becomes… simply too much. Secondly, I’d like to allocate this time to something else. I’m not yet sure what that will be, for now I will keep myself open to possibilities and see what life has in stock for me.
As I step down from making bundle threads on SteamGifts, I also step down from Barter.vg. I’ve been the go-to person for most things on Barter during the past ~9 years, dealing with pretty much anything that was needed at the time when it was needed, filling every gap when there was no one else willing to do so. That may have made people mistaken me as an admin having full authority on Barter, and as a natural consequence, I attracted a certain amount of hate regarding some decisions that were taken during the recent years, while in reality those decisions were not mine to take. I’ve been held culpable and blamed for things that I didn’t even do. Different user groups have directly accused me of the exact nasty behavior that they themselves engage in, to justify the very same, and intentionally kept spreading those lies about me.
Much like SteamGifts, Barter.vg works solely on a volunteer-basis, with people assuming certain roles temporarily and performing them whenever they see fit or when their time allows. Without someone to be there when no one else is available or as a backup for them, Barter data (bundles, giveaways, items, notices) will probably see a decrease in consistency in the near future. At the moment of writing this, I can’t tell in what way the platform will change (or if it will in any way). Its future and shape is still in talks with the admin because there are several other factors to consider.
I’ll end this huge wall of text by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who supported me throughout the years. You were the reason for which I was able to continue doing this for so long. Thank you for the laughs we had together, for keeping the discussions on the bundle threads drama-free, for helping each other (and me) by answering questions, submitting region lock information, prices in different currencies and correcting my mistakes. Going forth, I hope you will show the same kindness and support to the people who will step up and continue doing this work.
🚂🚂🚂 A little train of various little indie games 🚂🚂🚂🌟 2024-10-30: Edit: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the kind words and positive energy you shared through these comments. Your response is beyond overwhelming. 💜
(I won't be able to reply to everyone, but I will try to answer some of these comments over the weekend.)
🌟 2024-12-08: A small update, mostly regarding my future activity on Barter.
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