Thank you Lilly for your contributions over the years, it's not lost on us the amount of work that goes into maintaining bundles both on SG and on Barter. Without a doubt, you have made this corner of the internet a better place :)
Wish you all the best!
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Thank you for being always so helpful in exchange of nothing. For me there was no better way to check about bundles and region restrictions than checking your threads, so I am going to miss that, but I hope the break helps you live a calmer life.
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Thank you for all your hard work over the years. It's really sad that you have to step down in such a way but it's absolutely understandable why. Wishing you the best in your future endeavors.
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Thanks for sacrificing your sanity for so many years to make the site better for all of us. I know it's a ton of work and stress to stay on top of everything and try to please everyone, which is why I wouldn't want to do it myself. There's a lot of great people, but some people are just miserable and will try to make themselves feel better by dragging you down and making you miserable like them. Life sucks and gaming should be a way to forget about the real world and relax for a while. You don't owe anyone here anything any should just do what makes you happy :)
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Thank you Lilly, we all appreciate you and the work you've done. Take care.
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I had no idea there was deals section drama. Thank you very much for the useful and informative threads you created over the years. I appreciate how much effort you put in. Best wishes to you moving forward!
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Thank you! You've been continuously helping tons of people. It almost felt like you were a bot to be able to contribute like this for the community. I wish you good health and endless joyful days in your life!
You deserve the peace. Once again, thank you for being the kind and committed type of person that you are!
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Thanks for all the years of work you've put into this task Lilly, I really appreciate it, and from the glance I took at the previous comments I'm not the only one.
It makes me sad to read once again about a user here that has to quit, even if in your case you still plan to keep using the site after your retirement from bundle threads, because of harassment. At this point I can't avoid to see a pattern of underlying sexism given how frequent it is for women to be the ones being bullied, even if it might not be much I offer an apology for the shitty men out there, I promise we're not all assholes, but it's true that the rest of us usually fail to keep those who misbehave accountable.
I hope you enjoy your newfound free time, and again, thanks for everything 💙
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Thank you for everything sensualshakti! F*ck the haters!
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Don't forget you're probably the most appreciated here and it's extremely well deserved,
thank you for all your work, you're a real legend !
Whitelisted you long time ago and you'll always be welcome.
Also sorry for the stupid everywhere, if one day you need someone to talk, my door is open for you on steam too.
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Thank you for your service Lilly ! I'm sorry to hear about the harassment and drama, and I hope that will come to an end soon and leave you in peace. I believe your contributions have been helpful for more people than you can imagine!
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It is awful that people are laying blame on you. But it's also awful for you to be losing sleep because of bundles. I hope you can get some rest, and I loved your funny bundle related voting options. I hope you find a way to include such humor in other ways, as they always brought a smile to me.
Thanks for all the crazy detailed work you did, and totally hope you find some balance.
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Like for many people here your Deals thread were always an incredible help to me. And while I'm sad to see you stepping down from it, reading your post definitely makes it understandable. Thank you for all your hard work until now. :)
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Thank you for all your hard work. It's so sad you had to suffer in silence. I hope multiple aspects of your life improve after this!
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I can only say thank you for everything, Lilly, you have been a safe reference point in these years :)
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I've never bought anything from Humble (as I cant do so lol) but I've seen your threads on the SG and have been moved by how much detailed and thorough they are not to mention immensely helpful to people who subscribe to Humble bundles. ik I haven't used the info u shared there but I thank u for all ur work that went into maintaining those threads,not sure if anyone else will be able to fill ur shoes , but hope whatever u would find to replace it with is as satisfying if not more than what u been doing here for all these years; I really don't understand the ..harassment of someone (or anyone) for helping the community like that,ig some folk are just conditioned or whatever to act in such manner...I just realized I wrote a bit too much lol so sorry about that, and wish u the bestest of luck in whatever u may do in the future :)
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Thanks for putting in the years of time for the SG community of making and upkeeping bundle threads, I appreciate it and I know many others do as well.
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"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."
The whole post was very interesting to read, but this part in particular makes me think you are long overdue for some YOU time. Although from what I'm able to tell, you're a professional workaholic, so you probably find it hard to relax. I have to say, judging from your profile, the amount of stuff you produce on a daily basis is simply staggering.
As for the harassment, that's normal internet behavior under certain circumstances. Basically, you give them one finger and they take your whole hand. When you make your time and skills available for long enough, people start taking it for granted, especially since it's for free.
Mulțumesc din suflet pentru toată activitatea de până acum și sper șă dedici cât mai mult timp pentru tine și cei apropiați de acum încolo!
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I am sad to read this at first but felt happy & hopeful after reading all that you wrote.
Thank you so very much for all the fantastic SG deal treads you have done over these 7 years from the bottom of my heart. I, for one never took you for granted for these wonderful SG deal treads you have maintained thus far.
I didnt know about the online harrasment you experienced but I sincerely wish you well after your decision to take a more casual approach on the SG deals forum. I hope you will have a better personal quality of life after this & maybe lotsa catch up sleep to make up for, heh heh.
Continue to stay awesome always & cheers :)
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First of all, don't take random people's words. They know nothing about you, you know you. Secondly, the change is good, especially after something long. Because it'll free your mind from certain things, human mind needs that.
Anyway, thanks for your services Lilly!
May life bring you new pursuits. <3
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Thank you for everything you've done. It's been a great help since region locked keys are a huge problems to me, without your thread I'd have wasted a lot of money.
Wish you all the best in the future 💙
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Dear sensualshakti,
I don't consider myself very vocal on SteamGifts and don't usually comment unless I feel like I have something to say or share. I must say, your bundle threads were and are my number 1 goto when looking for specific details regarding any bundle. I have always been impressed by your contributions and always imagined they took a fair bit of time but I had no idea how much. Thank you for spelling it all out, I appreciate you even more knowing the details you shared. You are awesome.
I applaud your time and your efforts over so many years and also your decision to make a change and I wish you the best with whatever you decide to do next; I am sure it will be next level as you do not fail to disappoint with your attention to detail. Truly, I am sure you will be missed by so many, you leave some big shoes to fill. I hope your next endeavor does not come with as much noise and drama and will be something that gives you even more satisfaction.
Thank you, sincerely.
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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 🚂🚂🚂
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