is SteamGifts Dying?

A website will always be as healthy as its community. In this regard, Steamgifts will never run out of people who want free stuff. So, there is no risk from that site. The gifting and discussing side? That may decline. However, it is in everyone's power to help improve this. How? For this, we should check on where the issues are.

First, I would like to note that I think that the name Steamgifts is kinda misleading or may justify wrong perceptions. In offline-world when people make gifts, they make them to people who have a certain value to them and enrich their life. The gifts is there and they can do with it what they want because the focus lies on the person. On Steamgifts, we often do not know the recipient of the gift. Therefore, the person is in public and forum giveaways not the focus of the gift. The focus may be on the gift itself. As such when someone makes a more high-profile giveaway and then sees that it is not played, it is very frustrating. Same for games which a person enjoyed even if they are bundled. As someone entering a giveaway I should show minimal courtesy towards the gifter. Of course, this may not apply to people who only want to get rid of their unused keys. That part probably stays alive until the end of Steam.

As such if we want Steamgifts to stay healthy:

• We should make more giveaways ourselves.
• If we are not able to make giveaways - but somehow able to have the latest gaming computer anyway - then we should at least play the games we win
• As such, we should only enter stuff we are actually interested in playing

I mean this is not rocket science. If gifters see that their games are played they will have a better positive feedback and are more likely to make more giveaways. If everyone would also just enter games they intend to play it would also have the nice effect of having more quality giveaways. Imagine a world where no user enters these 2P NSFW games. They would not appear on SG anymore. As simple as that. So a lot of things could be improved just by people having poor impulse control.

For the forum as well. If people are just a bit more active and there is a better discussion climate, the forum will also improve. And I don't mean everyone should be nice and poilte all the time and agree about everything. But just some general manners in disagreement would go a long way.

So yeah, if Steamgifts is dying it is up to us to change it.

"Was just wondering if this site is starting to get obsolete because I usually just see people dumping their unused HB games and not much else."

Maybe its just me, but I had factory day on 17th May, so I am using SG for the last 10 years... And the mayority of GAs was always either bundle keys or "garbage" (couple dollar alibi games and porn) with a couple high value games... So "dying" is a bit harsh in my opinion... 🤔

There are always lots of giveaways available, so that part seems alive and fine.

It's a shame more users don't partake of the forum though.

Survival is anomaly, extinction is a rule.

Yes, for a long time now.

it has been dying for a few years now

I only use Steamgifs as a forum because this site is the quickest way to find the new bundles and deals thanks to some nice users. I have too much games so I don´t enter giveaways now.

Ad I´m sure it´s more people like me.

I thought about this thread and wanted to have my 2 cents

I am not and will not name any names but if you think this is offensive to you or written about you so be it
(it really isn't meant to be mean or attack anyone)

I have made many giveaways on this site as people can see and already know - more than some and less than others
but lately I have found myself feeling llike I can' see the point anymore

I can't say there is one single reason to this or one point in time this feeling happened to start

One reason is that I feel that the amount of people that take and enter giveaways onlly is a big problem on this site -
I do get that not everyone can buy giveaway keys but the amount of places you can "earn" or get "free" keys is large enough
to give at least something back to the site and community.

I feel also that bots that take keys is also a problem and very large - to what point do these people take keys?
to sell on? to trade? to farm cards? or something else? but mostly not to play

I do understand that many members win games they don't and won't touch (yes I do know of groups that make you play games)
but these groups should not be needed as people show at least try the games they win

I also feel and have done for some time that making giveaways used to be a happy time for me - but sometimes I don't even get a thank - you
when people win one of my giveaways (lots of people do and to them I say thanks back) but a quick comment isn't to much to ask is it?

Also the amount of "new" members that join and don't bother to look either in the threads or FAQ - about how to level up
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussions/subscribed/search?q=level%20up - just to show the amount who asked this same or similar questions

A large amount of these people either never use the site again or never pass level 1 and make even 1 CV included giveaway -
shows that people want something for nothing - don't get me wrong some new members are great and do add giveaways and I don't
expect everyone to make giveaways all the time of course - I don't (less and less these days)

Of course the fact that places like Humble have either upped their prices or made bundles of one type of games
(such as all shotter bundles or all RPG bundle) means less people buying bundles which will have keys for giveaways
or people buying bundles just for giveaway either

I can't say I don't add to my next point - that less people seem to enter giveaways - may that be for the fact more people
hide games given away or they actually play the games they win/buy or just the same games come in giveaways again and again
(I have many games that I have made more than one giveaway for - including my current one which I have given away at least once before)

I know I don't enter giveaways so I can't say I help here either but less people entering makes me at least feel less value
in making giveaways

Also the amount of time people have to spend on this site and the amount of money that can be spent on games is always a big issue for people as well

I know this might seem harsh to some but this is how I feel and I say thanks to the people keeping this site and community alive

I was also pondering this thread over dinner.

So i'll just tell you my not-so-glorious story.

When i joined +10 years ago, i had absolutely no money and no credit card. I married very young without a job.
So the first game that i could gift was a free game that we could get by answering several hours of simple questions. Hey i'm not proud of it and earnt my first blacklists gifting this first game.
Some people are from poor countries, some are poor in rich countries, some have specific difficulties within a specific timeframe (for example illness, unemployment, or for example i was evicted from when i lived 5 years ago :p ) some are just too young to have a credit card, etc.

And then there was this website when i spent years answering surveys and tasking, so that i could get some games to gift and some CS:GO/TF2 keys to buy games from steam to gift etc. Still not a good source to gift you games.
And now i'm still married and still have no job (and still not glorious sorry) but got a little pocket money. From that sometimes i can get me or you something from legit websites (yeah now it's legit !!!)

Also on my 8000 commentaries, i've probably 2000 variety of thanks messages that i typed manually one by one on every giveaway i took part the first years because i thought it was basic courtesy. From that, i can say that i couldn't guess from commentaries who is a bot or who is not.

About the commentary above now, all i can say is that @wigglenose you're a real pillar of this community. Also i understand how sometimes your efforts can seem futile and discouraging, i'm not without faults either when it comes to playing the games i've won, and agree it's quite sad there are so many bots (no idea how many there are in fact). But in the end i hope this website is a way of bringing different people from different countries / social class together to mix us up so that we could forget how sometimes we don't get along outside.

Statistically speaking; 2015-2018 were the golden years for Steamgifts, with giveaways being in a very slow but steady decline ever since.
Most About half of all giveaways are done through groups these days, so if you're not in a lot of them the decline will seem faster then it really is.

Yes, next question.

It's just resting.

OP... this is your profile :

Gifts won : 54
Gifts sent : 4

and you ask this question?

nah it's not dying. there are still 1k users registering every month and quality raffles in site

I would say "yes" to a certain degree. Reasons as many have wrote here:

Greed from some users.
I don't even want to start with this, but there's a thousand reasons for some people to pick whatever they can.

Autojoin bots.
People have ask CG a solution to this for years but this is not a major problem yet. It's his site after all, he calls the shots.

Constant useless "fights" at the discussions.
This may or may not scare the new users. I would be an hypocrite If I wouldnt accept I've had my dose of toxicity at some point, but I've seen stuff to the point that people show certain user how to end with his life. This is just a mirror on how screwed things are and despite the efforts of support toxic users will still be around.

It's great to see new users get involved at the forums though, they're the ones that will keep this site alive after all.

Hmm.. I don't know, to me it appears to be in good health.

I do have to agree with some others who mention the economic situation as a factor - times are tough for a lot of peeps (globally) so I think that reflects in hobby spending unfortunately. You gotta be in a good spot to spend money on a stranger.

I should really thank OP. Only 3 sentences about an old matter that caused an ocean of intrigues and butthurts. That's real fun.
I would have managed to do it with 2, though.

I can't lie