Should Private Giveaways Count Less Towards Contributor Value?

and why should it be unfair? you still contributed.

No. Giving 0 value for giveaways with only a single entry is enough.

Nope. Even small private giveaways involve giving a game you paid money for to a random winner. The cost remains the same, therefore so should the contribution.

Besides, private giveaways can have any number of entrants, from the many users who might enter a forum giveaway, through a modest number who might enter a puzzle giveaway, down to two entrants who might enter a duel giveaway in a tournament.

There are all sorts of types of private giveaway, but on the basis that it costs no less to purchase the gift, and that it still goes to a random winner, the outcome in terms of CV should be exactly the same.

As long as there's a contest, I don't see it as unfair. If one creates a private giveaway and only gives the link to one person, whom she intended to give the game to anyway, that would be a different matter; however, I believe this is already restricted.

In before whining. Oh wait

Waaaahhh Waaaahhhh!!!

Circlejerking happens regardless of the system. Unless group and private giveaways are completely removed with the contribution system.
And lets face it, this system is what brings activity in SteamGifts. Without this system there wouldn't be as much giveaways as there are now, nor would this site be as famous as it is now.

So yes, this site isn't completely fair in every sense in the meaning of the word. But whether it is for better or worse is debatable.

I see no reason why the person giving away the game should not get the entire contributor value. He/she is afterall giving a game, despite it being to a select few or not.

TL;DR: No.

I understand your feeling "left out" because you can't enter the restricted giveaways you want to enter, but there will be other chances. The current system has been vetted quite thoroughly, and it works quite well, actually. I'm not going to give you a wall of text explaining why and/or how it works so well, but I will mention a few things you're forgetting.

1) People use various kinds of restrictions in order to reduce the number of entries. They do this to increase the odds of winning for all qualified entrants. Those restrictions may take any form allowed by the moderators. A person giving something away has the right to specify who may receive it, even if we don't like it. Here at SG, if less than two people enter a giveaway, no CV is given.

2) CV = contributor value = how SG keeps track of those who have spent their money on others within the community. Reducing the CV of a giveaway because of #1 would be an injustice, just as "gaming the system" is an injustice. Whatever else you can say about the SG community, they are pretty intolerant of injustice.

3) Just like there will always be things other people have that we don't, there will always be giveaways we can't enter. This is one way in which life tests our patience. Life is neither equal nor fair, although we ourselves may strive to be. We can either accept that reality and deal with it, or we can allow it to cause us misery.

So if I say, want to exclude you, and give my private giveaway link to everybody else on the site, I should get less CV for it? :>

Many private giveaways are posted on the forums and get hundreds of entries.
So these shouldn't count towards CV?

"edit: I guess the thing I am getting hung up on is that private giveaways are exclusive and since people are being excluded,"
So what?
I'm excluded from giveaways for groups I'm not in.
I'm excluded from CV giveaways from not having enough CV.

No. Your idea is not fair. And it's not a good idea.