Looking at winners, finding lots of group wins, so I have to ask.

alot of groups you can get in by being active on forums or chat. Some will only let you in if you giveaway enough games and some you just have to be friends with people which comes back to the be active in forums and chat.

There's nothing secret or mysterious about giveaway groups. Some are public, others require users to have a certain amount of giveaways made, activity on the forum or chat, or are just for friends / e-friends, etc.

There are a lot of people (myself included) that only giveaway through group or private giveaways. Personally I recommend the S.Gifts group (Should be at the top right of the forum) since the people in there are enjoyable to speak with in chat.

Circle jerks, it's the only way to go.

Well I'm buggered, my forum lurking days are behind me.

Lol so if I made a give gunganator Skyrim group, anyone want to join? ;)

Yeah, too many giveaways are hidden behind groups and private settings - if you check the gifter leaderboard (or whatever it's called) at the bottom right of the main site you'll almost never see anyone who's giving away publicly on there.

However, that said the entry-comment ratio on a single forum giveaway I ran (as in, I just posted the link in the forum) was 2:1, whereas in the two public giveaways I've done the ratio is 10:1 - so it's not entirely unjustified.

Fair point.

This is where you hit the nail on the head: 'Or are they some secretive institution like the stone masons with Masonic handshakes and all.'

But I think you mean the Free Masons not stone masons? :P

Be active in chat and on the forums and don't beg. Groups often have recruitment periods.

Make more references to Schrodinger's cat.