How do you feel about people self promoting themselves? (Also GIVEAWAYS HERE!)

I don't care. Giveaway is the thing that matters.

First, I don't see how you can self-promote someone else :P

Anyway, generally speaking I don't really mind them because I get them, they want to get the word out and it's really hard when you have no marketing knowlege and just want to spread the word about something... however, there is a limit that some people just don't understand, you really shouldn't go everywhere and shove your thing in people's faces (your publicity I mean) because it gets really annoying and if you don't care you should be able to avoid it without effort.

However, I find some fan-generating tactics very annoying, like "press Like to view this page" stuff... that's stupid and only drives people away.

And to be specific, no, I don't mind if it's in a description of a giveaway, they are giving something in order to promote their stuff and they're not forcing you to do anything for them in return, that's pretty fair.
It does seem kinda weird that someone just came here and their only GW is to promote stuff... but hey, free games =)

EDIT: Oh, and promotion of popularity contents... I find those quite broken to begin and unfair to begin with.

PS: Who you calling a 'faget' ? :P

I have no problem with developers doing it as long as it is short and to the point. Because to do it here is 'Contextual', in other words it is relevant to the site and what the site is doing. As for the rest, i just add them to my steam block list and sleep well knowing i will never have to speak or deal with any of these brain dead fools or their unsolicited garbage ever again.

It's only ok if there's a giveway :D And only if I don't have to leave the site to get to the giveaway. They can include links but the giveaway must be accessible from the forum post, not from their own site, youtube vid description etc.

In general I do not mind, or care about, ads/self-promotion as long as I have the choice to completely ignore it. And as long as it doesn't break any rules.

It's perfectly normal to want to promote one's own channel/favourite game/etc. Chances are at least one or two people will actually be interested in whatever's promoted. And if a giveaway author drops a link to their youtube/whatever then that's fine too.

However, ads have a way of easily turning ugly. A whole lotta folk seem to think that anything goes with ads because "it's just ads, don't like em don't look", especially on the internet. I hate bribery in particular. Trading game keys for greenlight votes (Battlepillars, anyone?) or farming youtube subscriptions for the occasional key drop when the channel has no quality content anyway. That's dishonest and insulting, and makes me want to kill the perp with fire. Yes, that includes Facebook and all that it stands for nowadays - "like for a chance to win", "enter all your personal details and sign over your firstborn for a free key".

I'm probably not making much sense, too tired and half-asleep already.

Quite honestly, I could care less if people promote themselves. I'll mainly ignore it, unless there's a giveaway involved (cuz im greedy :D).

Self-advertising is fine as long as it's not overly intrusive or 'in your face'. The best self-advertising is when the individual is advertising in an appropriate place to an appropriate audience, so it's more of a "look at this cool thing I have here" rather than "hey gaise, vote for me and buy my stuff kthx".

Bundle creators should make Greenlight devs accountable to actually provide the keys they promise. Make them sign a contract.

I don't find it disturbing, I mean those people do give something in return. If you think about it human psychology functions on action and reward, so the best way to promote something is to give something in return even if that thing is a chance to win a game. People that vote on Greenlight do have a chance to check the game trailer before hitting that Yes button. As long as it gives the person that enters a choice I totally agree with it.

Think about it, does it really bother you that much? Is it that bad for someone to promote himself by giving away games to a community?

I am unsure how I feel about some of the things you mentioned. Some of the groups I've joined are filled with some great people that I would've never known had they not promoted themselves. Some of the kickstarter games I've seen have gotten me really interested in them. Contests I think are a little negative for the site. I do dislike Greenlight though.

I usually don't mind if they are optional, the only one that could bother me is the contest one.

I don't like self-promotion threads for the most part.

If it's realted to a giveaway it's "tolerable", but it depends on the form of the giveaway. If I'm forced to comment on a YT video or upvote some facebook stuff or download something from a shady source I pass. If it's in the form of "here's the giveaway link, and if you want you can optionally watch my YT video" then that's totally fine in my book.

if it's really blunt self-promotion I just report it and move on.

I honestly don't mind a bit of self-promotion on here if it's game-related, since that ties in well with this site. If someone creates a giveaway and mentions a game that they're developing, or is trying to spread the word about their new game review channel, I'm fine with that since it's not too intrusive. You're under no obligation to even click their links, vote for them on greenlight or subscribe to their channel, but you may just find something that you're interested in if you do. The kind of self-promotions that I don't like are the ones that are purely conditional, such as contests that require you to "Like us on Facebook", etc.

I dont mind as long as things are creative, as mine for example - Im hostin Pimp My Profile, Guess the Movie and Kill 'n' Heal - Battle of the Games events atm in some group, where u can win steam related stuff and I need to promote those cuz group community isnt that active and Im very generous and maybe SG profile doesnt shows that, I must get close with those participatin souls and talk with them to see their happiness when they wins and often see how they doesnt lose a courage, but not that leech-courage - Im creatin a bond with my giveaway and event participants, so, yeah, as long stuff is creative I can approve that ;)

I do mind self advertising. Why would they advertise them here? Why not somewhere else? If it is gaming content, maybe it might not be too bad, but if it is stuff like singing? Why in the world would you post them here? This is a gaming site! In my opinion, self advertising is okay... UNTIL A POINT.

I don't really care much for it, but hey, free games.

I really don't mind promoting their GAMES :l

BUT

I kinda hate NEW GIVEAWAY GROUP spam.
(But where else would you post that?)

Honestly I dont mind, I ignore that part of the giveaway. I clicked on it to win the game not to see their self-promotion so I can see how it annoys people though. And when theyre promoting something that isnt even game related it just boggles my mind.

Self promoting is fine as I am never here anyways, though promoting any with huge political or financial influences do matter, but this is steam gifts a forum here people gift steam gifts. Greed and rage is all over in here and promoting happens everywhere unless it is specifically not allowed. Promotion with lots of requirements and jumping through hoops for a chance to lick someone's show may only draw in a few people though. Licking and liking it is not promotion.

I personally think it's a great way for a developer to promote their own game or studio, so I'm all for developer giveaways. But I don't really get the concept of promoting non-developer groups, greenlight, or other nonsense. If you want a little social club with GAs, great. But the GAs should be a natural extension of other personal interactions, not the raison d'etre. Societies form organically, not by design. And Greenlight can suck a fat one. What that system really, really needs is to make it such that only people who finish a playable, representative demo of the game can leave positive feedback. That would at least offer a chance of preventing shit like Guise of the Wolf from getting onto the virtual shelf.

But all in all, it's just more free stuff up for grabs. So I'm not complaining.

I don't mind as long as the channel has some kind of relation with the site, for example promotinga channel on video games on steamgifts is ok. But what I don't like is the ones doing giveaways only for those who have subscribed to their channel, or liked it, they're just trying to "buy" subscribers...

It really depends on who's giving away I guess. If it's a developer who is promoting for their next game, I may take a look. However, if it's a YouTube channel or even Greenlight though, I tend not to bother.

I think it's fine for people to advertise their YouTube channel/Twitch stream as long as they're not spamming links excessively everywhere.

It really helps if they produce good content too.

I don't really mind when it's in the giveaway description but it annoys me when they make a thread for it unless they are a recruiting group sponsoring the giveaway.

Well let's see first I feel I should say(and considering the number of posts pretty sure someone said it already) that your thread title is redundant either remove 'self' or 'themselves', second I should point out the irony of you saying you hate people doing it in a thread where you do it.

On to more serious answers I don't really care about what people write on public giveaways, they gave the game they have the right to do it.

If a person feels well with self advertising then it's his/her choice and let him/her do that, why not? Everyone decides for him/herself whether and where to advertise, as ads are a part of our life and who knows, maybe this self advertising person has really got something important or interesting to show to us, but if there is not self advertising we are going to never know that for sure ;)