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

If someone makes a giveaway and puts something in the description like "Please check out my blahblahsite." I sometimes check it out. It doesn't often interest me, but sometimes I find pretty cool stuff that way. I've done this myself a couple times. I'll make a thread asking people to check out my music and have giveaways hidden in the description of my songs on soundcloud to reward people who actually took the time to listen to my music. Even if they don't like my tunes I appreciate that they took the time to do so. I'm not bribing people into listening to my tunes this way and it only rewards those who are genuinely interested.

For devs making a giveaway of a popular game and then putting their games greenlight page in the description, I think its a silly expensive way to promote your game, but I don't see anything wrong with it and I always check out the game and vote fairly. The giveaway does not influence my vote.

For devs making huge giveaways of their game that isn't greenlit yet in hopes of getting greenlight votes... I'm not quite all for that, same as I'm not all for devs giving out steam keys to bundle buyers retroactively. Its kind of a dirty way to get votes on greenlight by buying votes with the promise of a steam key later. I constantly see people voting for stuff on greenlight, not because they like the game or because its something they want to play, but because they simply want the steam key so they can sell or trade it for profit. That is not to say I don't appreciate devs that do it. I enjoy getting steam keys from past bundles I've purchased and I'm not sure who is to blame for this. Either the devs bribing greenlight voters or the consumers gaming the system by rewarding that kind of behavior from devs. Its part of the reason we see so many shitty games getting greenlit.

I think it all depends if the promotion is done tastefully or not. Too many of the self-promotions on these forums give us very little information on why we should join their group or vote for their Greenlight item. They're mostly content to say, "here's a giveaway, now do what we want because we bribed you." Most of the time these are people that aren't part of this community - it's not a bad thing, but it irks me because it's almost like they're using our community, not contributing to it.

That being said, I think that there are definitely better ways to self-promote. Sure, go ahead and make a giveaway, but don't pressure people into subscribing to your channel or joining your group or upvoting your game. I think there's a difference between promoting your game, and buying people's votes (or subscriptions or likes or whatever). In the end, I think the choice should lie with the forum-goer, not the promoter.

I don't mind if people want to self promote as long as they are not obnoxious. Make ONE thread about it and don't keep bumping it so it's always #1 on the forums. I understand, being a small time YouTuber right now myself, how hard it is to get noticed and get a fan base going, but begging for viewers isn't the way to do it. Make a conservative thread about what you do on your channel, when you upload content, what kind of content it is. That's all you have to do. I've seen some that have literally just been begging people to subscribe and they would make a bunch of giveaways. This is just my $0.02 on the matter. As for all the other types (KickStarters, Group Recruits, etc.) I don't mind those at all. Most of the time they are for good reasons. I have seen one where a guy saved his cat by crowdsourcing. Very noble cause :P.

Honestly I don't have any problem about it. no one is forced to join/comment/follow their channel/stream/whatever, and besides we even get the chance to enter a giveaway. It's a situation that benefits both sides.

About kickstarters, I can't send money to that site for reasons unrelated to thsi topic, so I don't mind taking a look just for the sake of curiosity, if the project looks interesting.

I dont mind (as long as they mention it in the title), you never know what new and novel things you might come across. Besides if someone doesnt like it they can simply avoid the thread.

If they're promoting their knees it's fine, but not if they're promoting their elbows.

On a giveaway people put whatever they want into the description and it is fine. Any of the situations you named on the forums is nearly always done wrong so I'd say I am 90/10 against.

What can I say? It's a good way to garner up some goodwill.
People pay attention to your work (or the work you're trying to promote) and all it costs you is a game or game key you have lying around or picked up for cheap.
I'm definitely a big fan of it, more games for us all!

Self promoting is far from being new. Whenever you give chance for people to express themselves and they kinda know people are gonna come and see what they are seeing, there's a natural tendency to use this for their own good. Personally i don't mind this and as far as content creation is concerned (like videos and greenlight), i also provide comments saying something critical, good or bad. But i don't subscribe to channel or vote for game unless i see some real potential there. Sometimes downside of self promoting is obviously getting what creator does not deserve. I see many greenlit games that are absolute crap and could not have got greenlight unless they had provided some incentive to voters. I have also seen many youtube channels which got subscriptions just because they gave away some thing like PS4 or XBone. It all boils down to the quality of creator itself imo.

I'm fine with it in the body of a giveaway, but not really keen on it in the forums. It would be fine in the forums if we actually had a forum with sections where stuff like that could go, but since it's all in one area it just crowds the forum.

Personally, I'd rather see someone do a weekly thing highlighting some of the stuff people self promote and the poster can highlight some of their favorites and in the comments people can mention others they like. That way it actually has a benefit of people being able to share stuff they like and people promoting stuff and keeping it to a couple of topics. Like one for kickstarters, one for greenlight and one for youtube channels. I think giveaway groups are fine to still have their own topics since they are for the intended purpose of this website.

i don't hate they and it's kinda sad that they just need to give something to us to get some attention here, and either way get almost none. the other day there's this guy promoting his portfolio and he was rly talented, he showed some cool drawings and stuffs, but i don't think anyone gives a shit about, most of them are just in for the giveaway.
and i don't know, people are that busy to not to have five minutes to just appreciate other people's work? i think any way they can think to promote his whatever, it's worth to give it a shot.

and thank for the giveaways :)

Hard to say, the self promotion it self is okay, and i guess we all are alright with it. As long it not over do

its not such a big deal to self promote with giveaways since it allows people to know some fun and obscure games that id never try any other way.

I don't mind... stuff on the digital world is too much for a person to find everything that he/she might like.. I am sure aI am missing out on many things that I'd enjoy. So, these "self promotions" give me a chance to encounter the things that I am missing out on. (Though I didn't really find anything yet, i didn't check all xD)

This doesn't mean I am fine with people throwing promotions here and there =.=

I dont mind people advertising for things on here. The thing that really does annoy me is when they bribe you to do it by doing things like giving away free keys to anyone that votes. Games on greenlight definitely should not be able to be put on steam by bribary!

In my opinion I feel like it adds to the community, devs are going straight to the people and giving away AAA titles for the hopes that the people check out their greenlight. I actually like giveaways from devs more because they have a cause behind it. No one is forced or actually "bribed" to win it. They have the giveaway if you vote or don't vote (At least with all the ones I have seen), yeah some have you join their groups for more giveaways but hey it is just adding to the community. And with asking people to check out youtube videos I think that's fine too, the person is offering a giveaway to try to get people to watch their videos to try to build a starting audience. Starting youtube is really hard so I totally understand that as well. In summary as long as they are just asking for you to check it out I will, but if it was forced I most likely wouldn't.

Not really a big deal for me. Though it does sometimes feel ALMOST like a bribe by giving us a chance at winning a game. I don't really use youtube/facebook/twitter so there's no point in me checking those things out. I do however check out all the greenlight games being promoted here but it doesn't affect my decision on whether or not to vote Yes for it to be greenlighted.

I don't mind, as long as the rules are respected.

It makes me mildly disgusted.
It's not the right way to promote a quality channel; "paying" for views suggests someone who doesn't really get the point of either Youtube or Steamgifts. As my passive-aggressive way of protesting, I generally am less likely to leave a comment on those giveaways, not that the creator cares or anyone notices.

As a side note, bribing people with a giveaway for their comments makes me feel a bit odd. It's certainly not on the same level, but I would be less interested in posts from people who feel forced to make an opinion and make up a post on something they hadn't considered before.

I do not read

only enter to win

I don't mind if it is promotion of greenlight game, and i don't like promotions of youtube channels. Advertising of kickstarter because sometimes it is hart to promote new good games i think.

seld promoting is the cause that most of the greenlight games s*ck

I don't like self promotion.

Nothing wrong with promoting your talent or a product on different Internet environments. After all, that was kind of the main purpose of the Internet back when it was first created. People have a right to advertise themselves, just like I have a right to ignore that advertisement, No one's forcing me to vote a game on Greenlight when I enter a giveaway(most of the time) or to listen to some random dude's song on YT if I don't want to. Totally fine with any form of self-promoting, as long as it's not in-your-face aggressive.

♣I'm pretty fine with kickstarters,even youtube channels,and i don't mind if they are self promoting games on Greenlight,if they are shitty i won't vote them anyways♣