Very nice work and thanks for the clear explanation of the future of SG...
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Happy holidays and thanks for this great site!
First, I don't think it is a good idea to add GA for free games. People shouldn't grab more than what he need at the first place...I think being able to create GA for free games will encourage people (at least some) to grab more keys they don't actually need just to give it away here.
Second, is it possible to add a "confirm/decline" function for the winner to agree the re-roll? Sometimes the winner have made the deal (no matter what reason) with the creator but still need to wait the support team to handle the ticket. If the winner can confirm the re-roll request, I think this will also decrease the loading of the support team.
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Since you're up for the idea of drastically reduced CV for certain giveaways, how about implementing that on software giveaways? There are several fair arguments against having bundled CV for this latest software bundle.
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Thanks CG! Great news! :) Happy Holidays to you and the rest of the staff!
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Along with the free games getting no CV I'd personally like to see an expansion or tweeking of values of the level system.
A lot of people have reached high levels now, some are capped at 10, I'd like to see some way for the level 10's to be able to expand their level, eg, no level cap at all.
Mainly for e-peen purposes, much like steam badges/levels. So the max you can set a level lock GA to is 10, but your profile might display as level 20. I'm sure some of the competitive high levels would love that. Basically I miss the old CV system of SG v1.0, over time more people are going to hit huge levels without any room for expansion.
The other way to combat this is to increase the values needed for each level, downside of this being new users would get screwed by the people who have been here years gaining levels consistently.
My actual wish is to do away with levels all together and go back to the old CV system, going to guess thats not a popular idea though.
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For Free Games, it's simple: Create a new section called " 'Free' Games " and 2 sections in the profile: 'Free' Games Won, 'Free' Games Sent and give SG points instead CV points.
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Nice new Happy Year Space Cat :) Thank you for holiday spirit and Happy New Year.
I'm not good with inserting thing, but it has a link to view: https://cdn.steamgifts.com/img/space_cat_2017_01_01.gif
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I'm really excited to see who the new support members will be.
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That's awesome! I'm really excited to see these concerns addressed with us! Thank you again for all the effort you put into making this website run and molding it into the place it has become!
We thank you for it! :)
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First Happy New Year !
And thanks for your Top #1 contributions to this great community !
Patreon
As a uBlock user, I definitively support this idea.
The only case I disable my adblocker is for a website using alternative ads without tracking networks.
And you can probably do some stats about how many of SG users let them adblocker on by default ! :-)
And evaluate how many more people may contribute financially rather than just with displaying ads.
User Registration
This is a typical case where giveaways web sites struggle against multiple account users.
My insight :
- sites which implement their own multiple detection generally just fail miserably (unless like SG but as you said which may prevent legitimate users)
- sites requiring third-party authentification against account that can hardly be multiple are much safer and guarantee given user can only claim one key.
For the last point :
- though I don't support Facebook usage, Facebook requires a unique phone number to be created and activated. (that is how and why they can offer access from TOR networks without getting spammed)
Facebook auth can reliably be used to get unique users. If you want to use unique mobile numbers yourself, be aware that there are many websites offering free public mobile numbers to receive SMS (displayed to everyone). - twitter auth is no way, it more or less officially supports multiple accounts
- paypal accounts : you can't have more than two accounts (personal + pro), it might be a good way, good candidate to investigate. Users can change/add emails as many as they want but not change their real name in a signicative way, and there migtht be a unique paypal user ID. Be sure to require a micro transaction like $0.01 friend and family (or $0.40 to cover fees if user can't can't send as FF).
- ... credit card authentification with whatever payment gateway. You can verify a given user can pay a given amount without actually charging it.
But payment gateway might have costs. Unless something like skrill/stripe or w/e ?
Actually for paypal you can check for solvency for a given amount of money (like $1) and not charge it in the end as well.
Of course... multiple auth end points allow multiple account from same users.
- other ways might detecting if an account is used as a main account or not. But I don't any reliable way... unless you find factors that potential fraudulent users won't bother doing or can't reproduce in cheap ways... like requiring Steam level XX or else, that aren't necessarily correlated to having a $100 worth of non bundle games account, but eventually harder than it.
Flash random idea just before finishing my edit : allow people to register with much lower criteria but... give them a restricted account with those limitations until they have $100 worth of non bundle games.
- allowed to enter bundled game giveaways only
- mandatory strictly positive ratio CV-wise and number of gifts -wise.
- not allowed to giveaway free games.
Allowing Giveaways for Previously Free Games
Yes this is probably one of most wanted feature. I am glad you would like it too.
And... it will help SG to consolidate its #1 position.
I would consider 0 CV or something like 1% CV to avoid absolute 0 CV while giving "symbolic" CV that will very quickly go to 0 CV for multiple GAs.
I would forbid creating free GAs for level 0 users, though in last case.
In our groups we are starting about to discuss the impact on gift diff, but we need to know your plan or how it will be implemented.
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gateway you suggested are no good.
FB - some countries block FB usage alltogether.
PayPal - excluding minors (according to TOS you need to be 18 y/o to create PP account or have parent permission), also PP is not available in some countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Monaco, Moldova, Montenegro, Myanmar, Pakistan, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Timor-Leste, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe)
CC - even more excluding, not only minors but also a big part of adults - in many countries, for example mine, it's hard to get CC. You may be adult, you may earn serious money being self-employed and bank will often still refuse giving you CC unless you work full-time, are married and insured.
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^this.
If you use FB, people from China and Iran can no longer access this site.
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In the US, you can buy disposable credit cards, and it is not uncommon for people to have multiple credit cards. So credit card requirement would be too restrictive in some countries, and not restrictive enough in others.
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Concerning possible changes to the site, would you consider implementing a page that shows only DLC giveaways?
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Better than Email notification, , would bé Great if you can make a mobile app, with push notifications, better site navigation and less data consumption
BMW very good Job with this site, I love it and ofc the Great community! I hope you have a very good Year, all of you!
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"give them away with a highly reduced CV, or no CV"
While I do like being able to give them away again, I'd like to see the 15% CV if it was purchased from Steam (which can be proven by making your inventory public)
Keys could be obtained from anywhere, but Steam gifts usually means they cost money.
"Facebook requires a unique phone number"
News to me, I've never given them a number and I will never do so.
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Any progress update on Allowing Giveaways for Previously Free Games?
If we're worried they would flood the other sections out they could be left out of "all" and listed in another category along the left, perhaps "free".
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i think the initial fear was actually re-rolls being an additional strain on support. but the support staff has been doubled in size. i had thought in preparation for this personally, but it seems it's still not a priority.
+1 for an update though, would be nice to know something. ^^
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Ah. Well if there were an reveal key/link button there could also be a refuse button which allowed for (or automatically did) a reroll without involving support.
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hehe, yeah. said the same thing on that discussion on page2. ^^
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So with the free games why not use keygiveaway.com instead, site already done and working. And just keep posting on Orphans keys thread.
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for me it's not a matter of wanting to ga the keys, i want a second chance at winning those i miss or refuse to do the 200 gleam steps to get. and i don't think CG is going to suggest me to go elsewhere to try and win stuff.. ;)
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huh? sgtools gives me steam keys for free games that can't be gifted on steamgifts?
edit: ohh.. i think you're meaning to point out that cg refers people to sgtools, which would be inaccurate. he merely has no issues with it, not that he encourages people to go to a competitive website.
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i don't think CG is going to suggest me to go elsewhere to try and win stuff
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yeah i realized after i sent and edited. but cg has never suggested anyone use sgtools, he's merely said it's not a referral link when doing so. it's also by no means a competitor since it's directly alligned with steamgifts.com, unlike keygiveaway.com.
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I mean is an allowed filter, so I bet Cillosis (Keygiveaway creator) could glad agree to do something with CG
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Hey SG, happy holidays, I hope everyone is having a great weekend! It's been a good year for SteamGifts, and we've seen a lot of growth in terms of giveaways. Although there's still a week remaining, I think this December might turn into our highest month on record for giveaway activity, averaging over 3,300 giveaways per day. However, we still have room to improve, and I'd like to see a few changes to our site in early 2017. I'll talk about a few of those now, and I look forward to the community feedback before I start implementing any of them.
Plans
Support
There's been a number of discussions lately asking why tickets are taking longer to answer, and users wondering why we have not yet expanded our team of volunteers to help with the demand. I'm aware of the need for more support, and it's going to be my highest priority going into 2017. The issue with simply expanding our team is the lack of documentation for the wide variety of tickets and edge cases new team members would face. Consistency is an area we still struggle with today when answering tickets. The majority of tickets we face are not simply black and white, and even the most basic of questions, such as, "What's considered an inappropriate comment?", can be a challenge to answer and moderate consistently. I'm in the process of improving our documentation with the help of our volunteers, and writing a set of standard operating procedures to help guide us when answering tickets. Once finished, we'll be able to more efficiently add new members to our team, bring them up to speed faster, and be more confident when handling tickets. Personally, I'd like to see another 5-10 users join our team early 2017, and then further expand again in the months that follow.
Allowing Giveaways for Previously Free Games
I've seen this suggestion show up a few times in the discussions section, and it's one I'd like to implement. As you know, when a game is free, we typically pull it from our game list. This means if a developer briefly distributes their game for free, or if a user gives away thousands of keys on another site, the corresponding game can no longer be given away on SteamGifts. At the moment, it's unfortunate for users that miss those opportunities, since our site does not provide them with a second chance to obtain a copy of the game. We also receive quite a few tickets from users with previously free games, that simply want to find them a home. I'd like to change the way we look at those games in the future, and allow users to give them away with a highly reduced CV, or no CV. I think it'll provide users with more flexibility in terms of what they give away, and it'll provide everyone with a chance to win some great games we've unfortunately removed from our game list.
Notifications
I think e-mail notifications will be a good method of increasing overall engagement on our site in the upcoming year. They could provide users with the option to be notified when games on their wishlist are being given away, or when featured giveaways are posted for games they don't own. Notifications would be easy to subscribe or unsubscribe to with a single click, and not only would they help to grow our site, I think they would be a valuable tool for less active users that don't have the time to check our site daily.
Patreon
This is one idea I go back and forth on frequently, but you might see it tested in 2017. The idea is simple; replace our advertisements with a Patreon page to raise donations. I think the concept of being directly funded by our users would better fit with the spirit of our community, and it would help to separate us from advertising networks, which grow more invasive on a regular basis. If we do ever implement a donation system, it would be entirely optional, and no giveaway or point advantages would ever come to those that donate.
Challenges
User Registration
Looking at our stats, it's easy to see we have less users registering per month, and you might assume this means a drop in activity. However, that's not the case. Our bundle list grows daily, and since we exclude bundle games when calculating registration value, it's becoming more and more difficult for new users to register. It's normal for us to see 75% of users unable to register on a typical day. This is a difficult problem to solve. On one hand we need strict requirements to protect our community against users signing up multiple accounts, and on the other hand, we don't want to block hundreds of legitimate users from registering each day. If anyone has any thoughts on improving this system, please share.
Infrastructure
If you've been a member for a few years, you likely remember the days of slow load times and frequent downtime. We've come a long way since then, and I think in 2016 our site has been reliable and responsive. There's been quite a few updates focused on improving performance during the past year. As well, we have a good backup solution in place with our daily, client-side encrypted backups being stored outside of our servers. Last but not least, we have room to grow. We could likely double our traffic with our current Infrastructure, and reach 5x or 10x our traffic with 20 minutes of downtime to scale our database server. Overall, I think it's one area we're finally doing well.
Thanks to everyone for being a part of SteamGifts this year, and a special thanks to our volunteers for answering tickets and helping to support our community!
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