Hey SG, I mentioned in a discussion yesterday that I was working on this feature, and I just wanted to write an announcement since it's complete. In short, when you win a game, the site will now check your other giveaway entries that are open, and remove those for the game you just won. It also works for giveaways ending at the same time. This helps to prevent you from accidentally winning a game more than once while you're sleeping, or away from the site.

FAQ

  1. Does this happen when I win, or when I mark a gift as received?
    It happens the moment you win. When users win a game more than once, it typically occurs before they even have time to visit the site. If we waited until a gift was marked as received, it would be too late in the majority of cases.

  2. Do I get points refunded?
    Yes, if any of your giveaway entries are automatically removed, we will refund the correct number of points, assuming you have less than the current maximum of 300.

  3. Does this prevent all possibilities of winning a game more than once?
    No, a user could still end up the winner of a giveaway, and then a different giveaway they entered in the past could be rerolled, causing them to have two wins for the same game. Or, a user could win a giveaway, believe they are not going to receive the gift from the giveaway creator, and start entering more giveaways for the same game, only to win again. We'll look at options to reduce these possibilities, but for now, this update covers most instances of multiple wins that we are seeing. Remember, if you ever win a game more than once, you should only redeem one copy, mark additional copies as not received, and ask those giveaway creators to request a new winner.

The main benefit of this update is the time and headaches it saves for everyone on the site. Last month we had 2,012 tickets requesting new winners because the current winners already won or purchased the game. That's nearly half of our Request New Winner tickets, or 25% of our total tickets. Overall, this is going to result in less explanations from giveaway winners, less tickets required from giveaway creators, and more sleep for the support team. It's a win-win-win.

Edit

This is now setup for rerolls as well. If a giveaway is rerolled and you're selected as the new winner, the site will remove your other giveaway entries that are currently open for the same game.

7 years ago*

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Great idea! So far I always check my entry after winning anyway but this new feature will help a lot of users and support of course

7 years ago
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Does this also happen when one syncs the account for games acquired elsewhere? Or do we still need to remove those entries manually?

7 years ago
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Good feature, I won 2 same games that were on 2 mass giveaways that ended closely (not too close as in minutes or hours but still) and as I was away from home during that time I didnt really notice plus you dont get email notification to check, I marked as received and noticed way later when I got home (broke my arm so ive been away from my pc for a while as its not at same place where i was) and because of that now i cant enter any of those sgtools giveaways because i won 2 of the same game :(

7 years ago
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As you then have not used one of the keys, ask the GA creator of the second one to reroll.

7 years ago
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good stuff! thanks CG!

7 years ago
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Nice. And cool to get some stats.

7 years ago
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This...is...awesome! Thank you CG.

7 years ago
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Nice,
I propoused that 1 year ago !
Its a nice feature.

7 years ago
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Awesome news, one less headache indeed (^_^)
Thank you cg!

7 years ago
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It's not a bad feature, but I really would like if you could optionally turn it off or if it only removed your entries when you marked the game as received. I say this because there are 2 problems that are bothering me.

The stats show that over 99% of giveaways are now received, but isn't that in part because we can now delete giveaways and a lot of times when someone doesn't get the key, they allow the creator to delete the giveaway and that now doesn't count in the stats as not received. It is not uncommon for people to make mistakes and when you do win a giveaway that was a mistake, you lose all your other entries for that game. Yeah, you can go back and easily enter the public ones, but what about the invite only giveaways locked behind puzzles that you spent a lot of time solving, possibly hours. There are countless threads with invite only giveaways that give you great odds to win and you will never remember what thread gave away what games. You could enter a fake giveaway (or just a mistake) for something like GTA V or Fallout 4 and not get your win and now you just lost all your invite only entries where there may have only been like 50-200 entries.

Another problem is points. I know points shouldn't be that big of a deal and I usually have more than I know what to do with, but there are situations like in the beginning of every month when the Humble monthly is released where I will want as many points as I can get because there is a 20 or 30 point game and everyone is giving it away. What happens is I go through all the giveaways I am entered in that aren't ending in the next day and take myself out of them so I can put the points into these games I want from the Humble monthly. I end up putting over 1000 points into a single game and then when you win that game you now lose all your points over the 300 pint cap instead of being able to remove them and put them back into the games that you were previously entered in.

I think it would be much better to remove the points when the user marks the game received so that we can reallocate the points before hand or just give us the option to disable it. When I win a game I prefer not to remove my other entries until I receive the game. I don't see why the site should remove me from giveaways when I have not received the game yet.

An even better option would be to put things back to the way they were and then have the site automatically reroll a win if the winner chosen has already marked the same game as received in the past. I don't know anything about programming, but this sounds like it would be very easy to implement, all it has to do is check the winners list of won games and see if the same game has been marked as received on the list. It would happen right when the giveaway ends and nobody would ever know there was a reroll because it wouldn't notify anyone until it finds a valid winner.

7 years ago*
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The stats show that over 99% of giveaways are now received, but isn't that in part because we can now delete giveaways and a lot of times when someone doesn't get the key, they allow the creator to delete the giveaway and that now doesn't count in the stats as not received

that only happens with permission from the winner, winners will now have to take that into consideration before approving the deletion.

Another problem is points.

why aren't people happy they won? i suggested wiping away points upon a win anyways. you just won afterall, shouldn't it be someone elses turn for a change?

7 years ago
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It's going to be a little harder to forgive someone now and allow them to just delete the giveaway knowing they just wiped out any invite only entries you were entered in for that game and you probably won't be able to enter them again because they will be buried somewhere deep in the forums and you would never remember which specific threads that game was given away in anyway.

7 years ago
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yeah, i don't blame people if they don't want to give permission.
same goes for gifters, i don't blame them for not replacing.

7 years ago
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I don't agree with wiping points after a win, that makes no sense. Everyone gets the same number of points to spend and they chose how to spend them. If someone is winning more giveaways than another person, there is usually a reason for it and it is because that person is giving back more to the community and deserves to win more. If someone gives a lot to a group, then they should also be able to win a lot from that group. If someone gives a lot and gets to higher levels with better odds, then they should be able to win more often from having better odds (I know this isn't normally seen here though because of the lack of high level giveaways). If someone either gives a lot or is just a nice person and gets on peoples white lists, then they should be able to win more with better odds by being on those white lists, they deserve it. These people should not be penalized for winning by having their points taken away.

Also, I know there will be the argument of level 0 people winning a lot and not giving back, but there is a reason for that as well. The more work you put into winning, the more chance you have of winning. A person that sits on here all day long making sure to use every last point and enter the giveaways with the highest odds of winning is going to win more, but this is because they want it more and they are putting in the effort to win. Yes, people cheat the system and use bots to take advantage of this, but that currently is not being stopped and is a different conversation.

7 years ago
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Some valid arguements right there ^^

7 years ago
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As I have said before to others - with regards to one of your points - there free points - allowing you to enter into free giveaways - so you lose nothing but a perceived slight at the loss of something free :)

7 years ago
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GREAT NEWS!

Thanks cg and Co. :3

7 years ago
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I like the idea but I just won a game that the key has already been activated...A game im very interested in too =(

7 years ago
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YAY!!!!

7 years ago
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Very nice feature. That way I won't ever win the same game twice within 3 minutes again like I did earlier this week. :P

Great work cg.

7 years ago
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If a GA is turned out to be false before the GAs you were removed from end, would it be possible to automatically re-enter those GAs (for free)? Or perhaps make a page where you can view all the GAs you've been automatically removed from, so you can find those private GAs again easily to re-enter manually.

7 years ago
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I quite often manually remove entries and reuse those points on new GA's... (usually when there's new games in bundles etc)
I'd be disappointed to lose points by having them automatically refunded when i'm already at '300'

7 years ago
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How often does this happen to you? You won less than 30 games in 5 years. That's even worse than my pace...

7 years ago
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fairly often these days...
To be fair to the system.. i was gone for a few years, just came back a year or so ago..

7 years ago
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there free points - allowing you to enter into free giveaways - so you lose nothing but a perceived slight at the loss of something free :)

7 years ago
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Well not really...
From the FAQ:
How do I receive or earn more points (P)?
So we DO earn them ;)

7 years ago
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no points are allocated based on giveaways people have created - to the point of a cap - if it annoys you that you think you are losing something that you gain because we create giveaways and allow people to enter for a chance to win them - then you might be misunderstanding the premis of the site :P - also I could trawl the FAQ and provide multiple areas that can be interpreted in many ways, it doesn't make it right :)

7 years ago
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No worries..
I'll just take it that we earn them then :)

7 years ago
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to be fair - it is six of one and half a dozen of the other :) - there are always going to be tradeoffs when altering a system - especialy one that is predicated on people winning things - a bit like microsoft and windows changes - most we hate, most of the time :P (but just some times it works)

7 years ago
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Yeah, i'd prefer if any points we get back, allow our max to go over 300 until those points are spent or 24 hours (should give enough time)
good compromise?

7 years ago
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not sure - I guess that CG is just trying to get the number of tickets being made down to a sensible number - if they change the cap system in any way it is likely to get more tickets made - as people argue that they didn't receive their points back :) - at least keeping it unchanged prevents arguments (though I never did understand the cap myself)

7 years ago
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Thanks
I had a dream that I will win a game before this year is over
so i am hopeful
its gonna be big, my man
In the same dream I saw a dog speak

7 years ago
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Hmm, one question, so all entries for something somebody already won get automatically removed. Okay, good. But what happens if they just enter for the same game again? Does the system now handle "won = owned" regardless of whether the game has been handed over or activated or would a winner just be able to renter giveaways for that game again (by accident or on purpose)?
I'm asking because, sometimes there's a flood of giveaways for the same game particularly, when there's a new bundle. Now let's say I won of them and the creator of the giveaway fails to deliver (fake giveaway or honest mistake). If I can just keep on entering 200 extra giveaways after I've won and while I'm still waiting for my gift, I may as well end up with multiple wins like before. If I can't, it may be quite a disappointment when I find out a week later that I won't get my game, because then the majority of other giveaways, that I might have been able to enter if I hadn't won the fake one, will be over.

Now, wouldn't it be much better if all wins would be queued and if someone's lucky lucky enough to win more than one copy of the same thing, they'd be only shown the first game in the queue. As soon as they mark it received all subsequent wins in the queue would be automatically rerolled. In case their first win in the queue is fake they'd be able to claim the second one and so forth. In that case, the worst thing that could happen that it takes a bit longer to distribute wins.

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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Yeah I thought so too, just wanted to be certain. Better than if you couldn't, but queuing the wins would be the best solution, imho.

7 years ago
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Awesome feature. :)

7 years ago
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I'm not following the 3rd part of this.

a user could win a giveaway, believe they are not going to receive the gift from the giveaway creator, and start entering more giveaways for the same game, only to win again.

Because basically whenever I win, I end up doing this to check for giveaways that are open, but it says

the site will now check your other giveaway entries that are open, and remove those for the game you just won.

but then the 3rd FAQ states otherwise or rather, I just don't understand it English wise.

If you win a game, it'll check other open ones and remove you from it, however.. if you win-- nevermind, I get it.. I'm really dumb.

You win a game, it'll remove you from all open ones. However, the user can still "find" the open ones "again" and "reenter" them.

SO THAT MEANS I DONT HAVE TO DO http://puu.sh/uB6nh.png ANYMORE, YAY

7 years ago
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Seriously cool feature

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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I know it's super rare to see mistakenly created giveaways or fake giveaways (I'm assuming we should now be more careful about joining giveaways of new users) but it would be really sad to lose all private giveaway entries for giveaways of the game we just won from one of these bad giveaways. Let's hope this won't happen at all :D

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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7 years ago
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It would be awesome if there was a feature that, when syncing with steam, alerted you if you have any entries in giveaways for newly synced games (i.e. I entered a giveaway for game X, then purchased a bundle with game X in it, after syncing SG it would be nice if there was an alert somewhere telling me "hey, you now have X on steam, but you have entered this giveaway, be sure to check it").

7 years ago
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