Hi! I'm totally new here and I was just wondering...

they are saying thanks to the person that has posted the giveaway.

Erm, what's wrong with thanking the generous person that gives away a game?

Right, so they are thanking for someone putting the giveaways up, not actually recieving the game. Right, so then I was right. That's all. Thanks ;)

They are saying "Thanks" because they are polite people.

You're making me look bad. I'm polite and thankful, too. But as I said, I was wondering what the deal was.

They are saying thanks for the possibility of winning a game. If they do win, then they can directly say thanks to the winner by pm.

It's sometimes a lot more entertaining for the gifter if you actually post something interesting to read.

I don't find all the "Thanks" flood bad, though.

I was seriousy considering posting a wikipedia article about the honey badger. But here's something you guys might enjoy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_%28unidentified_sound%29

edit: this one's fascinating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_%28unidentified_sound%29

because saying thanks used to be part of base rules, though it was never enforced

now it's merely a guideline, but since vast majority of people here never read the rules and/or use old scripts to enter giveaways, you still see thanks flood in every single giveaway

thanks

They're giving away a game, why shouldn't we say thanks? Everyone who doesn't is just plain rude.

Its because writing thanks in a message gives you a 30% higher chance at winning.
(If 100 entries, 1% chance per entry + thanks = 1,3% chance per entry.)

Seriously, I thought everyone knew this.

We aren't even saying thanks for the opportunity (as you don't even enter some giveaways but still say thanks) but you are saying thanks to the person for putting up a giveaway in the first place and wasting their money on complete strangers. So kind of an ego-tripping thing for the kind hearted knowing like 50-5000 people on the internet saw what a good guy he or she is.

Politeness, just that

It's a courtesy.

Oh wow.

I for one dislike all the thanks comments. I think it doesn't add any value and comments with important content loose visibility. There should be a button to say thanks or something. Of course we're grateful, there's no need to make 999999 comments about it.
But if it does affect chances of winning, guess I found out why I haven't won shit in almost 500 giveaways ^^

Well, what else are you going to put in the comments? They're saying thanks, obviously. I guess some people run on Internet cred.

With so many comments, and lots of users leaving hundreds of thanks comments throughout their site activity, it does start to lose its meaning though.

When I started out, I'd type a comment of gratitude every time. Then those got shorter, then became simply "thanks". Then I wrote a script that generates "thanks" type comments with the press of a button, and now I mostly don't bother, unless it's an outstanding (or very expensive) giveaway.

mfw this topic is still alive and kicking: O_o