Check his post history if you haven't. He's utterly professionalll.
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That's actually really sad. Some of those "we cannot reach you, we have never had this before". Yet he says it to almost everyone... The guys insane.
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Wow, I love how he reports people for "petty crime" & yet look at what he's been doing these past few months (or more).... Dude need some serious help...
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I recently started blindly joining groups just for giveaways, saw that twitter thing and wanted to start a thread about this, but apparently there is one already. Needless to say I left the groups and hope Valve will do something about this.
I don't think their groups have any real power, the reason people are joining is because the other Steam giveaway site has forced group joining and that's why they have so many members.
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Most annoying group(s) in the world. I leaved from all, because of constant spam of advertisments in steam. And I'm not surprised they do dirty tricks.
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The main problem is some people(and if you don't know they hate,they insta block/delete you)don't like invites to groups. Due to backlashes and other pernament friendship broken reasons,im forced to send invites via..activity board. Via saying you want or not. I understand why they don't like,but why deny a benefitive invite(like coupcon dumpster?)
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He deleted a thread named 'Threats?' on one of his group, and I guess many more threads and comments.
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Here's some evidence for you:
BEFORE: http://i.imgur.com/yjRAH9b.png
AFTER: http://i.imgur.com/ANompFq.png
(4 pages of comments deleted)
I can only imagine what a Steam Mod is gonna see when they look at all those deleted comments and threads -- because if you didn't know none of it is really deleted, just hidden from view.
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psst...not sure it's a good idea for you to expose your account name...
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You need to be part of the group to see it, but apparently also works if you were invited at some time (doesn't matter if you ignored invite).
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Ah ok, makes sense. I left yesterday but it still shows me as being invited in February on the group's home page.
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I used to be in the group, maybe they banned me for linking to this thread in the comments.
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puts his raincoat and hat on
Another internet shitstorm! Yay!
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As I said above, I bet he didnt paid for his giveaways ! It has all been given to him.
Beggar level 9999
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Yep! Sounds like a corporate crime for me...
Great news (y)
+1
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Sounds like some immature kid on a power trip. I hope he gets whats coming to him.
Regardless, was never in any of those groups, and will never join.
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This kind of crap is exactly why I refuse to join any group that has a contest with inviting others as a requirement.
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I have group growing every day, and it never crossed my mind to write hey invite all your friends, its embarassing to me and not profesional. But some people would do anything for their benefit
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It just feels like a step one in a pyramid scheme and a poor business practice right from the start.
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I understand where you're coming from. I am against ponzi type schemes myself but a giveaway group like ours isn't anything like a ponzi scheme. There is no hierarchical advantages, we are all equal, we all have an equal opportunity to win a particular giveaway.
Pyramid systems serve in an hierarchical manner whereas our group is more reminiscent of a kind of raffle. Members meet a monthly quota and are free to enter and win as often as is possible while respecting and having consideration for other members.
I have been on a slight winning streak so I think it is time for me to hang back and let other members have slightly better odds of winning something.
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He's not going to do that, sadly. In his eyes he did nothing wrong. And the group has only lost about 2000 members...
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There's a borderline between Steamgifts and Steam. The rules here doesn't apply to Steam users or the rest of the internet, just as the rules on Steam doesn't apply to Steamgifts.
Technically, there has been absolutely no rules broken on Steamgifts, so banning him is not required in any way.
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We don't know if he got the keys by begging though, there might have been developers who contacted him, due to the size of those groups, in an attempt to get him to distribute the keys.
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What about this ?
Do not ask users or developers for keys or gifts, whether in comments, chat, or outside the site.
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Like I said; the rule doesn't apply when unrelated directly to Steamgifts. In this case, the developers weren't related to any Steamgifts giveaway, so the rule cannot be applied.
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Well, I admit I haven't read everything, but didn't he ask for keys to give away ?
When you look up his profile there are a lot of giveaways with a lot of copies, so it's not a far stretch to assume it is the case
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Did he ask for free keys to giveaway? Perhaps. Was it in any way connected or related to Steamgifts? Not that I know.
It would be similar to banning a user for trading on Steam with a user who has a Steamgifts account, for the reason that trading is against the rules on Steamgifts. Once it's outside of Steamgifts, the rule no longer applies and is nearly impossible to enforce.
There is some slight exception to this, of course; like for example, the rules from Steamgifts also apply to the Steam group.
In the end, the "or outside the site" part of the rule is mostly a guideline more than a rule. It can't really be enforced since it mostly depend on the current situation.
Also, just to be clear here, I'm not defending DuckHead in any way. Just stating the rules and how I believe they work. :P
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As I said, he is making lot of mass giveaways here on Steamgifts, and it's not a far stretch to assume that he sent the same kind of mails that the ones that have been posted here to get these keys. Whether there is evidence of this or not among all the screenshots that have been posted is a different matter, and I agree that it would be wrong to suspend him based on assumptions alone.
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It surprises me that it was that many that left. Unless someone made an announcement in those groups, I would have figured that most members would be oblivious to the situation.
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The drama is real! Everyone here needs to know about this shit!
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I think enough of hatred against this man. He has already lost the trust of community, and he himself punished its irresponsibility and abusing possibilities groups.
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We all know not all of you even knew about it. It was simply DuckHead. I was in your chat when the other staff and members were expressing their anger at him for using terms such as "we" when he should have just said "I". Other members and former mods/admins even stepped forward about it here and on reddit saying the same.
I'm sorry you got all those messages, but it was probably because you were still in the groups even after it became public. I checked about an hour ago and you were still in the groups. As as of this very post you still are. So until you leave, you will probably continue to receive these types of hate messages. You can still keep the friends you made that you met in the groups, so that shouldn't be a problem :)
Personally I met 2 awesome people during my short time in the group, and I still have them friended and talk to them often.
And yes, unfortunately because INTERNET, the group's reputation as a whole is completely ruined. It can never be the same again. Honestly the best thing for it's members to do is to leave and move on, and apparently many agree since people left in droves.
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I don't think there is much "hate" towards the other members of the group, as far as I can tell.
So far, there was enough proof that the curators of the group (for the most part at least) were being either "bullied" into doing certain things, or simply had no idea about what was going on "behind scene". DuckHead is pretty much the only one here to take the blame for what happens in his own group.
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Well, I don't see anything about where you live on your profile, so how was anyone to know? :)
Anyway, bravo for your decision to leave.
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Hey dude, hope you're okay.
I never accepted any of your invites to the groups because I already have problems with "you know who". But I never deleted you from my friend list because of this and I ain't blacklisted you for being affiliated.
I don't use the tactics that "you know who" uses because I have respect for good people.
I have zero respect for "you know who" fuck this you know who shit its not calling out anyway, Salz fukin strange AKA Angry Anus, he has superiority complexes layered with egotistic elitism and shit stains in his underwear, the least he could do is learn to wipe his ass.
But I like you and I remember our first trade it was funny.
Sorry to hear about the bombing, not small bomb being dropped either, they are classed as MOAB's because they are weighing around 4,000lbs, you guys are up against it with two of the top worst nations on the planet, Israel and Saudi Arabia backed up by NATO.
I wish you all the best dude take care : )
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Yeah from a report I read saying they had used an Israeli F16 flying Saudi colours to bomb a particular area, a single bomb was dropped and the devastation measured from the blast radius suggests a 4,000lb bomb was used. Also I hear that cluster bombs have been used which is against international or as Salz would say internationell law. But who knows maybe the info I have been reading is exaggerated, one thing is for sure bombs are being dropped illegally and nobody is doing much to stop it. One fucked up world dude sorry to say, glad your okay though and it all stops soon.
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http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Original_Traders_Group#announcements/detail/214265671828010875
He seems to have made an announcement... Although for some reason, I am unable to comment.
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Yup, I put it in the OP few minutes ago.
He either has comments disabled (not sure if you can even do that) or you are banned/kicked from the group.
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As far as I know, there is no way to disable comments and I am not kicked from the group because it came into my activity feed and I can comment on other anouncements within the group.
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You can put access to comment to officer only, that basically puts a bans on comments across the board.
SalzStange (OTG) 11 hours ago
I will disable the comments now for some hours. So everyone can read my statement.
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Man, reading that turned most of my brain into porridge.
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Whoever this guy is, he will become a politician. Only they can still hold onto their little seats of power this desperately after they were caught. Most people with average intelligence know to keep a low profile and try to damage control as much as possible before closing shop and moving far away.
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"2.) His message is more as unlogical "
Does he honestly expect anyone to take him seriously? I could care less that English is his second language, this is atrocious.
"He did not just destroyed our reputation, but he also destroy his reputation" - Yup, keep shifting that blame, it's all the big bad developers fault for exposing your slimy ass.
"This is a small circle of frustrated exmember or people. And they do not not because they thing it's right to do it. They do it because they fear our sucess." - Oh man he's on to us, we're so afraid of his enormous success....wait, what has he been successful at exactly?
This dude is 101% delusional.
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Can someone type "TL;DR" for me there?
edit: Well but I managed to read practically all, is just boring. He just speaks about the same again.
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That just made everything x1000 times worse for him.
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You have all probably seen this group "network" at some point. They send out invites to everyone. They giveaway bundle games here in mass quantities as part of their recruitment. They also advertise giving away AAA titles to whoever invites the most people to their groups. Sadly those giveaways are rigged, as they are not done on SteamGifts, but rather in his group's forum, and no winners are chosen truly at random as the system here allows.
But that's not what I'm here to tell you about.
First, let me show you exactly what I am talking about, in case you are unfamiliar with the OTG Network.
Original Traders Group
Original Curators Group
Original Giveaway Group
German Giveaway Community
Original Society Club
Duck Society
The above 6 groups are what's known as the 'Original Network'. It originally started as just the top group. It's recently expanded unnecessarily into the other groups. You can do everything the 4 groups do with one group, after all. The groups are also all populated by the same people, so don't let the numbers fool you. The Original Society Club is for the most loyal of his followers, where he supposedly does non-bundle game giveaways. Duck Society is...I don't even.
They are all run by a lovely fellow named SalzStange. His username here on SteamGifts is AngryErpel.
Confirmed with SteamGifts Support that this is not calling out..
SalzStange was recently outted on Twitter for trying to blackmail a developer for a free Steam Key. This kind of activity has been known to occur in this "network" but was covered up by his loyalists. When things like this happened in the past, or someone wrote a negative review for a game SalzStange obtained keys for, he would ask his loyalists to downrate the hell out of the review, which they sadly did. According to other 'victims', his loyalists were also asked to harass people that did not agree with SalzStange's methods or people who called him out on his bullshit. It's safe to say some are blindly following him in the hopes of free games. This is, of course, unacceptable, and since this was brought public, some of his loyalists left the group. Namely a few (most) of his admins and even a co-founder. He now has a new set of followers and Admins/Mods, and they are still up to the same routine.
SalzStange thinks giving away games is charity, and refers to his groups as "the biggest charity groups on Steam".
Charity is helping people who are less fortunate (IE Homeless, starving, etc), donating clothes and food to homeless people, or volunteering at a shelter....things of that nature. Not giving away games to privileged people on SteamGifts. He lists hundreds of giveaways for bundle games and games he's received from devs here on SteamGifts. The bundle games he asks members to donate to him so he can give them away here or in his group's chat (this has been confirmed by many former members). Either way, he is unfairly benefiting from contributor value here on SteamGifts because of this. He is currently a LV 9 contributor here on SteamGifts.
There is a reddit thread where a lot of people have come forward to share their experiences with SalzStange and his groups. and there is also a NEOGAF thread.
Proof, evidence, chatlogs, examples of his behavior and other things.
Take a look at these and find out for yourself what kind of person SalzStange is. Don't listen to his long-winded excuses or lies he's posted here and elsewhere.
2706 line OTG Group Chat Log
Full email conversation - This is the 'unedited' screenshot SalzStange provided that he claims absolves him of all accusations. It, in fact, makes him look worse.
My experience with SalzStange and his group
Chat harassment
SalzStange's SteamRep Report
SalzStange's "apology" to the dev he blackmailed
SalzStange thinks there's no proof
Valve is at least aware of this situation
SalzStange thinks those "against" him are all trolls
SalzStange denies allegations concerning his rigged giveaways, which were already confirmed as true
SalzStange's official statement after he was caught
Former Mod's response to his 'official statement'
SalzStange's post history on the Steam forums. A great example of his attitude and how he talks to developers
OTG Head Admin is okay with SalzStange's actions.
SalzStange has been permanently banned from SteamCompanion.
SalzStange calls those who caught him and spread awareness of his lies 'troll' and 'haters'..
SteamCompanion Group Chatlog where SalzStange was invited to discuss his ban
If you are still a part of this "network" I advise you all to leave to avoid being dragged down with him. It will happen eventually. WGN got shut down for doing less than this.
If you would like to combat this network and it's practices, there are a number of things you can do.
If you are a member of any of their groups, or any of the groups that SalzStange associates with (Such as Hookups where he is an Admin), simply leave them. You can also share this thread with people on your friendslists who are members of these groups and advise them to leave as well.
TL;DR:
SalzStange threatened a dev, got caught, and is still trying to lie and cover up the facts, acting like he did nothing wrong.
He claims to be an adult, but is refusing to own up to his actions. Everything we do in life has consequences. It's time he faces them.
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