Should giveaway creators be suspended if the game was given for free but was not yet added to the free game list?
Suspended users can still send tickets, regardless of the suspension length.
In fact, I have seen a few perma-suspended users fix their infractions, and come back after sending an unsuspend ticket.
Banned users are those locked from sending tickets.
Comment has been collapsed.
You can submit tickets even if you're "permanently suspended". Only when you're "banned" then it gets cut off.
Comment has been collapsed.
This is one of those cases for which support needs guidelines, as not always users do it intentionally.
In some cases, it might look as if a user is trying to abuse the system by fetching a free key, as they tend to make their giveaways run for just one hour, possibly to avoid getting caught by the staff. Or just because they want CV quickly. Or both. But not necessarily with ill intentions.
Sometimes, it might be an unfortunate coincidence, such as the bundle case you mentioned in the OP, or a Steam sale close to the mass giveaway.
A while ago, I have seen a case like the one you mentioned in this comment, when a member of one of my groups made a giveaway for a game just a few hours after it was given for free on gleam (although his was a gift from the Steam store).
Of course, I warned him, so he immediately deleted the giveaway, and gifted the game to the member who was most likely to enjoy it.
TL;DR: users giving away free games might not even know they have been available for free, so they should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
The best course of action would be to give them a warning, especially for lower level users who might not know the rules.
Or, if that would be too much hassle, just delete the giveaways without further actions.
Losing a giveaway slot (or maybe even more) would be enough punishment for low level users who are intentionally trying to abuse the system.
Comment has been collapsed.
You wouldn't be able to give away Dark Souls, since it's been removed long ago.
But generally, yes, if you buy a game for a giveaway around the same time it's given for free in a mass giveaway, you risk suspension when support eventually deletes all the giveaways, depending on the specific member who does that.
Comment has been collapsed.
Some people hoard free keys by the dozen (in case of the free Dark Souls the hoarding was real to trade it), allowing them to be given away would be an onslaught. A system is in works that either would give super-mininimum CV or nothing at all, if someone would like to give for the sake of giving. But they shouldn't be counted into the giveaway numbers either as it doesn't have much to do with being generous or giving anything... so in a nutshell, we'll see what CG comes up with.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah I remember the dark souls... Tons of people got like 2-5 copies while others like me didn't manage to get a single copy, because of them and their bots... But still it's kind of stupid, because now people who want to gift the game from their own money cant.
Comment has been collapsed.
If not suspend the giver, many people may try their luck for free CV.
Comment has been collapsed.
In the situation where a user makes a giveaway for a game that is already been given away for free before the giveaway is created: have the user making the giveaway present proof of purchase if the giveaway is called to question. If they can't present any, it's then reasonable to assume the user got it for free.
Comment has been collapsed.
While I haven't been active lately, we stopped suspending users for gifting free games years ago. We just delete the giveaway, and it gets reinstated if they provide proof that they purchased it rather than got it from a giveaway. Not sure what's situation you're referring to.
Comment has been collapsed.
I honestly think the whole system is messed up. A game was free for a specific moment in time, I think you should be able to give it away, say: I got a free game years ago, and now it's been bundled, and I can't give it away. Foolish, this website was meant to be about giving, not leveling up.
The only logical solution would be to make it like 1P for entry and no real-cv.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, just really unlucky as you have to draw the line somewhere. Those banned after paying for the game should be able to have some sort of way to be able to show it and then get unbanned.
I'm not quite in the same situation, but I have a Grid key that was part of a bundle I paid for some while ago, but since it went free for a day it's been removed. Subsequently, I'll just give it away via other means, and that's ok.
Comment has been collapsed.
They can open a ticket during suspension, everyone can. Support removes the suspension if the problem is fixed / proof is given. (Seen multiple people get suspended for week+, only it to get removed shortly after because they activated the unactivated games)
Comment has been collapsed.
We don't suspend users if they created a giveaway for a free game by accident. However, if the user does this multiple times in a row, clearly ignoring the site rules, or tries to abuse the free promotion by giving away multiple copies of the free game at once, it's difficult to write those cases off as a mere coincidence.
Comment has been collapsed.
I think the multiple copies should is still not a proof of any ill doing, because it's very common on this site that people buy multiple copies for a giveaway. I know for a fact that this is the case in the suspension that lead me to start this thread, because I saw the invoice and know the user intentions. CV was not the interest, but rather giving a game with good metrics to ensure people play it.
Comment has been collapsed.
This is not how things goes, that you make a suggestion based basically on money spent on the site, and when I point out that it's utterly biased, the answer is that I'm not helpful? By the way you didn't ask me a solution before, just started pointing fingers at me for supporting the false positive suspensions.
Just to be objective, you're making a topic about what if someone makes a giveaway for a game that's free, and what if they don't see it on the forums that it's currently free, what if it's not a public giveaway so noone can warn them, what if they get suspended ( - and what they can end just by opening a ticket with the proof). You're so up for the rights for the person who has the immense bad luck to even get in this situation, but at the same time have absolutely no problem with splitting the community's treatment and rights based on level - which is again money spent on the site. Seriously, how can you be so ignorant that if we go by the civic rights you mentioned, you're spitting one in the face while you so vocal about protecting the other?
Btw I already commented on the first page about the situation. Thanks for reading and understanding it, and not just stating that if I don't agree with your suggestion then I'm surely okay "to see people suspended for giving games they paid for, presumption of innocence be damned". Don't know why do you even create topics like this you can't take criticism about your ideas and don't follow logic at arguements.
+ it wouldn't have taken much of a detective work to check in the archive the last free giveaway's. Etaria | Survival Adventure was free today. game in ther archives giveaways deleted. Last 5 deleted giveaways now: all deleted.3 from the same person and two individuals. None of them suspended. It would have taken to check if it's a real issue of the suspension is a mistake or everyone's suspended. About 2 minutes. But better make a controversial-looking topic and act like it's a huge problem while there isn't even any problem.
Comment has been collapsed.
This is not my solution. It's one of few solutions which were discussed here and that I consider to be more acceptable than suspending users who paid for their giveaways (and doing so without any proof of wrong doing). This should never happen, but it did yesterday. This is an undisputed fact. I can only hope that the reason there are currently no users suspended for giving the game you linked is that support no longer suspends for this reason. If so, then my work here is done.
Comment has been collapsed.
You already replied on that comment where support stated that they haven't done it since years yet you spent 6 comments just in this line of comments that it is still an issue that needs to be resolved. What are you trying to prove?
Comment has been collapsed.
This link is to a comment from 13 hours where I assume it was a mistake. A couple of hours later a Super Mod replied and confirmed that suspensions for this reason do actually happen, in this case what must have triggered the suspension is that the giveaway included multiple copies. The reason it was lifted must have been that common sense prevailed.
Why do I have a feeling this isn't going to satisfy you and you're going to continue and complain about me, my hidden motives, this thread etc?
Comment has been collapsed.
The simple problem here is that more often than not it's guys trying to abuse the points system, rather than coincidence and innocence.
It's hard though to accurately suspend all such cases when there are a few genuinely innocent occurrences.
Oh well, when you're dealing on a site with the dynamic of people, you can't create rules perfect for every situation.
Comment has been collapsed.
points here, points there...
we should change this site name to steamCVandorratiorelatedgifts.com xD
But seriously - best solution would be to delete points for that ga :) No suspensions or deleting :)
Comment has been collapsed.
35 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by AbdAllahMohamedRefat
21 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by orono
9 Comments - Last post 15 minutes ago by HaxterZ
53 Comments - Last post 37 minutes ago by WastedYears
189 Comments - Last post 48 minutes ago by Chris76de
40 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by wormmayhem
106 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by fjmac65
23 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by rex2630
3 Comments - Last post 3 minutes ago by WaxWorm
2,144 Comments - Last post 4 minutes ago by Izaro
497 Comments - Last post 4 minutes ago by matsalkoshek
48 Comments - Last post 12 minutes ago by gortman
33 Comments - Last post 18 minutes ago by LieEater
405 Comments - Last post 27 minutes ago by Tigerci
I can see the logic of suspending users for creating giveaways of games that have just become free, though it would probably be sufficient to delete those giveaways as soon as the game is added to the free games list. The problem is that in some cases the giveaway creator actually purchased the key, and it's only by mere coincidence that he/she decided to create the giveaway at a similar time as when the game became free.
I bought the IG bundle Spring Mega last year and created a giveaway for it a week ago. A few days later it was given for free. Obviously I was not suspended and the giveaway was not deleted. But what if I created the giveaway a few days later, before it was added to the free games list, but after it was already given for free (in this case by gleam.io). Would such a giveaway suddenly become suspension-worthy? What kind of background checks are GA creators supposed to perform to ensure that a game they paid for is not suddenly a reason for them to be suspended? I think the principle of presumption of innocence should be used here, and giveaway creators should not be suspended for creating such games unless there's solid proof that they got the key as part of the free promotion and not purchased it earlier.
O.GA
Comment has been collapsed.