You get 7-day suspensions for each non-activation and 14-day suspensions for each multiple win.
There's no point in 'gaming the system' since those restrictions will shut you down very quickly.
Rule enforcement here is very strict and I'm fairly sure that repeat offenders will very soon face permanent suspensions if they continue to blatantly ignore the rules.
In other words, if they keep that up, they won't be around for much longer.
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That's not true, anyone suspended for non-activations can appeal their ban if they activate their wins, even if it's permanent.
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Here I've used both terms interchangeably, but you are indeed correct, sorry about the confusion.
Suspended users still have access to the support section of the site and can create tickets (whether their suspension has an expiracy date or not).
Users with the mention "Banned" on their profile have no way of contacting us.
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Good to know. One additional (and related) question if you don't mind - I'm going to write a short guide in the forum about how to check one's winners and wanted to illustrate it with a examples. I was thinking of using my own profile to demonstrate one that passes the SGTools tests, and a profile of a permanently banned user to demonstrate one that doesn't. I assume this won't be considered calling out?
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I suppose this is fine, as long as the user is banned and not permanently suspended. The only issue I see is that it might mislead new users into thinking calling out is allowed (especially since they would be the main audience of this guide) so I would suggest to add a note in your guide about this.
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What Tempete said. I've seen regular user suspension lifted after profile was cleaned, altough non-activation count was lower.
As to my opinion about said user, something tells me it's not different than yours. But I think it's the role of the community to show that this kind of individuals are not welcome here, not administration. It would be very bad if personal feelings/opinions were enough to hand out punishments.
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I get it, but what is the difference between a regular user with 7 unactivated wins who got a perma almost instantly after filling the report (spot such a cookie yesterday) and this individual, who desperately tried to fake his way out of trouble and only got a 2 month suspension at first?
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Support can't do a permanent suspension, we can just do a regular one and forward it to a moderator.
Moderators are the ones handling user reports so they can do a permanent suspension immediately if needed.
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It depends on who finds the person first. Support can't give permanent bans, so we have to first apply normal bans then contact a moderator. In this case, before moderator was contacted, the guy filed an unsuspend request and immediately started activating the games. This is exactly the same way any user would be treated.
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If you don't mind me asking what is the actual punishment if you don't activate wins? A week, 5 days? And for repeated offences?
If you activate wins at a later time your ban is lifted but What happens when you don't? A week suspension is enough for that? Are they handled per win or per user?
Where do you draw the line? How many non activated wins is enough to get you banned?
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The final penalty in this particular case wasn't even a week.. I had one game, activated as soon as I realised the situation and penalty, still got a 7 day ..vacation (Actually it may have been 4, I can't remember anymore. But it wasn't 2 days for sure..)
So to be fair, it wasn't really the same way any user got treated..
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I don't know about that particular person/event, I am talking about general guidelines.
Though as far as I can see there is no firm rule.
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There are only a couple of people who can remove suspensions and length of time before removing the suspension depends on when/if one of those members is online. Your case might have occurred when they were busy, on vacation, etc.
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Than Kiou for the reply, I suppose that is a possibility too
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The default and minimum is 5 days per infraction. Following this, extensions and permanent bans are given on case-by-case basis, depending on several factors including total number of infractions, recidivism, intent, etc. Support cannot give extensions or permanent suspensions, so it's up to the moderators to determine this.
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Most likely the cookie had history of previous suspensions for the same infraction. sigh Some ppl never learn.
I can agree that this 'tag' case could be handled better - ie. suspension should be lifted after all games were activated. Afterall, all keys were saved in txt file waiting for hdd space. Some openess and explanations what's going on from support would also help a lot in calming down the situation at that moment.
The problem with said individual is that he shown complete lack of moral spine. I'll play a devils advocate role and give support to support. They had no choice but to follow the rules and policies. If the suspension was upheld, support would lose face as it was said numerous times that suspension can be lifted if the games are activated. Same goes for suspension of the other user for calling out - if he could get away with it, why not others - screaming fake, scammer and so on. Don't get me wrong on this, imho it wasn't just, but you have to admit that consequences of alternative are far worse. And soon afterwards there would be accusations of 'unfair' rerolls because gifter is a friend/shares group with support member.
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We never compare "similar cases." Each administrative action is based upon the information we have at the time and what is deemed an appropriate response. While our patience is not unlimited, we do consider appeals/circumstances/et cetera.
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First time violation can be excused (though I agree one year is pretty long) and as long as he did redeem them in the end, he didn't get anything out of it (except possible price reductions since a year had passed). I had a similar suspension when I first started using this site, and it cost me more money to redeem the games than if I had just activated them in the first time, because they were bundled and I had to track them down from individual sellers. It was an honest mistake.
And I doubt you can 'continue what you do', I think the mods will be very much unforgiving if it happens again - applies both to me and him.
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(except possible price reductions since a year had passed).
CV is set from the listed date of the giveaway, so waiting wouldn't change anything.
'I think the mods will be very much unforgiving
The staff has a reputation for being overly harsh on petty things, and absurdly lenient on actual misdeeds.
How valid this interpretation actually is is irrelevant, the people that scam the system adhere to the belief that it is true.
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The reality is that things are not "handled that way." The "reputation" referred to is based solely on gossip.
Both of the above are a result of a lack of knowledge, both of the (punishment) process and past (user's) history. As Staff does not divulge private information regarding users, people continue to draw (mistaken) conclusions from incomplete or wrong information. Since we usually cannot give details to clarify why we do what we do, we must accept that some people will continue to gossip and complain about us.
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Look, I have seen people being instantly suspended for calling out because they were doubting the legitimateness of a giveaway. While I understand this is because you don't want to scare away potentially generous new people the relations seem to be a bit off.
For example: I just had someone winning my giveaway who had won PAYDAY 2: A Merry Payday Christmas Soundtrack 6 times(!!!) Batman: Arkham Origins - New Millennium Skins Pack 2 times and Overture 2 times - over the course of one and a half years!! First infraction in June 2014, latest just a few weeks ago. He clearly doesn't care about the rules.
My giveaway got rerolled, but the guy wasn't even suspended with the explanation:
"There is no suspension because it was already served. The reroll is granted because one of the infractions is still within the one month period."
To me this feels unblievable. So we can have people cheating the system multiple times and get away with such a short period of punishment so they can go ahead and enter and win giveaways again even within the next four weeks?!
Not to mention a recent case of somebody breaking multiple rules and getting away with no punishment at all because he corrected the minor mistake of not activating 13 of his wins?!
You gotta admit this seems to be a bit out of proportion.
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You are so right.
Lately someone wrote something like there would be even no reason to blacklist people that broke the rules, cause the most likely got their suspension and deserve a second chance.....besides one single case a multiple regifter and trader of won gifts, turned to a regular giveaway creator....all others do it again and again.
I just don´t understand the point of removing a suspension after activating a won gift. reducing the suspension would be ok....but not instantly removing. Especially in cases users do this multiple times.....(not only multiple wins, also over time again and again...)
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The example you give is actually a good one. You only have part of the story, and it is not over, yet.
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I was referring to the user with multiple wins.
As for the "calling fake" incident, that one is similar to running a stop sign. The rule is in place to prevent injury, and if you get caught, you get ticketed.
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Odd time to reply and all, but i thought games gifted were either at full CV, bundled level CV or no CV at all (ie free games), and that full CV can be dropped to bundled level CV due to sales, or to no CV because it was being given free (ie Vanguard Princess - the only one i remember right now cos i wanted to gift it)
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Once a game is manually added to the bundle list, any giveaways created after the date the game was first bundled are retroactively and progressively reduced to 15% value.
Once a game is made free, any previous giveaways are reduced to 0% value made after the free date are deleted, and the game is removed from the available giveaways list, preventing future giveaways [primarily in order to prevent people from flooding the site with them, creating massive slowdown, as happened in the past].
Does that help? :)
If you're trying to giveaway a free game, either create a thread and ask for people who are interested, or use this existing thread.
There's also a keydrop thread available if you just want to get rid of the key, and don't mind a high probability of it going to bots and leechers.
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When a game is available for free via a promotion, it is removed from the giveaway list and giveaways created after the promotion started are deleted, but giveaways created before the promotion keep their value.
Games that are removed from the Steam store drop to a $0 value since values are pulled from the Steam API, and they also vanish from the list. Eventually they are set to the last known price and readded to the list by the admin but it can take a while since it is a low priority issue.
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While I've got you here, what's up with ORLY giveaways?
I checked their previous offerings against the Create New Giveaway list, and all the ones I checked were still available to post.
Is that an oversight/delay, or are ORLY giveaways not counting as free for SG, for some reason?
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I can't say for sure because it's not of my resort, the list is managed by moderators, I'll have to ask them.
Either they completely missed promotions of this site, or they judged the way they handle the distribution of their keys isn't exploitable enough to warrant removing the games from the list (can you get a key from their next promotion if you didn't leave a review for the previous one ?)
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(can you get a key from their next promotion if you didn't leave a review for the previous one ?)
Yes. Leaving a review gives you bonus entry points; there's no penalty for not leaving one.
So, basing on what you said earlier, if they did get changed to free later, would completed giveaways NOT be removed retroactively?
And assuming I have a key for a game that's since been put up on Orly (a while back), do I just assume that's not okay to put up, or do I put it up anyway..?
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Don't forget that 1.9999 weeks suspension rounds down to showing only 1 week! Mouse over the suspension length to see the alt text, which will give you the exact time the suspension ends.
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Actually i think it depends how long it takes to get caught. I don't think they punish separately for each case. It's more like 7 days for the first time you get caught and so on. I say this because there's plenty of people with 3 or more unactivated wins around here and they're still around entering giveaways. I might be wrong tho, we won't know for sure unless support decides to chime in and tell us how it is.
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Well I know from personal experience :) it's true it takes time to get caught, but once you do you are punished for each case separately. However, they are added together to form one long sentence, and if that sentence becomes too big, you are suspended indefinitely until you sort things out. After that, you're back to normal.
So those people you mention, either they weren't caught yet or they've already served their punishment collectively.
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I think it depends on how grievous it is. I've had a re-roll with a long line of non-activations recommended and receive a permanent suspension.
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Five days' suspension for each non-activated win for a first-time offense. Activation of the missing game will normally lift the suspension for that game under that particular circumstance.
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A perma-ban is sufficient. Really, no need to nuke the person. o_O"
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Sad but true. Of course if it's repeated often you would get permaban sooner or later, but before that it's possible to get many games. And seems like administration does not think this is a problem.
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had 30 not activated once. got permanent suspension.
so it happens...
but maybe it should be three strikes and you are out. mind you, that's not three games, that's three times getting "caught"
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Minor and major infractions are indeed both infractions but what's the point of coming down hard on someone that's calling out by for example naming a fake giveaway where most fake giveaways really are genuine fake giveaways and on the other hand being (very) lenient on things like trade and CV scamming, serial re-gifting and non activating, those that bypass the giveaway list and want to giveaway free games,..
The logic is sometimes hard and difficult to find in all of that.
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What isn't gossip nor conjecture is that I've seen myself users being suspended less than an hour after they broke the (petty) call out rule and that I've seen that a motivated ticket backed with evidence of a serial scammer is 3/4 year " pending " and the worst of all is that scammers on SG are getting away with it.
I repeat: the logic is sometimes hard and difficult to find in all of that.
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But calling out is easy to catch. Just need to read a thread or giveaway comments. It's a suspension that happens usually as a result of the user being caught on the spot by a staff member rather than via a report.
Scamming on the other hand is something that happens outside the website and that we can't spot that easily. And it's not a situation as straight forward as calling out, there has to be compelling evidence.
In addition, it's something that can be handled only by moderators and not support, since we do not have access to user reports, nor can we do a permanent suspension, which is the punishment for scamming (you can find more informations about this on the roles page).
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Not to mention the fact that "calling out" isn't petty. The rule is there for a very good reason, and it is not difficult to adhere to it. Complaining about being punished for it is like complaining about getting a ticket after running a stop sign in front of a cop.
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This is kinda off-topic but I wanted to share - I was contacted by a guy on Steam few days ago, his English was quite shoddy but from what he wrote I understood that he's suspended on SG for not activating his wins and wants me to give him the key for a GA he won from me 9 months ago. I had the mail still in the 'sent' folder so I gave it to him and just out of curiosity checked his account for un-activated wins - including the one from me there were 24 of them O__O Anyway I bookmarked him to keep track of his redemption quest, and today he's already down to 17. You can do it buddy :3 I wonder if he will get unsuspended (It says 'permanent') if he manages to get down to zero?
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Praise shoddy-English-speaking-guy! Power to you on your quest!
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-checks giveaways from 9 months ago-
4 permanently suspended users. You got some terrible winners in the past. :P
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now thats a really nice thing to do :)
Sloth for president :P
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I had the same thing happen to me, a dude with 3 not activated games won one of my giveaways, i asked for a reroll but support said he'd already been punished. Gave him the key, made sure he activated it, blacklisted him and moved on with my life, there's nothing else you can do. Many people here advocate being lenient to offenders despite them being on their 3rd, 4th or even 5th offence. I get breaking the rules by mistake once or twice but any more than that, especially after being punished once, and you're obviously doing it on purpose and don't deserve to access to this website.
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That's why the rules here are too soft imo, and there are no real meaningful or lasting consequences to breaking them, even for repeat offenders. People should be given the choice to do what they want with their gifts, and not dictated to them by a broken system.
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I've asked myself a similar question... after an user has been suspended 7 days for non activation and 1 or more years later he still didn't do it or worse, has continued doing the same, shouldn't he get another penalty for not wanting to have a clean profile?
It's just a question, in the end support and mods know their job better than I do.
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Suspension is too short and 1 month old is not enough in my opinion
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Hey, lately after one of my giveaways ended I checked the winner's profile; 2 non-activated wins over a year ago. Requested a reroll, denied; "suspension already served, latest non-activated win wasn't during last month".
I reported a different user some time ago for 3 non-activated wins, I guess he was suspended for a week or so. And came back to not activate 2 more wins. Reported again some time ago, still pending.
Is this how it is? Can you just keep not activating wins once every month or is there an actual limit to this?
Since you are here already, take this off of my hands.
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