SteamGifts Community Poll: Should the Block Limit Be Increased?
You are going to try and find all accounts that use a bot and manually add them to your blacklist? That sounds like it would be a neverending task. You would need to have some kind of interaction with each user to identify them and then there are new accounts created all the time, so it would never end. Also, each user would have to do this themselves. There aren't that many people that would put that much effort into it, so there would just be a small number of users blocking them. That means their bot would just allocate their points to the other thousands of giveaways that are still available to them and they would continue winning games. They probably wouldn't even know it is happening.
What needs to happen is CG needs to find a way to identify the bot users and suspend them all at once. Then anyone that continues to use a bot after their first suspension and warning needs to be permanently banned. There has been suspensions in the past, but I don't think it continued and I don't know why.
Comment has been collapsed.
find a way to identify the bot users and suspend them all at once
CG done that in the past, he have the tools and all the "backend". He only need to lift his lazy ass and do his job as only admin and only one with access to the server sided stuff (like the logs).
Then anyone that continues to use a bot after their first suspension and warning needs to be permanently banned.
Yes, the second time should be a perma suspension but nowadays it depends on the mod that handle the ticket if they get a third chance.
And it depends on the handling mod how much evidences are needed to see/identify them as autojoiners.
One mod approved 95% of the reports we done and a other one 50% (i don't say more to the second ones handling or i would be aggressive because of the frustration that i still have after nearly 1 year...)
Without server sided checks we, different members from my group and i, claimed evidences for partly over a year that such users got a perma suspension and that is much too much invested lifetime for a task that CG could handle in a few minutes. Without that he spend his own time in a significant amount, because the "scripts" would do the most of the work.
Ps.: If the handling mod would check the suspended autojoiner accounts after they come back, they would see by their own, without a additional report, that 90% don't stop and could perma suspend them directly.... but this step was/is, of course, too much """"demanded/expected"""" too.
Comment has been collapsed.
I think that is a part of the reason.
If he would kick the autojoiners that would mean in one go 5k+ users and that would be half, or more as the half, of the active users.
So the ad contracts that would be offered would be worse as now.
The "fake activity" (= autojoiner thanks messages [from a small part of the autojoiner users, that are so dumb to activate the integrated thanks script on top], sometimes threads and real comments and mostly overprices trash GAs) would be lower, which would show how empty it really is on sg and that would let the real users think about their presence here, about the money that they spend, which would influence CGs income because users that don't buy bundles with his ref bring lesser income for him, and, maybe, let them think about alternatives to sg.
And last but not least, CG don't care for sg.
He said 2 times by himself that he prefer to spend his time in the nature with friends (if i remember correct catching fishes etc.).
And it is very visible, since years, that he invest nearly no time into sg and that this only change when his income drops to a lower level (the corona timeframe shown it very well) and then he only fix the income problem (with new ads, new refs everywhere, a few threads and a few polls).
Comment has been collapsed.
Well I can't blame him for having other things he prefers doing. After all we're not paying customers and there are other ways to give away games. And we are not actually being hurt by bots entering GAs.
I do feel it's a little unfair for all the moderators and other support staff who are volunteering their time though.
They are swamped in tickets just for all that bot activity that could be solved easily and they are doing it all for free, for the good of our community.
Doesn't seem fair.
Comment has been collapsed.
After all we're not paying customers
The patreons are, the users that accept all ads are (indirect), the users that visit shops with the sg refs are, the users that create GAs on this site -that hold it alive and generate income for cg- are (indirect).
Conclusion: We have a different opinion in this point ;o)
I don't have a problem with the fact that he have other interests too because it is humanly.
But when someone is the only admin and the only one that have access to server sided stuff, he need to be available and react on messages and needs for the staff (mods) that do nearly all work.
And that isn't the case. They don't get what they need, tools, to fight the black sheeps.
A (shady) ru store tracker that he got (as example from me) never lead to a automatic system to add the listed games to the "bundled/reduced cv list" and the effort to program something would be minimal.
Instead the sg mods need to tackle all manual, after users report each game one by one, both investing thousands of hours and that is ok for cg because it isn't his invested (life)time and that is the thing that piss me off on it.
One of my group members (someone that study programming, so not a finished programmer) programmed a tool to identify games that are from the shady ru stores, DIG etc. and declare their gain as "shady cv".
On top we were able to check stuff that identified autojoiners, multiaccounters and SAM users (i don't go into details about it that they can't fix the identify ways).
Our staff were able to use this functions when we checked users.
To program this tool, he needed 1 week (from this it is very visible how minimal cgs needed effort would be...).
Very few of the sg mods had short access too (crazy when you think about it that users deliver site mods tools that help them because the admin of that site don't care). Short because the member that programmed it for us needed to make a sg break and couldn't/wouldn't support the tool anymore (it was running on one of his PCs and only working when the PC was on -the only bad thing on the tool-).
The mods don't earn money, the users don't earn money but cg earn money with the site.
Alone that fact, combined with which ones invest(ed) (life)time for the site, shows that something is very wrong.
Comment has been collapsed.
it was running on one of his PCs and only working when the PC was on -the only bad thing on the tool-
That does not seem like a big issue for a tool which could be run once a month and change CV retroactively. All that would be needed would be to allow the tool to run one someone else's computer (like a moderator's) when needed, i.e. very occasionally.
Comment has been collapsed.
Sure, with server/site access to do something automatic it wouldn't be a issue.
In our case only users (and mods without server site access) used the tool and couldn't change cv with it.
But it was still very useful to see directly how much cv was gained from shady stuff, of course it wasn't perfect and hadn't all sources of shady stuff implemented but it was much faster and better on top as to check all manual.
In the end the tool isn't available anymore because the member aren't using sg anymore and i had only one time contact in over a year :o(
But it shows that cg could do easily something to reduce the workload for the mods (and helping users), if he wanted...
Comment has been collapsed.
If a bot user wins and you can proof it is a bot, request a re-roll with that reason and the account should be suspended.
Comment has been collapsed.
ad hominem
you can use google translate, it's none of my business. but what I can and can't do is none of your business. if you don't want to see my threads, you are more than welcome to block me.
Also keep automatically participating in all the giveaways on the site and maybe one day you will be banned like the others.
Comment has been collapsed.
How do you know for certain that the message has been written by AI?
Not trying to troll or flame, I'm just genuinely curious because apparently I'm too dumb to figure it out on my own.
Comment has been collapsed.
Pretty much all letters written by ChatGPT looks identical. There aren't really any hard signs pointing towards it, just the general structure and writing style, look at this for example and compare it to the one OP posted: https://i.imgur.com/aB6b4QE.png
Comment has been collapsed.
OpenAI had a classifier of their own, but it seems to be taken down due to low accuracy
https://openai.com/blog/new-ai-classifier-for-indicating-ai-written-text
There are other similar tools out there:
Comment has been collapsed.
posts about a bot problem
I'll fix this for you:
Posts about a auto-joining bots problem.
Now you made a strawman, care to elaborate on main topic?
Comment has been collapsed.
No confirmation that they are bot accounts, this is the biggest problem.
Works only an account by account basis. You blacklisting 5000 accounts does nothing to my community experience, all it does is a bit better chances at your giveaways (only).
Sharing list of potentially bots between each other just leads to witch hunts, that likely already exist behind the scenes.
Sadly this is not a solution for the problem(?), only a bigger carpet to sweep under it. Bots need to be identified beyond doubt, and banned from using the whole site.
Comment has been collapsed.
Hi plexus,
i am fully behind you with the text but to make it short.... GIVE UP.
You waste your lifetime.
CG, the owner of the site, give a fuck and do nothing against cheaters.
The motivated and good mods burned out and can do only very tiny stuff against the amount of cheaters.
The bad mods are, of course, inactive (because having the mod badge is all that they wanted, at least it looks this way) or they are as useful as a tropical plant in a snow storm.
Different members of my group and special i, invested thousands of hours to collect evidences and reported hundreds of autojoiners (and other cheaters).
We warned users about the amount of autojoiners on this site, nowadays the majority of the active users use a autojoiner (sad but true), and the only thing we got for it were suspensions because of "spam" (for 30 messages/month -ROFL-) or "inappropriate behavior".
I never seen that a autojoiner that have on top the integrated thanks script activated, so painting a target sign on himself, got a suspension for spam (with 30 messages/day).
Before i known that the autojoiner program have a integrated thanks script, that can be activated, i wrote a thread about the spam. With a clear "need feedback from the moderators" in the title. Only a junior mod, that couldn't say much/do much -but i still appreciated that he reacted-, no higher mod reacted. And i brought this thread multiple times up, partly in direct answers to some high mods, so nothing that they couldn't had seen.... but they actively ignore the thread, the spam, the autojoiners and, partly, work in general.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/nrsW7/need-feedback-from-the-moderators-about-spam-comments
I could write for 1 hour in one go with examples, links to tests that other ones made, the results of the hundreds of reports we done with evidences that got collected and how many years we tried to help the site and the (active, motivated and friendly) mods.
Alone in 3 months+ one member and i spend hundreds of hours to collect evidences and do over 300 reports (and not only a bit evidences, i mean extreme massive evidences that should have let to 295 suspensions... or something around this^^).
Laughable 90 autojoiners got from this a suspension.... and only a part a perma suspension (partly they got a second suspension for autojoining but not a permanent one. Sure autojoiners need, at least, 3 chances -and more time to ---- the site and the users) and that was the time when the most hunters from my group and i stopped all work against the cheaters, said "fy" and spend our time in a more positive way for our own interests. And a few motivated mods gave up too.
You can read how frustrated i am still after 1 year that i don't hunt anymore.... so trust me when i say "spend your lifetime in a better way, nothing will change on this site".
And yes the Blacklist is much too small but this will not change too because i brought that up since ~3 years.
Ps.: My group is autojoiner free [not only from the dumb ones that activate the thanks script on top, i mean all autojoiner users] (and yes we check this from time to time -of course i am not able to say how or the bad ones would use it to their advantage-) and that is the reason why much more GAs are made there and not as public ones (cgs fault...)
Pps.: Best thing you could do is set the option to NO in https://www.steamgifts.com/account/settings/referrals . If enough do this it will send a sign to CG that he should care more for the users of this site.
Comment has been collapsed.
Hello,
I absolutely agree with you, I personally look at the profiles of the people who participate in all my giveaways one by one and if I see a spam profile, I used to block it directly until today, but unfortunately I will not be able to do that anymore.
I guess I won't do/participate in giveaways on this site until a precaution is taken or the limit is increased.
The only thing I regret is the time I spent on this.
Comment has been collapsed.
As a short-term solution, take a page from Masafor's book and clear your blacklist of any account under level 5/6 to free up spots. Then only make GAs in trusted groups, and only make public GAs at level 5/6 (and the occasional community train at L0).
Comment has been collapsed.
This site is a bot fiesta and the best solution to fight most of the bots is to set a level restriction.
In the past i warned people, who did unrestriced GAs, about all the shady accounts on this site and mods told me to stop, while autothanks spammer still go unharmed. You see, it's not wanted to fight the problem and in my opinion just the lazy attempt to silence one, because it's easier, than fighting the real problem.
That 1000 slots on a blacklist is a joke and not even enough, if you blacklist only level 5+ accounts
Comment has been collapsed.
5-10 GAs? you serious? took me at least 150 to get to 5, with 240 I'm barely at 6, mostly bundled games, but it will cost you 200+$ to get to that level either way.
Less 5% of the users are at level 5(not counting level 0 users). So yeah if you increase the level, you have a lesser chance feeding the freeloaders.
FYI I don't use any scripts to join giveaways, just the android app on and off, it makes it a bit easier to enter giveaways, just like ESGST.
Comment has been collapsed.
They are serious, yes. Check out basically any game from this topic..
20-30-50++ CV from a single copy of low-effort game, likely sold through keystores for cents. People and the support is out to hunt these down and set them to 0 CV because of the ease of misuse.
Comment has been collapsed.
Well if the admins set it to 0 CV, then it will lower the level of these boter masterminds anyway
Blacklisting is a lot more futile than increasing the level, other solution would be some captcha, better idea to campaign for that than bigger blacklist. You're just shooting yourself in the foot with blacklisting people, if you blacklist someone it also means you can't enter their giveaways.
Comment has been collapsed.
You're just shooting yourself in the foot with blacklisting people, if you blacklist someone it also means you can't enter their giveaways.
While it's true, we're talking about bot/blackhole accounts right now - they swallow giveaways and return nothing, so there isn't much to lose.
I personally use level 3 limitations because it sounds reasonable for me, and I don't have to trouble myself with finding and identifying unwanted accounts to BL one by one.It would be up for the staff, who seem to slip into background support than actual moderation (discussions) and admin (progress) work. Or they things are in motion, but really just that much in the background.
Comment has been collapsed.
You're just shooting yourself in the foot with blacklisting people, if you blacklist someone it also means you can't enter their giveaways.
I have about 680 people on blacklist. It was no lose for me anyway. But there are people, who erase them, cause they have no balls. I usually see gaining 20 blacklists around LGBTQ event, which magicaly disapear after next bigger event. I more wish these were permanent and unremovable, cause I find it funny people switching these decisions. Like I have been blacklisted by Lugum in first week when I joined site, yet he even managed win game from me. How? I would appreciated if blacklist placed on me were left there forever.
Comment has been collapsed.
If this site adopts recaptcha, then I'll leave at once. I don't use scripts, but with the hassle I have with that in other parts of the internet... just no. I try clicking the wanted items and it says nope try again, and again and again, 5 to 8 tries to get through it for a site that's not essential ain't worth my time.
Comment has been collapsed.
I agree if that applies to every single giveaway entry, that would be really frustrating. But if it showed up after quickly entering lots of giveaways within a certain time frame, I feel like it would be ok. It most likely wouldn't even come up for the average user on this site.
Comment has been collapsed.
If regular users need to think twice, if a giveaway is worth going though the effort of solving a captcha, I would say that is a plus. Less mindless joining every GA.
Also it could be enabled optionally by GA creator or based on the contributor level.
Comment has been collapsed.
honestly just set a certain level restriction and you are good to go, you don't need to think about it that much. it's not worth it
Comment has been collapsed.
Even without the bot topic the limit should be raised to 10k.I would actually prefer no limits at all but that's unrealistic.
Sadly cg doesn't even bother to add any quality of life features to manage our limited blacklists. Heck, we can't even easily free up some slots by dropping permanently banned users from our bl.
Comment has been collapsed.
You already know how to combat bots, and that's by making your own Steam Group.
Even doing invite only giveaways helps to force only real people to enter.
Masafor is the most well informed of all of us, and even they're telling you to give up on the idea. of combatting bots.
I do agree with those of you out there who just want to blacklist everyone (not just bots), that the limit might need to be increased, but really, don't burn yourself out. I got so angry at it a couple of years ago, that it affected my attitude on the site as well, and I earned a lot of blacklists from real people. It's not healthy for the community as a whole to get worked up about something that's likely never going to be fixed.
Comment has been collapsed.
tl;dr: bots are a problem on SteamGifts. The author proposes to increase the limit of 1000 users that can be blocked so that the bots can be dealt with. This would make the site better for everyone.
Since the original message was written by a language model, we might as well ask Google Bard to summarize it. 😅
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm in favor of increasing the limit to 1024, but just because I prefer round numbers.
In binary notation, 1024 is represented as 10000000000.
Seriously, though, if a user is passionate about fighting bots, increasing the blacklist limit is the least non-zero thing the admins could do.
Comment has been collapsed.
Maybe CG can add some hidden fake giveaways that bots would see in the html source code and automatically click and join, and subsequently get banned? He can do that like once or twice monthly, and bot owners wouldn't know why they were banned?
Comment has been collapsed.
That is reason why I do public giveaways level 5+, you can't limit all rule breakers, but you can limit scale of them. Even with blacklisting users level 5+, I am at 650 of 1000. Sadly steamgifts management doesn't care of that, I still have in reports two sg multiaccounters with attached proofs and unsolved.
Comment has been collapsed.
the whole point of the existence of bots is so no human is capable of fighting back against them. blacklisting them manually, as others have said here, is not only futile but also a complete waste of time and resources. remember, humans have limited lives, which is not necessarily the case for automated systems.
Comment has been collapsed.
To all suggesting site owner cg to take measures to mitigate the problem let me spell it out for you once more: he doesn't give a hoot about the issue if he even perceives it as problem and so do most higher level mods obviously. The casual "punishment" by a suspension for a few days isn't more than a slap on the wrist and more aimed at pacifying users adhering to the rules as to discourage the many cheats.
Even the so-called "permanent" suspensions result only in a year-long "vacation" after which the same worst offenders can appear on site again if they are so inclined.
Comment has been collapsed.
Sadly Bot users are inevitable here. A basic google search can acquaint new users with various autojoiners, etc. So its pointless to keep blocking such users, the numbers are only increasing. I wont parrot what some other excellent replies have already mentioned.
I would just like to share a suggestion. If you don't want to deal with unreliable users/ bot users. Use invite-only giveaways or join trustworthy groups, whose admins do the vetting for you.
SGTools is great to use if one decides to do invite only GAs. Not only do you restrict bad users, you also can filter in some quality users. The number of entries may not be as massive as a public GA. But atleast your game is going to someone legit.
If someone questionable still slips in... You can block such minority of users. It wont hurt your blacklist limit as much as BL-ing public offenders would.
Comment has been collapsed.
Since I'm doing my train thingy, can these bots join those?
Comment has been collapsed.
The commonly found scripts/bots cannot, since they are intended for Public or group GAs. They simply enter all the GAs found on the main page of SG.
However I have read other users mention in the discussions, that some tools are able to scrap discussions threads in order to find the unique 5 character GA code that make up GA links. So users add some 'bot protection' so that users have to manually work in order to enter the particular link.
If one doesnt want to take the effort of doing so, SGtools is an external website for which users have to check if they are eligible or not. Only then do they get to see the GA link. So its most likely most convenient but also secure way to hold an Invite-only giveaway.
Comment has been collapsed.
secure way to hold an Invite-only giveaway
But if someone give the clear sg link to his friends or use it with his other accounts he only get a punishment from sgtools and NOT from sg.
Which means it give, from my last info from a few months ago, around 50 accounts that are "perma banned on sgtools" (so couldn't enter protected GAs throught that gate) but still enter GAs, throught the clear sg link. They don't recieve a suspension from sg, so in the end is sgtools, sadly, a bit of a paper tiger (thanks to cg.... /sarcasm).
And off course it isn't allowed to share the names of this users because they need to be protected of the fair and real users (that they can cheat easier and longer)
Comment has been collapsed.
I guess its not much of a help if one aims to ban the offenders.
But using SGtools still is better than simply posting an invite-only link. If not ban, one can easily re-roll the winner at the very least. In my opinion, its great for casual users who want an added layer of security.
As of now I have made around 25 GAs using SGtools, never once did I come across an offender. Maybe i have been lucky till now.🙃
Comment has been collapsed.
Yes, it's better as nothing.
Sorry, i am frustrated with the complete construct of the cheaters and that cg (and the, ""active"", highest mods) do absolute nothing against it/them, and it is, sadly, visible in my answers/reactions.
And yes, you were lucky with no black sheep in your sgtools GAs or you post them in a thread(s) that aren't visited (much) from this people.
Comment has been collapsed.
many giveaways, i just skip, i just find it amazing that nearly all GAs got 1k+ people on them.. feels like ages since i won a giveaway lol.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yes, I support increasing the limit to combat bots.
🤔Yes...but
I think it was suggested a long time ago, during a similar discussion, that "increasing the limit" could make this SG itself heavier. In that case, funds would probably be needed to address the load.
https://www.patreon.com/steamgifts
https://www.steamgifts.com/account/settings/patreon
I wish I was rich too...
Fanatical's advertising and other revenues are probably being used to maintain the status quo. (Maybe.)
I somehow sense the possibility that the limit will eventually be opened up to limited users of patreon.
Well, I always recommend to use SGtools or use the Lv limit and take mitigating measures.
📝
Comment has been collapsed.
cg earn money with the site... the ref, the ads, the patreons.
Alone the patreons, maybe, cover his expenses (based on calculations of different people that know what a site needs and what the servers etc. cost).
To give him more money as right now will not lead to the fact that he do some work for his site (or it happened the last years...).
I reccomend the opposite approach, cut his earnings on a minimum till he realize that he should invest some time to earn again more with it (or close the site completely -someone else will do a new sg with more motivation...-).
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, that's one idea.
However, if SG were to have something similar to the Twitter fiasco, it would be hell with no guarantee of safety.
It's a fear I don't even want to think about because there have been times in the past when fake sites were rampant 😈💻💰
Comment has been collapsed.
When you apply filters to something, there is a computational cost, which makes it slower/heavier.
I think loading all those spamming comments isn't that impactful.
Comment has been collapsed.
Permanent solution is: CAPTCHA option on GA
temporary solutions:
Comment has been collapsed.
Most bots advantage have on short GA (less entry) , on long GA everyone have time/points to enter
Comment has been collapsed.
Useful function may be: GA for "users who create GA in the last year" or "users who create GA in the last month"... - will remove 90% of bots.
Maybe admins should check how much inactive (means: not created - but won GA's this year) users we have in level 1-10.
Comment has been collapsed.
I know I cant rid the Earth of dust in the air, but that doesnt mean I stop cleaning my home. I do what i can by restricting giveaways and that does a good job blocking the bulk, check winners profiles with sgtools and the savvy rest I let go otherwise it would hurt my mind.
Comment has been collapsed.
Nyx gave me the information where Sisyphus' contract was to find and I payed the house contractor a small fortune to re-write it. It only took a couple of diamonds, nectar and runs through the underworld. Hades was ok with the alteration in the end :)
Comment has been collapsed.
62 Comments - Last post 15 minutes ago by pb1
887 Comments - Last post 33 minutes ago by MeguminShiro
530 Comments - Last post 34 minutes ago by MeguminShiro
16 Comments - Last post 55 minutes ago by klingki
47,105 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by Pish4
39 Comments - Last post 6 hours ago by shivam13
1,758 Comments - Last post 7 hours ago by CutieTheRooster
100 Comments - Last post 4 minutes ago by Ivannes
121 Comments - Last post 39 minutes ago by CBlade
1,196 Comments - Last post 48 minutes ago by CBlade
37 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by wigglenose
145 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by rimvydasm
65 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by cg
90 Comments - Last post 2 hours ago by cicangkeling
Dear SteamGifts Community,
I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to bring up a concern that affects our experience on this platform, and I believe we can make a change for the better.
As many of you may have noticed, SteamGifts is facing an increasing problem with bots infiltrating the site. These bots not only disrupt the fairness of giveaways but also diminish the overall quality of our community interactions. To tackle this issue effectively, I'd like to propose a solution that might require your cooperation.
The current limit of being able to block only up to 1000 users is causing difficulties in maintaining a bot-free environment. I believe that if we can collectively agree to increase this limit, we will have a better chance of dealing with the bot problem. By raising the maximum number of users we can block, we can each do our part to prevent these disruptive bots from taking over the site.
Here are a few reasons why this change could benefit our community:
Enhanced User Experience: A decrease in bot activity will result in a smoother and more enjoyable experience for all users.
Improved Fairness: Giveaways will become more fair and accessible to genuine users, as bots won't be entering and winning giveaways.
Community Growth: As we combat the bot issue, we can attract new members who will appreciate the enhanced quality of our platform.
To move forward, I suggest we engage in a constructive discussion about this proposal. By sharing your thoughts and ideas, we can collectively find the best way to tackle this issue and maintain the integrity of our community.
Your support is crucial in achieving this change, and I believe that together, we can make SteamGifts a more bot-free and enjoyable platform for everyone. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions regarding this proposal.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
plexus
Comment has been collapsed.