SteamGifts Community Poll: Should the Block Limit Be Increased?
I was away from SG for about 18 months, and I recently came back just in time to participate in my first community train, which was an awesome fun time. I also did a few public and group GAs too.
Unfortunately the aftermath was aggravating. I sent my keys within an hour of the GA closing. I had two winners who dragged their feet only to activate their key literally right before the 7 day mark. After the 7th day, I'd actually submitted a ticket to ask for a reroll, but suddenly the winner, who was on SG daily for hours on end, decided to pick up the key. ðŸ˜
I also feel annoyed it's the responsibility of the gifter to "track down and notify" the winner.
I'd like to make a bot-fighting suggestion. Perhaps a way to do it already exists, and someone could explain how to do it?
I find limiting GAs by level is helpful, but really doesn't do as much as it used to. Bots seem to come up with these games that are DIG quality asset flip trash, yet cost $200 on steam. Even starting from level 0, they can raise their level pretty high in no time.
Instead of limiting giveaways by level; is there a way to limit the GA by ratio - meaning how much someone put into sharing with others here? This would still face the problem I mentioned above (overpriced asset flip games with insanely high prices can artificially inflate both level and ratio) but I hope that limiting by ratio would at least reduce the number of bot-joiners.
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After the 7th day, I'd actually submitted a ticket to ask for a reroll, but suddenly the winner, who was on SG daily for hours on end, decided to pick up the key. ðŸ˜
To prevent this, you are able to edit the key (= no key), that such a winner can't claim the win anymore.
This way it isn't important how long a reroll request need to be handled.
Short info to the rest:
- Do only level 5 public GAs
- Check the winners with sgtools.info
- The ratio thing don't sort out the most of the autojoiners because they push their stats with DIG bundle games (that are often still full value after years...), overpriced trash games and/or shady russian shop games that cost a few cents and bring a lot of cv.
In the other comments were different stuff written that could be interesting for you and your questions. I recommend to read them.
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I didn't know I could hide the key after submitting the ticket (for 7 days unclaimed), thank you for the info!
I didn't realize that ratio could be so easily abused. Thank you for explaining, looks like my idea won't really work after all.
If I notice unactivated/multiple wins on a GA winner, what should I do next? Do I submit a ticket and ask SG staff to check the unactivated/multiple wins for me? or should I ask for a reroll?
I've been reading through the thread, and there's some good ideas. Next GA I will probably try the SG protected link suggestion.
Thank you for your helpful advice, Masafor!
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If I notice unactivated/multiple wins on a GA winner, what should I do next? Do I submit a ticket and ask SG staff to check the unactivated/multiple wins for me? or should I ask for a reroll?
Click in the GA, direct on the reroll request, this speed the reaction up, and copy the sgtools link about unactivated wins/multiple wins into the ticket.
The mods check the winner, if he don't got a suspension in the past for the unactivated/multiple win, he will get a suspension and the GA will be rerolled. If he got a suspension in the past, they will tell you that you need to send the key/gift.
Thank you for your helpful advice, Masafor!
You are welcome :o)
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Enhance your sg experience by joining a giveaway group that works for you. It's sad but if you want to guarantee your games go to real people, and if you want an actual chance of winning something you're interested in, that is the way.
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I haven't read everything that was written here, but I wanted to add that banning bots is fine, but you have to slow down the creation of new bot accounts too.
As far as I remember every SG account has to be linked to a steam account. So one of the criteria for doing that should be that the steam account is atleast 1 month old or even more.
Sure this will suck for genuine new people, but its for the greater good. GREATER GOOD. Think of the children.
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There are many bot accounts what is older than a month. Other way to check new accounts is that check how many (nonfree) games has the user...
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Seems like that Patreon and Ad revenue could be used for such a task.
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I do believe sets even lvl1 (one any ga made in lifetime) restriction is filters away bots for a half or so. Yet myself at times when i had some extra cash or keys i did giveaways with lvl4-5, cause i wanted to give back for a nice people who make giveaways aswell. Didnt faced a bot even once i think, at least aint remember any.
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captcha works, or that "click here to prove you are human" thing but I'm not sure how that works, there are auto-clickers? Maybe each time you "enter" something pops up that can't be auto-interacted? Just another simple click that moves randomly position? I dont know, bots suck
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I don't mind if blacklist limit will be increased, but I doubt a lot that it will have any real impact on bots. Downside is that it will increase storage size necessary for steamgifts, but it's up to cg to decide if that's affordable or not, not up to me.
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i think that's the wrong approach. sg needs to do some work on their backend to filter out fraudulent accounts. i doubt theyll invest in cloudflare or something but that could help
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You don't need Cloudflare. A simple comparison of timestamps of giveaways entered does suffice. If one account enters multiple giveaways at the same moment it has to be a bot.
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depends on how precise their internal timestamps are, and you could end up banning perfect normal accounts for timestamp errors. using useragents makes much more sense (though those can be spoofed) combined with velocity rules. others have mentioned capcha's which is good too
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Do you really think it is so complicated to spot an autojoiner?
"I added a few infos.
[redacted] (lvl 3, last GA 6 years ago, autojoiner since 6 years, [redacted] he have alone there 32 "claim your win" messages and that should have ring a alarm clock for each one, he should have many reports but i assume nothing happened. I don't think a autojoiner can be more obviously act)."
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so your solution is to individually investigate every account? that seems like a massive waste of time that could be handled better by sg itself
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That's a negative, not every account but those sticking out like a sore thumb. Like everyone else in this thread I'd very much prefer something would be done from cg's side but that seems mission impossible considering the site's history.
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but it would be very easy for sg to add these very basic user protections, whereas putting that burden on every member of the site without the users being internet security experts to spot a fake account or one using a script to autojoin- i just dont see why the owners of sg would do the work of raising the blacklist limit if they wont do the more logical work of adding user protections
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I am suprised entries were that high.
Also there can be some % of users who don't use bots, but used extension to enter giveaway from main page without reading description. Still a bit rude tbh.
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In my experience, about 90% of people don't read descriptions. And that applies even among people I've whitelisted.
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No really. Many people don't bother to read descriptions, or barely glance at them. There is a extension where people enter giveaways, legally, but avoiding the descriptions, since 99% of the time is not important, just your typical "good luck" "enjoy" or so
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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
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