How do people decide what level to put a giveaway?

Put it at a level you think people will mark it as received instead of having to tell them.

Never having actually given away a game (waiting till I win one before I put one up. I'm weird like that)
I think I would give away games to users of my level, maybe the first give away will be open to all, then next one to Level 1 etc
Or whatever the gut feeling is really.

usually i go 1-2, max 3 (rarely)

RNG

I usually put 3 or 4 because I've heard so many stories of people who won with non activated wins or multiple wins or whatever and I just want to spare myself the trouble of having to ask for a reroll. It's just less likely that a level 3 or 4 user still doesn't know the rules.
Kinda selfish, I know. But meh, my giveaways, my rules.

Well, don't worry about what games people have. One of most important things is:

• every game, and I really mean every game, is on someones wishlist, even the simplies / cheapest / with most negative feedback
  That being said, no matter what game you give, there are people who will want to play it and who will have a fun from your gift. And if they are on higher level and have few thousand games? Well, maybe they don't have this one ;)

Now on you level question... well, some people choose higher levels to show appreciation to users who contribute much stuff to community. Other people do lvl GAs because they don't want to feed leechers (you know - zero games given, 40 won). I belive there is as many reasons as there is users.

As for myself, I prefer to make GAs with at least level one. Why? There are few reasons, I will name some of them. Note that they might sound harsh, so please don't hate me :P So, first of all - I really, really don't like people who enters everything and don't read descriptions. It kinda hurts when I see a GA where in description creator ask for some recommendations or, IDK, songs, and for 500 entries, there are 4 comments, all of them generic, copypasted thank you. I somehow assume that people with higher levels, people who gave something from themselfs, might actually care about this community and maybe they will read where they are entering. Everyday I'm proven wrong on that theory but thats for another disscussion
Second thing - I'm kinda scared that someone might go wrong with lvl 0 users. I know, everyone have to start at some point and I shouldn't put them all in one bag, but I feel like most of this zero level users don't give a damn about site and just want free games. Any games. They might cause problems like not marking games as received or giving won key to someone else and, for example, lie that key wasn't working. And, you know, it's not even about my CV that I would lost, or GA slots. It's more about the fact that this GA would appear on my profile as not delivered. This community is great, it gave me many good things, and I'm not talking about games, and I would like to stay honest and 'clean' without any suspcions that I'm trying to be funny, doing some not fair stuff.
Third reason that I can recall now is, well, not feeding leechers. Zero level users are biggest group on SG. I know there are many reasons for this, but let's be honest - part of them just roam on main site, actually not being part of community. I don't want to give them my games, I want to give my game to someone who helps this place be what it is.

On the other hand, after all, it's your game that you GA so you can make any rules that you want, and I will always respect it.

Also, cool thing is making invite only GAs, and posting them in your own threads. That way, you will now that at least part of participants are part of community, if that means to you as much as it means for me.

Thanks for every ones thoughts! It seems like the higher level you are, the more likely that you'll have a higher level giveaway, which makes sense to me. Since I'm at level 2, 1 and 2 is where I'm making them. I'm sure as I go up, they'll go up as well.

I tend to either put no lvl, or try and Do them at the same lvl that I'm at, in hopes that other people will do the same, but there are'nt that many people who do lvl6 GA's.

There are plenty of lvl6 people to place entries, but not many who create GA's at that lvl.

Myself, I've seen that Games with a lvl1 restriction get fewer Bots/Leechers, it's not until lvl3 you get real drop in the number of entries.

After lvl3, you'll get progressively less entries, all the way to lvl10, which there are like only about 20 active lvl10's.

I'm usually creating GAs with no restrictions, because I like the idea of everyone having an equal chance. Occasionally I'd create a lvl 1 GA, which is still perfectly acessible to most people :)

I usually choose the level I'm at, but sometimes I just put level 1. I don't give away stuff to people who haven't contributed though. They don't deserve it :P

I'm considering going with a minimum level of 1 from now on. I'm fairly new here (registered ages ago but forgot about it and just recently got back to the site), but is it common to see so many re-gifters and unactivated wins?

Out of curiosity I've started checking the winners of my GAs, and most have (1) never contributed or (2) re-gifted or (3) never activated their win or (4) the only thing they've given away is a game they received for free.

As easy as it is to achieve level 1 here (one giveaway, even of a simple bundled game), there's really no excuse to have NO giveaways created. If you can afford the PC to play a game, you can afford one game to give away. I've only been active here about a month, and just going through old bundle keys has brought me within a hair of level 2.

I go through different phases and feel I'll likely change it up soon, but generally it's about my fears of what could wrong.

Gifts - I see these as safest option with the least that can go wrong. I know it will work and I can always show gift history if it came to it should I need proof of sending etc. Usually somehwere between level 0-5, and I've given more of the better games at the higher end of that scale.Still like to include everyone with something quite good every now and then when I'm making public GAs.

Keys - I worry about these a little more, mostly levels 3-5.

Private giveaways with links given out on the forum - happier to to take the levels down a notch or two.

I try to make level zero's every once in a while and for really cool unknown games I found because I feel everyone deserves a chance and for some games I just want everyone to discover and play it. However, I usually do level 1 and 2 because of experiences with low level people. I want the really expensive and good games I bought to go to people who actually contribute. If I have multiple games, I like to make multiple ga's with increasing levels. I also do something similar with series, Increasing with the newest/better games. Also shown here.

Basically my mind goes crazy and I over analyze it :)

Me at life. But anyway:

1. Level does not equal competence. People give gifts, that doesn't mean they'll always end up marking them as received. If you look at my profile you will realize I've started gifting only a little while ago (credit card's a new thing in my life) and I've never had a problem with my GAs, even though I've only made a few and all lower levels.

2. Wanted games, more people. Try gifting Skyrim and make it lvl. 0 and you'll understand. If you have a widely wanted game to gift, be a little more selective to avoid leeches who cling to the next best seller for support.

3. Make them private. Giving out GTA V? Wanna make sure only those who really wanna shoot those people on the streets get it? Make a quiz on It's Too Hard or something to filter out who can partake. As a bonus, make it lvl 1, since it's just absolutely the easiest thing ever to get there - and the easiest way ever to filter out people who never ever give back.

I thought all of that should be said. Forgive me for the long reply and it all has been said before.

I don't get the point of making them for high level users, they got to high levels by making tons of giveaways, and if they can afford to give away so many games they surely can get any game they want themselves. Most users that reach high levels either simply enjoy giving or are promoting their work / groups.

TLDR: "Rich" men don't need to play the lottery.

Basically you must understand who do you target.

L0 - You're targetting a leecher or a person who never ever created a giveaway. He doesn't care about you, all he cares about is a free game.
L1 - You're targetting a member who created a giveaway just to "do anything to get there". Such people are mostly leechers who leveled up by giving away 1 bad game, very often it's a regift.
L2 - You're targetting people who understand how the site works, gave away at least a dozen of titles, and even if they have uneven ratio of given away / won games, you know that they're giving away something from time to time.

Of course, in all cases, there are exceptions and it's just stupid generalisation of people, so it's just a target population and nothing else.

I mostly create my giveaways on L2, sometimes on L1, and rarely (1/10 or 1/20) L0, mostly for "dirt cheap" titles. I consider L2+ as a good "default" level to choose, as it filters very well people that didn't do any giveaways (or 1 just to get to L1), and even if they have very bad ratio, I don't feel from a winner being ungrateful, which is very often a case with L0/L1 gibs.

For "better" titles I put L3, and very, very rarily L4, if I feel like giving that game to people who contributed much more, for whatever reason. I know that it's hard for people buying only bundles for dirt cheap to get to L5 (like me), so I never put anything higher than L4.

That's my algorithm.

roll a dice

I go between no level 0 and 1 depending if I want someone to actually use a better game (nonbundled) as opposed to not mark it received and trade it or something. (I know that a generalization for level zero's but you gotta give to get, unless it's a cheap bundle game) besides that I base it off the price of the game and if I'm really bored and don't care I just click somewhere on the slider and that's what I make it.

2+ or the $30.01 rule in past. in my experience, level 2 and higher usually have understanding about how this site works

Hmm, it depends I guess. :)

I'm not interested in making "Level 0" giveaways for expensive stuff. Has the winner read the rules yet? Will they try to sell the game? Make a giveaway for it? Gift it to a friend? Maybe add it to their "real" Steam account instead? I'll let someone else deal with those clowns... :)

If there's any chance of a problem, I'd rather make a higher-level giveaway since those people know how the place works. :) For example, I bought a "MLB Front Office Manager" disc from Amazon, before noticing I already owned it. Since it's a removed game, I can't just buy one from Steam if the key doesn't work... :)

I think some make higher-level giveaways as a way of thanking the generous people around here. One problem with that, though - someone who spends thousands of dollars on giveaways can afford to buy any game they actually want. :) Therefore, if they can enter the giveaway, they don't actually want it. :) I don't know the solution to this. :)

For cheap stuff, I don't care as much. I'd prefer the equivalent of "$30.01" in the old Steamgifts, i.e. some value that represents spending actual money on your giveaways, and not just dumping bundle leftovers. :) But there isn't any such thing, if you give enough bundle stuff you can get any level you like. :) Oh well. :)

For forum or group giveaways, I don't know. There are "Level 0" people who scour the forums for giveaways, saying nothing, giving nothing, just chasing free stuff, but I think most people who use the forum are as generous as they can afford to be. :)

I haven't finished any puzzles in a while, but those are more fun with a lower level. Nobody wants to spend a few hours on a puzzle only to discover they can't enter. Hint: check the giveaway creator's profile, people... :)

Oh, I almost forgot. Sometimes it's fun to troll annoying people with a giveaway they can almost enter, i.e. http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/2rbPJ/counter-strike-global-offensive http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/BEfmw/rust http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/io1Un/sakura-spirit http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/2nl9I/dark-souls-prepare-to-die-edition :)

That's a good question. I usually give bundle games away cheap, though I usually do at least level 1+ if I want CV quickly because those users tend to respond quicker than others. If I'm doing a whitelist giveaway, an I do quite a few, I usually put no level requirement, because I don't worry about them at all. If I'm giving away something great, I consider upping the level a bit, to reward other contributors. There's not really any solid math for me. just sort of general principles.

Mostly random, or mood induced level selection.

But I tend to make level 1 giveaways. That is because even when I have very little money, I've managed to giveaway some copies to this awesome community; so I think that everyone can make at least 1 giveaway.