I never check my winners i they got a duplicate it's their problem.
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It's their gain. Then they can sell a key they got for free, instead of someone winning the game who'd actually be happy about it
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Not exactly their gain. SG Tools can check for multiple same game wins. IIRC there are also SGTools giveaways where that is one of the rules.
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I'm not talking about winning the same game twice, I'm talking about winning a game you already own ^^
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My mistake then. I thought the only instance they'd get a duplicate was through winning the same game giveaways. But I just remembered that hiding already owned games was part of the giveaway list settings. I've had it turned on and forgot about it.
Makes me wonder though why put it as an option instead of just making it default. I don't know why anyone would enter a giveaway page of a game they already own, other than for the purpose you've stated, which would be avoided if it's hidden.
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Hope no one minds this bumping, but just to inform that actually you can't join a giveaway for a game you already own. Found out from a train where I owned one of the games.
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You can enter if you don't already own at the time it or have added it to your library but haven't synced since then. Your entries are not removed after you add it to your library and sync.
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Yeah, there's a window there before syncing. That was kind of part of the whole "winning the same game twice" thing, having to join same game giveaways and such.
This was just to correct the idea that people can join giveaways of games they already own with the intent to sell the key, which, under normal circumstances, they can't.
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It works for some games, especially GOTY editions and DLCs, in my experience.
I've come across a few where i pointed out to the creator that I could've entered even though I own the game since months and have my acc synced.
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I think the GOTYs that are commonly the problem are the ones that use the sub ids. I think it's because when they activate on your account it's logged in as the individual app ids, not the bundle. I believe GOTYs are considered part of the "Steam packs" section of the faq, or at least the community treats it as such. DLCs are harder to check because Steam doesn't show them when you visit someone else's profile. SGTools also has a hard time detecting their activations.
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And finding rulebreakers is the community's collective problem :)
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i may report someone, but i'm not looking for it. May be i'm too optimist.
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Well that's where you are wrong. There will be chances that winner claiming the key even if they had the game/putting the key for sale, activating on other accounts and saying key didn't work. Then you have to give yet another key(assuming you haven't still looked at their library or created report)
First of all the rule-breakers we have in this community is our problem and handling them falls under our responsibility. At least checking users for their non activated wins and multiple wins before handing over a game eliminates such users crawling in this community and gone undetected for 8-10 non activated wins (that particular user even stated he/she has done nothing wrong).
SGtools lets you check winners for non activated wins and multiple wins.
Or if you want easier option ESGST - Enhanced SteamGifts & SteamTrades script will help you check the winners.
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But if they cant put game as recived isnt this will be your promlem?
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Yes if they do that, it will be their problem. (Misuse of GA feedback may lead to perma-ban)
But you should also be on safe side, never give gift/key(specially the key) without checking the winner first.
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I'm pretty sure private accounts is against the SG rules, so if you're uncomfortable with them winning you could ask the support for a new winner.
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Faq says they allow it, but they'd require you to put it public once a week for what I guess is syncing.
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It's not. They are responsible for syncing on their own, and it's their choice.
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I just checked and it indeed doesn't say so. Must've mixed that up with the group rules ^^
Support also reminds you so often to check on your winner, it feels like a rule. Probably unspoken though.
I personally wouldn't send a key to a private account, but if the rules don't forbid it it's obviously about how trusting of a person OP is ^^
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You have 2 options:
- If you feel social you can add the winner, explain the situation to them and ask them to briefly switch their profile to public so you can check up on them before sending their game.
- If you don't want to deal with it yourself you can file a reroll ticket to Support and add in the description that the winner has a private profile and if they would check for multiple & unactivated wins. If they have unpunished infractions Support will grant the reroll otherwise they will respond to your ticket saying the winner is clear ;)
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You have the third option which is to cut the crap and send the game.
Nobody is enforced to police every winner. It is within the rules of the site to have a private profile.
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I think OP made it pretty clear that they would like to check up on the winner as Support recommends to do in general.
Sure, Not giving a flying fuck is an option as well but it's not the course of action I would recommend.
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And your third option is the crappiest one I've heard. Don't take it personally. If you want to do it, fine you can do it, but protecting the community from frauds and scams are our responsibility. At least checking the winners for basic SG rules will eliminate most frauds/scams or even simple mistakes. Blaming support for the part which we could have handled serves us all better.
Yes it is within rules of site to have private profile, but it is also required to make your profile public if the GA creator or Support asks for it, at least for a moment. If you don't wanna do that you always have an option to deny the gift.
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It is like deliberately throwing a gift away. People should learn to do things properly.
Additionally this causes rule breaking being attractive.
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You don't have the right to request another winner unless they broke a rule, which you cannot know.
Since private profiles are not against the rules, I advise you to just send the game.
If you really want to check the winner you can do so with the other tools suggested.
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You don't have the right to request another winner unless they broke a rule
sure you do. it's been suggested by support to fill out a reroll ticket so that they can investigate private profile winners and insure they are indeed activating their wins as they have the sync information database to compare their wins to ownership.. i just had a user with a private profile yesterday with over 400wins and did so, but they came back clean activating their wins and i was denied as i was hoping for.
it by no means is against the rules to have a private profile, but it's also not against the rules to insure they are activating their wins either.
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Actually, yes you can request that, it just won't be approved.
Support encourage to ask them when in doubt.
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This is by far the worst answer in this thread. And on top of that, factually incorrect.
Support themselves said this regarding private profiles: Open a reroll ticket, tell them the winners profile is private, support will deal with the situation, in their answer they will tell you if a reroll is warranted or if everything is okay and you have to send the game.
It's that easy.
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It happened to me before.
I left a message on an old GA of the winner asking to make its profile public.
They all replied and made their profile public, so I could check it.
Once I sent the game and they activated they made their profile private again.
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Every time I go into SG before I do anything else I update my games. That way you can't duplicate them. Do that and you will be pretty safe.
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You can always do these
- Comment on the winner's GA for communication(asking to make steam profile public for some moment)
- Adding the users on steam but make sure to state why you are trying to add them.
- There is an email address for potential winner shown after winner has been chosen, mail to that address stating the situation.
- And if everything else fails ask Support to help on this issue.
If you want to check winners for broken rules check SGtools or if you prefer easier option use ESGST script.
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I checked profile(library) for every single giveaway I made on SG, exactly because people could win something they already own (most commonly if in question is currently running bundle). Every time I saw a private profile, I left a message to winner in one of their old GAs, or/and in my GA they just won, that profile is closed and I am not sending anything before I make sure they don't own it.
As a lot of people have mentioned, if profile is private you can't even check SGTools for non-activated win history, so it is not an alternative.
Bad thing is, that a person still can remove a game from their library, then show library, get free key, and return own old license. This is not possible if profile is open all the way (because usually you are able to check the library before winner knows about a win, so it leaves fewer possibilities to trick; you better have time of giveaway ending when you are going to be online).
If you are very particular, I recommend doing this: Add a winner in Steam, get them in chat online, check library, after sending key and seeing the game appeared in their library you can immediately activate your key on your own account(or second account if you own the game already) just to make sure your key isn't going somewhere else. This of course leaves possibility that your key is very quickly activated on another account, but at least it is not going to be traditionally traded.
In my experience, people always either opened profile or friended me, so I could see their library. If they would refuse, I would create a ticket.
It is always good to state your demands/actions in GA topic for winner to be accessible, and in case of future ticket. Creating ticket without contacting a person is not clever and honest deed - winner could just not know that you want to check their library (you have seen a lot of 'innocent' people who didn't know that closing profile is the first thing a scammer would do, and they even apply that "SG doesn't enforce, blablabla, you must send the key"). Plus you bother support with something you could do yourself.
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I've ran into this a few times. All that you need to do is file a ticket for a reroll. Make sure you state the profile is private so that you can't check for non activation or multi wins and support will check the profile for you.
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I had that happen to me once , asked the guy to make his profile public ...
He refused , i didnt send him the key ... after few days he did make it public so i gave him his game >.>
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Had it happen to me. I told the winner I wanted to check they did not already have the game before I released the key and he made his account public for a few minutes..was all good. He got his game key. My other suggestion would have been to friend him briefly so I could check. Good luck with your winner.
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I'm new with key giveaways. And I came across this situation, when my giveaway winners have a private Steam account. I can not check their library for if they have duplicate of the game that they won.
How to deal with such winners? Request another winner? Any suggestions?
Thank you.
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