[FREE][STEAM]FORCED

where are those giveaways coming from?

That's a correct viewpoint. [ ] is standard tag designation, and in standard formatting each tag should be individual (there's even a few [steam store] tags you can pull up in search, though most people include it in the following title text instead, since it's largely considered not important enough to warrant a specific tag).

That said, it's extremely rare a gleam giveaway isn't against site rules (this one is also against site rules), so you'd be hard pressed to find a consistent usage of that tag. :P Likewise, tags are always, without exception, on any site, additive, not compounding. That is to say, not including [gleam] simply means omitting information, it doesn't change the meaning of the [Steam] tag in any way.

Further, given the laidback nature of the forums, there's not really any pressure to put in ANY tags, nevermind a complete list of tags. Instead, the generally agreed upon element of concern is the misuse of tags (and with that in mind, it could be understandable that people don't want to risk overdoing uncertain tags). As such, it's hard to say the omission of [gleam] is any kind of issue in itself, even if, strictly speaking, it doesn't fit to proper formal structure.

In that sense, it's like any giphy image or coub video or similar- theoretically noone's going to fuss if someone didn't include a specific tag, and those are sites where tags are far more relevant to finding what you're looking for. Simply put, it's hard to expect users to commit to that kind of consistency, when they're working unpaid and often with very little time.

Moreover, you'll notice that Shakti omits the [Steam] tag for her bundles, simply because it's unnecessary visual clutter that doesn't offer any real benefit to her threads, and that's a pretty high-level resistence to the idea of tags being a necessity.

Basically, this thread isn't misleading because it suggest the content might be on Steam store, but it could be considered misleading because it suggests the content will be easily accessible, when it requires both a specific account (usually you'd include stuff like that in a dedicated thread- eg, a Lootboy dedciated thread or Amazon Prime Gaming dedicated thread; In the case of Gleam giveaways, they've sort of become associated with the where are those giveaways coming from? thread, given that thread's effective partial exception to the adlinking rule) and special task completion (which, again, is against site rules. Technically, there's two newsletter tasks here, and precedence is that newsletters don't count, but the rule applies to any link that "encourages" publicity or monetization tasks, so even just having a single "wishlist this game" or similar task is enough to negate the validity of a link, even if it's not actually necessary for claiming the free game in question).