The spirit of Steamgifts has been lost

I personally think those users who make giveaways for 3 weeks are to blame, what is the point in hving a 1 to 5000 chance ? I find more money on the ground than that.

I don't know how the site was when it was invitation only. I don't remember ever feeling it was about community. There was the forum community and the groups and private giveaways (some of them forum giveaways), and the public giveaways always felt like leftovers. I also remember hostility on the forums all the way back. That said I agree that contributor giveaways made this even worse.

let make the site invite only again!

I hate to say it, but your describing progress. It's like describing how bastardized Christmas is nowadays since it's not the celebration of Christ's birth, or even further back... it's not the celebration of winter; it's now involving huge commercialization and a big, red fat guy who's omnipotent.

I personally don't like the whole contributor status system, and I haven't made many contributions myself... me, being a college student in a country where the 1 of that countries money is worth 4 times less then 1 euro; but I do get the idea behind it... it's not a flawed idea, rather humans are flawed that we seek to exploit for personal gain above all else.

But the fact that steamgifts HAS this type of problem is actually a testament to how well the site is doing. It's progress... and I do believe it would be worse if we got rid of the contributor status, because now it would be like pulling the rug from underneath people who punched hard into their contributor status. They would leave, or simply stop gifting. It's just like with indie bundles, you need a reason for people to do something, if there is none... people won't even being to give a 'hoot'. Make people pay a minimum value for bundles, and you'll get some money for charity; have a contributor status modifier in steam gifts and you'll get people to contribute.

You may think that's stupid, but so were achievements. And look... now we have websites dedicated to achievement hunters, most people now complain if a game comes out and it DOESN'T have achievements... and what's the end product of all that gamerscore collection.... the same as contributor value, compare it to others and see who has the bigger score/value. It's a system built on smart-greed. Adam Smith's invisible hand.

But then again, what the hell do I know? :)

Well, i can point only one thing that is certain for me - i didn't saw this amount of individual keys from bundles BEFORE the contributor system was integrated on SG. Is it bad idea or it is a good one... I don't know. But roots are here.

And about invite only system. Well, yes. When it's a close place and you can get here only via invite... it's better. Because more than a half of this amount - 170,154 Members - are here only for a one reason: take, take, take. Just like me. Partly. I would give away more if i could. But how can i give something away if i don't have money even to pay for electricity... sometimes...

As a summary. You can't judge everyone only on your own as a one person. It's something that can't be resolved by BANHAMMER EVERY LIFE IN A GALAXY or LET'S EXPEL THE INFIDELS. Let's see if a there is a God's plan :)

It's a mad house!

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

As a winner of one of these SR3 DLC giveaways, who missed both opportunities to get a copy for free before they ran out of keys, I'm happy they're there.

And I agree that the epeen society has done more harm than good for this site's community. I was here when it was invite only, I do remember the time before contributor giveaways, and the community was never this hostile and suspicious about "exploiting" the giveaway system. The only problem was "exploited" games which, of course, are bad for different, rational reasons. Well, that and people giving away SMNC beta keys as MNC, but that was just stupidity, not malice.

But I'll never understand people who can get upset about giving away gifts on Steam on Steamgifts because they're not expensive enough. This goes for bundle keys, steep sales (like Trainz), limited amounts of free games, and so on.

Where do we find him, the spirit? May I call one guy who says that he can contact spirits? :D

Add hats and then this site will be better.

giving away those sr2 dlcs is cheating, example:

i bought fortix for 0.99€ and the get these keys for free, even multiple

imagine some1 has the same contributor value like me before giving away those, now he can enter higher contrib. giveaways and that for free..

Now, everything is just about contributor status and how big your wallet is.
Because when it was invite only there were no private groups just for people who gave away a lot of games...

This thread shows exactly why is this community the way it is, arguing and jumping at each others throats for miniscule things, e-peen and ego inflation over whatever stat is cool atm, evaluating everyone and their opinions based on those stats and not on the content of their posts, feeling entitled about anything, mostly free stuff, and outright demanding it, etc etc

tl;dr
SG is equally shitty as the rest of the internet, something to be expected with such high # of users

I have to agree with the OP. It shouldn't matter where a gift came from, it should be all about sharing games. If you make a donation to a charity thrift store, do they ask if you bought it full price/sale, or if you received it second hand in the first place? No, they just accept it with a thank you for your kindness. If you go to a yard sale and see a book a friend of yours wanted for 25 cents, does that make the book worthless to give to that friend because you didn't pay a lot for it? Of course not. Then why does it matter if you got it through some limited promo (free/deep discounted charity indie bundle) vs a Steam/Amazon/GMG Sale and IGN Prime freebies. I still stand by $1 to Charity is better than $1 to retail.

The problem is with people like the OP who think they are gods and what they say the site should be is what it should be.

We need statistics how much of all giveaways are those contributions, let's say $5+. Stop complaining, there are hundreds of giveaways you can enter without any contribution and that is, I believe, way more than it was before.

the SR3 DLC issue was because it was a free giveaway that people stole the keys from to post here, rather than allow folks that actually wanted the DLC (like myself) to get and use.

Contributor value is like gamerscore on X-Box 360 or Achievements on Steam, they do absolutely nothing of importance yet people will do the most asinine crap to get 'em.

Any kind of stats will give way to a form of elitism for people with an inferiority complex.

It is time for Santa, the fairy tale who saved Steamgifts!

The only problem i have with any redeemable codes you can get for free, is why would you get a code for a game to give away on SG, instead of just letting someone else get the code who actually wants to play the game/DLC associated with it?

It's all about making someone happy.

Nah, since I can remember there have been complains about private giveaways, system abuse, people complaining about people making giveaways, and people being complete asses in the forums for no real reason. Complaining about everything forever is the true spirit of Steamgift. And we are still true to it.

I have 236 entrys -0 wons XD but im happy -

While I am a noob to steamgifts (as of today in fact) I must say that the websites former self does seem much nicer then what it seems to be now. I only wish I could have seen the site in it's glorydays.