Restricting entry criteria is one part, and maybe to encourage entry and offer of donating games as an easy way to enter? If the person(s) are primarily entering via bundle games, then he/she likely has repeat games? It is the closest to a win-win solution. Easier entry, but helps those already in because there are more games available.
Something that is not mentioned in this thread is the need to discourage bot-able behavior/things that encourage botting. Effective bot prevention is a multi-step issue - you can't just rely on one barrier. Short giveaways, particularly those 1 hr length encourage botting since these giveaways have the best odds of winning. I am not sure what the best option for minimum time length. Alternatively the use of captchas at random intervals and possible suspensions with escalating length are the only other alternative that I can think of.
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Those are some interesting ideas. I personally thought of a check that flags a user to use a mandatory Captcha if they are entering more than one giveaway every 0.25-0.5 seconds. That way bots would be quickly flagged while allowing the average user to be quick about their clicking.
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I am not sure of any other good anti-bot measures. With all of the complaining, it is likely that current methods are inadequate. Besides, automation rarely works 100%. Setting up multiple accounts may be not that difficult.
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Thinking a bit more on things, getting people who buy bundles to join and donate games is important since bundled games are the lifeblood of steamgifts. We would certainly want more people who would give games. The biggest issue is that I don't know the minimum threshold to set and there obviously needs to be a way to revoke access for people using stolen keys. My concern is a flood of bots using stolen keys that enter, win, and activate entries on a main account before those accounts are banned.
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I know this is going to be a controversial suggestion, so hear me out.
My brother has been wanting to join SteamGifts since he knows I am on it. We have gotten him multiple games, including some that are not bundled. However, due to the way the join calculation is done (completely excluding any bundled games) nearly all his games are excluded from the calculation. This is due to a larger systemic issue with this calculation. Since an increasing ratio of games are becoming bundled or free, it is becoming more difficult to let people join this awesome community. Even some AAA titles are considered bundled, meaning spending $60 doesn't count for anything.
My proposal is to make the join criteria the same as the CV calculation, i.e. full value for unbundled games, 15% for bundled games, and nothing for games that were offered as a free promotion. Logically this should make the most sense since that is how SG calculated value for both won and sent games for accepted users. On a side note, it would also be nice for a potential new user to see which games count for which category when they are not accepted.
Based on the community stats page there has been a plateau in new users, probably because of this very reason. It would be amazing for new users to be able to join.
Like I said, I know this may be controversial, but logically and logistically speaking I don't think the current model is sustainable. Let me know your thoughts.
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