Invite only GAs work better in a way that people interested in finding more/better GAs (at least better in chances of winning) will be the ones entering, instead of just looking in the mail list. Personally I also like to do puzzless, gives a sense of achievement and deserving entering the GAs.
But for making it "better", whatever the meaning of better for you might be, you might obfuscate the URL so few bots enter. Some people only give the 5-character code, others change "giveaway" to "no bots", or somehow obfuscate the code or the game name (that part is meaningless for the URL parsing.
So the URL for this one could have been like: https://www.steamgifts.com/giveoway/[5-2]nbKb/moonshining https://www.steamgifts.com/awaywithbots/3nISAIDNOBOTSbKb
People are used to this kind of simple obfuscation.
Hope that gives you ideas, and thanks for the GAs ofc!
Thank you for the tips! Yes, I've seen the obfuscated URLs and been able to unobfuscate them as well. My main concern is that it is more steps and more difficult for people to see what game is in the giveaway and so may unnecessarily waste their time. But perhaps I'll just obfuscate one, and add other GA URLs in the clear as a comment or in the description.
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Invite only GAs work better in a way that people interested in finding more/better GAs (at least better in chances of winning) will be the ones entering, instead of just looking in the mail list. Personally I also like to do puzzless, gives a sense of achievement and deserving entering the GAs.
But for making it "better", whatever the meaning of better for you might be, you might obfuscate the URL so few bots enter. Some people only give the 5-character code, others change "giveaway" to "no bots", or somehow obfuscate the code or the game name (that part is meaningless for the URL parsing.
So the URL for this one could have been like:
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveoway/[5-2]nbKb/moonshining
https://www.steamgifts.com/awaywithbots/3nISAIDNOBOTSbKb
People are used to this kind of simple obfuscation.
Hope that gives you ideas, and thanks for the GAs ofc!
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Thank you for the tips! Yes, I've seen the obfuscated URLs and been able to unobfuscate them as well. My main concern is that it is more steps and more difficult for people to see what game is in the giveaway and so may unnecessarily waste their time. But perhaps I'll just obfuscate one, and add other GA URLs in the clear as a comment or in the description.
Puzzles can be fun if you have the time!
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You can obfuscate the URL but still clearly name the game in the post, separate from the obfuscated URL.
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thx
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