To the eventual winner:
Please, post a comment as soon as possible, after the giveaway ends and you are online, then and only then I'll send the key
If after the giveaway ends, I see your account online for more than 12 hours without commenting, you will not be getting the key, period.
I'm tired of bot users.
After some time has passed, but before the 12 hours stipulated, I will send the winner a reminder comment on their last giveaway, that way there'll really be no excuse.
Wish you the best that you don't fall again for an Bot User here on the Website, i meanwhile gave up if it comes to that.
PS:
Thanks for the Giveaway!.
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Yeah it's a pain...
At least doing it this way I may be able to filter some of them idiots out
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Fingers crossed then that it will work :D
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Took me ages to get to level 5, wouldn't know how to bot it.
I do think your rules mostly hit people who don't read descriptions though, which I think is far higher than the bot users.
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I disagree, unless it's someone who has steamgifts open on a tab and won't refresh it... because I think it really impossible for someone, who is not just a bot logging in to enter giveaways, to miss the crazy cat gif that pops up when you win, I do hope that alone, and the fact that the key wasn't sent, prompts said user to enter the giveaway page a second time and read it.
Plus I'm giving one hour counting from the time after the GA ends AND I see the person online
If it does happen with someone who truly simply didn't even bother to read the description then ¯(ツ)/¯
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I am fortunate enough to work from home so sometimes it takes time for me to notice I have won a giveaway if it is a busy day with my work. I am not sure how the site tracks being online though. If it's just being logged in then it must look like I'm logged in 24/7 because I do not tend to log out when I put my computer to sleep at night.
That said, if I do happen to win and miss the notification before an hour passes then so be it and I'll deal with whatever consequences comes with that.
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Ah, it most certainly only marks your account as online if you have it actively open somehow, not just being logged in as it were
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Well, I do keep it open in a tab even if I'm not actively browsing the site. I try my best to keep it open on another monitor but it is not always possible. Especially in the last few months where things have picked up because we need more people in my department.
Either way, if it happens, it happens ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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buddy... mark the time at which the giveaway is supposed to end, create an alarm or notice of some sort in your cell phone or whatever to go off at that time
When it does, check back to see if you won, done! wasn't that easy?
But like I said in another comment, maybe 1 hours is a bit harsh, i'll wait a bit more, but not much, definitely not several days.
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BUT, with that said
YOU don't have to worry about it because you have already proven to me that you, at least, seem to not be using bots, so in case you (or anyone else that discussed this matter) wins, I'll just send the thing right away :) and then the usual 1 week to claim and mark it as received will count
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Appreciated.
And may have to consider the alarm idea for some giveaways perhaps.
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As much as I understand your anger against bots, putting your own "rules" on a giveaway is against the rules.
You have one(?) week to send a key/gift and the winner has one(?) week to respond with received or not received.
No more, no less. If you don't send the key, you have to accept the high probability of getting a giveaway marked as not sent.
Your 1 hour rule is to harsh anyway.
Me for example is often online with my phone during work. Just checking the new giveaways and nothing else.
Only when I'm home and at my pc...is use all aspects of this site and would be only able to check if a sent key is valid at all.
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Exactly.
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Well, you can still comment no? while on the phone I mean, That's all I'm asking
Also I imagine the crazy gif that pops up when you will would still appear on a phone?
I had cases where it took someone several days to activate the key and mark it as received, while I could see the account going offline and online all the time throughout these days, to me that can ONLY mean bot usage, there's literally no other explanation, and it pisses me off.
This is the only way I could think of to combat that, I might revise the 1 hour thing, give it some more time after seeing the winner account online.
But this is how it's going to be, if this happens, if someone wins, I see them on and off for hours and they don't comment, I'll simply create another giveaway for the key, and this person, when they actually log in once a week to see if their bots netted anything, can mark it as not received if they want, idgaf
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Sure commenting from the phone would work too, but my point was, that you can't put it as mandatory here.
You're still obliged to sent the key without that comment. Either that or get possibly the "marked as not sent".
I had winners too, that took a a few days to mark the key as received after sending it, but seeing the "as online within the last hour" in their profile many times.
I probably would show up with my phone as online many times too.
But I only mark a key as received when I had the opportunity to check if the key works and I can't/won't do that from my phone.
And there are some days, when for example I visit my parents, I don't have acess to my/a pc for 2-3 days.
So this online behavior does NOT only mean the person is a bot.
And the main thing is, winners are allowed (as per the rules) to take a certain amount of days to mark the gift as received/not received.
This all just makes you look impatient.
And if you create another giveaway for the same key...you might end up getting two giveaways marked as not received.
I think it probably would be the best you delete this giveaway and use the key somewhere else.
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Sure, and I have an entire week to send the key right? that's the rules no?
All I'm asking is proof of life, I have increased the time to 12 hours, again, just to reiterate, 12 hours AFTER I see the winner as online
Plus i'll be sending them a comment in their last giveaway as a reminder, if, even with that, they still don't reach out, then there's basically no excuses.
I see no other way to combat rampant bot usage.
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It's very possible that when the giveaway ends, I might go a few minutes to an hour before that to bed, if let's assume I or others are winners and leave the website just before the giveaway ends, does the person's status stay Online for 60 min before it switches to something else or does it say Offline right away?
For me a big confirmation people don't use bots is genuine discussions on the comment sections, just like the ones above. I know for a fact people are real, they read your description and if they win, I'd consider it. Also, if you want to make sure you're sending to real people, check if they actually play their wins. Even if it's to a small percentage, it's better than collecting dust in someone's library.
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That's actually a very good point.
I'll revise this and give it at least 12 hours after I see the person online
Also anyone that actively commented (not just a generic THX 4 THA GIVEAWAY!! thing) will automatically count as being there, and wont need to worry about the rule, fair enough.
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How does "being online at SteamGifts" work? I have a tab on Chrome pinned to SteamGifts and I can leave the computer and Chrome on when I go to bed, would I be "online at SteamGifts" the entire time?
Also, I thought setting my giveaways to min. level 3 would protect me against most bots, seeing you worried about them at min. level 5 makes me wonder. Are people able to bot even with the minimum gift requirement of $250?
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If you leave a tab open it will count as online indeed
And level level doesn't really say anything tbh, the last one I got was a level 7 or something like that, the account would go on and offline on regular intervals, took him almost the entire week allotted to get the freaking key.
one potential redflag imo is when you see a high level account, but upon checking it you realize that their last giveaway was years and years ago, and it was almost all at once, they gave away a bunch of (at the time) high value games, got a high rating and then proceeded to just enter enter enter.
Some of these will have hundreds of thousands of GA entries, if you do the math you'll see that the only way they'd have that many entries, given the amount of years they have had the account, is if they kept checking the site for every single day, all day, and entering giveaways as soon as they had the points for them
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I believe people do show up Online. I sometimes can spend 1-3 hours in a video game trying to complete it and I might show up online, it doesn't mean, I am. The best way to tell is seeing my Steam status. Not everybody is like me though, some people stay offline there too, but if the profile is public you kinda can tell if they are active, that doesn't mean they are botting. Or at least I hope they don't.
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I had situations where people joined, won and didn't say thank you to begin with, but activated the game and left it hanging in their library, in a group that you're supposed to play the game in 3 months time, that I admin. They were the same people who requested to join it, so that clearly told me they are not bots, but some people lack some manners or take this website for granted and forget that despite it being a free win, they got a game someone worked hard to get it or gave it for free to random people instead their Steam friends.
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Well.. that's another thing entirely, can't really dictate what a person is supposed to do with the game they won
Saying thank you or not is not really an issue to me tbh, even though I always do, as long as they freaking activate and mark it as received in a timely manner..
What I hate is obvious bot usage, this particular last time, that took them almost the entire week to get the key and mark it as received (even though I made it available moments after the GA ended), while I kept seeing them going online and offline constantly, at very regular intervals, really drove me mad, specially since it was the one that was about to get me to level 5.
Out of curiosity which group is that? I wouldn't mind joining, and I promise I'd play if I ever won something.
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It's called TalePlay and it holds more than 400 members at the moment. Pretty happy with its growth to be honest. Feel free to check the rules of entry.
Do let me know there if you're happy with the rules.
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thx, just applied, I like the idea
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👍🏻
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I just did a test on that
Opened up my profile on a different browser where i'm not logged, closed the tab here, and kept refreshing to see how long it took to show as offline
The answer is about 20 minutes
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I see. Thank you. So, yeah, I would hate to see anybody get rolled for just deciding to go to bed right before the giveaway ends and still show online for a few extra minutes, tilting you in the process and just missing their chance.
I'm honestly sorry you're dealing with bots. It's hard to find people that respond, but sometimes I think people are just not 24/7 here to check their tab if they won, despite the website indicating it since leaving the tab open results to that. A notification sound would help for sure, but I'm pretty sure some people would turn that off.
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Thanks for the chance!
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Thank you for the opportunity! :)
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I wish there was a better way to root out bots but unfortunately we have to coexist with them :/...
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thanks
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That's actually a nice idea.
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Interesting rule, never thought of that. Good luck commenters.
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Thanks for the giveaway, I don't like bots too.
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Thanks for the GA
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thank you
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I'm human, you can count me in ;) Nice rules!
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I will write a longer comment after a good bunch of sleep and a appointment with a specialized doctor
I assume in 15h+.
See this as placeholder for now.
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Thank you....
Please send key now ;)
Haha
<3
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Im Online
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You're welcome!!
Don't mention it!!
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