SteamGifts Boards.ie private group (Discussion Only)

Digitalism

Digy123 wrote: »

Hi,He is my friend. I told him about Boards and this thread. He is a genuine player. He has come from Reddit

Can people stop inviting all their friends who have never heard of boards nor have accounts on boards, to join this group?

Propane Nightmare

Digy123 wrote: »

Hi,He is my friend. I told him about Boards and this thread. He is a genuine player. He has come from Reddit

and?.... so anyone from reddit should be allowed to join the group ?

Digy123

Digitalism wrote: »

Can people stop inviting all their friends who have never heard of boards nor have accounts on boards, to join this group?

I'm sorry,But he has donated games on Reddit before and his intentions are good. In fact he has donated more to the community than myself (I intend to donate very soon)
If we stop people joining,then where is the fun of the giveaways? Is the idea of this group not to create a community for the users of Boards.ie?
My friend has the same right to be here as anyone else,give him time. We where all "First time posters" at one stage.

Digitalism

Digy123 wrote: »

I'm sorry,But he has donated games on Reddit before and his intentions are good. In fact he has donated more to the community than myself (I intend to donate very soon)
If we stop people joining,then where is the fun of the giveaways? Is the idea of this group not to create a community for the users of Boards.ie?
My friend has the same right to be here as anyone else,give him time. We where all "First time posters" at one stage.

Thats all well in good, but obviously we're not going to let random people who have just joined boards 5 minutes ago, to join the group. That would lead to it becoming flooded with people taking but not giving, and then the group becoming one of those ones where people eventually stop donating to. Surely you can see the logic in it?

Its best if he would be active on his boards account for the next few months, then to ask again to join.

Digy123

Digitalism wrote: »

Thats all well in good, but obviously we're not going to let random people who have just joined boards 5 minutes ago, to join the group. That would lead to it becoming flooded with people taking but not giving, and then the group becoming one of those ones where people eventually stop donating to. Surely you can see the logic in it?

Its best if he would be active on his boards account for the next few months, then to ask again to join.

I understand what you are saying and I fully agree. He's happy to wait a while

Scottius

Here's my giveaway, Dear Esther.

altairscreed

Scottius wrote: »

Here's my giveaway, Dear Esther.

Dude why are you adding giveaways when your not part of the group??
Honestly I have a ton of mates that I'm sure would love to take part in a group that gives away free games but thats all they would want to do on boards, I could also vouch for all of them being fairly sound cool people too but the reason this group was set up in the first place was for regular boards users (particularly people from the gaming bargain thread) to give away games to other users who contributed to the boards community! Just adding people because there your friend or because there on reddit is a joke imo.

Scottius

I get what you're saying, but i'll be fairly active on boards. Check back in a month or two and add me to the group maybe. I won't be removing the giveaway, it's already up.

McSasquatch

If you're genuinely active and take part on boards.ie, there'll be no problem at all in adding you further down the line.

altairscreed

Digy123 wrote: »

Can you all calm down please? I'm sure he posted it to prove that he was willing to give to the community and not just take from it. He is giving away a game,you have a chance of winning that game if you are interested. He intends to use this site for other uses (Mainly the PC threads)

Also i would just like to add that the point I made earlier about Reddit was not to do with anything. He is new to the PC building scene so i told him Boards has a great community.
Steamgifts came up in a chat and so i mentioned this group. Can we all do the chap a favor and leave him be until he has enough posts that the mod see's sufficient as to allow him to join the group.
He said he wont post here until he reaches a decent number of posts.

Hey I'm not annoyed with the dude I'm annoyed with the person that suggested to him that he join the group knowing damn well that he doesn't meet the criteria!

Digy123

altairscreed wrote: »

Hey I'm not annoyed with the dude I'm annoyed with the person that suggested to him that he join the group knowing damn well that he doesn't meet the criteria!

So you are annoyed with me then,Right well I honestly can't be arsed having an argument over the internet about "Criteria". I'm not taking this any further because nobody want's to see this stuff flooding a popular thread. Goodbye.

altairscreed

Digy123 wrote: »

So you are annoyed with me then,Right well I honestly can't be arsed having an argument over the internet about "Criteria". I'm not taking this any further because nobody want's to see this stuff flooding a popular thread. Goodbye.

I'm not trying to argue over "criteria" im arguing over the fact that you completely ignored the "rules" just so your friend could join this "popular thread" do you not think if everyone decided to do this it would render said "popular thread" completely pointless?

Digy123

altairscreed wrote: »

I'm not trying to argue over "criteria" im arguing over the fact that you completely ignored the "rules" just so your friend could join this "popular thread" do you not think if everyone decided to do this it would render said "popular thread" completely pointless?

Right.

GarIT

Anyone object to a new rule that asking someone that doesn't qualify for the group to join gets you a ban from the group?

Turtwig

GarIT wrote: »

Anyone object to a new rule that asking someone that doesn't qualify for the group to join gets you a ban from the group?

Yes. That's ridiculously harsh and silly.

GarIT

Jernal wrote: »

Yes. That's ridiculously harsh and silly.

Fair enough, everyone knows the rules though, it's not like they wouldn't know it was coming.

Spear

McSasquatch wrote: »

If you're genuinely active and take part on boards.ie, there'll be no problem at all in adding you further down the line.

And I shall once he meets the criteria.

Spear

GarIT wrote: »

Anyone object to a new rule that asking someone that doesn't qualify for the group to join gets you a ban from the group?

I object. That would only block people from ever joining the group and stop them contributing to both the group, and boards.ie in general.

GarIT

Spear wrote: »

I object. That would only block people from ever joining the group and stop them contributing to both the group, and boards.ie in general.

Scrap that idea so.

Mantel

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

I cannot believe I missed this. Kudos on a quality giveaway.

Don't worry, I have a few ****ty games to give away as well

Anyone need a copy of Half-Life 2?

freelancerTax

yep i dont have hl2 yet and would like the chance

Scottius

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/zRvWO/dear-esther
Gonna post this again since it only has one entry, yes I know i'm not in the group yet.

MitchKoobski

Dear Esther is probably one of the most posted games to be given away, nearly everyone has it by now so that's probably why there's so few entries.

Scottius

Ah alright, well it's there for anyone that doesn't have it yet.

Axwell

GarIT wrote: »

Anyone object to a new rule that asking someone that doesn't qualify for the group to join gets you a ban from the group?

It would make more sense to ban someone who isnt contributing and hasnt after a set amount of time has passed.

Not The Real Scarecrow

Axwell wrote: »

It would make more sense to ban someone who isnt contributing and hasnt after a set amount of time has passed.

easiest thing to do is set competetions to contributor only at .01 , that way if some one isn't contributing at all,then they can't enter.Would also encourage people to contribute at some stage or another.

COYVB

Axwell wrote: »

It would make more sense to ban someone who isnt contributing and hasnt after a set amount of time has passed.

That's a good idea, basically if you've not actively given something away within a (reasonable) time period, you'll forego any prize wins at the discretion of the person running the giveaway.

I think everyone should be free to chose their own T&Cs for giveaways - but they should make it very clear in the description box of the giveaway page. One example might be:

"Will request new winner if selected winner has not contributed to the group by way of a giveaway in the last 6 weeks. Only open to those with a $20+ contribution rating. If you have won one of my previous 3 giveaways, a new winner will be requested in the interest of fairness"

Or something like that

Axwell

Well its not that hard to keep track of whos contributing in the thread and update the first post or something accordingly. After a period of time if people havent contributed at all they just get removed from the group, no real need for all the other stuff.

Tinie

Axwell wrote: »

Well its not that hard to keep track of whos contributing in the thread and update the first post or something accordingly. After a period of time if people havent contributed at all they just get removed from the group, no real need for all the other stuff.

The easiest thing to do is to get everyone to set higher contribution limits for giveaways, as that weeds out any people who refuse to give back. removing people is a bit of a hassle, and also, people can set their profile to private, and still enter competitions as long as they dont sync their account, for like 2 weeks I think.

I had a quick look at the last couple of popular giveaways with no contribution limit, and I only noticed one person who entered both, that has not given away a single thing on the steam gifts website, let alone to the group. And crazily this person has won 20+ giveaways with most coming from this group! :eek:

I also had a quick look, and the user has only just posted once in games section of boards but has nearly 10k posts on their account and never even posted in this thread asking to be invited into the group... so how did they get invited?...

Just seems a bit odd thats all

Tar.Aldarion

COYVB wrote: »

That's a good idea, basically if you've not actively given something away within a (reasonable) time period, you'll forego any prize wins at the discretion of the person running the giveaway.

I think everyone should be free to chose their own T&Cs for giveaways - but they should make it very clear in the description box of the giveaway page. One example might be:

"Will request new winner if selected winner has not contributed to the group by way of a giveaway in the last 6 weeks. Only open to those with a $20+ contribution rating. If you have won one of my previous 3 giveaways, a new winner will be requested in the interest of fairness"

Or something like that

I don't think you are allowed make rules like that on there? They will refuse to reroll for a new winner I think? Which I think is the whole point of the contribution ability on the site.

It's not hard imo, if you don't want somebody that is not contributing to get your game you set a limit on it, the facility is already there if people want to use it, that's why it is there

it wold be also more reasonable to look into after the steam summer sale. Loads of people said they want to but steam summer sale etc
There are also people who enter the mandatory contribution comps that have given away nothing to the group, should they be kicked too etc.

I think it's just simpler to set the amount on your game.

zero19

I'd say contribution comps are the way forward, perfectly fair if you ask me.

kearneybobs

Let people give their keys away however they want.

What next? Contributor Only Giveaways that require $20/50/100 of contribution. The only thing that does is exclude people who are eligible and closes the giveaway off to the elite few.

Banjo

The fairest way is to use this calculation :

[(Games\GamesPostCount/TtlPostcount )*100] / [UserNetContribution / PrizeGameWorth] 
where 
UserNetContribution=UserGrossContribution-(UserBundleContribution+UserRegiftContribution)

And if the result is less than 1 then the person is not allowed to enter the giveaway.
This is simple, fair, and transparent and not at all weighted to make sure I can enter future give-aways.



Edit : Someone's going to actually try this calculation out, aren't they... I'm getting that Oppenheimer feeling...

GarIT

I don't think there is any point in kicking people for not contributing. Contributor limits should sort that. You also have to think of other people's circumstances if I'm correct a friends little brother is somewhere here and he is only 14-15, it would be unfair to kick someone like that from the free giveaways. Everyone is free to put limits on if they do or dont want to, some people prefer to set no limits and if they dont want to set a limit that is ok so everyone they want should be able to enter. On circumstances again there's a lot of people short on money at the moment and you would have thought those are the type of people this is for. I've only ever bought 1 game for myself, everything else has been presents from family, I was even going to contribute when the bioshock deal was on amazon, but I only had a laser card at the time. I can't afford to be buying games to give away, I could only give away games if they were in a bundle, and when you only have less than 30 games bought over 3 years its unusual to have something to give away.

GarIT

Banjo wrote: »

The fairest way is to use this calculation :

[(Games\GamesPostCount/TtlPostcount )*100] / [UserNetContribution / PrizeGameWorth] 
where 
UserNetContribution=UserGrossContribution-(UserBundleContribution+UserRegiftContribution)

And if the result is less than 1 then the person is not allowed to enter the giveaway.
This is simple, fair, and transparent and not at all weighted to make sure I can enter future give-aways.



Edit : Someone's going to actually try this calculation out, aren't they... I'm getting that Oppenheimer feeling...

It's against the rules of steamgifts to put any conditions on a giveaway.

Monotype

GarIT wrote: »

It's against the rules of steamgifts to put any conditions on a giveaway.

Banjo wasn't being serious. It doesn't even make mathematical sense.

I think that everyone who hasn't been contributing in the last thirty days should not only be removed, but get a permanent site-ban from boards. They should be reported to Valve as a scammer for good measure as well.

Dacelonid

Why do we have to put rules on anything.
Let each person decide themselves how they want to do the give away.
If I want a 1 hour give away with a contributor only of €1000, then that is my prerogative. Similarly if I want a 2 day give away with a $10 contributor only (which is my normal choice) then that is up to me.
If the group starts putting too many rules in place, people will stop contributing. I know I will.

As for people winning loads, so what? The whole point of using SG is so we don't have the hassle of deciding who gets a key (first to reply or a draw or whatever). We can't decide to pick a method that is fairer, and then complain because that fairness has given us a result that some people aren't happy with

Mickeroo

This is all very reminiscent of the death throws of the freebies thread. There's no need to over complicate things, let people decide how they want to give their own games away.

Spear

Mickeroo wrote: »

This is all very reminiscent of the death throws of the freebies thread. There's no need to over complicate things, let people decide how they want to give their own games away.

Definitely.

The point of the group is to see that spare/unwanted games go to your fellow boardsies, not to forcibly extract games from others or make them jump through hoops. The assmption or requirement that people have spares games/cash to contribute isn't a valid one in a country still in technical recession.

COYVB

Spear wrote: »

The assmption or requirement that people have spares games/cash to contribute isn't a valid one in a country still in technical recession.

Oh come on, it costs about a quid to pick up a bundle with 5-6 games

Monotype

COYVB wrote: »

Oh come on, it costs about a quid to pick up a bundle with 5-6 games

Well there's also the consideration that not everyone has access to methods to pay for a game. Now, I know it's a bit easier now with Visa Debits and O2 and 3V cards... I don't know if there's age restrictions on these... but it doesn't mean that everyone has the means to pay.

Personally I'd rather that people who entered the giveaways played the games that they got - and wouldn't enter one unless they thought they'd play it. However, there's no way to really go about this apart from the person entering it themselves having a bit of cop on.

If you don't want non-contributors entering, just set a limit. It's a fair system. If you have a serious problem with any individual, I'm sure it can be sorted with the mods and a PM. I don't think scammers can get away to easily - doesn't steamgifts check to see that you've activated the gift on the account? I think the only thing to be watchful for here is to make sure that anyone doesn't have two accounts.

Genghiz Cohen

COYVB wrote: »

Oh come on, it costs about a quid to pick up a bundle with 5-6 games

So we should buy games just to give away?

Turtwig

Regarding rules or whatever. I don't even like the Contributer limit. I've received stuff from Boardsies in the past who I'm fairly certain haven't yet been able to contribute a game yet. No way, I'm excluding those folks from a draw.
Secondly, the limit is a pile of sh1te. It doesn't distinguish between contributions made in group and contributions made outside of it. Thirdly, if I bought a game for €10 but it's steam value is €20 then SGs assumes I contributed €20 in gifts. Think about that for a second if one person contributes a recent AAA title valued at €50 and another person contributes shovel ware bought in a bundle for €2 but each item valued at €10 SG says they contributed the same amount.
I also think it's somewhat unfair expecting everyone to contribute. My budget is set specifically for bargain hunting bundles games. I don't buy games on release. Not everyone's gaming model is set like so. So it's probably far easier for me to contribute than someone who recently bought The Last of Us.

Dacelonid

Can we maybe split the discussion on this to a separate thread, and just leave the give aways in this thread

Ponster

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

So we should buy games just to give away?

Well I did. My own personal opinion of course but I had even presumed that I needed to give a game away before I could enter to win others.

James74

Here we go again...

Didn't we go through all of this a couple of months ago on the freebies thread, which led to this group being set up. My simple opinion is why the feck are some people trying to dictate to other people how and who they should freely give their own personal property to.

This is ridiculously, amazingly, stupidly simple!
You have a game to give away.
It is your decision to use the Steamgifts site.
It is your decision to limit the giveaway to the BoardsSG group.
It is your decision whether or not to impose a contributor limit on the giveaway.
It is your decision what length of time to set on the giveaway.

A few of the folks here that started the thread and the group are doing a grand job keeping an eye on who to let in and who to nicely tell to try again later.
Anything else is whining fukwittery. If you don't like the way it's working then please... kindly... with respect... stop cluttering the thread with moaning and find another way to give away your games that better matches your requirements.

Ponster

James74 wrote: »

Here we go again...

Well said.

Dacelonid's suggestion to keep this thread 'clean' is one that a mod could help us with ?

Mr E

Discuss away, guys. No giveaways in this thread, please.

Spear

COYVB wrote: »

Oh come on, it costs about a quid to pick up a bundle with 5-6 games

If it's so low a barrier, it's essentially meaningless, and only prompts people to flood the group with offers for the same few cheap games.

Dacelonid

Spear wrote: »

If it's so low a barrier, it's essentially meaningless, and only prompts people to flood the group with offers for the same few cheap games.

And we will also get into a cycle of, well $10 isn't enough, lets set the limit to $20 and then $30 and finally $30.01 where people will have had to have bought a game or acquired a game somehow outside a bundle to get over the $30 limit.

I don't see a problem with letting everyone decide themselves what restrictions to put on a giveaway.
For me it will nearly always be 2 days + $10 contributor because "I think" that is fair. Other people have different ideas about whats fair, and here's the kicker, "I don't mind that someone else has a different idea of what is fair"

If you don't think that a giveaway is fair, instead of bitching about it, don't enter it (but we know you will even if you disagree with the fairness of it), or create a giveaway that you think is fair

super_furry

I think Dacelonid sums it up perfectly. Let people run their giveaways however they want - I actually find it very presumptious to think that someone else would tell me how I should give away a game I bought.