Hey everyone!
As some of you may have noticed there has been a few changes to the group recently. Two new rules have been added;

1. You must remain publicly active on Steamgifts (at least one giveaway within the past year).
2. Giveaways are not required, but to avoid abuse members may only win a maximum of $200 more then they've give to the group.

The first of these rule changes happened a little over a month ago, while the second was added today. Unfortunately many members were no longer active which resulted in a huge number of users being kicked from the group as a result of the first rule. The second rule does not affect nearly as many users, but for those that have won a lot of giveaways in the group it's recommended to check your value difference here:

https://www.steamgifts.com/group/1TSzG/sgpillars/users

Both of these were based on feedback from group members, and the hope is that they will make this a more inviting place for those that wish to do group giveaways now and in the future.

Hi everyone! It looks like recently Steam Gifts changed the real CV value of a lot games, and as a result some members here no longer meet the group ratio requirements.

So for the rest of the month it is asked that anyone who has fallen behind the minimum real CV ratio requirements to try and catch back up. Then on October 1st a ratio check will be done on all regular and Patreon members, and those that don't meet the requirements at that time will be kicked from the group. No exceptions will be made for 'almost' meeting the requirements this time, so don't be stingy!

Just as a reminder; To see your real CV values go to your SG profile and place the mouse cursor over the won/sent values to make a popup window appear showing the real values.

Hey guys! How are you all doing? Its been nearly 2 years since the group was founded, and since then it has ballooned in size to nearly 250 members. Some of our members have contributed greatly to the group, others have not, but either way what's important is that everyone invited here is a pillar of the Steamgifts community.

Unfortunately, since the group was founded we've had several members exploit a loophole of sorts in the rules; They would become a Steamgifts Patron (for as little as $3 a month), join the group, and then enter/win group giveaways in great excess. While we could turn a blind eye to this if it was only happening in the group (we have no in-group ratio rules after all), it was harder to ignore when their main Steamgifts ratio was also equally bad. This greed is counter to the spirit of the group, and was only possible because we set no ratio requirements for Patreon members. Today this changes.

Patreon members are now required to have a minimum 1:1 real cv sent/won ratio to be in the group. While the new Patron ratio requirements are much lower then non-Patrons (1:1 vs 2:1), we feel this is a good minimum for those that are directly contributing to Steamgifts server maintenance and upkeep costs. If you're a member that joined as a Patreon supporter, please be sure to check your ratio and try and correct it if necessary.

And that's it for the announcement! Have a great weekend everyone!

From this point on we will have one somewhat broad in-group rule:

* Respect the gifters!

What does this mean? It means if you win a giveaway you are expected to thank the person who was kind enough to gift you that game, and if the giveaway description asks the winner to play it, then they are expected to play it!
Because the group is still quite new we've had very few issues, but it's important to make sure gifters know the group will stand by their side should any unscrupulous winners appear.

And that's it! Thanks for checking out the announcement, and have a great week everyone! :)

So the group has been open for a little over a week now, and over 100 generous Steamgifts members have joined. As such, I think it's about time to ask what everyone's opinions are towards the current rules.

Do you think the group rules are good as-is? Maybe it's too easy to join, or too difficult? Should there be any in-group rules? To be clear; I don't plan on changing anything right now unless you guys think I should. So if you have any opinions please post them below, or if you prefer feel free to message me on Steam. :)