Once logged in, I began to poke around in an attempt to figure out exactly how the service worked. Creating a giveaway was pretty straight-forward – I simply had to choose the game, select the number of copies, and define how long it would be open. When a giveaway closes, one winner is selected from all the people that entered, and it’s up to the person who created the giveaway to send the game manually through Steam. As for entering giveaways, there’s a little extra mechanism that needs to be understood: in an effort to prevent people from entering every single giveaway, the site grants points over time. Reaching a maximum of 300, these points can be used towards entering giveaways - the more expensive the game, the more points needed to enter. Inviting friends to the site also uses a chunk of points, so it helps control how quickly the site will become populated.

Overall, I’d say the service is decently made, but currently suffers from some flaws – which I assume will get resolved in the long term:

1. There is no search feature – so if you’re looking for a particular game, good luck. I simply found myself paging through the public giveaways, hoping to find any game that was interesting to me, rather than the game I was looking for.
2. The site is often slow to respond to requests – extending the time it takes to find what you want.
3. No e-mails notifications are sent out when your giveaway is complete. In my case, I one day realized that one of my giveaways was likely complete – but had forgotten about it. When I logged in, I saw that it had, in fact, been closed 1 day ago. Not a big deal, but the winner had not received anything yet, and I didn’t want him to worry, and others to question the legitimacy of my offer.

Now, the flaws I mentioned are all in the functionality, or lack thereof – but they’re forgiveable given that the site is a free service, especially one which currently does not yet feature numerous advertisements. I expect these things to be resolved as time progresses; however, I am concerned about how this site approaches giveaways. To better illustrate my concerns, I’d like to start by examining the experience for users that enter existing giveaways. As an example, here’s one of the posts I created:

It was configured to end in 5 days, and during that time, it managed to receive 55 comments, and 492 entries. Let me just clarify that last part – 492 people entered the contest, and one person won.

Is it just me, or is that a lot of disappointed people? Sure, they knew what they were getting into, but I can’t help but think that maybe there is a better way. Out of curiosity, I glanced at the winner’s profile – and here’s what I saw:

A total of 3 gifts won, despite having 340 entries. That’s roughly 113 entries per game. Considering the flaws I mentioned earlier, entering all of those contests could have been a rough experience for the user. Is the time investment worth it, considering the low chance of winning, and the flaws in the website? Keep in mind, also, that the chance of winning will decrease as the site gets more popular – as there will be more users, and thus, more competition. To help offset the low chances of winning, users seem to be encouraged to enter multiple contests, just in the hope that they will receive something free. I originally found myself doing this, as it simply felt logical – my time is valuable, so why would I spend it struggling to find only the games that I really wanted? It was simpler to enter any contests that were the slightest bit interesting, rather than making calculated decisions. Of course, I quickly realized that this wasn’t the most ethical approach, so it lead to some self-reflection.

First of all, I wondered: was it even necessary to have more than one entry per giveaway? What if you could create a giveaway that closes immediately after one person enters it? If that could happen, only two people would be involved: the person giving the game away, and the recipient of that game. The giveaway wouldn’t gather much attention from the public, but it will have served its purpose – giving away a game to a person that wanted it. As a bonus, there is a low probability of people being disappointed. Interestingly, SteamGifts isn’t too far off from offering this functionality. It is currently possible to configure a giveaway so it closes in one hour, but no less than that.

While the above would help reduce the number of disappointed users, another key factor must be considered – exposure. I originally didn’t feel like I needed recognition for giving the games away – I honestly did it because I realized they were gathering e-dust. Yet, I received 55 comments for giving away just one of game. After the contest had ended, I realized that it may have been beneficial to leave my post up for multiple days – for one primary reason: my Steam profile contained a link back to my blog. Now, as true as this was, I didn’t feel like adding to the number of disappointed users, solely for a chance at additional traffic.

Ultimately, I decided it would be best for giveaways to strike a balance between getting exposure, and preventing entries from reaching extremes. I felt that one day was probably a good maximum time-frame, but of course, that maximum was closely bound to the popularity of the site. Early on, one day might bring in hundreds of entries – but in the future, maybe thousands. The more entries, the less chance of winning – which encourages people to enter any and all contests. What if you could have those statistics handy when creating a giveaway? By knowing how many entries are projected, would the decision be easier to make? I think so, but still feel like there’s something missing to make the service work properly. As it is stands, I feel that users are too likely to entry-spam – all to improve the chances of them winning something. It’s a pretty unique challenge, and I hope they manage to find a solution. In the meantime, I find myself less inclined to use the service as a means of receiving gifts – sending gifts, on the other hand, can work well, especially with the above ideas considered.

If you’d like to try out SteamGifts, I’d be happy to provide invitations – simply contact me at mref…@gmail.com. Even though I had some issues with the site, it’s still worth checking out. My interactions within the community have mostly all been positive – users are quick to thank the guys creating the giveaways, and are also instrumental in warning their peers about fake posts.

UPDATE: I announced this blog post on the SteamGifts forum, and interesting comments were posted. One particular commenter was an administrator of SteamGifts, and he pointed out that they were working on improvements, some of which were particularly tricky. The administrator (named “cg”) also called me out on a logical error that was present in my post. He made a reference to particular part of my post: 

“Keep in mind, also, that the chance of winning will decrease as the site gets more popular – as there will be more users, and thus, more competition.”

And replied with the following:

“Not true. Entries will increase, but you’re missing the fact that the number of giveaways will also increase. If new users are as generous as the last, odds of winning stay equal. Right now we have 25k members and 8k gifts. We’ve been floating around that 3:1 ratio for a long period of time. Those are the numbers you should be keeping an eye on, not the total number of entries.”

He was, of course, entirely correct. 

After a while, I decided I would put advertisements on the website, in an effort to support the team. Naturally, I looked to the most recommended service, AdSense, as offered by Google. I signed up, and despite how small the site was, I received a confirmation e-mail a couple days later. Shortly thereafter, I had the advertisements working as expected, and for a while, all was well.

Photo by Pål Berge.

At a certain point, a teammate decided to start paying for a game server that the team could use to practice regularly, and was doing so out of his own pocket. In an effort to support him, I told my fellow teammates to click on the ads, as this would help generate revenue. Now, in case you’re not aware, this is known as click fraud, and is a very serious breach of the AdSense Terms and Conditions. When instructing my teammates to do this, I never really stopped to think about the legality or ethics of my request. My friends just went along and said they’d click every now and then, and none of them questioned my approach.

In addition to telling friends to click, I also violated another core AdSense rule - never click on your own ads. While I originally was in compliance of this rule, I did find myself in one specific situation where I reasoned that yes, the content being displayed in the ad was indeed relevant to me. I was looking for an alternate company to host our game server, and sure enough, the ad was talking about just that. I only did this once, as far as I can remember.

Photo by Jason Cheung.

Approximately two weeks later, my earnings had reached a ludicrous sum of 100$, but still I failed to grasp that I was doing something very, very wrong. I remember at least two distinct moments where my friends told me they had been clicking, but I do not recall when, or how many times they clicked. It wasn’t long until I received an e-mail from Google, letting me know that I had been banned from AdSense. My initial feeling was that I let my team down, to a significant degree. As an extension of the shame I felt, I tried to reply to Google in an effort to salvage the account, and in turn, retain the possibility of earning legitimate clicks. I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly, because what I had done was a very serious offense… I was just blind to it at that moment, obsessed with my team, and how I failed to support them.

Despite my replies, the Google AdSense team informed that they were sure of their decision, eventually leading me to accept the truth. Their words had shaken some sense into me, and I began to feel greater shame towards what I had done with my AdSense account. Not only was I extremely wrong in doing what I did, I also managed to destroy a potential business relationship with Google, very early on, and on my primary Google account no-less. As a long time fan and supporter of Google, I was left with a shame so poignant that it stuck with me through the years – a dark cloud, always reminding me of that time where I really screwed up.

Photo by Dan DeLuca.

Years later, after having worked as a software developer for three years, I tried signing up to Google AdSense using another one of my Google accounts. To my surprise, they accepted my application, regardless of the fact that I had the same name as before. I was able to successfully place Google AdSense ads on my page, but then started to doubt whether this was in respect of Google’s rules. Sure enough, after reading their documentation – it became clear that if I was banned before, I should never try to apply again. It wasn’t just my account that was banned, it was me – and anything associated to me – as brutal as that sounds. Creating another account might work – but as long as I’m the same publisher as before, they could ban the account if they figured that out. To respect their rules, I quickly removed all ads from my site, and decided it might be time to contact Google. After all, I made the mistakes in my youth, and hoped this would factor into my appeal. I explained the tale to the best of my recollection; however, I still could not bring myself to admit that I had, in fact, been the root cause of the whole disaster. It was my words that lead at least two of my friends to click on my ads, and though I regretted my part deeply, I felt too embarrassed to admit it. Despite my appeal, Google still stuck to their response that they needed to protect their advertisers, and I would be a threat.

Though disappointed, I agreed with the reasoning behind their refusal. Why would they take the risk of allowing a banned user when the potential for income is probably far less than the monitoring fees? I could relate to them, and despite all my self-directed anger, I was once more convinced that I would need to live without Google AdSense, as much as that bothered me. That was roughly two years ago, and today, with more than five years of software development experience, I still feel like I shot myself in the foot very early on. Google AdSense seems to be the best pay-per-click advertising solution, one which allows even the smallest independent publisher to earn some profit back from their content. While I managed to find decent alternatives for websites, I still have difficulty digesting that I can never work with Google.

The whole experience has left me paranoid about pay-per-click advertising. For example, with one provider, I once accidentally clicked an ad on my blog, while I was browsing on my phone. I immediately figured out what my IP was, sent it to their the support team, explaining that I accidentally clicked, and they should not include the click towards my profit. They thanked me for being proactive, but warned that if it happened too many times, they would not be able to serve ads on my site. It’s unfortunate that I had to get banned by Google to understand the severity of click fraud, which, it turns out, is quite clearly explained in Google’s documentation:

Invalid Clicks and Impressions

Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods.

Encouraging Clicks

Publishers may not ask others to click their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behaviour or placing images next to individual ads.

Photo by Luigi Caterino.

So, was I blind? Was my young mind so obsessed with games that it even failed to understand the importance of the legal agreement that had taken place? Yes, I believe so. Today, I still agree completely with the reasoning behind why Google banned me – I just have one question that I’d like to ask in the open, right here. How long must I pay for a mistake that I made in my youth? Youth, mind you, is not always as simple as above or below 18. When I was banned, I was 19, and though I was mature in many ways, my behavior towards AdSense was quite the opposite. Am I really so evil that I must never be allowed anywhere near Google AdSense, even when I’m 30, 40, or 50? Does additional life experience mean nothing once you’ve made such mistakes? It’s not like I shot a man and tried to get away with it – how could this ban truly be for life, when even a murderer might get to walk after enough years of jail time?

The way Google crafted their agreement, it is entirely possible that I will never be forgiven – they have reserved that possibility. I’ve come to a certain peace about this – I’ve had ads from another company for over a year, and I remain in good standing with them. Still, I can’t help but think back to how great Google AdSense was… and, at this point, all I want is to be put out of my misery. If I’m banned until the day of my death, with absolutely zero chance of getting my account back, fine. I’ll learn to live with that, I just really need it confirmed so I can move on. Otherwise, what can I do? Would Google be willing to grant me a probationary period, during which I could prove myself worthy of reinstatement? I would gladly cover any administrative fees related to monitoring my account, if that is a concern. In any case, with this last appeal, I hope to arrive at a conclusion: either the dark cloud is here to stay, or it will eventually give way to sunlight.

Reviewed by
Elisa Roberts

Thanks to
Joseph Pereira

Thanks to
Joseph Pereira

]]> http://mattrefghi.com/blog/2011/08/google-adsense-banned-for-life/feed/ 0 http://mattrefghi.com/blog/2009/04/becoming-a-rainbow-six-operative/ http://mattrefghi.com/blog/2009/04/becoming-a-rainbow-six-operative/#comments Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:10:39 +0000 Matt Refghi http://www.mattrefghi.com/wordpress/?p=298 So lately, Joseph and I have been having fun with Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The game is a fairly well-made first-person shooter, and we enjoy playing co-operative games every now and then. The other day, we discovered that the game has a “Custom Head” feature. The feature allows you to map your own face onto your in-game character.  When we actually got around to trying it, we were pretty impressed with the quality of the results.

Consider the following screenshot:

If you know me in real life, you’ll know that this is a pretty decent representation of what I look like. Not perfect, but still impressive. After trying our regular faces, we decided to try and get the game to accept unusual facial expressions. I had a great laugh when I saw the end result of my first experiment:

I kept that “Custom Head” for a while:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and it resulted in a great set of photos.

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