Balancing Act Guild RSS Feed

May contest and guild becomes one year old

Noble Gamer — Tue, 05 May 2020 19:27:13 +0000

May contest

The member who moves up the most number of spots in the user list this month by improving their VD will win this contest! Winner gets to pick a game outright from my gift inventory.

Details on our Steam forum post

Guild is one year old this month

Its crazy to think it will be 1 year ago this month that the guild first showed up on SG! It has been fun gathering a group of great gifters for what started out as an experiment, and its been great to see it grow to what it has become. I hope the flexibility, reasonableness, and generosity of the group is as much of a breath of fresh air for you as it has been for me.
One of the core goals I had for this group was for there to be just enough giveaways & members for most good giveaways to get 5+ entries, and I am proud to say this has been true of good giveaways for quite a while now but is also true on average overall.

What is the future of the guild?

In the next month or so, I hope to put together a bunch of charts that show what our group giveaway trends have been like. Then with that in mind, I want to get your feedback in a poll I will make about what rules should be updated/added, which I will consider when...
I update the rules to reflect how much its grown
Let me know if you are interested in becoming an officer/mod. It would be a good way to start the guild's next year.

Stay awesome and stay well!

-RenegadeMaster

BA Guild: Contest ideas wanted for 2020, and Dec contest info

Noble Gamer — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 19:48:31 +0000

Balancing Act Guild's December contest is live!

Its basically total points/$ given times number of copies for $6+ exclusive giveaways. Details on our Steam forum: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BAGuild/discussions/1/1743386555596326391/

Have ideas for future contests? We want to hear them on this forum thread: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BAGuild/discussions/1/3963662189542391311/

BA Guild: Now accepting guild officer applications

Noble Gamer — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 17:31:23 +0000

I am looking to add at least one Steam group officer to help out with running the guild: Periodically check that giveaways are following our rules, help with recruiting, and when I am briefly unavailable handle contest results & purge stuff.

See the new discussion thread for more details and how to apply.

Thanks,
Renegade

BA Guild: Half of GAs can have Whitelist + Sept update

Noble Gamer — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 22:11:41 +0000

Starting today, half of your guild GAs can also include your whitelist. We are still NOT allowing multiple group GAs.

Don't worry about average entries because all rules+FAQ about that have been removed.

In general, do not be afraid to enter GAs unless you win a few hundred $ more in GAs than what you give.

Only one person with the worst negative VD (Sept=-$446.45) gets purged every month.

Why are we allowing whitelist giveaways?

* This should help increase # of GAs with 5+ entries and decrease # of GAs with 0 entires. Current entries statistics have likely discouraged creation of more GAs.
* More people wanted whitelist GAs (40%) instead of other options in a guild poll about what should be changed: Multiple group GAs (30%), limiting GAs with bad reviews (17%), or change nothing (13%)
* Attract new recruits
* Guild+Whitelist GAs are easier to track and less likely to increase entries as much as groups

Moderation Log has details on exactly what parts of the rules and FAQs have changed, plus info on the September purge: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BAGuild/discussions/0/

September 2019 Contest Results

The winner this month was MeisterLeuchte thanks to their 5 giveaways with a huge 26 average entries (contest score of 68.6)! This week they will receive one game outright from my gift inventory, and will be crowned the Steam group's "Player of the Week".

Here were our runners up that also had high demand exclusive giveaways:
Whitemage87 = 16.4 (2 GAs at 19 average entries)
FifflarenVintage = 15 (1 GA at 28 average entries)
cals7 = 12.3 (4 GAs at 11.3 average entries)
logvip08 = 12 (12 GAs at 8.3 average entries)

October 2019 Contest Rules

-For GAs ending between Oct 1 00:00 and Oct 31 23:59 Eastern Time.
-Whitelist giveaways with the group are counted if they do not exceed half of your created giveaways during October. If whitelist GAs are more than half, then that member will be disqualified.
-Only giveaways worth 6 points/$ each or higher will qualify
-GAs and members must follow the other group rules to qualify, including the "be reasonable" rule.

To win this month's contest it still requires a combination of high entries and multiple giveaways, but now people can create some Whitelist giveaways.

Details and updates will be posted here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BAGuild/discussions/1/1630790987577414686/

BA Guild: Vote in our rules poll, see September contest

Noble Gamer — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:27:17 +0000

Help shape the future of our guild by answering our simple poll

Vote here on a major rule update: https://strawpoll.com/7sgrrh88

I will be considering rule updates next month to help prevent more GAs with 0 entries and provide even more flexibility with gifting. So make your opinion known in the poll.

You can try to avoid this by searching the group wishlist first: https://www.steamgifts.com/group/3JcQV/baguild/wishlist
Also, stats prove that gifting higher reviewed or higher value games are more likely to get more entries.

September Contest + August Contest Winner

September's contest has the same rules as August's contest. The contest rewards a balance of high number of giveaways ($6 or more) and high number of entries: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BAGuild/discussions/1/2692512878718167191/
The winner will receive one game outright from my gift inventory, and will be crowned the Steam group's "Player of the Week" for the whole month.
In August, the winner Whitemage87 had 4 GAs with 23 average entries, resulting in a contest score of 60. They chose 911 Operator.

**Sept 2019 Contest Standings** (as of Sept 15)
MeisterLeuchte = 77.4
FifflarenVintage = 16.9
Geralt28 = 10.9
Georgeous = 10.5
Whitemage87 = 8.9

The formula basically determines how much your GAs for the month positively contribute to overall Average Entries.

September purge will be 1 user only (Sept 15 lowest VD=-$309)

Check your stats here: https://www.steamgifts.com/group/3JcQV/baguild/users/search?page=4
August purge was one user with -$353.69 Value Diff.

**Don't be too worried about entering more GAs** unless you have Value Diff worse than -$200 or recently won 50+ games from us.

See our Moderation Log for details on who was purged and such: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/BAGuild/discussions/0/1642044369658605413/

BA Guild: Monthly purges begin Sept 1

Noble Gamer — Sat, 03 Aug 2019 20:58:43 +0000

A central rule to our guild has been updated:

3. Keep a positive "Value Difference" in our group (Sent minus Received CV) because each month we will remove one or more members with the worst negative Value Diff (Check it anytime in SG using the link in this group page's sidebar).

So starting at the end of this month, the person with the worst negative Value Diff will be purged. Each month, another person with the worst neg VD will get it.

If Average Entries get higher than the Extra Purge Threshold of 10 (for now), then additional people will be purged equal to [Average Entries]-[Extra Purge Threshold]. Purging more than one will likely not happen this month, but could if there's enough high entry GAs.

On September 1st, we will have our first monthly purge. Check your group user stats here: https://www.steamgifts.com/group/3JcQV/baguild/users

As of August 3rd, the lowest VD is -$260. All users with low VD have been personally warned.

For details on exactly what rule & process has changed, see our Moderation Log.

Thanks to everyone who has been creating giveaways, and I look forward to seeing VDs improve as we near our first monthly purge.

-Renegade

BA Guild: August contest and July results

Noble Gamer — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 20:56:22 +0000

July Featured Gifter contest:

Congrats to Geralt28 with the top score!

Final Top 5 Scores:
Geralt28 = 53
DinoFarce = 50
thoughtfulhippo = 49
Whitemage87 = 46
Amcestral = 39

Geralt28 selected S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat as their prize and is now "Player of the Week" on our Steam page.

August contest:

[/b]August's contest rewards a balance of high number of giveaways and high number of entries[/b]. It doesn't focus so much on high entries like last month did. The winner will receive one game outright from my gift inventory, and will be crowned the Steam group's "Player of the Week".

Some general rules:
-Only giveaways worth 6 points/$ each or higher will qualify
-For GAs ending between August 1 00:00 and August 30 23:59 Eastern Time.
-GAs and members must follow group rules to qualify, especially exclusive GAs, and the "be reasonable" rule where most of your GAs should not be no value, 1-5 points, region restricted, or <1 day long.
-Tiebreaker will first use increased decimal places for the formula, then the users' Value Diff in the group.

It will use this formula:

1000 * (Group Average Entries - [ (Total group entries-Total # entries for your month's GAs) / (Total group GAs sent-Your # of month's GAs) ] )

The formula basically determines how much your GAs for the month positively contribute to overall Average Entries.

If this formula was used last month: The winner would've had 7 giveaways with an average of 21 entries each, and second place would've had 16 giveaways with an average of 11 entries each.

BAGuild: PURGE & rule update, July contest, August preview

Noble Gamer — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 21:36:00 +0000

Rule update: Be Reasonable

Effective immediately, I am updating the "Be reasonable with your group GAs" rule:

Don't post mostly GAs of no value, 1-4 points/$, level/region restrict stuff, or <1 day long

To:

Don't post mostly GAs of no value, 1-5 points/$, level/region restrict stuff, or <1 day long

That means don't let more than half of your GAs match ANY of those things. Why the update of 1-5 points? Our giveaway data says that 5 point giveaways have the worst chance of getting 5+ entries: Only one out of three 5P giveaways. Your Real CV will thank me later ;)

The good news is that I don't think anyone has mostly 5P or lower GAs! If someone does end up with mostly not "reasonable" GAs, then I will contact them through SG or Steam.

Purge Threshold = 10 Average Entries

We now have new purge criteria:

To balance game gifting and giveaway entries, our Purge Threshold is: 10 entries
We will stop recruiting if Average Entries ever reaches: 25 entries

Here was the old criteria:

To balance game gifting and giveaway entries our Targeted Average (TA) number of entries is: 25

Full FAQ has been updated with all this.

People will have two weeks notice to boost their Value Difference and avoid purge, and then there will be no more than 4 weeks between purges.

There is also an update to the FAQ on how purges will work:
-No more than every 2 weeks, we will verify that the groups' Average Entries is less than Purge Threshold and Recruit Threshold.
-When that happens, a Maximum Purge Number is calculated for the maximum number of people that could be purged this month: [Total SG Group Users / 10]
-Group announcements & such are posted regarding purge notice, and lists the # of users at the bottom of the Value Diff list equal to the Max Purge #.
-Two weeks later, we check if Average Entries has dropped less than the Purge Threshold
- If Average Entries is is less than Purge Threshold, nobody gets purged from the group and we wait at least another 2 weeks to check Average Entries :D Otherwise....

-After that 2 weeks notice, the number of users with the worst negative "Value Difference" purged from the group is: 2*([Average Entries]-[Purge Threshold])+1, but no more than Maximum Purge Number.

-There will be a 2 week waiting period between a purge and checking Average Entries.

Purge Threshold and formulas may be tweaked between Average Entries checks, but will stay the same between 1 month purge notice and an actual purge.

Why change the Targeted Average? At our current growth & GA entry numbers since June, we will not reach the current target of 25 entries until 6 months from now - So no purges. Why 25? Based on other groups it assured that 90% of all GAs will get 5+ entries so that your Real CV is counted. With our Average Entries of 8, only 65% of all GAs get 5+ entries.
Updating purges and redoing TA would make things a little more exciting :D

July Featured Gifter contest:

Here are the standings so far:
*Current Top 5 Scores* (**updated July 22nd**):
* Whitemage87 = 65
* Geralt28 = 51
* DinoFarce = 50
* thoughtfulhippo = 49
* Fluffster=45

Contest results may be delayed until GAs with large entries are marked as Received. Only GAs that end BEFORE July 31st at 23:59 Eastern Daylight Time can qualify. The winner will win a game outright from me.

August Featured Gifter contest:

Let's see more GAs with higher entries/demand!

It will use this formula:

1000 * (Group Average Entries - [ (Total group entries-Total # entries for your month's GAs) / (Total # of all GAs sent-Your # of August GAs) ] )

The formula basically determines how much your GAs for the month positively contribute to overall Average Entries. Balancing getting many entries and gifting many giveaways may win the contest, "Player of the Week" on Steam, and a free game outright from me.

Some general rules:
-For GAs ending between August 1 00:00 and August 30 23:59 Eastern Time.
-GAs and members must follow group rules to qualify, especially exclusive GAs, and the "be reasonable" rule where most of your GAs shouldn't be no value, 1-5 points, region bound, or <1 day long.
-Tiebreaker will first use increased decimal places for the formula, then the users' Value Diff in the group.

Contest is subject to updates until its thread is posted to our Steam forum.

BAGuild: June updates, how to be July's Feat Member (and win a game!)

Noble Gamer — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 16:45:15 +0000

Let's talk about:

June Group Stats
How to be July's Featured Gifter (and win a game)
Purge rule clarification
Members recently removed

June Group Stats

Thanks to all members for their generosity in June! Here are some stats that show it:

June total CV given: $2971
June GAs completed: 232
Top 5 most wanted guild GAs (by entry count): Slay the Spire (thanks Shinigami2019!), Outcast - Second Contact (thanks thoughtfulhippo!), Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 3 (from me), Hitman GO: Definitive Edition (thanks thoughtfulhippo!)

Featured Gifter (and how to win a game)

Steam has a "Player of the Week" feature that puts one group member's name in lights near the top of the member list on our Steam group's main page. This will not literally be updated every week, and although it is up to group leader discretion, there is some criteria for who can become the Featured Gifter of July:

The member with the highest: (Average Entries of all your GAs) * 2 + Total # of GAs
For July GAs ending before July 31 23:59 Eastern Time.
GAs and members must follow group rules to qualify, especially "be reasonable" rule where most of your GAs shouldn't be no value or 1-4 points.
Tiebreaker will be user overall Value Diff on SG.

The winner will receive a free game outright from me and be featured on the Steam group page and recruit thread as the PotW/Featured Gifter.

Purge rule clarification

After reviewing our group user stats of the past month, I have decided to clarify the purge rule, which will now guarantee that **anyone with positive VD will be safe from any VD-based purge**:

Keep a positive "Value Difference" in our group (Sent minus Received CV)

Number of members purged will still be based on how many excess Average Entries there are - See FAQ for details

Members who didnt make their first time GA(s) have been removed:

89Gamer, Avantyr, Pastel

They were inactive anyways, but if they win a group GA of yours, you may request a new winner if you provide Support this screenshot[i.imgur.com].

If you are curious how guild leaders may handle requests to rejoin the group, I have updated the FAQ:

If I left or was purged from the group, can I rejoin?

Possibly at leader discretion, but in general expect it to require:

Do not enter any GAs until all required GAs below are completed. You will be kicked for sure if you win anything.
Provide a list of games that are not "No Value" GAs that...
make up make all negative Value Difference AND add initiation GAs (example: -$100 VD requires 100 points of GAs plus a 20 point or two 15 point GAs)
Start these required GAs within 2 days
Get winners for the GAs within 2 weeks

NOTE: Former members' Value Difference is retained by SG even after they leave/purge.

BAGuild: Rule revisions: CV to join and first time GA(s)

Noble Gamer — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 05:25:46 +0000

The rules, recruit thread, and Steam group overview have been modified in a few ways ways to allow for more flexibility and make leader discretion more clear:

Any user with less Sent than Won CV (normal or real) can request review, and are encouraged to provide justification such as listing other groups where they have positive VD.

To join the group, there is now an alternate option to give two 15 point or higher GAs instead of one 20 point or higher GA, and these cannot be "No Value"

Thanks again to everyone who has been posting GAs!

Here are some of the users that either may still need first time GA(s) before the end of the month (see above), or they haven't ended yet with a winner:
89Gamer
Amcestral
ash2dust
Avantyr
AwakenBlaze
boloxer
BrandeX
Bujica89
Captwookie
cena0605
cynnix
fizfix
Geralt28
goplayer7
haedaeso
Makaveli8806
MirkaNissim
Pastel
Ravmaster
RobbyRatpoison
ShannonA81
Shinigami2019

Rules with updates in bold

1. Have more Sent than Won CV, or request further review (give the name of Steam groups where you have a positive Value Diff, etc).
2. Be Level 3 or higher on SG in good standing with SG/ST.
3. Post a comment to our recruit thread[www.steamgifts.com] on SteamGifts when applying to our Steam group so we can easily verify your SG info, and feel free to include a meme...or don't - You be you
4. In the month of June create a group-only one time 20 Point or higher GA or two 15 Point or higher GAs that are not "No Value", post it in our General forum thread (members only), and have a verified winner for each GA

Overview/Announcement section with updates in bold

Tweaks to rules or Targeted Average may occur in the future but will be transparent, and everything is at leaders' discretion: Announced through this page, the Steam Group's announcements & private forums, and/or leaders' group GAs, etc.