Dear GOGgers,

As you well know, I've been running this outfit for nearly 3 years now (calm down, I'm not quitting). Between this and the GOG edition of the Community Giveaway, I've managed to dole out over 3,000 keys total, which speaks more about the generosity of you guys than it does about me. However, as you've likely noticed, there have been bumps along the road numerous times, prompting a few changes. I've reached a point where I see one of those changes is dreadfully needed, primarily the issue of space on the OP. As such, I would like to-

....ahhh, screw the speech. This operation is nothing if not informal.

So, here's how it's gonna work, y'all. This giveaway's gotten so big that it's clear as day that it's long since outgrown the clothes it's in. The OP can't handle such a huge capacity. I've realized that this is the biggest issue and feel like it's way unfair to you guys, so I've decided to arrange it such that the OP is entirely done away with. In other words, instead of all those piles of links, there's going to instead be one singular link to a Google Sheets document, which should be waaaaay easier to upkeep. I've hired the handy help of the industrious finkleroy to aid me in this transition. To keep your eyes from glazing over in this droning text wall, here's a handy-dandy list of what's going to change.

- This thread will no longer have a pile of links on the OP. Those will be wiped and replaced with a link to a Google Sheets document showing all available keys.
- This new document will offer pretty much the same info the OP already does: games, platform, store link, daggers, notes, etc., just in a better format with far, far more space.
- Retired keys will no longer be a thing. These were only ever put in place due to space considerations, but with this no format, there's no point, they'll just be really long-lasting daggered keys as they were before.
- Donations, requests, and other various rules will remain the same. This entire thing is more or less just moving the list over to a new spot since it's too big for GOG to handle.
- This process will take a little bit, and during that time, I likely won't be able to fulfill requests in order to make sure I don't get things mixed up. For those of you who've made requests, I'll get to you, so don't worry.
- I'll still do periodic updates as before, although I'm currently trying to work out exactly how that'll be done in terms of the behind-the-scenes.
- I'm considering making a new thread and locking this one. I'd like to hear opinions from the community about me doing this (and the Google Sheets idea).

TL;DR: Everybody donated so much that you broke GOG and I had to call GOG's bigger, beefier brother, GOoGle, to handle the volume. Giveaway's on hiatus for a few days, when it emerges from the ashes, the list on the OP will be wiped and replaced with a Google Sheets link. Big thanks to finkleroy for helping me sort out this mess.

That is just amazing , thanks for everyone for keeping on contributing this is one of the spots where we as a community on gog truly get together.

Keep up the amazing effort zeo

An idea just flew across my mind. One way to remove retired keys is to donate them all to SkelletalAngel XD

Probably since last year I already want to suggest you to move the list to Google sheet.

About opening a new thread, I'm not sure the benefits of doing it except the thread is a bit cleaner.

I have no opinion on new thread vs. maintain this thread. Pros/cons to both.

I am curious though - do you expect that you or Finkleroy will announce when new keys come in (as you have for this GA) or will you just quietly update the list and see whoever notices?

Or perhaps, like my local used CD shop, have a front space for "things newly added"?

No opinion from me either. It seems the best way to maintain such a huge giveaway.

I think a separate 'recently added' (or at least in bold) list wld be gd 4 ppl 2 notice the new additions, if not can always announce via a post on the thread also. But i personally feel 4 continuity & clearer request sake, it might be better to do it on the Google sheet rather than as b4. It wld also be good to leave all the rules on OP as it is & links on the 2nd post so that the OP will remain 4 all esp the newbies to notice. Other than that i dun hv much comments, it's all up 2 zeogold how he 1s 2 run this Community GA.

Lastly, i wld like 2 take this opportunity again 2 thk all the kind & generous donors who made this GA possible as well as Zeogold 4 his tireless work managing it. :)

Once the transition has been completed, the giveaway will continue exactly as it has before. You will donate the keys to zeogold, and he will grant or deny the requests. Big updates will still happen just as they currently do. The only differences are that a spreadsheet will be used in lieu of the OP, and the new games will be added to the spreadsheet at the same time the new updates drop. I'm just helping him sort out the list of keys and the public list of available games. This will save him a lot of time, so he'll be able to grant games far more quickly. An added benefit of this is that I will also have access to the list of keys, so if, heaven forbid, something were to happen to him, the keys wouldn't be lost.

To be fair, I almost never looked at OP list anyway. I just looked and "update" comments with list of games added. So the only thing, I would like to ask is to continue make those in the tread (this or new one). Other than that new rules look totally fine.

And, of course, thank you zeogold for upkeeping this awesome giveaway for such a long time. And my thanks to all donors, too!

New updates will continue the same way they currently do. The only difference is that the games in the new update will be added to the spreadsheet immediately following zeogold's update post. The only reason games in updates are not currently immediately added to the OP is because the OP has run out of space. My contributions will be behind the scenes, so you won't directly notice them, but they will lighten our Puzzlemaster's workload enough that he will be able to grant requests more quickly than he has been able to in the recent past.

The only real question is if we should continue using this thread or lock it and link it to a new, cleaner thread. I vote for the latter.

Thank you zeogold and finkleroy for taking the next step in maintaining this massive thread.

Just tossing in my 2¢. In the interest of fairness to those in different timezones, I suggest leaving the new games in the spreadsheet and not announcing in the new thread. An added benefit would be that the new thread would be "cleaner" as tomyam80 pointed out.

Thanks again zeogold and finkleroy!

Our Puzzlemaster mentioned that he intends to continue with the update announcement posts because forum regulars appear to prefer it to new games being slipped into the OP without any fanfare. If everyone states their preference, and it turns out that most people actually prefer to get rid of the update announcement posts, I'm sure he'll take that into consideration. Personally, I prefer the update announcement posts because there are so many games on the OP that it's hard to tell what's new.

I second this opinion and I approve the Google Sheets Doc if it cans help Zeo's work.

Aw, I guess I will ask next month then.

The online spreadsheet is good as you can change permission to edit.

New thread, keep old: I am alright with both but if you make a new one, please ask for locking this one.

What matters is in what month you made the request, not in what month it was granted. I'll likely be maintaining a list of requests from now on, so making a request likely won't add much to zeogold's workload.