Telika: snip What I am attempting to point out is that
"giveaway threads" is not a valid category. "Giveaway threads" are seldom "just giveaways". They are often the regular, social, forum threads (questions, contests, puzzles), with an added gift.
snip I'm not so sure this is indeed the case in most giveaway cases.
I've taken part in a handful of giveaways and I do find the ones that require or trigger some more interaction than "I'm in, +1" more interesting.
I usually check out the ones by HMDK because of the way he words the titles - it intrigues me to find out more about the context and what games it's about (usually not obvious from the titles), even if I have no intention to take part in it.
The one hold by JMich for his 1000 rep milestone was an interesting and I did read through it.
I wouldn't have checked the one K_1269 currently holds if you hadn't pointed out its context - I never noticed it simply because of its generic title.
There may be a few more examples that support your view, but I have to mostly agree with gooberking (post #101) about the majority of them not offering much of interaction or content.
Even the "Ninja Giveaway" thread was (to my big surprise, as I never bothered to check this before) started by wpegg within a completely different context than the one it's being run these days
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the context and content of most giveaways don't seem to support your view.
I don't know what the perfect solution is or if there even is one, but truth is it can be overwhelming at times to visit the General discussion forum only to be faced with a long list of giveaway threads by the same person.
I usually try to just move on - because "one man's scrap, another man's gold". But I can understand that it might not be as easy for other members to do the same.