The developer can set up the forums (except for one subforum) like that if they so wish. It's already a thing.

Developers have the option to make all but one of their sub forums owner only.

People who don't own the game should be allowed to post and ask questions and the like.

Refusing to let non-game owners discuss a game is a really bad business practice that objectively hurts sales so not many devs are silly enough to restrict the general discussions.

The Devs can close all but a single category to owners-only, if they want to.

Already a thing. devs have that power.

Not every game forum is like that.

Originally posted by datCookie:

Developers have the option to make all but one of their sub forums owner only.

People who don't own the game should be allowed to post and ask questions and the like.

Except it not like that, almost all forums are a disaster. and the off-topic or nonsensical posts always come from people who don’t have said game on steam in their account

Originally posted by Creeper of Doom:

Make it where only people who have a specific Steam game in their library can post it’s discussions page.

And have it as read only for people who don’t have it in their library.

Anti sign. It is a bad idea to disallow prospective buyers from asking a question. Non owners can have legitimate concerns such as "Can my rig run this game?"

Agreed, all game forums should be restricted to owners only.

Many do that already.

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Many do that already.

And they are generally dead echo chambers.

Perhaps I should revive a gimmick I had from GameFAQs where I go around claiming dead boards as my own.

Originally posted by gwwak:

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:

Many do that already.

And they are generally dead echo chambers.

Perhaps I should revive a gimmick I had from GameFAQs where I go around claiming dead boards as my own.

Quantity of discussions is not the same as quality.

Originally posted by Amaterasu:

Originally posted by gwwak:

And they are generally dead echo chambers.

Perhaps I should revive a gimmick I had from GameFAQs where I go around claiming dead boards as my own.

Quantity of discussions is not the same as quality.

It is a multiplicative function actually. You need both quantity and quality. No posts is like multiplying by zero. You get zero at the end.

A dead board is essentially worthless for general users, but it holds value to board hunters and for those who want a secret hideout in plain sight.

Originally posted by gwwak:

Originally posted by Amaterasu:

Quantity of discussions is not the same as quality.

It is a multiplicative function actually. You need both quantity and quality. No posts is like multiplying by zero. You get zero at the end.

A dead board is essentially worthless for general users, but it holds value to board hunters and for those who want a secret hideout in plain sight.

And the state of Steam's boards are why most people are going to places like discord to foster communities.

Here's the thing people like yourself don't understand, most devs aren't against criticism. Saying, "Doing X hinders your game in this way, if you do Y instead, it'll help it" is criticism. Saying, "SBI! DEAD GAME! WOKE SLOP!" is not criticism, it's spam. Devs are against spam.

Originally posted by Amaterasu:

Originally posted by gwwak:

It is a multiplicative function actually. You need both quantity and quality. No posts is like multiplying by zero. You get zero at the end.

A dead board is essentially worthless for general users, but it holds value to board hunters and for those who want a secret hideout in plain sight.

And the state of Steam's boards are why most people are going to places like discord to foster communities.

Here's the thing people like yourself don't understand, most devs aren't against criticism. Saying, "Doing X hinders your game in this way, if you do Y instead, it'll help it" is criticism. Saying, "SBI! DEAD GAME! WOKE SLOP!" is not criticism, it's spam. Devs are against spam.

Devs still make announcements here. Same can't be said about the dead irrelevant website known as GameFAQs lol.

You also got a dead game like Ship of Heroes activating their echo chamber from the angry users disappointed at an overpriced and bad game. The mostly negative reviews and the overall general lack of reviews is an indicator of that game being dead on arrival.

Nothing wrong with users pointing out SBI or the presence of political nonsense in a game. There are a lot of normal people out there tired of politics being shoved into everything. Normies who just want to be entertained, not lectured to by a bunch of activists looking down on them from their moral high ground.