Censorship on steam :: Off Topic

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MikiTheBerserkr 2 Oct @ 9:58am

Censorship on steam

I find it quite annoying how steam will ban you for weird reasons and then just refer you to community guidelines, which don't explain the ban at all and refuse any further explanation.

Recently in a comment I used a name of a website that's used to sell 18+ content, commonly referred to with a shortcut "OF". I wasn't advertising anything, I wasn't posting any links, I just said the word.
My account got locked within a few minutes, a bunch of unrelated comments and posts got deleted.
Steam support's response? They claim I was "promoting external commercial services", and warned me not to do that again. However you can say the names of other commercial services, like youtube or ebay, and it won't happen.

One time I named a certain squre (located in china) and a certain date. This is frowned upon by the chinese government, but I didn't think any company outside of china would be listening to the chinese authorities, helping them with their propaganda efforts... I was wrong, steam support banned me...

Another time I made a thread about a pvp gamemode, and some dude came just to say how pvp is bad, and pve is superior, so I replied to him that some people are not noobs, and need a challenge which they can't have against brainless, predictable opponents (AI)... And I got banned for abuse.
Can't even respond to someone who came to talk ♥♥♥♥ in your own thread. Insane.

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Showing 1-15 of 39 comments

Tito Shivan 2 Oct @ 10:02am

Originally posted by MikiTheBerserkr:
Recently in a comment I used a name of a website that's used to sell 18+ content,

Apparently they're quite picky lately with people even naming those adult sites.

Amaterasu 2 Oct @ 10:03am

So you basically violated the Community guidelines, several times... and are surprised you got moderated and are now calling it censorship?

MikiTheBerserkr 2 Oct @ 10:04am

Originally posted by Amaterasu:
So you basically violated the Community guidelines, several times... and are surprised you got moderated and are now calling it censorship?

Nice ragebait. Too bad I am not falling for it.

William Shakesman 2 Oct @ 10:06am

Valve takes a dim view of trash talk or any other sort of frank and direct discourse. It is a peculiar cultural choice and definitely a mismatch for the customer base of a site selling video games, whose culture quite obviously does not match such restrictions, but if one treats it as a game with its own rules to learn you can adapt the Steam preferred discourse with not too much trouble. Annoying to be sure but not insurmountable.

Last edited by William Shakesman; 2 Oct @ 10:07am

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 2 Oct @ 10:06am

Originally posted by MikiTheBerserkr:
Censorship on steam

I find it quite annoying how steam will ban you for weird reasons and then just refer you to community guidelines, which don't explain the ban at all and refuse any further explanation.

Recently in a comment I used a name of a website that's used to sell 18+ content, commonly referred to with a shortcut "OF". I wasn't advertising anything, I wasn't posting any links, I just said the word.
My account got locked within a few minutes, a bunch of unrelated comments and posts got deleted.
Steam support's response? They claim I was "promoting external commercial services", and warned me not to do that again. However you can say the names of other commercial services, like youtube or ebay, and it won't happen.

One time I named a certain squre (located in china) and a certain date. This is frowned upon by the chinese government, but I didn't think any company outside of china would be listening to the chinese authorities, helping them with their propaganda efforts... I was wrong, steam support banned me...

Another time I made a thread about a pvp gamemode, and some dude came just to say how pvp is bad, and pve is superior, so I replied to him that some people are not noobs, and need a challenge which they can't have against brainless, predictable opponents (AI)... And I got banned for abuse.
Can't even respond to someone who came to talk ♥♥♥♥ in your own thread. Insane.

Don't talk about adult sites on a platform for ages 13+.

Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam. China does not dictate what is or is not allowed on the global client/forums nor do they impose anything on what is or is not allowed to be said here.

Do not call people names, like brainless.

Amaterasu 2 Oct @ 10:08am

Originally posted by MikiTheBerserkr:
Originally posted by Amaterasu:
So you basically violated the Community guidelines, several times... and are surprised you got moderated and are now calling it censorship?
Nice ragebait. Too bad I am not falling for it.

If pointing out what happened is ragebait these days, we have truly fallen as a civilization.

Tito Shivan 2 Oct @ 10:08am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam.

Besides, 99.99% of the time that square is mentioned it's to troll.

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 2 Oct @ 10:09am

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:
Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam.
Besides, 99.99% of the time that square is mentioned it's to troll.

It is to incite arguments 100% of the time.

William Shakesman 2 Oct @ 10:11am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Originally posted by MikiTheBerserkr:
Censorship on steam

I find it quite annoying how steam will ban you for weird reasons and then just refer you to community guidelines, which don't explain the ban at all and refuse any further explanation.

Recently in a comment I used a name of a website that's used to sell 18+ content, commonly referred to with a shortcut "OF". I wasn't advertising anything, I wasn't posting any links, I just said the word.
My account got locked within a few minutes, a bunch of unrelated comments and posts got deleted.
Steam support's response? They claim I was "promoting external commercial services", and warned me not to do that again. However you can say the names of other commercial services, like youtube or ebay, and it won't happen.

One time I named a certain squre (located in china) and a certain date. This is frowned upon by the chinese government, but I didn't think any company outside of china would be listening to the chinese authorities, helping them with their propaganda efforts... I was wrong, steam support banned me...

Another time I made a thread about a pvp gamemode, and some dude came just to say how pvp is bad, and pve is superior, so I replied to him that some people are not noobs, and need a challenge which they can't have against brainless, predictable opponents (AI)... And I got banned for abuse.
Can't even respond to someone who came to talk ♥♥♥♥ in your own thread. Insane.

Don't talk about adult sites on a platform for ages 13+.

Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam. China does not dictate what is or is not allowed on the global client/forums nor do they impose anything on what is or is not allowed to be said here.

Do not call people names, like brainless.

:nkCool:

Given that entire unpleasantness was a foreign intelligence operation, I have some sympathy for the Chinese being so prickly about it. But I also have some sympathy the other side as well.

The politics rule was removed though so there ought to be no rule specifically forbidding it.

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 2 Oct @ 10:14am

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Don't talk about adult sites on a platform for ages 13+.

Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam. China does not dictate what is or is not allowed on the global client/forums nor do they impose anything on what is or is not allowed to be said here.

Do not call people names, like brainless.

Given that entire unpleasantness was a foreign intelligence operation, I have some sympathy for the Chinese being so prickly about it. But I also have some sympathy the other side as well.

The politics rule was removed though so there ought to be no rule specifically forbidding it.

It has nothing to do with Steam at all. It is also only used to incite arguments which is against the rules.

Valve tried to give the Chinese their own language sub-forum and China blocked the Steam Community back right after PUBG went 1.0, which meant the sub-forum was removed only days after it was added.

#10

MikiTheBerserkr 2 Oct @ 10:14am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about adult sites on a platform for ages 13+.

Rules don't mention that. Steam sells adult games. So locking an account and mass deleting unrelated comments is an insane reaction to this.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam.

This was related to the post I posted in.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Do not call people names, like brainless.

I clearly called AI brainless, because it literally is. Do you know what AI is? It's the thing you play against in PVE modes, as opposed to PVP when you play against real people with brains. I would guess steam support's reading comprehension is just as good as yours, except they refused to unban me, even after I pointed out to them, what my post meant.

#11

MikiTheBerserkr 2 Oct @ 10:16am

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Valve takes a dim view of trash talk or any other sort of frank and direct discourse. It is a peculiar cultural choice and definitely a mismatch for the customer base of a site selling video games, whose culture quite obviously does not match such restrictions, but if one treats it as a game with its own rules to learn you can adapt the Steam preferred discourse with not too much trouble. Annoying to be sure but not insurmountable.

I wouldn't say I can adapt, if I didn't see any of those bans coming.

#12

MikiTheBerserkr 2 Oct @ 10:18am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
It has nothing to do with Steam at all. It is also only used to incite arguments which is against the rules.

I wasn't trying to incite arguments, so it isn't only used for that.

#13

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 2 Oct @ 10:21am

Originally posted by MikiTheBerserkr:
Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about adult sites on a platform for ages 13+.
Rules don't mention that. Steam sells adult games. So locking an account and mass deleting unrelated comments is an insane reaction to this.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam.
This was related to the post I posted in.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Do not call people names, like brainless.
I clearly called AI brainless, because it literally is. Do you know what AI is? It's the thing you play against in PVE modes, as opposed to PVP when you play against real people with brains. I would guess steam support's reading comprehension is just as good as yours, except they refused to unban me, even after I pointed out to them, what my post meant.

As a user, you are bound to different sets of rules than Steamworks partners. It was "Bypassing Steam's Mature Content Preferences."

Doesn't matter. It is not related to Steam.

There is more to the name calling than you mentioned here and AI was never specified in your original post.

#14

William Shakesman 2 Oct @ 10:23am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Given that entire unpleasantness was a foreign intelligence operation, I have some sympathy for the Chinese being so prickly about it. But I also have some sympathy the other side as well.

The politics rule was removed though so there ought to be no rule specifically forbidding it.

It has nothing to do with Steam at all. It is also only used to incite arguments which is against the rules.

Valve tried to give the Chinese their own language sub-forum and China blocked the Steam Community back right after PUBG went 1.0, which meant the sub-forum was removed only days after it was added.

:nkCool:

A quick search is enough to show that Valve does moderate in that manner. As I must remind you, you are not a Valve employee and thus do not have any particular knowledge of their processes beyond what we can observe.

That said, if there WERE an authoritative source that could provide these answers, it clearly would help OP.

Originally posted by MikiTheBerserkr:
Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about adult sites on a platform for ages 13+.
Rules don't mention that. Steam sells adult games. So locking an account and mass deleting unrelated comments is an insane reaction to this.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Don't talk about the Square incident, period. This has nothing to do with anything on Steam.
This was related to the post I posted in.

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Do not call people names, like brainless.
I clearly called AI brainless, because it literally is. Do you know what AI is? It's the thing you play against in PVE modes, as opposed to PVP when you play against real people with brains. I would guess steam support's reading comprehension is just as good as yours, except they refused to unban me, even after I pointed out to them, what my post meant.

Valve moderation tends to delete any comments in a chain of a deleted post. Of course, if the dev appointed game hub mods acted, anything could have happened.