Goodbye (from all volunteer Steam moderators)

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KillahInstinct 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:57am

Goodbye (from all volunteer Steam moderators)

We, the volunteer Steam moderators, are being retired starting tomorrow.

What started as a fairly small company with less than 1 million users on the old forums (SPUF), and a tight knit community, comes to an end on the 'new' forums - more akin to the size of Twitter and in no way comparable.

It was a long time coming, we were never really able to keep up with all the reports and help was needed. Valve added paid moderators along the way and outsourced it like they did with Steam Support, which at this scale (sadly) is the only way to moderate. Valve feels confident that the path forward is solely with paid moderators they feel they must retire the volunteer moderation program and thanked us for our services. Each game is also still free to have their own moderators.

We acted as a liaison already in most recent years, albeit most of us where already retired or simply plain inactive, as employees left and changed and the way Valve undertakes things did to.

On the bright side, at least there won't be any complaints about who handed out a ban anymore, although I have already seen conspiracies that we are actually Support agents too ;)

We want to thank all of you for your support and the trust you put in us to moderate this platform and make things better for everyone, and the help we were able to provide as a result. We all have some unforgettable moments we will carry with us and will still be providing feedback to moderators and other hubs.

Last edited by KillahInstinct; 2 Jun, 2022 @ 12:46pm

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Showing 1-15 of 1,844 comments

KillahInstinct 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:36am

Moved the post to main account as I will be retiring this one too.

Last edited by KillahInstinct; 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:58am

B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:38am

Thank you and all the others for the great work, sad that this is going to happen. It's a great loss to the Steam community.

Last edited by B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t; 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:38am

Vault Hunter 101 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:39am

I'mma say what every forum regular on Steam thinks right now,

♥♥♥♥ VALVE, ur steam support moderators are trash.

And from personal note I will miss all the good mods that actually cared about the forums and community and weren't acting like robots just to get their paycheck

ianskate 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:41am

Also, thanks for all the help you as an active community have provided us. It was also incredibly helpful to have a steady flow of spam/scam links shared with us, and beyond.

Definitely couldn't have stopped many things (at least as quickly) without your frequent profile reports and messages.

Last edited by ianskate; 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:45am

B-o-B 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:43am

Those of us that knew, knew.
A loss to the community.
Thanks.

B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:43am

Originally posted by ianskate:
Also, thanks for all the help you as an active community have provided. It was also incredibly helpful to have a steady flow of spam/scam links and beyond.

Ian, you were one of the best to act upon scams and bad links super fast, thank you.

KillahInstinct 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:44am

Originally posted by ianskate:
Also, thanks for all the help you as an active community have provided. It was also incredibly helpful to have a steady flow of spam/scam links and beyond.

Yeah it was great to be able to help people individually, but also when larger or more structural issues came into play.

C²C^Guyver |NZB| 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:47am

You guys will be missed...the 6-7 mods I have as friends go back to the DoD:S days.

✨Saint✨ 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:48am

I have always, and probably always will, see you people as the real "pillars of the community".

It is said, that you only miss things when they are really gone, and I am sure you will be missed.

To you and all the volunteers, thank you for all those years of service, thank you for making Steam a better place.

Froggy 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:49am

It's a damn shame.
For all the work you've done. For all the guidance you've given. And now this. How on earth did they think this would be a good idea? As others has already said. Support as they are now, are barely able to read and comprehend simple sentences, and all they have is copy+paste responses that's only accurate once in a blue moon because they only bothered to read the first sentence.

They've got the speed up, but they lost the quality completely. Frankly, I'd rather wait to get the help I need, rather than get a quick response that doesn't answer anything and then have the ticket locked, and forced to make a new one to only just rinse and repeat the cycle.

#10

ianskate 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:53am

To be fair, the community is quite helpful as it is, and a lot of people are always there to provide assistance. Of course, beyond spamming/bans/locking/deleting what have you, there isn't much missing overall, at least not anymore.

We were more intended to be liaisons as of late, and providing info in that way can be done via Support ticket much faster.

Last edited by ianskate; 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:54am

#11