Why is "+1" classed as spam on Steam?

[simon]

Why is "+1" viewed as spam and against Steam posting rules? Its technically not spam and is commonly used in internet forums to indicate agreement.


https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

"General Rules

Do not do any of the following:

Post spam (i.e. +1, 10char, rickrolls) or Re-post Closed, Modified, Deleted Content"


https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%2B1


"Top definition
+1
1.) A post in a forum/message board that indicates the person agrees with a previous or quoted reply to a thread.

2.) Shorthand for "My thoughts exactly" or "me too".
Joe posts: "Urbandictionary.com is a great site for learning forum speak."

Floe responds: "+1"

[ReBoot]

Originalmente postado por simon:

Originalmente postado por ReBoot:

Not really. In a poll, yes. But in a discussion, that doesn't add anything. Why not saying "I agree" and then adding something?

An example would be confirming a fact as correct. If two people are discussing about how many inches in a foot and one says 11 and one says 12 (simplistic example i know) you don't need to explain why the one that says 12 is correct. Its a fact and doesn't not require an explanation as to why its correct. The same as responding to a post you find funny by quoting it and just commenting with ROFL. You found the post funny and should not have to explain why you find it funny.

For me the langue in forums is informal and abbreviation is a useful tool and of all the things to have a rule about +1 seems very trivial and not that useful. For me the use of words like toxic, white night and fanboy are much worse as they are used as insults and to shut down opinions.

Posting funny stuff for everyone to enjoy still isn't discussing. But even in such jokes thread, both +1 and ROFL suck because having to dig through hundreds of posts to get a dozen or so jokes sucks.

[Yasahi]

Originalmente postado por simon:

The same as responding to a post you find funny by quoting it and just commenting with ROFL. You found the post funny and should not have to explain why you find it funny.

What does quoting and typing ROFL add to the discussion? Nothing, that's nothing but spam. This forum is more about discussions. If you want to just "vote" how good or bad something is, other platforms are more focused on that.

[simon]

Originalmente postado por ReBoot:

Originalmente postado por simon:

An example would be confirming a fact as correct. If two people are discussing about how many inches in a foot and one says 11 and one says 12 (simplistic example i know) you don't need to explain why the one that says 12 is correct. Its a fact and doesn't not require an explanation as to why its correct. The same as responding to a post you find funny by quoting it and just commenting with ROFL. You found the post funny and should not have to explain why you find it funny.

For me the langue in forums is informal and abbreviation is a useful tool and of all the things to have a rule about +1 seems very trivial and not that useful. For me the use of words like toxic, white night and fanboy are much worse as they are used as insults and to shut down opinions.

Posting funny stuff for everyone to enjoy still isn't discussing. But even in such jokes thread, both +1 and ROFL suck because having to dig through hundreds of posts to get a dozen or so jokes sucks.

Originalmente postado por Yasahi:

Originalmente postado por simon:

The same as responding to a post you find funny by quoting it and just commenting with ROFL. You found the post funny and should not have to explain why you find it funny.

What does quoting and typing ROFL add to the discussion? Nothing, that's nothing but spam. This forum is more about discussions. If you want to just "vote" how good or bad something is, other platforms are more focused on that.

Thats fair enough, I guess we have a slightly different interpretation of how to post in forums. They may be labelled as "discussion" forums but there is a social aspect to them and not every thing posted has to be discussion. Some socialising is going to come into it especially when the same people use the same forums and know each other on some level.

[ReBoot]

Originalmente postado por simon:

Originalmente postado por ReBoot:

Posting funny stuff for everyone to enjoy still isn't discussing. But even in such jokes thread, both +1 and ROFL suck because having to dig through hundreds of posts to get a dozen or so jokes sucks.

Originalmente postado por Yasahi:

What does quoting and typing ROFL add to the discussion? Nothing, that's nothing but spam. This forum is more about discussions. If you want to just "vote" how good or bad something is, other platforms are more focused on that.

Thats fair enough, I guess we have a slightly different interpretation of how to post in forums. They may be labelled as "discussion" forums but there is a social aspect to them and not every thing posted has to be discussion. Some socialising is going to come into it especially when the same people use the same forums and know each other on some level.

Hundreds of people posting +1 isn't socializing either, to be honest. That's not interacting, not communicating. The only social aspect is one singular opinion. Hardly a foundation for a friendship or really any firm of actual social contapct.

There's counterexamples. Take the humor threads on the Code project forum, people there take jokes told and continue them, alter them, make new jokes or say something otherwise interesting. That's way more social to participate and amusing to read.

Imagine you're meeting someone in a bar. "I like gin" "me too" would be a boring friendship (and still a boring date). Why not building upon it towards a conversation?

[Lunacy]

Originalmente postado por KillahInstinct:

Originalmente postado por sir Evans:

If such amount of feedback is useless... well.

Keyword: basically. It doesn't add anything meaningful to the idea, nor does 10k people make an idea more (or less) valid than 1 person.

That said, it's generally only enforced in pure spam topics. Simply voicing support for an idea isn't really unconstructive afterall.

It may not add anything, but if a thread has over 10k posts of +1 to agree with OP that valve messed something up, then it should be a wakeup call

It's not just two unicode characters
it's a statement, saying they fully agree with the OP and thread topic and something should be done or changed to better the platform

[Satoru]

Originalmente postado por Lunacy:

Originalmente postado por KillahInstinct:

Keyword: basically. It doesn't add anything meaningful to the idea, nor does 10k people make an idea more (or less) valid than 1 person.

That said, it's generally only enforced in pure spam topics. Simply voicing support for an idea isn't really unconstructive afterall.

It may not add anything, but if a thread has over 10k posts of +1 to agree with OP that valve messed something up, then it should be a wakeup call

It's not just two unicode characters
it's a statement, saying they fully agree with the OP and thread topic and something should be done or changed to better the platform

Its not actually a stament as its functionally says nothing and its lazy bandwagoning.

Note that 'lets allow more worthless spam' does not make the platform 'better'

[Walach]

I always saw it as how someone might vote in an election. You don't really do anything other than add one to the number of votes for one party. And voting is miles more important than a thread on a forum.

Or am I simplifying it to much? Not the first time if that's the case. :P

[Arkham99]

nice to see that vALVE sees it for the spam that it is... some likely even go through the trouble of posting "+1" multiple times with different accounts in a pathetic attempt at making it look like their opinion is more popular than it really is... as for the ROFL, etc., don't even get me started on today's definition of what vocabulary is... talk about freakin' "lazy"...:-)

[Yasahi]

Originalmente postado por Walach:

I always saw it as how someone might vote in an election. You don't really do anything other than add one to the number of votes for one party. And voting is miles more important than a thread on a forum.

Or am I simplifying it to much? Not the first time if that's the case. :P

And what are you voting for on a privately owned forum? Just because someone made a thread and you go and drop your useless +1 does not mean that you're actually voting. Those elections you used in your example have actual laws behind them, giving the vote some actual meaning. There's nothing binding Valve to "votes" on the forum.

Originalmente postado por Lunacy:

It may not add anything, but if a thread has over 10k posts of +1 to agree with OP that valve messed something up, then it should be a wakeup call

It's not just two unicode characters
it's a statement, saying they fully agree with the OP and thread topic and something should be done or changed to better the platform

Steam averages a peak of 14+ million concurrent users daily. Your thread of 10k posts means statistically nothing. Especially when such threads have multiple posts from the same people. You would need to count only unique accounts and have a proper way of removing any alt-accounts. Even then it would be questionable and really not something anyone who does polling for real would use.

[Makkenhoff]

Steam often relies on user input for ideas about how to solve particular problems (sometimes a user will see a problem the UX dev didn't see, and even come up with a suggestion that is workable.) a plus one (+1) doesn't really give them anything more to work with, if the original poster's solution was unworkable or too expensive in development time.

[AustrAlien2010]

Because it pushes other topics away, down the list, for the purpose of stating +1 without adding to the discussion.

[Lunacy]

Originalmente postado por Yasahi:

Originalmente postado por Lunacy:

It may not add anything, but if a thread has over 10k posts of +1 to agree with OP that valve messed something up, then it should be a wakeup call

It's not just two unicode characters
it's a statement, saying they fully agree with the OP and thread topic and something should be done or changed to better the platform

Steam averages a peak of 14+ million concurrent users daily. Your thread of 10k posts means statistically nothing. Especially when such threads have multiple posts from the same people.

You gotta compare it to the average, not the total.
That's like saying Steam is small, nothing, and worthless because there are 7 billion people in the world.

[Yasahi]

Originalmente postado por Lunacy:

Originalmente postado por Yasahi:

Steam averages a peak of 14+ million concurrent users daily. Your thread of 10k posts means statistically nothing. Especially when such threads have multiple posts from the same people.

You gotta compare it to the average, not the total.
That's like saying Steam is small, nothing, and worthless because there are 7 billion people in the world.

Now you're comparing two totally different things. Steam has nothing to do with the population of Earth. The amount of concurrent Steam users has everything to do when thinking about how representative a small number of Steam users voicing their opinion are.

You might also want to expand on this "comparing to the average" idea. What average do you mean? The average size of threads on the forum? The average number of unique weekly posters on the forum? The number of temper tantrums thrown by supposed adults on the forum compared to a week when no updates or sales are active?

[B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t]

Because it adds absolutely nothing to the topic at hand and pushes other topics down.

[Draconifors]

I'll admit I was surprised when I saw that particular thing was classified as spam. Not something I'd ever post myself -- if I want to support or agree with something I am more than capable of voicing it properly -- but I do see it quite a lot.