Remove the jester award

[𝕷𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖍]

I really hate the "Jester" community award, because it is used purely as an insult. Nobody puts it on something because they think it's funny, it means one thing: You are a clown.

Basically this one award allows people to post insults directly into people's comments, even profiles, with no way to moderate or remove them because Steam insists that it's an award even though it's actually an insult.

This really just shouldn't exist. Every time it crops up it's used in a mean spirited way to disparage posts that people don't like. You can't even see who put it there so you can give them one too. It is effectively a way to bully people anonymously.

I'm not saying this because the clown picture hurts my feelings or anything. I just think that if people want to call someone a clown they should have to do it in their own post with their name on it, not be given the ability to do it anonymously in the other person's post.

The whole awards system is flawed and encourages bullying and trolling, dispute being a small simple cartoon clown it is always used to mean something more horrible. At first glance it is innocent and meant to be used for jokes but I think they knew what they were doing and what people would use it for. I will die happy the day it gets removed or the day they go bust because they get away with far far too much.

It basically allows people to anonymously write "Idiot" next to your name in a post and the system acts like they have done something positive. The only arguments anyone has why this is OK are "Not everyone knows what idiot means" and "This shouldn't bother you."

First of all, I need to give some context, I'm Bi (They/Them) who is 1/8th Native American and so have struggled with Difficulties my entire life. Been a Steam user for over 12 years, and PC gamer for longer than that. But I started to write Reviews after people told me I was good at Reviewing. So I started making them public on Steam. However, I got an e-mail today saying I got 7 community awards. Naturally, I asked what the heck I even did? It turns out, my negative Reviews on games which involve real discussions around accessibility and justice were given these awards. I've been feeling really tired and angry recently, I keep blanking out.

I want to ask some basic questions for whoever designed this Steam Awards system in the first place;

— Why are the Awards forced on a user's content?

If Steam claims to care about the creative nature of how a user wants their content to be displayed, how can they introduce something this anti-consumer in the first place?

— Why do we have no option to disable or not accept an award?

Isn't that the nature of an award in real life? I can understand having an award on either a review or a screenshot, etc., but for something like your main profile page that everyone sees as a first impression of you on Steam, how is it rational that you do not have an option to decline an award being given to you that gets to be seen by others and yourself on your page?

— Why are the awards that are given anonymous?

First of all, it's bad enough that if you have your profile as public any random troll can give you the Jester/Clown as a profile award, but now even if you have your profile privacy set to Friends Only, anyone of your friends can give you a profile award on your front page and you have no way of knowing who did this to you. At least let me know who did it so I can DELETE them from my friends list!!

Second of all, the amount of time that people spend on making their reviews and Steam profile look good is insane and here comes Steam with their genius idea to yet again take away agency from the user by having these forced awards show up. It almost feels like it was intended as an April Fools joke but we got it as a Christmas gift instead.

I don't care about the people who say to just deal with it and that it's not that big of a deal because it's not about that. It's about trolls harassing a user's content and having your choice being taken away of how you want your Steam to look. I personally don't want any awards to be shown because it's embarrassing and whoever anonymously gave me this award is purposefully just trying to make me look bad because now all that people see when they open my reviews or Steam page is a clown face, implying that I'm a clown or a loser and somehow this is not harassment according to Steam?

I know I'm not the only one complaining about this because there are already hundreds of forum posts on this on Reddit asking you to remove this awful award that is used for insulting and humiliating others. And if you're one of the people who actually claim Steam can just do whatever they want, you're sorely mistaken because we as a customer of their service still have some say in things and to just have this forced on us is unethical, completely anti-consumer, and I hope that it gets addressed and/or fixed soon.

The whole awards thing is kind of weird, but awards like "Wholesome" or "Gotta have it" or "Poetry" don't create a chilling effect on conversation. They should remove the awards altogether. Steam points should be a reward only for the purchaser, no one else. If someone wants to comment and applaud a post, artwork, etc. Saying so in a comment should be enough. Being able to anonymously post insults into people's posts serves absolutely no purpose other than to make people afraid to say things others will disagree with. it's a garbage feature that empowers bullies to bypass all accountability by being able to dole out insults in the form of "awards" that people aren't allowed to refuse. But in real life you can refuse an award but Steam does not understand what an award is.

I must admit that I have handed out Jesters (with maybe a negative intention), but I have always used Slow Clap as a genuine reward for progressive and helpful posts. The Jester is a toxic award and no one should be allowed to use it. It's time to ban people who use Jester. Give them a little time out from playing their games. There is no good argument for why people should be allowed to anonymously put insults into your posts or profile. It's all just people saying you shouldn't care.

I love Steam, but sometimes they make very poor decisions with their gimmicks and lack of common sense especially when it comes to long term ill effects on Mental Health when implementing non-essential Features

[סוויפטי]

all this post made me do is:

1.kick myself for not thinking of posting this first to get the jester awards
2. NOW I WANNA READ ALL THEMS revies!

[PootisMayo]

itzDerrio lähetti viestin:

i necro'd this topic, wheres my jester ?

It won’t ever come to you.

[Es0]

wtf

[Jawey]

itzDerrio lähetti viestin:

i necro'd this topic, wheres my jester ?

Don't worry, I'll hook you up. Enjoy.

[Bill Brassky]

a slow clap is worse

[Minuit]

Jesters awards are a jester thing. The jesters feel that jesters are fine (they don't think, they feel).

[Heraclius Caesar]

Kalounae lähetti viestin:

I really hate the "Jester" community award...

My goodness what a rant. It's not that deep, you'll be alright.

You should submit your post as a ticket to Steam Support and see what they have to say about it.

[Lunacy]

You're upset over an emoji with no meaning behind it
Instead what I see is free points

[Pscht]

Lunacy lähetti viestin:

You're upset over an emoji with no meaning behind it
Instead what I see is free points

What you clearly don't see is that OP fakes outrage to farm jesters, like so many others before.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kalounae/awards
44 jesters received, next on the list is 5 "hilarious" and 4 "extra helpful". That's not what normal forum use looks like.

For comparison, I have 25 jesters at the top (some of them from threads where a pissed off OP handed them out to everyone for every post), then 12 "extra helpful" and 9 "poetry".

[𝕷𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖍]

Pscht lähetti viestin:

Lunacy lähetti viestin:

You're upset over an emoji with no meaning behind it
Instead what I see is free points

What you clearly don't see is that OP fakes outrage to farm jesters, like so many others before.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kalounae/awards
44 jesters received, next on the list is 5 "hilarious" and 4 "extra helpful". That's not what normal forum use looks like.

For comparison, I have 25 jesters at the top (some of them from threads where a pissed off OP handed them out to everyone for every post), then 12 "extra helpful" and 9 "poetry".

At 100 I'll be the entire circus.
I wanted to thanks everyone, with your precious points I bought that beautiful rick n morty background.

[Heraclius Caesar]

Kalounae lähetti viestin:

Pscht lähetti viestin:

What you clearly don't see is that OP fakes outrage to farm jesters, like so many others before.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kalounae/awards
44 jesters received, next on the list is 5 "hilarious" and 4 "extra helpful". That's not what normal forum use looks like.

For comparison, I have 25 jesters at the top (some of them from threads where a pissed off OP handed them out to everyone for every post), then 12 "extra helpful" and 9 "poetry".

At 100 I'll be the entire circus.
I wanted to thanks everyone, with your precious points I bought that beautiful rick n morty background.

How much did it cost?

Would you say it was around.. 25 Schmeckles?

[RPG Gamer Man]

Kalounae lähetti viestin:

Pscht lähetti viestin:

What you clearly don't see is that OP fakes outrage to farm jesters, like so many others before.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/kalounae/awards
44 jesters received, next on the list is 5 "hilarious" and 4 "extra helpful". That's not what normal forum use looks like.

For comparison, I have 25 jesters at the top (some of them from threads where a pissed off OP handed them out to everyone for every post), then 12 "extra helpful" and 9 "poetry".

At 100 I'll be the entire circus.
I wanted to thanks everyone, with your precious points I bought that beautiful rick n morty background.

Will you have a elephant at your three ring circus?

[Tomomasa]

I agree OP and probably mentioned by others but I didn't read all the comments: there are lots of useless posts who disagree the majority opinion just to farm this award.

[Low Standards]

I welcome them. I would rather the unhinged post cute clowns than the stuff they say on these forums.

[itzDerrio]

PootisMayo lähetti viestin:

itzDerrio lähetti viestin:

i necro'd this topic, wheres my jester ?

It won’t ever come to you.

so are you always wrong or are you just a hater ? HA HA