Excessive and unreasonable response from Steam moderators

[Geebanger0]

I was trying to add someone who played TF2 so they could have some of my spare cases. Before adding them, I left a comment to let them know why I was adding them, since that's a polite thing to do.

My comment was short and to the point. One word in that comment was apparently not allowed. It was a harmless, ordinary word, but it got picked up by the filters. This meant my comment was marked as "suspicious behaviour", and my account was suspected of having been stolen by a bad actor.


What happened in response to this?

-My entire account got locked immediately, for 12 hours, right in the middle of the weekend, the only time I have to play anything with my friends.

-I could not message any of my friends on Steam or view their profiles.

-I could not play the majority of my games, even some singleplayer ones.

-I could not edit my profile.

-I could not edit or save any of my guides or workshop mods, including the guide I was midway through writing when my account got locked, which resulted in some of it being lost.

-Every comment and post I'd made in the last week was deleted, including comments on my own profile and mods that I had left to help other users, and some discussions on the forums I'd made which were still active.

-My account was marked as private and nobody else could view it.


All of this, because of a single word in a single comment. Any normal person would've read it, known immediately that it wasn't suspicious behaviour, and know that I was safe. But Steam apparently decided it was appropriate to completely lock my account and prevent me from using the platform without having a person verify the decision beforehand.

Simple put, this is not fair, not reasonable, and not appropriate for the situation. Users should not be losing access to their entire account because an automated filter detects one instance of 'suspicious' behaviour from them.

Not to mention, the supposed rule I broke isn't even covered in Steams own rules. All I was trying to do was give another player some items (TF2 items nonetheless, from Valves own game!).

Some of the consequences don't even make sense. Even if my account had been stolen, how would removing all my comments from the last week benefit anybody? Would it not make sense to review these before deletion? All of them were completely fine and normal. I was helping other users and having discussions, and now all of that is just gone.

And why is it that in these instances Steam goes all out, whereas there's zero response whatsoever to actual rule breakers? Bot accounts that farm awards on every update announcement page, users who steal and repost thousands of artworks and claim them as their own, or users making dozens of alt accounts to spam advertisements week after week. All of this goes unpunished, whereas I lose my entire account for the day over a single harmless word.

I like Steam as a platform, but their moderation procedures are by far the most worthless, anti user and poorly thought out of any platform I've ever engaged with. This is not the first time Steam support has demonstrated an unbelievable level of incompetence towards me (they have quite literally banned me for no reason in the past, and have removed the ban as soon as I asked why it was applied), and something needs to change.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

Excessive and unreasonable response from Steam moderators

I was trying to add someone who played TF2 so they could have some of my spare cases. Before adding them, I left a comment to let them know why I was adding them, since that's a polite thing to do.

My comment was short and to the point. One word in that comment was apparently not allowed. It was a harmless, ordinary word, but it got picked up by the filters. This meant my comment was marked as "suspicious behaviour", and my account was suspected of having been stolen by a bad actor.


What happened in response to this?

-My entire account got locked immediately, for 12 hours, right in the middle of the weekend, the only time I have to play anything with my friends.

-I could not message any of my friends on Steam or view their profiles.

-I could not play the majority of my games, even some singleplayer ones.

-I could not edit my profile.

-I could not edit or save any of my guides or workshop mods, including the guide I was midway through writing when my account got locked, which resulted in some of it being lost.

-Every comment and post I'd made in the last week was deleted, including comments on my own profile and mods that I had left to help other users, and some discussions on the forums I'd made which were still active.

-My account was marked as private and nobody else could view it.


All of this, because of a single word in a single comment. Any normal person would've read it, known immediately that it wasn't suspicious behaviour, and know that I was safe. But Steam apparently decided it was appropriate to completely lock my account and prevent me from using the platform without having a person verify the decision beforehand.

Simple put, this is not fair, not reasonable, and not appropriate for the situation. Users should not be losing access to their entire account because an automated filter detects one instance of 'suspicious' behaviour from them.

Not to mention, the supposed rule I broke isn't even covered in Steams own rules. All I was trying to do was give another player some items (TF2 items nonetheless, from Valves own game!).

Some of the consequences don't even make sense. Even if my account had been stolen, how would removing all my comments from the last week benefit anybody? Would it not make sense to review these before deletion? All of them were completely fine and normal. I was helping other users and having discussions, and now all of that is just gone.

And why is it that in these instances Steam goes all out, whereas there's zero response whatsoever to actual rule breakers? Bot accounts that farm awards on every update announcement page, users who steal and repost thousands of artworks and claim them as their own, or users making dozens of alt accounts to spam advertisements week after week. All of this goes unpunished, whereas I lose my entire account for the day over a single harmless word.

I like Steam as a platform, but their moderation procedures are by far the most worthless, anti user and poorly thought out of any platform I've ever engaged with. This is not the first time Steam support has demonstrated an unbelievable level of incompetence towards me (they have quite literally banned me for no reason in the past, and have removed the ban as soon as I asked why it was applied), and something needs to change.

What was the word?

I want to test this myself.

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: cSg|mc-Hotsauce

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

Excessive and unreasonable response from Steam moderators

I was trying to add someone who played TF2 so they could have some of my spare cases. Before adding them, I left a comment to let them know why I was adding them, since that's a polite thing to do.

My comment was short and to the point. One word in that comment was apparently not allowed. It was a harmless, ordinary word, but it got picked up by the filters. This meant my comment was marked as "suspicious behaviour", and my account was suspected of having been stolen by a bad actor.


What happened in response to this?

-My entire account got locked immediately, for 12 hours, right in the middle of the weekend, the only time I have to play anything with my friends.

-I could not message any of my friends on Steam or view their profiles.

-I could not play the majority of my games, even some singleplayer ones.

-I could not edit my profile.

-I could not edit or save any of my guides or workshop mods, including the guide I was midway through writing when my account got locked, which resulted in some of it being lost.

-Every comment and post I'd made in the last week was deleted, including comments on my own profile and mods that I had left to help other users, and some discussions on the forums I'd made which were still active.

-My account was marked as private and nobody else could view it.


All of this, because of a single word in a single comment. Any normal person would've read it, known immediately that it wasn't suspicious behaviour, and know that I was safe. But Steam apparently decided it was appropriate to completely lock my account and prevent me from using the platform without having a person verify the decision beforehand.

Simple put, this is not fair, not reasonable, and not appropriate for the situation. Users should not be losing access to their entire account because an automated filter detects one instance of 'suspicious' behaviour from them.

Not to mention, the supposed rule I broke isn't even covered in Steams own rules. All I was trying to do was give another player some items (TF2 items nonetheless, from Valves own game!).

Some of the consequences don't even make sense. Even if my account had been stolen, how would removing all my comments from the last week benefit anybody? Would it not make sense to review these before deletion? All of them were completely fine and normal. I was helping other users and having discussions, and now all of that is just gone.

And why is it that in these instances Steam goes all out, whereas there's zero response whatsoever to actual rule breakers? Bot accounts that farm awards on every update announcement page, users who steal and repost thousands of artworks and claim them as their own, or users making dozens of alt accounts to spam advertisements week after week. All of this goes unpunished, whereas I lose my entire account for the day over a single harmless word.

I like Steam as a platform, but their moderation procedures are by far the most worthless, anti user and poorly thought out of any platform I've ever engaged with. This is not the first time Steam support has demonstrated an unbelievable level of incompetence towards me (they have quite literally banned me for no reason in the past, and have removed the ban as soon as I asked why it was applied), and something needs to change.

What was the word?

I want to test this myself.

:nkCool:

I was told by steam support not to make any more comments with it or else I'd get banned again, so I avoided saying it in the post itself. If you want to add me I'll tell you, but I'm not saying it here to avoid giving them any reason to ban me again.

[Ben Lubar]

So you posted a word that Steam associates strongly with scammers to the point where they put it in an automated spam filter and were surprised when that resulted in the automated spam filter triggering?

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: Ben Lubar

So you posted a word that Steam associates strongly with scammers to the point where they put it in an automated spam filter and were surprised when that resulted in the automated spam filter triggering?

No, I posted a normal word in a normal context, completely unaware that it would be considered ban worthy.

It's not like I was leaving links to scam sites in peoples comment sections, or using those copy paste "i accidentally reported you" messages. It was a completely ordinary sentence.

And even if something like that triggers the autofilter (which it absolutely shouldn't) then it should still be manually reviewed to prevent false positives.

If it's a true positive, they should look for any other instances of similar behaviour before resorting to locking the account. Maybe if you trigger the autofilter and then get reported for attempted scamming shortly after, or if you trigger the filter multiple times across a couple of identical comments.

In the end, if an account does need to be locked, just disable trading and posting comments. That mitigates 99% of the damage that can be done by someone when they steal your account.

What they SHOULDN'T do is immediately lock my account, delete all my posts and comments from the last week (which has completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over heaps of discussions I was having with people, literally what benefit would deleting a weeks worth of my comments have???), and prevent me from playing singleplayer games.

[Chika Ogiue]

Methinks there is far more to this story than you're telling.

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: Chika Ogiue

Methinks there is far more to this story than you're telling.

Alright, what do you wanna know?

[Ben Lubar]

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

Автор сообщения: Ben Lubar

So you posted a word that Steam associates strongly with scammers to the point where they put it in an automated spam filter and were surprised when that resulted in the automated spam filter triggering?

No, I posted a normal word in a normal context, completely unaware that it would be considered ban worthy.

Considering this is the only thread I've ever seen on this subject, I'd say the word was probably not a commonly used one.

[Chika Ogiue]

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

Alright, what do you wanna know?

The full story. I think that was pretty obvious. Look at it from an outsider's point of view. You post a "normal word" in "normal context" and suddenly Steam support treat you like a criminal? It's, frankly, preposterous.

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: Chika Ogiue

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

Alright, what do you wanna know?

The full story. I think that was pretty obvious. Look at it from an outsider's point of view. You post a "normal word" in "normal context" and suddenly Steam support treat you like a criminal? It's, frankly, preposterous.

I found this older thread that explains the issue I had
https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/1bjrfb0/psa_avoid_saying_the_words_buy_sell_or_pro_in/

All the words the post identifies as ban worthy are normal words. Even in the context of the post, the word is being used in a normal manner. Asking someone to hold an item for you so you can get it later is a normal thing to do. Anybody could read that and see that the person posting it hasn't had they account stolen.

It's very similar to what happened to me. I left a comment saying I was adding the guy because I had some items he might want, and my account gets locked. That's all it was.

You're absolutely right, it is preposterous. Which is why I'm so pissed that it happened. Steam support has done these sorts of things to me many times over the years. As another example, which I mentioned in my post, I've been banned before for doing nothing. I was hit with a 3 day community ban for a post where I suggested the creation of an achievement help megathread in the L4D2 forums (which would hopefully help to reduce the amount of new threads asking for help). After I received the ban, I took a look through the code of conduct support sent me and, surprise, not a single thing in there was related to what I did. I told them what I'd done hadn't broken any of their rules, and the support worker who replied apologised, said I was right, and removed the ban. I was given a ban for no reason. I know this, because Steam support is normally keen on keeping people banned so long as they have the tiniest bit of justification for it. If they removed my ban, it meant even they could see they had zero basis for it.



I know the default response to these sort of threads (particularly those related to VAC bans) is "OP is wrong/a liar and got what they deserved, enjoy your ban buddy", but what I've said so far is quite literally all that happened. If I'd truly done anything more than that, then I would still be banned right now. The ban was applied at 7:31PM last night, and removed at 9:08AM this morning, that wouldn't happen if I'd actually broken any rules.

By the way, this is the message I got when they deleted all my posts and comments from the last week.


"Community content has been removed
Content you have posted has been removed by a member of Steam Support for violations of the Steam Community & Content Guidelines.

Community Content Removed:
Comments

Please review the Community & Content Guidelines.

If you believe this item has been removed by mistake, please contact Steam Support."


Yes, a full weeks worth of comments was removed. I use the forums almost every day; excluding my comments in this thread, my next most recent comment is from February 15, 1:10PM. Everything else since then is gone. Posts on the forums, comments on my profile and mods offering solutions to people for their mod problems, and the discussions I'd been having with other people, all of it's gone with no true reasons given as to why.

I did exactly what the message said to do and I contacted Steam Support, but I've got no reply back as of yet.

Hopefully all of that is enough to convince you I'm being honest here. I'm not sure what else I can provide as proof of what happened.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

A community ban for something like what they thought was not allowed does also remove posts you made for X amount of days. An extreme preventative measure that is unfortunately not something they can reverse and those pists will remain deleted.

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: cSg|mc-Hotsauce

A community ban for something like what they thought was not allowed does also remove posts you made for X amount of days. An extreme preventative measure that is unfortunately not something they can reverse and those pists will remain deleted.

:nkCool:

Why bother saying to contact support if they were removed by mistake?

I agree, it's very extreme and completely unnecessary. They were all ordinary posts/comments, it makes no sense to remove them.

[Chika Ogiue]

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

All the words the post identifies as ban worthy are normal words.

Normal words used in a very specific and highly prevalent manner to scam people. A manner you apparently appeared to also be using them in--even if not your intent. Are you really surprised that a post that looks like an attempt to scam is going to be treated like a scam?

It sucks if you were innocent, but look at it from Valve's point of view. Thousands of users are scammed daily. Attempts to educate users into not falling for these scams has consistently failed. That leaves Valve having to find other ways to reduce the number of scammed accounts. Aggressively removing content that appears to be scam-like in nature has, unfortunately, become a necessity. Always remember that Valve reserve the right to remove UGC (including forum posts) for any reason at any time.

However, I agree with you that the comment on contacting support in case of a mistake is out of touch. Valve know that their out-sourced support agents lack the tools to actually make any real reversions in such cases.

[Pocahawtness]

The one thing I have noticed is that many Steam "moderator" actions are now Steam Bots. The Bots are pretty stupid and often assume the wrong thing. If you want to appeal then you have to contact CS.

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: Chika Ogiue

Автор сообщения: Geebanger0

All the words the post identifies as ban worthy are normal words.

Normal words used in a very specific and highly prevalent manner to scam people. A manner you apparently appeared to also be using them in--even if not your intent. Are you really surprised that a post that looks like an attempt to scam is going to be treated like a scam?

I have no problem with posts that look like scams getting removed, but what I said didn't look like a scam. I just said I added him because I had bulk cases for him.

This is the root of the issue. Any human moderator could look at that and see "ok, this guy probably just wants to trade items". But because it contained one word that could possibly in some cases be used in scam attempts (not that I could've ever known that since there's no list/it's not mentioned in the rules/the rules are deliberately vague/steam support refuses to properly explain the rules when you ask them), then the filter picks up on it and borderline prevents me from accessing steam. No second verification required, no further evidence needed, if you say anything that a scammer has also said in the past we immediately shut you down.

Автор сообщения: Chika Ogiue

Always remember that Valve reserve the right to remove UGC (including forum posts) for any reason at any time.

They also reserve the right to delete peoples accounts and wipe their virtual inventories for any reason at any time. If they started doing that, do you expect people to just shrug their shoulders and deal with it? Of course not. Because them doing that would be considered unfair and wrong, and there would absolutely be people pushing back against this behaviour, just as I'm pushing back against their unfair and wrong methods of dealing with potential scam attempts.

[Geebanger0]

Автор сообщения: Pocahawtness

The one thing I have noticed is that many Steam "moderator" actions are now Steam Bots. The Bots are pretty stupid and often assume the wrong thing. If you want to appeal then you have to contact CS.

Even customer support relies very heavily on bots. In several cases I've submitted tickets only to get a copy paste reply that's completely off topic and doesn't even remotely address my concerns. Meanwhile when I specifically ask to talk to a human customer support worker and threaten to keep submitting tickets until I talk to one, then the copy paste replies suddenly stop and my questions get answered.