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Myrth the Plague Feb 3 @ 1:32am
Steam's failure to properly adhere to their own BAN rules
I recently received a permanent ban on a discussion forum for the following reply to a post-

"Personally the lazy writing and halfbaked story make the game *feel* woke when in reality it isn't them trying to be woke it's just really bad story and writing."

The discussion forum i had been fairly active on and had only received one warning on which i agree was justified at the time so the ban came as a surprise. The ban itself was disappointing but would have been fine if they provided a reason for the ban as they pointed left it blank. I believe now i may mention a "forum moderator" banned me. To accompany this ban *all* my posts in the discussions over several months were deleted. The bottom of the ban reads the following; "If you believe this ban was issued by mistake, please contact Steam Support." While i did not believe it was a mistake i do believe it was unfairly administered as it reads in "https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/community_moderation" -

Bans
Bans are a last resort for violations of the Steam Community Rules And Guidelines. They should be temporary in order to serve as a reminder of the discussion rules.

If a player has received previous temp bans, it may be appropriate to permanently ban them from your Hub. If you do need to ban a player, please leave a clear, concise ban reason when doing so. This ban reason is visible to the player as well as other moderators.

Furthermore in "https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4F62-35F9-F395-5C23" it reads-

Community Bans are issued to an account when the account is used in ways that violate Steam's Community Guidelines excessively. Most Community Bans will expire, but extended or even permanent bans may be issued if the prohibited activity continues or if the moderation team finds the activity egregious.

So my request to steam support was very simple, provide an explanation for the ban, proper direction on who to contact for the unban, or unban me (i gave another which was a refund for the product but that's not gonna happen). They failed to provide any of that and instead settled for sending me the link for "community moderation" which shows that i was wrongly banned. This is ridiculous as i violated neither the global rules and guidelines nor Steams own rules and guidelines. If nothing else i'd like clarification, why does steam supposedly not have the authority to unban people when a "forum moderator" bans you, why is it optional to provide a reason for a ban, and why is it that on the bottom of a ban the link to appeal is steam support if that isn't the case? The ban feels more like censorship than anything else, which is not productive for a gaming community.
Last edited by Myrth the Plague; Feb 3 @ 1:32am
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Originally posted by miakisfan:
Originally posted by Myrth:
I recently received a permanent ban on a discussion forum for the following reply to a post-

"Personally the lazy writing and halfbaked story make the game *feel* woke when in reality it isn't them trying to be woke it's just really bad story and writing."

The discussion forum i had been fairly active on and had only received one warning on which i agree was justified at the time so the ban came as a surprise. The ban itself was disappointing but would have been fine if they provided a reason for the ban as they pointed left it blank. I believe now i may mention a "forum moderator" banned me. To accompany this ban *all* my posts in the discussions over several months were deleted. The bottom of the ban reads the following; "If you believe this ban was issued by mistake, please contact Steam Support." While i did not believe it was a mistake i do believe it was unfairly administered as it reads in "https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/community_moderation" -

Bans
Bans are a last resort for violations of the Steam Community Rules And Guidelines. They should be temporary in order to serve as a reminder of the discussion rules.

If a player has received previous temp bans, it may be appropriate to permanently ban them from your Hub. If you do need to ban a player, please leave a clear, concise ban reason when doing so. This ban reason is visible to the player as well as other moderators.

Furthermore in "https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4F62-35F9-F395-5C23" it reads-

Community Bans are issued to an account when the account is used in ways that violate Steam's Community Guidelines excessively. Most Community Bans will expire, but extended or even permanent bans may be issued if the prohibited activity continues or if the moderation team finds the activity egregious.

So my request to steam support was very simple, provide an explanation for the ban, proper direction on who to contact for the unban, or unban me (i gave another which was a refund for the product but that's not gonna happen). They failed to provide any of that and instead settled for sending me the link for "community moderation" which shows that i was wrongly banned. This is ridiculous as i violated neither the global rules and guidelines nor Steams own rules and guidelines. If nothing else i'd like clarification, why does steam supposedly not have the authority to unban people when a "forum moderator" bans you, why is it optional to provide a reason for a ban, and why is it that on the bottom of a ban the link to appeal is steam support if that isn't the case? The ban feels more like censorship than anything else, which is not productive for a gaming community.

When you make the rules you decide which ones to play by. End of story.
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Showing 76-79 of 79 comments
King of Games Feb 4 @ 12:43pm 
Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:
Originally posted by King of Games:
Nope, and if you ever do make a game i dont recommend you attempting to publish it on steam. Because thinking just because you paid to have it published here means you can then do whatever you want will not end well for you
The Domina dev made violent threats to Valve. Most devs DON'T do that. So, yeah. You're way off base.

We're done.
correct, we were done a while ago. Thanks for playing and dont bother publishing game son steam with that attitude :steamhappy:
#76
WolfEisberg Feb 4 @ 10:49pm 
Originally posted by IFIYGD:
Originally posted by WolfEisberg:

Were you banned by Steam Support or by developer? Look at the very very top of the message it tells you which one did it.
Did you bother to read the quote you posted, in particular the part where the OP said "I believe now i may mention a "forum moderator" banned me."?

Steam support contains forum moderators. Hom saying "forum moderator" can mean Steam support or developer.
#77
King of Games Feb 5 @ 8:30am 
Originally posted by WolfEisberg:
Originally posted by IFIYGD:
Did you bother to read the quote you posted, in particular the part where the OP said "I believe now i may mention a "forum moderator" banned me."?

Steam support contains forum moderators. Hom saying "forum moderator" can mean Steam support or developer.
not really, Forums moderation is contracted to a third party those arent valve employees. When you create a support ticket (youre usually talking to a bot, but after enough pestering) you talk to a actual valve employee
#78
Vit11ro Feb 5 @ 11:44am 
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#79
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Date Posted: Feb 3 @ 1:32am
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