Privacy settings & game invites issue

[Tim]

Why can I no longer invite friends to my games while having my games privacy setting set to private? This change is mind boggling to say the least! Whenever I invite someone they only get a generic text message „xyz has invited you to play game 123.“ with no buttons or options to join.

There are some of us who do not want to make our profiles public (I don‘t want people I work with seeing who I am friends with or being able to browse a list of my games, let alone see how many games I own) so this instantly isolates me from being the host of any game session that uses Steam matchmaking (because I also don‘t show up as ingame in both the Steam client and any ingame friends browser offered by games).

This change HAS to be reverted or at the very least split out the ingame status to a top level privacy setting (so you can have your whole profile private again but give the option to specify who sees you playing a game, just like it was before the privacy setting revamp...).

[Floral Funk]

Honestly, as a Moderator for an MMO here on Steam; setting everything to public can be a bit of a bad idea. This should be reverted & only exist as an -option-. Not a pointless forced implementation by someone whom thought it to be -such- a "brillant" idea without a single thought behind everything in which it entails. Come on, VALVe. Shape up. We've seen daft desicion after daft desicion. THis has got to be in the top five stupid bussiness ideas you've shoehorned in, as of late. I emplore VALVe to drop this idea. Give it some -actual- thought & keep it to Beta stage. To not unleash things that are so far into a -pre- alpha setting that it's not even done on -paper- yet.
The original post here & many other threads sum up the exact issues. Go on, VALVe's Steam team. Go have a look. See how "popular" this desicion was. Did anyone there even take -one- look at the functions? If so, that person needs a vacation, or a pair of glasses. unintentional bugs is one thing. Poor desicion making beyond -anything- even remotely acceptable, is on a different level all-together. There are better ways of implementing things. It's not a race to see how quickly one can force as many pointless things in as possible.
As the saying goes: If it ain't broke, don't try to "fix" it,
Try to improve on existing things, rather than ridding yourself of good functionality, when releasing it outside of a Beta setting. Don't want to lose all faith in yet another company, over daft desicion making.. You -can- make this right.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Profile > Edit Profile > Profile Privacy Settings > Games Details >>> Friend's only

[Floral Funk]

Originally posted by Tim (ง'̀-'́)ง:

Why can I no longer invite friends to my games while having my games privacy setting set to private? This change is mind boggling to say the least! Whenever I invite someone they only get a generic text message „xyz has invited you to play game 123.“ with no buttons or options to join.

There are some of us who do not want to make our profiles public (I don‘t want people I work with seeing who I am friends with or being able to browse a list of my games, let alone see how many games I own) so this instantly isolates me from being the host of any game session that uses Steam matchmaking (because I also don‘t show up as ingame in both the Steam client and any ingame friends browser offered by games).

This change HAS to be reverted or at the very least split out the ingame status to a top level privacy setting (so you can have your whole profile private again but give the option to specify who sees you playing a game, just like it was before the privacy setting revamp...).

& thank you for starting this thread.
The sheer ammount of issues listed all over several Steam discussions on the topic are many & not very far between.

[Floral Funk]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Profile > Edit Profile > Profile Privacy Settings > Games Details >>> Friend's only

:qr:

Doesn't work properly for quite a few. Wish it was that simple.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Works great for me, as long as it is friend's only and not private.

[Levi]

Originally posted by Ellandriel Stormshadow:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Profile > Edit Profile > Profile Privacy Settings > Games Details >>> Friend's only

:qr:

Doesn't work properly for quite a few. Wish it was that simple.

It should.

Game details must be completely public.

[Tim]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Profile > Edit Profile > Profile Privacy Settings > Games Details >>> Friend's only

:qr:

The thing is, that requires you to change your overall profile privacy to friends only too. In my case, that'd reveal my friends list and that is something I'd rather not share with anyone (because I don't want anyone to harass my real life friends, which sadly happened years ago). I'm also not too fond of people knowing how many games I own, that usually came up as a big negative in my social circle.

That being said, I should not be forced to change my privacy setting from private (the setting I've had for almost a decade now, for a multitude of reasons) just because Valve broke something or turned usability to 0% for certain features/user groups.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

If you are having issues with Steam friends harassing your other Steam friends, why are they still your Steam friend?

[Tim]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

If you are having issues with Steam friends harassing your other Steam friends, why are they still your Steam friend?

:qr:

It's not only that, I'd like to have my real life and online community life separate. I don't want anyone contacting the people I see irl or even work with, I'd rather not risk that. That being said, I don't see why I should change when it's Valve who broke something that existed since they added game invites and privacy settings. This sounds more and more like an oversight on their end, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets stealth fixed in a bit.

I did some further digging: this seems to only happen to users who changed their privacy setting after they introduced the new ones (to e.g. sync their content on a site?). Anyone who was grandfathered into their new setup seems to not have said issue. I'd tell them to test it but I don't want to responsible for them not being able to play CSGO with friends anymore (or host sessions).

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Tim (ง'̀-'́)ง:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

If you are having issues with Steam friends harassing your other Steam friends, why are they still your Steam friend?

It's not only that, I'd like to have my real life and online community life separate. I don't want anyone contacting the people I see irl or even work with, I'd rather not risk that. That being said, I don't see why I should change when it's Valve who broke something that existed since they added game invites and privacy settings. This sounds more and more like an oversight on their end, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets stealth fixed in a bit.

I did some further digging: this seems to only happen to users who changed their privacy setting after they introduced the new ones (to e.g. sync their content on a site?). Anyone who was grandfathered into their new setup seems to not have said issue. I'd tell them to test it but I don't want to responsible for them not being able to play CSGO with friends anymore (or host sessions).

It was actually a bug with fully private profiles.

[Tim]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Tim (ง'̀-'́)ง:

...

It was actually a bug with fully private profiles.

:qr:

It worked perfectly before the privacy revamp, that's the thing annoying me. I shouldn't be forced to change my settings to get MP games going again.

[Saku]

The following workaround might help with the issue:

Workaround:

1. On the steam window click on "<USERNAME>" -> "PROFILE" to get to your steamcommunity PROFILE PAGE.
   
2. It should show you the text "Currently In-Game <Game name>" and under it [Join Game] and [Watch Game] BUTTONS.
   
3. Right click the [JOIN GAME] button and choose "COPY LINK ADDRESS".
   
4. PASTE THE LINK to the players you want to invite. It should be a link starting with "steam://joinlobby/"