Mass-Reporting of my profile

[Howly 👑]

Hello all,

I do not want to whine about this topic now, so I ask this question factually.

In my Steam profile, the domain of my own website is advertised in my name and description.
Just like millions of other Steam users have.

Now I had two users banned for violating our TOS (on my website). These users have now reported my Steam account with many fake accounts. Now my name is gone, my description, just like my artwork.

Why can you theoretically destroy any Steam profile with a couple of fake accounts?

Thank you for the help :)

[J4MESOX4D]

One report is enough. You advertised a third party site and Valve are now rightfully clamping down on users that do this.

[Theblaze]

Advertising was never allowed in the first place.

[MadBone12]

Support doesn't take action against profiles just because people report them. They have to agree that there is some violation of the rules, and apparently, they think so and have acted accordingly.

[Supafly]

Steam has been clamping down on users advertising websites in their name/profiles. Not just you they've been doing it in stages for weeks.

[kitt]

Originally posted by Theblaze:

Advertising was never allowed in the first place.

there is no mention of that in the ToS as far as I can tell..

[Theblaze]

Originally posted by kitt:

Originally posted by Theblaze:

Advertising was never allowed in the first place.

there is no mention of that in the ToS as far as I can tell..

Someone quoted it:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/3113648183797675322/
as well as basically here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

[Howly 👑]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

One report is enough. You advertised a third party site and Valve are now rightfully clamping down on users that do this.

We tried it ourselves on an alt account. Nothing happened. It had the same criteria and we used 3 individual accounts.

[Howly 👑]

Originally posted by Theblaze:

Advertising was never allowed in the first place.

I know that and many people do it.
but Steam deletes content when a huge amount of reports strikes an account. (That's what I assume)

[kitt]

Originally posted by Theblaze:

Originally posted by kitt:

there is no mention of that in the ToS as far as I can tell..

Someone quoted it:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/3113648183797675322/
as well as basically here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

someone quoted nothing, I see.

2nd link.. ok it doesnt forbid posting Links..

[nullable]

Originally posted by 76561198202545571:

Originally posted by Theblaze:

Advertising was never allowed in the first place.

I know that and many people do it.
but Steam deletes content when a huge amount of reports strikes an account. (That's what I assume)

Nothing happened (on your schedule). That's not the same thing as nothing ever happening at Valve's discretion.

I mean mass reporting your profile doesn't do anything unless you're doing something that warrants moderation. If Valve decides your website advertising violates their rules after all they can address it any time they feel like it regardless of what your previous "tests" resulted.

If you believe your profile was penalized incorrectly challenge the moderation.

[Howly 👑]

Originally posted by MadBone12:

Support doesn't take action against profiles just because people report them. They have to agree that there is some violation of the rules, and apparently, they think so and have acted accordingly.

After such a long time I had this account nothing happened. Just as some people I banned happened to create fake accounts and mass report me. I reported so many steam accounts that advertise scam websites and only a handful has been banned.

The reports took 1-2 hours to get my account restricted. My reports took 2-3 weeks to only get some scam accounts banned.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by 76561198202545571:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

One report is enough. You advertised a third party site and Valve are now rightfully clamping down on users that do this.

We tried it ourselves on an alt account. Nothing happened. It had the same criteria and we used 3 individual accounts.

Doesn't matter. One report from anyone is enough to be acted upon if it is credible and the user has violated the rules.

The group listed here for example https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/3113648183797675322/?ctp=2#c3113648183798058243 along with its members that included thousands of bots which in total housed items worth in excess of $1m were all nuked completely. It's zero tolerance across the board now so your case is nothing new or special.

It doesn't matter if your a site owner or a little brat advertising some crappy phishing site - the bans are the same.

[Howly 👑]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Originally posted by 76561198202545571:

I know that and many people do it.
but Steam deletes content when a huge amount of reports strikes an account. (That's what I assume)

Nothing happened (on your schedule). That's not the same thing as nothing ever happening at Valve's discretion.

I mean mass reporting your profile doesn't do anything unless you're doing something that warrants moderation. If Valve decides your website advertising violates their rules after all they can address it any time they feel like it.

If you believe your profile was penalized incorrectly challenge the moderation.

I know that my "advertising" (mentioning my website in my name and description) is against steam's TOS, but I don't understand why it took 1-2 hours to get my steam account restricted and cleaned and so many scam steam accounts with obviously scam websites in their name and description take 2-3 weeks to get banned (when they get banned).

[Howly 👑]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Originally posted by 76561198202545571:

We tried it ourselves on an alt account. Nothing happened. It had the same criteria and we used 3 individual accounts.

Doesn't matter. One report from anyone is enough to be acted upon if it is credible and the user has violated the rules.

The group listed here for example https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/3113648183797675322/?ctp=2#c3113648183798058243 along with its members that included thousands of bots which in total housed items worth in excess of $1m were all nuked completely. It's zero tolerance across the board now so your case is nothing new or special.

It doesn't matter if your a site owner or a little brat advertising some crappy phishing site - the bans are the same.

Okay thank you very much for the info!

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by 76561198202545571:

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Nothing happened (on your schedule). That's not the same thing as nothing ever happening at Valve's discretion.

I mean mass reporting your profile doesn't do anything unless you're doing something that warrants moderation. If Valve decides your website advertising violates their rules after all they can address it any time they feel like it.

If you believe your profile was penalized incorrectly challenge the moderation.

I know that my "advertising" (mentioning my website in my name and description) is against steam's TOS, but I don't understand why it took 1-2 hours to get my steam account restricted and cleaned and so many scam steam accounts with obviously scam websites in their name and description take 2-3 weeks to get banned (when they get banned).

Depends on how busy the moderators were at the time, the backlog, etc. It doesn't change that mass reporting doesn't do anything. If you don't break the rules content won't be removed no matter if a million people report you.