"please contact the game developers about a community ban"

[36]

so recently i was banned from the BONELAB community and wasnt given any reason as to why i was ban and i wasnt the only person this happened to, when contacting steam in what i can do they said to contact the devs or moderators to discuss said ban yet i cant seem to find any way to get into contact with them

[IFIYGD]

Reply to the Community Message you got notifying you of the ban.
They do not have to answer you.
Be civil and polite- it's amazing how much having good manners can do toward resolving an issue like this, provided you have not been moderated multiple times on those game hub forums for bad behavior or abusive conduct.
I haven't looked at your post history yet, so I have no idea right now what you may have done or said to get a ban. But bans usually come from seriously bad behavior, repeated bad behavior, or aggressive toxicity toward other players or the devs and publishers, though mistakes or knee-jerk reactions can happen at times. Again- a civil and polite inquiry is the best way to try to resolve something like that.

If you go to the Store page for the game, bottom of the right-hand panel- there are direct links to their Discord and their website. There is no "Contact Us" on their website, but at the bottom of the webpage are links to all of their different social media accounts, which may have info on how to contact them or get game support.

They don't have to answer you on any of those either. Your Community Message notifying you of the ban should have a reason given for the ban- Steam Support very rarely over-rides a game dev or publisher's game hub forums moderation decision if the devs/publishers have not opted into Valve assisting with moderation of handling moderation completely.

Quick edit- and... looking at your post history, I found one post of yours in the BONEWORKS forums- and you do not have a ban showing: https://steamcommunity.com/app/823500/discussions/0/3361398165647745497/#c5595184948695809368

[36]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Reply to the Community Message you got notifying you of the ban.
They do not have to answer you.
Be civil and polite- it's amazing how much having good manners can do toward resolving an issue like this, provided you have not been moderated multiple times on those game hub forums for bad behavior or abusive conduct.
I haven't looked at your post history yet, so I have no idea right now what you may have done or said to get a ban. But bans usually come from seriously bad behavior, repeated bad behavior, or aggressive toxicity toward other players or the devs and publishers, though mistakes or knee-jerk reactions can happen at times. Again- a civil and polite inquiry is the best way to try to resolve something like that.

If you go to the Store page for the game, bottom of the right-hand panel- there are direct links to their Discord and their website. There is no "Contact Us" on their website, but at the bottom of the webpage are links to all of their different social media accounts, which may have info on how to contact them or get game support.

They don't have to answer you on any of those either. Your Community Message notifying you of the ban should have a reason given for the ban- Steam Support very rarely over-rides a game dev or publisher's game hub forums moderation decision if the devs/publishers have not opted into Valve assisting with moderation of handling moderation completely.

Quick edit- and... looking at your post history, I found one post of yours in the BONEWORKS forums- and you do not have a ban showing: https://steamcommunity.com/app/823500/discussions/0/3361398165647745497/#c5595184948695809368

im just more confused as i didnt do anything that broke the steam TOS and there was some quote from some other account and a replay above the empty box for ban reason, but for the most part i was heavily critical but never truly rude especialy since my review, steam group and profile got spammed with the N word by someone with a same profile pick of one of the devsof the game

[36]

Originally posted by Baby Dwight:

The reason will be listed under notifications, (top right the envelope next to your name) as for you how to contact then either their website or the support link when you view the game in your library. (see image)

https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/1976/4aca8bc8d6cad8e052039915309bd70cef63654a.png

They will look into it and depending on the reason you may or may not get unbanned. If they say no there is no one else that will or can unban you.

all options are only about the game and my purchase and not the ban

[36]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

So you're saying the developers have no presence on the Internet outside of their Steam Community?

https://www.stresslevelzero.com/ doesn't seem like it...

But keep in mind developers appoint their own mods (or may be the mods) and lots of people wrongly believe or hope they were banned it was a rogue moderator that they can complain to the developer to get rid of. Not everyone who wants that gets it though, so manage your expectations.

They also won't need to justify why you were banned. So manage your expectations there too.

why isnt them giving a reason to a ban not mandatory, seems rather scummy, and yes i knew of their online presents but wanted to see if i could contact them through steam to avoid having to go through twitter

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by 36:

im just more confused as i didnt do anything that broke the steam TOS and there was some quote from some other account and a replay above the empty box for ban reason, but for the most part i was heavily critical but never truly rude especialy since my review, steam group and profile got spammed with the N word by someone with a same profile pick of one of the devsof the game

You do not have a ban on that forum. The link I gave links directly to one of your posts on those forums, and there is no ban shown. If you were banned there would be a red lettered (banned) after your name .
None of us can see any posts that either you or they may have deleted.
Having someone impersonate someone else on forums or profile comments is not uncommon- it's actually pretty easy to do. Which is why scammers do it all the time to try to impersonate Valve Employees. None of the alleged slurs are on your profile comments now, so none of us can say if it actually happened or not. So...

And game hub forums operate differently than these official Steam forums do. Game devs and publishers moderate their own forums, and can set their own rules. Someone may have been having a really bad day and you "critical" commentary on one comment or another may have come across and ruse or derogatory. Just because you think what you or someone else said isn't "rude", doesn't mean that everyone else in the world is going to agree with you.We can't see any posts that were deleted- the one I linked to is fine IMHO, but I have no way to know if you trolled them or someone else in other posts that are now deleted or not.

Game Devs and publishers can set rules that are stricter than Stea's, or looser than Steam's TOS and Discussion Rules and Guidelines. Valve lets them moderate their community as they see fit, and will only step in when things get really out-of-hand, like happened with the game DOMINA forums, some of the users there, and the dev themselves.

And again- You. Do. Not. Have. A. Ban. On. Those. Forums.
If you had one, it either expired or was reversed by the moderator(s) on those forums.

[36]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Originally posted by 36:

im just more confused as i didnt do anything that broke the steam TOS and there was some quote from some other account and a replay above the empty box for ban reason, but for the most part i was heavily critical but never truly rude especialy since my review, steam group and profile got spammed with the N word by someone with a same profile pick of one of the devsof the game

You do not have a ban on that forum. The link I gave links directly to one of your posts on those forums, and there is no ban shown. If you were banned there would be a red lettered (banned) after your name .
None of us can see any posts that either you or they may have deleted.
Having someone impersonate someone else on forums or profile comments is not uncommon- it's actually pretty easy to do. Which is why scammers do it all the time to try to impersonate Valve Employees. None of the alleged slurs are on your profile comments now, so none of us can say if it actually happened or not. So...

And game hub forums operate differently than these official Steam forums do. Game devs and publishers moderate their own forums, and can set their own rules. Someone may have been having a really bad day and you "critical" commentary on one comment or another may have come across and ruse or derogatory. Just because you think what you or someone else said isn't "rude", doesn't mean that everyone else in the world is going to agree with you.We can't see any posts that were deleted- the one I linked to is fine IMHO, but I have no way to know if you trolled them or someone else in other posts that are now deleted or not.

Game Devs and publishers can set rules that are stricter than Stea's, or looser than Steam's TOS and Discussion Rules and Guidelines. Valve lets them moderate their community as they see fit, and will only step in when things get really out-of-hand, like happened with the game DOMINA forums, some of the users there, and the dev themselves.

And again- You. Do. Not. Have. A. Ban. On. Those. Forums.
If you had one, it either expired or was reversed by the moderator(s) on those forums.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TGuZ-aw24wee0aXnW9mGN8hxbyD84eI-/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAlmckSWQtz_W_gqQeBltGojb6eMn4ky/view?usp=sharing

[Hamless Hog]

Originally posted by 36:

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

So you're saying the developers have no presence on the Internet outside of their Steam Community?

https://www.stresslevelzero.com/ doesn't seem like it...

But keep in mind developers appoint their own mods (or may be the mods) and lots of people wrongly believe or hope they were banned it was a rogue moderator that they can complain to the developer to get rid of. Not everyone who wants that gets it though, so manage your expectations.

They also won't need to justify why you were banned. So manage your expectations there too.

why isnt them giving a reason to a ban not mandatory, seems rather scummy, and yes i knew of their online presents but wanted to see if i could contact them through steam to avoid having to go through twitter

tbf they clearly dont want you there and have all the right to remove you from their own forums.

[36]

Originally posted by Hogarth:

Originally posted by 36:

why isnt them giving a reason to a ban not mandatory, seems rather scummy, and yes i knew of their online presents but wanted to see if i could contact them through steam to avoid having to go through twitter

tbf they clearly dont want you there and have all the right to remove you from their own forums.

i get that, but its rather rude, they say to be civil but handing out bans without a rhyme or reason is in itself uncivil

[IFIYGD]

Ah, I was looking at BONEWORKS, not BONELAB- their new game. My bad. Kinda surprised that they banned you from one and not the other.

[Hamless Hog]

Originally posted by 36:

Originally posted by Hogarth:

tbf they clearly dont want you there and have all the right to remove you from their own forums.

i get that, but its rather rude, they say to be civil but handing out bans without a rhyme or reason is in itself uncivil

I don’t think it’s without a reason. They probably thing the ban is deserved

[36]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Originally posted by 36:

why isnt them giving a reason to a ban not mandatory, seems rather scummy, and yes i knew of their online presents but wanted to see if i could contact them through steam to avoid having to go through twitter

Well I said they don't need to justify it. Seems like they already provided you a reason, but you don't like it, don't agree. Your agreement isn't required though. And they don't need to haggle with you or further justify the reason provided.

Secondly, the problem with saying, "I didn't break the ToS", isn't always true. Lots of people tend to interpret the rules through their own biases when they make those claims, and sometimes our biases make us completely wrong. You're free to your opinion of course, but your opinion may not have any weight what-so-ever. In this case you admit to being "heavily critical", you may feel like it was fine. But apparently other people don't agree. Both the person(s) who reported you and the moderator who reviewed it.

Toeing the line is fine, I'm sure I do it sometimes, but the risk is if you take one more baby step at any point, you can't complain about the consequences for that. You can play dumb or downplay or disagree all you want. If you don't want to get banned in future games maybe you might need to turn down that heavy criticism to light criticism, or maybe even just mind your business. We all play games here, we know how things go in multiplayer with randoms.

There is of course a slim chance the ban hammer hit you for weak reasons. I'm not discounting that. But a large percentage of people who try to claim they were banned for no reason, or were over moderated are lying to themselves, or to others. Not always, but enough where it's not unreasonable to believe your interpretation may not be the most trustworthy. Two sides to every story, ya know?

the quote they give wasnt mine and i never was spouting off anything they said in said quote

-edit- most i was was critical of the devs and made a post wanting the devs to explain why they thought releasing the game in its current state at that time and for that price was a good thing, that post was civil and got up to 200+ comments only to wake up one day to see it gone and no notification of its removal, the ban came 2 days after i was asking why the post had gotten removed on the forum, the quote about the "gmod" was a running argument to explain the state of the game comparing bonelab to gmod for vr, it was never something i said myself but did discus as to why it was a rather shallow reason for the games state

[36]

Originally posted by 36:

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Well I said they don't need to justify it. Seems like they already provided you a reason, but you don't like it, don't agree. Your agreement isn't required though. And they don't need to haggle with you or further justify the reason provided.

Secondly, the problem with saying, "I didn't break the ToS", isn't always true. Lots of people tend to interpret the rules through their own biases when they make those claims, and sometimes our biases make us completely wrong. You're free to your opinion of course, but your opinion may not have any weight what-so-ever. In this case you admit to being "heavily critical", you may feel like it was fine. But apparently other people don't agree. Both the person(s) who reported you and the moderator who reviewed it.

Toeing the line is fine, I'm sure I do it sometimes, but the risk is if you take one more baby step at any point, you can't complain about the consequences for that. You can play dumb or downplay or disagree all you want. If you don't want to get banned in future games maybe you might need to turn down that heavy criticism to light criticism, or maybe even just mind your business. We all play games here, we know how things go in multiplayer with randoms.

There is of course a slim chance the ban hammer hit you for weak reasons. I'm not discounting that. But a large percentage of people who try to claim they were banned for no reason, or were over moderated are lying to themselves, or to others. Not always, but enough where it's not unreasonable to believe your interpretation may not be the most trustworthy. Two sides to every story, ya know?

the quote they give wasnt mine and i never was spouting off anything they said in said quote

-edit- most i was was critical of the devs and made a post wanting the devs to explain why they thought releasing the game in its current state at that time and for that price was a good thing, that post was civil and got up to 200+ comments only to wake up one day to see it gone and no notification of its removal, the ban came 2 days after i was asking why the post had gotten removed on the forum, the quote about the "gmod" was a running argument to explain the state of the game comparing bonelab to gmod for vr, it was never something i said myself but did discus as to why it was a rather shallow reason for the games state

nor do i think being critical of a dev team should lead to being spammed with the N word

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Scz4eYy30r2LFDjQBRI-WFukky712ylS/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ip1GsiHpweWuuSUQmkfj7rAyUbmTNI4X/view?usp=sharing

[36]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Originally posted by 36:

the quote they give wasnt mine and i never was spouting off anything they said in said quote

-edit- most i was was critical of the devs and made a post wanting the devs to explain why they thought releasing the game in its current state at that time and for that price was a good thing, that post was civil and got up to 200+ comments only to wake up one day to see it gone and no notification of its removal, the ban came 2 days after i was asking why the post had gotten removed on the forum, the quote about the "gmod" was a running argument to explain the state of the game comparing bonelab to gmod for vr, it was never something i said myself but did discus as to why it was a rather shallow reason for the games state

Then respond to the moderation and point that detail out. Mistakes can happen, rarely bans are reversed.

Originally posted by 36:

nor do i think being critical of a dev team should lead to being spammed with the N word

The developer isn't responsible for individual users. Block, report, and move on.

Or are you claiming the users in your screenshots are the developers?

at first i thought that person was as the 2 people posted the same message in my revirew/profile/ and steam group all at the same time, plus the guys profile pick is that of one of the devs and was one of the more noticable person active on the community page, though as of this point it is undetermined to unlikely they are a dev, thought the ban did happen a bit after the blurred images

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

The developer isn't responsible for individual users. Block, report, and move on.

Or are you claiming the users in your screenshots are the developers?

I'm curious about that as well. The people in the screenshots don't seem to have posted as devs or moderators on either forum, and the comments on the review do not have the usual yellow [developer] tag. And the OP is in their (the 2 people the OP claims are devs) profile comments slinging some trollish and toxic comment as well.
Kinda seems like a few people who can't get along possible took to the forums to continue their griefing of each other and enough reports got sent that the OP got banned- not sure if the other people did or not. (I got tired of digging and getting coffee and a snack were more important).

It seems (as usual) that there is a lot more to the story that is not being shared (honestly or at all).

Also- screenshots are ridiculously easy to edit using any number of free or paid image editing programs these days.

[36]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

The developer isn't responsible for individual users. Block, report, and move on.

Or are you claiming the users in your screenshots are the developers?

I'm curious about that as well. The people in the screenshots don't seem to have posted as devs or moderators on either forum, and the comments on the review do not have the usual yellow [developer] tag. And the OP is in their (the 2 people the OP claims are devs) profile comments slinging some trollish and toxic comment as well.
Kinda seems like a few people who can't get along possible took to the forums to continue their griefing of each other and enough reports got sent that the OP got banned- not sure if the other people did or not. (I got tired of digging and getting coffee and a snack were more important).

It seems (as usual) that there is a lot more to the story that is not being shared (honestly or at all).

Also- screenshots are ridiculously easy to edit using any number of free or paid image editing programs these days.

id be more tahn happy to send the unedited screencaps but youll need to send a friend request i dont want to get a flag for posting a link to these even if there somewhat tame, they do in theory brake steam TOS