Why is friend request anti-spam so harsh?

[Atlas the Toaster]

I'm new to Steam and am the type of person who loves meeting new friends, and on other sites I add people a lot, and I did here as well for a few days. But now every time I try to, Steam says I have sent too many and won't let me friend anyone anymore, I wasn't able to add a single person all day yesterday and still can't today. Can anyone explain this??

[mimizukari]

every time you try you reset the cooldown, wait a while and it isn't harsh at all, nobody needs to add so many people in a short period of time.

[Atlas the Toaster]

Oh... How long is the cooldown? Does it get longer after every reset?
(And yea I know, am a very social raptor lol)

[Supafly]

It's to combat people creating new accounts and spamming friend requests. Keep in mind you are not prevented from adding friends you just can't send anymore friend requests for awhile. Talk to users on the forum, groups and in-game and get them to invite you

[Atlas the Toaster]

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Why is friend request anti-spam so harsh?

Previous instances of abuse. Issues with accounts being hijacked and used to spam friends. So, since Valve can't make users keep their account secure, it's best to limit how accounts can be abused.

Ye, I understand. Is there a point where this goes away, like after my account is old enough?

[Atlas the Toaster]

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Ye, I understand. Is there a point where this goes away, like after my account is old enough?

Where the limit goes away? No. There's nothing special about older accounts where you're automatically more trustworthy or allowed to run amok more. Old accounts get hijacked too.

And invariably there will be legitimate users who want to send out hundreds of friend requests a day. And maybe Valve doesn't want to facilitate that. And 30 requests in a rolling window probably covers 99% of user needs.

Oki, what about..

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Oh... How long is the cooldown? Does it get longer after every reset?
(And yea I know, am a very social raptor lol)

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Oh... How long is the cooldown? Does it get longer after every reset?
(And yea I know, am a very social raptor lol)

It may be up to a month, it could just be 2 weeks or so. the cooldown is per account and there's no way you can see it. chill with the adding for a while and when you're able to add again don't add so many in a short period of time.

[Atlas the Toaster]

Originally posted by mimizukari:

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Oh... How long is the cooldown? Does it get longer after every reset?
(And yea I know, am a very social raptor lol)

It may be up to a month, it could just be 2 weeks or so. the cooldown is per account and there's no way you can see it. chill with the adding for a while and when you're able to add again don't add so many in a short period of time.

Wait... Is there a notification when the cooldown expires? If I can't see it and the cooldown resets every time I try....

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Have them invite you instead or...

Stop sending requests. Everytime you do, it resets the cooldown.

The cooldown varies from 1 week up to 1 month "from the last time you saw the error message." Key point in quotes. This means if you saw the message today, you have to wait a full month before you can send another. Have them add you instead.

Read this post that explains a little bit of the new restriction...

Originally posted by ReptaR LFT:

Originally posted by Ogami:

You should be able to send 30 friend requests each week.
After 30 send you have to wait a week before you can send more.
If you still cant send a friend request after 6 weeks like you described, you should contact Steam Support.
There is clearly something wrong there.

Did do so, apologies for forgetting to mention. This is what they replied with before closing the ticket abrubtly:

The duration is different for each user and can last 1 week or up to 1 month from the last time you saw the message. Please note, Steam Support is also unable to remove or modify this limit.

We don't have any further information in regards to this limit but if you would like to share your thoughts or suggestions regarding it, we encourage you to share it in the Steam Discussions as this forum is regularly read by the Valve Development team.

Since there's not much more that we can say or do for this, I am going to go ahead and close this help request.

If you have any other unrelated questions or issues, please create a new one and we will be happy to assist you.

Steam Support / Jr. Portal Cake Tester
Vido

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/2299597907734477316/?tscn=1591660294#c2299597907734515946

The cooldown has many variables for when the account gets this message. No 1 account is the same in this matter. Some will get it after 1 invite, others 30.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Originally posted by mimizukari:

It may be up to a month, it could just be 2 weeks or so. the cooldown is per account and there's no way you can see it. chill with the adding for a while and when you're able to add again don't add so many in a short period of time.

Wait... Is there a notification when the cooldown expires? If I can't see it and the cooldown resets every time I try....

No, because that'd defeat the purpose. throttle your adding, steam friends should be people who are actually your friends, who you communicate with often, ETC. if you need to trade then use trade offer.

[FurryDragonborn]

i personally made my profile private because I was sick and tired of being flooded by "new accounts" requesting friend invites. If I don't know you, you're getting denied and blocked.

[Atlas the Toaster]

Originally posted by FurryDragonborn:

i personally made my profile private because I was sick and tired of being flooded by "new accounts" requesting friend invites. If I don't know you, you're getting denied and blocked.

Do you play TF2 by any chance? I'm always looking for people to do funnies with :3

[FurryDragonborn]

Originally posted by Rap Daniel:

Originally posted by FurryDragonborn:

i personally made my profile private because I was sick and tired of being flooded by "new accounts" requesting friend invites. If I don't know you, you're getting denied and blocked.

Do you play TF2 by any chance? I'm always looking for people to do funnies with :3

no, I play porn games, now stop asking