About the Profanity Filter on Profiles

[Heraclius Caesar]

I submitted a couple support requests about this and was eventually told to make a post about it here. I have to say, this is not cool, and it's not ok. I completely understand and respect the reasons for the filter in the public and community forums, but in regards to individual profiles, it's gotta go, or at least be optionable. personally I'm a grown man & I'm the only one that even comments on my profile and mainly I do so for venting and to amuse myself; now a lot of my posts have hearts and it degrades my experience, considering this whole platform and application is built around personal entertainment.

I understand the need to "clean up the community" and so forth, but a blanket policy like this is unfair. I shouldn't be censored on my own profile, and if someone with delicate sensibilities comes along and is offended by something I've said, well, too bad deal with it this is a video game store if you can't handle seeing someone talking reckless ON THEIR OWN page, then you're in the wrong place to begin with. Another option could be to designate certain profiles as potentially NSFW or whatever. Nevertheless, this profile filter isn't right and the illustrious and beloved steam support team needs to fix this. Thanks.

[Respect Women]

Here’s a better idea: delete this board.

I’m not even joking. If your default rationale is just ‘get over it, it’s their platform and they can do whatever they want’, or about half of the time the replies to the threads are negative anyway, then the entire concept of a ‘suggestions / ideas’ board seems a waste of everybody’s time more than anything else.

Or at the very least somebody could establish an FAQ type of thread to cut down on reposts like these.

But I know that you aren’t going to consider either of those because THEIR HOUSE THEIR RULES NARF

Also,

İlk olarak Rockon tarafından gönderildi:

Not at all, you don't need to swear to have a discussion, the rule + filter keeps the place nice and tidy, profanity creates a toxic enviroment.

I’ve been online for well over a decade now and I am not exaggerating when I say that Steam has one of the worst communities that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen trolling/harassment groups with hundreds or even thousands of members. Oftentimes they pester people in ways that involve no profanity at all. If they were ever serious about cutting down on toxicity, they could do far better than this.

[Drab]

İlk olarak (((Respect Women))) tarafından gönderildi:

Here’s a better idea: delete this board.

I’m not even joking. If your default rationale is just ‘get over it, it’s their platform and they can do whatever they want’, or about half of the time the replies to the threads are negative anyway, then the entire concept of a ‘suggestions / ideas’ board seems a waste of everybody’s time more than anything else.

Or at the very least somebody could establish an FAQ type of thread to cut down on reposts like these.

But I know that you aren’t going to consider either of those because THEIR HOUSE THEIR RULES NARF

Also,

İlk olarak Rockon tarafından gönderildi:

Not at all, you don't need to swear to have a discussion, the rule + filter keeps the place nice and tidy, profanity creates a toxic enviroment.

I’ve been online for well over a decade now and I am not exaggerating when I say that Steam has one of the worst communities that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen trolling/harassment groups with hundreds or even thousands of members. Oftentimes they pester people in ways that involve no profanity at all. If they were ever serious about cutting down on toxicity, they could do far better than this.

The reason the community is the worst you've ever seen is becasue it's the biggest you've ever seen.

Live in a small town, go to the city. complain about how awful some people are in the city.

People can disagree with other people's suggestions.

Are you trying to limit their freedom of speech in critiquing the suggestions?

[Gus the Crocodile]

İlk olarak Drab tarafından gönderildi:

People can disagree with other people's suggestions.

Are you trying to limit their freedom of speech in critiquing the suggestions?

Pointing out that there are rules, that there's a subscriber agreement etc is not disagreeing with the suggestion though, is the thing. It's a complete waste of space. This is a forum that specifically exists so people can ask that the status quo be changed. In that context, pointing out that there is a status quo is just... not any kind of constructive contribution.

Same goes for predictions, really. People predicted Valve wouldn't add an invisible feature, and then Valve added it. People predicted that Valve wouldn't add the ability to block posts by user, and then Valve added it. Predictions are useless.

Now not every inch of what someone says has to be amazingly valuable, but this forum really should be about discussing the merits of an idea - why people think it should or shouldn't be added. It's fine to tack on a prediction to an otherwise-constructive post, but if someone's post only exists to say "Valve is in charge, too bad" or "go somewhere else" or "they probably won't add this", I would personally suggest they consider just not posting, and I really wish the mods would define that stuff as spam.

[Vektros]

The one that pisses me off the most is when they censor private messages.
How long before they ban infowars?

[Radene]

When "mature grown men" get pissy when they can't spout profanity without consequence, I wonder if we need a shakeup (Lose 1 stability).

Really, I've no sympathy for people who can't or won't make a point without half of their posts/comments being hearts.

I would support an optional feature to disable the profanity filter client-side, but it should be enabled by default.

[Vektros]

Profanity is highly objective

[Tito Shivan]

Places have rules people are expected to follow or be expelled from them.
You don't swear at church, you don't blast music on your phone at a hospital, you don't use foul language when talking to a customer, you don't swear like a drunken sailor at a job interview... and you don't swear on Steam.

I've been using the new and old forums for more than two decades and -even with english not being my primary language, which means a more limited vocabulary- I've never felt I could not express myself properly.

İlk olarak Radene tarafından gönderildi:

I would support an optional feature to disable the profanity filter client-side, but it should be enabled by default.

I'm on the opinion that would only bring all the trolls and edgy teenagers out of the woodworks and turn the discussions into a heart filled illegible mess for people who keep the filter active.
Considering how other opt-out options have been worked out it's always careless users disabling any feature they consider annoying and eventually ruining the experience for everyone.

We're no longer drowned in phishing spam and bot accounts trying to steal people accounts simply because the use of Steamguard and trade holds became mandatory. When they were optative people simply shut them down and kept going with their unsafe habits, making the place worse for everyone.

I'd wish the userbase was mature enough to make a sensible use of a worfilter toggle if it was implemented. But experience insists on the opposite. And more and more games and places clamping on foul language to try make a less toxic enviroment also prove the lack of maturity of the userbase in that regard.

[Vektros]

So steam is like a church or a Hospital? Im not trying to work here, but its ok for the npc's to swear but we cant? And if we post a ♥♥♥ of them doing it thats not ok either?

[Count_Dandyman]

İlk olarak Dunning–Kruger tarafından gönderildi:

So steam is like a church or a Hospital? Im not trying to work here, but its ok for the npc's to swear but we cant? And if we post a ♥♥♥ of them doing it thats not ok either?

In-game content is controlled and tied to the decision to play that game so its a different situation there.

Posting a ♥♥♥ of in-game content can get you in trouble if you are moving it outside the source it is tied to but if you keep it in the dedicated section for screenshots from that game then unless it is extreme enough to be the sort of thing publishers get in trouble for having on the store page then you have nothing to worry about.

[silentcatastrophe]

Overwatch itself has profanity filter and it just happens the game's community made the word 'toxic' go mainstream in just in a matter of weeks anyway after being fully released.

[Vektros]

Ignorance is Strength

[Respect Women]

İlk olarak Tito Shivan tarafından gönderildi:

Places have rules people are expected to follow or be expelled from them.
You don't swear at church, you don't blast music on your phone at a hospital, you don't use foul language when talking to a customer, you don't swear like a drunken sailor at a job interview... and you don't swear on Steam.

I’m sorry but this analogy is just terrible. Steam is not an environment like a church or a hospital or a job interview. It’s a casual environment and almost nobody comes here with serious goals in mind; nobody other than the employées has an obligation to go above the minimum and behave formally. Much of the time it’s friends talking like how they normally would, and the housekeeper is almost never around to see it anyway.

İlk olarak Tito Shivan tarafından gönderildi:

I'm of the opinion that would only bring all the trolls and edgy teenagers out of the woodworks and turn the discussions into a heart filled illegible mess for people who keep the filter active.
Considering how other opt-out options have been worked out it's always careless users disabling any feature they consider annoying and eventually ruining the experience for everyone.

What are you talking about? World of Warcraft has a built‐in, individualized filter that anybody can disable at any time and for the life of me I can’t think of a single instance where it ‘ruined the experience for everyone.’ If the censored messages are annoying people, they can just block the messangers.

[ploppo]

Yeh, but if a person invites people to their home then it is up to them if swearing is allowed - the host can tell swearers to leave, etc. Steam might consider the Steam platform a 'home' where they have other guests who they are shielding.

Steam is possibly using the change in direction on swearing tolerance to run alongside other changes to tolerance - such as abuse.

[ploppo]

Steam did not seem to 'announce' this whole thing which kind of could suggest a bigger picture is in play.

[Tito Shivan]

İlk olarak (((Respect Women))) tarafından gönderildi:

I’m sorry but this analogy is just terrible. Steam is not an environment like a church or a hospital or a job interview. It’s a casual environment and almost nobody comes here with serious goals in mind;

Even casual gathering places have rules too.

İlk olarak ploppo tarafından gönderildi:

Steam did not seem to 'announce' this whole thing which kind of could suggest a bigger picture is in play.

No big picture here, It was basically a coherence update. Most probably the filter not working on comments was more an oversight (or bug) that it's now fixed (On Valve time, as usual). It wouldn't surprise me for the filters to be updated in a near future to also apply in profile names.