Please add a profanity filter option

[The creepy van guy]

I want to have the option to turn off the default setting steam has in the reviews and other places where there might be profanity. As a customer and a Valve/Steam supporter, I would like to not be censored and have stuff censored for me. As long as it's not explicitly illegal (which I don't think "cussing" is illegal) I would like to freely view what people write on here.

[Wolf Knight]

the filter blocks inappropriate language and dangerous websites. there is no need for an option to turn off the filter

[ElvisDeadly]

The point of the filter is that you shouldn't really be using words (bad language or blocked websites) it censors

Those are the rules

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

I swear in real life but i understand that when posting in a public forum, much like being at work or in public, there are rules one is expected to follow

[Electric Cupcake]

I hear Scunthorpe is nice this time of year. And Pen Island.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Hugsie Muffinball:

I hear Scunthorpe is nice this time of year. And Pen Island.

I hear the first one’s a lovely place. Know someone who’s constantly taking his Cocker Spaniel out around there.

Seriously though, we all agreed to the SSA which includes an agreement on how to behave and Valve having the right to moderate the forum. That includes word filtering for swearing, dodgy websites and a whole load of other stuff.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Originally posted by ElvisDeadly:

The point of the filter is that you shouldn't really be using words (bad language or blocked websites) it censors

Those are the rules

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

I swear in real life but i understand that when posting in a public forum, much like being at work or in public, there are rules one is expected to follow

The suggestion isn't to change the rules. The rules can stay as they are.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

Originally posted by ElvisDeadly:

The point of the filter is that you shouldn't really be using words (bad language or blocked websites) it censors

Those are the rules

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

I swear in real life but i understand that when posting in a public forum, much like being at work or in public, there are rules one is expected to follow

The suggestion isn't to change the rules. The rules can stay as they are.

Which is kind of an irrelevance to be honest. I’ve no idea how the technical side of the filter works but I hazard a rough guess that... it’s a bucket.

What I mean by that is that everything that’s against the rules gets thrown in the same container and it all gets filtered. As there’s only one bucket there’s no way for the system to know what’s a swear word and what isn’t, so there’s no way of customising it - not for the users, not for the mods, not for Valve.

So it’s going to need a software change, right? Give me a business reason for Valve to do it because I don’t see one.

[Matt]

Originally posted by The creepy van guy:

I would like to freely view what people write on here.

Therein lies the problem. What you want to view shouldn't have been posted to begin with. So making the filter optional is reinforcing a negative behavior. Therefore, it's pretty much never going to be optional, and what business value in the work to make such an option available anyways?

[Gus the Crocodile]

Originally posted by Brujeira:

So it’s going to need a software change, right? Give me a business reason for Valve to do it because I don’t see one.

Of course, it was a bad design to do security filtering and morality filtering as the same list to begin with, so they'd need to be separated. All suggestions imply Valve would need to do work.

This is the user suggestions forum, we're not Valve employees submitting cost-benefit analyses. So I'm not really sure what you're expecting here. "It would improve people's (including my) experience of Steam" is about the best reason anyone can give for any suggestion which doesn't directly cause increased revenue, and this is a long way from the only one of those.

Originally posted by Matt:

Therein lies the problem. What you want to view shouldn't have been posted to begin with.

That's the responsibility of the writer, not the reader. And their responsibility, and thus accountability for their behaviour, remains unchanged.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

Originally posted by Matt:

Therein lies the problem. What you want to view shouldn't have been posted to begin with.

That's the responsibility of the writer, not the reader. And their responsibility, and thus accountability for their behaviour, remains unchanged.

It's a failsafe for what the writer should be doing to begin with.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

It's a failsafe for what the writer should be doing to begin with.

"Failsafe", like my eyes are going to melt if I see someone say a 'swear word'.

As you note, again, it's the writer's responsbility. As a reader, I am not responsible for the actions of writers, so placing restrictions on me as a result of their behaviour is a mistargeted response.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

Originally posted by Brujeira:

So it’s going to need a software change, right? Give me a business reason for Valve to do it because I don’t see one.

Of course, it was a bad design to do security filtering and morality filtering as the same list to begin with, so they'd need to be separated. All suggestions imply Valve would need to do work.

This is the user suggestions forum, we're not Valve employees submitting cost-benefit analyses. So I'm not really sure what you're expecting here. "It would improve people's (including my) experience of Steam" is about the best reason anyone can give for any suggestion which doesn't directly cause increased revenue, and this is a long way from the only one of those.

Originally posted by Matt:

Therein lies the problem. What you want to view shouldn't have been posted to begin with.

That's the responsibility of the writer, not the reader. And their responsibility, and thus accountability for their behaviour, remains unchanged.

Yes, but you still need a business reason as any post here is basically making a pitch. A lot of ‘QoL’ updates like this still need to be justified so that they’ll even get considered.

Basically, the list of justifications for making changes to... well, just about anything goes like this:

1. A Court has told us to do it.
2. People have asked for it and it’s cheap and easy to do.
.
.
.
.
.
.
10000. There’s nothing in it for us but it’ll make a small number of customers happy.

That’s the state of things. Even when this has been suggested before, it’s had pretty much no support from other users - even among Libertarians.

No support + code change = won’t be done.

That’s how it works.

[Drab]

Valve is trying to promote civility on their platform.

There will be no toggle.

@Brujeira Don't Libertarians believe that people can do what they want with their property? Valve is private property.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Originally posted by Brujeira:

Yes, but you still need a business reason as any post here is basically making a pitch.

It's not basically doing anything except making a suggestion in the suggestions forum. This isn't a business meeting; if Valve thought you needed a business plan to post here, they'd say so. That's not what this forum is or has ever been.

It's funny ("funny") how it's only a handful of particular topics that get this pushback. There are loads of suggestions even on the first page that don't "have a business reason", and yet notably don't have people posting in them to let the writer know that they "need" that. It's almost like people go out of their way to find something, anything, to throw at particular topics, rather than it being a sincere and reasoned objection.

In any case, your prediction that nothing will happen is noted, and I actually largely agree! Because really, the chances of any suggestion actually becoming part of Steam (in an amount of time short enough that people can remember a connection to a specific suggestions thread, at least) is pretty slim. That's okay, that's normal here; getting your hopes up would be a bad way to engage with a suggestions forum for any company, let alone one famous for "Valve time". Rest assured I'm not somehow under the impression Valve will drop everything to get this done. As ever, it's just a little thing to add to the to-do list.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Drab:

Valve is trying to promote civility on their platform.

There will be no toggle.

@Brujeira Don't Libertarians believe that people can do what they want with their property? Valve is private property.

Perhaps, but Valve are a business which perhaps means that they’re ‘The Man’. I’ll say no more than that as we’re getting close to breaking forum rules.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Gus the Crocodile:

Originally posted by Brujeira:

Yes, but you still need a business reason as any post here is basically making a pitch.

It's not basically doing anything except making a suggestion in the suggestions forum. This isn't a business meeting; if Valve thought you needed a business plan to post here, they'd say so. That's not what this forum is or has ever been.

It's funny ("funny") how it's only a handful of particular topics that get this pushback. There are loads of suggestions even on the first page that don't "have a business reason", and yet notably don't have people posting in them to let the writer know that they "need" that. It's almost like people go out of their way to find something, anything, to throw at particular topics, rather than it being a sincere and reasoned objection.

In any case, your prediction that nothing will happen is noted, and I actually largely agree! Because really, the chances of any suggestion actually becoming part of Steam (in an amount of time short enough that people can remember a connection to a specific suggestions thread, at least) is pretty slim. That's okay, that's normal here; getting your hopes up would be a bad way to engage with a suggestions forum for any company, let alone one famous for "Valve time". Rest assured I'm not somehow under the impression Valve will drop everything to get this done. As ever, it's just a little thing to add to the to-do list.

The topics haven’t had that much pushback, it’s just that they’ve had almost no support so the tiny amount of pushback they’ve had has seemed massive by comparison.

In fact, it seems that’s it’s often just you speaking in favour. That’s how few people want this done.