Past Items Profile Showcase

[DaveN]

Related r/GlobalOffensiveTrade Post

This suggestion is pretty simple and effective.
I am fairly sure many people would like to show off their past items on their profile.

It would provide a nice way of officially proving that you once owned a rare item, instead of just showing screenshots, which could be faked, or using trading data from third party websites.
Steams data logs should be enough to provide such a service.

The positives on our end are that we get to brag with our sold or traded skins.
On Valve's end, it's yet another incentive for trading/buying, basically boosting the skin economy.
Simple, yet effective.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Good way for scammers to try and "prove" items they have are legit. Currently, the item showcase only shows actual items in the inventory. Scammers would abuse "past item showcase" to make it look like they still have the items.

[DaveN]

Originally posted by <Insert Kazoo Circus Music Here>:

Good way for scammers to try and "prove" items they have are legit. Currently, the item showcase only shows actual items in the inventory. Scammers would abuse "past item showcase" to make it look like they still have the items.

I don't see this as an issue as long as it's clearly visible that you're looking at past items - plenty ways of implementing visual indicators for that.

There's multiple ways to disprove this too.
Just click the inventory and check, for example. Apart from that, many scammers will rotate accounts fairly quickly to evade item loss, so for most of em, there wont even be a long list of past items.

Additionally, the account level requirement could be very high, still wouldn't stop scammers from buying high level or boosting accounts of course, however it would be less convenient, scammers love to min/max their strategy.

I don't see this as a feature which would get massively abused, due to the many ways of counteracting it, such as basic visibility.
I would not consider this very effective from a scammers perspective either, most scams are more complex than that. Sure it might spice the legitimacy of the profile up a bit, but even within that aspect they've got better tools at their disposal.

[eram]

why does it matter what items you used to own? if they were so good why did you get rid of them?
seems like a pointless showcase

[DaveN]

Originally posted by eram:

why does it matter what items you used to own? if they were so good why did you get rid of them?
seems like a pointless showcase

If that's how you see it, most showcases are pointless. None of them matter, nobody cares about your favourite game or badges either.
It's simply a way of bragging, I don't see how that's hard to understand, people flex with rare items all over their profiles, why not allow them to do the same with past items.

As a trader, a lot of prestigious items will leave your inventory, thats what trading is, isn't it? You can't just keep stuff if you want to upgrade your items and snag some nice deals.

Might not matter for some of us, but after having conversations with various traders, this idea was met with positive receptions.

I care more about my steam profile than my CV, lol.

[eram]

you should look into fixing your proprieties, its not healthy.

[DaveN]

Originally posted by eram:

you should look into fixing your proprieties, its not healthy.

No worries, I'm living good, I just care about my steam profile and trade history. :)

[4byss]

I like the idea, it's simple as you said, and adds value to expression on your profile. I also see how this benefits valve, should be a no brainer.

[SHVXX]

Originally posted by eram:

you should look into fixing your proprieties, its not healthy.

I need to fix my proprieties too mate

[SHVXX]

Honestly, this is a sick idea, I want to show off that I once owned a Huntsman Black Pearl lowest float in the world when there was only 3 in the whole database at the time. I want this feature. And I agree definitely agree with 4byss & DaveN. As a trader, this is something steam will benefit from. Gives more people to flex their skins and incentivises trading and impacts the economy in a positive way. Win -Win for us and valve.

[Gedatzu #<3 ♜]

Yeah, for the longest time I used a "Custom Info Box" showcase filled with links to sreenshots from my past items/trades.
Maybe people dont remember, but in the early days actually trading high value items on Steam was common procedure. There really werent any third party sites which you could use to get rid of your items. A way to show your trading history alongside profile comments et cetera was a way to prove youre legitimat and trustworthy.
I wished that feature wouldve existed years ago :D While nowadays trading valuable items on Steam is rather uncommon, it would still be a nice feature to look upon and display your old catches.
It just should be shown very clear that you dont own the items anylonger. Maybe they can even show a rough estimate of the period in which you owned it.
Regarding the concerns about scammers abusing this feature or the thesis that it actually benefits them. They already abuse the given features and try all the dirty tricks but 99.8% of them are either bots or troglodytes. If you lose your account / item to a scammer nowadays even after all the stuff Steam added to prevent it you probably deserved it or are too young the use Steam anyways lol.

[𒐪⎝ Epylector ⎠𒐪]

Too brokenly abused. You could trade back and forth with someone until you have tons of items in your 'past' collection without actually owning them in good faith. I cannot picture a way Valve could code against this practice. For this reason I recommend against this suggestion.

For that matter, this is like an art collector showing off photographs of paintings they once had. It's a lot less impressive than actually owning them. That in it itself isn't a reason to not do the suggestion but something I thought worth mentioning.

[DaveN]

Originally posted by EpycWyn:

:negative1:

Too brokenly abused. You could trade back and forth with someone until you have tons of items in your 'past' collection without actually owning them in good faith. I cannot picture a way Valve could code against this practice. For this reason I recommend against this suggestion.

Well, I would still want this if this type of "abuse" would happen, I really couldn't care less, despite the fact that this would devalue the whole system. Steam levels are farmed/bought these days, screenshots of items people never owned exist too, i don't think this space needs to be that strict. Of course abuse would happen, but it wouldn't ruin the feature for myself. You can never be sure if stuff is genuine anyways. :)

[𒐪⎝ Epylector ⎠𒐪]

Originally posted by DaveN:

Originally posted by EpycWyn:

Too brokenly abused. You could trade back and forth with someone until you have tons of items in your 'past' collection without actually owning them in good faith. I cannot picture a way Valve could code against this practice. For this reason I recommend against this suggestion.

Well, I would still want this if this type of "abuse" would happen, I really couldn't care less, despite the fact that this would devalue the whole system. Steam levels are farmed/bought these days, screenshots of items people never owned exist too, i don't think this space needs to be that strict. Of course abuse would happen, but it wouldn't ruin the feature for myself. You can never be sure if stuff is genuine anyways. :)

This libertarian approach to digital design philosophy would be the death of any online community's stability. If people undermine a good system for bad reasons, you mock them, then if too persistent avoid them, and then in severe cases punish them for doing so. You don't ruin the system completely so only system-breakers come out on top, just because they sometimes get away with doing so.

Don't get me wrong, it's good to make a system open-minded to varied approaches including system-breaking approaches, especially to reduce the most severe system-breaking approaches. But outright catering to this system abuse, without a reason rooted in reducing overall abuse in some aspect, is only going to hurt everyone, including the abusers who will no longer be special in what they are doing.

If you don't like the level system, don't promote Steam be destroy just because it hosts that leveling system, promote the level system be changed and if you deem necessary, destroyed.

[Shertgun]

Originally posted by EpycWyn:

:negative1:

Too brokenly abused. You could trade back and forth with someone until you have tons of items in your 'past' collection without actually owning them in good faith. I cannot picture a way Valve could code against this practice. For this reason I recommend against this suggestion.

For that matter, this is like an art collector showing off photographs of paintings they once had. It's a lot less impressive than actually owning them. That in it itself isn't a reason to not do the suggestion but something I thought worth mentioning.

They can track the longest uninterrupted time that the item was in your inventory and showcase it.

[𒐪⎝ Epylector ⎠𒐪]

Originally posted by Shertgun:

Originally posted by EpycWyn:

Too brokenly abused. You could trade back and forth with someone until you have tons of items in your 'past' collection without actually owning them in good faith. I cannot picture a way Valve could code against this practice. For this reason I recommend against this suggestion.

For that matter, this is like an art collector showing off photographs of paintings they once had. It's a lot less impressive than actually owning them. That in it itself isn't a reason to not do the suggestion but something I thought worth mentioning.

They can track the longest uninterrupted time that the item was in your inventory and showcase it.

That isn't a bad alternative, but even then, people may end up with showcases of BSed items they had for 24 hours. This would be a lot more tolerable, though. Still, you're just showing off photographs of things you don't have at that point, which is fine as a customization feature, is kind of pathetic compared to just... actually owning these things.

Should it be allowed? I'm neutral on that, so nothing lost nothing gained if implemented. Would it be kind of cheezy to show this kind of showcase off? -I would definitely look down a little on people who show off things they no longer have but still show off.