Steam should not allow periods to be used in profile names

[Reaper]

In almost every post about some person getting scammed because they were dumb enough to log into a lotto site, they advertise this scam site in their username because they were promised free stuff. There's already a filter for some of the scam sites, but since they pop up so fast, there's no way to filter them all. By getting rid of the period completely, there's no way to have a site link in your name which means these scammers can't advertise it through the people who fall for this crap.

I realize this is basically the equivalent of having to babyproof the house for steams lowest common sense users, but if it slows down the 20 daily posts of "PSA I got scammed by this brand new scam that nobody has discovered" then I'd be happy with that

[76561198407601200]

"Scamsitedotcom" see, bypassed no period being used.

[Brian9824]

Most scams use discord, steam messaging, adding site in your steam bio, etc. I've yet really seen one where they did it off the profile name.

[nullable]

Periods aren't the problem.... any more than vowels are, or language is. Ultimately the problem is a trading system where items have rarity and value, and a spectrum of users who are greedy and ignorant (and thus vulnerable).

[Sazzouu]

In my my opinion there is a lot to be filtered in nicknames...

They are nicknames. Anything that is not contained in an Alphabet should not be allowed. Dots, parenthesis, dashes and what not. Also numbers while numbers are somewhat acceptable.

That would not only make forums way more readable it would automatically prevent advertisement in names... At least to some degree.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by FeaR_TH3_Reap3R:

In almost every post about some person getting scammed because they were dumb enough to log into a lotto site, they advertise this scam site in their username because they were promised free stuff. There's already a filter for some of the scam sites, but since they pop up so fast, there's no way to filter them all. By getting rid of the period completely, there's no way to have a site link in your name which means these scammers can't advertise it through the people who fall for this crap.

I realize this is basically the equivalent of having to babyproof the house for steams lowest common sense users, but if it slows down the 20 daily posts of "PSA I got scammed by this brand new scam that nobody has discovered" then I'd be happy with that

They did filter specific names at one time, but they rolled back that filter for some reason.

[Zekiran]

So Dr. Fox and Mr. Duck can't have their properly spelled names?

Nah, as stated above, it's people need fixing, not the system.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Sazzouu:

In my my opinion there is a lot to be filtered in nicknames...

They are nicknames. Anything that is not contained in an Alphabet should not be allowed. Dots, parenthesis, dashes and what not. Also numbers while numbers are somewhat acceptable.

That would not only make forums way more readable it would automatically prevent advertisement in names... At least to some degree.

Well you're falling into a pitfall a lot of developers who write bad validation do. Taking a problem, assuming it's simple, and oversimplifying it.

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

Granted not all of these apply to nicknames, but nicknames especially in the context of gaming can still be quite a bit more complex than what you're describing. And what you're describing is, "I only use letters and numbers, so no one else needs anything more." O rly?

[Jessie]

any valid unicode symbol should be allowed as a nickname... as it is now

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Report them. Support is removing them as seen in a few threads.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3117025249770052836/#c3117025249772321743

:qr:

I've been reporting all those usernames with gambling/case opening/whatever else site names stuck in them, and I haven't gotten a note thanking me for it, so I've wondered whether Support is actually doing anything about them. I hope they are.

[Zekiran]

You may not be the first who reported, I know that I've reported plenty of things but obviously not been the first, and definitely seen results otherwise from those. I don't do it for the thanks :D I do it because bad behavior is still bad regardless. And dumb is as dumb does in the case of those shady sites. I would just love to know whether anyone who's had their name generic'd because of it has ever, maybe, maybe, wondered WHY and actually figured it out.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I've seen people complain about their usernames getting generic'd where it turns out they had some offensive thing in their name, but I haven't yet seen an instance of people doing this because of sketchy domain names in their name.

[Tito Shivan]

URLs in profile names cannot be actually followed to a URL, so removing the dots would have minimal impact in the spam. Sites asking people to put the url in their profiles look for visibility, not clicks.

Originally posted by Sazzouu:

They are nicknames. Anything that is not contained in an Alphabet should not be allowed. Dots, parenthesis, dashes and what not. Also numbers while numbers are somewhat acceptable.

Disregarding how many actual nicknames contain non alphanumeric symbols because the variants who don't have long beet taken by someone else.

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

:qr:

I've been reporting all those usernames with gambling/case opening/whatever else site names stuck in them, and I haven't gotten a note thanking me for it, so I've wondered whether Support is actually doing anything about them. I hope they are. [/quote]
Scam sites are continuously being taken down. However just like any other spam issue it's an ongoing battle as the more they take down the more than pop up.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Sazzouu:

They are nicknames. Anything that is not contained in an Alphabet should not be allowed. Dots, parenthesis, dashes and what not. Also numbers while numbers are somewhat acceptable.

Unicode and literally every other country with non ascii letters would like to have a word with you about that

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Sazzouu:

They are nicknames. Anything that is not contained in an Alphabet should not be allowed. Dots, parenthesis, dashes and what not. Also numbers while numbers are somewhat acceptable.

Unicode and literally every other country with non ascii letters would like to have a word with you about that

Frankly, the internet operated just fine with usernames consisting solely of alphanumerics, select symbols, and no spaces.

The ability to use almost any text as a username is a luxury.

That said, this suggestion wouldn't actually solve the problem of gambling site names being used in usernames, but still.

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Scam sites are continuously being taken down. However just like any other spam issue it's an ongoing battle as the more they take down the more than pop up.

Some of these sites have been around for a long time (a certain site whose name starts with "hell" comes to mind), considering how they're still getting name spam.

But more importantly, I am definitely still seeing profiles with this in their username still using it. Like, the same profiles, a while after I reported them. I've wanted Steam to crack down on people advertising such sites in their usernames, but I don't see this happening. Nor have I seen people coming on the forums to complain that Steam doesn't let them do this anymore.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Originally posted by Satoru:

Unicode and literally every other country with non ascii letters would like to have a word with you about that

Frankly, the internet operated just fine with usernames consisting solely of alphanumerics, select symbols, and no spaces.

It didn't. It still doesn't. The idea that a name can has non-ASCII characters in it is still not commonplace even in countries that use an alphabet with non-ASCII.

When I was tessting the implementation of a booking service my confirmation came back with half of my name omitted on the ticket. The fix they did? Converting Umlauts and the Eszet ti ASCII. Of course it borked again when using a Turkish name ...

My surname used to break database programs because it was automatically converted and thus not findable any longer.
Hell, it caused me issues with the tax service because the name was wrong on my automatically issued tax card.

And these are not some 1990s issues but well into 2010+. The booking stuff was 2019.
"It operated just fine" my arse.