Suggestion: the ability to delete other people's comments on your own threads

[Chalupacabaras]

Valve's TOS states that it's the user's sole responsibility to manage the content they post on Steam's forums. However, there doesn't appear to be a way to delete other people's comments on a thread you post in Steam Forums.

Logistically, it would make sense that if it's our job to keep things civil then we should have the tools available to do so. The paid moderators should be a means of last resort, not a means for trolls, bots and burner accounts to abuse the system.

Or am I using too much common sense? Anyhoo, thank you for hearing me out.

[Tito Shivan]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Aachen:

Users are quite fallible, too

Even more important, they can be malicious.

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bomoo:

I.e. let us do our own housekeeping instead of having to cry to teacher every time we see a rat taking a dump on our cafeteria table.

If you want your own housekeeping, get yourself a Steam Group.

[Brian9824]

Yeah as stated you don't own a post. You can control your own words but not those of other people IF your using the public forums.

Now in a private group, your profile, etc you can control it as you "own" that content. There is a reason basically every forum in the world doesn't let others delete posts. People would just delete any post that didn't agree with them, and it would be a nightmare

[Tanoomba]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

Letting users moderate their own Steam Forum threads would provide the golden opportunity to prove me wrong.

No. It's a silly idea to enforce a terrible, fundamentally flawed idea just to "prove" it won't work. We know it won't work. The boards are full of bitter, angry, toxic people who would have a field day silencing people they don't like. We already have a system to deal with detrimental posts. It may not be perfect, but giving users mod powers would be far, far worse.

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

Forcing us to listen to what the other has to say is a bad idea

You don't have to listen to anybody you don't want to. There's a "block" feature that prevents you from seeing someone's posts.

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

Still think it's the worst idea ever?

Absolutely.

[Aachen]

I also don’t really see how it accomplishes anything if one is being targeted by a bad actor — as soon as someone commits to annoying you, how many reposts would you need remove?

So, what, then, users become empowered to issue bans to other users? Account terminations?!

[Bomoo]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Tito Shivan:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Aachen:

Users are quite fallible, too

Even more important, they can be malicious.

So can moderators. I think everyone here has experienced being on the receiving end of unfair moderation over some triviality because the moderator was enacting some personal grudge. In which case, if moderators are just as not-infallible as average users, there's no reason to restrict moderation powers to them.

If for whatever reason you don't think a forum's moderators are objective or fair, you're welcome to stop posting there. By the same token, if you don't think a thread's creator is being objective or fair or enabling constructive discussion with their proposed moderation powers, you're welcome to stop posting in that thread and create your own.

[davidb11]

Moderators don't make enough mistakes and are malicious for your claims to be justified, nor can everything collapse into lawlessness and chaos like you want.
Don't be silly.

[Tito Shivan]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bomoo:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Tito Shivan:

Even more important, they can be malicious.

So can moderators.

Moderators have a responsibility on their duty.
Users don't.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bomoo:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Tito Shivan:

Even more important, they can be malicious.

So can moderators. I think everyone here has experienced being on the receiving end of unfair moderation over some triviality because the moderator was enacting some personal grudge. In which case, if moderators are just as not-infallible as average users, there's no reason to restrict moderation powers to them.

If for whatever reason you don't think a forum's moderators are objective or fair, you're welcome to stop posting there. By the same token, if you don't think a thread's creator is being objective or fair or enabling constructive discussion with their proposed moderation powers, you're welcome to stop posting in that thread and create your own.

With your suggestion, you create and endless amount of 'response threads' which will just cause more issues.

It's a pretty good point on why allowing users to delete comments on public threads as they see fit is not a good idea.

[BJWyler]

Opprinnelig skrevet av SlowMango:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Tanoomba:

"Social vengeance movements" sounds a lot like dog whistling to me.
I mean, the fact that you think there are "untouchables" that the moderators allow to control the forum shows that you're approaching the issue from a flawed perspective. We can't fix a problem if the "problem" itself is simply a disinengenuous rant about there being consequences for ule-breaking behavior.

I think almost everyone in this thread outside of maybe like 2 people have had moderation action against them.

The idea that there are untouchables in the forums when previous volunteer mods get banned is very odd.

It is quite ridiculous. I just got two warnings this past week. One from the General Discussions, and another from a dev who apparently does not want anyone posting in their forum space.

I appealed the general warning as I believe the reason did not apply to my post, but Support upheld the decision. I don't agree with it, but I'm big enough to accept their decision and move on. I plan on contacting the dev about his warning to see what the deal is, because a few of us were just trying to help another user who had issues posting a bug report for the game.

[BJWyler]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

Just because I can start trouble on someone else's thread, doesn't mean they have to just sit there and take it.

They don't. That's why we have a report feature for posts that violate the rules, and a block feature to prevent one from seeing someone else's rants.

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

Still think it's the worst idea ever?

It absolutely is in a Public Discussion Forum. To do what you are suggesting is to no longer have a Public Discussion, but an Authoritarian Discussion. It's how authoritarians exercise power over everyone else, as witnessed by two large countries in Asia that shall thusly be unnamed.

Once again, if you want control or an echo chamber you have Steam Groups and Blogger. Make use of them. Part of a Public Discussion Forum is being presented with thoughts and ideas you may not like nor agree with. If that is something antithesis to you, then you should not participate in Public Discussion Forums.

[Taiji]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

Valve's TOS states that it's the user's sole responsibility to manage the content they post on Steam's forums. However, there doesn't appear to be a way to delete other people's comments on a thread you post in Steam Forums.

Logistically, it would make sense that if it's our job to keep things civil then we should have the tools available to do so. The paid moderators should be a means of last resort, not a means for trolls, bots and burner accounts to abuse the system.

Or am I using too much common sense? Anyhoo, thank you for hearing me out.

The sensible part of your post is the criticism of the moderation team as being a tool for trolls at times.
I think your suggestion creates a worse problem, though, unfortunately.

[Bomoo]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chalupabaras:

this is a terrible idea...

Or it's a necessary idea whose time has yet to come, just like many of the "controversial" "no that's impossible valve can never do something like that!" "terrible idea" "no" suggestions that ended up getting implemented and are now part of the status quo.

I suspect as numbers of malignant non-constructive non-contributors to community discussions become higher and higher, moderator workload will likely increase to the point where valve will need to do something. One solution could be hiring more moderation staff, but that costs money. A cost-free solution could be just what the OP suggested, and myself in a thread from some time ago suggesting the same thing, in delegating limited moderation powers to users over their own threads and lightening the workload of full moderators.

As with the current system, the ins and outs of oversight and repercussions for abuse would need to be worked out, but that's something that comes with time and iteration.

[Tito Shivan]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bomoo:

Or it's a necessary idea whose time has yet to come, just like many of the "controversial" "no that's impossible valve can never do something like that!" "terrible idea" "no" suggestions that ended up getting implemented and are now part of the status quo..

Out of curiousity... Which ones are those many 'bad ideas' that ended up getting implemented?

[Pierce Dalton]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bee🐝:

So, scammer or other shady individual, creates bait post - usual trade, discord, +rep or friend offer stuff.

Knowing users point out that it’s bait to warn potential marks. These threads are also reported.

While waiting for the report to be actioned, the scammer happily deletes all negative replies to the thread. Heck, they might even get some friends to back up their claims.

Which already is possible.

Now let's invert this situation...

What if a scammer posts in someone else's thread? The op could quickly delete the post, but currently, that's impossible. You have to wait hours or even days for moderation to do it.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bomoo:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Tito Shivan:

Even more important, they can be malicious.

So can moderators. I think everyone here has experienced being on the receiving end of unfair moderation over some triviality because the moderator was enacting some personal grudge. In which case, if moderators are just as not-infallible as average users, there's no reason to restrict moderation powers to them.

If for whatever reason you don't think a forum's moderators are objective or fair, you're welcome to stop posting there. By the same token, if you don't think a thread's creator is being objective or fair or enabling constructive discussion with their proposed moderation powers, you're welcome to stop posting in that thread and create your own.

Only unfair moderation I had, was from a single game dev who no longer has his product on Steam. So...no, you don't speak for the majority.