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.

[The Presence]

No.

[Bee🐝]

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

Bee🐝 lähetti viestin:

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.

Posters will usually point out and warn when it’s an obvious scam post.

This situation, which almost never happens with the current system, is far less damaging than giving scammers and perverts total control of a thread.

Now, the speed at which clearly shady threads and posts should be removed is a different discussion we should have that at some point.

[The Commendatore]

Yeah, how about no? Just report the offending comment(s) and leave it at that.

[BJWyler]

Bomoo lähetti viestin:

Or it's a necessary idea whose time has yet to come,

I guess you missed the part where the OP said:

Chalupabaras lähetti viestin:

I think you're right folks, this is a terrible idea... but the discussion was awesome.

Bomoo lähetti viestin:

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.

Contrary to that belief, giving users mod powers over their own threads would increase the need for official moderation to step in, rather than decrease it. Once trolls learn they have that power, the number of threads that they would create to wreck havoc would increase exponentially. They would also begin vengeance posting in someone's thread, necessitating further mod action as the creator of the thread would only be able to moderate for a very limited time in a day or week. Official moderation is handled 24/7.

Bomoo lähetti viestin:

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.

Yes, and the only way it would be able to be worked out effectively would be to increase official moderation, not decrease it.

[infinitetech]

if anything having all posts contain a log of edits and changes (with reasons behind censorship being listed if mods step in, but allowing you to see if you are trying to follow what happened or trace patterns of bad behavior and the like) would be a much better work around, with the ability for an author to flag msgs for review, but need to have a good reason as to why

[Tito Shivan]

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

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.

And this is where people don't take into account it's not just them in the forums and they're always going to be outnumbered by others.

Scammers won't go to your thread to make a scam post. They'll make their own threads where they'll control who can post and create a favorable thread where only OP and their alts get to post how wonderful that site is and how much they've made through that site.

-Please visit [Totally a Scam URL]

- WOW Lovely site!
- I just won $100 there!
- +REP Totally legit
- MUST VISIT!
- BEST SITE EVER
...

[Pierce Dalton]

Tito Shivan lähetti viestin:

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

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.

And this is where people don't take into account it's not just them in the forums and they're always going to be outnumbered by others.

Scammers won't go to your thread to make a scam post. They'll make their own threads where they'll control who can post and create a favorable thread where only OP and their alts get to post how wonderful that site is and how much they've made through that site.

-Please visit [Totally a Scam URL]

- WOW Lovely site!
- I just won $100 there!
- +REP Totally legit
- MUST VISIT!
- BEST SITE EVER
...

Oh, don't worry about that... moderation can be quite fast when a LOT of people report the same post.

[Brian9824]

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

Tito Shivan lähetti viestin:

And this is where people don't take into account it's not just them in the forums and they're always going to be outnumbered by others.

Scammers won't go to your thread to make a scam post. They'll make their own threads where they'll control who can post and create a favorable thread where only OP and their alts get to post how wonderful that site is and how much they've made through that site.

Oh, don't worry about that... moderation can be quite fast when a LOT of people report the same post.

Except thats literally been disrproved repeatedly, and former moderators even shared screenshots of what it looks like. All repeated reports do is add additional comments to the ticket, it doesn't bump it up, or make it more visible.

[Gwarsbane]

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

Tito Shivan lähetti viestin:

And this is where people don't take into account it's not just them in the forums and they're always going to be outnumbered by others.

Scammers won't go to your thread to make a scam post. They'll make their own threads where they'll control who can post and create a favorable thread where only OP and their alts get to post how wonderful that site is and how much they've made through that site.

Oh, don't worry about that... moderation can be quite fast when a LOT of people report the same post.

Like heck they can. It took nearly a week for them to remove a racist spammer from the forums. Heck it took them days to actually community ban them so they couldn't keep posting and then like I said, took nearly a week to remove all their racist spam which could have easily been done in just a couple of hours the first day it was reported by just looking at their post history which was pointed out to them a number of times.

[Pierce Dalton]

brian9824 lähetti viestin:

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

Oh, don't worry about that... moderation can be quite fast when a LOT of people report the same post.

Except thats literally been disrproved repeatedly, and former moderators even shared screenshots of what it looks like. All repeated reports do is add additional comments to the ticket, it doesn't bump it up, or make it more visible.

?

It seems I have to be clearer:

Some posts are deleted (and the poster warned/banned) within 10 minutes or so.

Curiously, though, some worse things stay up for much longer as mentioned by Gwar...

[Brian9824]

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

brian9824 lähetti viestin:

Except thats literally been disrproved repeatedly, and former moderators even shared screenshots of what it looks like. All repeated reports do is add additional comments to the ticket, it doesn't bump it up, or make it more visible.

?

It seems I have to be clearer:

Some posts are deleted (and the poster warned/banned) within 10 minutes or so.

Curiously, though, some worse things stay up for much longer as mentioned by Gwar...

Doesn't change the fact that its not repeated reports doing it. Now its entirely possible some users got themselves flagged for repeated bad behaviour, or a moderator was cleaning up a thread and saw the post, or a mod was bored and browsing the forum, or any other potential reason that we will never know.

What we do know however is that the myth of repeated posts doing something is just that, a myth that has no actual basis in reality as we've LITERALLY seen the screen and see that it has no impact.

[Pierce Dalton]

brian9824 lähetti viestin:

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

?

It seems I have to be clearer:

Some posts are deleted (and the poster warned/banned) within 10 minutes or so.

Curiously, though, some worse things stay up for much longer as mentioned by Gwar...

Doesn't change the fact that its not repeated reports doing it. Now its entirely possible some users got themselves flagged for repeated bad behaviour, or a moderator was cleaning up a thread and saw the post, or a mod was bored and browsing the forum, or any other potential reason that we will never know.

What we do know however is that the myth of repeated posts doing something is just that, a myth that has no actual basis in reality as we've LITERALLY seen the screen and see that it has no impact.

Yes, we'll never know... unless we talk to a game hub mod.

You're sadly mistaken, as one of them has confirmed that different users re-reporting a post will move it to the top of the list, just like replying to a thread. That, of course, if the original report wasn't reviewed yet. In that case, subsequent reports won't have any effect - they're all ignored by the system.

[Brian9824]

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

brian9824 lähetti viestin:

Doesn't change the fact that its not repeated reports doing it. Now its entirely possible some users got themselves flagged for repeated bad behaviour, or a moderator was cleaning up a thread and saw the post, or a mod was bored and browsing the forum, or any other potential reason that we will never know.

What we do know however is that the myth of repeated posts doing something is just that, a myth that has no actual basis in reality as we've LITERALLY seen the screen and see that it has no impact.

Yes, we'll never know... unless we talk to a game hub mod.

You're sadly mistaken, as one of them has confirmed that different users re-reporting a post will move it to the top of the list, just like replying to a thread. That, of course, if the original report wasn't reviewed yet. In that case, subsequent reports won't have any effect - they're all ignored by the system.

Can you link that confirmation? That goes directly against multiple moderators who provided actual photographic evidence. If you can't link it then it doesn't seem like its very trustworthy, as we have directly contradicting evidence backed by screenshots that say otherwise.

Of course even if a random game hub mod makes a claim its not exactly worth anything unless they provide proof. Plenty of game hub mods have been banned for life from steam along with the developers for lying, breaking the rules, etc.

[Pierce Dalton]

brian9824 lähetti viestin:

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

Yes, we'll never know... unless we talk to a game hub mod.

You're sadly mistaken, as one of them has confirmed that different users re-reporting a post will move it to the top of the list, just like replying to a thread. That, of course, if the original report wasn't reviewed yet. In that case, subsequent reports won't have any effect - they're all ignored by the system.

Can you link that confirmation? That goes directly against multiple moderators who provided actual photographic evidence. If you can't link it then it doesn't seem like its very trustworthy, as we have directly contradicting evidence backed by screenshots that say otherwise.

Of course even if a random game hub mod makes a claim its not exactly worth anything unless they provide proof. Plenty of game hub mods have been banned for life from steam along with the developers for lying, breaking the rules, etc.

Screenshots cannot "unprove" that and you know it.

There's no link, they told me that in chat and they had zero reason to invent such thing. I'm not worried about proving anything, either. Believe whatever you want.

Btw, I've heard that group moderation works the same way, so feel free to test it yourself.

[The Commendatore]

Chalupabaras lähetti viestin:

Pierce Dalton lähetti viestin:

?

It seems I have to be clearer:

Some posts are deleted (and the poster warned/banned) within 10 minutes or so.

Curiously, though, some worse things stay up for much longer as mentioned by Gwar...

Yeah, there's been a few that were straight up "FBI OPEN UP!!" kind of worse stuff, and the moderators wouldn't shut it down. Pretty sure "openly promoting the solicitation of sex with minors" is a violation of TOS, and not subject to Section 230 protections that Valve so thoroughly enjoys... except when it's certain groups doing it. Getting investigated for that sort of stuff isn't new for Valve, let alone Twitch or YouTube.

Tito mentioned the risk of turning Steam into an echo chamber, well that didn't seem to be much of a concern over the past several years when he was helping run things and it doesn't seem to be any more of a concern now that someone else is running things.

Another thing to consider is that if Valve's third-party vendor does actually exist, and does actually have humans employed as Steam Community moderators, those humans are only at their job for a limited number of hours a day at best. If a thread is getting swarmed by toxic people, waiting for the mods to intervene is about as effective as calling the cops when a serial killer's breaking into your apartment.

Tito also mentioned that our content is owned by the community... what if the community actually wants this implemented because they genuinely don't trust the Steam moderators are able to do their job?

I don't trust the people who want this to do that job.