Don't let devs lock forums to game owners.

[Chaosolous]

There's some games I don't own, but want to ask questions about to people who own it.

I can't though because some forums require you to own the game.

This is dumb. I shouldn't have to buy the game to ask a question to people who own the game about something in the game.

If I'm on the fence about a game, for a specific reason that's not answered in a trailer, I should be able to post the damn question.

Like, wtf is Kenshi about? Can't ask. Forums locked. No, I don't want to watch a video, I want to ask someone, in a conversation, about it.

That's just an example but there's several games like this.

Stop this. If devs are upset about what's going on on their forums from non-game owners, they can moderate their forums.

[Seretti]

There should be a subforum open to everyone if you have questions or just wanna chat about the game. Use that.

[datCookie]

Are you talking about Kenshi, the game released in 2018? You can still post there, just not in their "Bulletin" sub-forum, which is restricted to game owners only. Their General discussion section is open to everyone. I don't know of a single game hub that restricts all access to game owners only. I'm not even sure if they're allowed to. They may be forced by Valve to have at least a General discussions section which is open to everyone.

[Wayward]

Originally posted by datCookie:

Are you talking about Kenshi, the game released in 2018? You can still post there, just not in their "Bulletin" sub-forum, which is restricted to game owners only. Their General discussion section is open to everyone. I don't know of a single game hub that restricts all access to game owners only. I'm not even sure if they're allowed to. They may be forced by Valve to have at least a General discussions section which is open to everyone.

At least one forum section must be open to non-owners. It does not need to be a general discussions section, though. There is no requirement other than that at least one is open.

[datCookie]

Originally posted by Wayward:

At least one forum section must be open to non-owners. It does not need to be a general discussions section, though. There is no requirement other than that at least one is open.

Exactly. And since non-game owners will use that, it's usually just left as a General discussions section anyway.

OP doesn't know what they're talking about

[peppermint hollows]

Originally posted by datCookie:

Are you talking about Kenshi, the game released in 2018? You can still post there, just not in their "Bulletin" sub-forum, which is restricted to game owners only. Their General discussion section is open to everyone.

Actually the Bulletin Board section can only be posted in by the hub's moderators/officers, even if you own the game you can't post there (which is something else game devs can do with forum sections). That section is just for official posts about the game. Would help the OP to actually check the other sections... all of them are open to non-owners.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

Like, wtf is Kenshi about? Can't ask. Forums locked.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/233860/discussions/0/596279056135166023/
Someone who doesn't own Kenshi asking a question in their General Discussions forum.

Let's try not to be so obtuse. Look around at your surroundings a little. There's more to the world than what's directly in front of you.

[datCookie]

Originally posted by peppermint hollows:

Originally posted by datCookie:

Are you talking about Kenshi, the game released in 2018? You can still post there, just not in their "Bulletin" sub-forum, which is restricted to game owners only. Their General discussion section is open to everyone.

Actually the Bulletin Board section can only be posted in by the hub's moderators/officers, even if you own the game you can't post there (which is something else game devs can do with forum sections). That section is just for official posts about the game. Would help the OP to actually check the other sections... all of them are open to non-owners.

Yup, not even game owners, good catch.

Not sure what the OP is talking about then.

[Wayward]

Originally posted by peppermint hollows:

Originally posted by datCookie:

Are you talking about Kenshi, the game released in 2018? You can still post there, just not in their "Bulletin" sub-forum, which is restricted to game owners only. Their General discussion section is open to everyone.

Actually the Bulletin Board section can only be posted in by the hub's moderators/officers, even if you own the game you can't post there (which is something else game devs can do with forum sections). That section is just for official posts about the game. Would help the OP to actually check the other sections... all of them are open to non-owners.

Good point. And Kenshi is not the only game to use the top/first section as a mods-only section for official posts. Sometimes you need to check the others.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The Bulletin Board sub-forum is the landing page in the Kenshi game hub. That is locked to moderators and officers of the game hub.

A lot of games hubs do this when there are an extreme amount of informational threads needed.

[ุ]

More Devs need an owner only forum in their game hubs to filter out spam, trolls, and culture war award farming.

[matt]

Originally posted by Leonardo Da Pinchi:

More Devs need an owner only forum in their game hubs to filter out spam, trolls, and culture war award farming.

Yes, I wish that all forums defaulted to being locked only to game owners. We could keep everything else the same, though, like requiring at least forum to be open to the public. But the jester farmers would have to stay in their jester farmer slum.

[HikariLight]

Steam requires that game hubs have at least 1 sub forum open to all users.
This is because many games are on multiple platforms, so they may have the game, just not on Steam.

[Chaosolous]

Huh, didn't know that. Good to know.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Chaosolous:

Huh, didn't know that. Good to know.

To be fair, the message in the right hand column that states, "Posting privileges: Only group moderators and officers are allowed to post in this forum." should say, "sub-forum" instead.