Deleted comments for reviews should leave a mark

[76561198152810673]

Today I commented on a review that was obviously unfair and stated untruths by saying that this was the case. The reviewer replied to my comment and told me that I provide no arguments for my accusation as of why I think his review is bad.

I then provided the arguments very thoroughly and not much later all of those follow-up comments (6) were deleted by the reviewer which means that now there are only the remarks of the reviewer in the comments.

This is ridiculous.

While I do understand that it is cheaper for Valve to let others do the moderating for them and that they probably do not care much if this will result in a fair behaviour in comments sections, I would think that it is not too much to ask, that at least the entry of such a comment like the ones I describe above would remain and there would still be a "deleted by reviewer" visible for others.

By leaving this notice in there, everyone would get the information that some sort of discourse took place and thus take away of a very powerful tool for someone to distort the perception of readers as to what actually happened.

The way it is now reminds me more of the censorship in authoritarian states than of the tradition of free speech more civilized cultures tend to practice.

Hopefully I am not the only one who thinks that way.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Yeah, I agree with that. I have no particular problem with people having zero-accountability deletion rights for things like their profile that are intended to be "their" space, but a review on Steam is something you're actively pushing out into the Steam community. That is a communal space where ideally only the moderators should be able to enforce actions upon other people's expression.

If people want to write reviews that they maintain complete control over the comments for, they should do it on their own site.

[Space Coward]

How about a comment that shows your name and just says Deleted by <username> like it does when you delete a thread comment as a group moderator?

[aaronfranke]

I 100% agree with this.

[Fox]

Originally posted by Kill-Cam Celebrity:

How about a comment that shows your name and just says Deleted by <username> like it does when you delete a thread comment as a group moderator?

This seems to be the best way to go about this suggestion, which is quite interesting. I'd only question the point of the "Deleted by" for reviews, as one review means one person (unlike, say, guides, where multiple contributors can be set).

[Space Coward]

Or... how about a checkbox for "Show Deleted Comments?"

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Either "show deleted comments" or a log of "comment posted by [poster] and deleted by [deleter]" is good.

[76561198152810673]

I like all the suggestions made here.

My request to at least display a "Deleted by reviewer" remark is only what I would consider the bare minimum to have something like an honest exchange among Steam users.

Some sort of history or a way to display deleted comments directly would of course be perfect and also more logical. After all the comments that violate the terms of conduct of Steam will get deleted by Valve itself, so the need for a reviewer to delete a comment is in my opinion one of a lower standard, based more in personal preference, and should therefore be bound to at least some accountability.

[tomk1]

So the critic can't take critism & steam has given them the ability to deleate comments they can't debate or refute.
Doesn't this defeat the point of the comments for reviews in the first place, it's kindof new so assume this is a flaw.
A tumbs up tumbs down worked on YT and many other site comment sections.

[76561198152810673]

I think that would be a great way of dealing with it, because first of all the comments would only be hidden yet could still be read by those who want to get the whole picture of a discussion.

Secondly it would make the constraint placed on the comment more legitimate, because it would not simply be the views of one person that decides for a comments visibility to be limited, but that of several members of the community.

I would like that system very much.