Hate for private profiles?

[Fus Ro Hooah]

Speaking as someone with a private profile, why is it that I see people constantly resort to attacks on people for having profiles set to private?

I always found it strange, so I can help but feel curious.

Your thoughts?

[Yasahi]

BeatZ の投稿を引用：

My personal concern with private profiles is: if people want to take part in one of the biggest social groups (namingly the gaming community) why do they hide themselves then? As if they could not tell right from the beginning that they were going public when they create their Steam Account.
So if they hate being seen why don't they stick to physical copies or consoles where profiles do not exists besides a name and an avatar.

I play with my friends. I don't want to socialize with this community as a whole, a small specific part of it is fine.

Having a private/friends only profile will cut down on spam and possible scammers. Add to that a cautious policy of adding friends and all the "I got scammed by a friendz0r!" "Mah friends are spamming me links!!!" "Someone is saying rude things to me on my profile!!!" issues will go away.

Having a public profile with inventory showing is an open invitation to scammers.

[Muppet among Puppets]

It is steam that forces private profiles to only have an image and a name.

[Crazy Tiger]

BeatZ の投稿を引用：

My personal concern with private profiles is: if people want to take part in one of the biggest social groups (namingly the gaming community) why do they hide themselves then?

It's not hiding. They're not required to provide the information that is on the profile, nor does it add anything. Participation can easily be done without a public profile.

Social media have spoiled people into thinking that they're owed to see and know things about others at their whim, which is wrong. You're only owed information that someone is willing to give.

Besides, Steam is a gaming platform first. The social aspect is only second and for many people less relevant.

BeatZ の投稿を引用：

As if they could not tell right from the beginning that they were going public when they create their Steam Account.

Exceptthat they can choose to go private by making their profile private, never engage in the community and simply play their games. They can go completely unnoticed and many people even do.

People go public with, for example, posts on the forums. All that is relevant is the information in said posts, the information on the profile has no additional meaning to said posts.
Difference could be in a game hub, but in there you get a little mouse icon to indicate that you own the game. Again, that's enough information needed.

As Fox said, people mainly use information on profiles as a stick to hit with. What's the point of that?

BeatZ の投稿を引用：

So if they hate being seen why don't they stick to physical copies or consoles where profiles do not exists besides a name and an avatar.

Who says they hate being seen? Did it ever occur to you that people simply don't give the same value to a profile as you do?

[Mythical Ostrich]

My profile is only visible to friends (I think). And when I get community band it automatically turns private.

[Sazzouu]

I see that there is a lot of misconception about my comment there...

I can understand why people do not want to share informations like where they live, maybe their real name and not even how much they actually play...
I totally understand people like that are just playing with their hand full of mates and that do not want to socialize with the rest of the community... BUT

I just can't understand why people that have a fully private profile do take part in stuff like public Steam Groups or something similar. A pretty special case are those that join these "Looking for friends" groups without any visible information like the games they play in order to see if they are compatible with one.

Fox の投稿を引用：

Physical copies require a Steam account to operate, making it going back to square one, and consoles don't have PC exclusives, limiting one's choices arbitrarly. There's no winner situation here.

I forgot to clearify that I am not talking about that old "Take a CD, install and go" times. Even if they need the Steam Client to operate there is no need for them to take part in the community if they obviously do not want to.

Having a private profile and taking part in the community should be totally seperate things.
How would you feel if some person comes up to you and wants to talk to you wearing an anonymous mask? I saw this threads topic as a discussion about the daily interactions with private profiles, not the witch-hunting for private profiles.
I have a lot of friends with private profiles but these people are private because (as mentioned) they do NOT want to take part in the community. The only thing about private profiles that drives me crazy is if some person start actual interaction with the communtiy while wearing a black suit and a mask.

Just my point of view and for the clearification of what I meant with my first comment

[Tito Shivan]

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

It's not hiding. They're not required to provide the information that is on the profile, nor does it add anything. Participation can easily be done without a public profile.

Because there's a diference between 'I'm hiding something' and 'This is none of yor business'

One doesn't close the bathroom door because you're hiding something.

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Having a private/friends only profile will cut down on spam and possible scammers.

Simply having a private inventory does wonders. And not being part of fifty dozen giveaway groups.

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Social media have spoiled people into thinking that they're owed to see and know things about others at their whim, which is wrong. You're only owed information that someone is willing to give.

I wish they never have to face being on the wrong end of the stick from having too much of their life public and indexed on the internet. From having an angry stalker behind you to losing a job because an employer saw something they didn't like on your social media...

And I find most ironic of everything how all this debate about privacy is being carried by a set of people writing behind internet aliases and generic avatars...

Saying private profiles have something to hide from behind an internet alias and a internet pic avatar has it's own kind of irony attached and shows how deep the disconnection from reality can reach in this subject.

BeatZ の投稿を引用：

How would you feel if some person comes up to you and wants to talk to you wearing an anonymous mask?

Says the guy called Beatz whose face resembles a giant letter B...

[Sazzouu]

Rockon の投稿を引用：

Let me ask you one thing, if you go to a bar to be social do you expect that people empty their pockets just to please you or do you have a fun evening based on what people say and do that particularly night.

Sure there is that thing but I am not talking about people that post their whole life on Steam

Let's take your bar situation there... would you like to make contact with a creep sitting there with a mask and a black suit?

[Sazzouu]

Tito Shivan の投稿を引用：

-SNIP-

Well this still is a gaming community
My profile is public and all relevant informations about me my person and my habit of gaming can be found right there. If you setup your profile it asks you for a nickname which is the part I filled with my alias "BeatZ". The section called real name is a completely different one and it is also shown on my profile and yea it is filled with my actualy name... who would've thought. Sooo... basically I used every single input box for it's actualy purpose.
This is no dating community so there is no need for a selfie with a duckface.

EDIT: Just in case you do not see what I am talking about...
https://ibb.co/YB6F8Fh
Profile Name = Nickname as far as I know
Real Name = My real name

The reason why I gave that "face behind a mask" example was basically the transfer to a real-world-interaction if you want to compare what fully private profiles in a public gaming community to a night out in a bar.

[Muppet among Puppets]

BeatZ の投稿を引用：

Let's take your bar situation there... would you like to make contact with a creep sitting there with a mask and a black suit?

What about muppets with an image of tripods in a forest?

[Sazzouu]

Muppet among Puppets の投稿を引用：

What about muppets with an image of tripods in a forest?

Since that is a gaming community and not a bar or a dating site that actually implies that you have some sense of humor that I could possibly share. Yet still I can't see what games you play, nor can I see whether or not you are in some circles I want to avoid or maybe if you are cheating or literally ANYTHING that could be relevant for me to make new contacts for gaming purposes

[Muppet among Puppets]

I prefer settings. So that i could display the multiplayer games i play, or other selected things.

Steam does not allow that.

[Sazzouu]

Muppet among Puppets の投稿を引用：

I prefer settings. So that i could display the multiplayer games i play, or other selected things.

Steam does not allow that.

Yeah but are you up for making contact anyways? If yes then is wiping out any information about you better than having at least your recently played games shown or maybe your games count so people could evaluate whether your are a dedicated gamer for a specific game or an all-rounder or something different?

If no then you are not one of those persons I am talking about anyways

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Well, games details can be private and was defaulted that way last year.

I choose not to show "others" unless I want them to see.

But it is still no ones business.

[Muppet among Puppets]

I added people for good games, and in return.

Profiles dont tell me much. I recommend to not use real life details in public profiles.

[Sazzouu]

Muppet among Puppets の投稿を引用：

I added people for good games, and in return.

So you are adding people AFTER getting intouch with them. After you have some information about compatibilities and after the KNOWLEDGE that this person at least shares one game with you... so you are basically not one of these persons I am talking about

Muppet among Puppets の投稿を引用：

Profiles dont tell me much. I recommend to not use real life details in public profiles.

Profiles can give a glimpse on the gaming preferences of a person which is in my opinion the one and only RELEVANT information about anybody in a gaming community.
I was not talking about private information that is a completely different discussion. I share my personal information because reasons. There is no real reason actually I just do it because I want to and you don't do it because you don't want to. These infos have nothing to do with gaming at all. I only talked about the infos that could be relevant for future mates.