Stop Advertising In The Library !!

[eliotcole]

If anyone doubted that the the "What's new" bar was performing stealth advertising before ... well they may doubt no longer.

There was a full advertisement for SF6 in my library today. IT IS A LIBRARY. STOP IT.

Imagery in the tweet below:
https://twitter.com/cole_eliot/status/1664008621514973187

[Spawn of Totoro]

From another thread:

Originally posted by aiusepsi:

From the patch notes for today’s Steam Client Beta:

Fixed an issue in the library causing the game released section to accidentally display for users who added the Street Fighter 6 demo to their account. This section of the library should only display when a game that you have pre-purchased is ready for pre-load or has released and is now ready to play.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta#announcements/detail/3722833594821744627

So yeah, seems it was indeed a bug.

Also Valve did indeed post on Reddit saying it was a bug: https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/13vuszm/why_are_they_now_advertising_games_in_my_library/jm8uznl/

From my understanding, it is only supposed to be there for those who pre-ordered the game and around the time of the pre-downloads.

[eliotcole]

Honestly, it doesn't really matter, mate. But thank you for saying so.

They've already farqued us with the What's New, I can guarantee that the stats from this will be stared at in earnest, accident or not ... and suddenly this accident may be considered a turning point.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by eliotcole:

Honestly, it doesn't really matter, mate. But thank you for saying so.

They've already farqued us with the What's New, I can guarantee that the stats from this will be stared at in earnest, accident or not ... and suddenly this accident may be considered a turning point. :vvvvvv_victoria:

I doubt it would be, but I agree such a thing would create a lot of backlash if it did. I already think and agree the "What's New" should have a toggle or be able to be removed, but such a large notice as an "ad" really should remain on the store page, not in the library. If they really only have it for those who pre-ordered as a reminder or notice of pre-load, I can understand.

[eliotcole]

There's actually a fair few threads already about the "What's new" bar ... you used to be able to remove it with skins or your own code ... but now they've disabled that ability.

Can't think why that might be.

[󠀡󠀡]

Yea just a bug sorry guys haha....

[Pete]

Wait You cant disable the "whats new" Bar???!?!?! WOW That's crazy I never saw that be4, I hope this gets addressed in the new steam beta

[Silverkite]

you still can, you just need to manually edit a file contained in the css folder, but you need to do that everytime the geniuses release a client update

[Tharon]

Yes, they have disabled the skins so there is no support for custom CSS anymore. Now only way to get rid of What's New, Featured Workshop items, Rewiew Remainders, Developers Steam and all the other nag is to edit the Steam files.
In the near future Valve will probably remove the ability to have steam not check the integrity of the files, making impossible to edit those files (they will be restored before launching Steam).

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Xenophobe:

Originally posted by Arokine:

its not ads, its updates from your games. very useful if you play early access games

Which is why it should be a toggle on/off at the least. That way those that find it useful can enjoy it and those that are annoyed by it can turn it off.

Every time users suggest stuff like what Valve is implementing here, we (other users) also ask for a toggle to turn it off. Guess what happens every time something like this gets added as a feature?

[eliotcole]

There's been a few threads about all of this already ... there's no question that devs are absolutely using 'What's new' to advertise ... and we can't turn it off.

This thread I made because they clearly put an advertisement there.

However ... it doesn't matter that it was an accident ... it happened ... it shows that there is intent.

[GRIMM]

Originally posted by Xenophobe:

spamming ads, whether for owned titles or not, is abusive marketing when it's anywhere other than the store page where ads belong.

You do know you can turn the adverts for games you own off, right? Click the little cog up there on whats new and toggle it to only show product updates.

Originally posted by Arokine:

its not ads, its updates from your games. very useful if you play early access games

If you don't have the toggle set to update only it does indeed show adverts for games you own as well as news.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by eliotcole:

However ... it doesn't matter that it was an accident ... it happened ... it shows that there is intent.

.... An accident doesn't show intent. It just shows the system was missing the code to only show those who were qualified to be shown it.

If I accidentally burnt a slice of bread in the toaster, that doesn't mean I intend to burn down the house.

Anything has the potential to be used as advertising. The question though is if it actually is going to be. In this case, it doesn't seem so, but we don't work at Valve so can't say what future employees may decide.

Technically our own profiles are advertising the game we play and are interested in, so everyone should make the profiles private so as to not advertise as well, regardless of the intent of the users who's account it is?

[RoiRoi]

I think that appeared if you downloaded and played the demo. It doesn't show show random games you haven't interacted with. Before it only showed for preorders, they might just be experimenting with additional conditions.

[Pete]

It Should be designed completely opposite! So Instead of spamming you with all your games but allowing you only to block one at a time it should be,,,

Letting the player choose what games to follow and receive updates/news from???!!!

So much talking. when its such an easy solution, to just give people the ability to not get spammed by any and all games they own!
You can customize everything else in the library why Is the "wants new" bar the exception!?
If its not Dead games trying to be relevant. its new games that you need to go into settings and manually block them

[pieanear]

I"M glad I"m PERFECT.