WARNING
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The post and thread of every single person who was banned, don't get completely deleted. They are hidden, and can still be viewed by mods (us) and admins (Valve) at any time
As such, we have a table of those posts, who made them, why/when they were banned etc. And they are also referenced to their "review bombing"* on the game's Steam store page.
* This practice is when someone uses the game's Steam review page to attack the developers, post questionable content etc. It is a direct violation of Valve's guidelines. And it is usually done by those who were either banned from the game's forums, or who have a vendetta against the developer/publisher
NOBODY gets banned for their opinions; as long as those opinions are in line with the Steam community guidelines which were written for a reason.
And, to be clear, this is a gaming community where a select group of gamers get together to play games, make friends and have fun (you do know what that is, right?).
Simply put, this is NOT the first Steam forum where anti-social behavior is simply NOT tolerated. The only difference being that a) we tend to perma-ban for serious violations b) we don't give second chances
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There are all kinds of unflattering posts still visible on the forums because they were not abusive, nor do they violate Steam's own guidelines.
The reason that the majority of gamers - and devs - are sick and tired of the anti-social lawlessness present in some Steam forums, is precisely why we don't tolerate it in our forums. If other devs and publishers took the hard line, most people doing this, won't think that it is acceptable behavior.
Many companies, including Microsoft, Sony, Blizzard et al, take serious steps to curb anti-social behavior, cheating etc, from their games and communities. And when they do it, they tend to do it en masse and in very large numbers e.g. aside from forum bannings, just two weeks ago, Daybreak (H1Z1), banned 24,000 people from their games, and their community. There is a reason for that.
We MUST take the hard line and take the necessary steps to ensure that those who play our games, have an enjoyable time doing it, free from harassment, cheating, and all manner of anti-social behavior.
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If you have been banned from i) a game you don't like ii) a game you're not playing iii) a game in which you have to resort to cheating (!) to win iv) a game/community from a dev/pub you don't like, I don't see the problem.
And before someone utters the words, Free Speech, don't; because if you knew what that was, you wouldn't be crying foul and citing it.
Valve is aware that they have a serious problem with this, and have started taking steps to curb this behavior (and the "review bombing"). Once serious actions (I'm all for Steam account bans. It's the only way to be sure) start being taken here on Steam, hopefully that will send a clear message that we simply cannot allow a select group of anti-social people to ruin our gaming communities. Especially this, being one of the largest eclectic gaming communities.
Over a year ago, Steam was reported to have over 75 million users. Let that sink in for a bit.
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No developer, or gamer, should be afraid to speak out because there is a mob out to tarnish their rep and/or ruin their games.
We as gamers, developers and publishers, simply CANNOT give in to these people.
We should stand up and REFUSE to be bullied and/or harassed.
So, if you violate any of the community guidelines in our forums, you WILL be banned (temp or perma-, depending on severity). NO EXCEPTIONS. And now also, you will be banned from our game servers. In case you were wondering; yes, we can in fact do that, same way we treat cheaters and their ilk.
So, now would be a good time to brush up on the community guidelines. Below it's all in one place so you don't have to go looking for them.
Rules and Guidelines for Steam Community Discussions
STEAM™ ONLINE CONDUCT
As a Steam subscriber you agree to abide by the following conduct rules.
You will not:
- Upload, or otherwise make available, files that contain images, photographs, software or other material protected by intellectual property laws, including, by way of example, and not as limitation, copyright or trademark laws (or by rights of privacy or publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents to do the same.
- Use any material or information, including images or photographs, via Steam in any manner that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary right of any party.
- Upload files that contain viruses, trojan horses, worms, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another's computer or property of another.
- Institute attacks upon a Steam server or otherwise disrupt Steam.
- Use Steam in connection with surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, chain letters, junk email, spamming or any duplicative or unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise).
- Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
- Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying Steam services, software or other content.
- Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including e-mail addresses.
- Create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others.
- Violate any applicable laws or regulations.
General Rules
Do not do any of the following:
- Flame or insult other members
- Bypass any filters
- Abuse or encourage abuse of the Reputation, or Post Reporting Systems
- Post personally identifiable information (i.e. name, address, email, phone number, etc.)
- Bump threads
- Derail a thread's topic
- Post links to phishing sites
- Post spam (i.e. +1, 10char, rickrolls) or Re-post Closed, Modified, Deleted Content
- Repetitively post in the incorrect forum (example: trade requests belong in trading forum)
- Openly argue with a moderator
Off-Limit Topics/Replies
Do not post any topics/replies containing the following:
Key generators
Console emulators
No Backseat Moderating
Let the moderators do the moderating. Backseat moderating is when people who are not moderators try to enforce the forum rules. If you see a person breaking the rules, take advantage of the Report () button or simply ignore the offensive post(s) or thread.
Report Posts to Moderators
Should you observe a fellow Community member breaking these rules please report the post by clicking the Report () button located on every post.
Repeated Offenders
Repeated offenders of the above rules and guidelines will be banned from the Steam Community. Any moderator has the ability to ban a user for violating the rules at their discretion.
