Valve could easily fix it by making game discussions default to owners only, but they've always been a shitty company so they dont bother
Comment on New Steam study alleges that Valve's store is home to extreme right-wing "wars"
missingno@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
Steam Forums are one of the worst hellholes I've seen on the modern internet, and Valve does nothing. Any game that gets declared a target by the post-Gamergate crowd ends up having its board seiged until it's unusable for any kind of actual discussion.
Alcyonaria@piefed.world 3 weeks ago
Nephalis@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
If they would, no one could ask anything pre purchase.
But I also don’t like the forum in there because of the bad atmosphere. Also I don’t know whether it is because of a special group or because the general communication style in games is toxic, dumb, aggressive and egoistical as fuck… Like in almost every ingame chat.
Alcyonaria@piefed.world 3 weeks ago
Every discussion board has several categories by default
General/bugs/events/trading
Simply moving the default category or locking it massively decreases trolling and appropriate category use.
The main problem with discussion trolling is that valve never deals with the rampant spam bots or people who continually post egregious material. I've seen bots last years posting update edits on every large game news post.
The only way to fix it is to lock it to game owners/account age/community engagement. But valve will never do this unless it negatively affects their image because their leadership have become deluded weirdos (exempting art lead and gabe newell)echodot@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
I think it’s just the games you play I’ve just had a look at the town to city forum, and it’s fine, as to be expected.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Yeah, to me the Steam forums seem like one of the least toxic “gamer” spaces online.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Why not both? One section for owners, one for pre-purchasers (maybe it has to be in their wishlist?)
echodot@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Don’t the developers have moderation capabilities?
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Yes, but they are almost never exercised unless it involves legal requirements - Valve’s ideals are very much “We will not bother anyone unless we have to”, which is nice for people who want to forge spaces but sucks when people show up to be shitheads.
zecg@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Valve does nothing
It’s not Valve’s job to provide a liberal education and loving community for the young’uns, the only thing Valve can do is censor discussions and ban people for what they are saying. Like tiktok is doing with “Israel is controlling the U.S. through AIPAC”.
Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
the only thing Valve can do is censor discussions and ban people for what they are saying
Except they don’t, which is the problem. Moderation of the forums is pushed off on developers, publishers and volunteers, and Valve only gets involved if they absolutely have to. It makes effective moderation of the forums dedicated to games made by small and solo devs functionally impossible, and allows for rampant abuse of the systems by publishers, such as Take Two marking negative reviews as “off-topic”.
Brosplosion@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I don’t see how it’s Valves problem. They are a marketplace and essentially rent a store front to developers. Forum moderation for a specific game should be up to the developer/publisher.
It’s like if you rented a spot in a stripmall, and you want the stripmall owner to come clean the floors when people come into your shop and piss on your floor. Don’t want to manage your own forum, then disable user posts entirely.
missingno@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
Don't want to manage your own forum, then disable user posts entirely.
I don't believe that's an option. I know one indie dev that actually told me they wished they could just not have a Steam forum because they hate it.
Katana314@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Now I wish Valve would implement Bluesky’s idea of blocklists.
Basically, the community would pool together to make voluntary lists of “Anti-woke mobs” that just troll through forums with rage bait, and add them to that list. It would require a level of trust, and tools to confirm each addition (eg, highlight a worst-case post from that user) but could start to clean things up.
They could also let users choose to hide posts from users below a certain Steam score, making it hard to occupy space with brand new accounts.
sadfitzy@ttrpg.network 3 weeks ago
Wahhh, people are saying things I don’t like on the internet!
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Shut up bitch ass troll.
This is why you sleep alone every night.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Valve’s hands-off philosophy with almost all of their social components is one of those massive double-edged swords, as anyone who trades steam items will tell you as well.