Comment on ‘This shouldn’t be normal’: developers speak out about bigotry on Steam, the world’s biggest PC gaming storefront

• TyrianMollusk@infosec.pub ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I used to get added by randoms everytime and they always had the clown award because that’s the easiest way for people to mark someone as a scammer

  Profile clown awards say nothing more than some jerk spend points on being a jerk. Not at all a good reason to think people were flagged scammers, especially since you can just hide any profile awards with a checkbox.

  But no, while clown awards are still there, you can’t give them anymore. Maybe “funny” will be the new clown, or maybe people will spend fewer points just to be jerks.

  source

  • Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’ve had a mildly expensive inventory in the past while trading so I’ve seen a lot of scammers. The clown award was the fastest way to tell if someone was suspicious. Obviously you don’t just base it on that, other telltale signs are no mutuals, private inventory, faked hours on cs, turned off commenting on profile, account level, 3p trust sites, etc.

    I’ve yet to see a single profile that was legit that had the clown award. People usually don’t give out awards, at least the profile ones. The average person buys profile decor.

    This was back in 2024 ish though, I don’t trade anymore so I block non mutuals adding me

    source

    • TyrianMollusk@infosec.pub ⁨35⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      That’s such poppycock I don’t even know if you’re subtly trolling. Anyone could put a clown on a profile for anything, and they come far more from bad actors than anything remotely legitimate. Steam forums are full of bad actors. Actually supporting that kind of petty toxicity by insinuating clowns mean something is gross.

      Thankfully, profile awards can be hidden, and I’d expect they often are, so it’s hard to really say how many are given out. I certainly hid profile awards when the system was new, because it’s weird Steam just helps people deface your profile. Even having awards hidden hasn’t stopped the occasional spiteful clown award getting added.

      source