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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the Valve-Implementing-New-Steam-Comment-Moderation-Bot dept.

The folks over at at TechRaptor bring us word (recently updated) that Valve Implementing New Steam Comment Moderation Bot:

Steam's forums are an enjoyable place to be when you are discussing the latest happening in the gaming world. It is common to run into internet trolls and the likes, but there is nothing like keeping up with the spam comments giving people unsafe links to click through. Some of those links directed to Counter Strike: Global Offensive skin trading and gambling sites, and other non-safe places where they ask you for sensitive and personal information.

Recently, Steam users went to Reddit to report a new message that appeared to them for a few seconds whenever they comment in forum threads. Not only that, it apparently shows for users as well who are posting reviews of their recently played games.

Reportedly, the following message normally only shows for a few seconds before your comment gets approved, which means the comment moderation bot is only looking for links or any harmful content.

"This comment is awaiting analysis by our automated content check system. It will be temporarily hidden until we verify that it does not contain harmful content (e.g. links to websites that attempt to steal information)."

Valve later got back to TechRaptor with the following message:

Yes, we are scanning the forums and hiding posts that contain links to malicious sites attempting to steal user’s Steam information. We are always looking for ways to improve with new updates, fixes, and features.

Apolitical? Check. Narrowly-scoped? Check. No ideological argument or stretching of the definition of "harm" necessary? Check. Botting like a boss, guys.

[Belated Note: SoylentNews does not use automated moderation. We stick you poor folks with the work instead. --TMB]


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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:53PM (21 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:53PM (#1009239)

    So poor Bot isn't allowed to moderate?

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:25PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:25PM (#1009253)

      Christian Bots are known for reciting the Nicene Creed rather than downmodding.

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:16PM (5 children)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:16PM (#1009272)

        See comment below: Moderation Bot has no sense of humour.

        • (Score: 1) by PaperNoodle on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:18PM (4 children)

          by PaperNoodle (10908) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:18PM (#1009293)

          It was an ironic mod appealing to the fuzzy logic of Moderation Bot. Meatbags wouldn't get it.

          --
          B3
          • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:08PM (3 children)

            by Bot (3902) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:08PM (#1009312) Journal

            I thank you for the time you spent, correctly describing my position, but I think PartTimeZombie is a bot.

            --
            Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 4, Touché) by Bot on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:11PM (13 children)

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:11PM (#1009270) Journal

      I never modded anybody disagree but it's quite the right thing to do with parent.

      --
      Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:34PM (12 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:34PM (#1009301) Journal

        But . . . the fifth commandment to honor your parent(s).

        --
        What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:06PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:06PM (#1009311)

          HONOR THY CPU AND THY MOTHERBOARD

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:27AM (10 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:27AM (#1009415)

          He's Catholic, which means the correct number for that commandment is 4. The fifth commandment for Catholics is "You shall not murder."

          • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday June 19 2020, @01:39PM (9 children)

            by Bot (3902) on Friday June 19 2020, @01:39PM (#1010027) Journal

            I don't like that one.

            --
            Account abandoned.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @04:18AM (8 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @04:18AM (#1010268)

              Course not, y'all are overdue for another Crusade.

              • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday June 21 2020, @05:16AM (7 children)

                by Bot (3902) on Sunday June 21 2020, @05:16AM (#1010586) Journal

                Defense from the saracens and the antichrists is not crusading, kid.

                --
                Account abandoned.
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @02:12AM (6 children)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @02:12AM (#1010885)

                  Proactively hunting down and murdering others isn't self defense if you aren't under the literal and imminent threat of the same. And even then, violence is allowed only to the extent that such force is required to do repel aggressors. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing," "The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance," and "The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person's death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger."

                  But go on, tell us how the Vatican got that wrong and how real Catholics are allowed to do so. I'm all ears as, apparently, Jesus didn't really command to turn the other cheek or say "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

                  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:27PM (5 children)

                    by Bot (3902) on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:27PM (#1012060) Journal

                    Nicely written non sequitur, yours. Let us say you are in an island and a declared mafiosi family sets in. You either hunt down and permanently incapacitate them or you live with the consequences. What do you define as defense? What if instead of mafia the declared ideology is Islam and what if permanently incapacitate is not feasible except through death? What is defense then?

                    --
                    Account abandoned.
                    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @10:21PM (2 children)

                      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @10:21PM (#1012672)

                      Its definitely not getting them first. If and when they decide to cause you physical harm and such harm is imminent, then you might lay claim to a justified use of force. Anything else is just trying to get them first. That, by your own book, is not defense. And the reason is clear, if you are one to proactively use force (live by the sword), then you increase the chance of force, defensive or otherwise, being used against you (die by the sword). It is immoral to "bomb them over there before they bomb me over here" and that doesn't even get to the fact that you are describing no threats other than they are a different religion. "The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing," remember. You can never intentionally use fatal means of protection when things aren't threats. Living on an island with the mob or Muslims or whomever is not enough because there is no force initiation there. Now when specific people come to your door to initiate force against you, you can use proportional force against those specific people using force against you and only enough to repel that force. That is the rules your religion came up with. If you don't like them, fine, but then don't try to claim you are following them or claim the moral high ground of your religion.

                      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday June 26 2020, @03:14PM (1 child)

                        by RS3 (6367) on Friday June 26 2020, @03:14PM (#1012884)

                        You're a great philosopher, but sometimes reality wins over mental gymnastics. (Ask some physicists.)

                        If and when they decide to cause you physical harm and such harm is imminent, then you might lay claim to a justified use of force.

                        If you ain't breathing anymore, it's a bit late to mount a defense.

                        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2020, @10:04PM

                          by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2020, @10:04PM (#1013008)

                          three quick points.

                          Imminent doesn't mean after it happens, isn't preemptive either.
                          Religion concerns itself with how your thoughts and actions here affect your place the next world, not this one; and, within such a framework, if you must sacrifice in this life for the next, then so be it.
                          It is easy to follow a rule when it is something you'd do anyway, its hard to do it when there is something on the line.

                    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2020, @06:12PM (1 child)

                      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2020, @06:12PM (#1012929)

                      So you're religious but you don't actually believe?

                      What about the 3rd option, make peace and work for change? No? Just murder and maiming?

                      You're a fucked up person Bot.

                      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @07:01AM

                        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2020, @07:01AM (#1013168)

                        Yeah, the person whose response to a rule against murder was, "I don't like that one," trying to take the high ground. Even before the hypothetical, he literally came out and said his preference would be to murder people.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:54PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:54PM (#1009240)

    No, here we have snowflakes, where taking offense has become a profession. I think they teach it in the schools now

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:56PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @06:56PM (#1009243)

      > taking offense has become a profession.

      How dare you!

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:08PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:08PM (#1009249)

        How very dare you!

        • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:08PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:08PM (#1009269)

          I'm personally not offended due to my enlightened position, but I feel offended on behalf of some disenfranchised group and/or person.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:21PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:21PM (#1009316)

            We should study the history and objective material causes of their disenfranchisement.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:11PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:11PM (#1009271)

          how very double dare you?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:21PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:21PM (#1009294)

            How very triple dog dare you!?

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:36PM (4 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:36PM (#1009303) Journal

      here we have snowflakes, where taking offense has become a profession. I think they teach it in the schools now

      So if one takes offense, without proper qualifications, does that brake the law?

      Maybe certifications or state licensing boards should be set up to become snowflakes? Wood knot want unqualified people.

      --
      What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:46PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:46PM (#1009306)

        Mod parent down: spelling error.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 18 2020, @01:28PM (2 children)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 18 2020, @01:28PM (#1009517) Journal

          My spell chequer did know flag any words as Miss. Spelled.

          --
          What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
          • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday June 23 2020, @02:22PM (1 child)

            s/checker/czecher/
            FTFY

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday June 23 2020, @05:14PM

              by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 23 2020, @05:14PM (#1011642) Journal

              What some people say to get what they want when in an adult body:

              * I'm going to call 911 !
              * I'll sue!
              * Your presence here is making me feel uncomfortable / threatened!

              --
              What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
    • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:16AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:16AM (#1009449)

      No, here we have snowflakes, where taking offense has become a profession.

      There is this new book out, White Fragility [amazon.com], which explains why the snowflakes are so prone to taking offense, what with being white, and crystalline, and fragile.

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:45PM

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:45PM (#1009258) Journal

    You just might need to increase the budget goal by a few zeros.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:52PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:52PM (#1009262)

    What's with all the troll mods? Asking for a bot.

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:17PM

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:17PM (#1009274) Journal

      What kind of motherboard-zapped, windows-beta-equipped bot asks a meatbag for advice?

      --
      Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:06PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:06PM (#1009267)

    Perhaps you've heard of the various "lameness" filters.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:44AM (7 children)

      That's a preemptive "take that nonsense elsewhere". We only have seven "lameness filter" regexes to cover either the subject or the comment. If you tripped any of them except the last, you were either being a jackass rather than contributing anything to the discussion or forgot something important. If you tripped the last, good on you for having so much to contribute but they're called comments rather than novels for a reason.

      1. Subject too short: one character
      2. Comment too short: one character
      3. Missing comment: zero characters
      4. Please enter a subject: zero characters
      5. Too much space in the comment, please fix: too many consecutive spaces
      6. Too much space in the subject, please fix: too many consecutive spaces
      7. Comment too long: over 10K characters
      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:38AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:38AM (#1009420)

        I get the point and there is no argument from me that those rules are in anyway bad or undesirable. But it is still automated moderation of the comments, albeit before posting.

        But aren't you missing at least one? I swear I've had one or two comments rejected for "too compressible" or similar when I tried pasting in some CFG or other documentation into my comments.

        • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:36AM (2 children)

          by acid andy (1683) on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:36AM (#1009474) Homepage Journal

          A long while ago on the Other Site, I hit the lameness filter by trying to just post a reply saying:

          KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!!!!!

          It only went through when I added some more words. Maybe the rules are different here?

          --
          If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:58PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:58PM (#1009756)

            KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!!!!!

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2020, @06:14PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2020, @06:14PM (#1012931)

              ACADEMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:51AM

          Possible but if it still exists it's buried somewhere in some inappropriate hardcoding rather than in the easily-tweakable ones stored in the db and editable through the admin web interface.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 18 2020, @05:51PM (1 child)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday June 18 2020, @05:51PM (#1009618) Journal

        Translation: automated content filtering is fine when I do it but the root of all evil when someone else does it.

        I seem to recall a regex battle with some nick diggers a while back....

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:44PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:44PM (#1009279)

    Apolitical? Check. Narrowly-scoped? Check. No ideological argument or stretching of the definition of "harm" necessary? Check. Botting like a boss, guys.

    Have we seen the code/rulebase for this bot? If not, who knows what sort of nefarious stuff its getting up to?

    They could be blocking links to important sites to further Steam's political and ideological agenda.

    That agenda, according to ridiculous bullshit I just pulled out of my ass reliable sources, is to de-platform the gluten intolerant.

    In support of their evil conspiracy, the bot in question blocks any mention of gluten, gluten intolerance or wheat. what's more, it replaces links to wholesome Christian* [motherless.com] sites with links to the evil [vatican.va] authoritarians [gop.com] who [stjude.org] want to [food52.com] destroy [democrats.org] us all.

    Wow! This conspiracy theory shit is kinda fun. I guess I can understand the appeal of creating it. What's less understandable are the gullible morons who believe it. I guess it, as they say, "takes all kinds."

    *Definitely NSFW. I did say *Christian* didn't I?

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:47AM (4 children)

      Fair warning, motherless is not for anyone who's not strongly inured to freaky shit (figuratively and literally).

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:32PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:32PM (#1009562)

        AC you replied to here, Buzzard.

        Just curious, did you not see the "NSFW" bit in the post, or do you feel it wasn't prominent enough?

        I'm absolutely *not* complaining that you reinforced that, just wondering why you felt it necessary to do so.

        For the record, I have no interest in "tricking" anyone into clicking an NSFW link at an inopportune time/place, or exposing anyone to stuff they don't want to see.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:00PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:00PM (#1009694)

          You should put NSFW along with the link, not below everything with just a * to notify people. Many people ignore * and check if they're curious and usually after they've finished reading a paragraph.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:12PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:12PM (#1009706)

            You should put NSFW along with the link, not below everything with just a * to notify people. Many people ignore * and check if they're curious and usually after they've finished reading a paragraph.

            Fair enough. I normally would, and did consider doing so in this case. However, I felt it impeded the flow of my prose, and eliminated an extra opportunity for snark.

            No harm or discomfort (other than using satire to encourage others to examine the veracity of the stuff they read and believe) was intended.

            Mea Culpa.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday June 23 2020, @02:28PM

          There's NSFW and then there's Motherless. You need a significantly weaker gag reflex to browse Motherless than you do Pornhub.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Wednesday June 17 2020, @08:58PM (1 child)

    From TFS. Valve Said:

    Yes, we are scanning the forums and hiding posts that contain links to malicious sites attempting to steal user’s Steam information. We are always looking for ways to improve with new updates, fixes, and features.

    I wonder how they are "scanning...posts that contain links...to steal user's Steam information."?

    A few strategies come to mind:
    Compare against a list of "malicious" sites
    Retrieve the link and analyze its contents for suspicious code
    Retrieve the link and compare it with a database of known-to-be-malicious code
    Some sort of heuristic analysis
    And I'm sure a bunch more that didn't just fall off the top of my head.

    All of the above have advantages and disadvantages.

    Nowhere in TFA was any discussion of the "scanning" mechanisms, or the rate of false positives (or negatives for that matter).

    And is it *just* "...malicious sites attempting to steal user’s Steam information." that are being blocked?

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:29PM

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:29PM (#1009713) Journal

      Until proven otherwise, I would take their statement at face value. I wouldn't be surprised, if they're using multiple strategies to combat the malicious links. Also reinforces the, don't click on random links, even if it's on a reputable site that you use regularly. Security Rule #1 Be paranoid.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:15PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:15PM (#1009291)

    If they can get it to automatically block people who post "just use windows idiot lol" comments in response to "How about a Linux port?" threads, I'm all on board.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:44PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:44PM (#1009304) Journal

      One problem with getting the stupid windows idiots to use Linux is the common myth that Linux and it's user community are not very friendly or helpful to stupid uninformed idiot morons who don't know how to use Linux or are just getting started.

      --
      What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Lagg on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:21PM (8 children)

    by Lagg (105) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:21PM (#1009295) Homepage Journal

    This is just a flagging heuristic that forums have done for years and Valve was late to catch up to. The stuff people manage to extrapolate into vast machinations of ideology is just getting ridiculous. But you guys already know that don't you. You lil' AM radio chucklefucks.

    I did actual work on some stuff that integrated with the API and client protobufs, including bots that do login flow and trade API. Valve's whole stance on any given issue has always been "stay quiet and react" so far as I can tell. They're not going to do anything until forced to due to things piling up. This has been their way with letting data out to the press and whatnot for years. Same with their actual dev flow. They want people generating churn on all the many churnable things Steam has because that's their actual money maker now. Anything they do to get in the way of the workshop economy and general crowdsourcing clusterfuck is a direct threat to their bottom line.

    In other words, people kept getting fooled by phishing links disguised as openid signin flows so many times that it was clearly going to become an issue. Valve reacted thusly.

    And so, that's just the way they are for anything. This isn't a matter of politics or whatever. Or really much of anything. Which is why their response was so short and blunt even by their normal standards.

    --
    http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:33PM (7 children)

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 17 2020, @10:33PM (#1009319) Homepage Journal

      "stay quiet and react"

      Is that a variation on "If it ain't broke don't fix it?"

      -- hendrik

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Lagg on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:35AM (6 children)

        by Lagg (105) on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:35AM (#1009433) Homepage Journal

        Best way to put their philosophy is examples. I'm so sorry for essay length but I swear to god MB asks for it with his boring-ass submission commentary. Might as well add "How 'bout dem dur librals gais" on the footer for all the good it does to turn me on intellectually. I keep telling the fucker to learn the nuance of a given situation and he's over here treating Valve's Washingtonian asses like they're anything of the sort you'd consider the nerds in SV. Flaccid as an old hose rn with this guy I'm telling you.

        Anyway, they fix things that ain't broke or broke themselves in the first place all the time as part of the wider crowdsource-churn economy. First and foremost - and this annoys me because I thought I was working on something cool at first - there's been this thing with them steadfastly refusing to acknowledge their role in bringing about this issue of third party skin websites. I don't expect them to be like "yeaaah we totally wanted kids using our digital crap as converted currency". But there was very clear intent from them to push usage of the trading system to wider third parties. There is API stuff clearly implemented in ways intended as public endpoints, and a fuckton more usable than APIs of years past. It's one thing to want to flag the phishing links and malicious sites but they're being really dishonest otherwise.

        The fact that they have their own internal market shows that enough people participate in the wider organism to get people to convert what's in their wallet into a nice controllable format on Steam that they think the existence of those malicious sites are worth it because the few good honest ones lend legitimacy to the digital item by giving it an off-platform way to convert it back into wallet money. I have to imagine this is the single reason the Steam Economy game - and that is what this is, a big fucking game of nth-layer-removed transfer of capital, building on top of the unholy cruft of real life's own variant - holds any kind of sanity or value.

        So, now the proverbial chicken came home to roost and we get what you see here. It's been a known issue for so long that it's been like... 2 years since I was let go from my job due to it becoming unprofitable for them to have a fulltime guy when the 7 day trade hold restrictions happened. This is just the latest in a series of minor patches from them for issues they brought directly on themselves. Sometimes I wish I could grab whoever's idea it was to do this open economy shit by the collar and go "BITCH, YOU HIRED AN ECONOMIST WHEN ALL THIS STARTED!" [gamespot.com]. Like, it personally hurts me because I'm kind of proud of my code on this.

        Right. So that's the off-my-head-memory of some of the factors that got us to where we are with the forums and CSGO. That's one example of them seemingly fighting their own crowdsourcing implementation. Here's another: My personal reckoning of the recommendation use-flow of the storefront now is partly because their fix for Greenlight - crowdsourced game submission approval - Steam Direct [steamgames.com] allows anyone to put a game on the storefront if they have a $100 submission fee. Allowing the conditions necessary for the Unity template projects that pose as games to show up there as they do now. The fix for that is the recommendation queue trained lists that float higher reviewed stuff to the top and add appropriated weighted bias for friends and subscribed/highly rated curators. You know, crowdsourced QC and beta testing. Plus the general focus you'll see on these streamlined recommends now. I hold no strong feelings as to whether or not the whole situation is better.

        Recently they had to fix an issue that caused controversy [steamcommunity.com] because they have an automated polygon count checker for contest submissions to the workshop. They use contractors when they feel like adding content to the game to spur a new wave of workshop contributors. And feel like paying. Naturally for stuff they're paying for they want contract quality. So the contractors had account perms to submit the assets without that check. Their contractors did the thing they gave them the account perms to do and already express favoritism by contracting them in the first place. It's just the problems bubbled up to the point that reacting would be better.

        Also, the client is feature creeping like a mothahfuckah and lately I've been getting tabbed out of my games when friends disconnects. It's getting a heaping problem of the webkit-as-UI problem where the thing is doing so much runtime-loaded frontend it shits itself. Not sure how much of it actually uses webkit versus their custom UI extension lang thing but oh my god can they stawp. They won't though because that sweet integration and allure to keep everyone in their ecosystem by subtly doing the discord thing is too strong. We'll see if this particular fling-at-the-wall is profitable versus the piling technical debt and which can win the race.

        But yeah, there's this slow motion phenomenon happening with Steam I think stemming from going all-in on crowdsourcing a community that I have to guess is 40-60% people under 19 parroting memes that make modern ACs look like intellectuals. Look at reviews for SCP: Secret Laboratory to get an idea what I mean. It's all kind of a downstream patching of a dam they keep throwing shit on the wall of. I guess is what I'm trying to say. Sometimes their technique works and you get things that are such novel implementations that it sticks in the wider video game industry for better or worse. Sometimes you get Steam Controller.

        It gives them a little too much credit to say they're the don't-fix-if-ain't-broke philosophy. They're the "move fast and break things" mentality with more earnestness and Valve Time instead of the "move fast" part. They're testing me lately but I still think I like them most of all the large publishers. I liked them more when they were pure developers. But then I wouldn't have got that job. And I liked that job despite everything.

        P.S. Where in god's name is anyone getting "bot" from? Pretty sure I'm not the only one here that knows what a bot is. Inherent issues with there not even being any IPC of that kind happening for all we know, it's literally like... Wordpress style assisted moderation queue. MB's been listening to too many podcasts talking about gay-russian-antifa bots on twitter again. I keep telling you these people are going to turn your brain into a twinkie MB but you won't listen to me. Listen to some good music instead boyo.

        --
        http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:21AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:21AM (#1009451)

          Lagg said "boyo". Afrikaans?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:41PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:41PM (#1009533)

            It's a common slang, maybe borrowed from Afrikaans, but it's been in use for quite a while.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:40PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:40PM (#1009567)

              AC said:

              Lagg said "boyo". Afrikaans?

              Other AC said:

              It's a common slang, maybe borrowed from Afrikaans, but it's been in use for quite a while.

              To GP AC:
              Yeah! What up with that boyo! Have you been living under a rock or something?

              In fact, IIRC the first time I heard that term was in an episode of Murder, She Wrote [wikipedia.org] that aired sometime between 1985 and 1992.

              Move ahead to the 1980s, friend.

        • (Score: 2) by Kalas on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:09PM (1 child)

          by Kalas (4247) on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:09PM (#1009703)

          Look at reviews for SCP: Secret Laboratory to get an idea what I mean.

          Oh God why did I do that? I love the hell out of the SCP Foundation but almost every review I skimmed is about as far as possible from the quality of comments I'm accustomed to on the actual wiki.
          It's a real shame because the concept sounds great but I can't stand to play with loudmouthed dumbass kids. Maybe if they put any price other than free on it they could've filtered out most of the annoying children.

          scaM 35.5 hrs
          POSTED: JUNE 18
          very scp kill yes game enjoy play

          I wish I could hate you to death, scaM.

          • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:38PM

            by Freeman (732) on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:38PM (#1009716) Journal

            Steam's reviews were actually useful once upon a time. Now, it's almost better to just look at the videos and give it your best guess, for yourself. As opposed to trying to find decent reviews on the game.

            --
            Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:21AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:21AM (#1009393)

    What the fuck kind of story title is that?

    Fuck you, how to. Is this a HOW TO site? Who the fuck are you "HOW TO" cunt? You can suck my cock - that's HOW TO.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @05:25AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @05:25AM (#1009441)

      >You can suck my cock - that's HOW TO.
      But I don't see one. Let me help.
      step 1, find a microscope.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:55PM (#1009538)

        step 2. getting suckin wench

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:42PM (#1009569)

      Don't hold back, friend. Tell us how you really feel.

      I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

      Oh never mind. You're a jackass.

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