I had a person tell me in game they hate black people, then left a comment on my profile referring to black people as black monkeys. I reported them. About five times. Steam does nothing. Their comment would be still up if I haven't removed it manually after one of many reports resulting in nothing. Their profile is full of proof of it being a long term continuous effort. Their account has a high level, which makes me think it may be why Steam seems to be protecting them. I reported people in the past and stuff was done about it. It's my first time dealing with blatant racism AND no moderation effort from Steam. I even ended up messaging steam support about my concerns and got a generic response which amounted to nothing.
I see people speaking up about poor moderation on other platforms, so I chose to speak up about Steam's as I'm really tired of this bullshit.
Valve doesn't care one whit about good moderation. I got kicked from a CS game recently because I wouldn't say the n word. The team agreed that only racists are allowed on the team and since I wouldn't say the n word they kicked me. Of course I reported all of them but I have no doubt that report falls into a black hole and the 4 people proud of their racism just get to keep playing as if nothing happened.
Riot does a ton of things very very wrong but one thing they do a decent job of is actually punishing people for bad behavior like that and then notifying the reporters that hey, you helped us get those guys. Valve needs to take that kind of approach or their games and services will just continue to be overrun by this shit
ne thing they do a decent job of is actually punishing people for bad behavior
Way too little, way too late. But yeah it does always feel good seeing the report feedback.
Cool, who is that person? Can you link their steam profile here? Perhaps someone from Valve may see your comment and the person will be banned. Otherwise why are you protecting that persons anonymity?
No, please no witch-hunts.
witch hunts are where you hold horrific racists publicly accountable, and the more you hold them accountable, the more witch-hunty it is
they will just get abuse from random strangers
i mean that seems appropriate considering they're going around abusing random strangers, doesn't it?
Just report and move on. It sucks but nothing we could do would help anyways,
Also that lib was full of shit. Steam has never actually banned racists, no matter how many times they're reported.
This is why my shit's locked down to only allow viewing and interacting from people I've friended tbh
I really like wholesome comments from cool people I've interacted with and I don't mind seeing bigotry if I can use it as proof to get bigots banned from coms so someone more vulnerable won't have to see it. I do mind if it's allowed by the platform choosing not to do anything about it though.
A couple of structural and ideological problems at Valve lead to this. First, the company's "flat" organization where people work on what they want means that unless somebody wants to volunteer to mod Steam communities (which no sane person would), they won't bother. Further, even if someone wanted to mod Steam, they'd have to consider that it might be damaging to their career because "I remove racists and nazis from Steam" isn't going to get the same kind of good performance reviews that some big sexy project will (even if it never releases).
Second, the leadership are rich white libertarians. They don't care what their users say or do because of nonsense
beliefs so long as they keep making money. The only thing that might get them to take action would be if this kind of thing became a big scandalous news story, because at that point it might be viewed as a threat to their bottom line, but that never happened with the child gambling so it's still unlikely.They're gonna protect their whales. It's like Facebook, I report outright calls to violence, doing, and hate speech all the time to be told it "doesn't violate TOS" but I make one comment that "hiding behind Christianity to justify your hate is bullshit" got me a hate speech ding on my account in under 5 minutes.
First: fuck racism and trolls.
Second: it's the internet, quit feeding the trolls. Why bother reporting them? They suck, they are going to do it again. Ignore and move on. Internet 101.
Third: profile page? I have looked at that maybe a dozen times in the last 19 years. I really don't care about it. However: I did review my settings and I do keep mine locked down.
I despise these idiots that are looking for attention. They have been around since the old bbs days and they are not going away. We simply ignore them, block them, and take away what they are asking for: attention.
Why bother reporting them? They suck, they are going to do it again.
They might think twice if they got banned from Steam and lost their tens of thousands of hours and thousands of dollars worth of stuff on their steam profile.
Yeah I'm all for not feeding the trolls but for sure imma report them. Doesn't mean I need to tell them I'm reporting them
this is an extremely individualized approach that leaves bigots free to spread their filth everywhere, making normal people (particularly marginalized ones) uncomfortable and at worst forcing them out of the space entirely.
bigotry should be opposed at all times in every conceivable way. unfortunately we can't do violence to shitheads on the internet, so silencing them is the next best thing
unfortunately we can't do violence to shitheads on the internet
Yet. Muskrats are lining up to get their brain chips, so it won't be too long before someone manages to hack one and kill somebody (assuming the brain chip itself doesn't do it first).
brb learning how to be a 90s era hacker so i can make people's heads pop like in scanners
First rule of the internet: everyone is a liar. Therefore nothing anyone says matters. I hate bigotry too, but there is a good chance this is just the leverage a troll is using for attention.
So, we do the same as we do with all trolls, don't feed them.
We also can recognize that there is racism, bigotry, hatred and marginalization. Otherwise they wouldn't try and leverage it.
I agree we should denounce it, welcome everyone without expectations, but after being on the net and prior since the 80s, only one thing works: don't give them the satisfaction or power.
First rule of the internet: everyone is a liar.
"It's the internet" is a failed and ruinous attitude that permits bad people (yes, some people are worse than other people in spite of your thought-terminating platitudes). And for what? To feel smug and superior?
Also, false equivalencies that condemn everyone just so you can dismiss individual concerns are old tired shit that should have been retired in the early 2000s.
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i'm saying i disagree with this approach. people have been preaching "not to feed the trolls" for decades and the internet has only gotten more bigoted and terrible. forcing those people out of any non-nazi space should be priority #1. we do this on hexbear and as a result the site culture there is significantly more welcoming to minorities than just about anywhere else on the internet. i've been on the internet for like 25 years now (admittedly not as long as you) and it's the only site i have ever seen where people bandying about slurs and abusive language are not only not tolerated, but are actively rejected by the community en mass
it works. if you build it, they will come. if you ban the shitheads, good people will stay. if you don't, you end up with 4chan.
Second: it's the internet, quit feeding the trolls. Why bother reporting them? They suck, they are going to do it again. Ignore and move on. Internet 101.
That ignorant and failed doctrine is seen as "internet 101" in a way that was such a failure that it lead to the "containment theory" that gradually permitted all of 4chan to become extensions of /pol/ and made it the nazi hive that it is now.
Demonetization works. Look at how relevant Milo Yianopulos is now.
Why bother reporting them? They suck, they are going to do it again. Ignore and move on. Internet 101.
I'd still report them. Worst case the platform is shitty and nothing happens to them, best case they get banned. Definitely block and don't engage them, for sure.
