PC Alot of Steam Threads get deleted alot... Any reason why?

GameOverMan

GameOverMan

New member
And no, I dont mean topics that cause arguments or any form of disturbance, but general player 1 asks a question and player 2 gives an answer. A day later the thread gets deleted.

Now if somebody has that same problem, they cant go and google it or look it up, because somebody decided it was better to delete civilized threads where players have questions that were properly answered.

The reason I mention this is because one of gamers most often used replies are, "use the search bar" which becomes very impractical with the mass deletion of threads.

Again, I am not talking about problematic threads, but general threads.

Reason I ask is I have had a few threads where I asked a question got an answer and the thread was trashed, and I have searched steam for questions in the past only to search again a few month later and the page is gone completely.

I just think it hinders us having to repost the same questions over and over, when they are deleted.

Thanks

 
90% are moved to the subsections they (mostly) belong in.

A few moved are maybe worth to discuss. But dont forget Moderators are humans too.

That steam breaks the notifications is a steam issue

 
A lot of threads on Steam get moved, since they get posted in the wrong forum (I've lost count of the number of "looking for someone to play the game with" threads posted in the General Discussion room), and if the moderator doesn't apply a redirection notice, or it expires (I generally apply a "one day" redirection notice) it can look like it was deleted.

 


Also, we sometimes have to merge threads there, just as we do here, when people open up multiple, nearly identical, threads.

 
A lot of threads on Steam get moved, since they get posted in the wrong forum (I've lost count of the number of "looking for someone to play the game with" threads posted in the General Discussion room), and if the moderator doesn't apply a redirection notice, or it expires (I generally apply a "one day" redirection notice) it can look like it was deleted. 


Also, we sometimes have to merge threads there, just as we do here, when people open up multiple, nearly identical, threads.
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Thanks for the info, maybe steam notifications just says deleted but they are merged. I try searching under what I last searched and dont seem them, Ill have to look harder. Cheers.

- - - Updated - - -

Why not ask there?
Cheers
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Because under steam rules, it could be seen as challenging a steam moderators decision, which is something I am not doing, but to avoid the misunderstanding I decided to ask here.

 
Thanks for the info, maybe steam notifications just says deleted but they are merged. I try searching under what I last searched and dont seem them, Ill have to look harder. Cheers.
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Keep in mind also, on Steam we have fewer options. We can't for example, edit posts, so a post can be deleted only because it quoted a post we had to moderate, and yes, merging threads, unfortunately seems to challenge the Steam thread tracker somewhat.

 


None of which, of course, also doesn't mean we sometimes just don't simply make a mistake from time to time too. ;-)

 


As for discussing moderation, I think asking questions about the way Steam handles it is ok, what we don't permit is discussing moderator actions taken (real or imagined)...hehe.

 
One thing I've noticed with steam (and had this discussion with SylenThunder if I remember) is that when threads are moved or merged, to the user posting it can look as if they are deleted as the "new comment" notification suddenly points to an invalid location which says it's not there. It doesn't update and tell where the (same thread) now exists just under a different board.

I suspect that causes many to think (me included!) that their posts got deleted when they simply got moved or merged.

One would have liked Steam to update their discussion capabilities after so many years too :)

 
Here's what it shows you when we move a thread....

615f73444df13b0751442e4e338d2b80.png


Now what's the first word there?

Anyone?

Here's a hint....

This item was moved or deleted.

Yet for some strange reason, the conclusion that nearly everyone jumps to, is that it was deleted. Not that it was moved. It's like the words implying it might have been moved don't even exist for people.

Also note, that this topic was moved....

Because it was posted in the wrong section....

The real issue, is that people need to learn that forums have multiple sections. It's not like this is a new thing either. This has been a standard since we were using 300baud modems to connect o bbs servers. [Many users] can't be bothered to put any effort in though. Same reason people complain when a survival game doesn't give you everything right away, and makes you work for it.

 
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Here's what it shows you when we move a thread....
615f73444df13b0751442e4e338d2b80.png


Now what's the first word there?

Anyone?

Here's a hint....

This item was moved or deleted.

Yet for some strange reason, the conclusion that nearly everyone jumps to, is that it was deleted. Not that it was moved. It's like the words implying it might have been moved don't even exist for people.

Also note, that this topic was moved....

Because it was posted in the wrong section....

The real issue, is that people need to learn that forums have multiple sections. It's not like this is a new thing either. This has been a standard since we were using 300baud modems to connect o bbs servers. [Many users] can't be bothered to put any effort in though. Same reason people complain when a survival game doesn't give you everything right away, and makes you work for it.
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The sheer level of cynicism in this post is ruining my thursday morning. Off to find someone not being an ass to brighten things up again ...

 
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It's not like he's wrong though. I've seen the same question pop for this forum when threads get moved. Everyone just thinks theyre special.

I play console so not out on Steam alot, but i can imagine the crowd there has the same gimped mentality of most of the console gamers.

 
The sad part is. The people who kvetch at the moderation for moving a post and do not look in their own post history to find it are unwilling to challenge the mighty Valve for better forum functionality for notifications when posts are moved. Instead choosing to complain about the moderation (not that they post in the wrong forum, not in their having chosen to avoid checking their post history, not that Valve notifications are useless). Often complaining multiple times as they continue to make posts in the wrong forum and have additional posts moved.

Please note: I don't speak in general of all users, but there is certainly a good percentage of such complaints, many repeated on Steam by the same users for the same moved posts over and over.

As Royal Deluxe and SylenThunder have already mentioned, we've pointed these things out many times on Steam.

 
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Here's what it shows you when we move a thread....
615f73444df13b0751442e4e338d2b80.png


Now what's the first word there?

Anyone?

Here's a hint....

This item was moved or deleted.

Yet for some strange reason, the conclusion that nearly everyone jumps to, is that it was deleted. Not that it was moved. It's like the words implying it might have been moved don't even exist for people.

Also note, that this topic was moved....

Because it was posted in the wrong section....

The real issue, is that people need to learn that forums have multiple sections. It's not like this is a new thing either. This has been a standard since we were using 300baud modems to connect o bbs servers. [Many users] can't be bothered to put any effort in though. Same reason people complain when a survival game doesn't give you everything right away, and makes you work for it.
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The first word there is This.

 
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As someone who has spent far too much time reading the Steam forums... this does come up literally ALL the time. And people get astonishingly angry about it. I mean, they get excessively angry just about threads being moved, but the assumption is by and large that they are actually deleted. A few times you'll see sheepish reply of "oh, you're right it was just moved thanks" but half the time that still isn't good enough.

It seems that the majority of people on there don't really understand the basic idea of having different subforums(or of moderation at all, for that matter). I've seen multiple people complain about the very fact that they have different places for different discussions, and many claims of how no one can possibly be expected to look one inch to the right of the topic list to even notice that there are different subforums. I see complaints about that in every forum on Steam that does have multiple forums, and how it is "attempting to mute discussion and criticism" and "openly hostile to your customers." It's even apparently a reason to lower your review score of a game.

The best bit is, the only forums on steam that are even remotely readable that DON'T use subforums are the nearly dead ones. The others are all full of a million threads about mostly the same repeated things(and plenty of nonsense) and fill up so fast that you can't hope to find any conversation you were reading a day or two ago without specifially marking it as a watched thread.

The first word there is This.
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Lol, well played. :)

 
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