Goodbye (from all volunteer Steam moderators)

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KillahInstinct 2 Jun, 2022 @ 11:57am

Goodbye (from all volunteer Steam moderators)

We, the volunteer Steam moderators, are being retired starting tomorrow.

What started as a fairly small company with less than 1 million users on the old forums (SPUF), and a tight knit community, comes to an end on the 'new' forums - more akin to the size of Twitter and in no way comparable.

It was a long time coming, we were never really able to keep up with all the reports and help was needed. Valve added paid moderators along the way and outsourced it like they did with Steam Support, which at this scale (sadly) is the only way to moderate. Valve feels confident that the path forward is solely with paid moderators they feel they must retire the volunteer moderation program and thanked us for our services. Each game is also still free to have their own moderators.

We acted as a liaison already in most recent years, albeit most of us where already retired or simply plain inactive, as employees left and changed and the way Valve undertakes things did to.

On the bright side, at least there won't be any complaints about who handed out a ban anymore, although I have already seen conspiracies that we are actually Support agents too ;)

We want to thank all of you for your support and the trust you put in us to moderate this platform and make things better for everyone, and the help we were able to provide as a result. We all have some unforgettable moments we will carry with us and will still be providing feedback to moderators and other hubs.

Last edited by KillahInstinct; 2 Jun, 2022 @ 12:46pm

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Showing 691-705 of 1,842 comments

Froggy 8 Jun, 2022 @ 9:20pm

Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at:
Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:

Yeah okay so I'm not confused.
The globals were the volunteer ones right?
I think you're all confused in that regard.

Both the Community Moderators & Steam Support were global moderators.

You know, kind of like how both apples and peaches are fruits.

What's confusing is that supposedly the people handing out reprimands and the people handling reports are apparently outsourced to 2 different companies but both of them are called Steam Support?

:thepro:

I might e gotten this confused as well. But my understanding of it is:

1. Volunteer mods like Killah, colt, ianskate. They were called global mods, as they had access to moderate all game hubs(with the caviat of those hubs that opted out). They interacted with the community and cleaned up where they found problems as well as dealing with reports. Then the paid mods were Introduced.
(bans will show as "banned by moderator" or similar)

2. Paid mods like Snow, empress of fire, jack. They also have access to the same places as the volunteers did. They only deal with reports. They're from a third party company that has been hired by Valve. (bans will show as "banned by a member of support" or similar)

3. Developer appointed mods. They only have access to their respective game hub. Valve has nothing to do with them.

4. Support
Also a hired third party company. Not sure if the same or another than the one paid are from.
Unsurprisingly, they deal with support tickets.

#691

(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★ 8 Jun, 2022 @ 9:26pm

Originally posted by Froggy:
Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at:
I think you're all confused in that regard.

Both the Community Moderators & Steam Support were global moderators.

You know, kind of like how both apples and peaches are fruits.

What's confusing is that supposedly the people handing out reprimands and the people handling reports are apparently outsourced to 2 different companies but both of them are called Steam Support?

:thepro:
I might e gotten this confused as well. But my understanding of it is:

1. Volunteer mods like Killah, colt, ianskate. They were called global mods, as they had access to moderate all game hubs(with the caviat of those hubs that opted out). They interacted with the community and cleaned up where they found problems as well as dealing with reports. Then the paid mods were Introduced.
(bans will show as "banned by moderator" or similar)

2. Paid mods like Snow, empress of fire, jack. They also have access to the same places as the volunteers did. They only deal with reports. They're from a third party company that has been hired by Valve. (bans will show as "banned by a member of support" or similar)

3. Developer appointed mods. They only have access to their respective game hub. Valve has nothing to do with them.

4. Support
Also a hired third party company. Not sure if the same or another than the one paid are from.
Unsurprisingly, they deal with support tickets.

This ^

Just to add globals were "Community moderator"
Paid valve mods "Member of Support"
Developer" Developer"
Forum appointed "Forum moderator"

At least thats what I see in the community messages.

Last edited by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★; 8 Jun, 2022 @ 9:32pm

#692

Fear dot Com 8 Jun, 2022 @ 10:07pm

Aw, man. You guys did me a solid a few times which I’ll always appreciate. Gonna miss not seeing the orange letters.

#693

Heatnyx 8 Jun, 2022 @ 11:25pm

Originally posted by Wiawyr:
Originally posted by Dregzeir:
You know the ol saying about jannies and whatnot
They do it for free!

They take their "jobs" quite seriously!

#694

Froggy 9 Jun, 2022 @ 2:34am

Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:
Originally posted by Froggy:
I might e gotten this confused as well. But my understanding of it is:

1. Volunteer mods like Killah, colt, ianskate. They were called global mods, as they had access to moderate all game hubs(with the caviat of those hubs that opted out). They interacted with the community and cleaned up where they found problems as well as dealing with reports. Then the paid mods were Introduced.
(bans will show as "banned by moderator" or similar)

2. Paid mods like Snow, empress of fire, jack. They also have access to the same places as the volunteers did. They only deal with reports. They're from a third party company that has been hired by Valve. (bans will show as "banned by a member of support" or similar)

3. Developer appointed mods. They only have access to their respective game hub. Valve has nothing to do with them.

4. Support
Also a hired third party company. Not sure if the same or another than the one paid are from.
Unsurprisingly, they deal with support tickets.

This ^

Just to add globals were "Community moderator"
Paid valve mods "Member of Support"
Developer" Developer"
Forum appointed "Forum moderator"

At least thats what I see in the community messages.

Thank you! I jutted this down from the top of my head and didn't check for the exact wording for the messages. Here's an award!

#695

Start_Running 9 Jun, 2022 @ 4:25am

Originally posted by (N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★:
Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at:
I think you're all confused in that regard.

Both the Community Moderators & Steam Support were global moderators.

You know, kind of like how both apples and peaches are fruits.

What's confusing is that supposedly the people handing out reprimands and the people handling reports are apparently outsourced to 2 different companies but both of them are called Steam Support?

:thepro:

I mean, I'm not confused on the steam support people.
I just always called community volunteer moderators as globals.
They were there long before paid mods even came around so thats what I've known them as.

On the contrary paid mods have been around long before the Volunteers. They are just not visible. The volunteer are just visible. The paid mods, are invisible.

#696

Tito Shivan 9 Jun, 2022 @ 5:36am

Don't take the bait, guys.

Originally posted by Start_Running:
On the contrary paid mods have been around long before the Volunteers.

There was no paid moderation staff (dedicated) when the the Steam Discussions launched. But they've been for long enough already as the number of community mods decreased.

#697

(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★ 9 Jun, 2022 @ 6:16am

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:
Don't take the bait, guys.

Originally posted by Start_Running:
On the contrary paid mods have been around long before the Volunteers.
There was no paid moderation staff (dedicated) when the the Steam Discussions launched. But they've been for long enough already as the number of community mods decreased.

This -^
I was going to reply also but I didnt want to sound snooty. xD

#698

Castyles 9 Jun, 2022 @ 6:47am

Originally posted by Thermal Lance:
Originally posted by Castyles:
I could give you the full story about "the ban of the ten days", with details and proof, but I don't add strangers. Sorry not sorry.

Believe what you want, though. Doesn't make a single difference to me for I know I was not in the wrong, at that particular time and I still stand by my previous words: Yours was unecessary. But know that some get much worse.

...

But, speaking of which, I questioned a community moderator, once, about bans. But never got an answer. So, if someone could answer me, now, it would be great.

Do bans follow a pattern i.e. are the days that you get cumulative to your previous "offenses", are they based on the "degree" of your actions or are they just given at will without a mere thought by the mod who happens to read the report i.e. are mods free to address the situation any way they see fit?
From my understanding, mods use both the degree of the offense and your history to decide. As to the punishment. Mods also work within their limitations within the platform. They are not almighty gods by any stretch of the imagination. No, they cannot deal with a situation however they want. They have rules they need to follow too. But, they do have a moderate amount of leeway depending on each individual's interpretation of the rules and how he/she percieve the action. But, in the long run, it is not very common that somebody gets an excessive ban. Except if there was some gross misunderstanding. Happened to me once.

Yep. Not so different from what I thought. Thanks for the answer.

#699

Paratech2008 9 Jun, 2022 @ 9:56am

Maybe some of us don't think the paid mods will be as good as the volunteers...

If they follow the rules to the letter versus look at posts in context....

#700

Black_Blade 9 Jun, 2022 @ 10:10am

Thanks for all your time guys
Thanks for all the reports you taken care of and all your hard work on the community

#701

kitt 9 Jun, 2022 @ 10:31am

Originally posted by Paratech2008:
Maybe some of us don't think the paid mods will be as good as the volunteers...

If they follow the rules to the letter versus look at posts in context....

yea because context did matter in the past...

#702

crunchyfrog 9 Jun, 2022 @ 11:25am

Originally posted by Paratech2008:
Maybe some of us don't think the paid mods will be as good as the volunteers...

If they follow the rules to the letter versus look at posts in context....

Well as I pointed out, the evidence is already here. They've been doing this for a few years already.

#703