Banned for Asking Questions – Is This How Feedback Is Handled?

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SteevRex 15 hours ago

Banned for Asking Questions – Is This How Feedback Is Handled?

I’ve just been permanently banned from the Caravanners: Co-op Open World Camping community (https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/1609370) for posting a message that challenged how the developers are handling feedback and transparency. The post didn’t break any rules — no profanity, no hate speech, no spam (as stated on their rule page) — just frustration shared respectfully over multiple delays and disappearing posts.

The post in question (now deleted without reason) asked why critical feedback is being removed while devs continue to promise release dates they don’t meet. That message alone was enough to get me banned from there discord first. Now there community page.

To be clear:

I followed all community rules.

I posted under relevant topics.

I voiced concerns based on public information (the delays and devlogs).

And I kept the criticism fair — no personal attacks, no abuse.

Yet here we are. Banned, silenced, and deleted.

It’s extremely concerning when a dev team uses Steam's community tools not to manage abuse, but to erase any form of disagreement. Steam is meant to be a space where players can speak openly, especially when it comes to products that are delayed, changed, or struggling with communication.

This isn’t about hate or “toxicity” — it’s about accountability. If a developer invites feedback, then deletes it and bans users for giving it, is that really a community?

Just putting this here so it’s on record. I’d be surprised if this post lasts too long either.

What was my last post?

Originally posted by SteevRex:
So Now We're Silencing Feedback Too?

Just dropping by to point out something that’s becoming more obvious by the minute — posts are now being deleted if they don’t toe the "everything is perfect" line. Not locked. Not replied to. Just quietly removed from view like nothing happened. It's impressive, really — the community was promised transparency, but now it's more like vanishing acts.

Let’s get one thing clear:
No rules were broken.
No spam.
No hate speech.
No profanity.
No posting in the wrong topic.
Just plain, direct criticism — which, as per your own guidelines, is welcomed. But I guess “Feedback and Criticism Are Welcome” actually means as long as it’s positive and doesn’t hurt feelings.

It's honestly ironic. Posts disappear while we’re being told everything is “open” and “communicated clearly.” And when someone dares to voice frustration after three different release dates have come and gone, they get labelled “toxic,” warned, and then banned or silenced.

This isn’t how you build trust. It’s how you bury it.

The community deserves better than selective visibility and PR damage control disguised as moderation. If you can’t handle criticism after multiple delays and reused explanations, maybe stop making promises you’re not prepared to keep.

Just waiting to see how long this one lasts before it “violates community standards.”

What was a response I got?

https://i.ibb.co/HL3ss0f5/Screenshot-20250802-094919-Steam.jpg

Originally posted by SteevRex:
Ah, the classic “final offer for peace” speech — wouldn’t be a dev delay without a dramatic monologue.

Look, I’ve read the devlogs (yes, all one-page of them), and I’m well aware delays happen. What people are frustrated about isn’t the delay itself — it’s the repeated promises followed by repeated “unexpected surprises.” At some point, it starts feeling less like transparency and more like PR on loop.

And no, I don’t expect the dev team to show up at my house begging. Just maybe not giving three different release dates before pushing it again might be a good start.

As for being called toxic — if pointing out broken promises and reused excuses is now “toxic,” then I guess I’ll wear that badge. But calling it “disrespect” to hold a project accountable while expecting the community to just keep nodding along isn’t exactly respectful either.

Anyway, I’ll let the next delay speak for itself. We’ve both seen this pattern before.

No response, just deleted. From what I have been informed, 20+ users have been banned for questioning, or asking questions.

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Showing 1-13 of 13 comments

xBCxRangers 15 hours ago

Well, to their credit at least they spent time explaining. I've had perma bans, nothing, literally nothing explained.

One Hub, i posted a question whether they would bring SP into the game, and poof, Perma Banned, No reason given. I even emailed them, no explanation.

To the point even Support sent a response to me back stating "We wish Developers would not act like this etc", and gave me a link to what they tell developers.

All in all, some developers are just bad players. But on this, at least there was a lengthy explanation, and they mentioned Discord. I never posted on that.

You may not agree with it, and may have a good reason, but at least the developer went out the way to explain their situation.

Last edited by xBCxRangers; 15 hours ago

Shreddy 15 hours ago

If it’s a game forum the you can be banned for any arbitrary reason the dev likes and Steam will do nothing to help, it can even end up in a community wide ban if it happens a few times, meaning that a 3rd party developer can limit the functionality of your steam profile based on whatever nonsense is inside their head.

Welcome to the massively flawed discussion system and keep in mind the only section of the steam forum with any type of objective rule set is the actual steam forums you are posting in now.

Nx Machina 15 hours ago

They literally gave you reasons why in the screenshot you posted.

https://i.ibb.co/HL3ss0f5/Screenshot-20250802-094919-Steam.jpg

The game was delayed due a bug.

You constantly show toxic behaviour both on Discord and here on Steam.

You even stated "You are a joke of a company" which is disrespectful yet want to shift the blame.

SteevRex 15 hours ago

Originally posted by xBCxRangers:
Well, to their credit at least they spent time explaining. I've had perma bans, nothing, literally nothing explained.

One Hub, i posted a question whether they would bring SP into the game, and poof, Perma Banned, No reason given. I even emailed them, no explanation.

To the point even Support sent a response to me back stating "We wish Developers would not act like this etc", and gave me a link to what they tell developers.

All in all, some developers are just bad players. But on this, at least there was a lengthy explanation, and they mentioned Discord. I never posted on that.

You may not agree with it, and may have a good reason, but at least the developer went out the way to explain their situation.

That is true yes, I just thought to share my experience on this but it seems to happen everywhere, I also reported it to Steam. It's interesting though how some developers can get away with stuff like you have said and not get sanctioned for their actions.

SteevRex 15 hours ago

Originally posted by Shreddy:
If it’s a game forum the you can be banned for any arbitrary reason the dev likes and Steam will do nothing to help, it can even end up in a community wide ban if it happens a few times, meaning that a 3rd party developer can limit the functionality of your steam profile based on whatever nonsense is inside their head.

Welcome to the massively flawed discussion system and keep in mind the only section of the steam forum with any type of objective rule set is the actual steam forums you are posting in now.

Agreed, but steam has hidden rules many don't read.

Steam Discussions Rules and Guidelines

“Constructive discussions, feedback, and criticism are welcome in Steam Discussions.”

“Do not make posts with the sole intent of provoking or antagonizing others.”

“Moderators (including developers) should act in good faith when enforcing rules.”

So if your post:

Is constructive

Not aggressive or profane

Doesn’t antagonize others

Then deleting it and banning you for being “toxic” violates this guidance.

---
Steamworks Documentation – Developer Best Practices

Key quotes from Valve’s guidelines for developers:

“Do not delete or hide feedback simply because it is negative.”

“Respect differing opinions. If players express dissatisfaction with your game, use it as an opportunity to engage with them and improve.”

“Maintain a transparent and respectful tone when responding to your community, especially when dealing with criticism.”

So if a developer:

Deletes posts just for being critical

Labels respectful dissent as “toxic”

Uses bans to silence negative opinions

…they're going against Steam’s expectations for developer conduct.

---

> According to Steam’s Discussion Rules,
“Constructive discussions, feedback, and criticism are welcome.”

And according to Valve’s developer community guidelines:
*“Do not delete or hide feedback simply

Leonardo Da Pinchi 15 hours ago

Originally posted by SteevRex:
Originally posted by Shreddy:
If it’s a game forum the you can be banned for any arbitrary reason the dev likes and Steam will do nothing to help, it can even end up in a community wide ban if it happens a few times, meaning that a 3rd party developer can limit the functionality of your steam profile based on whatever nonsense is inside their head.

Welcome to the massively flawed discussion system and keep in mind the only section of the steam forum with any type of objective rule set is the actual steam forums you are posting in now.

Agreed, but steam has hidden rules many don't read.

Steam Discussions Rules and Guidelines

“Constructive discussions, feedback, and criticism are welcome in Steam Discussions.”

“Do not make posts with the sole intent of provoking or antagonizing others.”

“Moderators (including developers) should act in good faith when enforcing rules.”

So if your post:

Is constructive

Not aggressive or profane

Doesn’t antagonize others

Then deleting it and banning you for being “toxic” violates this guidance.

---
Steamworks Documentation – Developer Best Practices

Key quotes from Valve’s guidelines for developers:

“Do not delete or hide feedback simply because it is negative.”

“Respect differing opinions. If players express dissatisfaction with your game, use it as an opportunity to engage with them and improve.”

“Maintain a transparent and respectful tone when responding to your community, especially when dealing with criticism.”

So if a developer:

Deletes posts just for being critical

Labels respectful dissent as “toxic”

Uses bans to silence negative opinions

…they're going against Steam’s expectations for developer conduct.

---

> According to Steam’s Discussion Rules,
“Constructive discussions, feedback, and criticism are welcome.”

And according to Valve’s developer community guidelines:
*“Do not delete or hide feedback simply

There's a difference between negative feedback and non-constructive insults, bashing, and rants however. Going out of one's way to call a studio a "joke of a company" isn't
constructive feedback positive or negative.

Last edited by Leonardo Da Pinchi; 15 hours ago

xBCxRangers 15 hours ago

Originally posted by SteevRex:
Originally posted by xBCxRangers:
Well, to their credit at least they spent time explaining. I've had perma bans, nothing, literally nothing explained.

One Hub, i posted a question whether they would bring SP into the game, and poof, Perma Banned, No reason given. I even emailed them, no explanation.

To the point even Support sent a response to me back stating "We wish Developers would not act like this etc", and gave me a link to what they tell developers.

All in all, some developers are just bad players. But on this, at least there was a lengthy explanation, and they mentioned Discord. I never posted on that.

You may not agree with it, and may have a good reason, but at least the developer went out the way to explain their situation.

That is true yes, I just thought to share my experience on this but it seems to happen everywhere, I also reported it to Steam. It's interesting though how some developers can get away with stuff like you have said and not get sanctioned for their actions.

Yes, there is a ban pandemic going on, no question. There's situations i just had a total dormant account was banned. No explanation. "We cannot respond at this time, case closed".

And so there a lot of VERY questionable bans. But at least here you got an explanation i could only have wished i would have gotten. I likely wouldn't have agreed. But at least they tried.

We have people here we have to scratch our heads as to what moderation can be thinking. In any event, it's a bummer, and it sucks.

I would just hope Steam changes their Moderation policies, and who knows, with now IDs coming, and banned games, maybe we will likely see some changes.

gwwak 14 hours ago

Solution: use a burner account.

Discord may be harder to run burners, but I haven't exactly tried to hard.

TheStoryteller01 14 hours ago

Originally posted by SteevRex:
Banned for Asking Questions – Is This How Feedback Is Handled?

Maybe it was this you wrote

...you are a joke of a company...

that got you finally banned, hm?

EDIT: I just realized I am not the only one who actually reads provided links and screenshots. Kudos to the community, for once I am impressed.

Last edited by TheStoryteller01; 14 hours ago

Nx Machina 12 hours ago

Originally posted by SteevRex:
Agreed, but steam has hidden rules many don't read.

Steam Discussions Rules and Guidelines

“Constructive discussions, feedback, and criticism are welcome in Steam Discussions.”

“Do not make posts with the sole intent of provoking or antagonizing others.”

“Moderators (including developers) should act in good faith when enforcing rules.”

"You are a joke of a company" would fall under “Do not make posts with the sole intent of provoking or antagonizing others” as it is not constructive with regard to discussion, feedback, criticism as all three fall under the umbrella of "be constructive when posting."

Last edited by Nx Machina; 12 hours ago

#10

Leonardo Da Pinchi 11 hours ago

Originally posted by Nx Machina:
Originally posted by SteevRex:
Agreed, but steam has hidden rules many don't read.

Steam Discussions Rules and Guidelines

“Constructive discussions, feedback, and criticism are welcome in Steam Discussions.”

“Do not make posts with the sole intent of provoking or antagonizing others.”

“Moderators (including developers) should act in good faith when enforcing rules.”

"You are a joke of a company" would fall under “Do not make posts with the sole intent of provoking or antagonizing others” as it is not constructive with regard to discussion, feedback, criticism as all three fall under the umbrella of "be constructive when posting."

Yup, more commonly known as flamebaiting.

#11

76561198407601200 11 hours ago

Originally posted by SteevRex:
Originally posted by xBCxRangers:
Well, to their credit at least they spent time explaining. I've had perma bans, nothing, literally nothing explained.

One Hub, i posted a question whether they would bring SP into the game, and poof, Perma Banned, No reason given. I even emailed them, no explanation.

To the point even Support sent a response to me back stating "We wish Developers would not act like this etc", and gave me a link to what they tell developers.

All in all, some developers are just bad players. But on this, at least there was a lengthy explanation, and they mentioned Discord. I never posted on that.

You may not agree with it, and may have a good reason, but at least the developer went out the way to explain their situation.

That is true yes, I just thought to share my experience on this but it seems to happen everywhere, I also reported it to Steam. It's interesting though how some developers can get away with stuff like you have said and not get sanctioned for their actions.

Bans can be misrepresented by those who received them. Take for instance in this topic where someone seemed to have gotten confused on what the ban was regarding and misrepresented their own ban.

#12