So, I got banned from Steam Forums.....

M

magoo

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 21, 2004
Messages
14,554
I have this thread here about my recent purchase of Painkiller: Recurring Evil

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1684043

You can read it if you wish.
Cliffs notes: bought game off Steam.
It is broken.
Sent request for money back.

Anyway, in a post on Steam forums I was discussing what was broken in my game.
A guy responded that the patch for the game (which was included in my downloaded version) fixed the problem........which in my case it did not.

I responded:

"not in the version I downloaded." and " I'm not buying it" (as in I am not believing what the guy said)

Last night I try to log into the Steam Forums and I get the message I've been permabanned for advocating piracy of software.

I can understand if you take my comments completely out of context have you MIGHT in some abstract way, morph piracy out of that????

I made it clear I had purchased the game from Steam.

Anyway, I thought it was really short sighted, not even a warning or PM......just permabanned.:rolleyes:
 
magoo said:
I have this thread here about my recent purchase of Painkiller: Recurring Evil

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1684043

You can read it if you wish.
Cliffs notes: bought game off Steam.
It is broken.
Sent request for money back.

Anyway, in a post on Steam forums I was discussing what was broken in my game.
A guy responded that the patch for the game (which was included in my downloaded version) fixed the problem........which in my case it did not.

I responded:

"not in the version I downloaded." and " I'm not buying it" (as in I am not believing what the guy said)

Last night I try to log into the Steam Forums and I get the message I've been permabanned for advocating piracy of software.

I can understand if you take my comments completely out of context have you MIGHT in some abstract way, morph piracy out of that????

I made it clear I had purchased the game from Steam.

Anyway, I thought it was really short sighted, not even a warning or PM......just permabanned.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Wow. I had to think about how someone could even take any form of piracy away from your statement and the part about "downloaded" didn't even hit me until the third time I read it.
 
Steam forums are worse than a 12 under call of duty chatroom. I have never in my lifetime gotten any help on there without taking some sort of beating for it.
 
I think that's their way of saying that they're not going to give you a refund.
 
Agreed. Unfortunately, their forums aren't very useful to me. They'll likely unban you if you explain, but what a hassle.
 
Pretty sad that they would perma ban someone for something like that. I could see if you put up a link to a torrent site but banning people for potentially discussing piracy and in your case not even talking about piracy is ridiculous.
 
Steam forums are pretty bad, this is a good case of it. Someone got upset with you and had to be a jerk
 
Did some douche report you or did a mod read it and ban you? I have no idea how it works over there as it's (steam forums) usually less helpful than Googling a solution?
 
It's pretty clear to me how that could be interpreted as admitting piracy: "The version of the game I downloaded did not include the fix . . . I'm not buying it."

It's pretty understandable that Steam has a zero policy discussion on piracy - their entire business is based on selling people games. If they allowed people to discuss their experience with pirated copies of the games on their forums, they're going to lose business.

It was a poor choice of words, and seems pretty cut and dry that it's talking about piracy without reading the whole thread (which I'm sure their moderators don't have time to do).
 
EvanH said:
It's pretty clear to me how that could be interpreted as admitting piracy: "The version of the game I downloaded did not include the fix . . . I'm not buying it."

It's pretty understandable that Steam has a zero policy discussion on piracy - their entire business is based on selling people games. If they allowed people to discuss their experience with pirated copies of the games on their forums, they're going to lose business.

It was a poor choice of words, and seems pretty cut and dry that it's talking about piracy without reading the whole thread (which I'm sure their moderators don't have time to do).
Click to expand...

LOL...yeah, that does sound like he downloaded it and is not going to pay for it (the patch or full game?), even though that's not what he meant.
 
At least they don't ban your games too like EA. ;) But yeah, they are too happy on the ban button. I see a number of helpful posts posted by people who were banned at some time. Guilty until proven innocent.
 
Meh.. I've given up on steam forums a long time ago...
 
For $10 I would have just said fuck it and moved on. For $20 or more I'd be more inclined to push for a refund after exhausting all solutions to get the game working. I agree with others that Steam forums are not much help. The maturity and expertise seems lacking.
 
Many people gets banned from that forum all the time. Its a good thing its not tied to your actual Steam account, so that's probably why they are very strict there.

No matter, you can create a new account if you want, though I'm not sure if its any use. I don't go there for any help either.
 
Funny I read it as "The version of the game I downloaded (from Steam) did not include the fix . . . I'm not buying it (your explaination)"
 
JayteeBates said:
Funny I read it as "The version of the game I downloaded (from Steam) did not include the fix . . . I'm not buying it (your explaination)"
Click to expand...

So did I but we had some background info from the OP. I can easily see how it can be misinterpreted though...
 
fps4ever said:
So did I but we had some background info from the OP. I can easily see how it can be misinterpreted though...
Click to expand...

Oh, I can't agree more. After i read it myself a couple of times I understood what they "saw" there......

BUT.......I had been involved in the thread for a couple of days, and in my other posts it is clearly stated that I bought the game from Steam for 10 dollars.

and..........how do you get the games anyway? You download them.

I think it is also obvious you would have to be a total douche-bag to compalin about a game not working that you pirated........and to repeat, I bought this game legitemately from Steam.

I too am very glad they don't ban my account. I have about 25 games on there, some that might be otherwise hard to come by.:D
 
Heh, I got banned from Steam Forums right after the launch of HL2!

I was complaining about the stuttering problem that EVERYONE who was dumb enough (like me) to buy an ATI 9800 that was heavily promo’d for the game.

Same thing, I was civil and decent and was just trying to get some answers. Fact is there were none. We all got screwed and the %^&*ing card never did work right.
 
Hornet said:
Many people gets banned from that forum all the time. Its a good thing its not tied to your actual Steam account, so that's probably why they are very strict there.

No matter, you can create a new account if you want, though I'm not sure if its any use. I don't go there for any help either.
Click to expand...

You actually can link your Steam account to your forum account now. I wonder what would happen if that were the case?

OP, that is some bullshit. Sounds like a mod didn't bother to read the context and overreacted. I wonder if you can petition Steam?
 
Q-BZ said:
Can you give us a link to your post over there?
Click to expand...

The thing has blocked my IP address I would guess.
I did make another account to see what the deal was, but I'll have to access it some other way and them I'll link it.

I wrote support to give my side of the story, we'll see what happens.:D
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
Heh, I got banned from Steam Forums right after the launch of HL2!

I was complaining about the stuttering problem that EVERYONE who was dumb enough (like me) to buy an ATI 9800 that was heavily promo’d for the game.

Same thing, I was civil and decent and was just trying to get some answers. Fact is there were none. We all got screwed and the %^&*ing card never did work right.
Click to expand...

I remember the problems, but I also remember playing the game a couple years later on the same 9800Pro with no problems.
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
Heh, I got banned from Steam Forums right after the launch of HL2!

I was complaining about the stuttering problem that EVERYONE who was dumb enough (like me) to buy an ATI 9800 that was heavily promo’d for the game.

Same thing, I was civil and decent and was just trying to get some answers. Fact is there were none. We all got screwed and the %^&*ing card never did work right.
Click to expand...

I remember the shitfest with the HL1 release. I tried everything to get it to run and after I did it would eventually crash several minutes later. Worked with Valve directly and after a quite while and several reloads I got a bit rude and said this is enough...at that point they let me send it back for a refund. Dam mods are ban happy now days...
 
Sadly you're just plain better off coming here (to a fucking hardware forum) for help with PC games bugs and mods.
 
The Steam forums are pretty fucking useless for the most part. I've never actually bothered trying to post on them, but just when google searches lead me to the Steam forum the always seem useless.
 
Radical said:
Thanks for posting that...So he clearly states a few posts before the "I'm not buying it" post that he paid the $10 for the game and he wants his money back. I think the mods there have done a good job :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I mean there's only like 3 posts and 2 of the 3 refer to having paid for the game. Epic idiocy going on over there in the mod department.
 
Radical said:
Thanks for posting that...So he clearly states a few posts before the "I'm not buying it" post that he paid the $10 for the game and he wants his money back. I think the mods there have done a good job :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
MavericK96 said:
Yeah, I mean there's only like 3 posts and 2 of the 3 refer to having paid for the game. Epic idiocy going on over there in the mod department.
Click to expand...

Have either one of you been a moderator of a forum that gets dozens or even hundreds of messages marked for review in an hour? It's not feasible to read an entire thread for context, particularly when the post itself can very easily be understood (incorrectly) without context. It was an honest mistake FFS.
 
EvanH said:
Have either one of you been a moderator of a forum that gets dozens or even hundreds of messages marked for review in an hour? It's not feasible to read an entire thread for context, particularly when the post itself can very easily be understood (incorrectly) without context. It was an honest mistake FFS.
Click to expand...

If they couldn't take 10 seconds to read the other posts then there's a problem. I understand that mods don't have a ton of time but making a snap judgement and banning someone over one misread post is ridiculous.

Hell, they didn't even really need to read the other posts. Why else would he say "I'm not buying it" in the context of piracy, considering the post he quoted and the response? Even then it still doesn't make sense.

I'm sorry but this was a moderation failure.
 
I can see it now, some Painkiller nerd read the thread, didn't like that someone was hating on his favorite game, and reported it to the moderator with fancy wording:

"He said he downloaded it and then shortly after said he "I don't buy it", this guy is a pirate"
 
MavericK96 said:
If they couldn't take 10 seconds to read the other posts then there's a problem. I understand that mods don't have a ton of time but making a snap judgement and banning someone over one misread post is ridiculous.

Hell, they didn't even really need to read the other posts. Why else would he say "I'm not buying it" in the context of piracy, considering the post he quoted and the response? Even then it still doesn't make sense.

I'm sorry but this was a moderation failure.
Click to expand...

There's 50 posts in that thread. The post he made can be understood clearly as saying the copy he downloaded did not have the fix, and therefore he was not going to buy the game. It is only his previous posts, which was the ~40th post in on the third page, that put the post into context as innocuous. It's a completely understandable mistake. No one's trying to be a dick, going on a power trip, looking to ruin his day, or going all EA on his ass and preventing access to his games. Things like this happen, there's no reason to blow it out of proportion
 
Last edited:
EvanH said:
There's 50 posts in that thread. The post he made can be understood clearly as saying the copy he downloaded did not have the fix, and therefore he was not going to buy the game. It is only his previous posts, which was the ~40th post in on the third page, that put the post into context as innocuous. It's a completely understandable mistake. No one's trying to be a dick, going on a power trip, or looking to ruin your day. Things like this happen, there's no reason to blow it out of proportion
Click to expand...

Guess that's what happens when no one there believes in issuing a warning first. :rolleyes:

It's not like he outright said "I pirated the game".
 
Hornet said:
Many people gets banned from that forum all the time. Its a good thing its not tied to your actual Steam account, so that's probably why they are very strict there.

No matter, you can create a new account if you want, though I'm not sure if its any use. I don't go there for any help either.
Click to expand...

But if the account was tied to the Steam account, then OP could prove that he actually bought the game...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top