Q: Is steam rep being unfair?

Hello, I have a question that has been concerning me for quite some time, because I have seen multiple ban appeals stating how steam rep is unfair and To be honest, I actualy agree with them. For instance: People who are marked for scamming normaly don't even get a second chance. Also some of the reason people are marked scammer are not even for scamming. I was told to belive scamming is when you actualy steal items on purpose, but now I am seeing people are being marked for attempts of 'spy-crabbing' and 'impersonation' which I belive is totaly out of the question. And yet these people are being marked [SCAMMER] for life which is ruining a HUGE chunk of their game and their experience.

I also belive compairing internet crimes to life crimes is a little weird seeing as stealing is not a life sentance (unless you are somewhere strict in the world) but as such; stealing someones In game items is not going to effect them as much as real life. I agree that scammers who actauly 'Scam' are given permenant tag but otherwise I think a few years/months ban would be more appropriate.

What struck me to say this was this person appeal which made me feel horribly bad for them (their words):

Dear Polyvore,
Wow. Just f****** wow. I cannot believe- well, I could always believe, how ignorant and immature you and your fellow administrator friends are. Because I attempt to scam someone but fail, I get marked for life as a scammer? If I attempted to kill some random man on the streets, I'd get a minimum of seven years in jail- not a life in jail. I've already said several times, if you were listening, that I was done scamming. However, no admin here has the brain functions to believe in second chances and to be a kind, forgiving soul. I'd be fine with a scammer tag for a couple of months, but for life? f****** really? Is what I did so horrible that I have to stay in trading prison for the rest of my existence? Just look at the picture. I got all my items (from October) taken away by Team Deviate, after they banned me. They put me through a lot of trouble, and all I want to do is trade normally without people calling me names like "scammer" and "scum" and treating me like a criminal. I don't think I'd ever scam again if I have to go through what I've gone through in the last 3 months. I'm a person with feelings, not a heartless mechanical pile of scrap. How do you think I feel about being marked as a scammer for life even though I lost everything? Would it hurt to look at this situation from my shoes? Have you seen how I've been treated by people like daemon, although I've clearly said that I stopped?

Anyways, think about what I've said, and please get back to me. Don't just read this, say nothing, and dump it into a virtual trash can. Read it. Think deeply about what I've said. Even though I have done something wrong here, that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to my opinion. I said SteamRep sucked balls and is a waste of internet space because of how it never gave people- people with feelings- second chances, and never listened to the voice of reason. SteamRep is one-sided about everything. Are you going to permanently tag me as a scammer for expressing my opinion? Would you be any happier if I censored my opinions?

Also, I never said, if you think I said, that people who have done far worse than me shouldn't ever face the consequences. I totally, 100% agree that they shouldn't ever be unmarked. I partially agree with what SteamRep thinks, but I don't 100% agree.

If you cannot agree with anything I have said here, I'll be at my new account, with a clean slate. Perhaps I can show that I can be a law-abiding trader rather than a trader who tries to scam people. However, I will start apologizing to every single person I can find that I attempted to scam.

Sincerely,
RetroRuoy​

Link: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/lik..._type=link&sdk=joey&show_faces=true&width=500​

Allthough they had a bad view on steam rep and was a bit 'unreasonable' I agree with them. ​

Thank you for your time.​

Please value this thought because I belive this can make steam rep somewhat better and more effective.​

Whoa sorry this posted 2 times
I didn't expect that...

I both agree and disagree with you.
I don't think that your jail time analogy is apt. For me, being jailed is like Valve disabling your account, not for a website with no actual power listing you as a scammer. While "attempting" to murder someone will not net you life imprisonment, you will most likely be barred from all armed forces, and the police force, as you have proven yourself untrustworthy. The same, in my opinion, applies to Steamrep.
If you have made proper amends (returned all items etc.) then you should be able to make an appeal, it's result, I could not estimate.

Wait, you mean Gigabyte/Retrobyte?

This guy has been involved in at least 5-6 scam attempts and has impersonated admins/middlemen multiple times, as well as being a member of team Deviate/Vedetia during all the times they reunited. He lied to Helen personally when he said he was going to stop scamming, but he didn't.

Did you even bother reading all his offenses?

That part was not my words.

I know he may have done a few bad things, but when I read others and his It made sense to me steamrep is being a bit harsh unless of course they have full proof of someone actually scamming then I agree that should be perm-tagged. But I am on about the less serious crimes like spy-crabbing with out admin or impersonation with no attemps to scam ect...

Gigabyte/Retrobyte have done MORE than a few bad things. He has scammed at least 4-5 people. I see him being personally butt hurt that his REP is currently killed. I see SteamREP's scammer tags a way to know if someone has scammed in the past. Some tags might be harsh, but if someone attempts to scam they should only get a warning, i see a spy crab runner getting a full blown tag. Those people are scum, i just see your post as a rage about SteamREP from people who have been banned or so what forth.

(Don't take my post as "hate" I'm not trying to throw hate around, just saying my point)

wait, your saying if I become somebody else to joke with them, with NO intent of trading, your saying that can land me a scammer mark? That seems very harsh, considering people do that all the time without the intent of even thinking about trading.

There's a fine line between joking around and actually impersonating to scam. For example, I doubt these people impersonated me to joke around:
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198002602779?t=1350337973
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198062432271
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198050482423
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198046023064?t=1345862467
(Just to name a few)

I feel the need to throw this out there: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198026613181

steamrep admins irl are ugly,jobless,getting bullied,cant communicate with people.

^^
Wow, I never realized how leading members of one of the most respected groups on Steam, and who spend countless hours communicating with peoples are

Shows how much I know.

And I'll throw back:

wow he impersonated pink taco for 5 full mins !1!!111oneon1! why dont you just kill him

Well, there are some implications with steam name history, which result in that there is no way to tell how long somebody used a name.

Hidden Content:

**Hidden Content: Content of this hidden block can only be seen by members of (usergroups: Administrative, Moderating).**

Totally innocent man, SteamRep unfair.

I stopped reading there

It doesn't matter that I got caught trying to rob innocent people because they realised I was doing it even though I'll probably do the same thing again to the next oblivious guy I meet

Since scamming is really easy to do and gives them very little to lose if they find the right victims, it is nothing like going to jail at all. If they even do get marked it doesn't stop them from doing what many have done and fool people with malformed URLs.

Once a scammer, always a scammer, oh and your new account will have the same IP and yes any Admin can discover that and forward it to SR.

Don't make sweeping generalizations like that, if you don't believe that a person can legitimately turn over a new leaf, there's no hope for humanity.
Yes they have scammed in the past, but that does not mean they will do it again. Although you may not believe it, people can change.

Edit: "Can" is an important word here.

Second chance? What is that,are we playing a game here? Everything scammers scam is actual money out of our pockets.We work hard to get them and when their worthless accounts get a "Scammer" tag they get emotional with their misrable existences?

If you really want to trade normally,go freaking create a new account and count what you left behind as a fee of being an misrable human being.Because what you do/did is nothing diffrent than stealing.

And i'm really sorry whoever wrote that mail has an IQ level to compare "attempted robbery" with "attempted murder"