1. There is no such thing as a "pending" ban or Steam admin. Anyone threatening your account is a scammer trying to scare you. Read more.

Ask A SteamRep Staff Member

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by Xenophobia, Jan 14, 2013.

  1. Sidorothicc

    Sidorothicc New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:66711786
    Ok, thank you for answering my question and the advice
  2. shelf

    shelf New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:186175217
    I am relatively new to steam rep, and ran into an individual attempting to steam code scam me. I did not fall victim to it, but wanted to report him anyways. After submitting the report, I read the thread on cases that SteamREP doesn't investigate, and found that mine was one of those. Is there any way I can delete this report as to not inconvenience an investigator with a case that will instantly get denied? Thanks!
  3. Horse

    Horse Administrator SteamRep Admin

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    SteamRep Admin:
    STEAM_0:1:34690691
    Report was marked Invalid - we don't delete content.
    Highly advise others that may read this to make sure they read our policies/requirements prior to report submissions in the future.
  4. {UC} Michael {UG}

    {UC} Michael {UG} New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:35666678
    Hello.
    I wanna know why it says a guy in my friendlist is VAC Banned on Trading, but on steam it says he is not..
    If you want images/links, I can send those.
    Thanks.
  5. Tio José das Vacas

    Tio José das Vacas SteamRep Admin Partner Community Donator - Tier V

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    SteamRep Admin:
    STEAM_0:1:32194479
    VAC banned has to do with cheating in a game.
    Trade ban has to do with fraud.

    A Steam account with a VAC ban older than 7 amount of years will not show up in that account profile.
  6. {UC} Michael {UG}

    {UC} Michael {UG} New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:35666678
    Okay thanks for letting me know about the 7 years.
    - Michael
  7. Bonk Scouterson

    Bonk Scouterson Banned on SteamRep

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:29259666
    Good day, SteamRep.

    I want to start this post by providing some context. My desire today is to bring some elements of policy into question, and ideally propose something that could be influential for long-term community members who made a single mistake in the past. I have appealed my ban in the past, and despite the reasoning behind this post being relevant to it, it is nothing to do with my appeal, so, as far as I'm aware, I do not believe I'm breaking any rules for general discussion. My biggest desire would be to secure a dialogue with admins, and discuss the potential for a rehabilitation-esque procedure in the future to provide genuine, long-standing community members with another opportunity. And allow me to clarify, before I get into it, I understand that you may gain a perception of me being biased, as it is relevant to my circumstances, but that is not why I am making this post today.

    Today I discovered, that the individual who scammed my items two years ago, has traded my items on, and they're now in circulation again. Not to use my emotions as a means of changing anything, but as you can imagine, this has caused me a great deal of anguish and frustration, as there was a significant amount of sentimental value behind these items. I have a burning desire within me, more so than ever, to enforce SteamRep's community standards, and protect the community at large, as addressed, in my one year old appeal. I cannot formulate in to words, just how much I detest scammers, I'm absolutely sick to my stomach at the thought of doing that to somebody, and I still have a burning passion for this community. (I don't have a desire to influence your decision, I believe it is just in relation to how appeals are handled, and I was treated no different than every other person applying.)

    I know change-of-heart appeals exist, and that they're the only available option for offenders who have committed a crime in the past. My circumstances are not unique, and since the rejection of my appeal last year, I've spent a good deal of time reading through appeals and considering both sides of the argument. I understand that SteamRep has a resolute stance when it comes to the permanency of their bans, and that in doing so, uphold a virtue and principle of fairness and equality, through equal punishment. SteamRep's inquisitorial approach to the handling of appeals, leads to both evidence and argument being scrutinised, as a means of testing how genuine the appellant is, as well as the integrity of their evidence. The reason behind me introducing these points, is because I believe that I can influence how these procedures work, and introduce alternative elements that would lead to better discourse in the handling of these appeals. I would like to discuss them in detail (If an admin would be willing to have a discussion with me in private, through communication channels such as Discord, or Steam).

    I do have some questions in relation to what I've described above, they are:
    • Are there currently any ongoing discussions, in regards to clemency for serious offences, committed on a long-term time scale?
    • Will I be able to participate within the functions at SteamRep, or at least participate in forum discussions moving forward, with the intent of having a positive impact and being a member of the community? Regardless of my status.
    • Am I entitled to have a discussion with appeal admins about the handling of procedures, as well as areas of policy that I believe to be flawed, and negative to the over all discourse of the appeal process?
  8. You Are The One

    You Are The One SteamRep Admin

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41038663
    This part of the posting touches on a specific case you are bringing into the general discussion section so am declining to address as its against the general discussion rules. Ref: https://forums.steamrep.com/threads/general-discussion-faq.132723/
    • For your first question, yes.
    • For your second question; I do not understand, you are participating right now in discussions here and unless you break forum rules (like discuss specific cases in general discussion section or being uncivil) we dont retaliate for alternative views. Ref: https://forums.steamrep.com/threads/general-discussion-faq.132723/
    • As for your last question, that is a heavily narrowly specific request, In the most general terms, are you actually "entitled" to have discussions with specific staff about specific topics? I would say no. But nothing prevents you from trying or using the general discussion section to bring up those same concerns and having them addressed to the best of our ability here.
    Hidden Content:
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    [M&C] TheBluekr and Lava like this.
  9. Bonk Scouterson

    Bonk Scouterson Banned on SteamRep

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:29259666
    Thank you ever so much for your timely response. Honestly, that response to my first question has turned what was a bad day, into something much more positive. I want to apologise for muddying that prior post, where I have referred to my case, despite not trying to influence an outcome.

    As for what your response was, I have some follow-up questions:

    • I'm going by the assumption that these discussions are internal, and are by extent, confidential in nature. Would you be able to disclose any information about current discussions and considerations?
    • Are you looking for any outside opinions?
    • If the answer is yes, to the previous question, would I be able to contribute perspective? From an honest, and unbiased point of view, if necessary. I could call upon my past experiences, but a platform to discuss this matter with you, given how relevant it is to me, would be much appreciated. My desire would be to develop a fair, and critical system that still keeps the interest of protecting the community at the forefront, but while also considering multiple aspects of what an appellant has experienced since they were tagged.
    • Given that I have made an appeal review in the past, if the policy of SteamRep were to change, would I be able to open up another review, as long as the circumstances warrant it and I have a justifiable argument in respect of SR Policy?

    I will gladly participate in these discussions, I feel as if there is a lot to be discussed, and despite what my reputation suggests, I have no malicious intent. I would, in fact, like to refine the procedure behind change-of-heart appeals. I will use this ask a SteamRep staff member forum as my instrument to achieve my aforementioned ambitions.

    Thank you very much, You Are The One, and all other staff members you're engaging in dialogue with right now. Hope you all have a wonderful day!
    God speed,
    -Jacktaz.
  10. You Are The One

    You Are The One SteamRep Admin

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41038663
    • First question, way too early in the process to even have a baseline of what it might end up looking like.
    • Second/third question, as the details are more refined (or at a dead end) we will widen the scope of input.
    • Fourth question, as with previous policy changes (best example being the revised Trading with Scammers policy -TWS) some cases would retroactively be re-eligible.
  11. Bonk Scouterson

    Bonk Scouterson Banned on SteamRep

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:29259666
    Very well, I understand.

    I have three final questions, in relation to what you've just mentioned:
    • Do you have deadlines for these discussions/projects? Or a time frame in mind?
    • Where would I be able to keep in the loop when further information is revealed? Is there a specific area of the SteamRep forums for Policy Changes?
    • In the event where you do desire further input, would I be able to be shortlisted as a contact? (I apologise if this is asking to much, I respect that each of you have your own lives, and wish to keep contact related to SR interpersonal.)
    Thank you so much, I cannot express just how much this has given me hope, moving forward. I know you all will enact what you believe is best to protect the community. The fact that you've even considered a clemency procedure for serious offences (In my case) is like the light at the end of a 9 year tunnel.

    Thanks for taking the time to respond to me, You Are The One,
    -Jacktaz.
  12. You Are The One

    You Are The One SteamRep Admin

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41038663
    • First question; no, some projects SR has had in the planning stages for years, are still in those same planning stages years later. DO NOT EXPECT anything like this in the short or mid term future for SR.
    • Second question; probably the general discussion section or twitter.
    • Third, https://forums.steamrep.com/threads/general-discussion-faq.132723/
  13. Universe S&

    Universe S& New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:544247156
    Hello dear Administrators !

    On November 1st I was reported by a user with the nickname Kelly, complaining that I cheated him for $ 30. In reality, I have never even corresponded or been friends with this user. I have provided all the evidence in my appeal, and I think if you look at this case for one second, you will immediately see that the correspondence, exchange history and report were falsified against me. If I noticed this complaint on time, I would have immediately provided counter-evidence and would not be banned, but it was on Sunday, late at night by my time and I wasn't checking it, nobody didn't notify me about this report.

    Now my appeal thread is locked and will probably be reviewed not earlier than a year, I will not be able to trade or do anything normally during that time.

    I am crushed, shocked and depressed. I got banned for scamming a person with whom I haven't ever even been friends nor traded and now I will have to wait for at least a year to be unbanned.

    My only question is there any chance my appeal will be processed a bit faster, because it is a very specific case and I am ready to provide counter evidence at the time you ask me, I will be online and in touch ready to answer you every hour. It will not take more than a day to review my appeal.
    Please, I beg you. This is really a gross insjustice.
  14. Universe S&

    Universe S& New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:544247156
    Please give me a chance to provide evidence and proceed appeal faster, just one chance
    Thank you so much in advance and thank you for reading and paying attention
  15. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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    5,858
    SteamRep Admin:
    STEAM_0:1:46187366
    We do not allow discussion of specific cases in the General Discussion section, so please do not use this forum to expedite your appeal or leverage a favorable outcome. It will only result in warnings and temporary bans from the forums if you persist, which will make it that much harder to address your appeal. We have this policy to prevent the drowning out actual general discussion from hordes of people inevitably unsatisfied with their report or appeal outcomes. If we made an exception for you, then to be fair we'd have to make it for the thousands of other people who want to keep arguing their case, and this forum would become unusable for people with general questions or comments.

    Your appeal was locked because multiple people spammed vouches of character, which are not allowed, and not taken into consideration. Do not ask your friends (or alts) to try and argue in your favor. If anything, it will be to your detriment if the admin reasonably believes these people replying are your alts, and vouches of character never help, so don't do that if you actually want your tag lifted. He also received reports that you were PMing other admins, trying to shop around for a more favorable outcome by having someone else handle the case, so he documented that in your thread.

    Normally, if your appeal thread was locked due to circumstances beyond your control, the appropriate response would be to report the admin's post once things die down, explaining your situation in the reason, and then someone would unlock it again. In this case, however, the admin has already asked you to add them on Steam, so if the thread needs to be unlocked again, you can just bring it up in chat with them. The admin's response to your friend request, or messages once accepted, might not be immediate due to time zone differences and real-life factors, so please be patient. Unlike most cases which are handled entirely in the appeal thread for transparency, and friend requests ignored, the admin is expecting to hear from you in Steam.

    While appeals can take a very long time to resolve, that's usually due to backlog, and a long wait until someone is able to look at your case. Actual time spent on a single individual case can range from several hours investigating, to several weeks in more complicated cases (which adds up when handling several hundred in order, hence the backlog). In order to minimize harm done to anyone else though, we prescreen all incoming appeals for any red flags where someone innocent might have been wrongly tagged or an obvious mistake may have been made by the report admin before we throw them onto the backlog. This includes asking for preliminary evidence, as well as sometimes deciding on a case if it can be done right away, instead of kicking the can down the road for someone else. Having an appellant add them in Steam is a little beyond the basic pre-processing done before we move a thread and wait, so it looks like your case is already being expedited and that timeframe won't come into play.

    Note that an admin expediting your case like this doesn't necessarily mean they will decide in your favor - we also look for automatic rejection criteria, and are just as likely (if not more so) to reject appeals when prescreening. While I fully understand your anger and panic at getting tagged if innocent, I respectfully suggest you calm down and cooperate with the admin, because as he pointed out, you only get one appeal. If he can't communicate with you because you're too busy raging to cooperate (point 3), and doesn't decide in your favor, you can never appeal again. There are no do-overs for messing up during appeals.
  16. Universe S&

    Universe S& New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:544247156
    Thank you so much for your reply, Lava !

    An administrator asked to add him in steam, but now I see that he declined my friend request and I can no longer add him. What can that mean ?
  17. Universe S&

    Universe S& New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:544247156
    I will try to calm down and do everything according to rules down, im very stressed and I can't even eat, that report was such an obvious falsification and I still was tagged. Thank you for detailed explanation of everything and cheering that my appeal won't take into that long play.
  18. lukehp

    lukehp New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:181212664
    Hi I wanted to ask, if you guys are still offering to be "middleman"?
  19. Horse

    Horse Administrator SteamRep Admin

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    SteamRep Admin:
    STEAM_0:1:34690691
    Some communities do, but SR never did offer middleman services - we only maintained a list from partner communities that had them/trusted.
  20. lukehp

    lukehp New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:181212664
    Ah okok, and how do I contact someone? Or is there someone trusted that I can speak to to ask question about a trading?