Does Valve support Russian aggression against Ukraine? | Hacker News Reader

Does Valve support Russian aggression against Ukraine?

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121 pointsbaxenko22 comments

While I strongly disagree with Valve’s stance here, Hacker News isn’t meant to be used like this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/ufvjmj/does_valve_...

> Post this on hackernews. … It will almost certain cause a stir. I've even seen people that have disappeared into googles customer service black hole get a response due to posting here.

Fair enough, but:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/ufvjmj/does_valve_...

> Don't forget folks, go sign in and vote it up.

Content is supposed to receive organic upvotes because it’s legitimately intriguing, not because a group of people got together and decided to upvote it. Organized voting detracts from the legitimacy of the content and leads HN readers to expend more of their effort questioning the content rather than the issue you’re trying to raise.

Even if you’re raising a legitimate point, combined with all the new accounts commenting, that’s likely to get the post flagged into oblivion.

Although I completely agree that Valve should be held accountable, this is an abuse of HN and I would rather see the post and new accounts removed, so we can start over correctly.

You realize you're on a platform where moderators can arbitrarily boost or suppress a submission by adding or subtracting a large number of points?

You realize that companies ranging from small startups to GitHub run bots that scan for posts related to their companies and have staff manuals on coordinating a response on social media, including HN? Whether you realize it or not, likely every post about a company/product on HN is being manipulated and/or full of astroturfers.

Have you noticed that blog posts by a random startup nobody has heard of will get decently upvoted, just enough to stay on the first page for ~12 hours, despite there not really being anything novel or interesting about the post? A great example would be "securing SSH" posts that are just a half-assed re-write of an open source project's guide, where the 'author' didn't even bother to re-order tips.

Have you noticed that signing up for an account doesn't require a pulse? No captcha, no email verification, nothin'.

Have you noticed that this is a forum run by a venture capitalist firm? Ask yourself what their motivation is for keeping something like this running. If you think it's altruism...have you met a SV VCer?

What's with all these fresh accounts going "Hmmm, yes, I think this is very true, I agree 100%"? Is this an attempt to manufacture controversy?

On topic, though, Steam's community moderators are not paid by Valve, they are volunteers elected from active users of the community. Active users of the community tend to be terrible moderators, so I can absolutely see a Russian nationalist sneaking in and abusing his power.

My account was stalked, repeatedly blanked, and randomly banned from posting by a rogue moderator for over two years, after I got into an argument with him on one of the boards.

It was posted on reddit, that's why me and many others got redirected to this page.

(source if you want)

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/ufvjmj/does_valve_...

Indeed. There are quite some users in Steam supporting & promoting aggression of Russia in Ukraine, e.g.:

https://steamcommunity.com/id/666natali https://steamcommunity.com/id/mensh77/

What is the policy of Steam regarding these cases?

It's not a surprise to anybody playing cs:go. Valve loves Russian players and their blatant propaganda is ignored, including names, avatars, flags etc. Put ukrainian flag in your avatar, russians will collectively report you, and after you are blocked, steam support will tell you to stop doing things that 'upset comunity'.

It's not even a secret on whose side Valve stands. They are not even pretending to be neutral, and their argument of keeping comunication channels open to provide Russian players with alternative information is deeply flawed, as they do active steps to stop such flow of information.

Easy solution is a boycott, gaming providers market became quite saturated in a last couple of years, there is plenty to choose from.

Yes, Valve is taking the wrong stand here. They are censoring pro-Ukrainian content on Steam based on "no-politics" rules, while allowing russian propaganda, Z symbols and descriptions about Ukrainians being an inferior race. This has no place on such a platform and I am ashamed to have spent so much money there. It definitely ends now.

Valve also banned ukranians being able to make purchases on steam but allowed russians for a time just after the war started.

Valve has some really weird moderators in russia.

Remember the weapon skin duplication? A russian moderator was duping rare weapon skins worth 10's of thousands of euros.

Russia is corrupt, and so is valves staff there.

Early on in the war, I wondered why Valve didn't completely block russian users - no one was interested in listening. I'm disappointed in Valve.

Because this is a stupid move?

What on earth does this accomplish other than just fuck random people over?

And please spare the "it'll get them to revolt" line. It doesn't.

I've lived in Iran. Restrictions the west puts on the internet just makes it easier for the Iranian govt to create iranian only alternatives to them. It does not get people to go risk their lives to revolt.

And, if you think people will just revolt when they find out the fucked up shit their state is doing. The west is literally a counter point to that.

I really think that banning and blocking Russian people is counterproductive. You just create more division and you don't really gain much. You create more hate against the west and you give the rulers an excuse for what they're doing (You see? The west hates you, they don't even want you to play tennis etc.).

There is a post on Reddit related to this with a load of examples of a worrying stance.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/ufvjmj/comment/i6w...

Valve showing its corporate greed. Should have left months ago.

how do you effectively ban a region these days? Won't those users just utilize a vpn they likely already have? I mean preventing purchase of new content using the Ruble makes sense. But I am not sure you could ban users from logging in to steam really.

This is disgusting. I've spent a ton of cash on Steam over the years. I won't buy another game on their platform again.

Valve needs some attention on this. I would like to see a run ban

That's disappointing, though not unexpected. Boycotting steam would be, uhm, not easy for me

I can't facepalm enough on the subject. At high risk of getting palm blisters.

Does Valve employ their moderators directly in Russia?

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