First things first, I am generally on board with the Guidelines of the site. Like, the spirit of them, RAI, A+. But RAW, there's a lot of them and nobodyever nails the wording on all of them. In that mind, I'd enjoy civil discourse exploring the edge cases, looking through the loopholes, and generally getting a sense of the zeitgeist.

A chance observation of 2 users' interaction inspires today's topic. When is trading really trading, and when is not trading really not trading. Can a steamtrader profile included in the description of a GA just be an endorsement of trustworthiness? Especially if unaccompanied by the sort of noise we expect of "traders". Counterpoint, there's a Steam showcase created specifically for your trade items.. would language that innocently encouraged users to visit the profile be taken as innocent? I'm curious what you all think.

Be civil ၇း

2 years ago

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I think having trades / trade items in your profile would be ok, also saying saying "check out my profile". But if you said "check out the trades on my profile" it would violate the spirit of the guideline. Anyways, I'm not an admin, that's just my take. I do know that "man I really wish I had X game" has been construed as begging, which is also against the rules.

2 years ago
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Fair disclaimer. I think it's safe to say that nobody agrees 100% on grey areas, prolly even admins. I woulda thought the guy chastising was more off-base than the chastised.. but then I read the part where being open to trades (or however they phrased it) too frequently would be construed as trading. I didnt go through all dudes GAs, there was 300+ of them in less than 2 years. If he shared the steamtrader link on all of them, just by itself, I could see meeting the threshold, but I'm not sure I'd be happy about that.

In any case, I appreciate your participating. We're not doing anything official here, lord knows they don't come much newer than I am, but it's good to get a sample from someone who... holy shit, level 9? Dude, seriously appreciated.

2 years ago
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2 years ago
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I confess, I was hoping for more of a conversation than a Q&A, which frankly makes your reply chef's kiss. When I was looking to see if there were any threads semi-similar to this, I saw that there were a lot of trading posts (heh) in the day, but they sharp end about 7 years ago. I get the impression that you witnessed a more Vocal Lime light type than the few scattered examples I've seen.

And I think youre right on the mark about the looseness of the grey creating a structure instead of a cage. I dont know how ya'll did it down there, but Im USA poli sci, and as required by law idolize our Constitution. The Supereme Court was defined in like, 4 paragraphs... so I find the whole notion of this exciting.

2 years ago
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This is just a personal opinion, but I think the reason why there's some grey areas in the rules is because if they're too specific people will find a way to play around them, so they wouldn't be technically breaking any rule but going against their intended objective. If they're kept slightly vague the users will self regulate for the sake of being on the safe side of things.

Also, it's better to keep trading off the forum because otherwise it'd turn into a clusterfuck, like what happened with steamtrades. That said, while not being formally allowed, some types of trading are tolerated in the sense that people will look the other way and pretend they didn't see anything.

Just remember that things have changed over the years, this place isn't as static as it might appear at first glance.

2 years ago
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As I said to Mayanaise, I plumbed some discussion depth, I can see there was a sharp divide in a pretty dramatic way around 2015 I'm guessing. I like the angle you've illuminated w regard to self-regulation. Namely, that policing is accompanied by not-policing. It seems patent now, but I completely could not see that.

As for Steamtrades, I literally had never heard of it before like, 6 hours ago, so I confess Im only picking up from the context, but I think theres enough context there to get the idea. Like the global chat in PoE

2 years ago
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Steamtrades was a twin site that used the same login and was meant as a way to keep trading out of the forum. Then it got merged into SG when the switch to 2.0 happened, just to later be separated again because it kept causing conflicts in the community, this time properly separated with a modified structure and different rules. For a few years you could find a button at the top of this site with a direct link to ST, but eventually CG removed it at the suggestion/request of part of the community, from then on there's no real connection between both sites other than being made and run by the same person. So essentially it was so toxic that it had to be surgically removed and tossed aside.

2 years ago
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No kidding. There's a lot to unpack there. And potentially it adds nuances to the interaction that lead to this thread even being a thing. I like communities, it's an extension of growing up in a BIG family; it's a rare thing to have been there from the beginning, and rarer still to know all the history. I thank you, as far as I'm concerned this discussion has yielded greater returns than I had any right to expect.

2 years ago
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Don't look too close in the rules and FAQ because it give mods that don't care for them and punish you only because they dislike you. They don't need a real reason because none can do something against it.
Real rulebreakers will not hunted down with existing rules like "Spam".

Based on this, you see that the gray area aren't the important part and that it gets handled from each mod different. In general will 90% look away to don't have work and the other 10% will care or don't care if someone wrote something about a trade.
Assume that a clear trade offer bring the person in problems IF someone report it and for the rest assume that nothing happens.

Don't waste your time with too much thinking on this site.

2 years ago
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I don't think thinking is ever much of a waste, but I get your meaning. And looking at the list of mods versus the number of users, I'm not surprised that it's impossible to enforce good behavior, regardless of individual prioritization. As to vindictive people in positions of authority, such exist everywhere, plus it's kind of not really the topic so much, and I fear it comes off as a little.. salty? I appreciate your perspective on the other parts though.

2 years ago
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