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Why the hell is it possible for jam creators to remove games without even a comment?

A topic by methys created May 29, 2023 Views: 613 Replies: 8
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(3 edits)

I seriously have no idea how anyone still keeps being motivated to be active on this weirdly configured site... I mean, NOT EVEN A COMMENT?! Oh, wow, I guess I'll totally invest countless hours next time too to BE REMOVED WITHOUT EVEN A COMMENT!

Shame on 'leaf' and his stupid setup! They should AT LEAST be made to leave comments. Oh, I mean, sure, when it comes to jams' own stupid fields? They force even the stupidest questions to be 'required'... but for them to entirely remove games? Oh, no, please, make it half a click if possible, too, lest the bastards lose an extra second.

What an absolutely stupid interface this site has!

(+1)

Surely they could just comment “ “ though right? Or some keyboard-mashed letters? I don’t see how requiring a comment would change anything at all.

Well, if they want to troll then I guess they can (maybe it should be public too, just as answers to questions to submitters are) - but the point is, as of now it's entirely the fault of this site if there's not even any field of input. I'm honestly surprised people continue being motivated to participate in jams at all, with the state this site is in... (reposted as a reply)

Admin (2 edits)

I don’t see any hosted games or game jam participation on the account you’ve posted this message with. Is this question in regards to anther account?

Game jam hosts have the right to decide who can and can not participate in the events they host. It’s very rare for a jam host act in an unreasonable way with regards to the moderation of their jam. I’d need to see more information to investigate any further.

Sure, but this isn't about investigating individual jams (and what could be done even if so, anyway, if they "have the right to decide who can and can not participate"? I mean, participants can't even ask for a rationale?)

It's about how there's no field at all... no possibility for them to even leave an explanation (unless I missed something it's the same interface that submitters get when they remove their own submissions too... and no rationales for submitters would make sense, but not for third parties). Literally, the only way they can say anything is to do it in the comments before removing it, and leave some time for the submitter to see it (or... leave it on the game's page, since PMs don't even exist here)... which obviously not all people would be patient enough to do. This actually happened in multiple jams that I noticed... and noticed is a key word, since it's all so subtle. Just horrid UI design... rationales should at least have fields to be put in, otherwise obviously they're not going to leave any...

Surely, if *any* type of 'question' by the hosts can be 'required' (and I've seen some utterly dumb, non-require-worthy ones), then rationales and their fields should be required too! Otherwise, really, why would anyone be motivated to spend hours on something that can be removed without even a single word as a rationale if hosts were so inclined? (Besides inclination, of course, the worst is that the site incentivizes them...)

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Most jams have a Discord channel. I've seen an explanation for a removal on Discord, so if the host wants to explain, there is a way.

Submitters shouldn't be the ones who'd go out of their way to seek a rationale! Why such a brutal approach to those who merely want to participate in jams?!

Admin

Sure, but this isn’t about investigating individual jams (and what could be done even if so, anyway, if they “have the right to decide who can and can not participate”? I mean, participants can’t even ask for a rationale?)

It definitely is about investigating the individual jams and your account. I could contact the host(s) to learn about their choice and see if there is a better set of functionality for them to allow them to better handle the moderation decision they made. We do provide jam hosts a way to “disqualify” and entry without removing it, and they are free to leave a comment on the submission page explaining the issue. It sounds like, in this case, they opted to just remove your entry entirely. (Another possible explanation is that your account was banned form participating in jams by as site admin due to violating our community guidlines here: https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines#game-jams/do-not-add-your-game-to-unrelated-jams-for-promotion.) If necessary, I could set up a conversation between you and the host through our support system to get a better understanding of what happened and to see if re-instating your entry is an option.

This actually happened in multiple jams that I noticed…

The fact that you have encountered this very specific situation multiple times suggests to me that there is something more going on about the nature of what you are posting. Multiple independent hosts would of had to disagree with your submission so strongly that they outright removed it. Because this sounds like a very rare occurrence, I would guess that your account was actually banned from entering jams globally. Combined with the fact that you used an alt account to raise the issue makes it more suspicious to me.

I am unable to assist you any further unless you are able to reveal the affected account. If it’s not something you want to post publicly then you can contact support and reply to me here with the ticket ID.

Because ban evasion is strictly against our rules, I’ll have to lock the topic if you aren’t able to continue the discussion with the requested information.

Thanks

What... it sounds like you're trying to avoid the central issue here. I mean, sure, there's a disqualification option, but the fact there's also a lazy 'remove without bothering with the extra rationales' option means that people will end up doing that, instead, at least sometimes. I'm just questioning your very logic to even insert such an option in the first place, regardless of whether you want to lock this or what, I doubt I'm the first or last person to notice the injustice in the system. But, hey, at least you avoided addressing a lot of the issues I raised, earlier... like the fact you somehow prioritize their stupid made up 'questions' that are somehow absolutely 'required'... and completely ignore the real issue, here; system should be fixed, as individuals only do this because it's clearly the easiest option of all...

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