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Can an account e elegible to be indexed by the system again?

A topic by DerketoGames created Aug 06, 2023 Views: 426 Replies: 8

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Hello, some months ago my content was delisted, of the site I noticed thanks to No Time To Play, and he suggest me to contact support to address the issue (on this thread: Free game not indexed - Questions & Support - itch.io), but I already sent a ticket to support because a new game wasn't listed (Was the second time that happens to me, and also about people attacking me for my language because I answer a person a question made on spanish), but the response was an email telling me that "the nanture of my content doesn't fit the quality for the site"; I think it was because of the quality of my pictures so I decided to improve them, but I ended restarting the games development to continue giving updates to my previous supporters of here. But recently after doing some research I found and article on the page "lewdpixels" (I didn't put a link because I don't know if it's allowed) and all it seems to be tied to https://itch.io/docs/creators/faq#is-adult-content-allowed , but I don't do any kind of controversial content, even the explicit scenes on my games where very few, and my account wasn't removed so I think is more a think of % shares as the article suggested, and I'm not the only one who got this email it seems.

Well, the thing is I remade two of the games, recently I uploaded them here the same day I uploaded them on Patreon to be fair with my previous supporters, but I want to know if my account can be reviewed back again, because I don't think I have do anything wrong instead of do bad Renders (mainly because of my PC),

I already contacted support but I haven't got response yet, and I want to know if any of you have a simmilar issue and if you managed to resolve it or not, thanks.

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DerketoGames1 year ago

I guest the answer is a big NO, I've been waiting for 6 months to get an answer but I see that the support team don't care; I'm beig forced to end the upcoming updates on this site as I'm not getting help with my issue, what is funny is that this issue wasn't the first one with support, no one of my game updates was indexed, I been object of hate because I answered to a spanish guy who ask me something on spanish, and the "your content don't fit the quality of the discover system" when a lot of games here are just a blank page with one line of text and the buy button, and lastly I wan't to now why my account was restricted and I've didn't get an answer, maybe the guys from here https://lewdpixels.com/news/itch-io-update-owner-leafo-statement-on-payment-fias... are right and was only an issue about revenue sharing, you need to be more honest.

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hechelion1 year ago (2 edits)

Hi, clarify that I am not a support member or work for itch, just like you I am a user. What I have seen is not a problem of language or the quality of your images.

There are games with pages in Spanish and they appear listed. There are games with really bad quality and they also appear listed.

The topic of NSFW content was talked about a lot a few months ago, no change in policies has been officially announced, however many games with NSFW content have been affected.

There is no official clarification, but the most plausible hypothesis is that certain content is considered unsuitable by the payment companies that Itch uses and that has led itch to take some measures, however Itch has not blocked any games, apparently It is more of a matter of not violating Itch's normal rules, but it puts Itch's relationship with Paypal or Payoneer at risk.

Regarding your question, I wouldn't know what to tell you, in theory it is supposed to be a game and not a developer that is considered when indexing the content.

If you've had problems with other users, it could be that someone complained about your content and that led to it being removed, and since Itch lacks the staff necessary to manually review each case, they have simply passed on, believing that you violate some rule. But I emphasize, this is simply speculation.

EDIT:

The percentage thing doesn't make much sense. It is enough to demand a minimum. In addition, many games that did give a percentage to Itch were affected.

The problem goes that every paid game, it is placed in the crosshairs of Paypal or Payoneer and apparently Itch is not going to put its hands to the fire for anyone, especially if that development goes from paying something to Itch.

Imagine that a friend sells something illegal (in this case, not following the rules of paypal or payoneer), but you receive the payment and then you must give all the money to that friend.

You accept the risk, but you gain nothing. What would you do?

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redonihunter1 year ago

since Itch lacks the staff

This.

You can read that between the lines on many occasions. Issues in tickets not being resolved, people waiting a month to get indexed, people getting their account suspended due to malicious trolls etc.

For starters they should implement a tip for itch in payments. Similar to humble bundle. Right now, if I like the platform and the dev and want to buy here and not on steam, I have no knowledge of how much the dev gives to itch. So while I might buy here to support itch, I might also not actually support itch, since that dev could have set the amount to 0%. I just do not know.

A separate (non refundable) tip to itch in payments would fit into the pay what you want scheme. pay what you want and to whom also. On humble bundles you can decide how much humble, the charity, and the dev gets.

My guess is, that they just play safe and remove adult games from index, if the right complains come in, so they do not have to deal with other complaints. It is a dick move, but might be exactly what they do. Especially the not telling the dev why and that it was done. There do be trolls that do that to hurt the dev.

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DerketoGames1 year ago

Always set the revenue to itch.io at standard they ask (10%); I uploaded a new project and never was listed on the site, and after contact support about this issue they just send me the generic e-mail that is on this site: https://lewdpixels.com/news/has-itch-io-become-an-irritation-too-far/.

That proves that they lack of staff because they never help you when you have an issue, as I told I contacted about the payouts option and account restrictions six months ago and I didn't get an answer yet.

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redonihunter1 year ago

My suggestion was not specific to your situation, it was a thought how to remedy shortstaffed. Itch making more money means they can hire more staff.

But what you tell is inconsistent. That is this direct payout method thingy. That has nothing to do with being listed or not.

But it might indicate that the staff that handled your inquiry did not really understand your case. Or they employ unpaid interns that do not care and play all day, instead of working.

Example, I told them about an account that posts stolen games. Three times. Always with link/proof that it was pirated stuff. That account is still up and even posted a new pirated game a few days ago. (R-69762, R-70354, R-71648). Or this one from June (R-59565), it is quarantined, but you can still download it. Oh, and of course, that first one is listed and indexed! Similar to this one, R-69768, three games up, 2 are listed and indexed. Their monkey brain AI has one quaratined. And at this point I can only assume that they let a badly trained AI handle this stuff. No human with two brain cells had a look at this. All the while real humans and developers get their stuff deindexed for bogus reasons or no reason given at all, while reported pirtated games are still up and indexed even. Something is seriously wrong here.

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DerketoGames1 year ago

I don't think is a Payoneer/Paypal issue as Patreon use the same payments providers and I didn't have any issue there, also Paypal reviews your content very often and Is know that they have more stricts rules over NSFW content than this site and I didn't have an issue there yet, as I don't do any NSFW extreme content as other devs that maybe where affected for the new rules, I simply want an answer on why my content was de-indexed and other games with more extreme content where available here, even I send them a lot of examples of games listed on searches that are more "extreme" (incest/minors/bestiality), but I never got an answer, and I suspect that they restricted my account because they don't want that I tell them how to do they work.

Then my only option was to move to Patreon and continue with my games there, and I was "honoring" the supporters from this site, giving them the same content available on Patreon on the same day, without charging any of them more money in order to get the games updates, but recently I'm thinking on end this because itch.io doesn't seem to care about the developers, just look for his own.

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redonihunter1 year ago

If they would have a serious problem with your content, they would not only de-index you, they would ban you.

But why they de-index stuff has various reasons. My best guess atm is, that no human was involved with de-indexing. Other than the trolls reporting your stuff for false reasons. Reasons that a human would have to check out. Even with 10% your sales volume probably would not cover the cost of staff looking at your stuff. At steam you have to pay to even enter their system. I believe it is 100 bucks. That keeps away all those pirated games and pays for staff to look at the game.

They should seriously consider having a thing like verified accounts. Whatever they are doing now, it is not working. At least I see lots of problems happening.

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DerketoGames1 year ago

Yes, steam charges $100.00 USD for the initial costs of publishing a game, after that the game will be reviewed and if everything is OK it will be published later, but if you make $1000.00 USD in brute profit with you game, they give you back the initial $100.00 USD that you payed, but yes their revenue share is 30%, and it gets lower as long as you make more sales (I heard that is 10% after 1M of sales).

To your previous anwer, they offer you two payment methods, the "collected by itch.io" and the "direct to you", but when they decide that your account isn't elegible for the first one (collected by itch) your only available option is the second one (direct to you), but that method is more complicated to residents outside U.S.A. (because of the taxes thing).

Lastly you're right, if my content wasn't suitable they must have banned my account too, but wasn't the case, That's why I try to contacted them but as I mentioned they never answered; The account verification was implemented recently on Patreon; I'm sure that implement this requirement here will help to filter the content uploaded (also help you to avoid someone pirating your game here).

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