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Why is my game quarantined?

A topic by yphil created 4 days ago Views: 260 Replies: 12
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(2 edits) (+3)

Visitors (meaning the very few people that would click on a gamedev link) of my game https://yphil.itch.io/megabatar page are greeted with a (apparently very scary) quarantine warning? And this has been the state of things since the 1st version publication, weeks ago!!

  • What exactly did I do to deserve this?
  • What can I do to remedy this?
  • How come I’m not even notified of that situation on my page, and have to learn it from the people I send the link to?

NB the 3 executables are built from the sources on gitlab, then directly uploaded to itch.io, everything is totally transparent:

itchio:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - butler push ./build/linux $ITCHIO_NAME:linux-beta
    - butler push ./build/windows $ITCHIO_NAME:windows-beta
    - butler push ./build/macosx $ITCHIO_NAME:mac-beta
  dependencies:
    - linux
    - windows
    - mac
  only:
    - master

Right now, probably nobody is daring to get past this ominous warning (who would?) and so I worked hard on this project, in total vain ; 3 months down the drain.

That is really uncool ; What can I do?

Moderator

Quarantining is an automatic measure triggered by certain issues with the page. The exact criteria are secret.

  • You probably didn't do anything wrong.
  • Please contact support, then do what the rules of this category say.
  • I don't know why creators in this situation aren't warned, sorry.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot for your trying to help. Seriously, I feels good, as I feel really alone.

Please contact support,

I did, this morning, 5 or 6 hours ago, I got an automatic [Request received] answer. And that’s it.

then do what the rules of this category say.

I looked everywhere, where and what are those rules? And my page is similar to all others, what could I possibly infringe? We’re not web noobs.

I don’t know why creators in this situation aren’t warned, sorry.

Oh but I’m not just “not warned”, I’m kept completely in the dark, I can’t see the warnings, visible by everybody but me and by the way they say that not just the download links but ALL links on the page are flagged, my gitlab pages blog, every link.

When I check with a non-logged in browser, no warning. So apparently there is an IP-based filter, that show the warning to everybody but me!! This is dishonest. The web isn’t supposed to ~not~ work like this.

The exact criteria are secret

Great. No, it is ; I worked day and night for months, just to publish here on “mighty” itch.io. This is really sad, I could imagine anything but wow, this is something else.

(+1)

Itch doesn't block games based on IP, nor does it even have a region blocking system, so thinking that Itch shows the message to everyone except your IP doesn't make any sense.

What does Itch gain by hiding the message from your IP?

Please try to be objective and calm before continuing with the thread, so that it is not a problem for others to try to assist you.

Try DOWNLOADING (not just reaching the link, but actually DOWNLOADING) your game with a browser in incognito mode or without being logged into your account.

Itch is not Steam, it hosts more than a million games for free for the vast majority, which means that it does not have enough staff to resolve all the questions and reviews that people need at the times they would like, so which you must be patient and wait.

If for some reason, you need to rush your case to support, in this same forum, at the top (where it says "View this community's rules..."), there are some rules (the ones that "No Time To play" told you to review) that inform you of the steps to follow.

(1 edit)

thinking that Itch shows the message to everyone except your IP doesn’t make any sense.

So pray tell, how come I never see this warning?

And by the way, forget about this IP stuff, and just answer this:

Why is there no message whatsoever to me in the back-office, on my account page, in the game page, no-where? this is downright hostile, the site tells people that my content is dangerous, and doesn’t say anything to me?? And you find this normal / acceptable behaviour?

What does Itch gain by hiding the message from your IP?

I don’t know! Beats me. Quite literally, in fact. I never saw something like this, I’ve been on the web ever since it exists, this situation “you don’t know what you send to people” is really twisted.

Try DOWNLOADING (not just reaching the link, but actually DOWNLOADING) your game with a browser in incognito mode or without being logged into your account.

Oh, I see, you either did not read my message, or think I’m some sort of idiot that don’t know how to technically assert what he says.

Either way this project is dead, so let’s move on.

When I check with a non-logged in browser, no warning. So apparently there is an IP-based filter

You ip does not change by using a non-logged in browser. But if you are logged in, why should the system quarantine the stuff you uploaded yourself from you.

Support will not answer within hours, most of the time. They typically do not answer at all.

When the mod, who is not itch staff, talks about categories, the message board categories of this very community are meant. The subsections have a rule section what to post and what not and how to post certain things.

There is nothing you can do but wait, while itch staff investigates whatever caused the flagging of your page. If it were infringement, it probably would not be quarantine, but file suspension or mere deindexing, while it were investigated.

You might know or not know, but there are many accounts hacked each week. Very likely hacked by downloading things from itch. It was evident from those hacked accounts posting more malware each day. There is this psa thread about try my game on discord scams explaining part of the problems. Anyways, itch does fight those scammers, but it is hard, since it is free to upload things on itch. So their automated systems either have some false positives or the number of visible malware increases a lot.

So a likely scenario might be, that your game executeables triggered a false positive on a malware scanner. There are game engines that notoriously give false positives now and then. Including godot and renpy and I believe gamemaker and likely many others. Especially exe packing is very bad in that regard. I see your windows file is an exe and not an archieve. I am too lazy to try it, but I would bet that this exe triggers several scanners. Godot packed exes are utter garbage in my opinion, because they trigger scanners so very often.

(2 edits)

I see your windows file is an exe and not an archieve. I am too lazy to try it, but I would bet that this exe triggers several scanners. Godot packed exes are utter garbage in my opinion, because they trigger scanners so very often.

Wow, thanks for that idea, I’m gonna try that.

Moderator
I looked everywhere, where and what are those rules?

...At the top of the category when you look at it, and at the top of your post when you click New Topic. You can't even reach the textbox without scrolling past the screenful of rules. Please read them. You had to tick a checkbox saying you did before you could click Post.

And my page is similar to all others, what could I possibly infringe?

Like I said, you triggered an automated check. The idea is that staff will look at the page ASAP, but sometimes it takes time. And the exact criteria are secret so that people with bad intentions don't try to evade the checks.

I did, this morning, 5 or 6 hours ago, I got an automatic [Request received] answer. And that’s it.

Yes, that's how it works. Next time please wait for at least 24 hours.

(+1)

The rules should get an update.

"typically we will respond within a 1-3 days" is not quite accurate and build up expectations.

OK, as per @redonihunter suggestion I changed the export settings, and now the win exe is directly zip-compressed by Godot.

Can somebody test if the warnings are gone?

Thank you very much for your help.

(+1)

Hi, I tried to download just now, and got the quarantine message.

(1 edit)

Thanks for you help !

OK, so this project is dead on arrival, thanks a lot, Itch. Let’s move on :(

Upload your old exe to virustotal to see, if it triggers anything. And maybe the other two as well.

That it is the exe packing is just speculation. No one will tell you what it is or what it was  - if it is a false positive at all. It could be any other reason. Including real scammers sharing your ip-range or mistaken identity. Whatever it is, staff will deal with it, but there is a waiting time.

But a hypothetical and plausible scenario would be that any or all of the three files triggered a scanner and a user reported your page as suspicious. What should itch do? Un-quarantine you, just because you made a community thread? I saw a thread once where a scammer actually did that. No kidding. Also, this is community message board and not itch support. The expected waiting time is anything between 3 and 30 days and you opened your request.