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They did it Again!

A topic by Wenudu created 4 days ago Views: 183 Replies: 10
Viewing posts 1 to 3

Hi everyone,

I'm reaching out because I'm experiencing an issue with my itch.io listings. Today, I noticed that some of my games, including the recently updated Crocodile Maldido, have disappeared from search and browse.

This is actually the second time this has happened with Crocodile Maldido ( https://wenudu.itch.io/crocodile-maldido ).  Three days ago, the game was unlisted, and after contacting itch.io support with several emails, it was reinstated.

It's strange that only some of my games are affected, as The Statue remains listed. I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered similar issues or if there might be an explanation for this recurring problem.

I'd appreciate any insights or suggestions the community might have. Thank you!

Moderator

As explained in many topics already, some changes you make can put a game page back in the review queue, and/or flag it for additional review.

so every time i upload a new version the game will be hidden for couple of days? that is insane, better not do any change and make a new game instead.

Moderator (1 edit)

Actually it depends, and making a new game page every time won't help, on the contrary. It's a hassle, expressly not recommended, harms buyers and could be seen as suspicious activity. Please do your own promotion while waiting for your games to show up in searches, and use the recommended appeal channels if it takes too long, as per the rules of this category.

I understand what you are saying, but what i am saying is different and i don't know why you alwasy try to divert the topic. I will try to explain again. You said that if i make changes the game could be  unlisted for a new review...fine, but why also my other games got deleted from search and list? So... are you saying that if i make a change on one game, all games i published in the past will be hidden for a couple of days as well? Please explain because i donn't get it.

Moderator

No, I didn't say that. You keep saying that. I don't know what happened to your other games. Please follow the rules. If you try to avoid checks you'll make things worse.

(+1)

You should consider making a sticky thread.

(1 edit) (+1)

If you have 5 indexed games and you update just 1, it's possible that that single game will be taken out of the index until a human verifies that there's nothing wrong with the update.

You just have to wait.

If you have 5 games and you update 4, the algorithm might think that your account was hacked and you're uploading malware, so all your games are taken out of the index until a human verifies that everything is okay.

liminal-leap: Updated 3 days ago
the-statue: Updated 4 days ago
liminal-leap-2: Published 24 days ago
crocodile-maldido: Updated 8 hours ago
crocodile-maldito: Updated 1 day ago

If you create a new page, for a paid game, with the same game, but with a slightly different name (like you just did) and a human reviews that, they will interpret that you are trying to cheat the indexing system or trying to scam buyers, so they may determine that your entire account should be removed from the Itch index.

In this case, you will have to contact support directly (this forum is answered by the community and the moderator is a community moderator, meaning he does not have access to index the games).


EDIT:

I forgot to mention, uploading a game to a new page is also subject to the same algorithm as when you update, so it is also possible that the game is removed from the index pending review by a human.

If you search, you will see that this issue is quite recurrent. In short.

- There is an automatic algorithm that can take your game and remove it from the index.

- There is no way to avoid this, the algorithm is secret and trying to bypass it can be considered cheating and could lead to a penalty being applied to your entire account.

- The waiting time is variable, a few hours, a couple of days or even in some cases, a couple of weeks.

- What is advised. Do not rely on the popular Itch page as the main axis of promotion of your game (Since if you are put in the queue for manual review, you will miss that window). Focus your efforts on creating quality content and doing your promotion yourself.

I hope this helps you better understand how Itch works, I'm summarizing what I've seen in several posts and I'm not criticizing your work in any way.

(1 edit)

i did contact itch.io support, i sent them about 10 emails but they didn't explain what happened. What i know is that i never had this kind of problems before, never. All started with Crocodile Maldido, and now everyone telling me that is normal that if i upload a new package to fix some bugs and make the game better, all my game disappear from listing and with that all my ranking (Crocodile Maldido reached number 6 in "New & Popular") killing the game. That doesn't sound normal to me. 

Moderator

Once again, nobody said that if you change one game they're all hidden from search. You came up with that. And please see the rules of this category for what you can do when support takes too long.

Let's see, I'm going to explain it one last time.

What happened to you is normal, the fact that it hasn't happened to you before doesn't mean anything.

There is an automatic algorithm that can place (please note the can, not that it always does) an update or new game on a list to be manually reviewed, when that happens, that game is removed from the itch index until it is reviewed by a staff member.

The same thing has happened to dozens of other people and there are dozens of posts on this forum talking about the same thing. If you don't believe me, you can search. That's why we tell you that what happened to you is normal.

So you understand, it's like when they make you open your luggage at an airport, you can go around 100 times and they will never ask you to check anything, and one day, they may ask you. It's the same.

Since the algorithm is secret, the staff will never tell you why it was activated in your case, period.

Every time you update or upload a new game, there is a chance that it will happen again, to you, or me, or anyone, it's that simple.

The other games have very recent updates and all of that together, it looks suspicious, I don't say that you are doing anything wrong, I mean that those kinds of patterns are the kind of patterns that raise suspicions and maybe that will lead to your other games not being indexed. This is just a guess.

What I can tell you is that uploading the same game again to try to bypass the manual review is usually considered cheating and from what I have read in other cases, it can lead to a penalty on your account, my recommendation is that you do not do it.



If you have already contacted support, it is best to wait for an official response from them.

I remind you that here we are other users who answer and I can only try to guide you based on what has been written in other posts that talk about the same thing.