With the recent update giving users the ability to hide discussion categories, I think it's a good opportunity for us to expand the number of categories to hopefully encourage a greater variety of discussion and to allow more flexibility for certain types of user advertising within posts. Before that happens, I wanted to run a few thoughts and questions by everyone to get some feedback.

Suggested Discussion Categories

  1. A place for users to post add-ons, extensions, or scripts they're developing for SteamGifts or Steam. We have quite a few of these discussions, and it would be nice to have them organized in a single category. What name should we use? "Add-ons"? "User Scripts"? "Tools"?
  2. I would like a category where game developers can share information regarding their Steam games, such as work in progress, or launches on the platform. I'm thinking we allow one open discussion per Steam game. Thoughts on a name? "Steam Developers"?
  3. Sometimes users in our community are working on interesting projects, services, or endeavors that do not fit the above two categories, and it would be nice if we had a section where they could share those with us. For example, a user could create a discussion to introduce us to a new YouTube channel they started where they interview indie game developers, or they could share a site they developed which helps us organize our Steam libraries, or they could show us a line of space cat clothing they're producing. We would allow one open discussion per project. Each discussion would need to have something to show us, and this would not be a place to post about potential ideas. For example, a user couldn't create a discussion saying, "Should I make a new site to review Steam games? Would you use it?". We need to see work in progress or a finished product. Ideas for a name could be "Show Us", "Share It".

What other categories would you like to see? Should we setup a category where users can ask open-ended questions? This would be similar to AskReddit, and it could be a good way to learn more about the users in our community. Should we have a category for sharing images, memes, GIFs? Should we branch into off-topic areas, and include categories for Movies/TV, Consoles, Technology, Food, Travel? I feel like we should, because if any given category doesn't interest someone, then they always have the option to unsubscribe while allowing others to enjoy it. What does everyone else think?

5 years ago*

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  1. i like "Tools" and i'd name it as "SG Tools".
  2. i really like this one, i'd say just "dev" or "Dev". i also like the "one discussion per project" rule.
  3. is this the place for things like BLAEO? that's how i read it. both "Show Us" and "Share It" are ok.

i'd also join the first two in ... "SG Labs", with subcategories (is that even possible?):

  • SG Labs
    • Tools
    • Dev

maybe just "Dev & Tools"?

would also be nice to have something like "Ask Support" and "Ask SG". the Ask Support would be a place where to ask for support, in my idea (first one was "Support Lite" :D).
need some help with something-SG? your question could be answered by other SG users so to ease a bit the official Support. but also a place to ask anything else, like:

  • Ask SG
    • Site related
    • Off-topic

maybe just "Ask SG" and let community do the rest?

from what i'm reading, tho, i've still got nothing to "hide". won't even hide "Steam Curators", so to say.
... i'm, like, missing something more to read, giveaways are really enough

5 years ago
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"SG Tools"

We already have extension that's named SGtools. Some may think that this category is only for knsys project. We already get tickets where user asks why they are marked as having inactivate wins / why they can't pass SGtools filter etc. So it would be even more confusing.

5 years ago
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true.

but User Scripts sounds too much serious, imo. Add-ons might be good, still i'd chose something more gaming related, like... "Power Ups"! :D

@ cg: can i ask you what's your idea of number of new/all Categories? something like as of now, like 10?

5 years ago
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I would like a category where game developers can share information regarding their Steam games

that looks like advertising their games will be allowed. no pls.

For example, a user could create a discussion to introduce us to a new YouTube channel they started where they interview indie game developers

yeah, this one also smells like advertising.

how about a category for people that want to post trains and events? something like "Community Giveaways" or "Forum Giveaways".
the rest of the users that usually drop a few GAs and chat about something can keep using general and off-topic.

5 years ago
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I think part of this update is to allow advertisement that can be easily moderated by putting everything under "dev giveaways". That way you can disable this category and never see it, and users would stop to try find loopholes to advertise their projects.

If I can hide whole category, and then change thread category from general to show us your game to not deal with tickets about advertisement - then I'm fine with it.

5 years ago
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I don't know if it has been mentioned already and it's more of a suggestion, but I think it could become more relevant with the increasing amount of categories:

We have the ability to bookmark individual threads and I think those bookmarked ones should appear in the "Subscribed"-view, even if we are unsubscribed from the category of the thread. At the moment they aren't shown and are only visible in the "All"-view or the "Bookmarked"-view.

Example for better understanding:
Let's say I find a nice thread about music in the Offtopic-category and I want to stay up-to-date with it, but I don't care about all the other stuff in Offtopic. Then I would bookmark this one thread and unsubscribe from the Offtopic-category.
As a user I would hope that this bookmarked thread now shows up in my default view, wich is the "Subscribed"-view.

Having to change all the time between "Bookmarked" and "Subscribed" seems pretty tedious, so I think that would be a nice change :)

4 years ago
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You have added way too many categories, IMHO I think there has to be a middle ground.

4 years ago
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8 new categories, so we doubled in number. I don't think it's too much. It would be nice IMO to organize them in groups. But it's just my OCD. (I highlighted new categories).

SG site:
Add-ons / Tools
Announcements
Bugs / Suggestions
Help
Group Recruitment
Whitelist Recruitment
Puzzles / Events
General

Outside of SG
Deals
Game Showcase
Hardware
Let's Play Together
Movies / TV
Off-Topic
User Projects
Uncategorized

4 years ago
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Still overkill IMHO, but I'm not the boss here :D

My life is guided by the KISS principle, maybe I'm getting old.

4 years ago
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Isn't that User Projects category contradicts this site guidelines? I thought it was not allowed to post links on your own stuff except in giveaway descriptions, does that mean it's allowed to create threads with non-referral links in that category?

4 years ago
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Kind of.

Changes to categories were made partially to accommodate for future change to guidelines. If you browse proposed guidelines topic you will see people had some ideas that are against current rules.

Now with more categories (and ability to hide them) user can hide unwanted threads entirely. So as long as we keep them in proper category there is place for previously forbidden content.

Edit: this category will be empty i think now. But fill with content aftet new guidelines are up.

4 years ago*
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That's the thing, I don't see mentions about such cases even in proposed guidelines, it still pretty explicitly says that you can't promote your stuff in discussions.

Advertising Steam games, Steam curators, or social media channels is not allowed.

So yeah, for now, I would refrain from posting in that new section and will wait for the final version of new guidelines.

4 years ago
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will wait for the final version of new guidelines.

That'd be best since I agree that "User Projects" are even against current revised guidelines.

Current proposed guidelines post says "When you are associated with the content you are advertising, you may still be able to share it, but only when it is explicitly allowed below."...

Then it fails to explicitly allow "User Projects", which isnt even those Steam & social media things you listed.

Associated adverts in discussions can only consist of invite only & community giveaways, or groups in group recruit category.

The desciption of the "User Projects" category (shown when creating a post) is as follows:

Show us what you're working on. You could share a website you're developing, a YouTube channel you recently launched, home renovations for your gaming / theater room, or more. Projects do not need to be gaming related. One open discussion per project.

4 years ago
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As I thought. cg firstly changed SG backbone to allow some content, and now changed how guidelines look in general. We no longer have distinction between associated and unassociated. All associated will go to special forum category that can be hidden by users.

4 years ago
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It was poked by some users, and cg decided to create more categories (from OP post of this thread):

I think it's a good opportunity for us to expand the number of categories to hopefully encourage a greater variety of discussion and to allow more flexibility for certain types of user advertising within posts.

So it was:

  • proposition to change guidelines to tackle problem of advertising
  • get feedback
  • decide it would be better to allow advertising but only in certain categories
  • code site backbone and get feedback for new categories
  • add more categories
  • remake proposed guidelines to fit into idea of advertising into specific categories

As different users may remember different parts of this process - it may lead to confusion. You checked proposed guidelines before cg updated main thread, but after categories change went life.

4 years ago
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There's some plan to occult some [Or all] the categories I don't wish to see? My sidebar is bigger than my screen.

4 years ago
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You may click the eye icon next to each topic to unsubscribe from ones you don't want and control what shows in your default Discussion page.

4 years ago
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That still shows the unsubscribed categories.

4 years ago
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Right, so I guess the only way to avoid seeing that list is for the site or ESGST to have an option to hide them in a collapseable frame of some kind.

4 years ago
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That's what I'm asking for

4 years ago
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Deleted

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4 years ago
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I think Whitelist Recruitment as this could be in Group Recruitment already.
Movies / TV is a bit short... Name it "Other Media" so it's also about books and music.
Help is kinda strange because it says not what it's about.
It's unclear if Puzzles / Events can only be postet in "Puzzles / Events" now or if they can also be in General.
What is General now at all?

Also we need clear rules for the User Projects and Game Showcase rooms (pinned in the sub).

4 years ago
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I think Whitelist Recruitment as this could be in Group Recruitment already.

On the current first page of Group Recruit category, there's ~10 posts specific to whitelists. It can be argued that this isn't enough worth making another category for but "Group & Whitelist Recruitment" doesn't exactly fit nicely in the sidebar either.

Movies / TV is a bit short... Name it "Other Media" so it's also about books and music.

I agree it could be broader but "Other Media" may seem weird when no other category is truly media-specific, unless you want to say games as in "games showcase" (for devs) is a medium.

It's unclear if Puzzles / Events can only be postet in "Puzzles / Events" now or if they can also be in General.

When selecting the category upon post creation, the category description says "Puzzles, events, and trains for sharing giveaways with the community." So the answer is that they all SHOULD be posted to "Puzzles / Events", but it will come down to how mods enforce it. My hunch is that I don't expect mods to be strict about moving the most common threads with trains to this category unless they really want to cut down on cluttering "General" category: Cake day, significant life event, returning to SG, etc.

IIRC this category used to be just "Puzzles" then it was broadened to Puzzles / Events.

What is General now at all?

Literally generally posts related to SG (or ST since it doesn't have its own discussions) that are NOT: Bugs/suggestions, trains, puzzles, needing help, addons for SG/ST, or groups/whitelists. I personally think there's ample content and SG meta discussion for that.

Also we need clear rules for the User Projects and Game Showcase rooms (pinned in the sub).

That'd be nice for pinned links to new guidelines to be in those categories. Proposed guidelines haven't been officially rolled out yet. I'm just glad there are ANY changes to the categories.

4 years ago
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Ohh nice. We have now category descriptions :D

Didn't try to make new discussion, so did not see it

4 years ago
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Help is kinda strange because it says not what it's about.

Inbefore Leia posts there looking for Obi Wan

4 years ago
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I'd like to see a Food/Travel category here. I've noticed that while such threads are not abundant, there's usually considerable interest and participation when they do. Be nice to see them in one place, so that those of us who are interested can find them easily and not miss them.

4 years ago
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I'd like jatan11t's posts of food pics from around the world to have their own category here. These threads are abundant. Be nice to see them in one place, so that those of us who are interested can find them easily and not miss the giveaways he posts along with the food pics.

FTFY? 💗💗

4 years ago
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Yes, I had those in mind but also some others like the Food porn topic. Seems it's too late now anyway.

4 years ago
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Wait, is this live? I was creating a thread and saw bunch of categories I don't remember from before.

Also, an idea: Some sort of 1-liner description on top when you open a category, or a tooltip on mouseover at least?

4 years ago
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When you chose category there is new text under the field that has it's description.

Like in Bugs / Suggestions:

Report a bug you discovered, or suggest a new idea or change you would like to see implemented in our community.

4 years ago
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A category for social/political topics. There's quite a few here, and I prefer to keep the focus on games when I'm here.

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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Well, I guess if you have a giveaway you can do what you want. I mean, you could cross over with any other category and also have a GA.

4 years ago
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