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Failed to connect to MySQL: (1203) User howardkn already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connectionsPath: ...!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-3.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:40:48 +0000 From: Spalls Hurgenson Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Subject: How not to start the day Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:40:48 -0500 Message-ID: <2e8ukjtrd2g5ici7d8pamtvqs5jj5jfr0v@4ax.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 2.0/32.652 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 64 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-iV49t/DkpyI1KeFRqiHSSjapqe8o2u7b1LS47B69/ZmxrC6q4i2CC+GeADwwrQCYHtP0yf9LOL2YzFr!JC4kOy6iynoZvPzqGg8xZXU5o4wkmZHdr0SaaKahcq2aaP5Ah3o5rWFdzYAJ+xlNrceCp5/3 X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 3784 So, Steam locked my account today. And why not? After all, I posted an incredibly suspicious (their words) comment the other day. It was a response to a review on their storefront. I forget what the game was, but that review basically said: 'don't buy this game, even if its on sale, even if it looks good, it's not worth it.' So I replied: "It's true. I saw the game. I saw the pretty graphics. I saw the negative scores. But I also saw it was on sale and I thought, 'it couldn't be that bad'. I was >< this close to buying it. Then I saw this review... and I put away the credit card. It's like you knew me. Thank you for saving me $40USD." (that's my content, quoted in full, that Valve found offensive) As you can see, it's no surprise that Valve locked the account of somebody who would say something so dreadful. I'm lucky my NNTP provider doesn't cancel my account for repeating it here, even if it was a first-strike by a long-time customer, content provider and probable 'whale'. Truly heinous stuff, right? Worthy of immediate locking somebody out of their property. Obviously I'm being sarcastic. But I think I'm due to some cynicism given the stupidity of Valve. It just reinforces my belief that companies like Valve have way to much power over their customers (similarly, Riot games has threatened to lock people out of their accounts for posting or saying stuff off-platform outside of their purview. That's right; do something offensive on Facebook and they'll keep you from playing League of Legends) It's not so much a problem of these corporations trying to police their platforms. With all the misogyny, homophobia, and racism out there, it's a necessity. But it's the ham-handed, algorithm-led, shoot-first/investigate-never methodolgy they use. They just depend on computers to do it, rather than pay for moderators, and trust that these algorithmic decisions are correct. And then rather than correspond with the offender first, they just take the nuclear option and yank the account. It's wrong in every aspect. I contacted customer support (which is to say, I clicked on a link and got redirected to a box where I could type out a comment). I politely requested that Valve investigate the incident and re-instate the account. I fully believe they will do so. The comment is so patently inoffensive that I have no idea why it even triggered an algorithm [maybe it was the use of the "> <" to indicate proximity?] But it's annoying that I have to jump through these hoops and that a black mark is now permanently associated with my account. And it's made me distrust Valve --and their DRM-enforced control over my property-- just a little bit more.