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(+1)
What is the problem?

I'm going to assume you're genuinely looking for an explanation. If you simply want to express your frustration, it would be best to post it here:

https://itch.io/board/10017/general-discussion

But since you're posting in "Questions & Support," I assume you want to know a bit about the reason.

I also want to clarify that I'm only explaining the reason we've seen; I'm neither defending nor attacking your position, just explaining the facts.

Several months ago, there was a surge in comments with malicious links on Itch's game pages. Every day, this forum was flooded with people complaining that Itch wasn't doing anything to prevent these comments with malicious links on legitimate sites. What we know is that some of these links were designed to trick people into downloading malware onto their computers so that their credentials could be stolen, so it was crucial to prevent it.

The staff should have implemented a filter, which unfortunately catches many legitimate posts. (False positives) And now, if you check this forum, you won't see posts from people complaining about malicious links, but you will see many posts from people complaining that they can't post.

Basically, we went from a system that failed to detect fraudulent posts to one that is capturing too many false positives.

Please note that I am explaining the events; I am not discussing how effective it is or whether it is the best or worst system.

(+1)

Thank You, that's a solid explanation and yes, that's what I was going after. At least now I understand what exactly I'm complaining about.

Flagging every post while searching for links seems odd though. Posts waiting for approval for months, as if there's no queue for this thing and Support tickets being similarly useless, to the point of having to complain on the forums, having a Moderator read it and forward a ticket that's literally already been sent, just feels like a waste of resources and manpower. Done with whining, thanks for historical info.

I agree with what you're saying; it would be a good idea to have a couple of moderators dedicated to reviewing and approving these messages. Currently, as far as I understand, only the staff can do it, and they're already overwhelmed with work without having to review comments.


The creator of a project is supposed to be able to act as a moderator of their own page (and approve pending messages on their page), but it seems that Itch doesn't notify them when they have messages awaiting approval. Unless you manually go to the moderation menu, you won't know, and I think that contributes significantly to the problem of many messages remaining hidden for months

Okay, that might sound rude, cause people, effort and stuff, but this feels so spaghetti, I can't help but chuckle. I guess I'll live a few more months, though any sort of verification at any point would be nice. Gating comments behind some spam filter negatively affects games' popularity and thus potential profits.

Have a nice day :)