Post by redonihunter in What is going on with comments, for the love of god?

Viewing post in What is going on with comments, for the love of god?

a bunch of my friends made accounts around the same time for a specific game

Which might have contributed to whatever the spam filter looks for. The server has access to all sorts of information. A bunch of newly made accounts, possibly even with similar mail providers and connecting from the same region to post on the same game? That fits the bill for what was happening before the spam filter was made extra aggressive: the same game would get spam comments several times a day, each day. I saw it happening on some games. You could go there any time of the day and there were fresh spam comments.

Gating comments behind some spam filter negatively affects games' popularity and thus potential profits

I do not think so.

Comments are still being made. Lots of them.

What did negatively affect games were all the spam comments. Some developers even disabled comments entirely because of that.

Some example theads

https://itch.io/t/5320326/spam-attacks

now it has increased to multiple per day

https://itch.io/t/5401726/spamming-with-adult-games-link

I can't keep up with blocking and reporting all of them, because new accounts just keep popping up nonstop.

https://itch.io/t/5495538/no-links-in-comments-moderation-do-something-about-thi...

I constantly have to block such accounts and delete their posts, but where is the administration?

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RXA62317 hours ago

A bunch of newly made accounts, possibly even with similar mail providers and connecting from the same region to post on the same game?

A bunch of new accounts on a platform is nothing really surprising in itself. Similar mail providers sounds like a reach, doubt it's the case, since we're neither in the same country, timezone or even part of the globe. If a title gets a post on Reddit (or any other place) and it attracts attention, then it creates traffic. Nothing weird here.

the same game would get spam comments several times a day, each day. I saw it happening on some games. You could go there any time of the day and there were fresh spam comments.

Then feel free to block spam comments. Limit amount of comments. Penalize accounts. Upgrade account creation bot-prevention measures.

But for all the countermeasures to block legitimate accounts from posting comments for months, without any way to get in contact, get verified or remedy the situation, except for crying loud enough until somebody starts giving a damn - that's insane.

"I do not think so.

Comments are still being made. Lots of them. "

Citing this way, cause the quoting function is absolutely horrendous and doesn't allow me to do what it's supposed to.
Interestingly enough neither I, nor my friends aren't in the elite group of people, who can make comments. And considering Your argument is basically "well, other people can comment", I assume there are tons of people like us, that You don't even know about.

Besides, what do I honestly care if other people can make comments, when I know for a fact I can't and I'm not the only one? I understand the issues that come with spam, but I'm not buying the idea that prohibiting actual humans from having an interaction with a developer and a chance to give feedback affects the experience, popularity and thus potential income.

As people have pointed out in the threads You linked, the issue was mostly links. Blocking a hyperlink from a comment is possible without crippling real accounts. Like easily. Dozens or hundreds of spam links also doesn't equal a single feedback comment per week or month, but even that can't be posted here.

Whatever sort of "solution" this was supposed to be, it's silly, unfair and borderline incompetent. Going into a game's page and seeing comments, but not being able to post anything yourself, losing whatever you post, because you don't even have access to it and then being tied up in a pointless Support ticket circle is not a way to live.

But I think that's enough, my question has been answered and even if I consider this whole ordeal asinine, there's nothing we can do with it and arguing reasons or consequences of these actions won't lead anywhere anyway.
Thank You all and peace out! Free to lock thread.

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redonihunter11 hours ago

You wanted to know what is going on. And what you described did fit previously seen scammer activity. They repeatedly commented on the same games, with new accounts, hourly, daily, for weeks.

feel free to block spam comments

Itch does so. But spammers are trying again and again. Creating a spam filter that does blocks all spam and does not result in false positives, is rather impossible.

You claimed, it would affect games negatively. I disagreed and elaborated why I think so.

what do I honestly care if other people can make comments

Likewise. And developers that shut down comment sections entirely thought so too. Screw comments, protecting users from spam is more important.

If there is no spam anymore they can try improving to get less false positives. They are working on it.

https://itch.io/t/6150480/this-may-sound-harsh-but-i-hope-to-get-an-answer-for-i...

Meanwhile, moderation costs money and commenting does not generate money. The first moderator is the devloper. If the developers do not bother keeping their page moderated, why should Itch bother. The devleoper has ability to delete unwanted comments, so they should fulfill their obligation to allow wanted comments.

Also, there were all sorts of spam. With obfuscated links, images. Links were just the most common one. It is trivial to circumvent a simple link ban and auto-filter.

Free to lock thread

Seems you are another person that thinks this is answered by staff. I complained about this, but no one listens. This is not support. This is a user message board. You are talking to other users. People that bother to voice their opinion, share their experiences and maybe answer questions.

If you want to tell support anything, you need to send a mail. Or use the feedback button. Tell them how great it would be, if they would implement it, so that developers would see pending comments for moderation more easy. Maybe that would help a huge lot.

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RXA6239 hours ago(+1)

And what you described did fit previously seen scammer activity. They repeatedly commented on the same games, with new accounts, hourly, daily, for weeks.

There is a huge difference between one/two lengthy comments with no hyperlinks per month and regular hourly spam. I'm merely pointing out the distinction and how the threads You linked mostly (if not only) refer to not spam per se, but malicious and misleading links embedded in comments. Which is a lot easier to block than a smart message filter and a lot less invasive than just shutting everyone out of commenting, for months, with no way of fixing it, getting verified or avoiding the spam filter.

"Likewise. And developers that shut down comment sections entirely thought so too. Screw comments, protecting users from spam is more important. "

I think You misunderstood my point. You said that other people can still comment and are doing so. Well, I can't. Nobody I know can. And that sort of privileged comment policy is whack. I am a user, I accepted the ToS and as such should be allowed to post comments. This sounds blown out of proportions, but I'm just trying to highlight the point. I can't see my comments, I can't seem to get them approved (aside from one), I can't even contact Support, because they just don't respond. No matter how I look at this, it's silly to have a community with the "community" part cut out (about 7 of my forum posts also ended up in limbo, for whatever reason).

"You claimed, it would affect games negatively. I disagreed and elaborated why I think so."
"Likewise. And developers that shut down comment sections entirely thought so too. Screw comments, protecting users from spam is more important. "

I still think that for games with limited playerbase, receiving feedback is important. Which is harder to do, when you can't post feedback. Not only does communication affect long-term attachment to a game/dev, it also allows for improvements based on feedback, since everyone has their own opinions. It's one thing if a dev chooses to disable comments, that's their call, but if they want feedback, but the website just shadowbans (cause that's what this essentially is at this point) people commenting, because they can't deal with spam in any reasonable way, then it will affect the game and its reception. Like imagine being a part of a project at work, joining group chat and being unable to post anything. Wouldn't that affect the project? And if You try doing anything about it, You just get ghosted.

"If there is no spam anymore they can try improving to get less false positives. They are working on it."

I don't know how many comments are made daily on the site, but it's not about false positives. False positive is interpreting something that's not spam as spam. This thing is flagging EVERYTHING I POST. That's not the same thing. I can't access my comment history until the comments get approved (which they don't get), which means I'm essentially cut off from posting anything. And that sucks. And it's not "for a while", I made this account on August 12 2025, that's 10 months.

"The first moderator is the devloper."

What do You mean? Can a developer approve specific comments?

"Also, there were all sorts of spam. With obfuscated links, images. Links were just the most common one. It is trivial to circumvent a simple link ban and auto-filter."

Okay, but if that's the case and You Yourself said that other people can post, why can't some people join this exclusive group? What does one have to do to be allowed as a member of the community, when sending Support tickets does nothing, awaiting moderation does nothing, everything does nothing for months on end?

"Seems you are another person that thinks this is answered by staff. "

No, not really. I literally went for the "Questions" part of it, because Support, as I mentioned about four times already, DOES NOT RESPOND. I just wanted to understand what was going on and as soon as I got that information, I just left a note that in my opinion, since it's my question and my thread, it can be locked, as the question's been answered and I don't want to derail it by debating things neither I nor You have any control over. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a discussion, but a fruitless one on the topic of poorly handled spam filter just feels like spam itself.

"Tell them how great it would be, if they would implement it, so that developers would see pending comments for moderation more easy. "

So if I get it right, the devs can actually see and approve comments? That's interesting. Cause this means a few things - either my comments are specifically ignored (which is curious) or are never seen, because either they get filtered out by a filter to the point where not even devs/mods see it awaiting approval, or I'm by default on some shadowban/spam filter list due to when my account was created or something, while others don't have to deal with this crap.

And trust me, I'd send anything, if I didn't already send 3 separate tickets regarding the issue that got ignored. Somehow I doubt it would be any different with suggestions, and it's not like that idea is so revolutionary nobody else suggested it before.

Still can't make more than a single quote, it just marks down the whole post after the first quote -.-

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korzara1 hour ago

I just want to tag in on this thread to share the sentiment. I've been noticing this same issue for a good while now. I read the explanation on the reasons, and it does make sense. However, it does leave me wish the same disappointment and frustration.

I want to give devs positive feedback and gratitude for some of the demos I find here. Of course I can always try to reach out to them in other ways, and I do, but that's genuinely defeating the entire purpose of the comment section. It feels like I'm in the same weird shadowban zone as @RXA623, where I know other comments are going through, but not mine, and I'm just confused.

That said, again, I do understand having to tighten the spam filters. I just hope it can get sorted out soon in a way where it doesn't feel like users are being punished for nothing. Ack. That's not meant to be snarky either, I don't want it to read that way. T_T It's just so upsetting that I'm over here like "I love your game!" "Wishlisted, this is awesome!" and yeah...that just goes nowhere? Oof.

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