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Problem with index

A topic by D-san created 76 days ago Views: 533 Replies: 18
Viewing posts 1 to 5

Sorry to bother you with a problem that has its own dedicated topics, but I’m a bit nervous and worried I’ll be ignored—I’ve already sent a message to support. I’m the developer of a game that was previously indexed without issues, but it suddenly disappeared, and I don’t understand why. It doesn’t show up when searching by name or tags. Everyone who visits the game does so through alternative methods (external sites, collections, etc.). I see moderators sometimes respond here—could you please help me resolve this?

Hello! Please enter the ticket ID you submitted to support. The moderator, No Time to Play, will ask for it when he reply.

(1 edit)

Number 272209
Thank you for answering me

Moderator

I'll let our admins know, but as explained in the unofficial FAQ, certain changes made to a game page can return it to the review queue.

I understand, yes, the changes were indeed made during the update, but it’s already been a week, so I started to worry. Thank you for replying. Am I correct in understanding that the game is not in "quarantine" and all I can do now is wait?

Moderator(+1)

Yes, please wait.

Thank you so much! And again, sorry for disturbing you (つω`。)

Hello, after 7 days of my initial request, an administrator finally responded to me. However, they refused to process my request and asked me to create a new one because the email I used to contact support did not match the one linked to my itch.io account. In reality, it’s the same email address—on itch.io, the shortened version was displayed, while the messages were sent using the full version. I’ve already updated the address to the full version on itch.io.  Anyway, that’s not the main issue. Could I kindly ask you once again to notify the administration? The new ticket number is #273527.

Moderator(+1)

Okay, I did.

Thanks dear!

Hi! I know I’ve probably become annoying by now, but this is what I do best 😅. It’s been two weeks, and I still haven’t received a reply—the issue remains unresolved. Should I create another post or reach out to support again?

Moderator

I'm not sure, sorry.

so I started to worry

This might not help you, but might ease your worries a bit by understanding what is going on. (according to my opinion and observations)

There is a lot of things uploaded to Itch with bad intentions. Pirated games, malware, scams, horrible shovelware, whatever. Especially the malware is a problem. I have seen hundreds over hundreds of those. Obviously Itch fights back. But is on a budget. So they remove games for staff review with a shotgut and not a scalpel.

To my limited observation the "catch rate" increased with the frequence of complaints like your's. Last year I would see like 10-20 malware each week. The last few months it is more like 0-5 per week. At least I hope it is due to the things Itch does and not due to the scammers hiding the malware so I do not notice it ;-)

(+1)

I understand, but I’ve been publishing for almost a year now. Plus, many developers leave links to their games on other platforms, which makes the security checks pointless since files can be replaced at any time. So, I doubt the issue is specifically about file safety. More likely, it’s because I tweaked the tags—there were errors in the original ones. What upsets me now is that the complaint review process will likely take a long time, even though I waited six months for the release, and now it’s gone live without indexing or a chance to appear in the ‘new updates’ section. But thank you for trying to cheer me up ( ̄  ̄|||)

(1 edit)

For obvious reasons, changing the files after approval and using hacked accounts that are old is precisly what malware uploaders try to do. Most of those accounts I saw with the malware last year were years old.

The evil guys adapt to what works. If Itch protects old accounts, they use old accounts. If Itch protects already approved files, they use those and change them later. And so on.

(And yes of course, I do not know what this is really about. It is just an educated guess. But after encountering near a thousand malware projects, pirated games and other dubious things like crypto, I think my guess is well founded, even if it were incorrect.)

Hi! My game is also not indexed, I already thought maybe I violated something and it was simply hidden from indexing, but as I understand it, I am not the only one with such a problem. Probably, all that remains is to wait.

Moderator

Which game? And next time please make your own topic. I almost missed your post.

Okay. Here's the game: https://evgenolab.itch.io/face-of-fear-the-forester-demo

Moderator

Please read the rules of this category.

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