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It's unacceptable to handle support like this.

A topic by Tib Averus created 25 days ago Views: 436 Replies: 8

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After not getting a reply from support for about 4 MONTHS, despite my repeated attempts at contacting them, I ran out of ideas and came to the forums. I appreciate the fact that after posting, I did get a reply, but the fact that I'm BLAMED for posting about it, and that I don't deserve a response because it's "not something we can help with" is absurd and uncalled for. And the fact that my post was immediately archived so I couldn't even give feedback on this is just on another level.

I'm not sure what's going on but I don't think it's standard practice to ignore a support ticket just because you can't help the person. At least CLOSE the ticket or anything!

For context, I simply asked for a way to block hyperlinks on our game's page, since we get a LOT of bots posing as Itch support team posting things like "Download the latest version here" then posting a link to a virus.

This is something that can EASILY damage our reputation as a developer. I'm not sure why "We will ignore requests that we can't help with" is a thing. If you can't help someone, I understand putting them as lower priority, but at least tell them you won't help at some point.

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redonihunter25 days ago

You might want to read the other threads talking about the scam spam comments and discuss there. There are several. Like this one https://itch.io/t/5401726/spamming-with-adult-games-link or this https://itch.io/t/5320326/spam-attacks

Also, your comment section is not your game page. It is the comment section. It is so obviously spam, why should this reflect bad on the developer's reputation. It is Itch's reputation that suffers. Your reputation would only suffer if you are obviously active in comment section but do not delete those comments for days.

There is no ticket closure notification for most tickets. And if what you say was your ticket, they probably sorted it in the suggestion basket. A ticket closed message for some tickets sure would be helpful. Like, suggestion received in this case.

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Tib Averus25 days ago(+1)

In an ideal world of course. In that world, every user would carefully check who posted a link and where. But this isn't an ideal world, and most users will not even realize they're clicking a malicious link.

Besides, the main problem here isn't even that, it's the fact that it took 4 months and a forum post for my ticket to get any kind of attention, and then I was practically told that it's my fault it didn't get a reply or was even closed.

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redonihunter25 days ago

Checking who posted would reveal without doubts the spammy nature of the commentor.

But the circumstance is highly dubious to begin with. Someone posts under a game that "a new version" is available somewhere else. Yeah. And the first 100 downloaders will get a coupon.

So I doubt your "most users" statement. Especially if that user is not visiting Itch for the first time. These comments have been going on for several years. A few years ago they would link to internal pages on Itch where a fake game would contain malware. Often with a fake download button. It got better for a while, but the spamming resurged some time ago.

I see three issues here.

You ticket was not a thing for support. You ask for a feature they do not have, so it is a suggestion and not something they could help you with. Also, the underlying issue is the spam comments and that's happening to whole of Itch.

Support did not answer.

You posted about this in the message boards. The rules of this message board include this: Please do not create topics asking how long it will take for support to reply to you.

So your topic was closed, because such topics are not wanted in the discussion boards. You were advised to do discussion about the underlying issue. And I guess your initial ticket was misunderstood, if I take your wording from your OP here. You phrased in this thread: to block hyperlinks on our game's page. Which is nonsensical and is a html problem if you copy paste your page and do not want to have links in there. You are on your own how to design your page. - But what you really wanted is to block links in comments.

Itch sure could handle non actionable support request in a way that people know it is not something support can handle. I think I got a response once, when I reported a bug.

(oh, and your comment section really is a different page. It is just displayed under a game's page for convenience. It is /community or /comments after the game's url.)

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Tib Averus25 days ago

My issues is that if I never posted about this to the forums, I likely would've NEVER received any kind of update or reply. Before I posted I actually attached a reply to my support ticket twice, and was still ignored. The forum post was actually a last resort, yet I was told that it's normal to be ignored by support because they can't help me. That's just insane.

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Tib Averus25 days ago(+1)

It's also funny that in the first link you posted, they literally told someone to contact support about this issue, which is what I did, and got ignored.

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redonihunter25 days ago

Contact support to do what exactly...

You're welcome to add your voice, even though I'm fairly certain our admins are aware of the situation by now.

Raising awareness of the issue to staff is not an actionable support ticket. If your ticket was not misundestood, as I kinda assume, you just added to all the other complaints about the spam comments.

Also, you seemed to ask for a specific feature. Which is a suggestion. I also never got an answer to my suggestions.

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Tib Averus25 days ago (3 edits)

Okay, the point I'm trying to make is that there should be some kind of response, reply, even automated, if someone sends a message to the support email. Especially if said person has asked for an update more than once over the span of 4 months...

Oh and maybe not blame the user for trying to get support :)

And just one more thing, how am I supposed to know that this support request turned into a suggestion? Or that it's not something that they can help me with, if they never give me any kind of update on said support ticket? Do you not see the issue here? Leaving people in the dark and then blaming them for asking for an update isn't great.

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redonihunter25 days ago

The way Itch leaves people in limbo is very frustrating. They should at least put some disclaimer in their automated response, that a lack of an answer just means they do not believe an answer is necessary. And if an action is necessary, they typically do the action and not waste time telling about it. I guess this is one half of the reason. The other is avoiding endless discussions from people not accepting that their request is not something support can or will do.

And the way the message boards are no tech support on the one hand, but are still treated like it on the other hand is sending mixed signals. They have contradictory rules. You cannot tell people not to use the board for a thing, but then give them advice how to do it anyway.

That your request was misunderstood or seen as a suggestion is my assumption based on the way you worded the problem in this thread's OP and the way leafo worded the answer to your closed thread.

Anyway, they must get hundreds of support request for this problem. Answering those would just be a ddos by other means.

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