Valve will soon help developers moderate their Steam communities by reviewing and taking action against reported discussion posts.
Starting on September 25, whenever a community discussion thread or post is reported by a player, it will automatically be added to a queue for Valve's moderation team to review. Any material that violates the Community Guidelines will then be removed
It's a change that will hopefully take some pressure off game developers, who've until now had to moderate individual game discussions themselves.
While the Steam moderation team already had the power to review and take action against other forms of reported content (such as screenshots, artwork, and guides), Valve was reluctant to start moderating individual discussions for fear of stepping on the toes of its game devs.
However, with an increasing number of developers asking for the company to show more of a presence on the Steam discussion boards, Valve has decided it's time for a change in tack.
"We are at the point now where we want to make sure we’re putting our tools and human power to use in more ways across the Steam Community," explained Valve.
"We won’t be actively perusing your community discussions or posting in threads - you have your own voice and your own style of communication with players about your game. We’ll only be communicating with players if it's necessary when issuing a warning or ban for reported content."
Anyone who still wants to retain total control over their communities can opt out of the new service by visiting the Steamworks settings for their games. For more info, be sure to check out the Steamworks blog post.