How to NOT PR:

I can accept that.  

I still maintain it's not an insult to call someone a jerk when they're acting like a jerk...else I'd be shedding crocodile tears right now in response to your post, correct?  I didn't call Aynen a jerk, I suggested he stop acting like one.  *edit* Just to be clear:  if Aynen wants to behave like a jerk in his post toward me, I hardly think I'm insulting his lifelong character to suggest he stop being a jerk in response to his jerk-ish post.   

"Well I didn't say you acted like a jerk," yeah, I just realized that--meant more along the lines of pointing it out in a well-reasoned manner.

I can post what I have remaining of what was deleted--I can even do so editing out the "offending" lines with a proper notation referencing them--but I've no wish to be banned from another forum today.

I listed several examples showing very clearly the assurances 22cans had provided in the past concerning the "PC version" of Godus, showing it wasn't me who had said such things, as Aynen implied. I, after the offending line including the words "apparently and thick," very clearly broke down the difference between the Steam version of Godus and the mobile version of Godus, showing it to be a violation of the Steam Early Access agreement, and most likely whatever agreement/s they may have with whatever mobile service providers they're "selling" the mobile version through, and ended by explaining how dishonest it was of them to compare a $20 purchase for access to a Steam version of a game they're giving away for free on mobile platforms--unless, again, they were somehow going back on previous assurances, and trying to claim that Godus on mobile wasn't playable without $20 of in-app purchases.

Could I have phrased it differently? Probably... Could I have been less snide and sarcastic? Maybe, but that's kinda how I am--it's hard not to be when you've bartended alongside drag-queens for twenty years...
(Actually, let me change my answers: Absolutely. I just saw moresealworth's (sp?) post in the thread in question, and he proves that I absolutely could have.)

None of this negate's the simple fact that Aynen's response to me offered nothing to the conversation, answered not a single question that had been asked, and WAS snarky, petty, and "jerk-ish."

None of this negate's the simple fact that I'm not insulting someone simply by pointing out their bad behavior.

None of this negate's the simple fact that--whether it's "because someone asked me" or not--it's not professional in the slightest to be posting things here deliberately taken out of context from a moderation dispute thread on Steam in some puerile attempt at discrediting someone. It's honestly not too far removed from the whining about not having enough time to answer a handful of questions, then proceeding to flippantly dismiss a not-too-flattering article as "having no new information." It's dishonest and results in more damage to 22cans' reputation than mine/some internet reporter. It's not only unprofessional--it's something a jerk would do, and that's not an insult, it's a statement of fact. I don't care how you spin it: snipping quotes from a moderation dispute thread, then posting them out of context on a public, third-party forum to dishonestly "prove" your "side," is a "jerk-ish" thing to do.

The fact that--judging from the response--this seems to be funny and amusing to colin instead of the professional embarrassment it should be is the saddest, most telling thing of all...the future does NOT look good for this company when its representatives think behaving like middle-school girls is good PR.

Yet abusive and insulting/libelous behaviour is clearly allowed to be done by the 22cans moderators, who have been allowed to delete and lie whenever they please. One of said moderators even admitted to it, which was a starting and refreshing contrast to the game being continued to be played today where 22cans thinks they can antagonise customers for whatever reason until they have an excuse to ban folks.

I documented what happened to Interceptor, hardly, tikigod, Mindless, and myself, and that policy appears to still be in effect today.

22cans' stated reason of "I completely agree, I'm happy for forum members to express their opinions on the forums, but when you start insulting other members that when we have to draw the line." is total bullshit since I can clearly recall being banned for "rage posting" for saying "have you even played this piece of shit yet?" This is the same ban that was handed to others, because your moderation on Steam is abusive in how they handle the forum and protect it from opinions too challenging to 22cans' public narrative. If Dave didn't tell you this, this is precisely why I was inspired to join up here, because the Godus Steam forum moderators are censoring to the point of abusive.

Let's not lose the plot here, Colin - this whole mess was created by 22cans' antagonism, poor customer service, and bait and switch about what they initially put onto Steam and have been trying to avoid having to give the money back they swindled people for. You are now to the point of trying to actively punish your dissatisfied customers and those who find fault with the title (the latter is a right extended to people by VALVe themselves - read your Steamworks Documentation if you don't believe me.)

Now Steam is offering a refund, and right now 22cans isn't looking too good because Steam is fielding that lovely time when 22cans said "Address all refund requests to Steam Support" while doing precisely dick themselves except pass the buck. (See: The Steam refund thread here on this forum, detailing developers who obviously Get It because they have been doing this for literally decades for more titles than anyone there at 22cans.)

As such, the Steam forums are full of irate folks because of poor company policy and a couple of abusive moderators, and again it would be folly for you to try and pretend that the moderators are not abusive when we clearly have one explaining his reasons for doing so. If he were doing something other than official forums, like a fansite, there wouldn't be much wrong with his moderation in that tone - but at this point you have to understand that your moderators have been acting as representatives of the company, and despite their love for the game and wanting it to do better...might not be doing things the right way. This includes Dave, too.

Oh, noes, a personal attack! We must make it disappear! WRONG.

The hiding game is getting old, is a practice discouraged by Steamworks documentation as based upon the experiences of many developers and Steam Community Moderators, and is only hurting 22cans in the long-run. It leads to (again) speculation about what was written, along with a much larger post being deleted because of one convenient excuse.

So why is 22cans continuing to do this? Some sort of misguided pride? Some ignorant policy that states anything that breaks the rules (including 22cans' fake "Steam rules") must be deleted?

So now you have a bunch of people who are even more irate at 22cans, and so...what does 22cans do instead of fixing anything? Makes more of a mess, routinely. That's what I'm seeing here, as we witness another symptom of 22cans' company policy. If you haven't by now, this would be the time to break open your Steamworks Documentation and have a good read.

Now clean it up in a way more acceptable than a kid trying to hide mummy's broken vase behind the sofa.

Hey - it's YOUR job, so get on it.

PS: While you're at it, fix your fake "Steam rules" thread before VALVe might decide to speak to you about this abusive and antagonising policy that has only been causing more work for 22cans' sole digital publisher for Godus - just to give an idea of what your company might manage to fuck up by misrepresenting its abuse of customers as actual "Steam policy".

I agree. I think it would be much better if they could get this working. I don't think Dave was out of line to delete the post but I think a better solution would be to get the poster to rephrase their post. I think he was making a valid argument he just put it in a way that was too personally critical. In some ways I did the same thing because I posted quickly and so it was you are trolling when I should have laid out my case more eloquently. I'm not saying I think my post should have been censored but I do think my argument could have been put in a better way.

Did I miss a confirmation that Mods and Admins have no access to posters?

I find this quite frustrating:  People making "spurious" statements like, "The post was deleted for obvious reasons and blatantly broke the rules," when said person has never laid eyes on said post and couldn't possibly know such a thing.  

No tea, no shade, but...
"Really, queen!?"

I made no issue when the mods deleted my post calling the Steam forums "muir-nopausal," because that WAS an insult, and was pretty much the only line of that post--which, I might add, was deleted with no reason given and no warning issued.

This is entirely different, not least of all because it was goaded on by an off-topic, trolling post from Aynen, but mainly because I insulted no one;  if Aynen doesn't want someone to point out his blatantly transparent play at ignorance, then perhaps he shouldn't be play-acting that he's too dim-witted to understand the conversation he snarked into.  

Now, I really DO have to go get some work done...

Don't take this the wrong way, but I am starting to get a little sick of reading about the steam moderation practices. That is not to say that you should stop posting about it. I'm simply saying that I'm propably not going to pay much attention to it. So if there is anything here that really requires my attention, I trust someone will reach out to me via private message. Cheers.