Less than a week after rolling out a new code of conduct for the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 forums on Steam, Deep Silver says it has «listened to your feedback» and eliminated nearly all of it.
The original code of conduct, published on January 17, laid out a «zero tolerance» policy for discrimination in any form, which it broke down in detail as including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of toxicity; it also forbid «hate speech or harmful ideologies,» including white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and harassment. «Any posts, comments, or behaviour perpetuating these harmful ideologies will be removed, and offenders will face swift action,» PLAION_MY4NH wrote.
Consequences for violating the code of conduct will range from warnings and post deletion to temporary or permanent bans from the forum.
Now, however, all of that is gone. Instead of a «code of conduct,» the Steam forums are now governed by a much briefer set of «guidelines.» «Over the past few days, we've listened to your feedback and updated our community guidelines to better reflect the kind of space we all want this to be,» Deep Silver's new message states. «We've made them clearer, simpler and shorter to keep things fair, respectful and focused—thank you all for being part of this journey with us.» The new guidelines are as follows: And that's it.
It's arguable that «respect others» encompasses everything covered by the previous code, and Steam's guidelines also prohibit things like «insults,» «harassment,» and «discrimination,» but as we noted when it rolled out, the broad, simple «don't be a jerk» approach to moderation doesn't work these days.