Steam takes steps to remove unhelpful and offensive tags

Valve has updated its tagging beta to try and cut back on the number of inappropriate tags being applied to all kinds of games.

The tagging feature has enabled some very funny commentary from users but it has also opened the doors for various kinds of abuse. In a note on it Steam Client blog, Valve announced an update allowing users to report tags.

You can report a tag for the following reasons:

• Offensive/abusive tag
• Not appropriate for this product
• Not a helpful tag
• Spoiler

In addition to crowdsourcing user curation of tags, Valve has implemented a few fixes that may help reduce the noise. Tags need to be applied by more users before they will show on the popular tags section, and only tags that apply to multiple games will appear in the "For You" and Recommended panes. Valve has also patched a dodgy swear word filter.

Probably the best cure for this sort of nonsense is time, though; when the novelty wears off, the pranksters may lose interest.

If you're interested in the tag feature, you'll need to opt-in to the Steam Client beta.

Thanks, Joystiq.