Steam Downtime Discussion Thread

[sp3cial_person]

The servers seem to be down a lot of the time for "maintenance". Are they really that bad that they need so much maintenance? I have run over 10 game servers, a fast DL and a website and those servers dont have nearly the down time (if any) that these seem to need.

I laughed.

How many of them frequently had over 1 million users connected?

[olimango]

OMG ZERO USERS
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

Wow. Guess something really went wrong.

i hate ♥♥♥♥ing steam ive worked allday thinking how i gonna play dow 2 tonight and then ♥♥♥♥ing ♥♥♥♥ steam is under maintance.
i aint ♥♥♥♥ing paying 50 buck for a game that is down when steam wants it!!!

Steam didn't 'want' this. It was an unexpected crash.

Get over yourself.

[spire8989]

its up Q_Q more

[DtD]

It's back up! =D

@Chindraka
Calm down, sheez it's not like this is all that frequent!

~DtD

[hallo2]

seems to be working again

[cryptodan]

i hate ♥♥♥♥ing steam ive worked allday thinking how i gonna play dow 2 tonight and then ♥♥♥♥ing ♥♥♥♥ steam is under maintance.
i aint ♥♥♥♥ing paying 50 buck for a game that is down when steam wants it!!!

Its an unexpected outages things like this happen all the time. Cook some dinner and have a break from work go outside walk the stress of then come back and play.

[Chichen]

Steam is still trying to connect to my account...It says its not responding...

[olimango]

Good job on getting it back up guys.

[jmccaskey]

There has been an unexpected outage that we are working to resolve as quickly as possible.

Things are better now, sorry for the inconvenience :(

[spire8989]

i hate ♥♥♥♥ing steam ive worked allday thinking how i gonna play dow 2 tonight and then ♥♥♥♥ing ♥♥♥♥ steam is under maintance.
i aint ♥♥♥♥ing paying 50 buck for a game that is down when steam wants it!!!

Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q_Q

[Evontroy]

looks like it's back up...

[Chichen]

Just restarted my comp and now it works.

[USSVoyager]

:D I'm happy now.

[protoclown]

Its an unexpected outage, things like this happen all the time. Cook some dinner, have a break from work, go outside, walk off the stress, then come back and play.

Your sage council is predicated on the belief that spire8989 is mature and intelligent. I question that hypothesis based on (1) he seems to have no clue as to the difference between scheduled maintenance downtime and unexpected outages due to hardware failure or service failure from a 3rd party, and (2) his maturity level, indicated by his text, is teen at best. He best serves as an example of "It is better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt".

[shift`]

Still haven't fixed the update..

[weasel@ladt.us]

Yep, can't get into Steam Community, and my Dedicated Servers are saying they can't connect to Steam (for authenticaton for VAC presumably).

I'm up again. Both SteamCommunity access, as well as dedicated servers coming up in "secure" mode (VAC) after a restart.

That was the quickest resolution of a 1.6-Million user outage I've ever seen. I'm having a Witness QM call-recording system outage at work right now effecting a few hundred users, and that will take us a few hours to resolve.

So, I say .. Good Job Valve-team! :D:D

[SvenKyUm]

Everything WAS fine, now I cant seem to launch the client... got up to my friends list poping up but then steam crashing on me (never happens)

now I deleted the .blob and its taking ages to update X_X

[shadowfax.*chc]

My client won't start either. It just sits at saying "Connecting Steam account". Deleting .blobs did not help (then it just sits at updating but never downloads anything)

Edit: It seems to be working now, nothing changed but it started up this time.

[Psamathos]

Why don't you guys schedule downtime in the mornings? Seems kind of silly to schedule downtime right in the middle of the peak usage period (e.g. 9pm).

[Sierra Oscar]

Why don't you guys schedule downtime in the mornings? Seems kind of silly to schedule downtime right in the middle of the peak usage period (e.g. 9pm).

Since Steam is used by users all over the world, it will always affect users no matter what time the downtime commences.

[Chapa9dj]

As long as it keeps improving the quality of the service, it's all OK for me. :D

[MikeBlaszczak]

I have added a FAQ post (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8884975&postcount=2) to the main downtime announcement thread (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=784745).

[damicatz]

If I took my company's servers down to update them during peak hours, I wouldn't have a job. Part of working in IT, especially in dealing with enterprise servers, is working long hours and nights.

6:00PM to 9:00PM PST is ludicrous. It's right smack in the middle of peak time for North America. This time slot seems to have been chosen more for the convenience of Valve and its employees rather than for what is best to minimize downtime for people.

11:00PM to 2:00AM PST would be a much more appropriate downtime. By your own admission, 11:00PM PST is around the time when the total user count is the lowest. This time window falls in the middle of the night for North America, the late morning/early afternoon for Europe and the evening for Australia (the maintenance would end anywhere from 5 - 7 PM for Australia, just in time for peak hours).

[arose1980]

If I took my company's servers down to update them during peak hours, I wouldn't have a job. Part of working in IT, especially in dealing with enterprise servers, is working long hours and nights.

6:00PM to 9:00PM PST is ludicrous. It's right smack in the middle of peak time for North America. This time slot seems to have been chosen more for the convenience of Valve and its employees rather than for what is best to minimize downtime for people.

11:00PM to 2:00AM PST would be a much more appropriate downtime. By your own admission, 11:00PM PST is around the time when the total user count is the lowest. This time window falls in the middle of the night for North America, the late morning/early afternoon for Europe and the evening for Australia (the maintenance would end anywhere from 5 - 7 PM for Australia, just in time for peak hours).

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? It's three hours at the most, THREE HOURS. It's amazing to me. First it was complain when Valve didn't notify us in advance, then they started notifying us. Then it was them not notifying us ENOUGH in advance so they now have given us three days. Still not good enough. Now its IT'S TOO LONG? Seriously people, THREE HOURS. THREE hours and people are complaining? Go outside, take a walk, spend time with family, do something. Ludicrous.

[natemckn]

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? It's three hours at the most, THREE HOURS. It's amazing to me. First it was complain when Valve didn't notify us in advance, then they started notifying us. Then it was them not notifying us ENOUGH in advance so they now have given us three days. Still not good enough. Now its IT'S TOO LONG? Seriously people, THREE HOURS. THREE hours and people are complaining? Go outside, take a walk, spend time with family, do something. Ludicrous.

I've gotta agree with you. Its only three hours and if I understand correctly, not everything will be down, just community and content servers. So I can still log in and play any of the games I own and currently have installed, even play them online (except for L4D, because matchmaking is part of community). So what's the big problem here?

[arose1980]

I've gotta agree with you. Its only three hours and if I understand correctly, not everything will be down, just community and content servers. So I can still log in and play any of the games I own and currently have installed, even play them online (except for L4D, because matchmaking is part of community). So what's the big problem here?

Simple, a little thing called "IwanttocomplainabotValveatanyopportunityitis"

[natemckn]

Simple, a little thing called "IwanttocomplainabotValveatanyopportunityitis"

Is there a known cure?

[undershot1]

Is there a known cure?

1. A healthy dose of being owned
2. A bullet to the head

[Simbosan]

All games are unavailable because Steam crashes;

1) If network connection is present, the 'updating steam' dialog pops up and never leaves, never times out. You really should have a timeout you know.

2) If I disable network and force offline mode. Steam correctly says 'Could not connect to Steam network' and gives me two options. a) retry connection (which I don't want) or b) Start in offline mode.

If I select option b) I get the following:
'Cound not connect to a steam network.
This could be due to a problem with your internet connection or with the steam network, Please visit www.steampowered.com for more info.

Steam then quits! gone. Offline mode is disabled it seems.

Thats pretty crass, what about 'OFFLINE' is confusing to you? Don't tell me to go online to get info about being offline. DUH!

So I cannot touch any games, oh yeah I live down under so you shut me out of Steam in my evening play time.

S

[weasel@ladt.us]

Since Steam is used by users all over the world, it will always affect users no matter what time the downtime commences.

Abso-fricken-right. I have worked for many dot-coms, and I've got to tell you that if you have a global presense it's always "peak" time somewhere (and probably somewhere important to your business).

I have had a hard enough time balancing my employer's outage windows, and I was only servicing North America, UK and Japan - much less the rest the "civilized" world (plus New Jersey).

[TheWalrus]

SO THIS IS TF2 TRADING, YEAH?

[cryptodan]

Abso-fricken-right. I have worked for many dot-coms, and I've got to tell you that if you have a global presense it's always "peak" time somewhere (and probably somewhere important to your business).

I have had a hard enough time balancing my employer's outage windows, and I was only servicing North America, UK and Japan - much less the rest the "civilized" world (plus New Jersey).

I work in a very global scenario myself, and our outages hardly effect anyone at all. If the outage does affect some of our customers, then we simply make sure that they know via e-mail and other messaging means several hours in advance to let them know what will be affected before we take routers, circuits, servers, and other vital infrastructure down. This gives them enough time to plan ahead and not do anything or pass on the work to another element of the enterprise not part of the outage so they can take over the mission.

Once the outage is complete the mission is then handed over to the main people who handle it. This provides a 0 effect outage for everyone involved.

[arose1980]

I work in a very global scenario myself, and our outages hardly effect anyone at all. If the outage does affect some of our customers, then we simply make sure that they know via e-mail and other messaging means several hours in advance to let them know what will be affected before we take routers, circuits, servers, and other vital infrastructure down. This gives them enough time to plan ahead and not do anything or pass on the work to another element of the enterprise not part of the outage so they can take over the mission.

Once the outage is complete the mission is then handed over to the main people who handle it. This provides a 0 effect outage for everyone involved.

Exactly which is what Valve has done with Steam. They have alerted us days in advance and yet still people complain. Ridiculous.

[cryptodan]

Exactly which is what Valve has done with Steam. They have alerted us days in advance and yet still people complain. Ridiculous.

Its the way they alert us, the forums only target a limited audience when they have far more effective ways of alerting the entire steam user base of an impending outage 1 hour to 30 minutes prior. Other services do it like X-Fire, MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and AOL that I use.

The forums only reach the tip of the ice berg when announcing such outages.

They have instant messaging in use, they have the news pop-ups, and they could even display a warning across all Steam Community pages that there will be an outage and for how long. This way you hit more of the user base then just the forumites.

[relaxeder]

It would be better if they used messages/popups for maintenance news... instead of or in addition to the forums.
A lot of people don't even visit the website.

[Akudama89]

I gotta say i agree that the time they chose was absolutely horrible, i'm not going to freak out about it, as it is only 3 hours, but....cmon valve, pick a better time next time, say 9AM to 12PM? 11AM to 2PM? even 1PM to 4PM? (PST ofcourse) Most people during that time are at work, like you guys are aswell, and not playing.....wouldn't that be the smart way to go?

Also, i realize that steam is used all over the world so don't go flaming me there, but there is a peak usage of steam, as seen here

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

And it'd be the most wise to do it at the lowest peak, which i guess actually wouldn't be the times i suggested.... :P yeah lets go for....1AM-4AM :)

[AciD]

You folks should notice that Valve people who need to sleep just like we do. They got families as well. They need to already stay at work for longer than usual to ensure that servers are in good shape so all users can enjoy their experience with Steam. The time of downtime may seem not perfect for users from North America, but notice that it's the moment when number of users that will be affected is pretty low. What if they would start at 23 and something would possibly go wrong? That would be 2 am -- that's not the best time for quick fixes.

[cryptodan]

You folks should notice that Valve people who need to sleep just like we do. They got families as well. They need to already stay at work for longer than usual to ensure that servers are in good shape so all users can enjoy their experience with Steam. The time of downtime may seem not perfect for users from North America, but notice that it's the moment when number of users that will be affected is pretty low. What if they would start at 23 and something would possibly go wrong? That would be 2 am -- that's not the best time for quick fixes.

When you work in IT expect to work longer then normal shifts. Working in IT doesnt guarantee you a 9 to 5 job in a comfy setting. Where I work, we call people in at all hours of the night to perform a quick fix for issues that need fixing. The technicians report to work then peform the quick fix go home and report to work or stay at work depending on what time they come in.

VALVe should schedule their working hours to accommodate for outages after everyone else in every other field go home.

IT is an industry where you may not even go home and work for 48 hours straight. I have called people in, and they have stayed an entire weekend and still report to work for their regular 40 hours on top of the 48 to 72 hours they have already worked.

I have also called in 10 to 30 people to work an issue, which was the entire team of technicians to perform "quick fixes" to get a mission critical system back up.

Your excuse means nothing in the IT world. I am sorry if you and many others disagree with this sentiment, but it is true.

[AciD]

True or not, you are talking about unexpected downtimes. Today's downtime is planned.

Also, the new FAQ is live on Steam Support:
Steam Downtime and Server Maintenance (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7366-ETYS-5919)

[cryptodan]

True or not, you are talking about unexpected downtimes. Today's downtime is planned.

Also, the new FAQ is live on Steam Support:
Steam Downtime and Server Maintenance (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7366-ETYS-5919)

No I am also talking about planned major outages that include shutting down power and equipment to particular buildings. Not just unscheduled.

[DontWannaName!]

Wouldnt a morning downtime be more appropriate since 6-9pm is the busiest time for gamers. Everyone is home after work and dinner ready to game. Valves employees are at work pretty early as it is.

[Sierra Oscar]

Wouldnt a morning downtime be more appropriate since 6-9pm is the busiest time for gamers. Everyone is home after work and dinner ready to game. Valves employees are at work pretty early as it is.

A morning downtime in Seattle would still mean an afternoon/evening downtime for Europe.

[Modiga-Disabled]

Wouldnt a morning downtime be more appropriate since 6-9pm is the busiest time for gamers. Everyone is home after work and dinner ready to game. Valves employees are at work pretty early as it is.

Look at the stats graph: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

The time the downtime is scheduled for is near to the bottom of the dips in user numbers. They could schedule it a few hours later and get the down time smack bang in the middle of the time when it seems likely fewest people will be using Steam, but then it encroaches onto very late times on the west coast where Valve are. The later they do it, the fewer people will be to help make sure it goes smoothly.

[MikeBlaszczak]

I'm not sure what point CryptoDan is trying to make; different companies do things differently, for different reasons. Similarly, Akudama89 calls the scheduling "Absolutely horrible" but gives no explanation of this opinion and seems very near the realization that downtime, whenever scheduled, can be a problem for anyone at that moment.

Let me try to address the reasoning behind the schedule, as I was the one who picked the day and time for the work to be done.

The schedule was carefully chosen to be away from a weekend or holiday as our user loads are higher on those days. It was also chosen to be away from other game releases and updates that were planned at the time the scheduling was done. Further, we picked a week when we knew key staff members would be available and not on vacation or covering other obligations.

During "regular" days, our user load troughs around 2230 Pacific. (This can be confirmed by checking the stats page; it's been linked several times in this thread, most recently by Modiga. It's also linked from the FAQ about downtime, and is on the page where you land when following the "stats" link in the top navigation bar of the Steam web properties.)

The downtime starts at 1800 and is estimated to be three hours; it might last longer, or we might come up sooner. If three hours is accurate, the downtime ends around 2100. If it takes longer, we're still on the downward slope of our user population.

While we could have started the downtime later, that has the disadvantageous effect of putting the end of the downtime on the upward slope of the user count. Most people are logging off during the hours planned for downtime. If they find the system is down, they're not too inconvenienced as they were probably logging off anyway. On the upward slope, it's more likely that users have the undesirable experience of trying to log in when they wanted to start playing, and then find the system down.

I hope that helps with the questions about scheduling.

[Freyar]

Mike, don't worry about those people that complain. I for one am a happy user. I haven't actually seen you guys go offline enough to the point where it actually inconvenienced me save for that massive blackout a long while ago.

All I hope is that the work gets done, and done right.

[FK120]

It has begun. oh nooooooooo

Maybe they'll throw in a few nice surprises in during their work. Like new features >_>. one can hope...

[Chapa9dj]

And the lights went off! :p
Another happy Steam user here, Maintenance is obligatory. take your time.
There's no hurry. :)

[dripdropstopdip]

And the lights went off!
Another happy Steam user here, Maintenance is obligatory. take your time.
There's no hurry

LOL speak for yourselves. came on wanting to play some L4D, guess i'll have to wait 3 hours! (...)

I've got an idea.. how about you actually do something useful like ooh I don't know, update vac2? Or what about fixing those annoying bugs in L4D that have somehow appeared when a sequals on the horizon?

in b4 getting accused of being a troll by the steam fan bois (all new school users of course, probably with hundreds of games on there accounts)

[raw_bean_uk]

...I think my IQ just dropped twenty points from reading that.

[Sierra Oscar]

LOL speak for yourselves. came on wanting to play some L4D, guess i'll have to wait 3 hours! (...)

I've got an idea.. how about you actually do something useful like ooh I don't know, update vac2? Or what about fixing those annoying bugs in L4D that have somehow appeared when a sequals on the horizon?


And I'm guessing if the community system stopped working due to lack of maintenance, you would be the first to criticize.:)

Also I think its important to highlight that there are most likely a number of different teams within Valve working on various components of Steam itself.

[-|V|- Snacks]

...I totally forgot about this and had a 10EST left 4 dead scrim set up :(

[Chapa9dj]

LOL speak for yourselves. came on wanting to play some L4D, guess i'll have to wait 3 hours! (...)

I've got an idea.. how about you actually do something useful like ooh I don't know, update vac2? Or what about fixing those annoying bugs in L4D that have somehow appeared when a sequals on the horizon?

in b4 getting accused of being a troll by the steam fan bois (all new school users of course, probably with hundreds of games on there accounts)

unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.

So you're doing something useful by trolling me?
No need for attacks here.
It's not my fault that you're mad at it.
Besides, i don't even play L4D. So that's your problem and i don't have nothing against VAC and the way it works which i think it's good.

Now go and hit your head against the wall. ;)
K thanks!

[dripdropstopdip]

...I think my IQ just dropped twenty points from reading that.

they've arrived

And I'm guessing if the community system stopped working due to lack of maintenance, you would be the first to criticize.

Also I think its important to highlight that there are most likely a number of different teams within Valve working on various components of Steam itself.

vac2 won't be updated and Valve has a great way of breaking things that shouldn't be changed, lets see what they can do this update eh?

Also L4D is totally down, I can't even use the server browser to join a game, just hangs (have to tab out and ctrl alt and delete)

but yeah well done for pretty much banning people from L4D for 3 hours. Kudos

[Screecher]

Well I just realized how much I dislike steam now. Any game that requires steam to play multiplayer is unplayable. This means that all steam dependent multiplayer games have no multiplayer because of this one program's problems.

It's a good thing Dawn of War 2 is the only non-Steam game I have that uses steam's service, but I'll definitely start getting pissed if more games start embracing Steam like DoW2 has. This is not to say that I've fallen for Steam; I'm know enough to buy hard copies of my games at way lower prices, more security and flexibility.

Please correct me if I'm wrong about anything here since I only have DoW2 to go by. Negative feedback is positive yay...

Edit: I do like how Steam isn't such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as EA/Activition/Ubisoft's DRM methods. I also like that I can log in on any computer and have my games downloaded to it.

The only thing that sucks is that it's account based so getting hijacked is a big minus. Unless something along the lines of if I were to possess for example a DOW2 boxed version that I would be considered the owner no matter what through its serial or other ways.

[dripdropstopdip]

unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.

So you're doing something useful by trolling me?
No need for attacks here.
It's not my fault that you're mad at it.
Besides, i don't even play L4D. So that's your problem and i don't have nothing against VAC and the way it works which i think it's good.

Now go and hit your head against the wall.
K thanks!

you really are vacant are you? ooh and throw a /b/ reference in there too, shows your cool buddy!

basically your congratulating Valve for breaking Steam for 3 hours. am I the one being trolled here? ....

[Diebythe]

Is this the thread where we fake the amount of despair we are in for three hours of downtime, or am I supposed to post it in another one? :D

Anyway, thanks for the heads up with the bold orange text in the L4D forum.

[TheDude7053]

*cough* openserverbrowser.... *cough*

that is if you can't go 3 hours without l4d

[dripdropstopdip]

the case of Amazon removing a certain Orwell novel from peoples Kindles is comparable to this.. removing content people have paid at your whim. We have no control over our purchases?

bring back gamespy 3d.

*cough* openserverbrowser.... *cough*

that is if you can't go 3 hours without l4d

doesn't work

[NoRCoN]

the case of Amazon removing a certain Orwell novel from peoples Kindles is comparable to this.. removing content people have paid at your whim. We have no control over our purchases?

bring back gamespy 3d.

Which content is it that you are worried about? There has been no content permanently removed.

[Chapa9dj]

you really are vacant are you? ooh and throw a \o/ reference in there too, shows your cool buddy!
Vacant?
No, but i have better things to do rather than whining about the downtime.
If you can't take other's opinions. Move along.

basically your congratulating Valve for breaking Steam for 3 hours. am I the one being trolled here? ....
Of course. I prefer than than see your 12 years old kids complaining about steam not downloading this or that or making rage threads.
I'm really happy to see maintenance and as long as it is to improve the service, i think it's perfect.

Yeah, call me fan,boy.
Nobody cares, tough guy from the internets.
Now go and QQ moar! :D

[dripdropstopdip]

Yes you have better things to do such as racking up 2.2 k of posts on Steam forums, rather than play a game you own. 12 years old? You can assume that if you like, i've already assumed rather a lot about you. Tough guy from the internet? If this really is the content of your usual posting on these forums, thank god I never read 'em.

[carLow]

i have a question..

there was a day that i was damn bored.. and decided to do the "send little gnome into space" archiv from hl ep2

well.. guess what... i am bored again because of this downtime, and i think i will play into that save i was trying to accomplish that archievment right now

the question is: this downtime will ♥♥♥♥ up the archievment, or i can continue playing and carrying that gnome with no worries?

[TrippleD]

Ok dripdropstopdip it stops now.

Thank you

[sciss0rz]

doesn't work

It works fine, I just joined a game in progress.

[dripdropstopdip]

It works fine, I just joined a game in progress.

ty I'll keep trying. I've made my point, didn't want to get into personal attacks but come on.. :-)

hf yo.

[FourTwenny]

Ok you guys lets stop the complaining and fighting. I will try to start a downtime discussion.

TOPIC: Game you would most like to see on steam or are most looking forward to that will be on steam, and why you chose it.

Mine is going to be HL2:ep3. I want to see how the story finishes off plus am excited to see if it introduces a new engine to replace Source. I got nothing but love for Source, but i remember how much it impressed me back in 2004 when i played HL2 for the first time and i want something to blow me away that hard again. If Source2 (or whatever they call it) is as amazing for 2009 as Source was for 2004 it should alter the way we look at games.

[daniel_]

just maintenance or it's gonna be new features for steam community? :D

[dripdropstopdip]

keep getting 'Connection with session has been lost'

Also ^ n1 broken english HEHE

[Chapa9dj]

keep getting 'Connection with session has been lost'

Also ^ n1 broken english HEHE

And you will probably have it for the next few hours.
So enjoy your day ;)

[ULoW]

Ok you guys lets stop the complaining and fighting. I will try to start a downtime discussion.

TOPIC: Game you would most like to see on steam or are most looking forward to that will be on steam, and why you chose it.

Mine is going to be HL2:ep3. I want to see how the story finishes off plus am excited to see if it introduces a new engine to replace Source. I got nothing but love for Source, but i remember how much it impressed me back in 2004 when i played HL2 for the first time and i want something to blow me away that hard again. If Source2 (or whatever they call it) is as amazing for 2009 as Source was for 2004 it should alter the way we look at games.


Good games. No more "I'm a little pony" games.

For example: http://store.steampowered.com/app/33710/

and http://store.steampowered.com/app/36180/

[NoRCoN]

just maintenance or it's gonna be new features for steamy community? :D

It's just maintenance on their end.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/

Should be good to go in a few hours if all goes as planned.

[Puggsy]

So steam has failed everyone again (Stupid updates)
I think we should all create our own Digital Distribution
company's and boycott CRAPPY steam.

My new company is called STEM (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/terongorefiend16/Untitled-12.jpg)
And is in NO way related to the far weaker STEAM.


Join now and receive a free copy of Americas Army 3!

[NoRCoN]

My new company is called STEM (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/terongorefiend16/Untitled-12.jpg)
And is in NO way related to the far weaker STEAM.


Join now and receive a free copy of Americas Army 3!

The picture did me in. I'm not going to lie. I did laugh out loud.

Sit tight, they'll have us going again. Just some planned server maintenance.

[dripdropstopdip]

lol it's not the fact that l4d is down per se, just the hilarious amoebas who crawl out and say things like 'Yay for steam being down! Hooray for Valve!' and other dribble. Just random fanboys who have nothing more in their life to blindly support Steam for some bizzare reason that is their lives.

having fun ladies?

going to give plants vs zombies another whirl on your spanking 25 mill accounts? ;-)))

[Chapa9dj]

So steam has failed everyone again (Stupid updates)
I think we should all create our own Digital Distribution
company's and boycott CRAPPY steam.

My new company is called STEM (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/terongorefiend16/Untitled-12.jpg)
And is in NO way related to the far weaker STEAM.


Join now and receive a free copy of Americas Army 3!

That was actually fun. hehe :p

[Cohrek]

lol it's not the fact that l4d is down per se, just the hilarious amoebas who crawl out and say things like 'Yay for steam being down! Hooray for Valve!' and other dribble. Just random Hammer Legion Members who have nothing more in their life to blindly support Steam for some bizzare reason that is their lives.

having fun ladies?

going to give plants vs zombies another whirl on your spanking 25 mill accounts? ;-)))

Your life is so full and rich. It is so amazing you have time to complain about people that don't complain. I wish I was you.

[Puggsy]

dont feed the trolllll....

[dripdropstopdip]

You're complaining about people who're complaining about others who don't complain?

the point is, the rather obvious sharp point that could otherwise blind you if you fool around with it, is that these people are complete mongoloids. the only reason they're permitted to post their content-less dribble in here is because steam needs it's own little personal forum army to shoot down anyone who starts making a lick of sense. see you in counterstrike gentlemen?

[seawolfxix]

6pm to 9pm? Uh, why not 6am to 9am?

I just finished my final exams for the summer semester. Way to go, Steam. Failure once again.

[Chapa9dj]

You're complaining about people who're complaining about others who don't complain?

the point is, the rather obvious sharp point that could otherwise blind you if you fool around with it, is that these people are complete mongoloids. the only reason they're permitted to post their content-less dribble in here is because steam needs it's own little personal forum army to shoot down anyone who starts making a lick of sense. see you in counterstrike gentlemen?

Mongoloids because i'm posting possitive comments and giving good feedback about it?
You can't take other's opinion. That's a problem on your end.
This is how things rolls in the forums. You do not flame other users because you disagree with their opinions or whatever you want.

[Fingerfood]

6pm to 9pm? Uh, why not 6am to 9am?

I just finished my final exams for the summer semester. Way to go, Steam. Failure once again.

STEAM IS NOT A FAILURE.

THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.

And I really don't think they're doing maintenance. I think they're either getting ready or releasing something huge. Look at the News. There's been nothing mentionable for TF2 or L4D since the middle of last month!

[FK120]

Apparently our little troll doesn't understand English.

The mod said stop, so stop trying to cause a ♥♥♥♥storm and go use a better service than steam full of users like yourself. That way you can all gawk in stupidity when the service falls apart when no maintenance is done.

[dripdropstopdip]

Posted by Chapa9dj

See?
I wouldn't destroy everything because of my GF being a ♥♥♥♥♥ cheating me. That would be lame. More like i will ruin her life for that but i'am not going to destroy my stuff.
My point still...

this is how it rolls on the forums. get out.

[Sierra Oscar]

6pm to 9pm? Uh, why not 6am to 9am?

I just finished my final exams for the summer semester. Way to go, Steam. Failure once again.

The reasons for the timing were already outlined in this thread:

I'm not sure what point CryptoDan is trying to make; different companies do things differently, for different reasons. Similarly, Akudama89 calls the scheduling "Absolutely horrible" but gives no explanation of this opinion and seems very near the realization that downtime, whenever scheduled, can be a problem for anyone at that moment.

Let me try to address the reasoning behind the schedule, as I was the one who picked the day and time for the work to be done.

The schedule was carefully chosen to be away from a weekend or holiday as our user loads are higher on those days. It was also chosen to be away from other game releases and updates that were planned at the time the scheduling was done. Further, we picked a week when we knew key staff members would be available and not on vacation or covering other obligations.

During "regular" days, our user load troughs around 2230 Pacific. (This can be confirmed by checking the stats page; it's been linked several times in this thread, most recently by Modiga. It's also linked from the FAQ about downtime, and is on the page where you land when following the "stats" link in the top navigation bar of the Steam web properties.)

The downtime starts at 1800 and is estimated to be three hours; it might last longer, or we might come up sooner. If three hours is accurate, the downtime ends around 2100. If it takes longer, we're still on the downward slope of our user population.

While we could have started the downtime later, that has the disadvantageous effect of putting the end of the downtime on the upward slope of the user count. Most people are logging off during the hours planned for downtime. If they find the system is down, they're not too inconvenienced as they were probably logging off anyway. On the upward slope, it's more likely that users have the undesirable experience of trying to log in when they wanted to start playing, and then find the system down.

I hope that helps with the questions about scheduling.

[Chapa9dj]

Get out.

Exactly what i was about to say about you.
Epic troll quoting my other posts on different threads.
Way to go offtopic btw.

[FK120]

Ah thank you mods.

[Krakn3Dfx]

Yeah, but...but I'm bored :confused:.

Entertain me!

/me goes to make his boredom known on Twitter.

Hmmm, wonder if Killing Floor's server list is still up...

[ULoW]

Way to get banned.

[MikeBlaszczak]

this is how it rolls on the forums. get out.

Not on this forum. I hope you use your time away to reflect on how you treat other people.

[FourTwenny]

Good games. No more "I'm a little pony" games.

For example: http://store.steampowered.com/app/33710/

and http://store.steampowered.com/app/36180/

OMG I think i may have to get that Paws & Claws game for my mom. She races dogs and loves everything dogs. I got her CSI:NY (she is a sucker for the show) last Christmas and got her to appreciate the vids. This may just put her over the edge and turn her into a gamer.

[Puggsy]

MODS = GODS

[BS_1]

MODS = GODS
But what are admins then? Because admins > mods.

[Puggsy]

But what are admins then? Because admins > mods.

Administrators are a myth.. so don't try forcing your "admin doctrine"
on me pfft.

[Chapa9dj]

But what are admins then? Because admins > mods.

disciples or minions.? :p

[Freyar]

Does all this really matter? The downtime was announced like.. five days in advance.. sheesh.

[scalindor]

end: 9:00 pm pacific time...
well i don't get it, what time is this in my country?
I live in Peru.

[Drunken F00l]

Lima is two hours ahead.

[OmegaXtreme420]

I mean, are we talking can't get achievements? Can't use games? None of the above? All of the above?
cant load any l4d server

[mr_datawolf]

...
During "regular" days, our user load troughs around 2230 Pacific. (This can be confirmed by checking the stats page; it's been linked several times in this thread, most recently by Modiga.
...
The downtime starts at 1800 and is estimated to be three hours; it might last longer, or we might come up sooner. If three hours is accurate, the downtime ends around 2100. If it takes longer, we're still on the downward slope of our user population.
...


For people who are slow on GETTING what he's saying (like me) go look at the (mentioned) graph... http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ totally shows what he means!

[seawolfxix]

The reasons for the timing were already outlined in this thread:
Strategically chosen time? Because Steam traffic tapers off between 9pm and midnight EST?

Give me a break...

[mmavipc]

It would be nice if I could play on MY OWN GOD DAMNED FING SERVER without getting kicked every 3 mins becuase of invalid SteamID user ticket

[Freyar]

Maintenance, deal with it.

[Korialstrasz]

It would be nice if I could play on MY OWN GOD DAMNED FING SERVER without getting kicked every 3 mins becuase of invalid SteamID user ticket

The warning has been here for days. You knew it was coming, you should've taken the time to prepare for it. Don't complain to us because you are unable to do something when you had a 2+ day warning.

[IgnoreThisPlox]

The warning has been here for days. You knew it was coming, you should've taken the time to prepare for it. Don't complain to us because you are unable to do something when you had a 2+ day warning.

that is shown too. unless mole is killed.

[ULoW]

The warning has been here for days. You knew it was coming, you should've taken the time to prepare for it. Don't complain to us because you are unable to do something when you had a 2+ day warning.

He might have found this today, like I did.

Also, are the post icons down for anyone?

[scalindor]

Lima is two hours ahead.

Thanks a lot man :)

[Hobo Joe]

Any updates on how long is left?

[mmavipc]

The warning has been here for days. You knew it was coming, you should've taken the time to prepare for it. Don't complain to us because you are unable to do something when you had a 2+ day warning.

No I didn't. Many steam users don't visit the forums often.

[relaxeder]

Crazy how many people can't find something else to do for a few hours besides complain while the servers are getting worked on...

Fair to say most users didn't expect it though cause Steam doesn't use the instant messages/pop up systems to warn them when the service is down, which they should.

[sciss0rz]

No I didn't. Many steam users don't visit the forums often.

It's been on the Steam homepage and every gaming news site for days..

[owltiem]

The warning has been here for days. You knew it was coming, you should've taken the time to prepare for it. Don't complain to us because you are unable to do something when you had a 2+ day warning.I don't live on the steam forums. I only come here if there is a problem. When there is a problem, and I come here, and the problem is supposed to have been ended an hour and a half before I came here, I start to get annoyed. I doubt I am the only one. I don't think there are downtime announcements anywhere other than the forums - there's not a popup or anything in the actual steam client - and I don't think it's reasonable for you to expect everyone to follow these forums religiously.

[SD_Jasper]

I don't live on the steam forums. I only come here if there is a problem. When there is a problem, and I come here, and the problem is supposed to have been ended an hour and a half before I came here, I start to get annoyed. I doubt I am the only one. I don't think there are downtime announcements anywhere other than the forums - there's not a popup or anything in the actual steam client - and I don't think it's reasonable for you to expect everyone to follow these forums religiously.

It was announced like all Steam news, via the updates pop-up window when you load steam and on the homepage news listing. When you load steam, do you not get the updates window? If you run steam all the time, you might want to check the homepage occasionally to keep yourself informed.

[steveroger]

I don't care what anybody says. It is annoying having downtime. This is a flaw IMO in how Steam is designed. The offline mode should be far easier and flexible to use.

You all have had days and days notice that I wasn't going to appreciate downtime.

Don't like what I am saying: deal with it.

Anyway, is there going to be an announcment whether or not Steam's downtime will go past 9:00 P.M., it would be nice to know.

[arose1980]

I don't care what anybody says. It is annoying having downtime. This is a flaw IMO in how Steam is designed. The offline mode should be far easier and flexible to use.

You all have had days and days notice that I wasn't going to appreciate downtime.

Don't like what I am saying: deal with it.

I do agree with this, to have offline mode be far easier and more flexible to use. Definitely support this.

[SD_Jasper]

I don't care what anybody says.

Then why do you expect others to care about what you say?


It is annoying having downtime.

Yes, it is. What is your point?


This is a flaw IMO in how Steam is designed.

? Are they supose to have magical servers that spontainalsly update/upgrade/fix themselves?


The offline mode should be far easier and flexible to use.

How so?


You all have had days and days notice that I wasn't going to appreciate downtime.

Missed that, my bad. (See? Is that so hard?)


Don't like what I am saying: deal with it.

Oh, I certainly am.


Anyway, is there going to be an announcment whether or not Steam's downtime will go past 9:00 P.M., it would be nice to know.

No.

[deadnuttz]

LOL @ Jasper well said.

[sciss0rz]

PARTY TIME

[sirrysu]

PARTY TIME

PARTY TIME! YEAH BABY!

*Turns up Deruda all the way*

PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRTYYYYYYYY

[Hobo Joe]

On the dot.



Good timing Valve. :cool:

[Chapa9dj]

PARTY TIME! YEAH BABY!

*Turns up Deruda all the way*

PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRTYYYYYYYY

PARTYYY TIMEE, WOHOOO! :D

Wait, no. I gotta wake up early tomorrow and work. :(

[SD_Jasper]

Now that the update is done, any idea what it was for?

[sirrysu]

PARTYYY TIMEE, WOHOOO! :D

Wait, no. I gotta wake up early tomorrow and work. :(

Oh snap dawg!

[Fingerfood]

Where are you guys seeing that it's done? The Steam Community is still down.

[deadnuttz]

UGH!!! Come I rarely play get this stuff back up!

[sirrysu]

Where are you guys seeing that it's done? The Steam Community is still down.

My bum. Yessir!

[sciss0rz]

Where are you guys seeing that it's done? The Steam Community is still down.

Purchasing and friends/chats are back, good enough for me.

[NoRCoN]

Now that the update is done, any idea what it was for?

The update was back end server maintenance. You probably won't notice a thing.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/

[Chapa9dj]

I wonder if they are adding some new feature to the community. Hmm, that would be awesome.
I'm looking forward to see one day a feature to make your own screens, videos and the ''Total played time'' like on Xfire.

[SD_Jasper]

Where are you guys seeing that it's done? The Steam Community is still down.

Just noticed this. :/

[TFCWings]

9:08pm and friends is still down for me... oh well... I can still play TFC and FF though...
(I do get a weird bug when using steam & firefox. saw a thread on that, will check it out. Basically it's like the upper left 50x50 pixels of my display get something stuck on it. I may post a screenshot in another thread.)

[Fingerfood]

I'm looking forward to see one day a feature to make your own screens, videos and the ''Total played time'' like on Xfire.

THIS.

And Steam friends just came back up for me. It was a bit late, but that don't matter to me.

[NoRCoN]

THIS.

And Steam friends just came back up for me. It was a bit late, but that don't matter to me.

A bit being 12 minutes. :P

Granted, community is not up yet. But it will soon follow.

[sirrysu]

Time to go eat some sushi!

[Dr.Acula]

I don't get why they didn't do the downtime at like 6am WHEN NOBODY IS ON and not during PRIMETIME...idiots i swear your turning more and more into Blizzard especially with the item crap in TF2.

[amt2]

steam is back

[sciss0rz]

I don't get why they didn't do the downtime at like 6am WHEN NOBODY IS ON and not during PRIMETIME...idiots i swear your turning more and more into Blizzard especially with the item crap in TF2.

It's 6am somewhere else in the world.

[sirrysu]

I don't get why they didn't do the downtime at like 6am WHEN NOBODY IS ON and not during PRIMETIME...idiots i swear your turning more and more into Blizzard especially with the item crap in TF2.

Eh, it's just one game...

[Dr.Acula]

Ya but not where most of their users are from, CA/US.

[sirrysu]

steam is back

Where did it go?

[Fingerfood]

Ya but not where most of their users are from, CA/US.

Ahahaa...

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

[SD_Jasper]

I don't get why they didn't do the downtime at like 6am WHEN NOBODY IS ON and not during PRIMETIME...idiots i swear your turning more and more into Blizzard especially with the item crap in TF2.

Answered here. (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10818778&postcount=1044)

[NoRCoN]

Ya but not where most of their users are from, CA/US.

First off, how do you know where the users are.

Second, the LOWEST usage period of the day is when they did this.

/thread

[NoRCoN]

Community is back up, and all is well in the land of STEAM. Happy downtime day! :)

https://steamcommunity.com/

[Chapa9dj]

Awesome :)
Happy Downtime day everyone!! :D:D

[Puggsy]

Was it just basic server maintenance? Or is there some sort of special update i haven't found yet..

[NoRCoN]

Was it just basic server maintenance? Or is there some sort of special update i haven't found yet..

Basic server maintenance. You shouldn't notice a thing.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/

[Fingerfood]

I notice the Community is slower on the Steam Client... :(

[Zorlac]

I'm not sure what point CryptoDan is trying to make; different companies do things differently, for different reasons. Similarly, Akudama89 calls the scheduling "Absolutely horrible" but gives no explanation of this opinion and seems very near the realization that downtime, whenever scheduled, can be a problem for anyone at that moment.

Let me try to address the reasoning behind the schedule, as I was the one who picked the day and time for the work to be done.

The schedule was carefully chosen to be away from a weekend or holiday as our user loads are higher on those days. It was also chosen to be away from other game releases and updates that were planned at the time the scheduling was done. Further, we picked a week when we knew key staff members would be available and not on vacation or covering other obligations.

During "regular" days, our user load troughs around 2230 Pacific. (This can be confirmed by checking the stats page; it's been linked several times in this thread, most recently by Modiga. It's also linked from the FAQ about downtime, and is on the page where you land when following the "stats" link in the top navigation bar of the Steam web properties.)

The downtime starts at 1800 and is estimated to be three hours; it might last longer, or we might come up sooner. If three hours is accurate, the downtime ends around 2100. If it takes longer, we're still on the downward slope of our user population.

While we could have started the downtime later, that has the disadvantageous effect of putting the end of the downtime on the upward slope of the user count. Most people are logging off during the hours planned for downtime. If they find the system is down, they're not too inconvenienced as they were probably logging off anyway. On the upward slope, it's more likely that users have the undesirable experience of trying to log in when they wanted to start playing, and then find the system down.

I hope that helps with the questions about scheduling.


I'll give my explanation as to why I think the schedual is horrible.

Like it or not your largest userbase is located in North America (look at the played time for any game on here, and the steam user stats the most people are on evenings in NA). You schedualed the maintenance during your largest user bases prime time.

What i don't understand is what makes anyone thing that WOULD be a good time? That's the time of the day that most of your users are on at any given point of the day and that's when you decide to bring it down?


I'm the last person to tell anyone how to do their jobs, but even free korean MMO companies don't do that. Blizzards downtime for wow happens at 5 AM. Not 5 pm when most people are on.

Terrible time no matter how you look at it.

[steveroger]

[QUOTE]Then why do you expect others to care about what you say?

Apparently, Jasper, you don't know what "I don't care what anybody thinks." means. Went right over your head.

Yes, it is. What is your point?

Second time that you didn't catch on. Annoying means it annoys me and others.

? Are they supose to have magical servers that spontainalsly update/upgrade/fix themselves?


Third time is a charm. Must be tough to be so obtuse. Design a more accessible offline system so a magical self-fixing servers aren't necessary.

How so?

You are batting a thousand. Perhaps letting me access my games no matter whether or not I have an internet connection, among other things. Enjoy (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?p_faqid=213) and enjoy this (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=675439) discussion.

Missed that, my bad. (See? Is that so hard?)

Non sequitor.

Oh, I certainly am.

The lesson continues.

No.

Didn't know that you worked for Valve. Funny, protesting a request to know if the downtime will be longer than three hours.

Now it is crystal clear why I said that I don't care what anybody thinks.

[NoRCoN]

I'll give my explanation as to why I think the schedual is horrible.

Like it or not your largest userbase is located in North America (look at the played time for any game on here, and the steam user stats the most people are on evenings in NA). You schedualed the maintenance during your largest user bases prime time.

What i don't understand is what makes anyone thing that WOULD be a good time? That's the time of the day that most of your users are on at any given point of the day and that's when you decide to bring it down?


I'm the last person to tell anyone how to do their jobs, but even free korean MMO companies don't do that. Blizzards downtime for wow happens at 5 AM. Not 5 pm when most people are on.

Terrible time no matter how you look at it.

But that's the thing, Zorlac. It doesn't matter who your userbase is. When they are logged in is much more important. If you do it when the least amount of people are using STEAM, you minimize impact.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ (http://store.steampowered.com/stats/)

[Zorlac]

But that's the thing, Zorlac. It doesn't matter who your userbase is. When they are logged in is much more important. If you do it when the least amount of people are using STEAM, you minimize impact.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ (http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/)



And if you look at that stats page you'll see that the users peak daily at around 6-7pm pacific time. So wtih that said, what would make anyone think that time would be a good time to bring the service down?

[Zedar00]

And if you look at that stats page you'll see that the users peak daily at around 6-7pm pacific time. So wtih that said, what would make anyone think that time would be a good time to bring the service down?

Someone doesn't know how to read a 24-hour display.

[sciss0rz]

And if you look at that stats page you'll see that the users peak daily at around 6-7pm pacific time. So wtih that said, what would make anyone think that time would be a good time to bring the service down?

Are you looking at the same graph that I am? It peaks at around noon.

[fabiostahl]

Well, Steam is online again, where is the good ♥♥♥♥ that should come after 3 long hours of downtime?

[richard.eid]

I'll give my explanation as to why I think the schedual is horrible.

Like it or not your largest userbase is located in North America (look at the played time for any game on here, and the steam user stats the most people are on evenings in NA). You schedualed the maintenance during your largest user bases prime time.

What i don't understand is what makes anyone thing that WOULD be a good time? That's the time of the day that most of your users are on at any given point of the day and that's when you decide to bring it down?


I'm the last person to tell anyone how to do their jobs, but even free korean MMO companies don't do that. Blizzards downtime for wow happens at 5 AM. Not 5 pm when most people are on.

Terrible time no matter how you look at it.

I'm trying to switch back and forth between tabs and make sense of the stats...whatever it was that you said, but I don't see the North America part of...whatever it was you said.

Could you take a screenshot of what it is that you're looking at? What I see is that the downtime was planned for the best time possible for the largest percentage of Steam users to be unaffected, not just a certain geographical portion of them. If you track the statistics displayed on the Stats page, you will have noticed that the downtime coincided with the time that Steam usage is consistently at its lowest. It may have been inconvenient for you and a ton of others, but any other time frame would have affected even more users.

It would seem that Valve put it's business partners and customers first when this was put into motion and their own convenience last. I guess that's just my take on the matter, but I'd say the facts here speak for themselves.

Also...
And if you look at that stats page you'll see that the users peak daily at around 6-7pm pacific time. So wtih that said, what would make anyone think that time would be a good time to bring the service down?
Hunh?

EDIT: The graph on the Stats page is displayed in Pacific time. No need to convert it based on what time zone you're in.

[NoRCoN]

3 hours is hardly a long time. And it was just back end server maintenance.

Also here is a handy little diagram for those who are unfamiliar with graphs and how to read them:

CLICKY! (http://lh6.ggpht.com/_BC8fveON5Mk/Snu_yJFGBGI/AAAAAAAAAuY/wFaRnpkiHG4/s640/readingAgraph101a.JPG)

[masta121]

That certainly was a long 3 hours, especially considering that you couldn't play ANY multiplayer games due to SteamID Ticket errors. Unless of course you already in a game beforehand (Like I was). I managed to pass the 3 hours with a friend in Gmod. Everything worked out.

[NoRCoN]

That certainly was a long 3 hours, especially considering that you couldn't play ANY multiplayer games due to SteamID Ticket errors. Unless of course you already in a game beforehand (Like I was). I managed to pass the 3 hours with a friend in Gmod. Everything worked out.

Hmm. I didn't have a problem with TF2 the whole time, but I'm just one guy.

I should have got further in the book I'm reading instead. Will just have to wait until the next downtime.

[Akudama89]

I'm not sure what point CryptoDan is trying to make; different companies do things differently, for different reasons. Similarly, Akudama89 calls the scheduling "Absolutely horrible" but gives no explanation of this opinion and seems very near the realization that downtime, whenever scheduled, can be a problem for anyone at that moment.

I wasn't actually complaining, i still believe that the timing you picked wasn't very good, however, i realize that companies do have to make decisions for reasons, and 3 hours....isn't going to end my life, lol, it's not the end of the world :P

[cryptodan]

I'm not sure what point CryptoDan is trying to make.

The point i am merely trying to make is that having a global downtime announcement that affects all parties involved prevents mass hysteria and panic. If we only alerted a small amount of people about an impending outage and something goes awry we would get massive calls and handling that many calls with 5 people manning the phones would become quite cumbersome. So we let the entire enterprise know about outages via e-mail and other collaborative tools like jabber and sametime.

We just dont keep it within certain channels like here on the forums where only a tip of the ice berg is hit and that is the forumites.

[SD_Jasper]

Apparently, Jasper, you don't know what "I don't care what anybody thinks." means. Went right over your head.

If you truly didn't care, why read my post or bother to reply?


Second time that you didn't catch on. Annoying means it annoys me and others.

You made a statement of something that is near universally accepted, that downtime is annoying. What was you point in making this statement?


Third time is a charm. Must be tough to be so obtuse. Design a more accessible offline system so a magical self-fixing servers aren't necessary.

You are batting a thousand. Perhaps letting me access my games no matter whether or not I have an internet connection, among other things. Enjoy (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?p_faqid=213) and enjoy this (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=675439) discussion.

I'm not sure what is inaccessible about clicking File->Go Offline.

What games were you denied access to?



Non sequitor.

Not at all. You made a claim that others had days of notice of your disapproval, just as others pointed that you had days of notice of the downtime. I simply stated that I had missed your claimed notice. I also took the responsibility for having missed this notice. If you fail to see how this relates, I am not sure that I can help you.



The lesson continues.

Didn't know that you worked for Valve. Funny, protesting a request to know if the downtime will be longer than three hours.

Now it is crystal clear why I said that I don't care what anybody thinks.

It is amazing the things you don't know about me :p

And, I wasn't protesting anything. I simply stated that there would be no announcement. As you can see, none was needed.

[SD_Jasper]

The point i am merely trying to make is that having a global downtime announcement that affects all parties involved prevents mass hysteria and panic. If we only alerted a small amount of people about an impending outage and something goes awry we would get massive calls and handling that many calls with 5 people manning the phones would become quite cumbersome. So we let the entire enterprise know about outages via e-mail and other collaborative tools like jabber and sametime.

We just dont keep it within certain channels like here on the forums where only a tip of the ice berg is hit and that is the forumites.

Again I ask, do you not get the Steam Updates window when you launch Steam?

[cryptodan]

Again I ask, do you not get the Steam Updates window when you launch Steam?

I leave Steam logged in 24/7 so no I do not get that message window. A mass message to everyone would be far better then a news message.

I leave my computer on for 24/7 as well since I host a HLDM Server on it.

[Blinxx]

I leave Steam logged in 24/7 so no I do not get that message window. A mass message to everyone would be far better then a news message.

I leave my computer on for 24/7 as well since I host a HLDM Server on it.

You should still get the Steam updates. There was an FAQ on the support database available. I assume for most people having difficulties they would go there first. There were also several announcements on the forums, where people may also go for help in addition to active forum staff members and community members offering support. There was also an announcement on the home page.

They had it all covered. This is a non-issue.

[Sarkie]

You should still get the Steam updates. There was an FAQ on the support database available. I assume for most people having difficulties they would go there first. There were also several announcements on the forums, where people may also go for help in addition to active forum staff members and community members offering support. There was also an announcement on the home page.

They had it all covered. This is a non-issue.

And of course all the other sites that covered it.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=steam%20down&hl=en&sa=G&tbo=1&tbs=qdr:w

[raw_bean_uk]

The point i am merely trying to make is that having a global downtime announcement that affects all parties involved prevents mass hysteria and panic.

Brb gonna scan the day's newspaper headlines for evidence of the 'mass hysteria and panic' from Steam being down for 3 hours. I guess there were probably riots in the streets, people burning effigies of Gabe Newell (the L4D2 boycott nutters probably already had a load constructed and awaiting ignition), and mass ritual suicides. Anything else I should look for?

[TrippleD]

Brb gonna scan the day's newspaper headlines for evidence of the 'mass hysteria and panic' from Steam being down for 3 hours.

Games tend to do that to some people. ;)

[Sarkie]

Games tend to do that to some people. ;)

and arguments changing context mid argument.

[Light Yagami]

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7288/dfasde4.png

Downtime was horrible
But i survived

[MikeBlaszczak]

We just dont keep it within certain channels like here on the forums where only a tip of the ice berg is hit and that is the forumites.We don't do that, either. A Steam News item (http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/) announced the downtime, as well. That was picked up by lots of popular gaming sites.

I suppose you're just planning on repeating your request for an in-app announcement of downtime. Perhaps you didn't see the banner we placed on the store page, or the work we'd done on the community page announcement banner.

And as I've told you earlier in this thread, we're also looking at ways to pre-announce downtime in client.

[cryptodan]

You should still get the Steam updates. There was an FAQ on the support database available. I assume for most people having difficulties they would go there first. There were also several announcements on the forums, where people may also go for help in addition to active forum staff members and community members offering support. There was also an announcement on the home page.

They had it all covered. This is a non-issue.

No I dont get any other popups when referring to news. The only time I get those is when I restart my computer and there is a collection of about 6 or 7 news items that I Must scroll through in order to start using steam the way I want too. A massive online message is still much much better to get a much wider audience.

And before any of you say my settings are fubared I will share them with you: Notifications are Enabled (http://www.cryptodan.net/img/steam_settings_messages.png)

And of course all the other sites that covered it.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=steam%20down&hl=en&sa=G&tbo=1&tbs=qdr:w

Do I go to those other sites no I do not, and do other people do it no they do not.

We don't do that, either. A Steam News item (http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/) announced the downtime, as well. That was picked up by lots of popular gaming sites.

I suppose you're just planning on repeating your request for an in-app announcement of downtime. Perhaps you didn't see the banner we placed on the store page, or the work we'd done on the community page announcement banner.

And as I've told you earlier in this thread, we're also looking at ways to pre-announce downtime in client.

Why wasn't this feature built into the Steam Client when it was Beta? When I launch Steam I don't have the Store Front in the client popup first. I have my friends list pop-up so I can see which friends of mine are in game, so I can do a fast quick join to go enjoy a frag session with them.

What is so freaking difficult about implementing a massive messaging scheme to send a message to all Steam users who are online about impending downtime?

I mean all my other chat services do it so why cannot Steam Community/Friends System?

I also do not have my web browsers set to www.steampowered.com as my default page, so no I didn't get that announcement as well. I am sure other people dfon't have the store front popup and display when they start Steam.

I also didn't get the news item, and as you can see in my posted screenshot of my settings notifications are enabled. I am currently in the beta maybe that has something to do it, but I do not think so. The only time I receive messages as stated is when I reboot my computer after updates are performed automatically by Windows and I start Steam up Manually. That is the only time I get news items.

[Matt]

Why wasn't this feature built into the Steam Client when it was Beta? When I launch Steam I don't have the Store Front in the client popup first. I have my friends list pop-up so I can see which friends of mine are in game, so I can do a fast quick join to go enjoy a frag session with them.

The friends list is the one location where you can tell they are doing maintenance. You'll get the standard offline message (Friends is offline and will try to reconnect......), and if you happen to be logged in, you'll get logged off friends automagically. I believe this has been in place since Steam beta years ago. While this feature doesn't show future downtime, I'm not exactly sure that really matters. If you log onto Steam now, all you need to be concerned about is are the services working right now.

[cryptodan]

The friends list is the one location where you can tell they are doing maintenance. You'll get the standard offline message, and if you happen to be logged in, you'll get logged off friends automagically. I believe this has been in place since Steam beta years ago.

I know that Matt, but that could mean various different other things as well like a connection to Steam cannot be made. It doesn't provide any information about it being planned like a message to every online user stating that in 30 minutes the Steam Servers will be going down for routine system maintenance, and should be back up within the next <insert time frame here>. Like what happens with X-Fire, MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and AOL.

[Matt]

I know that Matt, but that could mean various different other things as well like a connection to Steam cannot be made. It doesn't provide any information about it being planned like a message to every online user stating that in 30 minutes the Steam Servers will be going down for routine system maintenance, and should be back up within the next <insert time frame here>. Like what happens with X-Fire, MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and AOL.
Advance notification is great. The more info to the end user the better. And you might be interested in knowing root cause of downtime, whether it's planned or unplanned, and the exact second the services will be available again. But again, what all this boils down to: Is Friends, Community, Steam, etc online or offline right now--not 30 minutes in the future or 2 hours in the past.

[cryptodan]

Advance notification is great. The more info to the end user the better. And you might be interested in knowing root cause of downtime, whether it's planned or unplanned, and the exact second the services will be available again. But again, what all this boils down to: Is Friends, Community, Steam, etc online or offline right now--not 30 minutes in the future or 2 hours in the past.

No what it boils down to is notifying your customers ahead of time of any planned outages, and after unplanned outages stating why the servers or service was down unexpectedly. It instills a sense of professionalism.

Id rather be notified 30 minutes prior to an outage that shutdown services I rely on to communicate with my friends and to enjoy the services Steam Community and Steam offers to me and my crowd of friends.

[Matt]

No what it boils down to is notifying your customers ahead of time of any planned outages, and after unplanned outages stating why the servers or service was down unexpectedly.
I agree, and it's been demonstrated that notifications were posted in several places in addition to future additions to notify people through Steam. Glad we're on the same page.

[cryptodan]

I agree, and it's been demonstrated that notifications were posted in several places in addition to future additions to notify people through Steam. Glad we're on the same page.

They all missed the target group they were after though. Who in their right mind googles google everyday to see if there are impending Steam Outages that will affect their use of Steam.

I do not go to those gaming sites, I have no need too. I do not go to the Storefront unless I am browsing for a game to buy. When I login to Steam Community I go straight to my profile. I do not have any browsers set to Stempowered.com as my home page, and I do not receive any news popups, yet my notifications are enabled to allow me to do so. So once again several different ways the "so called" notification of outages/downtime failed to announce such events.

[Matt]

They all missed the target group they were after though. Who in their right mind googles google everyday to see if there are impending Steam Outages that will affect their use of Steam.

I do not go to those gaming sites, I have no need too. I do not go to the Storefront unless I am browsing for a game to buy. When I login to Steam Community I go straight to my profile. I do not have any browsers set to Stempowered.com as my home page, and I do not receive any news popups, yet my notifications are enabled to allow me to do so. So once again several different ways the "so called" notification of outages/downtime failed to announce such events.
It sounds like maybe you're purposefully avoiding the announcements. Sorta, kinda, maybe??

[cryptodan]

It sounds like maybe you're purposefully avoiding the announcements. Sorta, kinda, maybe??

Nope I am not avoiding them, as I have no reason not too. I like seeing details of upcoming deals on Steam. Thats how I found out about several deals like for Crysis and L4D.

[Matt]

Nope I am not avoiding them, as I have no reason not too.

Are the announcements avoiding you?

[cryptodan]

Are the announcements avoiding you?

Maybe I don't know.

[Lamento]

Is a steam client that is set to offline mode affected by these downtimes if you only want to play single player games?

[natemckn]

Is a steam client that is set to offline mode affected by these downtimes if you only want to play single player games?

The downtime yesterday did not affect your ability to log on and launch games, but it did stop you from buying or redownloading games and the Steam community was completely down

[Matt]

Is a steam client that is set to offline mode affected by these downtimes if you only want to play single player games?

na.

I mean, Friends and Community isn't going to work in offline mode anyways. And in offline mode, your Steam client doesn't know about maintenance since it's not connecting to the Steam servers.

[MIK0]

I have to say that maybe complain too much about this matter is not Steam greater issue. There're a lot of things to complain about the service.
But it's true that announcements are understimated and less cared for a service of the magnitude of Steam. It's true that you see them only if you know where to search and if you want to find them, that's not so good. This kind of warning should be visible in steam's normal use. I myself found out about this and the other one thread many month later trying to find out about steam's frequent issues that are now its identification mark.
Then I subscribed to the thread. It's not the best way to be visible in my opinion and in a way it did good in avoiding people to know the extent of the service's issues.

[Lamento]

Thanks! If you didn't get to set it to offline mode beforehand, does single player work generally, or may there be incidents where even the basic login fails, so you couldn't play anything? Just curious.

[Matt]

Thanks! If you didn't get to set it to offline mode beforehand, does single player work generally, or may there be incidents where even the basic login fails, so you couldn't play anything? Just curious.

The maintenance yesterday didn't prevent people from logging on. So you still could log on to play single and multiplayer games. It's very, very rare that logon is affected.

[SD_Jasper]

Thanks! If you didn't get to set it to offline mode beforehand, does single player work generally, or may there be incidents where even the basic login fails, so you couldn't play anything? Just curious.

I was able to run Left 4 Dead and play a solo game.

[Sierra Oscar]

I also didn't get the news item, and as you can see in my posted screenshot of my settings notifications are enabled.

You must have had a general idea some downtime was on its way - you were discussing it in this thread hours before the maintenance began.

While I myself would welcome some sort of system wide community announcement feature down the line I think its fair to say that users were well informed in relation to yesterdays planned downtime. There were notices posted in the forums, a news item was posted on the Steam store and this was picked up on by dozens of news websites. Then when the downtime did begin there was a banner on the Steam store website which users would have seen if they went looking for information - along with the notice which was displayed on the Steam support website.

A sure way of measuring whether people were aware of the planned downtime is observing the reactions on these very forums. Over the three hour period, there were very few users requesting information. There were more users looking for information on the forums over a fifteen minute period when the Steam Community system went down unexpectedly in the past. That would lead me to believe that the information was readily out there for users to digest prior to and during the maintenance works.

And it is not a case that the forums were not accessible due to excessive server demand, because the server load averages were the same as normal last night and an average number of users were online.

[BurtonJ]

Hello cryptodan,

Thank you for your feedback.

We are always working on improving our services and customer experience.

With this latest downtime event, we took a big step in how we go about communicating downtime. We first announced the downtime on the forums (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10738772&postcount=98) 9 days in advance (July 28th). On August 4th, we published announcement via Steam News (http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/) which was then picked up by a multitude of websites including Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5330218/steam-down-for-maintenance-on-thursday), Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59846), and CSNation (http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180021). This news was also distributed via the Steam facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/Steam), Steam News twitter (http://twitter.com/SteamPowered) and our Support site (including every support ticket). Once the downtime began, we placed a big banner on the Storefront page informing users. Finally, we have created a Steam Downtime and Server Maintenance (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7366-ETYS-5919) FAQ which includes a link to the forum announcement thread.

It appears that our efforts were successful as our forum and support traffic was no higher than on days with no downtime. Previously, this was not the case. However, there is always room for improvement.

Once again, we appreciate your feedback and I will be passing it on to the team.

- Burton

[cryptodan]

Hello cryptodan,

Thank you for your feedback.

We are always working on improving our services and customer experience.

With this latest downtime event, we took a big step in how we go about communicating downtime. We first announced the downtime on the forums (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10738772&postcount=98) 9 days in advance (July 28th). On August 4th, we published announcement via Steam News (http://store.steampowered.com/news/2710/) which was then picked up by a multitude of websites including Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5330218/steam-down-for-maintenance-on-thursday), Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59846), and CSNation (http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180021). This news was also distributed via the Steam facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/Steam), Steam News twitter (http://twitter.com/SteamPowered) and our Support site (including every support ticket). Once the downtime began, we placed a big banner on the Storefront page informing users. Finally, we have created a Steam Downtime and Server Maintenance (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7366-ETYS-5919) FAQ which includes a link to the forum announcement thread.

It appears that our efforts were successful as our forum and support traffic was no higher than on days with no downtime. Previously, this was not the case. However, there is always room for improvement.

Once again, we appreciate your feedback and I will be passing it on to the team.

- Burton


Can I speak to you about this via Steam Friends?

[epsylon_Z1]

@ BurtonJ
thanks for the twitter link

[ultio]

While I myself would welcome some sort of system wide community announcement feature down the line I think its fair to say that users were well informed in relation to yesterdays planned downtime. There were notices posted in the forums, a news item was posted on the Steam store and this was picked up on by dozens of news websites. Then when the downtime did begin there was a banner on the Steam store website which users would have seen if they went looking for information - along with the notice which was displayed on the Steam support website.

Still, I know a lot of people which don't even take a look at the Steamstore, any gaming websites or even the SPUF. An announcement system in several languages would be nice. But it shouldn't be like the news popups, it should look more like a message window, I've quickly photoshopped my idea. I thought it should look that way, so that people don't think that it's just another advert for a game or something like that:

http://img5.imagebanana.com/img/2uy33m31/test.jpg

@ BurtonJ
thanks for the twitter link

It's actually not even an official account by Valve.

[TrippleD]

It appears that our efforts were successful as our forum and support traffic was no higher than on days with no downtime. Previously, this was not the case. - Burton

Yes I would agree.

[NoRCoN]

It appears that our efforts were successful as our forum and support traffic was no higher than on days with no downtime. Previously, this was not the case. - Burton

Yes I would agree.

I would have to as well. The forums were rather devoid of inquiries as to what was going on. Furthermore, most of the people that were playing TF2 when I was understood what was going on.

[cryptodan]

So I guess I am as blind as a bat and cannot read then according to the "successful" targetting campaign that so many people agree with. I guess i need to become more active on the net and subscribe to every gaming magazine and game oriented website out there to get news on when Steam is going to have downtime. I am off to make new accounts on every gaming site in all languages in hopes that the next time I will be more informed about on going issues with Steam without using Steam as a means to convey the news messages. I will also set all my web broswers here at home and at work to https;://store.steampowered.com so I can become "more educated and more informed" so I can stop complaining about the "NO MASS MESSAGING FEATURE I WANT IMPLEMENTED".

You guys sure do know how to make a member feel wanted around here.

I give up, I will not offer any more suggestions to help improve the Steam Experience.

[TrippleD]

I don't do any of that and was able to find out in several minutes being on this forum last week. I know you spend a lot of time here on these forums as well so I am a little surprised you missed any mention or discussion about it.

[Matt]

I believe that we've successfully made a mountain out of a molehill. :eek:

[pwng4lf]

As stated earlier, the server downtime was posted 9 days before the downtime was supposed to occur. You don't need to subscribe to every gaming website, nor set every web browser homepage to steampowered.com, all you would have to do is visit the steam homepage either via the web browser or in the steam program once a week and just hit the news link to read the latest stuff and you should be caught up in less than 10 min.

[cryptodan]

As stated earlier, the server downtime was posted 9 days before the downtime was supposed to occur. You don't need to subscribe to every gaming website, nor set every web browser homepage to steampowered.com, all you would have to do is visit the steam homepage either via the web browser or in the steam program once a week and just hit the news link to read the latest stuff and you should be caught up in less than 10 min.

And as I have stated. I only visit the Store when I am buying a game and no other time.

[TrippleD]

And as I have stated. I only visit the Store when I am buying a game and no other time.

Then in the future I would say click on the news tab on the days you visit the forums.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/

Or check this thread.

[pwng4lf]

And as I have stated. I only visit the Store when I am buying a game and no other time.

You could make it part of a routine, it would be easier than subscribing to multiple websites and magazines and then having to sift through data. Better yet you could subscribe to the Serve Downtime forum and have updates emailed directly to you.

[*VeLeRoN*]

Danny, you are being counter-productive now. Sierra even posted an announcement here on the forums; you are a regular... you couldn't have missed that.

[cryptodan]

Then in the future I would say click on the news tab on the days you visit the forums.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/

Or check this thread.

I just give up I am done with this thread, and will refrain from posting in it, because right now i want to say somethings that will get me banned.

I just give up.

[SD_Jasper]

And as I have stated. I only visit the Store when I am buying a game and no other time.

Well then I suggest that you occasionally click the "news" within Steam, or check one of the other aforementioned sources to keep yourself informed. If this is not satisfactory, click over to the Suggestions forum and post there what you would like to see implemented. I apologize if you have already done so, I haven't check.

[AlecJ32]

Danny, you are being counter-productive now. Sierra even posted an announcement here on the forums; you are a regular... you couldn't have missed that.

I dunno about that. I think it's fair to say I'm a regular on the forums, and I never noticed that announcement. I also never found out about the down-time until it showed up on CS-Nation.

To be fair, I never read the news thing whenever it pops up. However, I frequent these forums very often and never noticed the forum announcement.

[L.o.D.]

To be fair, I never noticed the announcement yesterday either.
I did however see the one within the steam client on the store page AFTER I restarted steam.
Now, I have been getting update news at random times without having steam restarted. Why not do an announcement that way?
For me, they have been popping up after I exit TFC or GRID.

[BS_1]

Danny, you are being counter-productive now. Sierra even posted an announcement here on the forums; you are a regular... you couldn't have missed that.
I saw no announcement and I am a regular on this forum. I had never known about the Steam downtime until it was actually down where I had to ask people in game.

[Miles-Otoole]

The downtime yesterday did not affect your ability to log on and launch games, but it did stop you from buying or redownloading games and the Steam community was completely down

It affected my ability to launch games. L4D worked. Defense Grid would not start until the "maintenance window" was finished. Plants vs Zombies would also not run. Both games show 100% ready in steam.

The timing of the maintenance period was non optimal for me. Evenings are the ONLY time I use steam and Thursday is the best night for my friends and I to play. Us old folks work during the day, dontcha know! Am I hating life because I couldn't play L4D with my friends? No.

I am with cryptodan in that I got no notice of the downtime. I use steam to play games. I leave it running on my machine all the time. I leave my machine on all the time. I don't browse the forums and I don't read shacknews or csnation. I don't have time to follow all of this. I am only here now to find out why this particular time was chosen. This is supposed to be fun. If I wanted to keep up with all updates and outages I would stay at the office where I get paid to do so.

Does steam have ANY redundancies? Is it geographically diverse? If Mother Nature creams the area where Valve hosts steam, what happens?

All this has just reaffirmed my suspicions that games "purchased" from steam are really only rented. I will be allowed to use them for however long Valve says I can. Should Valve go offline or out of business my games will go with them.

[steveroger]

This thread has taken an uncomfortable turn. Cryptodan has been subject to some piling on. His suggestions have not been dealt with moderation. I have seen this kind of thing in small doses before but this was an onslaught. Even after Burton graciously posted that his feedback would be taken under advisement the pummeling continued.

All that is missing about these downtime announcements is a notification by email. Even if Valve is reluctant to do that, it was not wrong to suggest it. Even though Valve did post notices in various places it was not wrong to suggest additional notice.

Instead of just taking the suggstion, there has been repeated attacks on a member's alleged lack of awareness. His credibility was questioned.

I just don't think it is a big deal to make a suggestion about downtime and I don't like the sacred cow attitude that is prevalent around this topic.

[ultradude25]

It affected my ability to launch games. L4D worked. Defense Grid would not start until the "maintenance window" was finished. Plants vs Zombies would also not run. Both games show 100% ready in steam.

The timing of the maintenance period was non optimal for me. Evenings are the ONLY time I use steam and Thursday is the best night for my friends and I to play. Us old folks work during the day, dontcha know! Am I hating life because I couldn't play L4D with my friends? No.

I am with cryptodan in that I got no notice of the downtime. I use steam to play games. I leave it running on my machine all the time. I leave my machine on all the time. I don't browse the forums and I don't read shacknews or csnation. I don't have time to follow all of this. I am only here now to find out why this particular time was chosen. This is supposed to be fun. If I wanted to keep up with all updates and outages I would stay at the office where I get paid to do so.

Does steam have ANY redundancies? Is it geographically diverse? If Mother Nature creams the area where Valve hosts steam, what happens?

All this has just reaffirmed my suspicions that games "purchased" from steam are really only rented. I will be allowed to use them for however long Valve says I can. Should Valve go offline or out of business my games will go with them.
Yeah, how dare they put the Steam servers down at a time that doesn't suit me. I mean, it's not like there is such thing as timezones or countries other than where I live. :rolleyes:

On a side note, the downtime all happened while I was asleep. ;)

[4thirty5]

Connection to Steam is currently unstable within Left 4 Dead; unable to connect to friends, servers or Steam Cloud. Are the updates taking longer than expected? It's pretty infuriating.

[jmccaskey]

So I guess I am as blind as a bat and cannot read then according to the "successful" targetting campaign that so many people agree with. I guess i need to become more active on the net and subscribe to every gaming magazine and game oriented website out there to get news on when Steam is going to have downtime. I am off to make new accounts on every gaming site in all languages in hopes that the next time I will be more informed about on going issues with Steam without using Steam as a means to convey the news messages. I will also set all my web broswers here at home and at work to https;://store.steampowered.com so I can become "more educated and more informed" so I can stop complaining about the "NO MASS MESSAGING FEATURE I WANT IMPLEMENTED".

You guys sure do know how to make a member feel wanted around here.

I give up, I will not offer any more suggestions to help improve the Steam Experience.

Hi cryptodan,

Your suggestions for a broadcast message out to users haven't gone unnoticed and that type of system is a possibility for the future. The point to take away from our latest effort isn't that we've decided a news post and store banner is sufficient, but rather that we've recognized our past communication hasn't been sufficient and that we've started to take small steps towards improving it. You'll see more improvement over time.

To put it another way the take away on this issue is that you (and others) have been heard, and that continuing to fight for improvements isn't going to help right now. The reason bigger improvements haven't come yet is because we're busy with other work we consider higher priority and you're going to have to be patient with us while we get around to more improvements in how we communicate about downtime.

[TrippleD]

Connection to Steam is currently unstable within Left 4 Dead; unable to connect to friends, servers or Steam Cloud. Are the updates taking longer than expected? It's pretty infuriating.

This was posted in thread up in the sticky.

We'll have a brief amount of downtime between now and 4 PM PDT while we update our servers.

[SD_Jasper]

Steam down for anyone else?

[tonka]

Steam down for anyone else?

Nope.


10chars.

[LukaKovach]

It's down for me, but not my friends. WTF?

[IvanDoomer]

is it down right now?

lot of people asking me about offline friends and some features, and long time to sign in...

[Pikaroth]

It's down for me right now.

[Orihuela]

The sign in is very very slow and in some cases it hangs Steam

[Arctic Ice]

I believe the forums were down as well, at least for me. It said something like "Database error".

[MikeBlaszczak]

We took Steam down around 1630 PST for maintenance. It came back up within a few minutes, but we found a couple of bugs we wanted to fix. We bounced the servers again around 1715, and were up again a few minutes later.

We've been doing maintenance on the servers. One of the upgrade servers that Bryn installed last week came down with some defective memory, so we toggled the the forums to their backup cluster and back, which causes a brief outage each way.

[IvanDoomer]

We took Steam down around 1630 PST for maintenance. It came back up within a few minutes, but we found a couple of bugs we wanted to fix. We bounced the servers again around 1715, and were up again a few minutes later.

We've been doing maintenance on the servers. One of the upgrade servers that Bryn installed last week came down with some defective memory, so we toggled the the forums to their backup cluster and back, which causes a brief outage each way.

tyvm about the feedback! \o/

[Big-Gaz]

Is it me or is http://support.steampowered.com/ down I can't load it.

[BurtonJ]

Is it me or is http://support.steampowered.com/ down I can't load it.

Our support site is temporarily down. We are actively working on it and apologize for the inconvenience.

[weasel@ladt.us]

For about 15-minutes there, I keep getting the message ...

"Count not connect to Steam network".

Worked about a half hour before that (when I was on-line), then started getting that message for a while (maybe 15 minutes). Now it works fine again. Weird.

Thought it might be my network connection, but everything else (Internet browsing, RDP to various remote systems, VPN to work, etc.) was working perfectly fine over the same link.

[assitowni]

scanning for steam games updates.....
since 20minutes..

FIX IT NOW!

[Fallap]

scanning for steam games updates.....
since 20minutes..

FIX IT NOW!

Same here! :o

:p

[sbirulinok1ller]

Hi there! I get this error yestarday and today: "Count not connect to Steam network" what is the problem? I would to play Modern Warfare 2.... but.....

[weedo]

scanning for steam games updates.....
since 20minutes..

FIX IT NOW!

Yes I also had that problem, it scanned for over an hour and now it is finally done. I tried to launch mw2 and it's currently crashed (the steam client not mw2). All this on the launch of L4d2, yep, I have never known a steam game launch to go smoothly.

[BinaryBoy]

Yes I also had that problem, it scanned for over an hour and now it is finally done. I tried to launch mw2 and it's currently crashed (the steam client not mw2). All this on the launch of L4d2, yep, I have never known a steam game launch to go smoothly.

Same. Happening right now. "Scanning for Steam games updates..." I wanna play L4D2. Valve, please fix.

[PooL]

Should have just bought it on 360... ='(

[IvanDoomer]

Valve needs to upgrade his infrastructure ¬¬

[MisterTece]

thanks for the updates...you seem to be the only real face of valve on this entire forum

[Enigma776]

As per usual mike well done for keeping the hamster in it's wheel, I know exactly the troubles and juggling you have to do with the servers.

[Skaery]

What about achievement progression? Steam Cloud is down, but can you still earn achievements?

[Idiotska]

My chats and friends list is up, but the rest of the community isn't :<

[Blessly]

i cant log into call of duty modern warfare 2... i get a warning saying my cod cant syncronise with steam cloud... and then suggest i might have played my cod on a difrent comb... is that something to do with u guys taking a server offline or do i need to be worried of some hacker stealing my account ?

[krainert]

What about achievement progression? Steam Cloud is down, but can you still earn achievements?
Well...
What is downtime specifically?
I mean, are we talking can't get achievements? [...]
Yes. [...]
From the very first page ;)

[ForrestGhump]

i cant log into call of duty modern warfare 2... i get a warning saying my cod cant syncronise with steam cloud... and then suggest i might have played my cod on a difrent comb... is that something to do with u guys taking a server offline or do i need to be worried of some hacker stealing my account ?

Steam is DOWN for Maintenance RIGHT NOW....

[gamer1973]

i cant log into call of duty modern warfare 2... i get a warning saying my cod cant syncronise with steam cloud... and then suggest i might have played my cod on a difrent comb... is that something to do with u guys taking a server offline or do i need to be worried of some hacker stealing my account ?

its just the internet in steam, theres a maintenance with the servers and all, nothing to be alarmed

[Blessly]

whow that was fast :D

well it could have just said that... istead of giving me a warning that migh be a bit more serious but thanks any ways :D

[Skaery]

Well...


From the very first page ;)
Yes, but that post is almost a year old. This might be another type of downtime.

[Blessly]

jesus its bussy in this forum atm haha

[gastromush]

LET US PLAY!!!!

[Virulain]

Can maintenance/planned downtime be announced in the Steam news feed? The forum's not generally the first place I go for announcements (my bad, I guess). But this sort of infrastructure business is the type of thing I expect to find when I check the news area of the Steam widget.

[vempajor]

WTF?! I wanna play! :(

[ForrestGhump]

read some of the recent posts (like a few minutes ago) that say STEAM is down. The STEAM admins are posting in there.

[TreeRat]

Valve needs to consider if they can or can not handle this steam thing.

Valve will take on too much and will die soon.

[Blessly]

any one knows if the servers are gonna be up any time soon ? or is it a late night project ?