The Steam subreddit has long been one of the things I always check in the morning. Because the people there really, really care about what is happening on Valve's omnipresent PC gaming platform. Of course they should! It's a community that is constantly looking at small changes, thinking about improvements, complaints, Gabe Newell memes, etc., and frankly, I'm a bit impressed by anyone who thinks this much about game clients.

However, checking the Steam subreddit today, I don't see any detailed discussion of how achievements are displayed or any discussion of charts. Instead, there is an abundance of enthusiasm and postings about Steam. You know, the substance that contains water in the gas phase, has a million different uses, and its exploitation is one of the most important technological revolutions in history.

The community is leaning toward the Valve/Steam vs. Valve/Steam misconception because Reddit is continually battling with a large portion of its own user base and third-party developers. For years they have been able to use the site's API for free when creating third-party applications (many of them use Reddit's official apps, which have long been non-existent and were garbage when they appeared). The massive protest saw more than 7,000 subreddits go dark, and the Steam subreddit is one of many subreddits participating in the protest in its own unique way.

"As many of you know, we are going dark in support of the blackout against the antagonistic behavior of the reddit user base," a moderator posted. The administrator sent us a message that if we didn't open it, it would be removed." At the end of this post, they inform users that the Steam Discord will remain active, but honestly, please don't move everyone to the Discord: it's a terrible alternative to the forums.

The real Steam is currently hosting the Steam Next Fest, a chance to try out hundreds of new games.