I’m just going to get ahead of this and state here to be perfectly clear. It’s against our community guidelines to ask for updates. These are the types of things that are most commonly asked that violate asking for an update:
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Asking for updates.
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Asking for a game to be updated.
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Asking when a game will be updated.
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Asking if “there have been any updates.”
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Asking for a list of upcoming updates unprompted.
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Declaring/asking if the project is “dead”, “abandoned” or “alive.”
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Asking if a project is “still being worked on”, “still in production”, etc.
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Reminding a developer that it has been “x” days/months/etc since their last update.
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Generally talking about the lack of updates or update schedule in a disparaging manner.
We don’t allow it for multiple reasons and if it happens we remove the comments, and if it continues to happen by the same person we venture into official warnings, disciplinary actions, and even loss of permissions/temporary/permanent bans.
Allowing update requests would fill most topics with update requests and “bumps” that would be hard for users to filter through for actual conversations or information about the games. Topics would constantly being kicked to the top just to find someone making a request for an update. Anyone following these topics that they are interested would be spammed by notifications for these no content posts. Which would result in an overall worse user experience all around.
Most projects on the site are made by amateur developers working on a passion project/something in their free time. There are a lot of stresses and anxieties that go along with working on something and while people generally mean well and are interested/enthusiastic about development. By asking for updates you can often be adding to these pressures or anxieties, while not meaning to. There are many developers that prefer the stress free environment that is allowed here with no update requests (of course this doesn’t apply to everyone).
While I can understand that not getting an update or having lack of communication for something you contribute money to on a third party site can be frustrating. The reality is developers are not going to keep things hidden from the community and if they aren’t updating on patreon or other places. Here is not going to the place that gets updates vs a place were they are receiving compensation from supporters. And really the best place to receive updates are from the third party sites you support the dev at.