Moderating Steam Discussions:
Your Steam Discussions are one of the many places your customers and fans are interacting and sharing their experiences with your product. It may be tempting to jump in and participate in every conversation that is happening about your product. Instead, take a step back and listen. Hear what your customers are discussing and asking. Rather than spending a bunch of energy in replying to every thread, channel that energy and excitement into improving your product; fix the bug, create new content, etc.

In many cases, the presence of a developer commenting in discussions can derail the conversation or cause participants to be more timid in their responses. It is often more beneficial to let the community talk things through so that you can gather more data about the issue or hear what kind of solutions your customers come up with.

Here are a couple points that we've found to be useful to keep in mind when browsing discussions:

Listen to your customers. Not just in the Steam Community, but everywhere people are talking about your product.
Don't respond to everything. Crafting deliberate and thoughtful communication takes time and always comes with risks of reducing future options or spurring further argument. Let your community answer each others' questions.
Work on your product. If there are a bunch of common themes in the discussions about bugs or issues in your game or software, then you probably have a good idea of what would have the best pay-off to fix or improve. The best communication is to change your product, as it reaches all your customers and generates the best feedback.
Don't argue with your fans. Some customers will try to engage developers in arguments. There's no way you can win.
Let customers express their unhappiness. Don't censor; customers know when that's happening. Focus on your product rather than getting worked up over negative comments. Channel your energy into fixing the core issues and making customers happy in the product.