GamingOnLinux.com User Safety Notice
Last updated: 5th November, 2025.
You can contact us any time using this email: [email protected]. This goes direct to the owner, Liam Dawe. Please do get in touch if you're concerned with anything, have complaints or if you feel we need to update this page.
We also suggest you read our Ethics policy, which also contains information on our affiliate programs. And also our Privacy Policy.
GamingOnLinux is a news blog dedicated to Linux Gaming, Open Source, Steam Deck and SteamOS. We are committed to fostering a safe and positive online environment for all our readers.
What is this page?
This page describes our focus on safety including for readers of any age that happen to get linked to the website including both adults and children.
What we do
User registration: we have clear rules (linked above all comments on articles and on the register page) on acceptable content and a registration age gate. We also check usernames for certain special words like "Staff" or "Moderator" to prevent people having potentially confusing and misleading names that could cause problems.
We have active moderation systems in place. Any time a new user registers their posts go through manual approval for a while before we're satisfied that they're a legimate account.
Available on every single article comment is a dedicated Report button, allowing registered users to submit a concern or complaint about any individual comment. This includes clear options for reporting anything harmful, illegal, spam and more.
We also have a dedicated report option on users profiles. So users can report a problem with any user to us directly.
We do not allow users to privately message each other. This is reserved only for moderators to do moderation and site admin.
We do not allow users to post in a forum. The forum was removed.
Normal users are not able to upload an avatar. Users start with a default we provide or they can pick one from our gallery, or our system will generate one (if users select the option) that's based on their username initials with a few minor customizations like background, font and border colour. Our system provides these options built-in, so we fully control it.
Our search systems do not search other websites, they're only internal searches for our articles. So we fully control the content from searches. Users can not search for other users.
Uploaded Media, User Generated Content and Profiles
Registered users have a profile page. This contains:
- Their username.
- An avatar.
- Register and last login dates.
- A list of recent comments.
- Their optional PC hardware info if they fill it out. All data picked comes from our own database.
- One bit of optional user generated content: their linked website. We include an [External Link] notice next to it and a pop-up extra warning on it when clicked to remind people it's an external link.
Registered users can comment on published articles. Comments are just a plain date-ordered list. This is to discuss the article subject. Inside article comments users can not directly upload any media to our system. Users can post text / links and embedded images. Links have an [External Link] warning notice on them, along with a pop-up warning notice when clicked to remind people it's an external link. All posts with links go through mod approval first and guest readers do not get clickable links, you have to be logged in for that. The same applies to embedded images, they go through our approval first before being public and guest readers do not see them.
Registered users can submit an article, but this goes through completely manual approvals where we check over everything first and we don't always publish what's sent in. Users cannot upload media here.
Supporters on our Patreon at specific tiers are able to upload a small 125x125 avatar. We have tools to quickly remove anything we don't like and all the normal rules apply to these avatars.
Pre-approved registered users can upload a small 125x125 author photo. The author photo is only ever shown in public to readers / users below a manually approved and published article (see above) and so we moderate it and check it's okay before publishing. Our team also have their author photos displayed on the About Us page.
Registered users can block another user easily too, so they don't have to see any comments from specified users if they don't wish to.
If a registered user's profile has been reported to us, we will act accordingly and remove any harmful content.
We have a clear email address listed in many places for users to contact directly.