• If we met in-game, don't be afraid to send a friend request.
• If you add me out of the blue, please tell me why.
• I'm not interested in romance.

Phishing advisory

---

If you are signing in with Steam to a third-party website, always ensure the Steam login page opens in a new tab, not a pop-up window. There are a large number of scam sites that work by displaying a fake pop-up window that appears to have the correct URL. Remember that a webpage can display anything it wants within the rectangle that composes the viewport, including fake pop-ups and dialog boxes. Here's a video on this subject by Live Overflow, a respected member of the security community.

Linux, Wine, and Proton

---

• All Valve games (except the first Left 4 Dead and The Lab) support Linux natively without Wine/Proton. This includes Half-Life: Alyx, even though it is not indicated on the store page. [steamdb.info]
• Wine and Proton are not usually called emulators; they are usually referred to as compatibility layers. There is no hard line between an emulator and a compatibility layer, so it is not strictly speaking wrong to call them emulators, but it will sound wrong to most knowledgeable people.
• "Wine" is no longer an acronym, so do not say "WINE".
• Linux is not an operating system; it is a kernel. Linux is used in a large number of operating systems (called "Linux distributions" or "Linux distros") which are mostly compatible with each other, and thus the term "Linux" is used as an umbrella term to refer to (most of) them.
• Linux users don't need to do complex rituals to play games. They (usually) install the Steam client the same way you do, then they click "Play" and it (usually) just works.
• Usage of the terminal is not required to use most Linux-based operating systems, though it can be beneficial.

Cheats and anti-cheats

---

• Anti-cheat is inherently limited by the fact that, ultimately, the player is in control of the hardware running the game.
• Many but not all forms of cheating in multiplayer games can be eliminated with strict serverside validation and thoughtful network protocol design. Unfortunately, not all games do this well.
• The reason Linux is sometimes considered "less secure" in terms of cheating is mostly due to cultural differences, not technical differences. Linux users are significantly less likely to allow anti-cheats to have root (admin) permissions or install kernel modules, due to most of them being more more conscious of security, and more likely to stick to their moral principles even if it means being inconvenienced.
• Most cheaters cheat for the purpose of trolling and griefing, which is why cheating and toxicity are highly correlated. People sometimes cheat for other reasons.
• It is reasonable to be cautious of future cheating from people you know have cheated in the past, but phrases like "Once a cheater, always a cheater" and acts like immediately banning/blocking people with VAC or game bans of any sort are often unconstructive or harmful.
• Using the word "hacking" to mean "cheating" or "creating cheats" is not exactly wrong, but it can be bothersome to people who use the word "hacking" in more positive ways.

Miscellaneous

---

• "Code", when referring to computer code, is an uncountable noun, so do not say "codes". One must use a unit of measurement, e.g. "lines of code".
• "Lua" is not an acronym, so do not say "LUA".
• HTML is not a programming language; it is a markup language. That's what the "ML" stands for.
• Unicode includes all of the characters in ASCII, so it is incorrect to say "Unicode characters" to mean "non-ASCII characters".
• Git and GitHub are not the same thing. Git is a version control system, whereas GitHub is a service that hosts Git repositories online, as well as offers other services such as issue tracking.
• It is not necessary to use GitHub or any other online service to have a Git repository; repositories can be completely offline.
• Steam is not an Electron app. It makes use of Chromium Embedded Framework for most parts. It used to use VGUI for most of the interface, but with each update VGUI has been used less and less until today, where it goes completely unused under normal circumstances.