Valve Add This Please

2011Catchphrase / ASCII art copypastadead

Also known as: "Valve~ Add This Please!" · "Add it now Valve!" · "SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC"

Valve Add This Please is a 2011 Steam copypasta meme consisting of an ASCII art thumbs-up that proliferated as comment spam across Team Fortress 2 workshops, Counter-Strike cosmetics, and Greenlight submissions.

"Valve, Add This Please!" is a catchphrase and ASCII art spam meme that spread across Valve's Steam platform, primarily within the Workshop and Greenlight communities. Originating in late 2011 as a simple text request and evolving into a massive block-character "thumbs up" by mid-2012, the copypasta flooded comment sections on Team Fortress 2 items, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins, and Greenlight game submissions. The spam grew so large that Valve directly addressed it in a November 2014 Workshop update aimed at reducing "Giant ASCII art" clutter5.

TL;DR

"Valve, Add This Please!" is a catchphrase and ASCII art spam meme that spread across Valve's Steam platform, primarily within the Workshop and Greenlight communities.

Overview

"Valve, Add This Please!" started as a straightforward request left in the comments of user-submitted content on Steam. Players would post the phrase on Workshop items or Greenlight submissions they wanted Valve to officially accept. Over time, the plain-text request merged with a large ASCII art rendering of a "thumbs up" icon modeled after Facebook's Like button. The ASCII art was built from five Unicode block characters: Light Shade (░), Dark Shade (▓), Full Block (█), Upper Half Block (▀), and Lower Half Block (▄)4. These chunky text graphics could fill an entire comment box, making them impossible to scroll past without noticing.

The combination of the catchphrase and the oversized ASCII thumbs-up turned what was originally sincere enthusiasm into one of Steam's most recognizable comment-section spam formats.

The phrase "valve, add this please" appeared in Steam comment sections as early as October 2011. The first documented instance came from user Hooded Owl, who posted it in the comments for "The Bellhop," a popular community-designed cosmetic item for Team Fortress 21.

The ASCII art component arrived several months later. On July 21, 2012, Steam user Lucas2616 paired the catchphrase with a large block-character thumbs-up graphic in the comments for "The Ankle Biter," another TF2 Workshop submission2. This was the first known instance of the combined text-and-art format that would define the meme going forward4.

By August 30, 2012, the ASCII art had migrated from Workshop item pages to Steam Greenlight, appearing on the forum page for 8BitMMO, a free-to-play MMO that eventually got picked up for release in December 20133. The Facebook-style Like button ASCII had also been circulating among Facebook users independently since around 20114.

Origin & Background

Platform
Steam Community (Workshop and Greenlight forums)
Key People
Hooded Owl, Lucas2616
Date
2011
Year
2011

The phrase "valve, add this please" appeared in Steam comment sections as early as October 2011. The first documented instance came from user Hooded Owl, who posted it in the comments for "The Bellhop," a popular community-designed cosmetic item for Team Fortress 2.

The ASCII art component arrived several months later. On July 21, 2012, Steam user Lucas2616 paired the catchphrase with a large block-character thumbs-up graphic in the comments for "The Ankle Biter," another TF2 Workshop submission. This was the first known instance of the combined text-and-art format that would define the meme going forward.

By August 30, 2012, the ASCII art had migrated from Workshop item pages to Steam Greenlight, appearing on the forum page for 8BitMMO, a free-to-play MMO that eventually got picked up for release in December 2013. The Facebook-style Like button ASCII had also been circulating among Facebook users independently since around 2011.

How It Spread

The meme picked up speed quickly across both Steam Workshop and Greenlight throughout late 2012. On October 16, 2012, a user called The Fastest Shot in the West reused the catchphrase on another Workshop item. The same day, users BlueFox and Vimy copied the ASCII art within minutes of each other on Greenlight pages, while Biohazard Paladin [HUN] posted it on a Workshop item.

A variant emerged on December 29, 2012, when user MCQubill posted a modified version on the Team Fortress 2 Name Badge item page. This version incorporated an "Epic Smiley" face, built on an earlier ASCII design by a user called FishSticks, and mixed the thumbs-up with "Add it now Valve!" and "Epic" text blocks. The hybrid format leaked from Workshop to Greenlight, often paired with the phrase "Mega Ultra Valve, Add This Please! And Give Me One!".

By 2013, the copypasta had spawned over 100 recognized variations and appeared in an estimated 100,000+ comments across Steam. On October 26, 2013, user Piranha created a CS:GO P90 weapon skin Workshop submission themed around the spam itself, decorated with "Epic" and "Valve~ Add This Please!" text. It received over 40 positive comments. The meme had become self-referential, with users making content about the spam rather than just producing it.

Not everyone appreciated the flood. Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 communities pushed back against the oversized ASCII blocks clogging Workshop discussions. The "SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC" variant drew particular complaints on TF2's general discussion board.

On November 14, 2014, Valve released a Steam Workshop update that overhauled comment threads. The update specifically mentioned reducing spam, calling out "Giant ASCII art" as a target. Dota 2 players reacted positively to the cleanup on Reddit. The update effectively killed the meme's primary habitat, and the spam dried up as comment sections became harder to flood.

How to Use This Meme

The classic "Valve, Add This Please!" format worked like this:

1

Find a Steam Workshop item or Greenlight submission you want to support (or just want to spam).

2

Copy the ASCII art thumbs-up block into the comment section. The standard version fills roughly 15-20 lines of Unicode block characters forming a hand with an extended thumb.

3

Add the catchphrase "Valve, Add This Please!" either above or below the ASCII graphic.

4

Optional escalation: prefix the phrase with "SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC" or append "And Give Me One!" for extra enthusiasm.

Cultural Impact

The meme's biggest legacy is that it directly influenced Steam platform policy. Valve's November 2014 Workshop update, which restructured comment threads and added new moderation tools, cited the ASCII art spam as a motivating factor. The update introduced voting queues and redesigned home pages for Workshop content, partly to push meaningful feedback above the walls of block-character spam.

Within Steam culture, "Valve, Add This Please!" represented a broader tension between community enthusiasm and comment-section noise. Workshop creators trying to get genuine feedback on their items had to wade through dozens of identical ASCII thumbs-up posts. The TF2 community in particular grew frustrated with the format, spawning meta-discussions about Workshop comment quality.

The meme also demonstrated how quickly a sincere community behavior (asking Valve to accept items) can mutate into ironic performance when given a visual template and no moderation guardrails.

Fun Facts

The ASCII thumbs-up was built from just five Unicode block elements, yet the combinations produced over 100 documented visual variations across Steam.

The meme existed on Facebook in a nearly identical ASCII form since 2011, but it was the Steam community that turned it into a mass-scale spam phenomenon.

8BitMMO, one of the first Greenlight games to receive the ASCII spam treatment, actually got picked up by Valve for release in December 2013, suggesting the spam may have coincidentally accompanied genuine popularity.

Valve's 2014 anti-spam update was one of the few times a platform holder directly acknowledged a specific meme format as the reason for a policy change.

Derivatives & Variations

"SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC" variant:

An escalated version that combined the ASCII thumbs-up with exaggerated superlatives, widely spammed on both Workshop and Greenlight[6].

Epic Smiley mashup:

Created by MCQubill on December 29, 2012, this version merged an ASCII smiley face (based on FishSticks' design) with the thumbs-up and "Add it now Valve!" text[4].

P90 "Epic" skin:

A self-referential CS:GO weapon skin submitted by user Piranha on October 26, 2013, decorated with the catchphrase and spam motifs[4].

"Valve, Add This Please! And Give Me One!" extension:

A Greenlight-specific variant where users would request not just the game's approval but a free copy for themselves[4].

Workshop item titled "VALVE ADD THIS PLEASE":

At least one Workshop submission used the meme's name as its actual title, turning the spam into content[7].

Frequently Asked Questions

Valve Add This Please

2011Catchphrase / ASCII art copypastadead

Also known as: "Valve~ Add This Please!" · "Add it now Valve!" · "SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC"

Valve Add This Please is a 2011 Steam copypasta meme consisting of an ASCII art thumbs-up that proliferated as comment spam across Team Fortress 2 workshops, Counter-Strike cosmetics, and Greenlight submissions.

"Valve, Add This Please!" is a catchphrase and ASCII art spam meme that spread across Valve's Steam platform, primarily within the Workshop and Greenlight communities. Originating in late 2011 as a simple text request and evolving into a massive block-character "thumbs up" by mid-2012, the copypasta flooded comment sections on Team Fortress 2 items, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins, and Greenlight game submissions. The spam grew so large that Valve directly addressed it in a November 2014 Workshop update aimed at reducing "Giant ASCII art" clutter.

TL;DR

"Valve, Add This Please!" is a catchphrase and ASCII art spam meme that spread across Valve's Steam platform, primarily within the Workshop and Greenlight communities.

Overview

"Valve, Add This Please!" started as a straightforward request left in the comments of user-submitted content on Steam. Players would post the phrase on Workshop items or Greenlight submissions they wanted Valve to officially accept. Over time, the plain-text request merged with a large ASCII art rendering of a "thumbs up" icon modeled after Facebook's Like button. The ASCII art was built from five Unicode block characters: Light Shade (░), Dark Shade (▓), Full Block (█), Upper Half Block (▀), and Lower Half Block (▄). These chunky text graphics could fill an entire comment box, making them impossible to scroll past without noticing.

The combination of the catchphrase and the oversized ASCII thumbs-up turned what was originally sincere enthusiasm into one of Steam's most recognizable comment-section spam formats.

The phrase "valve, add this please" appeared in Steam comment sections as early as October 2011. The first documented instance came from user Hooded Owl, who posted it in the comments for "The Bellhop," a popular community-designed cosmetic item for Team Fortress 2.

The ASCII art component arrived several months later. On July 21, 2012, Steam user Lucas2616 paired the catchphrase with a large block-character thumbs-up graphic in the comments for "The Ankle Biter," another TF2 Workshop submission. This was the first known instance of the combined text-and-art format that would define the meme going forward.

By August 30, 2012, the ASCII art had migrated from Workshop item pages to Steam Greenlight, appearing on the forum page for 8BitMMO, a free-to-play MMO that eventually got picked up for release in December 2013. The Facebook-style Like button ASCII had also been circulating among Facebook users independently since around 2011.

Origin & Background

Platform
Steam Community (Workshop and Greenlight forums)
Key People
Hooded Owl, Lucas2616
Date
2011
Year
2011

The phrase "valve, add this please" appeared in Steam comment sections as early as October 2011. The first documented instance came from user Hooded Owl, who posted it in the comments for "The Bellhop," a popular community-designed cosmetic item for Team Fortress 2.

The ASCII art component arrived several months later. On July 21, 2012, Steam user Lucas2616 paired the catchphrase with a large block-character thumbs-up graphic in the comments for "The Ankle Biter," another TF2 Workshop submission. This was the first known instance of the combined text-and-art format that would define the meme going forward.

By August 30, 2012, the ASCII art had migrated from Workshop item pages to Steam Greenlight, appearing on the forum page for 8BitMMO, a free-to-play MMO that eventually got picked up for release in December 2013. The Facebook-style Like button ASCII had also been circulating among Facebook users independently since around 2011.

How It Spread

The meme picked up speed quickly across both Steam Workshop and Greenlight throughout late 2012. On October 16, 2012, a user called The Fastest Shot in the West reused the catchphrase on another Workshop item. The same day, users BlueFox and Vimy copied the ASCII art within minutes of each other on Greenlight pages, while Biohazard Paladin [HUN] posted it on a Workshop item.

A variant emerged on December 29, 2012, when user MCQubill posted a modified version on the Team Fortress 2 Name Badge item page. This version incorporated an "Epic Smiley" face, built on an earlier ASCII design by a user called FishSticks, and mixed the thumbs-up with "Add it now Valve!" and "Epic" text blocks. The hybrid format leaked from Workshop to Greenlight, often paired with the phrase "Mega Ultra Valve, Add This Please! And Give Me One!".

By 2013, the copypasta had spawned over 100 recognized variations and appeared in an estimated 100,000+ comments across Steam. On October 26, 2013, user Piranha created a CS:GO P90 weapon skin Workshop submission themed around the spam itself, decorated with "Epic" and "Valve~ Add This Please!" text. It received over 40 positive comments. The meme had become self-referential, with users making content about the spam rather than just producing it.

Not everyone appreciated the flood. Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 communities pushed back against the oversized ASCII blocks clogging Workshop discussions. The "SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC" variant drew particular complaints on TF2's general discussion board.

On November 14, 2014, Valve released a Steam Workshop update that overhauled comment threads. The update specifically mentioned reducing spam, calling out "Giant ASCII art" as a target. Dota 2 players reacted positively to the cleanup on Reddit. The update effectively killed the meme's primary habitat, and the spam dried up as comment sections became harder to flood.

How to Use This Meme

The classic "Valve, Add This Please!" format worked like this:

1

Find a Steam Workshop item or Greenlight submission you want to support (or just want to spam).

2

Copy the ASCII art thumbs-up block into the comment section. The standard version fills roughly 15-20 lines of Unicode block characters forming a hand with an extended thumb.

3

Add the catchphrase "Valve, Add This Please!" either above or below the ASCII graphic.

4

Optional escalation: prefix the phrase with "SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC" or append "And Give Me One!" for extra enthusiasm.

Cultural Impact

The meme's biggest legacy is that it directly influenced Steam platform policy. Valve's November 2014 Workshop update, which restructured comment threads and added new moderation tools, cited the ASCII art spam as a motivating factor. The update introduced voting queues and redesigned home pages for Workshop content, partly to push meaningful feedback above the walls of block-character spam.

Within Steam culture, "Valve, Add This Please!" represented a broader tension between community enthusiasm and comment-section noise. Workshop creators trying to get genuine feedback on their items had to wade through dozens of identical ASCII thumbs-up posts. The TF2 community in particular grew frustrated with the format, spawning meta-discussions about Workshop comment quality.

The meme also demonstrated how quickly a sincere community behavior (asking Valve to accept items) can mutate into ironic performance when given a visual template and no moderation guardrails.

Fun Facts

The ASCII thumbs-up was built from just five Unicode block elements, yet the combinations produced over 100 documented visual variations across Steam.

The meme existed on Facebook in a nearly identical ASCII form since 2011, but it was the Steam community that turned it into a mass-scale spam phenomenon.

8BitMMO, one of the first Greenlight games to receive the ASCII spam treatment, actually got picked up by Valve for release in December 2013, suggesting the spam may have coincidentally accompanied genuine popularity.

Valve's 2014 anti-spam update was one of the few times a platform holder directly acknowledged a specific meme format as the reason for a policy change.

Derivatives & Variations

"SUPER MEGA ULTRA EPIC" variant:

An escalated version that combined the ASCII thumbs-up with exaggerated superlatives, widely spammed on both Workshop and Greenlight[6].

Epic Smiley mashup:

Created by MCQubill on December 29, 2012, this version merged an ASCII smiley face (based on FishSticks' design) with the thumbs-up and "Add it now Valve!" text[4].

P90 "Epic" skin:

A self-referential CS:GO weapon skin submitted by user Piranha on October 26, 2013, decorated with the catchphrase and spam motifs[4].

"Valve, Add This Please! And Give Me One!" extension:

A Greenlight-specific variant where users would request not just the game's approval but a free copy for themselves[4].

Workshop item titled "VALVE ADD THIS PLEASE":

At least one Workshop submission used the meme's name as its actual title, turning the spam into content[7].

Frequently Asked Questions