Data states
SCDB must never make a surface it could not read look like a zero. These are the states that make that possible, shown on a fictional account so that nothing here is a claim about a real person.
No SteamID, no persona, no stored facts. Every row below is an illustration of a state, not an observation of anybody.
Where a value came from
The layer answers where; the state answers how complete. They are different questions and a value carries both.
| Layer | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Observed public | A public Steam surface returned this value. |
| External context | Not from Steam. The source is cited beside it, and repeating it never makes it something Steam certified. |
| Derived | Calculated from observed records, which are named. It establishes nothing beyond its inputs — no intent, no relationship, no cause. |
| Audience added | Something other people did around a profile. Never the account owner's speech, belief, or activity. |
How complete a value is
| Surface | Rendered as | State | Why not a zero |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groups | 36 of 36 | Observed public | Steam said 36 and SCDB holds 36. |
| Friends | 80 of 294 indexed | Partial | Part of the surface is represented. The rest is not known either way. |
| Shared-group count | Two shared memberships | Derived | Calculated from the two exact observed memberships listed beside it. |
| Achievements · Dota 2 | Not public | Private | Steam answered 403. That is an answer, not an absence. |
| Achievements · Portal 2 | Section absent | Not returned | The response arrived and carried no achievements section. |
| Statistics · Half-Life | Never fetched | Not indexed | SCDB fetches the eight most-played owned games. This one was not asked about. |
| Statistics · Alyx | No usable response | Unavailable | Steam replied with something SCDB could not read as state. |
| Achievements · Ricochet | No schema exposed | Unsupported | The game does not publish an achievement schema at all. |
| Badges | Last good result, 12 days old | Stale | A newer attempt did not succeed, so the last successful result stands. |
| Friends | 18 added since the last sync | New | Changed since the previous observation. |
| Groups | Showing the last successful result | Error | The latest fetch failed. A failure never replaces a result SCDB already had. |
Completion needs a denominator
An unlocked count without an observed schema count is not a percentage. When Steam returns only the unlocked rows, SCDB renders 9 unlocked — never 9 of 50, and never a percentage, because the total was never observed. Turning missing rows into locked achievements is the same error as turning a private surface into a zero.
Two dates, never one
When something happened on Steam and when SCDB first saw it are separate facts, so they are separate columns.
| Event | When it happened | When SCDB first saw it |
|---|---|---|
| Account created | 2003-09-12 | 2026-08-14 |
| First indexed 294 public friends | no Steam-side date | 2026-08-14 |
Collapsing these into one column would say this account was created the day SCDB noticed it.
How SCDB records a fact: Methodology. What is current on this site: Data status. What is stored and how to erase it: Privacy.