How do you like hat?
We ask, and wank_report provides.

Team Fortress 2 is an online FPS game in which two teams made up of nine different classes attempt to blast each other into comical bloody oblivion. TV Tropes says it best:

"Two corporations erect fortresses 10 yards from each other and then send waves of men to kill each other to steal a briefcase out of the opposing fort's basement."

Now add hats, equipable items that were introduced earlier in the year that change the appearance of a character and serve no other purpose whatsoever. But they're rare drops, man -- you could be on for hours and not see hide nor hair of a precious, precious hat.

The solution to the problem, obviously, was to use an external program like Steamstats, which allows a player to simulate idling without actually having the game running.

Valve's reaction? YOUR HAT PRIVILEGES HAVE BEEN REVOKED. All hats awarded to idlers are removed, while all the non-idlers receive a shiny new hat in the form of an angelic halo. Also, the hat drop rate has been increased.

Cue the splooge.
"Valve, you are becoming something you never were. In the past, you only punished hackers - and rightly so. They harmed the community and made the game frustrating. But idling? Idling hurts no one (except, perhaps, Valve's ego). Idling is responding to an incentive. It's like punishing a donkey for moving when you wave a carrot in its face. "!

"If you are going to stop people from idling, please, TELL us you are going to be monitoring, then let us stop. If that doesn’t stop some people (and I guarantee you it won’t stop some) then punish those who’ve been told! It just feels like you’ve given someone a crappy burrito, then that bloke goes across the street and buys a better burrito (and possibly a sombrero) and eats it in front of you. At the end, you tell him you poisoned that burrito and reward the people content with your crappy burrito."

"The members of this group refuse to heal anyone wearing a halo untill Valve apologises for punishing and villainising idlers with no prior warning"!

"Ive noticed that people with halos get targeted first. I know i go for them first. I refuse to heal people with halos. I grief people with halos."

"All i want is a apology"

And so on. In fact, it's pretty much all anyone's talking about on the TF2 forums.

According to the original wank report, there's also a mod that "changes the halo to a neon sign saying 'FAG.'" But for some mysterious reason, Googling terms like "fag", "mod", and "halo" don't really turn up any useful results, so I'd be grateful if anyone could back that up with a link.

ETA: A picture and video of the mod in action! Truly, this is proof of time well-spent. Thanks, empy.

In conclusion: hats!