itch.io

For what it's worth, I visit the forum and try to help out where I can; I also frequent the Discord server, and from what I've gathered, the process works like this:

When you upload a game or update an existing project, Itch runs an algorithm to evaluate it. If the algorithm flags something suspicious, your project gets de-indexed and placed in a queue for manual review by a staff member.

To counter bad actors, the details of that algorithm are kept secret.

If there’s actually nothing wrong with your account or game (a false positive), they are usually re-indexed once the manual review takes place. The major issue is that Itch’s staff seems very small relative to the workload; turnaround times that used to be a matter of hours or days can now stretch into weeks or even months (especially during high-traffic periods like Halloween or Christmas).

The biggest problem is that, as a developer, you receive no information about this process (at least in most cases I’ve seen). You don't know if your game is simply waiting in line, if it was overlooked due to an error, or if there was a specific reason the staff decided against indexing it. This has been discussed many times, but there doesn't seem to be any intention to change the system. Ultimately, you have to accept that this is simply how Itch operates. Occasionally, someone shows up demanding an explanation; on the rare occasions an admin has provided a public explanation, it turned out the developer had acted in bad faith—such as spamming their project across multiple game jams, using copyrighted content, and so on.