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General discussionForum Update(256 posts)(256 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted July 05, 2022
high rated
I wanted to let you know that, effective today, we’ve removed the report system from our forum. It’s something that was formerly designed to enhance your forum experience, but we’ve learnt the hard way that it ultimately did the opposite to some of you, which was never our intention. While we cannot commit to bigger forum optimizations for the time being, we’ve decided to take this step in order to improve your overall experience.

Another frequently brought up topic is the post review system – we are also considering removing this feature for the time being, but would like to listen to your opinions on the matter before we commit to this measure.
Post edited October 06, 2022 by chandra
Posted July 13, 2022
high rated
hey everyone. I've read your opinions on the downvote/upvote system we had and I liked your suggestions to leave the option to upvote and remove the downvote option that unfortunately helps in spreading negativity and can be under bot attacks.

That's why, as you may have noticed, starting well, a couple of minutes ago, we've removed the option to downvote posts.
Post edited September 16, 2022 by ponczo_
Posted July 13, 2022
high rated
While I don't agree with downvoting any post, unless what is written in it is truly obnoxious, I do like to hide posts by folk who are generally obnoxious. By obnoxious I mean racist or sexist or quite insulting or just behaving like a bully etc.

There is at least one script out there that still works, that hides posts by a specific user. It only does such on-the-fly to all posts by that user in a GOG forum page you visit. It doesn't downvote or effect other pages in that thread or other threads, unless you visit those too. It works based on the user name, but I believe it can be modified to use the member ID instead, and so keep up with any name changes. Alas it does not target only specific posts.

My own personal view, is that if someone is obnoxious, they don't deserve to have any of their posts read by me. It is that simple. If they want me to read their posts they need to behave like a civil person, end of story. I am fine with folks having a differing opinion to mine on a subject, but I am not fine with obnoxious behavior.

Hopefully GOG will implement a HIDE and a REPORT button for each post.

THANKS GOG for at least removing the downvote button, though it really needs to be replaced by a REPORT button.
Post edited July 13, 2022 by Timboli
Posted July 13, 2022
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ciemnogrodzianin: Please, note that comments still can be down-voted and are marked as "low rated" (example), probably by scripts. The button is removed, but the code is still there and can be accessed...
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Clownski_: We did notice that one instance, but it seems to be working properly now so it might have been a server sync related issue.
We shall see if it means anything in the coming days but if the votes have IDs on them then doing a search in the database on posters and threads vote IDs, which have been the target of down voters/bots it would show up on their accounts.
Posted July 13, 2022
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tag+: By the way, Any plan to communicate this forum rep changes to the whole users by email?
See, lots of people ran away from the forum by the rep downvote bots/abuse swearing never use it again,
therefore,
the chances to realize the change by visiting the forum and reading this thread... are not the best...
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MarkoH01: Pretty sure that those who left are not willing to return no matter how GOG is handling the rep issue now. Unfortunately GOG probably lost them for good.
Unfortunate indeed. But you know, there is nothing worse than not trying to let them know...
I hope at least few of the good people come back someday
Posted July 14, 2022
high rated
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Narushima: You know you're doing something wrong when you end up doing the same as YouTube.
^ This!
Posted July 14, 2022
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Timboli: THANKS GOG for at least removing the downvote button, though it really needs to be replaced by a REPORT button.
They'll have to put some kind of cooldown measure in place or some bots will spam that button as well. Could you imagine the chaos on admin's end when half the posts in the forum get reported in a matter of minutes by a throwaway account?

~

In the meantime I suggest we users who value this community report these problem posts ourselves. Type up a templated report in a text file and leave it somewhere convenient, then use it for manually reporting violations to members of the mod team. I surmise most of the trolls and spammers exist here solely because not enough users have gone to the effort of reporting them for their dastardly deeds.

There's also a dedicated thread for identifying spam bots and scammers. USE IT. Every helping hand is appreciated.

Seriously, folks. Time to start doing some heavy lifting yourselves. Don't be shy: the mods aren't going to be able to read every thread and identify every problem going on. If they aren't told, they may not know about it.

GOG has taken the first steps. It's time we drew a line in the sand and said enough is enough with those who seek only to make other people's lives miserable here. Stop relying on others to report things. Start taking an active role here and report them yourselves!
Posted July 14, 2022
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chandra: hey everyone. I've read your opinions on the downvote/upvote system we had and I liked your suggestions to leave the option to upvote and remove the downvote option that unfortunately helps in spreading negativity and can be under bot attacks.

That's why, as you may have noticed, starting well, a couple of minutes ago, we've removed the option to downvote posts.
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Krogan32: Finally! The Rep system is dead. Let's see what all these people that use downvote bots will use their bots for now.
I imagine they will curl up in a ball of sadness whilst the rest of us rejoice.
Posted July 14, 2022
Continued steps toward making the GOG forums better! I still think y'all would do well to either switch to the software used on the Witcher/Cyberpunk forums or even switch to something like SMF but these continued changes are welcome. Removing the downvote button is great; I used it but it was abused by so many, thus this should help to encourage people to discuss more without having to fear being targeted by the downvoting bots.

Thank you!
Posted July 14, 2022
test post... am i "safe" from now? ;-)
Posted July 14, 2022
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JakobFel: Continued steps toward making the GOG forums better! I still think y'all would do well to either switch to the software used on the Witcher/Cyberpunk forums or even switch to something like SMF but these continued changes are welcome. Removing the downvote button is great; I used it but it was abused by so many, thus this should help to encourage people to discuss more without having to fear being targeted by the downvoting bots.

Thank you!
A fine choice; nice to see someone championing an open source forum engine, my choice was the DFeed system.
Posted July 14, 2022
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Timboli: There is at least one script out there that still works, that hides posts by a specific user.[...]
If this is true then where are these bots? The javascript functions still work but the bots suddenly stopped? It looks like several users constantly downvoted each other. This seems to be more likely than the bot theory.

----------------------------

I mentioned the spam by a certain troll in the German subforums. Let me show the problem of this case here. One of the worst offenders is this thread here:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_de/neuerscheinung_bthe_blind_prophetb_9def0/page1

Look at the post numbers:

2, 6, 8, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36,

37 not deleted spam

38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,

45 not deleted spam

46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52

The holes in this thread were all posts with the same message as the two spam posts. There are more of these threads and there is even more spam. I compiled a list with all posts I could find:

https://pastebin.com/FA5QPAVw

As you can see all of these posts contain the same message by accounts with the same username but with a different 5-digit number. It is pointless to report and delete these posts. There is a user with a bot who generates these spam messages again and again. New account, same message. As a result the threads become broken like the example from above. The constant bumping of these threads is also annoying. Therefore the German users decided just to hide these spam messages and leave them in a thread as they are.

The forum needs an ignore function, a report function, and a hide post function.
Post edited July 14, 2022 by toma85
Posted July 14, 2022
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Timboli: There is at least one script out there that still works, that hides posts by a specific user.[...]
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toma85: If this is true then where are these bots? The javascript functions still work but the bots suddenly stopped? It looks like several users constantly downvoted each other. This seems to be more likely than the bot theory.

----------------------------

I mentioned the spam by a certain troll in the German subforums. Let me show the problem of this case here. One of the worst offenders is this thread here:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_de/neuerscheinung_bthe_blind_prophetb_9def0/page1

Look at the post numbers:

2, 6, 8, 13, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36,

37 not deleted spam

38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,

45 not deleted spam

46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52

The holes in this thread were all posts with the same message as the two spam posts. There are more of these threads and there is even more spam. I compiled a list with all posts I could find:

https://pastebin.com/FA5QPAVw

As you can see all of these posts contain the same message by accounts with the same username but with a different 5-digit number. It is pointless to report and delete these posts. There is a user with a bot who generates these spam messages again and again. New account, same message. As a result the threads become broken like the example from above. The constant bumping of these threads is also annoying. Therefore the German users decided just to hide these spam messages and leave them in the thread as they are.

The forum needs an ignore function, a report function, and a hide post function.
cant u just ignore him?
Posted July 14, 2022
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Orkhepaj: cant u just ignore him?
With the current forum software you can't hide these posts. I mentioned a way to block posts with uBlock Origin earlier. But these cosmetic filters haven't solve this problem. You still have bumped threads and the troll is still active.
Post edited July 14, 2022 by toma85
Posted July 14, 2022
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JakobFel: Continued steps toward making the GOG forums better! I still think y'all would do well to either switch to the software used on the Witcher/Cyberpunk forums or even switch to something like SMF but these continued changes are welcome. Removing the downvote button is great; I used it but it was abused by so many, thus this should help to encourage people to discuss more without having to fear being targeted by the downvoting bots.

Thank you!
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Darvond: A fine choice; nice to see someone championing an open source forum engine, my choice was the DFeed system.
I've been using and running SMF for years, my third forum experience was with it and I've been a huge fan ever since! I even worked with a free SMF host for over a decade, some great experiences there! I don't believe I've ever used a DFeed forum before but I'll check it out :)
Post edited July 14, 2022 by JakobFel
Posted July 14, 2022
Well, my new gripe with these changes is the bandwidth bottleneck propagated after this because it makes it slower to load the site, if at all.
Posted July 14, 2022
You can see now what I mean:

Post 5 in this thread
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_de/neuerscheinung_bxelb_7b776

was reported here:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/spambot_report_thread/post4

After it was deleted, the user used his bot again and you have now post 6 with the same message again:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_de/neuerscheinung_bxelb_7b776/post6

It is already reported here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/spambot_report_thread/post12

This is like a circle. There seems to be no end. If this post gets deleted then you'll see a new account with the same message in the thread above again. And of course, the thread gets bumped again.
Post edited July 14, 2022 by toma85
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionForum Update(256 posts)(256 posts)
(256 posts)