For the up-vote down-vote being abused by bots. Maybe have a system that when the user down votes a post a windows will come up were the user needs to type in a reason or just a quick bot check system to curtail bots and make people do the actual down voting themselves?

Thanks to research carried out by gog2002x, we now know that:
(a) the rep is not really gone --- it can be found here: https://www.gog.com/forum/mysettings
(b) it still continues to be affected by posting and downvotes and upvotes, as before

For some new to the thread..

... some of us early in this conversation were fine with...

... the reputation system...

... and...

... the ability to report posts...

... but...

... want the specific ability to down-vote posts to be removed.

With down-vote (-) removed, all posts will then either be null or positive. There is still the ability to gain reputation and highlight positive posts / threads through up-votes (+)...

... just minus the ability to harass posters through manipulation of the down-vote (-).

People who think a post is against TOS could still report it to moderation...

... and people who simply disagree with a post would be forced to reply / join the conversation with their contrary / opposing views (or say nothing).

IMO it's a pretty simple fix. Now, is it "simple" to change this particular forum... ?

Totally remove the rep system, don't just hide it. And this is speaking from someone who was starting to approach 3k rep. I don't personally need it, want it, or care about it.

What you should keep is the ability to hide posts while removing upvote/downvote, and add in a block feature so people can block other people.

No offense to you, gog, but this website has been up since 2008, and in that time there's probably hundreds of thousands of forums and sites that have existed with the ability to block other users.

I would have removed the negative voting altogether and just left the positive votes and the rep. Reset anyone with negative rep to 0 so they can rebuild it if they've fallen afoul of bots/alt account trolls. Don't reward just "posting" (or limit it even further) because even the regular trolls here would gain reputation posting their argument bait on the forum.

In other words turn the rep system into a genuine reward system for good contributions. I think removing rep entirely destroys the good name of people here who are genuinely helpful and trustworthy forum users, whilst allowing trolls to have the same playing field as everyone else.

We regulars might know who the malcontents on the forum are, but anyone else will be at their mercy. I don't think removing the system entirely is a good idea.

I've seen lots of examples where a simple "thank you" system with listed user names got abused. I remember a case where one user was bullied by other users. One of the bullies wrote a personal attack and it got "upvoted" with about 20 "thank you" entries. Upvote systems end up being bully functions.

Another thing, and I'd say the first thing, that it'd do would be make exactly who abuses the system public knowledge, which will also generate pressure on the staff to act on it.
And yet another thing would be that it'd make a fair number of people who might now rate posts sort of as a reflex actually think about it at least for a moment, because the action will start having a consequence for them as well.
Thanks for reporting, and to gog2002x for testing. So yep, just a command commented out.
The current system just awarded 1 rep point for the first post made in a day, compared to I think up to a 12-point daily change from votes and the +5 for a selected question answer. Seems sufficiently limited to me, and what that did was encourage consistent participation.

I still have to disagree. In the mentioned case it got moderated and the personal attack got removed. But until this is done the victim could see the post and the list of other forum members. In this situation there are still other bullies who can continue or the banned user just uses an alt account. You really need a 24/7 moderation to prevent this.

All negative tendencies you can have with any kind of rating system are already present in this forum or even the review section of the game pages.

People who contribute something to the community are not unknown members. For example Lone_Scout organizes the Community Giveaway thread. And people who troll this forum are also known. If you are really unsure about a user you can just search someone via google or duckduckgo with:

<insert user name here> site:www.gog.com/forum

I suppose leaving updoots for helpful posts isn't the worst idea. But the rep system needs totally removed.

In this case, I think the best solution would be to use the report system I (and other users) have described to report the post as a personal attack, which would result in the post being deleted and the user(s) punished in some way.

Of course, this would require that:
* The report system I describe is actually implemented.
* Personal attacks are against the TOS. (If they aren't, they really should be, even if the target is a user that I consider to be toxic or abusive.)
* The mods actually enforce said rule, and delete the post in question.

On Soviet GOG forum, the TOS violates YOU!

But in all seriousness, I could live without the upvote/downvote system. As a lurker who only rarely posts, it hasn't helped me sort through good and bad posts at all. It just makes it very confusing seeing mundane and even helpful posts with the "low rated" tag.

Speaking of downvotes, as someone not having been on the forum very long, is it possible to undo a post rating, to make it "neutral" and visible by default again?

No. Annoying as hell if you somehow click on it by mistake (very easy to do on a cellphone).

You mean if you accidentally downvoted a post and you want to withdraw your vote altogether? No. Once you vote it either has to be marked up or down. In the very rare occurrence that's happened with me I just upvote it.

EDIT: HA! Ninja'd.