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General discussionForum Update(256 posts)(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 06, 2022
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PaladinNO: 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?
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mrkgnao: No. Annoying as hell if you somehow click on it by mistake (very easy to do on a cellphone).
Thanks. I was hoping there maybe was a button to reset it that I hadn't found yet.

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Braggadar: 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.
No, it was certainly deliberate
https://www.gog.com/forum/cyberpunk_2077/im_beyond_pissed_with_the_crafting_restrictions_after_reaching_level_50certain_parameters_cap/post7

...in as much of a token gesture a downvote inherently is, I just forgot it would hide the post as well.
Post edited July 06, 2022 by PaladinNO
Posted July 06, 2022
An excellent step in the right direction for the forum. I will repeat some suggestions I once sent to another blue, just to give a bit more feedback on some things I'd like to see for the future!

1) I really do think think that GOG's limited resources are definitely a problem. I understand hiring new community managers isn't extremely simple but I do think that the volunteer moderator team should be expanded somehow. I'm not sure what the best way for this would be, since selecting volunteer moderators can lead to complaints of nepotism and whatnot but I do think you guys should look into increasing the size of the moderator team because of how your community team is definitely stretched thin, resulting in frustrations of all kinds.

2) I think it'd be really awesome if GOG started running some sort of player council or roundtable discussions. Perhaps every month, your team could invite a rotating handful of people who post on the forums regularly to take part in a conference call (which would be streamed publicly for the whole community) so that the community feels like it has more of a voice. This could work to improve the community itself, as well as the service as a whole, and it'd give you guys an opportunity to get to know the community directly, which goes a long way to maintain goodwill between the company and the community. It would have to be a careful process, though, so that everyone feels like they had a fair chance at taking part.

3) There have been specific trolls on this site who have made it clear that they're only here to cause trouble, yet whenever they're banned (if they're banned at all), they're only banned temporarily. While I'm all for giving people multiple chances and not permabanning for most people, in the event that individuals are clearly only interested in trolling or spamming, permabans from the forums (not their game library, of course) should certainly be an option.

4) I think my two biggest criticisms of GOG (and even CD Projekt as a whole) involve a lack of transparency and a lack of communication. You guys are doing a good job at improving this but there are still places that things can (and should) be improved. What I mean by a lack of transparency is, for example, the curation process. There have been some controversial releases in recent memory and I think it'd do wonders for the community if you guys either had the curation team regularly engage with the community to see what they want (after all, the wishlist system is an awesome way to do that but doesn't exactly foster discussion) or at least show us a bit more behind the scenes as to how and why certain games are chosen. Either every wishlist entry should create a thread in its own dedicated forum board or it should be open to more comments and discussions.

And as for a lack of communication, this has been particularly problematic for both GOG and CDPR. With CDPR, it's frustrating how we get almost zero updates on Cyberpunk's patches and new content until they're released. With GOG, it goes a bit further. GOG Galaxy's development spent a long time in the dark and while we've been getting some updates and a post about its future, it'd be nice if we had regular update posts on the development process for Galaxy. Same could be said for other things, such as prominent wishlist entries that the company is looking into, or the overall company plans going forward. We have the CDP investor reports to listen to and that's nice to have, but not many people seem to directly listen to them; instead, many go to clickbaity 'journalists' that spread serious misinformation about what is actually said in the reports, leading people to think GOG is going out of business which, ultimately, discourages people from buying from the service.

Basically, the point I'm trying to make here is that it'd be nice if GOG -- as a whole -- were more open with the curation process and with how the company is managing things. I know that with licensing and whatnot, sometimes not much can be said but there is still a lot more that the company can do to ensure that we're not left in the dark.

5) This isn't particularly feedback on any specific situation, just more of a request: please avoid politics as much as possible. I don't get bent out of shape by things like pride month sales and all of that as I'm mature enough to just ignore what I don't agree with but there's no arguing the fact that such things tend to cause division in the community. The forums have the no-politics rule (which sometimes gets enforced unevenly, in my opinion, but that's neither here nor there) and that should extend to GOG itself. GOG is all about the freedom of gamers. Freedom to do what we want with our games. Freedom to enjoy them how we want to enjoy them. GOG is for everyone, it represents everyone, and bringing things into the mix which divide the community is not healthy for said community in the long run.

The no-politics rule is aimed at keeping people from discussing divisive topics and to just stick to talking about the things we enjoy in life. When the trolls, bots and toxic individuals aren't there, this community is particularly pleasant to engage in because we all have a passion for games. However, divisive topics make it hard to remember that this is actually a fun place to hang out in. It's part of why I've drastically reduced my time on the forums in the past few months and I hate that, as I really love chatting with y'all (blues included, as you also feel like fellow gamers).

Just my two cents on that subject, I hope we can keep things centered around the beautiful escapism that video games offer instead of talking about topics that have been done to death in other communities.

--

Anyways, that's just some feedback I hope to see implemented in some way or another in the coming months! I really do appreciate the effort you guys are putting into improving the service, the site and the forums. We still have a long way to go but any progress is good progress, in my book, and if you continue to show this progress, you will continue to have my support!
Posted July 06, 2022
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chandra: 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.
Great! Getting finally rid of the reputation is a good step. Thank you!

As for the 'post review system', I would suggest leaving the + button to be able to thank other users for a well written post (increases positivity in the forum). But please replace the - button directly by a 'report' button, for cases where one feels the need to report a post to the mods.
Posted July 06, 2022
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chandra: 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.
What about making it so we can edit and/or delete our game reviews?
Posted July 06, 2022
low rated
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chandra: 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.
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myconv: What about making it so we can edit and/or delete our game reviews?
(+1) For this feature. It is about the damn time to implement it. Aaaand, to extend the character limit. To double it, in fact.
Posted July 06, 2022
Thanks to Enebias, I noticed that this "update" looks more like a youtube's dislike system hiding. The reputation is till there in your settings. I guess this will only lead to more confusion for forum users in case they could not post links.
Post edited July 06, 2022 by AWG43
Posted July 06, 2022
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chandra: Thank you everyone SO much for all the comments - it's needed feedback and I truly appreciate it :)

To clarify some of the confusion (apologies!) on the 'reputation system', I meant the - / + number each of you had under your username and Forum profile. I saw your comments about whether it's simply invisible now or whether the rep system's funcionalities are gone as well - let me check that with the Team.
Merely cosmetically hiding the number isn't really working when it's clear the mass downvoting thing of whole threads is still occurring:-
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_last_recorded_rep_project
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/wow_did_they_just_remove_the_individual_user_ratings_today_or_is_it_a_glitch

If you want to solve that you'll have to remove the script that records a downvote on GOG's server. Hiding UI elements doesn't do much if the script is still working in the background.
Posted July 06, 2022
Solve one problem, make others. Seriously the rep system was a flawed but still somewhat useful easy reference to detect an active and for the most part friendly user (neg rep exceptions exist).

Removing the system means I have little clue who's worth listening to / answering in the threads. I don't particularly have a sharp memory, and don't get me started with "you can search their post history": The internal search engine is broken at best, and external searches are spotty with results. And it's all too time consuming to bother doing a deep dive on someone just to figure out whether they're yanking my chain or not.

Good luck to everyone from here on in. At this point the trolls have us by the short and curlies - one name change and you won't know who's who anymore.
Posted July 06, 2022
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Mori_Yuki: All an open voting system where names are visible does is that people will do one of two things:
Use an alt if they got one, to be able to say their piece without hurting their reputation, or for being able to participate in certain topics about VN or something else that's considered a no-no by certain people.
It creates a picture that there's certain groups, just because some people use the voting system either which way, to rate some post of some member of the community and are consistent.
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Cavalary: 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.
It is possible that mods would feel more pressure to investigate and act when an abuse complaint is raised. When hot topics are discussed where everyone is voted down, yes, this might help identify individuals and 'punish' them. In other cases? How should mods be able to determine whether they should indeed interject themselves and change votes or punish someone else accused of abusing the system? When there is a right to up-/down-vote, it is up to individuals using the option to vote how they feel like, mods can hardly say: X doesn't like Y so their vote(s) should be removed. Without a reason given they can never know why someone left a negative rating.

If a complaint had been lodged and mods ask an individual why they voted in a certain way, there is any number of reasons someone could give, which would force mods to stay out of it and not act. It's a very fine line for them to walk on. They could implement a bullet-point list and an input field for negative votes and store a record. Another option could be to deactivate ratings in general forums. The only exception being question topics where the best answer/solution is awarded points. Or they could allow members to deactivate the option for individual topics.

In the end it depends on what changes they can and are able to implement to help prevent abuse. That's in case they decide to keep the current up-/down-votes and public display of numbers.
Post edited July 06, 2022 by Mori_Yuki
Posted July 06, 2022
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Braggadar: and don't get me started with "you can search their post history":
Yeah. A "search post history" button alone would solve most forum issues.
Posted July 06, 2022
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Braggadar: Good luck to everyone from here on in. At this point the trolls have us by the short and curlies - one name change and you won't know who's who anymore.
In the current system you can see old usernames in quotes of older posts. The quote function just takes the current username.

As an alternative GOG could introduce a function to ignore users which works independently to changes of the usernames. All I can offer now is using uBlock Origin to filter users and/or posts, see the descriptions by me and darktjm in this thread:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/users_using_blacklisting_scripts_on_this_site_gog_wont_lift_a_finger/post27

You can create filters which block users by using the user ID. This is robust against name changes.
Post edited July 06, 2022 by toma85
Posted July 06, 2022
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toma85: You can create filters which block users by using the user ID. This is robust against name changes.
You can also use filters to block out the rep system. At least until now that step was optional and available for anyone using uBlock or similar plugins.

Face it dude, some people found the rep system still useful, myself included obviously. I don't appreciate having to do more work just to identify disreputable people here, so thanks but no thanks. No more scripts. No more bookmarks. No more searches. No more plugins. GOG is taking something easy and already established and in the process made things more difficult. Not the first time either.
Posted July 06, 2022
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Braggadar: more work just to identify disreputable people here,
Speaking as someone who had close to 2000 pts (if I remember well), here : Did you really feel this number helped you for that ?

I think the rep system had been too efficiently destroyed by the trolls' misuse to really indicate anything anymore.
Posted July 06, 2022
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Braggadar: You can also use filters to block out the rep system. At least until now that step was optional and available for anyone using uBlock or similar plugins.

Face it dude, some people found the rep system still useful, myself included obviously. I don't appreciate having to do more work just to identify disreputable people here, so thanks but no thanks. No more scripts. No more bookmarks. No more searches. No more plugins. GOG is taking something easy and already established and in the process made things more difficult. Not the first time either.
I don't disagree that a reputation system has useful elements. Rewarding useful posts is not a bad thing. The problem is the abuse and to fight the abuse you have to invest too much time and effort. Every single forum without a rating/reputation system and with an ignore function and a function to report posts directly to the mods has an overall better atmosphere. Right now, the current system gets abused and you can already see that any other form of a rating system will end up getting abused as well. If you enter a thread and you don't see a bunch of high rated or low rated posts it will create a much different atmosphere.
Posted July 06, 2022
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myconv: What about making it so we can edit and/or delete our game reviews?
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Wishmaster777: (+1) For this feature. It is about the damn time to implement it. Aaaand, to extend the character limit. To double it, in fact.
To remove it, I'd say. Don't think any of my reviews would fit even a doubled character limit.
Oh, wait, have short ones for Syberia 1 and 2 and Eschalon 1, when they had enough on Mobygames and I didn't bother to actually write yet another, but when I did, shortest for a GOG game was the one for Gone Home, at... Lemme check... 6197 characters.
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Braggadar: I don't appreciate having to do more work just to identify disreputable people here
Still say that it was the other way around. The bots and trolls made it so that reduced reputation was meaningless, so it couldn't be used to identify disreputable people, but it was useful to identify high activity, by a high absolute rep value, whether positive or negative. Of course, a post count, which nearly any other forum has, would be the proper way to do that.
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Mori_Yuki: When hot topics are discussed where everyone is voted down, yes, this might help identify individuals and 'punish' them. In other cases? How should mods be able to determine whether they should indeed interject themselves and change votes or punish someone else accused of abusing the system?
When you see the same users just about immediately downvote any post by a particular user within moments of it being posted, regardless of hour, topic or contents, I'd say it'd be a pretty clear indicator.
Post edited July 06, 2022 by Cavalary
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionForum Update(256 posts)(256 posts)
(256 posts)