Posted April 18, 2014
high rated
Firstly, allow me to thank you, Judas, for finally creating a GOG-approved thread to address forum issues. I know this is not a pleasant subject and frankly, I think we'd all be happier enjoying ourselves by talking about games, giving and getting games and generally enjoying one of the nicest gaming forums ever to grace the internet....
However, I am really tired of the bullying tactics that one or a few have visited upon this forum in the past six months. Let's just call it what it is "Bullying of forum members so that the affected members stop feeling like they can post a gift, take a gift, start a giveaway, thank someone, post an answer to someone's question, and well practically post anything whatsoever." This form of extreme censorship is happening every single day. Many of you may not even notice it...for whatever reason you have managed to escape the bully's notice or you really do not pay attention to your rep - but this is NOT about rep per se, although that is method the bully is using to silence, upset and/or harm many active members of this forum.
See I feel as if GOG gave me a way to measure my success or failure (YMMV in how you view rep). I suspect that most people feel this way. “ Hey, I posted daily in some form or fashion; helped a fellow gamer with a problem; posted a thread about a cool new game; gave a gift to someone on their birthday or just because I had an extra I was never going to play; joked around and made a connection with another person... and gee, I got rep for taking the time to make this a better place.” It is a positive feedback loop that you, GOG, created to help this forum be a self-regulating, self-moderating forum. So rep does matter or you, GOG, would not have implemented such a system in the first place.
Today I finally got an actual response from Natalia in support. In my previous two messages and in my current post to support, I did not ask for a response - I simply asked that GOG become aware that the system GOG put in place to regulate the forum is broken. Because it is broken when one or a few bullies can actively discourage participation by even the nicest, kindest and most generous members. (Yes, I do count myself as one of those members because this forum truly matters to me. The past year has found me desperately trying to find a job, finish college at a very late age and overcome some personal issues - and this forum has been a pleasant diversion for me to enjoy being nice to many, many people and to make some pretty close friendships to boot). So to receive such a patronizing response when my intent was to help solve an issue that affects not only the members being down-repped by a bully but also ultimately GOG’s bottom line, was for GOG to completely miss the intent of my support ticket.
The point, in case you, dear reader or GOG missed it is this. We have a bully or several attacking this forum. The intent of the bully is to actively discourage forum members from contributing and ultimately to leave the forum altogether. This effectively means that the forum becomes a less friendly place to hang out, makes it less likely for purchases to be made by active members, new members or even just casual visitors and that affects GOG’s bottom line. Less money in GOG’s coffers makes it less likely that GOG can spend the money necessary to fix the website and the forum mechanisms (and the rep system put in place over five years ago). I don’t need to spell out the death spiral, do I? Throw in some ill-conceived ideas about increasing revenue by adding DRM titles, an out-dated payment system, and a whole slew of other antiquated web services and well I give GOG, at best, another five years before we, who are slowly building a big library of games here, see the doors shut.
So yeah, time to grow up GOG. The bully problem is just indicative that you’ve crossed over a major threshold – this is no longer some small community that you can basically trust to self-police the forums all by itself without some back-end support. You need to take an active role in managing the medium and you need to do it sooner rather than later.
Momo two cents added and hey, the soapbox is now available for the next poster ;-p
However, I am really tired of the bullying tactics that one or a few have visited upon this forum in the past six months. Let's just call it what it is "Bullying of forum members so that the affected members stop feeling like they can post a gift, take a gift, start a giveaway, thank someone, post an answer to someone's question, and well practically post anything whatsoever." This form of extreme censorship is happening every single day. Many of you may not even notice it...for whatever reason you have managed to escape the bully's notice or you really do not pay attention to your rep - but this is NOT about rep per se, although that is method the bully is using to silence, upset and/or harm many active members of this forum.
See I feel as if GOG gave me a way to measure my success or failure (YMMV in how you view rep). I suspect that most people feel this way. “ Hey, I posted daily in some form or fashion; helped a fellow gamer with a problem; posted a thread about a cool new game; gave a gift to someone on their birthday or just because I had an extra I was never going to play; joked around and made a connection with another person... and gee, I got rep for taking the time to make this a better place.” It is a positive feedback loop that you, GOG, created to help this forum be a self-regulating, self-moderating forum. So rep does matter or you, GOG, would not have implemented such a system in the first place.
Today I finally got an actual response from Natalia in support. In my previous two messages and in my current post to support, I did not ask for a response - I simply asked that GOG become aware that the system GOG put in place to regulate the forum is broken. Because it is broken when one or a few bullies can actively discourage participation by even the nicest, kindest and most generous members. (Yes, I do count myself as one of those members because this forum truly matters to me. The past year has found me desperately trying to find a job, finish college at a very late age and overcome some personal issues - and this forum has been a pleasant diversion for me to enjoy being nice to many, many people and to make some pretty close friendships to boot). So to receive such a patronizing response when my intent was to help solve an issue that affects not only the members being down-repped by a bully but also ultimately GOG’s bottom line, was for GOG to completely miss the intent of my support ticket.
The point, in case you, dear reader or GOG missed it is this. We have a bully or several attacking this forum. The intent of the bully is to actively discourage forum members from contributing and ultimately to leave the forum altogether. This effectively means that the forum becomes a less friendly place to hang out, makes it less likely for purchases to be made by active members, new members or even just casual visitors and that affects GOG’s bottom line. Less money in GOG’s coffers makes it less likely that GOG can spend the money necessary to fix the website and the forum mechanisms (and the rep system put in place over five years ago). I don’t need to spell out the death spiral, do I? Throw in some ill-conceived ideas about increasing revenue by adding DRM titles, an out-dated payment system, and a whole slew of other antiquated web services and well I give GOG, at best, another five years before we, who are slowly building a big library of games here, see the doors shut.
So yeah, time to grow up GOG. The bully problem is just indicative that you’ve crossed over a major threshold – this is no longer some small community that you can basically trust to self-police the forums all by itself without some back-end support. You need to take an active role in managing the medium and you need to do it sooner rather than later.
Momo two cents added and hey, the soapbox is now available for the next poster ;-p
Post edited April 18, 2014 by Momo1991
