I'm not posting in this thread to debate the subject. The OP asked what I would like to see. That's my answer.

I'd like for game Developers/Publishers personal who are selling on GOG to be identified more clearly when they post on the GOG forum.

Perhaps some kind of icon or different colored text that identified them as related to that game/company.

This way if a developer is nice enough to stop by and post the credibility of their comments related to their software will instantly be clear.

Perhaps something could be displayed in the section under the forum avatar along with the:
Rep:
Registered:
Country:

The way "GOG.com Team" is displayed for GOG staff.

Just a thought. ^_^

Vip member.

The ideas in my post have already been stated by other users more than once, but I'll write them down again anyway just to further underline them, since I find them worthy of attention.

1-Upvotes and Downvotes should be made public, "Facebook style". I don't like that social network, but given the recent "downrepidemic" I think this might be the best solution; with this simple adjustement, the current rep. system SHOULD return to work properly, imo. I think it's just not right to have only positive reputation modifiers, because sometimes a bad behavior should be punished.

2-There should be separate subforums for official announcements, general discussions and giveaways, and the last category should be invisible to not logged in users, thus avoiding swarms of new profiteers.

3-GoG needs a better search system asap!

4-Posting on the forums should be forbidden for accounts with no games bought. Adieu, mass downreppers, "spambots" and scammers (or, at least, part of them)!

5-OPs should be able to lock or delete their own threads at will.

6-A spoiler filter would be a nice addition.

7-Implement a trade system for GoG games, where codes are verified before being sent. I don't personally feel the need for this, but I heard of the scams in the classifieds thread...

I really like this. It has nothing to do with rep but gets rid of spam and to all those who are having tough financial times: we all are, there are beyond cheap games available here, and there are plenty of other game forums that don't require purchasing.

*Remove reputation, or just make it so you can only upvote something and make it only work in topics marked as "questions" so that it has some meaning. Make it that you only get 1 rep point from the upvote button and 5 rep for getting a post marked as best answer. Essentially, make it reputation for support topics.

* Make it so people with a high reputation are able to sticky / close their own threads if they think the community would profit from it. [if this is done, everyone's reputation might have to be reset to make it fair]

* Create a better "report post" system. I'm shocked that all you can do is report posts for spam: this is silly and makes it impossible to report posts that are more than just "spam".

* Expand "General Discussion", instead of making it a dump for every other topic. For example, GOG.com Announcements could be where anything to do with GOG.com or any sales get posted, instead of having it stickied in GD and hoping people will see it. It might be more prudent to actually make a whole section for support with the GOG downloader, instead of one thread. >_>

Other than that, everything that has been said is what I agree with. I don't really venture into most forums, except for the forums for which I have games for (Pharaoh, C3, Rayman and Populous) since I only wish to give support.

Let's keep a nice black book with the nicknames of whoever disagrees with us. On the internet.
4 - Posting rights: how about a limit of 1 topic (and x posts) for day? Not all the new users are bots, sometimes players have questions about a specific game before buying it.
But regular links should not be allowed. A non-bot can get around it.

5 - User Locked/Deleted thread. No please. In the past I've seen that widely abused by drama queens/kings. And it would be misused by all those thinking that the support thread they open it's only about them.

Your sarcasm would work if anyone ever got downvoted because someone disagreed with them, which is still a bullshit reason to do it.

If you think public downvotes will not lead to grudges and altercations extending through different threads, you must be in a universe better than mine. Wish I was there. In mine, that is what would happen, sadly.

Okay you make a point. Let me amend it then. If disagreement was the only reason....

Then let's keep trolls doing their work.
The downrep button is not there to be used to underline disagreement, but -as I already stated- a bad behavior in the forums, like trolling, racist statements and so on. I disagreed with other users tens of times, but NEVER clicked on the "-" button unless it was for one of those serious problems (and even considering this, I did it only two times). It's not a matter of "like" and "don't like", and too many people are abusing it. A lot of "newbies" have been unjustly stigamtized as if they were beasts made of pure evil, and who does not know about the "downrepidemic" could think they are awful members of the community while, in fact, they are not. By making votes public, a lot of internet cowards should stop doing this, and maybe start talking their dissent instead of mass downvoting for fun while protected by complete anonimity. Pointing out the "rotten apples" is, in this case, better for everyone, as everything is quickly degenerating. I have been active on this forums since late december, and I can assure you that even in those few months I distinctly saw the decline.
I'm talking about people who did not buy even a single game. While what you're saying is indeed true, I can't belive honest people can subscribe to GoG without the intent of buying at least one cheap game (and there is plenty of them, here). I'm suggesting this to get rid of "ghost" accounts, like those contributing to the above mentioned "downerpidemic" or the giveaway leechers.
Might be true, but I think we should give this a chance. The GoG community seems a lot more mature than many others to me... if the feature doesn't work properly, it could always be removed later. No experimentation, no innovation!

To be honest I hate almost everything about this forum.

First of all it should just be an standard version of vBulletin. Possibly an old version as I don't know what new ones may have ruined.

Second. Stop having this ridiculous pop-up window for new posts.

Third. Remove all javascript. While you're at it you might as well do this to the rest of the website.

Fourth. You need some more specific sub-forums not related to games. General Discussion is too noisy. News posts could go in their own one. Giveaway spam can go in another. Look at almost any other forum for some ideas if you all lack some.

Fifth. Stop with the hover controls. Make every control visible all the time.

What is a 'hover control'?

A control that appears when you hover. In this case it means the reply and rate buttons, but it could also mean a hoverboard, assuming you can control its hover ;)