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General discussionLet's discuss your experiences with the forum. (801 posts)(801 posts)
(801 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 17, 2014
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HGiles: I fully support this idea. Tags are awesome! Easier for developers and for users. No need to code up specific pages, make a template and use tags to search. If the search functionality works, that is.
Thanks. :)

I also want to add I really like your idea about having a page of all recent posts from game sub-forums. I wanted to mention something about making it easier to browse the game sub-forums but couldn't think of anything.
Posted April 17, 2014
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HGiles: Track threads
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SpellSword: I think you can already (kind of) do this via the 'This is my favourite topic' button located in the upper right of each thread or are you suggesting something different?
Kind of, but expanded a bit. There should be a central place for it so that people can include threads in the game-specific forums.
Posted April 17, 2014
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SpellSword: I think you can already (kind of) do this via the 'This is my favourite topic' button located in the upper right of each thread or are you suggesting something different?
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HGiles: Kind of, but expanded a bit. There should be a central place for it so that people can include threads in the game-specific forums.
I hadn't realized that it wasn't tracking from the game specific forums sections. >_<

A feature that centralizes all tracked threads somewhere would be most welcome. ^_^
Posted April 17, 2014
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HGiles: GOG forums need:

Standard forum discussion functionality. The user scripts provide a good list to get started on. I definitely include:
Ignore users
Track threads
Useable subforums and navigation
Longer posts list
Central page to track threads the user started
Edit thread titles

snip
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HypersomniacLive: I'm not sure I understand what you mean/ refer to by the ones I highlighted, could you please elaborate?
Track threads in the forums i use allow you to follow marked threads and also option to be notified by email when there are changes ie instant, daily updates and also listed in your user control panel
Posted April 17, 2014
high rated
I do understand, that many would like the rep system to be gone right now, but I think it's mostly because down-repping is heavily abused for quite some time now. In my opinion the problem isn't the down-vote function but its abuse.

From a sociological standpoint it's very effective for a community to have sanctioning capabilities or alternatively a higher instance that takes a close look and sanctions all dysfunctional behavior to a community wide consent. It's pretty obvious that a single community manager simply can't cope with this workload alone, let alone guarantee consent due to subjectiveness, so this leaves the community or no one.

Right now, because of the abuse everybody prefers "no one" and the positive effects of sanctioning are completely disregarded. Positive and negative sanctioning is highly effective in promoting cooperation and motivation. For example the very successful Tit for tat strategy is just impossible without it.

The GOG community is a good one, but by removing sanctioning capabilities you also remove the basis for social evolution, which is founded on common norms and values. To keep up values, a society needs sanctioning, simple as that. As long as egoistic behavior yields surplus, it opposes altruistic values and without consequences it'll erode the value system.

The problem with the conjunction of down-repping and giveaways is just a collision of different value systems. Sachys' suggestion of separating the groups e.g. by introducing different areas might be a very good idea for a peaceful coexistence.

What has to be stopped is the abuse of down-repping, as single members are forcing their subjective views onto the whole community. The might of sanctioning must be distributed and you have to think about mechanisms that prevent single members of using multiple accounts for aggregating force they normally shouldn't have. You can't prevent it completely, but that's not even necessary for the community to work.
For example, cap down-repping the same way up-repping is capped. Block down-repping until the user reaches a certain rep himself (like it's done with the ability to post links), so a single user can't use a fresh account for down-repping. Improve your detection of multiple accounts. Improve your awareness of down-repping abuse by automatic triggers and a small automatic report of who's involved. It's pretty easy then to review the involved accounts by the community manager. And of capital importance, sanction the accounts which are abusing the rep system (down-rep them, block their ability to use the rep system, ban them, think of combinations and escalation stages, whatever..)
I'm pretty sure, the workload is easy to handle and there aren't many abusers. Stop them and the rep system will do it's job again.

Last but not least, the positive/negative sanctioning system doesn't have to be the rep system. Get rid of it and replace it by something different, but I'm skeptic about what good will come from a complete removal.

(Sorry for the long post guys, I'm not a big fan of them myself.)
Post edited April 17, 2014 by DeMignon
Posted April 17, 2014
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HGiles: I fully support this idea. Tags are awesome! Easier for developers and for users. No need to code up specific pages, make a template and use tags to search. If the search functionality works, that is.
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mondo84: Thanks. :)

I also want to add I really like your idea about having a page of all recent posts from game sub-forums. I wanted to mention something about making it easier to browse the game sub-forums but couldn't think of anything.
Glad you like it!

I do web development for a living, so this is the kind of thing I think about all day. I enjoy it actually, and it frustrates me when companies don't do simple things that make a user's experience so much better. *Especially* when I'm the user in question. :D
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DeMignon: I do understand, that many would like the rep system to be gone right now, but I think it's mostly because down-repping is heavily abused for quite some time now. In my opinion the problem isn't the down-vote function but its abuse.

The GOG community is a good one, but by removing sanctioning capabilities you also remove the basis of social evolution, which is founded on common norms and values. To keep up values, a society needs sanctioning, simple as that. As long as egoistic behavior yields surplus, it opposes altruistic values and without consequences it'll erode the value system.

Last but not least, the positive/negative sanctioning system doesn't have to be the rep system. Get rid of it and replace it by something different, but I'm skeptic about what good will come from a complete removal.
Totally agree. There needs to be social feedback.

Honestly, the vast majority of complaints I've seen about 'rep abuse' were people saying something offensive and then whining when people got upset. They were surprised that others were offended.

Well, welcome to interacting with other people. Sometimes, you're going to be tired/hungry/not thinking and act like a jerk. Take the lumps and get over it. Don't try to disable the feedback mechanism. The problem isn't t the rep system, the problem is the bad post.

If the mods are being flooded with PMs about it, that's a problem because they need to do their other work. But I really don't think there's any actual problem with the rep system.
Post edited April 17, 2014 by HGiles
Posted April 17, 2014
What about this:

Posts would have 2 buttons, "I Found this Helpful" and "Report as Spam/Inappropriate".
In the user info on the left would be 4 pieces of info, not the current 3.

1.) Post count. 1 point for each new post.
2.) Rep. 1 point for every 5-10 posts marked "Helpful".
3.) Date registered.
4.) Location.

Together the first 3 should give a good indication of those who post well thought out and helpful pieces, and those who post a lot just to see their words on the screen.
Right now we only know the rep number, not how many of the users posts are actually worth reading.
And it would be easy to compare this to the amount of time they've been here and not ignore new users just because their rep is low.

Just my 2 samolians worth. :)
Posted April 17, 2014
high rated
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HGiles: snip

Longer post lists = I meant to say 'Longer recent posts lists'. GOG only tracks a very few posts back. I often find myself wanting to return to a discussion and not being sure which one, especially if the forum is active and the thread got a bit off topic. It's not like this would be very hard, either. Just up the count.
It's very late (or very early in the morning), so bare with me - I'm still not sure I follow. Are you referring to your own posts? If yes, wouldn't the ability to view/ check your personal post history be a better solution?
Posted April 17, 2014
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mondo84: I'd love a "go to first unread post" feature. Either the colored icon next to each thread title could serve that purpose, or when you hover in line with a thread title on the forum a button appears between the thread title and post count.
I was just about to suggest that. I'm so tired of having to look for the first unread post in a thread. It's the one thing that annoys me most about this forum.

All your other suggestions do sound like great user-friendly solutions (+1 rated). Perhaps a small selection of practical tags applicable to posts (such as 'helpful', 'important' etc.) could replace the current + & - system thus enabling a simple tag search within the threads as well (sort of like the staff=yes function).
Posted April 17, 2014
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mondo84: I'd love a "go to first unread post" feature. Either the colored icon next to each thread title could serve that purpose, or when you hover in line with a thread title on the forum a button appears between the thread title and post count.
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Lemon_Curry: I was just about to suggest that. I'm so tired of having to look for the first unread post in a thread. It's the one thing that annoys me most about this forum.

All your other suggestions do sound like great user-friendly solutions (+1 rated). Perhaps a small selection of practical tags applicable to posts (such as 'helpful', 'important' etc.) could replace the current + & - system thus enabling a simple tag search within the threads as well (sort of like the staff=yes function).
Going to last read rather than most current post would be wonderful!
Post edited April 17, 2014 by donsanderson
Posted April 17, 2014
I agree with the requests for a better more-functional search system, the ability to see all of my own posts, and an ability to ignore specific users. I'd also love an ability to show recent posts by the GOG.com team. Finally, some method of separating out "replies to my posts" from "updates to games I own" without having to hover over "My account" would be really appreciated.
Posted April 17, 2014
Mr. Judas ^^

1) That go to first unread post thing would be epic.

2) I believe the problem with rep is that people should not have any say in your status. The +-rep should just be there for show and not reflective of the quality of the post/poster. No rep boosts when you make a giveaway, no rep losses when you make a comment someone disagrees with. Your post can show the ratings numerically instead of with High/Low Rated, or you could use neutral smileys representing the scale so people don't get offended.

3) With that in mind, make the "report spam" button there all of the time. Could be +rep for reporting actual spam posts, -rep for abusively marking a post that was not spam. Basically all rep should be influenced by the site itself. Posting or whatnot once a day, answering a question...and other ways that won't make it seem like people either love you, hate you, are bribing you or bullying you.

But I don't know how well this would work.
Posted April 18, 2014
They've already been mentioned in some form or another, but the only things that really affect me are:

a) Go to first unread post.

2) Search options. Specifically I'd like a way to order by date posted/edited while searching within a thread.

III) Keep the visual style of the forums minimalistic like they are now.
Posted April 18, 2014
I should be able to Like posts from others and everyone should see what I Liked.

I should have a total score showing all of my accumulated Likes.

I should be able to see a total post count for users.

Kangaroos are awesome. No speed limits on kangaroos.
Posted April 18, 2014
Thanks for making his topic, the changes i would love to see

-ignore button
-post history
-report spam button with down repping
-rep system modified in such way that both positive and negative rep of the user is shown aka (+90/-10) instead of a total. or impose a limit on every user as to how much they uprate/downrate<everyday/month> that should stop a single person from doing the damage
Post edited April 18, 2014 by liquidsnakehpks
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionLet's discuss your experiences with the forum. (801 posts)(801 posts)
(801 posts)