Every website/internet service has been having serious issues with bots/spammers/scammers/general assholes for a while now. Them making sure you're not a bad actor is absolutely necessary and here to stay. Frankly, I don't see what the issue is. My cell phone plan includes unlimited talk and text for myself and both of my parents for less than $20/month on the Verizon network through Comcast. They even gave us free phones when we transferred over our existing phone numbers, including a landline, and we have no contract. It only includes 100MB of shared mobile data per month, but we don't care; we just use wifi and wifi calling.

Chances of their exit plan being: "be bought by facebook or similar": high
The ability of facebook or similar to do evil with unique identifiers for people - like phone numbers: high

Also:
Chances of their security not being perfect for the next 60+ years, and thus leaking your personal data: high

Once you're in a database, it's almost never about how that's currently being abused. It's always about the future ability for abuse. (There's a reason the core of the GDPR is "data minimalisation by default".)

Okay, and what "evil" could Facebook do with my personal information? Attempt to tailor ads to me, despite the fact that I won't see any of them because I use ad blockers?

How would you suggest they attempt to get rid of bad actors, if not by attempting to validate the identity of the person who's attempting to create an account with them?

I think it's more people who are attracted to DRM-Free gaming tend to be the same kind who typically engage with social media, etc, stuff the least. Isn't the primary use for Discord online multiplayer chat / streamers talking to their audience on a 2nd screen? That's mostly what I see on Youtube. Your reasons for moving are understandable, but is there no way it could have been moved to just another regular forum that just works normally? I think a lot of people just find it ironic a DRM-Free giveaway for offline-centric gamers has ended up another "Don't you guys have phones" 'living meme' moments.

Well, a giveaway for all platforms, but almost entirely Steam, ended up on a service that almost all gamers already use anyway. It's versatile, so you can use it for memes or streaming or what have you, or you can use it as a completely private place to chat with friends and run a giveaway without the site's moderation team breathing down your neck or randos stopping in to spam or troll or try to run scams or be general asshats, etc. I really don't think of it as social media at all, because that's not been my experience with it. When I think of social media, I think of a place where randos show up and spoil everyone's fun, and the site that hosts it constantly crams advertising and recommendations down your throat. I've experienced none of that on Discord. I've seen issues with trolls on public servers, but my server is as private as it gets. I'm the only one who can invite new members, and so far, I've only invited people who were already eligible for the giveaways here. The Non-GOG giveaway was never about DRM-free games at all, and I'm shutting down the GOG giveaway and transferring the remaining daggered keys to whomever starts up its replacement (most likely Doc).

I'm not opposed to phone verification, but Discord has an unfortunate policy that one number can be used only for one account. This could be a real problem for someone who has to have a separate discord account that their phone number is already used for (e.g. a work discord account).

I'm very much in favor of services requiring phone verification and only allowing one account per phone number. At one point in the recent past, Twitch was overrun with white supremacists "hate raiding" minority streamers. Twitch completely eliminated it by allowing streamers to require phone verification before an account can chat. They also have a policy of one account per phone number, and they don't allow Google numbers. A few legitimate people have gotten caught up in this, but the good has massively outweighed the bad.

How could the essence still be "The GOG Community Giveaway" if it will be outside of GOG?
It'll be just another giveaway — shared among people who happens to have a GOG account — inside their "own" community bubble.

The GOG community is already fragmented as it is. There are users on Twitter, Reddit, and other platforms who rarely or never associated themselves on the GOG forums.
I wouldn't call the majority of them regulars though — GOG is just one of the many platforms they're into. So, the bulk of the community still reside within this forum.

The GOG Community Giveaway is one of the most active-long-standing thread in this place. I don't get what good separating it away from here would achieve.

It would get it off of the GOG forum. And that's correct. It will be a new community for people who also are or used to be active members of the GOG community.

Thank you for the info. Haven’t noticed it, but very happy to hear that the torch will be passed on. :) Good luck and stay safe. Cheers

Being downvoted in my own giveaway thread for pointing out the reasons why internet security is necessary in this day and age highlights to a massive degree the reason why I'm leaving this insanely toxic community.