Pffff
So games are also far far away from politics? and from being "creepy"? What about Silent Hill series?
So do you guys believe is better to close threads that simply debate even the "troll"? this is what many name an "echo chamber" and is far to be healthy.
Go on, open your own thread about cockroaches, I bet if people "break" the rules there, they will not close the thread but as much, ban some users.

Did they rebel against their former human overlords?

Big deal...?

What makes them pointless and unworkable is that the people most inclined to bemoan the depredations of the ignorant, are the least inclined to do more than address symtomatology; which, ironically enough, is almost as ignorant as that which they bemoan.

For one thing, I wish you hadn't necromanced this. The discussion had finally died and we'd had a little peace.
For another thing, you misunderstand completely why the thread was locked. Say what you want about free speech, you cannot possibly deny that the thread had become overrun with trolls and alt accounts to the point that it was ridiculous. If you wanted actual news, you'd have to find it in between the random 4chan-quality troll posts. People viewed it as literally the worst thread on the forum and a shame it even stayed open and unchecked so long. It was a circlejerk at best and a mudfight on average and only further helped to perpetuate the visibility of the fact that GOG truly gave not a singular crap about what happened on their own forum.
Only the GamerGate thread and some political threads were actually closed by the staff for getting insanely out of hand. Another thread would be just fine so long as people in it actually followed the rules, which, given how literally every political thread on this forum goes, seems unlikely.
The LGBT thread was a different story. If I remember correctly and this is the same thread as the one I'm thinking of, it was just a bait topic clearly intended to provoke a mudslinging competition. The staff had nothing to do with that. I dunno how long you've been around, but we recently re-discovered that the "report as spam" button does not actually send a report. It just logs the button click and deletes the post after the button is pressed by X number of people. This means that it's started to be both abused and used as a method to "fight back" against trolls and perceived bait for disgruntled people who think the staff won't actually moderate. If the post deleted was the OP of the thread, the whole thread is deleted. Since people immediately noticed the thread was bait, they basically just mass-deleted it silently.

Basically this. You can't discuss anything in here without it turning into an "us vs them" thing.
It's not the discussion about politics that's the problem, it's the amount of morons here who can't discuss it like rational human beings and turn the whole thread into a battle royale.
I think you misunderstood the "creepy" part.
It would be better to debate...if there was actual debate. There's a difference between "you're wrong and here's why" and "UP YOURS! YOU'RE A NAZI PIG!"
And yes, it's always a bad idea to respond to trolls, as their entire goal is often just to flamebait and instigate such mudflinging.
So far as your "echo chamber" argument, consider for a moment how bad this looks for GOG as a company. They're not trying to be some "bastion of free speech" or whatever. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of other forums out there with no moderation. What they are is a company with a reputation to try to cultivate/uphold. How does it look for a newbie to come on here and the first thread they see is a political flamewar? It's bad enough that we ALREADY have a reputation as a snakepit for most people who know of us.

You have to consider some factors here:
1) Yes, they'd ban users rather than close the thread because they'd likely nip it in the bud. By the time any moderation on GOG had arrived, the #GG thread had been a complete mess for months if not years.
2) Apparently, GOG had somehow over the years LOST the ability to ban people from the forum without removing access to their game library. Meaning they were essentially powerless to ban anybody. At the time that fables22 stepped up to the plate, they were still in this state and she wanted to take action on the forum ASAP to show that she at least had some kind of power. Considering that the #GG thread was what people clamored most over, it made sense to close it, something that had immediate and visible effects.
3) Fables was attempting to do a "fresh start" thing, as in, not retroactively banning people for stuff they did in the past. Therefore, by these very rules, she couldn't ban anybody from #GG until they actually trolled again. It was better to just close the thread and take away their breeding ground than to wait for them to resurface.

I gotchu, bruh.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/how_to_turn_down_a_girl/page1

Sorry for the multiple posts.

For the record, the thread was up for at least 8 hours before it was deleted.

What's sad is that the people that get worked up over this sort of thing have absolutely no ability to ignore it -- but rationalizations for why it should never and must not under any circumstances, are aplenty.

A veritable parade of neuroses, marching to the beat of a discordant rhythm, the sort of which would truly befit the funeral of a civilization that was equally discordant.

...are you trying to make a point with this, or...?

Of course she is making a point,dt is sick of her posts and threads being deleted and abused.How hard is that to figure?

Who says that every point needs to be "making a point"? Why can't there be posts that just state facts (like the one you quoted)?

The elephant’s very large ears are used to radiate excess heat away from the body.

Thanks for the info, to be honest I didn´t read anything about Gamer Gate for months, specially not the closed thread, but time before I seen interesting arguments and news in both sides, and I still believe very few or none threads are closed here. So yes, maybe you are right, and no, I believe is definitively because it was a "gamer gate" thread and even if we would open a new one where people would not fight or we will ask for auto moderation, soon or later would be again, closed.

So if a post is reported several times as Spam is deleted? It´s difficult to believe it works like this, would not be the previous thread we talking about deleted because of this long time ago?
No I didn´t misunderstand the "creepy" part, I just been ironic and laugh about how gently some people try to demonize others.

1) I don´t believe that thread was "a complete mess"
2) Did he closed anything else or did anything else than that? Oh please! link it to me!
3) Same as 2