It's GoG's board. They run their forum however they please. If you have a problem with how the forum operates, you take it up with them. Don't take it out on other people who 'downvote' or criticize things you dislike. Their opinion is just as much as yours. We're all equals here on GoG's property.

Sorry I'm getting upset, but nothing angers me more than someone saying I shouldn't criticize something or do something (not that I did either in that promo thread). This is just games and something we do for fun. Let's not take it so seriously.
He says what may or may not be criticized and says what may or may not be downvoted.

If you still don't want to admit that, then may I ask your age? It is against the Terms of Service for anyone younger than 18 to be on this forum.

What the hell are you talking about?What does this have to do with anything? Or is this just a way of saying that you think I'm acting immature? Because I said he's not telling people what to post? He isn't. If anything, he's saying that people should be able to post what they want without fear of being hidden. He asks people not to "block out"(by having the posts hidden by downvotes) the people who criticize gog, steam and " maybe everything else in general". The people who try to hide the posts are the ones who are telling people what to post, and yes hiding posts is supressing them..http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/american-english/suppress_2 See how it says "keep hidden"? Yeah.

Do you even know what you're arguing for? You're complaining because he thinks people should be able to freely say what they want, and you're criticizing him even though you agree with him.

Well that just doesn't work. The two buttons can't be on two totally different scales when they're weighted against one another! If "+" is "Agree" than "-" must be "Disagree". If "-" is "This is breaking the forum rules," then "+" must be "This is not breaking the forum rules." and becomes largely redundant in its current, always-available form (not just when the post has been reported for rule-breaking).

If GOG wants to use it as "Like" and "Flag Post" (which seems to be what they intend, as too many "-" votes hides the post), they can't have the "Like"s counteract the "Flag Post"s! They're not rating the same thing!

They use the same system at Kongregate and it's even sillier there. Someone commenting "I dislike this game's controls and feel it's poorly written." can be treated the same as "GDODDAMN [racist comment] SHIT FUCK 0/5" and "Do you need to Satisfy Your womenclick my profile!"

I don't know, I would speak up if I had a problem with GOG though I define problems a bit differently than others would. I haven't had any serious issues with GOG that would make me seriously criticize the site. Most of my issues are just minor complaints that don't affect the main site much, like the constant barrage of System Shock requests, rants over certain games not being in the library, and the complaint that I do not understand, that GOG abandoned their purpose by selling indie games. To me a problem involves functionality of the site, or a poor business decision that would give everyone the finger without warning and so far those issues haven't arisen.

No, it wouldn't. If the post were well thought out and civil, it would be highly relevant, and possibly informative to other people. Are you suggesting nobody is ever allowed to post about their views on how other people are acting?

well yeah The system is broken....which is why you shouldn't use use the + or - buttons at all (unless something blatantly offensive like porn obvious bot spam etc was posted)

Yeah, that's what I was getting at... regardless, I think the only real issue with the system is the automatic hiding of down-voted posts... But, that may just be a software restriction.

But what about when the posts do break the rules? I've seen sexist, racist, violent posts being up-voted back out of their well-and-truly deserved purgatory because of this system. The "-" button, as "Flag Post", that is, is the only button that should be there.

Spam seems to be the only rule-breaking that's actually treated as rule breaking around here.

Got any examples of this?

Well, I'm 24. And too old and tired to respond adequately to your post, suffice it to say I was indeed trying to facilitate open discussion by suggesting that people not shy away from allowing people to mention GOG's flaws. Maybe I could have phrased some things better in the initial post, maybe I should mention that this doesn't just apply to the 5/10 thread. This is indeed GOG's board, but it seems to me they've recognized that, generally, freedom of expression/freedom of concern (or the lack of suppression thereof) is good.

Something like that. The gist is this: I was indeed trying to facilitate open discussion by suggesting that people not shy away from realizing that GOG has flaws, and that constructive criticism can be a good thing.

Specific posts? Not really: generally, I avoid any kind of serious discussion on GOG because of the community's problems treating anyone that disagrees with them with any manner of respect. I have since 2008, during the heavily Godwinned Spore "discussion" and it's only gotten worse. I've seen people here threaten to kill people they're in arguments with (at least one went into a rant about his criminal history to back his threat up) and the mods do nothing, and the fact that their posts don't get buried by the minus button has never been reaffirming, and I suppose confirmed my bias that they were being up-voted again, but I have no proof of that in that specific instance. That said, I do remember down-voted rule breaking posts being up-voted again it during the SOPA/PIPA discussion, where I assumed votes were going in favour of the person's position on the acts, no matter how vile their arguments.

EDIT: In fact, some of the SOPA/PIPA posts were so heavily counter-up-voted that they were rated as "Good" posts. It gave the impression that the community was lauding its least laudable members. That's probably not true, but after a few pages, posts being made and voted on while you're still reading the old, how do you know which were voted on for which reason?

Nobody is shying away from realizing GOG has flaws. Nobody is saying that criticism of GOG should be outlawed on these forums.

What they're shying away from is the repetitive statements about GOG being hypocritical and contradictory because they've given the customers the types of discounts and promos those same customers presenting the complaints asked for. The horse has died multiple times from the repeated beatings.

You're using straw man arguments, my friend. You're making claims against a position that few people, if any espouse (that GOG should be immune from criticism). And you're assuming that people used downvotes because they had kneejerk reactions to what was being said. I looked through and it seemed like the downvotes didn't come until later pages of the discussion. So, it was not because people were put off by the idea of criticism of GOG.

They were put off because the criticism being launched was inherently contradictory and established upon a flawed premise. And after pages of discussion about this, with things going in circles, people seemingly began to use downvotes because they didn't see further repetition of previous statements having any contribution to the discussion, other than causing consternation and discontent.

The criticism in that thread wasn't constructive. It was illogical and seemed to arise from bitterness, which again is strange because GOG has actually listened to people's criticisms and requests.

While you may be sincerely trying to encourage open discussion, what you actually seem to be doing is generalizing a large part of this community as not being receptive to any form of criticism whatsoever. You're making large, sweeping claims that, as I explained above, are based on false assumptions about people's motives. To be honest its coming off as a bit disingenuous and passive aggressive.

I really don't see this thread turning out better than the other one. :(

I use GOG in spite of their failings personally, though I rarely buy games anymore except those on deep discount with soundtracks I want.

GOG always bothered me with their refusal to discount games in the way Steam does, often getting a "new" game that was on one of the mega Steam sales for pennies on the dollar compared to GOG's price.

I also completley disagree with the "Gog Dot Com" re-branding. None of the new games have added value IMHO, are all priced too high, and completely remove the charm of the original Good Old Games Dot Com.

I hate prices other than $6/10, and I hate that GOG doesn't often bundle games, where other retailers do.

I short, I love what Gog USED to be, SOMETIMES still is, and maybe still CAN be. I am not sure if that makes sense.

Also, the community here, despite my often vitriolic relationships with several members, adds a LOT of value for me.

As I kicked the shit off in the other thread let me quickly recap for those who don't want to read it.

1. I was not against the promo (I said a few times that this promo is a good idea and that it makes GOG somewhat competitive in this sector, finally)

2. I was against GOGs marketing and PR in recent times. Ever since GOG went from Good Old Games towards GOG their PR and marketing has taken a noticeable nosedive. The example with the "de-evaluating of games" (a position I don't share) was brought up by me, because I consider how they are handling this issue the peak of hypocrisy on GOGs part combined with (and that is what made me angry in the first place) negative advertisement. I don't like negative marketing. Especially for GOG.

3. Then TET came in and said they "listen to us" and thought I would be happy about this change. On which I called BS. My stance is GOG is simply doing what is best for their bottom line (no problem, as I want them to be around) but that their marketing and how they are communicating with us is feeling increasingly disingenuous . Eg, the line that they "only made big discounts because we demanded them" I call BS because any company in this business has noticed how profitable they were and the only reason GOG didn't do them before was for external reasons (too small catalogue and no publisher approval on the old games). Of course they "did listen to us", they where following the market. But selling as if they were doing us a favour is, imo, BS. And I stand by this opinion, others don't.

That was it. The rest was people reading their own stuff into the discussion. (For the record, I hardly complain about pricing here. I consider 6$ and 10$ the perfect price for most of the oldies. GOG is not competitive with Steam and Humble with indies, but the price is the least of the problems there. And as I don't buy modern games here anyway, it is only in so far of interest in that it could actually reduce their ability to cater for old games. Which, at least for now, unlike the summer, does not seem the case)

Edit:

And for the record, I only wanted to make a smart comment to remind GOG about their earlier stance. It was then TET who made a lenghty explanation, which I called BS for the most part. From there the "discussion" went downhill. After another reply from TET the factual discussion was over and the rest was about calling me an attention whore and pubescent girl. (Which is actually some of the nicer things I was called recently).