I'm saving it all on my basquet.

But yeah, the thread itself was better than I expected after the comments on this last page. Sure, it went nowhere, but I never expected it to go anywhere to begin with. It's a pretty good example of the current forum situation and what problems it has, easy to follow should this new community manager want to do something about it. It's done its job.

First they came for the weirdos, and I did not speak out - because I wasn't a weirdo.
Then they came for the pervos, and I did not speak out - because I wasn't a perv.
Then they came for the querulants, and I did not speak out - because I never mince words.
And then I was the only one left, and finally everything was great.

(Apologies to Niemöller.)

Sorry I can't really read everything that has been said in this thread, so I'll just pick this one from two days ago:

If by "preventing" you mean banning people who say any of those things, I oppose it mostly because where do you draw the line?

Some days ago someone in this forum suggested that in Finland we use walrus and reindeer skins as a currency, and another member suggested Finnish people are introvert and depressed (something about Finland being the depression capital of the world or blaablaablaa). Should those people be banned from the forum, or the very least their messages semi-automatically removed, just because some Finn might feel annoyed by such negative stereotypes? Or when some people complained about Brexit or Trump voters being stupid and all, even suggesting that all Brits are stupid (due to Brexit)?

I actually like how GOG forums are working at the moment:

- The discussion is pretty open overall, GOG staff intervenes mostly if the discussion really goes well overboard (e.g. locking the thread), or if the OP wants the thread to be locked. Also if it is e.g. suggestions for piracy, as that might affect GOG's business as well (links to pirate software etc.).

- For users, there is the possibiility to downvote and even report messages they find highly offending. The staff seems to pick these up and even remove them, e.g. when that certain person keeps resurrecting years old messages just to spite rest of the forum users. This is also easier to GOG staff that the forum members particate on deciding what kind of material doesn't belong to the forum.

What I might change:

- Someone suggested that people could downvote (and upvote?) only certain number of times per day. That sounds ok to me, why not.

- Since GOG has started using captcha, I've been thinking would it make sense to force it every time one wants to downvote/upvote a message, or report it as spam? Not necessarily when an user logs in, but if he tries to perform those voting or spam reporting functions? Would this take care of the problem(?) of some apparently using scripts to mass-downvote posts, in order to reduce users' rep points?

Overall, I don't wish GOG forums to become like over-moderated Steam forums, or some other forums with lots of silly rules (like a certain forum where starting a new discussion on a subject that has been discussed already, even if years ago, might get you banned temporarily; kind of the opposite to GOG forums where people are expected to start a new thread on a subject rather than resurrecting an old one).

Wait, you're offended by "sigh"?
Your post is garbage. If you're not simultaneously drunk and high, learn to English and have a medical professional check your brain for crayons.

Should you have been banned from the forums for saying that you "have absolutely nothing but fucking contempt for the British" or that the Brits choose to be lazy and ignorant? What if someone said something similar about, say, muslims, or somalis, or whatever?

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/brexit_once_upon_a_time_in_eu_official_thread_please_stay_civil/post1536

I personally think you had a right to say that as your opinion, and others have the right to downvote (or upvote) or even report your message, if they find it too offending to bear.

I also tend to think that if someone keeps posting something highly offending, the only real effect it has is making themselves looking stupid. When e.g. ciomalou or whoever posts something overly silly, I have hard time believing it would turn other people here into neo-nazis or something, rather than people just having even lower opinion of said person. (sorry cio for using you as an example, but you were the first one to pop into my mind)

So I don't consider such offending messages quite as dangerous as some others apparently do.

deleted

Have you TASTED liberals' tears? OMG They are so delicious. If you haven't tried it how would you know?!

Hi

It's a bit obvious that the technical support of the forums feature-wise never was priority. However, I think indirectly it's a selling point too, or isn't it? After all Steam has nice community features that are IMHO a bit more comfortable than GOG ones. So if selling games is the priority there should be some emphasis on improving the profiles, the account and the forums features too (especially of the game specific forums).

When you say it's not a necessary part of the selling aspect I kind of agree only on a technical level. Indirectly it seems somewhat important, probably not easy to estimate.

Please keep up with your work and if by chance you see a programmer around with some spare time (fat chance I know), tell him we would like it if he could have a look at the feature wishlist and implement some of those. Out of sheer gratefulness and joy we even might buy some additional games from GOG and after all, isn't selling games the priority?

Did I already mention that the Steam plattform and community features really look quite polished. ;)

And you think that being part of the problem is more "productive" ?

Complaining about the "current state of the forum" is one thing; but when half your recent posts in this very thread contains the word "fuck" you are not helping improving it.

Yo GOG, we have a problem here with our legal gray zone game key trading that costs you revenue. Plz fix thx!

Yeaaahhh, top priority for GOG, I guess. :p

Here's the suggestion the Double Fine forum rules have for those cases: GOG could start out with that and then just go from there. :)

Oh god, please stop talking about using captchas for everything. Having to unblock Google's domains every time I want to click a button sounds terrible.

While we're at it, why not scrap GOG's account system and force everyone to Login With Facebook.

They even went backwards at some point, by changing PMs to the Chat system.

As for rules of conduct, they have had these for quite a while: https://www.gog.com/support/website_help/forums_feedback

But they lack people willing to enforce any.

The best thing is they're flowing from never-ending streams! Like, you can't even go eat a steak or decline a salary without a tear flowing. It's seriously mind-blowing.

Why not to limit upvotes:
If I find a thread that is genuinely amusing, please don't restrict me from rewarding (in a small way) the two dozen posts that made me laugh out loud. I, along with x number of other people, can mark my amusement without possibly breaking the flow of the thread.

Why not to limit downvotes:
The "Report as Spam" function is behind the the downvote button. You might recall the massive spam attacks we had some years ago (the WE ARE UNDER ATTACK thread has a pretty good record of this). It was the users, not GOG, that provided containment until GOG finally implemented a solution to block most of that mess.

The post/thread deletion mostly isn't done by a human at GOG.

Too vague (e.g. what is racist or intimidaion?). I want it to specifically mention that spreading negative stereotypes of Finnish people is strictly prohibited and frowned upon, and causes one to lose one's GOG games to charity, and maybe also that claiming Brits to be lazy should also cause a firm slap on the wrist.

Anyway I guess we people look at this differently. GOG decides and has the power to decide when it is time to put stop to some discussion (locking the thread and/or removing messages), and as said I feel voicing outright racist slurs on the forums tends to hurt the writer more than the people they are commenting about.

Plus, there is still the option for other forum members to downvote and report the said message/user.