I find it interesting that you've showed up too. Hai!

Not that there should be any need to justify myself, being a regular GOG customer/forum user for the past 8 years ... but I've been targeted by these voting bots myself and am blocked from certain forum functions by virtue of having an invisible negative rep. So, I feel I've got some 'skin in the game' on this one.

Yes, downvoting is still possible, as i get downvoted all the time myself... reason why i can not use many of the forum functions anymore. Dont ask me how its done and "who is doing it"... but in general, as long as there is a certain signature any user could become the target.

^ ^ ^
I've always thought that the sole consequence of having a negative rep is the inability to post links.
Is there truly more than that?

I dont know because there is no transparency regarding this matter. Surely, this function along with a forum barely "fixed" is not a good combo.

You are making an assumption there.

In truth, we don't know who is doing the downvoting. It could be one person, could be a group, could be many, could be some kind of corporation, trying to sow dissatisfaction with GOG or who just like to sow disharmony for childish kicks. It could be connected to the spam we get here or not.

All it takes is a simple script, that is based on user ID or name. You might even be able to target everyone in a thread, as many of us have certainly seen and experienced. You could also use a script to trawl the forum sections. It wouldn't be hard to do that for those who know how.

GOG I suspect, were hoping that if the botters could not see the result of their downvoting, that they would give up, but alas that appears to not be true.

GOG have had plenty of time, to really address the issue, but haven't despite all the complaints I am sure they still continually get. Of course they get those complaints, because users themselves can still see their rep going down.

GOG, at least to me, have just brushed the downvoting off as not being important, not really having any impact on anyone.

Many of us have suspicions that GOG might use the issue to eventually shut the forums down one day.

Hello!
Please also add a list of your posts.

Clickbait title with unbelievable story. The QA doesn't change much. It actually makes it worse...

Yep, I am certainly against having multiple accounts, which is against the rules last I looked. That said, I do understand that some folk have a reasonable reason for it, and some just plainly don't bother to read the rules, so don't know or have forgotten.

Briefly I thought the same, but anyone concerned about the issue, especially a new member, that has heard they cannot post links because some bot has been downvoting them, could then look into it, and we have plenty of threads here about downvoting. They also seem ignorant of some of the known facts, which could be explained by a quick perusal.

In any case, I decided to address the meat of the issue, and not make judgments without enough facts.

fva_ has been responding like a person and not a bot. So even if they do have more than one account, that doesn't necessarily make them evil ... unless of course you have the mind of a pretend policeman.

Removed.

Okay Mr Smartarse Motormouth.

Why cannot you show us the proof you think you have? Are the others similar to that?
And if so, what does that actually mean?
Are you trying to discredit fva_, like you tried to discredit me a while back? Everyone except you maybe.

I could but I won't post it here because it would probably be against the CoC to post everything.


The only "coincidence" here is that the Sharpest Tool On Shelf who was actually caught and moderated with interesting threads by Laupa2021, knows about a working scripts and has knowledge to create these scripts is posting in another of these threads.

Don't feed the trolls. Either OP or the others.

Am I the only one concerned about Breja's sudden disappearance since he received a secret message? It's a joke of course or IS it? ;-)

Put your proof where your mouth is.

You are probably right.