Today it came to my attention that the actual GOG profile of our current community manager Linko90 has obviously been deleted. Many already also have noticed that he has not been posted here since the latest Twitter event so this might mean that GOG's response to the recent events was just to "let him go" which would be the easiest but also the most inhuman and unfair reaction.

So far this is just an assumption of course. In case the assumption should be true I created this thread to ask those people responsible for the decision to reconsider, in case this should not be true this thread should prevent those people from even making the wrong decision in the first place.

I have been quite active in the forums visiting them mostly on a daily basis and in most cases I liked the forums. However, as many noticed, the tone in several threads changed a lot for the worse in recent years which in the end also made several loyal GOGers (aka as customers) actually leave the forums completely (well this and some of GOG's decisions). I stayed and while I did realize the decline I was also still hopeful that the forums could be saved if we only had the right person to moderate them. It would take somebody who was willing to dedicate as much time to them as necessary and he'd need to actually be able to communicate with us since We all know that one of GOGs biggest problem is communication. So yes, I was hoping for somebody who would be able to finally communicate with us and keeping those that were unwiling to stay civil in line so that we could have some great discussions without hatespeech or verbally killing each other. The heart of this community is still great and nice so all it would take would be some moderation. The GOG forums did not have any moderation (at least none you could actually call this way) for quite some time (since fables22 left) until finally Linko90 was introduced here as a community manager a few months ago.

Suddenly you could see much more blue in the forums as ever before and whenever I stumbled accidentally over a thread with not only a controversial topic but also posts that could not be considered civil at all Linko90 was there already. Keeping people in line and if necessary even closing threads or banning people as last resort. Of course those people who did not want to respect the forum guidelines or the usual courtesy in forums weren't happy about it but imo that's unavoidable and it is what moderation is about: Trying to keep discussions civil, talk to the community and if necessary even doing more drastic things like closing threads or editing inappropriate words. I noticed that several of those users that were considered to be problematic became nicer and more careful and when I asked people if they are satisfied with our new community manager the answer was mostly always "yes". Even one of those known to be a bit problematic people told me that he got tamer because of Linko90 and he sort of like it because the forums also became nicer of him.

So we got more feedback and it was more fun to use the forums and maybe some day even old loyal users would have come back to these forums they once called a "cesspool". It all was going into the right direction and this with a community that is not that easy to deal with in some cases, being branded by former GOG decisions and disappointment - and don't let me even start how hard moderation must have been in political threads.

So we had a great run and all was going well... until Twitter happened. Twitter? Why do we probably have to lose one great community manager because of a tweet people got offended about? This thread is not about the question if the Tweets were problematic or not, this has been discussed over and over again elsewhere. This thread is about telling GOG that it would be a bad idea to let a good community manager (which is VERY hard to find) go just because of a probably problematic Tweet. If Twitter is a problem just don't let him tweet for GOG. Just let him moderate the forums. There is more than enough work in them. He could also help with the updates as well or trying to get missing updates to GOG (we still have quite a few of them as you probably are well aware) - two birds with one stone. Just for god's sake don't let a good employee go because of this. Be as human as you always tell us you are and bring Linko90 back to us.

This thread is made to ask people to show their support for Linko90 as well so that GOG might be able to see that I am not alone with my opinion.

I wasn't much of a fan of his, but if all our assumptions are correct and Linko90 was really fired, I'd put that in the "GOG's fuckups 2018" category.

I liked Linko's work. He was a fair community manager, always aware of what was going on around. Sometimes too restrictive, but that was because he took his job seriously.
What is more important, he was an acive member of the community and knew how to post on any discussion and interact with other users without taking any protagonism. Furthermore, he sort of encouraged discussing the thread's subject.

Maybe he was just a poor intern and his contract was over, but he will nonetheless be remembered and missed.

Farewell and good luck, Linko90!

Maybe GOG bosses change their minds and we can see you around here again.

I lack Marko's eloquence, but I'd like to add a supportive voice for Linko. He really made a difference for better here, on forum. It would be a shame if you let him go.

Mistakes were made, but I also feel like Linko90 should remain as GOG's community manager. I feel like he did a very good job at communicating with us whenever possible and his moderation efforts in the forums have been a Godsend as well. It would be real shame if he had to leave.

I'm sorry,but I cannot endorse this as he gave me a weeks ban and when I asked the reason he told me to tone it down.When I persisted and threatened to go over his head he made an extension of another two weeks and I never got an answer to why I was banned in the first place.Even after the ban I was continually reminded to watch my tone and treated like a leper,again for no reason but to try and assert his authority over me.That was his undoing as far as I am concerned
as he was trying to say ''do what,your told or cop another ban''.This came over as a threat/intimidation.bullying and I wasn't going to cop it or suck up like many here did.

I don't care what you all think about this as I know the truth and you all have been told.

Admittingly,the last couple of weeks he has been civil to me and I returned it in kind.And I think we may have ended the war,but...

If he was responsible over all this twitter drama, I can't really blame GOG for firing him, but someone to mod this forum is necessary, sadly.

Have to say its sad to see him disappear Linko90 was a really good CM.
This place got much nicer once ED-209 was patroling the threads.

Some clarification of what happend would be really nice so that the people
not jump to conclusion.

Not sure what happened to Linko since I didn't follow any tweets but the above is reason enough for me to support him.

Linko, whatever happens, best of luck!

I also liked Linko as a community manager here in the forum. But also I see removing him from social media as justified. If he was the one who screwed up there repeatedly, damaging GOG's image in the process, it was high time that he was replaced there. It was his third strike after all, if I counted correctly and GOG really doesn't need all that bad press. They are good enough at making themselves look bad anyhow (for example with the heavy-handed pushing of Thronebreaker, to a point were people lost interest in it instead of being enticed to buy it)

However, errors made in anti-social media should not reflect back on the forum. These two functions are not connected. So GOG, I'd suggest to keep Linko away from Twitter and Facebook in any official function, but let him resume his work here in the forum.

I suspect that the forum alone isn't important enough for GOG to pay someone solely for the task of a forum manager. But you could just give him some other tasks on the side that aren't anti-social media related.

@Linko: no matter whether you return as CM or not, good luck to you!

I throw also my support for Linko90 in. The forum became more civilized when he was around.

^ Most definitely this. We need Linko and he was always helpful.

Put me down as being pissed that GOG would fire someone over something so stupid.

I have a whole lot more to say on the issue, but I will refrain from it because I don't want this thread to be CLOSED.

Considering the latest tweet itself implied a purposeful use of the hashtag and if it was really a 'third strike' as was mentioned above then i can only assume it was intentional so for that alone I'd say whomever it was should be removed from twitter duty.

As for here on the forums and Linko, personally I felt the forum was still doing fine before he arrived, though it's been on a downward trend for a long time so I do think moderation is becoming an inevitability. I do seem to remember thinking he was offering a bit too much opinion in certain debates while moderating which I personally feel mods should stay out of as much as they can, or use personal (non-mod) profiles at the very least.

Whatever turns you on sweetie.