It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionAlright, GOG. Time to end this shit!(42 posts)(42 posts)
(42 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
This is my favourite topic
Posted August 04, 2015
avatar
KiNgBrAdLeY7: My personal, humble suggestion, is for people to stop summoning "blues" and demanding censorship/moderation/tight surveillance.
avatar
Breja: That is exactly what no one was demanding or even suggesting. So far the popular conclusions are

-fix the chat already
-either get rid of rep system or make downvoting a pay-gated feature
-moderation only in the extent of dealing with things like multiple account trolls harrasing people with threats

hardly a call for censorship and tight surveillance.
I don't even think the de-rep button should be a thing. Trolls who make multiple alts obviously don't care, so this feature of self policing is inefficient by now considering this community's size.
Posted August 04, 2015
It's the inevitability of popularity. It's actually a positive for GOG that they are achieving such a large user base, but I understand your frustration about the jerks. They are not the majority, but they are indeed a difficult and trying minority. They aren't only on GOG either. We've all run across them elsewhere. We just have to do the best we can to ignore them and not let them ruin things for us, which they often delight in doing. If they are truly causing harm then they may need to be banned. Sorry. I know it stinks, but it is the price for critical mass.
Posted August 04, 2015
Why have I been down voted this time? Am I being stalked on this forum?
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
HijacK: Yes, but the potential stays there regardless. A user who does not wish to host any more giveaways will not make anymore extra purchases. In business all these types of estimates count.
Possibly, but the gifting (behind the scenes) is separate, which reduces the GA purchases to an even lower percentage. Plus a number of users stated in Momo's thread that they don't intend to stop buying games, even if they agree that the state of the forum has declined and they'd like to see improvements.

Please note that I'm not speaking against "vote with your wallet", just pointing out that GOG has quite likely already estimated that they can afford any losses from forum regulars thanks to the new blood that TW3 and Galaxy have brought in.
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
HypersomniacLive: Possibly, but the gifting (behind the scenes) is separate, which reduces the GA purchases to an even lower percentage. Plus a number of users stated in Momo's thread that they don't intend to stop buying games, even if they agree that the state of the forum has declined and they'd like to see improvements.

Please note that I'm not speaking against "vote with your wallet", just pointing out that GOG has quite likely already estimated that they can afford any losses from forum regulars thanks to the new blood that TW3 and Galaxy have brought in.
I'm well aware of that, but still doesn't seem like a feasible business decision to just throw away purchases. In any case, I'm estimating that by the time I'm done with my backlog things will get sorted out. If not, I'm still gonna buy stuff from here. This lack of action on GOG's part just motivates me to work on what I already have.
Post edited August 05, 2015 by HijacK
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
HijacK: Yes, but the potential stays there regardless. A user who does not wish to host any more giveaways will not make anymore extra purchases. In business all these types of estimates count.
I agree that, while it isn't their core business, I don't think we're talking about an insignificant level of sales here either. As anecdata, the first 18 months after "joining" GOG I probably made 2 forum posts in game-specific forums, and bought a small handful of games.

In the 6 months since I got hooked into the forums I've probably bought 40, both for myself and GAs. Why? Because the community is nice, and that's a rare thing to find on the internet anywhere, particularly around video games. Aside from GAs it's fun to get excited about games people I like are excited about that I otherwise wouldn't have paid any attention to (Nox, ahem).
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
HypersomniacLive: Just pointing out that GOG has quite likely already estimated that they can afford any losses from forum regulars thanks to the new blood that TW3 and Galaxy have brought in.
Unfortunately a pretty obvious conclusion.Even more since they can believe the "old user base" is secured and anyhow bound to slowly disappear, while the "new base" is the path towards growth...

But if, as a consumer, you enter a shop and see on the fora the following :
a) reports of accounts being hacked
b) scams
c) threads being "nuked"
d) evidence of members being threatened, insulted, harassed
...
How do you feel about that new platform you have discovered? Compared to the archrival, where the client gives an apparence of security. ...

The situation should be acted upon because It does convey an image that might be slighly negative for the business. Even worse if the new customers experience that firsthand receiving an ugly PM because, for instance, they participated to that tempting GA

On GA purchases, I don't think they are that meaningfull either, rather marginal I'd say.
avatar
bler144: In the 6 months since I got hooked into the forums I've probably bought 40, both for myself and GAs. Why? Because the community is nice, and that's a rare thing to find on the internet anywhere, particularly around video games. Aside from GAs it's fun to get excited about games people I like are excited about that I otherwise wouldn't have paid any attention to (Nox, ahem).
Agree, but the number of GA organisers compared to the total user count is marginal. My GA budget, yours, Sinistar's and all the others together cannot compare with the potential that oozes from all these new shiny users ;-)
avatar
zeffyr: Anyway, GOG is aware of that issue and I hope we'll see the solution soon (not soon™).
"Good News™ soon™" is a distinct possibility, but then expect the echo of discontent to grow louder...
Post edited August 05, 2015 by Phc7006
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
Phc7006: [...]

The situation should be acted upon because It does convey an image that might be slighly negative for the business. Even worse if the new customers experience that firsthand receiving an ugly PM because, for instance, they participated to that tempting GA

[...]
While I agree with you, the negative image from the forum situation stays pretty much confined in here. It is my impression that GOG know it, and thus the reason they don't usually bother to do anything about things asides from listening to us. If these discussion were taken to their social media, their reaction would have been much swifter and quite different, because, regardless of if we like it or not, it's there that a negative image may hurt the business.

How many of the new customers that TW3 and Galaxy brought in do you think would have visited the forum if they could find their friends without having to post here? The vast majority of them vanished after making the required post.
With every major event, more people arrive, but very few stick around the forum, and sadly there always seem to be a few bad apples among them.

Again, I agree with you, but at the same time I don't think we matter that much, if at all anymore.
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
Breja: This really is a vicious little circle thoug, isn't it? If all the old members, who made that classy, great community, fall silent, no wonder the forum gets worse and worse.

I understand why you and others made that choice, and the burden of introducing at least basic features needed to keep the place odrderly falls on GOG, but still there is some degree of responsibility on the community's side to not let the trolls win and dictate the tone of this forum.

Please, don't get me wrong, when I say "responsibility" I don't mean that you HAVE to be active, but I strongly urge you to be. If all the users I have seen say similiar things in the last weeks about not being as active here as they used to be actually did become active again, the trolls be damned, all their trolling would be overshadowed by all the smart discussions, silly fun, and generous giveaways we could have then.

We need GOG to give us the tools to save this forum, from the most basic chat features to some kind of anti-troll means(like pay-gate for downvoting, posting links and sending PMs), but WE need to make this a forum one still worth saving.

I guess this is my general call to all users, lurkers and the old guard, and all who fell silent in recent time. I call upon GOG users everywhere. Post. Post today. Post tomorrow. Post till the last troll has been driven from our soil!
I agree with Reaver. A lot of us had to stop using the forum because the shitposting became too much to contend with, we reached critical mass in terms of being able to hold meaningful discussions amid a sea of absolute junk a very long time ago, such that it became the norm to the point that there are actually one or two users who take a professional pride in intentionally derailing threads. In most forums, serial derailment gets you banned. It's not censorship it's crowd control. And you have a serious problem with your ego if your need to derail and speak utter nonsense must not be curbed lest your freedom of speech be irreparably damaged.

Now whenever I come back I tend to be called out for having views on moderation, so I've effectively been pushed out of the community. I have to come here with a motive to act like a complete jackass to be allowed to hang about, seemingly.

A lot of people who I met on this forum and still speak to feel very much the same way. We can't come back, no matter how useful you think we'd be, because we want to discuss things whereas everybody else wants to drown us in shitposts. So we moved on.

So thanks for the invitation to all the 'old members' but I'm afraid you'll find most of them are really just too apprehensive to come back.
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
reaver894: Like a lot of others theres a reason I went very quiet too and stopped doing a lot of things around here I used to.
avatar
Breja: This really is a vicious little circle thoug, isn't it? If all the old members, who made that classy, great community, fall silent, no wonder the forum gets worse and worse.

I understand why you and others made that choice, and the burden of introducing at least basic features needed to keep the place odrderly falls on GOG, but still there is some degree of responsibility on the community's side to not let the trolls win and dictate the tone of this forum.
In principle, I agree with you. The problem, in practice, is that it's mentally and emotionally frustrating to see a community in which you've invested a considerable amount of time (as well as expended time and energy making meaningful relationships) essentially crash into the gutter. Doubly so, when you see the people in charge ignore everything that's going on. And in our case the staff at GOG seem to even be indirectly on the side of the scammers and trolls.

Yes, there is a time to stand and fight. Yes, we need to do what we can to not let the scammers and trolls win. But eventually, when there are so many other things in our lives that demand our attention (and arguably may bring us more happiness than these forums) it's clear that some things aren't worth the effort anymore. Frankly, I totally understand the people who believe that the GOG forums, or even GOG itself isn't worth their time, effort, and money.
Post edited August 05, 2015 by rampancy
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
TheJoe: A lot of people who I met on this forum and still speak to feel very much the same way. We can't come back, no matter how useful you think we'd be, because we want to discuss things whereas everybody else wants to drown us in shitposts. So we moved on.

So thanks for the invitation to all the 'old members' but I'm afraid you'll find most of them are really just too apprehensive to come back.
Yep. Lets take a look at the top three topics currently, in General, as of 05/08/15 @ 1256 GMT:

Conversational Free-For-All Thread. [p: 1 - 2993]
Why the person above you should be banned [p: 1 - 209]
Word Association Game [p: 1 - 2608]

Great.

But, there are some better looking topics about, but I know if I bothered to get involved they would get derailed almost right away, or something else would happen which would mean I'd end up reading posts one tier above Youtube comments.
Posted August 05, 2015
avatar
HypersomniacLive: Again, I agree with you, but at the same time I don't think we matter that much, if at all anymore.
Well for sure many of the new customers aren't participating to the forum. And I'm pretty sure many of the "users" having redeemed the nvidia key for TW3 aren't even participating further to gog.com. But those that get used to the platform are at some point likely to venture on the forum.

I guess the rule about the overwhelming silent majority is still valid: there are many more forum readers than one things when looking at the number of actual participants. GOG might not care, but that might not be a good idea.

However, I note the alt account mimicking my profile has now been locked , so to some extent some issues get reacted upon.
Pages:
1
2
3
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAlright, GOG. Time to end this shit!(42 posts)(42 posts)
(42 posts)