MarkoH01: Tbh I don't get the problem here. There are rules we should follow them - should not be difficult to do so. If a discussion is partly against the rules maybe this discussion should be handled with different words. As responsible and decent people we all should be able to discuss things without swearing, insulting or derail things too much. It would be great if you could give some examples (simply post a link of discussions which in your opinion have been disturbed by trying to keep them by the rules) so that I would understand this problem you have a bit better.

Also, imo CMs are doing their work here because they want to help making this forum a better place by preventing extreme toxicity. They are still part of the community but since they are doing their work in the name of GOG and for GOG I would never expect them to be more lenient than the people they are doing the work for. This is not our forum, it's GOG's forum which we simply are allowed to use by playing by the rules they made.

Linko64: It's not rocket science. Active moderation does not simply mean turning up only to ban/close/post about a delisting. The distinct lack of communication between staff and the users here is fundamentally the biggest problem that leads to the next biggest problem.

Orkhepaj: First they should remove the exploited rep system. Just look at GamerCat's posts nearly every one of them is low rated. Clearly some toxic people can't stop - based on name.

MarkoH01: Okay, on this we can agree. It's one thing to try to keep the forums clean, it's another to not communicate and maybe even explain why some things needed to happen and suggest how to make them better. Lack of communication between GOG and its user base - yes, it's impossible to deny that this is the case.

Orkhepaj: First they should remove the exploited rep system. Just look at GamerCat's posts nearly every one of them is low rated. Clearly some people can't stop - based on name.

MarkoH01: Btw: I guess you mean GameRager with "GamerCat"?

MarkoH01: Tbh I don't get the problem here. There are rules we should follow them - should not be difficult to do so. If a discussion is partly against the rules maybe this discussion should be handled with different words. As responsible and decent people we all should be able to discuss things without swearing, insulting or derail things too much. It would be great if you could give some examples (simply post a link of discussions which in your opinion have been disturbed by trying to keep them by the rules) so that I would understand this problem you have a bit better.

morolf: The issue is that it just takes one or two users who are somewhat out of line, and then frequently entire threads get closed, even though other users didn't show any questionable behaviour. I'll be honest: my impression of the "community managers" here is extremely negative, their style of moderation strikes me as lazy, incompetent and authoritarian. Just closing threads down at the slightest hint of *potential* trouble is a very poor style of moderation. I can understand that Gog doesn't want the forum to return to the state it was a few years ago (with edgy alt-righters and SJWs making it their battleground) and agree that politics should be mostly kept out of here, but the way they're trying to achieve this comes across like they're regarding users as a nuisance anyway.

MarkoH01: Okay, I understand what you say here. However it still would be great if you could provide one or two links for me to see this myself. It is not that I don't believe you but I think it is more fair to see things with own eyes to be able to judge unbiased. Unfortunately I haven't witnessed such dicussions recently (which of course does not mean that they don't happen which is the reason I am asking for one or two examples).

morolf: The original Covid-19 thread:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_covid19_thread/page70
I'll admit that my own behaviour in that thread wasn't entirely correct, since I got into an unpleasant political discussion with an Italian user (which ended however well before the thread got locked). And certainly some other users were also overstepping lines somewhat. But most discussion in the thread was civil and non-political, so just locking it seemed like an over-reaction to me. And it's similar whenever anything even remotely controversial threatens to come up...mods seem to be operating on the basis of "Thread locked, problem solved".
I agree that this should be a forum mostly about gaming, but even gaming can't be entirely separated from societal issues, so there's always potential for controversy. Gog was arguably too lax in its forum moderation for many years and tolerated some pretty extreme stuff, but now it seems to go to the other extreme.

Linko64: It's not rocket science. Active moderation does not simply mean turning up only to ban/close/post about a delisting. The distinct lack of communication between staff and the users here is fundamentally the biggest problem that leads to the next biggest problem.

StingingVelvet: At the end of the day it's GOG's forum and they have the right to police it as they see fit though.

MightyFloTheKing: True, but lots of support for the goods they sell goes through the forum user to user. It's not that the forum does have no use for them. Support for games that are 30 years old, sometimes cost 1 dollar or Euro, in a time where Windows 10 updates break games regularly (this was even mentioned on the store page until recently).
The people they'd need for that are expensive. So the forum is a give and take I think.

GameRager has some valid points and is capable to speak out in a great way. And there are other users, that stand out from the crowd. I wished GOG staff would talk/listen to these people since someone has to speak for the community and someone else should listen.
In the end of the day everybody wins.