Just noticed in my tweetfeed that itch.io opened its forums. The sections are not definitive and are currently mostly geared to devs but I'm quite curious how it will evolve...

Main page here:
https://itch.io/community

Rules (because it's not GOG Far West ^o^)
http://itch.io/docs/general/community-rules

Just a word of warning though: they have <span class="bold">DRM</span>. :)

DRM which is DRM-Free :D Well, they have the following rule :

"4. Do not attempt to impersonate any user, or pass yourself off as a moderator/administrator.
While we encourage users to assist one another, please do not present yourself as having “official” information or otherwise mislead others."

So they could enforce account banning based on that rule huh ?

Itch.io has a very different approach than GoG.com when it comes to integrating low quality and free games by letting the devs to their thing and is a bit chaotic but it will be interesting to see how it will develop.
DRM-free doesn't seem to be a prerequisite there though and I hope they will change that.

The new forum may be a good opportunity to get in contact with devs and since I'd like to be working on a soundtrack someday, it may come in handy, thanks for the hint.

Awesome! Itch.io is quickly becoming my favorite game store (no offense GOG), it just seems to be constantly improving and it already has a very solid foundation built.

This rule: Do not create posts about sensitive topics that may instigate argument

I understand why forums have it, makes it easier to moderate if you make it a culture so no one critizes it but what the hell? How are discussions going to lead anywhere new if you can't discuss sensitive or controversial topics? It seems like a cop out for lazy moderators.

They are off to a terrific start; they managed the so-hard feat of going with multiple sub-forums!

I wonder if PC vs. consoles is part of this category of "argument instigating sensitive topics", since it usually leads to massive flame wars. Oh nevermind, it's just the usual PI-bullshit as usual of course.

Controversial topics are one of my main reasons for being here at all, there aren't many places left for free speech thanks to the extremely authoritarian currents that are hip atm.

Its an interesting site, however the risk of DRM'd games puts me off. Much the same as humble or ShinyLoot. I don't trust what they supply to be workable offline.

One problem is that legitimate questions could be considered "controversial" by the mods and deleted. An example would be asking for games with LGBT characters. Another would be the "games with same-sex marriage" topic that I posted shortly after the SCOTUS same-sex marriage ruling.

???????????????

I don't know what games you click on but the vast majority of itch.io is without DRM as it has the same approach than gamejolt ("everything goes"). It's a website more suited for small or experimental games so they're already unlikely to get on Steam.

EDIT: I just saw they made more search parameters so ATM, there are only 245 games with steam keys on a total of 22.308 games.

I haven't, I had a look at Humble, they went all steam key, so don't use them. Shiny started out well, then went all steam key. So I have a lot of caution on these types of sites. As you mention "vast majority", means there are some that are not. Its probably a one in a million chance...

For LGBT stuff, they already host the games of Robert Yang so you can't get any queerer than that:
http://radiatoryang.itch.io/
(some of his games are highly NSFW....)

I like that they have a forum now. But I think it's a little strange that there is nospecific section to discuss the games they sell.