bler144: 1) Uh, yeah, true as far it goes, if I'm following you. But it would require more changes to their website design which might cost more than hiring more mods.
2) Of course, but not everyone follows a link either. Whether out of laziness or concerns about viruses, etc., or because you've already clicked 50 of Krypsyn's links in forum mafia and have no idea what his point is. (j/k)
So what you're really talking about is a lower rate of uptake. But in terms of your "right to speech" as it were, in both cases you have had the opportunity to speak, and just as now you'll have some people who engage seriously and others who don't.
1) Then what would be the preferred end solution to both not costing GOG much to change their website versus ditching rep as the way of gaining abilities on a system level and gaining access to specific giveaways on a community level? Personally, I see that ditching the rep system for that is enough. Then adding in a 'report this user' function in which it does exactly the same thing. Just programming a few codes so that when button X is clicked, open a form, and when the form is sent, send it to the staff to-do's. The rest is just the staff figuring out the whole idea.
2) But at least with a link, I provided the users the exact article I'm referring to, the exact reference, the exact everything. Whether they not click it or not is not of my concern, my concern here is for those who want to follow me to the link, who absolutely wish to see the content I'm referencing, and its better to save time and effort for them.
Yes, in either case, the workarounds might work, however, the convenience of adding a link is just miles superior. It is not really okay to let the people who can downvote or upvote who they want based on whatever factors they have to take away my privilege of presenting what I want to reference or say in the most complete form possible. As I have said, its affecting me in a giveaway's thread OP that I started.
