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Hey everyone,

As already hinted on the forum, we've updated our forum rules - see the updated version here: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001814049-Forum-Code-of-Conduct.

Please take the time to read the rules and familiarize yourselves with them before posting on the forum. For the majority of you, I believe nothing will change in terms of what and how you post, however, I'm very much hoping to see a positive change in the overall environment of the forum. Some of you might have to be a bit harder on themselves to get used to the new Code of Conduct, but I'm sure you can all do it!

Also note that, while I welcome constructive feedback, the rules are currently not subject to change. I'd like to give it a couple months to see if/how they work, before considering any major changes and updates.

Thanks everyone for your co-operation!

EDIT: Just to clarify as it's come up a few times - support tickets are not to be used as reports. If you wish to alert me to something you suspect breaks forum rules (this excludes past offences), do so via PMs to me directly.

EDIT2: If you have any questions, before asking me directly, please read through this thread: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/rules_threads_all_that_jazz.
Post edited March 10, 2017 by fables22
Holy smokes! Hopefully the forum will become a more friendly place again now :)
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fables22:
Under "HOW WE MODERATE:",

However, constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome, provided they are directed to forum moderators and not disputed within the forum itself.

Does that mean we are not allowed to criticize Mod actions publicly?
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fables22:
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mm324: Under "HOW WE MODERATE:",

However, constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome, provided they are directed to forum moderators and not disputed within the forum itself.

Does that mean we are not allowed to criticize Mod actions publicly?
Yes, pretty much. However, it goes mostly to the particular moderating actions and decisions. For example, if you are banned and find it unfair, get in touch with the moderator. Don't wait until your ability to post is re-activate and start a thread complaining about the fact that you've been banned.
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fables22:
I'm generally in favour of moderation but this is too strict. I'm already breaking rules by having a backup account!
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fables22:
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timmy010: I'm generally in favour of moderation but this is too strict. I'm already breaking rules by having a backup account!
1) I'm not sure how long you've been around but it's generally agreed upon that strict might just be what this forum needs... Besides, it's really not any stricter than most forum rules all-round - perhaps just more explicit, which is what's been asked by the community.

2) I wouldn't consider having one back-up account as having multiple accounts. This mostly applies to alt accounts and spam accounts.
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Allow me to bring my personal thoughts, questions and reaction to said rules.
I always had the strong belief that good rules needed to be pushed and tested, at a theoretical level at least, in order to be improved and polished
So dont mind me if the following contains some "devil advocate's speech", some extreme/unlikely to happen situations, or some rather weird-logic stuff:

GENERAL RULES:
Always treat others with kindness and respect, even if you don’t agree with them.
Implying we would be allowed to disagree with someone, and even more: express it ?
Use appropriate language.
Define "appropriate" ? same word can be appropriate or not, going from one country/culture to another. What is the common universal baseground ?
We don’t tolerate hate speech, intimidation, harassment, sexual, racial, or ethnic slurs, and discrimination.
So, for example, one shall refrain to post something like "i hate ISIS" in a support thread for victims of terror strike anymore, because it would both be discriminatory and hateful, right ?
WE DON’T TOLERATE:
Posting your own as well as other people’s personally identifiable information (i.e. name, address, email, phone number, place of work, etc.).
I get the "other's personal information" rule, but i fail to see about our own.
Posting links to phishing sites, malware, or spyware.
Considering Sony infected various computers and networks 10years ago with a very resilient rootkit malware by willingly injecting it in his products (music disks) and Microsoft's actual Windows 10 OS having some very valid concern/issues regarding pricacy and telemetry overabuse and other troubles of same category, it wouldnt be allowed to speak or link about those any longer, in my book ?
Impersonating forum moderators or other users.
Maybe a change in GOG display character font to prevents some letters/numbers to be used in that way could be a step in the good direction too, then ?
Spamming, bashing, flaming, trolling, or abusing the reputation and/or “report as spam” function.
So if someone is displaying an inappropriate behavior and message, while moderation is taking due daily rest, if more than one other user publicly comment about it being innappropriate or unwanted, then those users would be considered as bashing ?
Creating multiple accounts.
well i already have a secondary one, created during a serious tech bug on my main account that prevented me to buy on GOG, and about which support left me one full month without any answer or action after just telling me that it was a bug on my account side... what do i do about this account ? (in fact there is my main username within this new account's name, and i dont use it anymore, that's it until the next major account-breaking bug, i mean)
Aside from this personal anecdotic reminder, good luck to enforce it given the actual tech tools at people's disposal
Posting something that is knowingly false.
"knowingly false" is highly subjective, some countries or people do not have access to same sources of knowledge and/or education. Hell in my country in a tv-reality show there was a "player" who was convinced therwere two moons, one for each side of earth... "Knowingly false" could sometimes seem rather discriminatory of some less educated people or some countries's dwellers.
Thread bumping, hijacking or posting off-topic.
Well, what about the "don't create a new thread, use search function for existing thread on same topic FIRST", if cannot thread bump the existing thread one would find (highly doubtful with the search function available as it is), then the "do this and that FIRST" falls shorrt if FIRST followed by an interdiction to do anything "SECOND". My two cents
Posting pornography, inappropriate or offensive content, warez, unreleased game content, and things that are generally considered not suitable for work.
Games mods, total conversions, additional created contents or simply community-corrected games bugs/contents will so fall under this rule i guess !
Also, please tell why "unreleased game contents" would be on same bench than "offensive content", "pornography" and illegal "warez" or "NSFW", it's like mixing up two completely different stuff like vegetables and minerals alike/all the same. Many unreleased game contents are neither pornographic, nor offensive, nor illegal, nor NSFW
Linking to cracks, key generators, and pirated content. However, discussions about piracy are generally acceptable.
Well, considering that, in the past, as a part of tech/customer supports, some well known publishers supplied cracked exe files for some of their games as an official solution directly from themselves (the cracked exe still bearing the mark of any known warez group and not of the publisher's), what do we do in this situation ?
Using a third party’s intellectual property (full or partial scans of articles, books, full transcriptions of articles, etc.) unless you have permission to do so.
So no more "backing sources" when discussing a topic ? Also no more youtube links (like the 80ies vibe thread for example)
Selling (including real life or in-game trading), advertising, referrals, auctioning - unless this applies to giveaways.
No trading anymore then
Use of language that is abusive, vulgar, hateful, defamatory, obscene, profane, threatening, privacy-invasive, or law-violating.
As fine as i would consider this rule, it also appears to me as potentially discriminatory towards people suffering from tourette syndrome
Taking any other actions that are deemed inappropriate by GOG.com at our sole discretion.
joker rule for hidden intent against anything. Fair, should have started with this one maybe, or just bring this one alone without bothering writing down the rest.
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fables22: 1) I'm not sure how long you've been around but it's generally agreed upon that strict might just be what this forum needs... Besides, it's really not any stricter than most forum rules all-round - perhaps just more explicit, which is what's been asked by the community.

2) I wouldn't consider having one back-up account as having multiple accounts. This mostly applies to alt accounts and spam accounts.
Ah thanks for clarification. I just hope some leniency is shown for honest mistake such as can't be bothered reviewing the rules on a daily basis :-P

Use appropriate language.
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Djaron: Define "appropriate" ? same word can be appropriate or not, going from one country/culture to another. What is the common universal baseground ?
There are 5 general forums here, with different languages for each one. My understanding is to use the appropriate language for the forum you're writing on.
But I'm probably mistaken.
Nothing really particular here, it's basically forum rules 101 and most of it can be resumed by "Taking any other actions that are deemed inappropriate by GOG.com at our sole discretion.", but I still have a couple of question remarks :
Posting something that is knowingly false.
What does that actually means and more importantly how will it be enforced ? how do you define "knowingly" especially for more controversial topics ?

For example if somebody post : "Securom is a rootkit".

As much as I hate Securom it's technically false, it comes from a misunderstanding on how RootkitRevealer tool works, so what would the moderators do in this case ? would it be a ban-able offense ?

And this was actually an example that could be objectively determined as being "false", but how will it work for more "subjective" things (For example "...political party xxx has lied...", "...no it's political party yyy who is lying..." etc...), or would this rule only be limited to well known facts provable by "hard science" ?

Another question / remark would be for this rule :
Posting cheats, hacks, game exploits, and game spoilers - unless you clearly note that this is what your post is about at the top of it.
I understand informing other forum members when you are about to give a spoiler , but is it really a good idea to group all those together ?

For example if in a thread about Doom somebody say that typing "noclip" in the console allows you to walk through walls, would it be considered as being a violation of this rule given that it's a "cheat" ?

And even concerning the spoiler part, it means that you can only give spoilers if it's clearly indicated in the thread title that it's a spoiler thread ? You can no longer do the "SPOILER WARNING" ... bunch of empty lines... spoiler ... bunch of empty lines... thingy ? (Of course the best solution would be for GoG forum to have a spoiler TAG :P )
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Djaron: Define "appropriate" ? same word can be appropriate or not, going from one country/culture to another. What is the common universal baseground ?
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JMich: There are 5 general forums here, with different languages for each one. My understanding is to use the appropriate language for the forum you're writing on.
But I'm probably mistaken.
You're right.
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fables22: 1) I'm not sure how long you've been around but it's generally agreed upon that strict might just be what this forum needs... Besides, it's really not any stricter than most forum rules all-round - perhaps just more explicit, which is what's been asked by the community.

2) I wouldn't consider having one back-up account as having multiple accounts. This mostly applies to alt accounts and spam accounts.
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timmy010: Ah thanks for clarification. I just hope some leniency is shown for honest mistake such as can't be bothered reviewing the rules on a daily basis :-P
the blue answer appeared while the "processing" little widget was spinning on my message sending box :)
anyway my alt account already has my main name within, so i would suppose it doesnt fall within this rule

ps: what is a "backup account" ? how does it work ? dont know about this feature
Post edited March 10, 2017 by Djaron
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timmy010: Ah thanks for clarification. I just hope some leniency is shown for honest mistake such as can't be bothered reviewing the rules on a daily basis :-P
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Djaron: the blue answer appeared while the "processing" little widget was spinning on my message sending box :)
anyway my alt account already has my main name within, so i would suppose it doesnt fall within this rule

ps: what is a "backup account" ? how does it work ? dont know about this feature
I'm assuming it's another account that you have associated with another email address. It's not a GOG feature.
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JMich: There are 5 general forums here, with different languages for each one. My understanding is to use the appropriate language for the forum you're writing on.
But I'm probably mistaken.
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fables22: You're right.
5 different langages supported.... Ok, granted
Now, there are people of different cultures/religions that can be found in each of 5 said langage-speaking countries (or croup of countries, for english, spanish and french.... dunno about many german speakin countries or former colonies though....)
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fables22: You're right.
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Djaron: 5 different langages supported.... Ok, granted
Now, there are people of different cultures/religions that can be found in each of 5 said langage-speaking countries (or croup of countries, for english, spanish and french.... dunno about many german speakin countries or former colonies though....)
I'd really rather not (read: I'm not going to) get into a discussion about what word is OK and what word isn't, and I won't be giving you a list. If you're unsure, always remember the very first rule, superior to the rest of them: Always treat others with kindness and respect, even if you don’t agree with them.