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General discussionForum moderation: Rules, threads, all that jazz(506 posts)(506 posts)
(506 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 24, 2017
high rated
Hey everyone,

It seems that there is some confusion around what the rules are on this forum, how they're enforced, and how the forum is moderated, so I thought I'd just clear this up a bit.

We've had forum rules on GOG for a long time - if you need to refresh your memory, they're here: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212182929-What-are-the-house-rules-Code-of-Conduct-for-posting-on-the-website. These rules will possibly be undergoing some change in the near future, however, they are solid as they stand as of now, so please do follow them. If you have any questions or need any clarification, please let me know.

Remember that if you fail or intentionally choose to not adhere to those rules, this behaviour might result in a forum ban (after a warning, of course).

As for threads that are likely to cause uproar or are the kinds of threads that would, in the past, lead to many a forum rule being broken - those will be closely monitored, any posts breaking the forum rules will be removed - and their authors contacted. If the authors of those posts intentionally make themselves hard to get in touch with, the thread might be closed until those users have made contact themselves or responded to their warning(s).

By no means do I want to discourage discussions on those forums, but there are things that should and will not be tolerated, so please do take this into account while posting.

Thanks!

UPDATE: The new forum rules are now up - see here: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001814049-Forum-Code-of-Conduct. Please familiarize yourself with them prior to posting! Thanks.
Post edited March 10, 2017 by fables22
Posted February 24, 2017
Interesting. So you can actually do bans just for the forum.
Posted February 24, 2017
1/10, promised jazz was never delivered.

I don't think people are confused about the rules so much as how they're going to be enforced in the future. For example, if I hadn't included this paragraph relevant to what you wrote, would I receive a warning for not staying on topic? Then there's the obvious "don't spam or troll" parts of the rules, but what about trolling a serial spammer's topic out of frustration? How reasonable is a rule about searching before posting to avoid duplicate threads when the search function is so lackluster and seemingly random with what it dredges up?

Lots of gray area that could stand to be cleared up a bit.
Posted February 24, 2017
I think that it would be good to rename the thread to make it clear from the title that moderation is now in place for GOG forums and make it at least a temporary sticky.

Other than that, all that jazz is inevitable on internet forums and as long as it is imposed to enhance user experience and not hinder it, I for one welcome it.
Posted February 24, 2017
low rated
So gog.com will enforce rules now?

How I wished gog.com to stay unique forever and have a free place to talk on the forums.

I'm ok with banning those people spamming the 1-800 LOVE or whatever spams.

I guess I should be banned permanently now since I say a lot of crap on some topics.

You disappoint me gog.com.

Maybe it's time to take my money and look for another digital store selling 100% free Digital Rights Management (DRM) free PC versions of video games and that will never have any rules on their forums.

Except only banning scammers and those 1-800 LOVE spammers.
Posted February 24, 2017
avatar
moonshineshadow: Interesting. So you can actually do bans just for the forum.
Yes.
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227: 1/10, promised jazz was never delivered.

I don't think people are confused about the rules so much as how they're going to be enforced in the future. For example, if I hadn't included this paragraph relevant to what you wrote, would I receive a warning for not staying on topic? Then there's the obvious "don't spam or troll" parts of the rules, but what about trolling a serial spammer's topic out of frustration? How reasonable is a rule about searching before posting to avoid duplicate threads when the search function is so lackluster and seemingly random with what it dredges up?

Lots of gray area that could stand to be cleared up a bit.
There are a lot of grey areas, however, they will be explained in the new set of rules. In the meantime, we'll have to do with what we've got. I don't think not enforcing the rules because they're not comprehensive enough is the way to go about it.

I think there's a fine line between trolling and not staying on topic - that plus discussions will evolve so the topic might slowly change direction. That's all fine. For now, this will be dealt with on an ad hoc basis. Same goes for duplicate threads.
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Densetsu: I think that it would be good to rename the thread to make it clear from the title that moderation is now in place for GOG forums and make it at least a temporary sticky.

Other than that, all that jazz is inevitable on internet forums and as long as it is imposed to enhance user experience and not hinder it, I for one welcome it.
I agree with your second point & will make the thread sticky. I also welcome all that jazz that enhances user experience - in this case, it was mostly intended to cover all the questions I anticipated you guys might have.
Post edited February 24, 2017 by fables22
Posted February 24, 2017
Can we please make threads started by GOG staff stand out more? Threads like this one and the game removal warning threads would be far more visible if they had a blue font, or even just a blue icon like the newsposts do.

That was all I was going to say, but looking at the rules I actually have a question. Specifically, about this part:
Everyone should feel comfortable and therefore any language or content that is harassing, intimidating, threatening, discriminating, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or offensive in any other way will not be tolerated. This also includes links to such content;
What about content from or directly related to games sold on GOG? I'm sure there are already games sold here (Witcher, Huniepop, Neptunia) that include content that could be in violation of this rule.

Overall, I'm honestly not a fan of this rule. It's good to forbid harassment, intimidation, and threats. The rest of it, I don't know. It's all very subjective, and like I said there are games already sold here that would violate the rule the way it's currently written.

My biggest concern is over the "offensive in any other way" bit. Who gets to decide what's offensive? Going out of your way to offend people for the sake of doing so is something I wouldn't condone, and I understand that being against the rules. But what about people who simply have beliefs and worldviews that others are offended by? Why should they be forbidden to express or discuss their views, just because they don't match popular opinion? Who's to say that popular opinion doesn't offend them? I'm trying to make my point without any examples because I know any real example would derail the thread immediately.
Posted February 24, 2017
high rated
avatar
Johnathanamz: So gog.com will enforce rules now?

How I wished gog.com to stay unique forever and have a free place to talk on the forums.

I'm ok with banning those people spamming the 1-800 LOVE or whatever spams.

I guess I should be banned permanently now since I say a lot of crap on some topics.

You disappoint me gog.com.

Maybe it's time to take my money and look for another digital store selling 100% free Digital Rights Management (DRM) free PC versions of video games and that will never have any rules on their forums.

Except only banning scammers and those 1-800 LOVE spammers.
There's a fundamental difference between having a free place to talk and having a free place to share hate speech and fuel offensive, intimidating and discriminating attitudes. To you, this maybe added to the "uniqueness" of the forums. To others, this was the reason not to frequent the forums at all.
Posted February 24, 2017
low rated
avatar
Johnathanamz: So gog.com will enforce rules now?

How I wished gog.com to stay unique forever and have a free place to talk on the forums.

I'm ok with banning those people spamming the 1-800 LOVE or whatever spams.

I guess I should be banned permanently now since I say a lot of crap on some topics.

You disappoint me gog.com.

Maybe it's time to take my money and look for another digital store selling 100% free Digital Rights Management (DRM) free PC versions of video games and that will never have any rules on their forums.

Except only banning scammers and those 1-800 LOVE spammers.
avatar
fables22: There's a fundamental difference between having a free place to talk and having a free place to share hate speech and fuel offensive, intimidating and discriminating attitudes. To you, this maybe added to the "uniqueness" of the forums. To others, this was the reason not to frequent the forums at all.
Oh ok so hate speech is bannable?

I'm ok with that.

Will you guys work more harder to ban the 1-800 LOVE spammers? As well as the scammers?
Posted February 24, 2017
high rated
avatar
fables22: There's a fundamental difference between having a free place to talk and having a free place to share hate speech and fuel offensive, intimidating and discriminating attitudes. To you, this maybe added to the "uniqueness" of the forums. To others, this was the reason not to frequent the forums at all.
avatar
Johnathanamz: Oh ok so hate speech is bannable?

I'm ok with that.

Will you guys work more harder to ban the 1-800 LOVE spammers? As well as the scammers?
Yes, that goes without saying.

EDIT: You-know-what :)
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Marioface5: Can we please make threads started by GOG staff stand out more? Threads like this one and the game removal warning threads would be far more visible if they had a blue font, or even just a blue icon like the newsposts do.

That was all I was going to say, but looking at the rules I actually have a question. Specifically, about this part:

Everyone should feel comfortable and therefore any language or content that is harassing, intimidating, threatening, discriminating, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or offensive in any other way will not be tolerated. This also includes links to such content;
avatar
Marioface5: What about content from or directly related to games sold on GOG? I'm sure there are already games sold here (Witcher, Huniepop, Neptunia) that include content that could be in violation of this rule.

Overall, I'm honestly not a fan of this rule. It's good to forbid harassment, intimidation, and threats. The rest of it, I don't know. It's all very subjective, and like I said there are games already sold here that would violate the rule the way it's currently written.

My biggest concern is over the "offensive in any other way" bit. Who gets to decide what's offensive? Going out of your way to offend people for the sake of doing so is something I wouldn't condone, and I understand that being against the rules. But what about people who simply have beliefs and worldviews that others are offended by? Why should they be forbidden to express or discuss their views, just because they don't match popular opinion? Who's to say that popular opinion doesn't offend them? I'm trying to make my point without any examples because I know any real example would derail the thread immediately.
There's been a couple of threads with a discussions on this in the recent past - I've attempted to find out from the community itself what the rules should be, what can be deemed offensive, etc. In all honesty, I didn't think we were going to reach a conclusion and we did not. It's something that's massively subjective and any rules imposed will never please absolutely everyone - hence this is something that's going to be handle on an ad hoc basis, as far as possible.

I just hope that the majority of you agrees with me on that we do need some rules, otherwise this community will never grow into a healthier one.
Post edited February 24, 2017 by fables22
Posted February 24, 2017
avatar
fables22: There's been a couple of threads with a discussions on this in the recent past - I've attempted to find out from the community itself what the rules should be, what can be deemed offensive, etc. In all honesty, I didn't think we were going to reach a conclusion and we did not. It's something that's massively subjective and any rules imposed will never please absolutely everyone - hence this is something that's going to be handle on an ad hoc basis, as far as possible.

I just hope that the majority of you agrees with me on that we do need some rules, otherwise this community will never grow into a healthier one.
That's probably the best way to handle it. These sorts of things are never easy to define, and trying to make rigid rules would probably just make it worse.

I can't speak for everyone of course, but I completely agree that some rules are needed. Not sure how much they'll help, but hopefully they'll do some good. Personally, the main reason I don't bother too much with this place is all of the negativity. You can't really make a rule against that (especially on an official forum) so I'm not optimistic about things changing in that regard. It's just a bummer that the more excited I am about a release, the further I know I should stay from the thread for it.

EDIT: To be absolutely clear, I am not advocating for a rule against negativity even if one could be made. I think people should be able to voice their negative opinions and feelings, it just also makes the forum very unpleasant in a lot of ways.
Post edited February 24, 2017 by Marioface5
Posted February 24, 2017
high rated
Thanks fables, I for one really appreciate any effort to clean up the forums a bit.

It's just nice to see things finally moving and being updated when it comes to the forum too, and I'm fairly sure we have you to thank for that too.

Keep up the good work!
Posted February 24, 2017
avatar
fables22: There's been a couple of threads with a discussions on this in the recent past - I've attempted to find out from the community itself what the rules should be, what can be deemed offensive, etc. In all honesty, I didn't think we were going to reach a conclusion and we did not. It's something that's massively subjective and any rules imposed will never please absolutely everyone - hence this is something that's going to be handle on an ad hoc basis, as far as possible.

I just hope that the majority of you agrees with me on that we do need some rules, otherwise this community will never grow into a healthier one.
avatar
Marioface5: That's probably the best way to handle it. These sorts of things are never easy to define, and trying to make rigid rules would probably just make it worse.

I can't speak for everyone of course, but I completely agree that some rules are needed. Not sure how much they'll help, but hopefully they'll do some good. Personally, the main reason I don't bother too much with this place is all of the negativity. You can't really make a rule against that (especially on an official forum) so I'm not optimistic about things changing in that regard. It's just a bummer that the more excited I am about a release, the further I know I should stay from the thread for it.

EDIT: To be absolutely clear, I am not advocating for a rule against negativity even if one could be made. I think people should be able to voice their negative opinions and feelings, it just also makes the forum very unpleasant in a lot of ways.
Thanks for being understanding. I do, to some extent, believe that a good portion of the negativity stems from the fact that there's also quite a lot of toxicity, especially in certain threads - that's one thing I hope this can fix or at least improve as well. But I guess we'll see - it'll all come down to whether the users on here will be willing to be co-operative.
Posted February 24, 2017
Arbitrary nonsense. This has obviously been hinted at for some time, now it's being implemented. Enjoy your journey through the the thought crime maze. Hopefully some of you may emerge on the other side with your senses still intact.

As for me, I won't put up with it. I've already spoke my mind on the issue. Didn't make a fucking dent. Getting too old and tired any more to keep up the fight.

It's been fun, guys. I'm out.
Posted February 24, 2017
About time. There has been no monitoring here since the time of The EnigmaticE, and it has shown. Well done.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionForum moderation: Rules, threads, all that jazz(506 posts)(506 posts)
(506 posts)