I am pretty sure it only took one downvote, because that's all my REP went down with for 'low rated' to display for me.
And one user could only give another user one downvote per 24 hours, otherwise I would have likely received more than I did. The maximum I ever received in any 24 hour period, was 5 negative REP.

I don't think many folk were doing the uncalled for downvoting, just a small number of immature folk, who dislike someone or who cannot handle different opinions to theirs or were maybe just generally being malicious.

Some users of course have other fake accounts, but when you realize the trouble they needed to go to, to keep swapping accounts, maybe changing IP and browser, they would have to have been pathetically desperate to do so. A bit easier to do with bots no doubt, once set up, but once again we are talking childish mentality. Some of it could well have been indiscriminate revenge by one or more with a high negative REP.

Many of those who were being targeted regularly with downvotes, rarely deserved it and not at all in some cases. Take my good buddy TheDcoder. All he ever did was provide a script that would hide your REP from you, just a psychological thing for those who might benefit. Because he did that, he ended up having a REP of -106, and lost the ability to post links. Because he was using his script, he wasn't even aware until I recently saw and advised him. That's how pathetic and childish the downvoter(s) were.

TheDcoder doesn't come to GOG a lot, and he certainly has the skill to give us a HIDE button, and maybe a REPORT button, but with all the negative REP he copped, he's not feeling too generous right now, and who can blame him. It would be nice if a whole lot of decent folk gave him positive REP until he is back in the positive, and along with my pleas to him, he might change his mind and provide what many of us want, that script.

I wouldn't worry about it, what does it matter anyway?
They had so much negative REP, and often seemed to embrace it like a badge of honor, so I doubt anything has changed.

I imagine though that many others are now posting more often, and some are doing so again, that had stopped doing so.

Yes, there are negatives to no downvoting, if done maturely, but the positives now far outweigh the negatives.

If you don't want to see what Orkhepaj or any other member posts, just acquire and use the Hide script. And if curiosity gets the better of you, it only takes one click per post to reveal what they posted anyway.

And never forget, that while downvoting has gone, you can still post something negative if you really feel the need to or it's warranted. You can now call some douchebag out when they post something racist or sexist or insulting, and they can no longer impact you with a negative REP for doing so. In fact anything negative they do, is public now and subject to a MOD seeing or being reported to, and of course others seeing. Any bullying will now be out in the open, and dealt with accordingly ... one hopes.

Free Speech lives on, without any secret downvoting.

Apart from anonymously low rating comments you didn't want to see. I'm genuinely disappointed that you can't see that you were part of the problem.

Good move. Downvoting button is such an antiquate concept and it's not transparent either. It is prone to abuse and certain users are being targeted for far too long.

Erm, I'm pretty sure you're either confusing things here, or maybe we talk past each other...?

What I meant was: it took 5 to 10 people clicking on the (-) to mark a comment as "low rated" (see attachment).
Contrary to what you seem to believe, a single click from a single user on the (-) didn't do anything (besides hiding the comment for the person clicking the (-) button).

Once that mark ("low rated") was reached, the loss of REP began.

Now, I have no clue as to how the number of lost REP got calculated, but I believe 5 was the average loss/day - though as far as I can tell, you didn't lose it all immediately.

From my experience with getting my comments downrated and watching my REP go down, it took some time to reach the maximum/day, and you also didn't necessarily lose 5 REP in every case.

Maybe if you got enough (+) clicks to even out the (-) clicks, the number of lost REP got diminished?
Again: no clue.

Btw: I think (I'm not sure, mind you) my highest loss/day was actually 6 or even 7 REP points, though that may have had something to do with several of my comments getting the "low rated" marking on a day - not just one.

But again: only GOG knows how "the math behind the curtain" worked.
Fun fact: I was also anonymously high rating comments...and yours were among them from time to time.
Funny how nobody here sees THAT side of the reputation system, huh?

There's a lot of bias and hypocrisy existent in this forum, when it comes to REP, that's for sure.

Right, but as I've previously expressed in this thread: I don't have an issue with positivity.
Besides, I'm not criticising use of the minus button as intended but rather the use of it as a hide button with little appreciation/regard for what it was actually doing.

To be clear, I have used the minus button in the past, just not as a "hide post button".

I'm not sure what your attached image is supposed to demonstrate. I have no idea which post you've taken that screenshot from so there's not much context.

Oh, rest assured: I got that - the hypocrisy is really hard to ignore:

- hitting the (+) (for whatever reasons any user may deem ok) = good!
- hitting the (-) (for reasons that you consider the wrong ones) = bad!

So, YOU "only" ever used it for its intended purpose. Well, isn't that nice of you.
As I already made clear (btw: in comments made years ago!): I would have restricted myself to use a "hide only" button, IF the forum software had given me that as a standalone option.

However: it didn't - so I couldn't.
And I'm a versatile guy - if I don't find the dedicated tool for a work I want to do, I find a workaround.

I also find it funny, how you claim to know exactly for what reasons I used the (-), whenever I used it...and then decide that those were definitely always the wrong reasons. Period.

The sheer audicity of you to decide what reasons are the right ones for anyone here...
Hey, tell me: how is living as a god among us mere mortals?

And also - because I noticed a certain lack of reactions to something else I did write in my yesterday post:
I was (also years ago!) one of those who were in favour of GETting RID OF THE REP COMPLETELY...not just the (-) function.
You know: the whole shebang - not just a single feature of it.

Unlike you and your ilk, who "don't have an issue with positivity".
And we all know why...just imagine you guys couldn't enlarge your precious e-peens anymore.
Oh, the horror!

If you would have bothered to actually read my comment, you would have noticed (or maybe not, meanwhile I reached a point where I seriously doubt the mental capacity of some of this forum's members) that the screenshot was not meant for you, but for Timboli.

But don't worry - such little slip ups happen to the best forum gods from time to time.
If you don't mention it, I won't mention it. Promise. It stays our little secret. ;)

In case it's not clear enough:
- The "right reason" for hitting the plus button is to give a post a high rating, I am not passing judgement on the reason for wanting to high rate it.
- The "right reason" for hitting the minus button is to give a post a low rating, I am not passing judgement on the reason for wanting to low rate it.
- The "wrong reason" for hitting the minus button is using it as a way to minimise posts.

What I am criticising is the knowing misuse of the minus button. You used it as a "minimise" button with the knowledge that you were also low rating people even if that wasn't your intention.

I've clearly touched a nerve here if I've caused you to write this much. My only point was to dispute your claim that "at the very least, my "ostrich policy" didn't actively worsen the forum". It demonstrably did.
Given that attachments appear at the end of the post, it's pretty normal for the last line of the post to relate to the attachment and thus it appeared you were posting some "evidence of hypocrisy". Not sure why you expected me to read your reply to Timboli.

Dude, you're here as long as I am...actually you're here five or six months longer than I am...and you still don't know, that if I write a reply to (in this case) Timboli, and then a reply to you within 10(?) minutes of that reply to Timboli, the forum software automatically edits the original post? (That is: a long as nobody posts something inbetween)?

You want to tell me, you don't know that?

Edit:
Oh, and regarding this:
Well, please demonstrate it then.
But, before you start...make sure that whatever you want to bring up as "demonstrable" evidence, can actually be backtracked to me personally.

I'm aware that that happens, yes. There's nothing to specifically indicate that has happened though since it's indistinguishable from any other kind of edit. Besides, I'm not generally in the habit of checking to see whether a post has been edited.

I assume from the fact that you're replying only to this rather mundane thing that the main fork of our discussion is over. That's fine, I feel like I've said everything I can regarding that.

Awesome! That's exactly the kind of response that I have learned to expect here.
A complete disregard of facts presented.
If it doesn't fit the chosen narrative, simply say "it isn't so".

Further proof that these forums are dead. It would be best, if GOG pulled the plug and put it to rest.

What facts? What am I ignoring? You presented the possibility of a merged post, which I acknowledged. You have said it was a merged post and I believe you.

My point is that there was nothing to indicate to me that it was a merged post. You haven't presented anything that means it could only be a merged post. I make multi-quote posts all the time without merges because I'm a forum mafia player.

So again I ask, what facts am I disregarding?

Not only have you abandoned the "main argument" but you're not making much sense in the side argument you've embraced. I suggest you go out and get some air, I don't know how it is in Germany but the heatwave here is absolutely killer.

Yeah, we're at like 35 degrees celsius right now, my company has decent air conditioning but my lungs still hate that.

I don't think BreOl72 actively worsened the forum discussion culture by attempting to ignore incendiary strains of discussion. I firmly believe it's up to everybody to decide whether they want to actively participate in toxic discussion culture, because it will be a real strain on emotional wellbeing.

So, yeah, if it gets too much for me, I turn tail as well. It did get too much for me back then, but I felt left horribly alone in the respective circle jerk threads and as demonstrated here, the most toxic of conspiracy theories have survived, at least in this forum, where bearing the torch of truth and the burden of empathy has made you a target for years.

I wouldn't scold anybody who says: That's not for me, I need to hide that stuff from myself / I'm out of here. I've been that person myself. If gog officials can render that option again, I'd say they should.

But getting out doesn't help a community turn around. And I often wished there were more GOG members who didn't turn tail. A few dozen are still on my friends list, but I never see them around here these days. They're just ... gone.

Give yourselves a breather.

Your goals very much align, it's just the methods you disagree over.

And I'm not just saying that because Pong on the Atari 2600 was my first game also.

Can you tell me where you got that information from?

From my experience, and I paid pretty close attention when I posted in a thread where every post was downvoted, a few seconds after I posted (not always the case), my post was downvoted, showed 'low rated' and my REP went down by one. I did this by refreshing the page until it happened. In many instances it was basically immediate or close enough.

For what you claim to be true, then a bunch of bots of members would have to have downvoted me immediately ... hardly likely.

It is true. The only (I think) time I downvoted someone it took quite awhile before it became low rated. And yes there were definitely active downvote bots.