Except for registered users, who else can post in the forums?
GOG employees are marked with a blue "GOG.COM Team" label that appears next to their avatars, and their posts are in a blue font. These guys and gals volunteer their time to assist you, so you should keep in mind that they are usually posting outside of their everyday responsibilities, and therefore may not always be available. The topics with posts written by GOG Team members are marked with an exclamation mark icon - clicking the icon will allow you to view all GOG Team members' posts in that topic. Verified developers sometimes also engage on the forums - their posts are in an orange font.
What are the "house rules" / Code of Conduct for posting on the website?
We want GOG to be a fun and safe place, where you can discuss and review your favourite games, help fellow posters with your knowledge and get help or tips if you're ever stuck in any game. We believe that common courtesy and respect for others is all one needs, but to make things more clear and sort out any doubts, we've created the following set of guidelines that build on the GOG Terms of Use. Please note that these apply to comments, user reviews as well as any other content that you can post on GOG.
Please be aware that our forum has a separate Code of Conduct, which you can read more about here.
- Be polite and treat others just like you want them to treat you. 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;
- Search before you post. Asking a question that has been answered like 10 times in the past means you're lazy;
- Stay on topic. This is especially important inside the "question / problem topics", as they are created for the sole purpose of helping other community members. Non-constructive and off-topic posts can ruin such threads instantly;
- Never post any advertisements. This includes links to other commercial items, unless it directly answers a user's question;
- Don't spam or troll. Posting in topics or threads for the sole purpose of flooding and causing unrest on the forums, “bumping” existing topics or creating forum petitions won't be tolerated;
- Keep within the law - submitting any materials intended to commit or promote illegal acts will get you a ban. Also, don't post any content that's not your work or to which you don't have a license.
Remember that the ability to post on the website is a privilege and not a right. If a user is found ignoring or repeatedly violating the rules stated above and/or the website's Terms of Use, depending upon severity, he/she will lose an adequate amount of reputation points, and:
- be given a warning from a moderator or GOG employee, or
- be temporary banned from the GOG forums and/or website for a "cooldown period", or
- be permanently banned from the GOG forums and/or website.
Who can post in the forums and add comments?
Currently, adding posts on the forums is only available to registered users.
How does "rate this post" work?
On GOG forums there's a post rating system in place that is available to all registered users. This allows you to promote the most helpful, insightful or just plain cool posts. If you feel that one's post rocks, give it a positive rating by clicking on the green plus icon. If a post gets a couple of positive votes it will be marked as "high rated", therefore posts which contribute the most are easy to spot at first glance.
What are "question / problem topics"?
This is a special category of topics that make it easier to get help from the community as well as to offer your help to others in need. "Question / problem topics" are marked with an orange dot and a label showing if that problem is already solved or not, so community members can easily spot topics where others are looking for help as well as quickly browse through already known and resolved issues.
Inside such a topic, the original poster outlines a problem while others try to solve it by giving helpful information or hints. What differentiates these topics from normal discussions is not only a strict rule to stay on topic and try to solve the problem but also the topic creator's ability to mark a specific post as the solution. If your post gets chosen as the solution to the outlined question / problem, it will be marked with a green "solution" label and you will get a nice rep boost. You can easily track your posted questions and received answers using the "My questions" section.
What are all these orbs and icons on the forum's topics list?
There are two kinds of symbols that appear next to the topic subject:
- Orbs are colorful glossy dots on the left side of a topic's subject. They describe what kind of topic you are looking at: green topics are normal discussions, orange ones are special "question / problem topics" (described above), blue are topics linked with news / reviews' comments while red are special announcements by the GOG Team. Don't worry, you will get used to it sooner than you know :)
- Icons and labels, shown on the right side of a topic's subject, indicate the topic's status. They can point out closed topics, threads with new replies to your posts or solved question / problem discussions.
There should be a forum key with all this information on the bottom of the topics list. If you've removed it, you can always bring it back using the "My Settings" option on the forums.
What is this heart icon and the checkboxes on the forums and topics lists?
These checkboxes let you quickly mark any forum or topic as your favourite, thus making it pinned for you. While other forums remain sorted alphabetically and topics remain sorted by last update, pinned ones are always visible on top of the list. This is a handy tool to create a set of easily accessible shortcuts to your favourite discussions.You can also add a forum or a topic to your favourites directly from the topics or posts list – just click on "This is my favourite forum" or "This is my favourite topic" respectively, on the upper or the lower forum navigation bar.Furthermore, the topics you add to your favourites will also be visible on the main Community page under their forums' names, which will let you follow your favourite topics in multiple forums without having to enter those forums.Your purchased games' forums will be automatically added to your list of favourites (of course you can always remove them from that list by simply unchecking them).
How can I keep track of what's going on on the forums?
We've created a set of various handy options on the GOG forums which will make it easier for all you forum addicts ;) to keep track of what's going on:
- favourite forums - lets you pin the forums of your choice to the top of the main Community page, so they are super-easily accessible - just click the forum's checkbox (on the right side of the forums list) or check "this is my favourite forum" (on that forum's upper or lower forum navigation bar). The forums of games which you've purchased are added to this list automatically.
- read vs unread forums – lets you follow whether new posts have been added or not on the forums since your last visit. Forums without new posts will appear darker, as opposed to ones with recent updates.
- favourite topics – allows you to pin selected topics to the top of the forum, so they are super-easily accessible - just click that topic's checkbox (on the right side of the topics list).
- read vs unread topics – lets you keep a track of what you've already read and what's new. Topics you've read will be dimmed compared to the new & unread ones on the topics list;
- my questions – tracks all your “question / problem topics” from all the GOG forums and groups them by their answered / unanswered status. You can find this option in the sub-menu at the top of any forum page.
- my posts – lists all the discussions you've recently participated in as well as direct replies to your posts from other community members. You can find this option in the sub-menu at the top of any forum page. Same as "my questions", this one can be found in the sub-menu at the top of any forum page.
Please note that some of the functionality mentioned above is available only to registered users.