Wasn't this always going to happen as GOG became more and more popular? I don't specifically mean the excess giveaway threads but the forum "spam" in general.
The creator of this thread decided to pick on giveaway threads and that was their last straw so to speak but it could have been any manner of subject. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think he meant for the topic to take on a wholly negative tone as it has but was just looking to discuss separating topics into their own categories, which in theory is a reasonable question to ask with the popularity of GOG these days. But the way the thread has gone, it seems a lot of people have strong opinions on this and it has degenerated into something more than just about separate categories.
When I first came to this forum, it was for Ultima IV. I took a look at the forums while I was here and it was a mess, or thats how it appeared to me. All kinds of on topic, off topic and other things all in one area. I asked about it, was told thats normal and so I left for a while cuz I didn't like the unorganized look and feel of the forums. Came back during one of the other big sales and made a better go of hanging out here.
But in the back of my mind, with every big sale, every big promotion, everytime I see GOG talked about on other websites, I've wondered what is going to be the tipping point for the forums to change from the anything goes look it gives to the first time observer to something with a little more organization. Maybe this summer sale was it. There have always been more giveaways occurring during holiday sales events. Why was this more "spammy" than the winter sale or others. Its all in the eye of the beholder.

Every person is not going to see the forums the same, every one is not going to like everybody thats posts here. For example, there's one person around here who creates a random thread every week that basically talks about his own gaming preferences and what his gaming experiences are like. I wonder everytime one of those pops up why he doesn't just start up his own blog and just post his ramblings there. Well, he wouldn't get anywhere near the audience there than he does here and he likes the attention as people seem to respond to his threads so I don't make an issue of it and just ignore. Easy for me to ignore since its just one person but for someone who has an issue with the multiple giveaway threads here, its not so easy to ignore.

The forum is unorganized and could use some categories but I don't know what they are and if anything changes, there will be people complaining, and if it changes another way, another faction will complain. If it remains status quo, obviously there's already complaints about that. Feelings get hurt, people get angry and nothing good comes of non-constructive complaining.

The truth is, this forum probably gets a lot more activity due to the giveaway threads, the gifting threads and the ninja threads. When I browse these threads, they're now full of people who've made accounts in June/July. Of course regulars are there too but the activity has greatly increased. I can imagine being a newbie here during the summer sale and looking at the first page and seeing 20 giveaway threads. Pot of gold! I can also imagine being a long-timer here and seeing the first page have 20 GA threads out of 50. Hey you kids, get off my lawn!
Members here are very generous but all a thread like this one accomplishes is to drive people away and cause friction. There's no right or wrong way to go about making change as its bound to make some people unhappy.

I guess what can be tried if the the forum remains the same and if giveaways are your pet peeve is when a big holiday sale is taking place, just learn to expect extra giveaway threads being created for the duration of the sale. It'll go back to more normalcy once the sales activity has quieted down.
But as I said when I began this post, the more people who sign up here, the more activity there is here, and if the forum remains the same, the spam will increase. Its never gonna go back to how it was in the early years.

Maybe allow people who make giveaway threads to flag it as such. The flag would be invisible, but people who don't want to see giveaway threads would be allowed to hide them.

As much as I appreciate the generosity some posters are showing and I think it should continue (if I was making piles of money, I would probably do random giveaways myself), I don't participate in those threads as I prefer to leave it for those that are falling on hard times so for me, those threads are spam and I'd rather not see them.

+rep to you. Well said.

I wanna be an Air Force Ranger, lead a life of thrills and danger!

WE'RE BEING INAVED BY PANACAKES! QUICK TO THE CHICKENS!

Seriously, who is hotter, Visas or Mira?

And another thing? Why does my Sith comment get a low rating but the people who commented on it don't? Isn't that being kind of hypocritical?

Good lord dude! You can be such a baby sometimes. If you want people to stop down voting you, quit acting like it bothers you so much. I'm sure your temper tantrums only fuel their enjoyment.

I don't want people to stop. Evidently literacy isn't your strongest suit.

If you think you're giving off the vibe that you don't care, you're sadly mistaken. I really want to like you, but you make it so difficult.

My point wasn't to show I don't care; if I didn't care I wouldn't be here. My point was to make a mockery of a stupid thread. Think about it. Someone was unhappy about all the extraneous post (sure they seem to single out giveaways but the titles specifically mentions Spam as a whole) and now we we over 250 extraneous post arguing talking about extraneous post! Call me crazy, but isn't that kind of like driving a gas guzzling SUV across country to spread the word about over dependence on fossil fuels? Better yet, maybe going on a shooting spree because no one agrees with you about a need for gun control laws. See what I'm getting at?

Only one thread was made...

Yeah, this one. Your post was 264 in it.

Um, okay, I didn't think that there was anything wrong with the original post. Then again, I appreciate structure and never participate in any giveaways either, so I understand how difficult it can be to wade through the giveaway threads in an attempt to read posts that I find interesting. And there were some great results and suggestions that came of this thread, so it seemed to serve a good purpose. Besides, this was one thread, I think the point was that there were more giveaway threads on the front page than there were non-giveaway threads.

Regardless, I don't understand why you feel the need to mock instead of actually participate in the conversation. I appreciate irreverence, but sometimes you push the line into disrespect, although I guess the point is that you just don't care about how you treat others. It just makes me wonder why you make a big deal when you feel mistreated (i.e. down-rated).

Yours is 265. Congrats, lets have a party.

At no point did the OP complain about the length of any threads. Whatever your complaints over terminology the heart of the OP was that the number of giveaway threads was beginning to overwhelm the first page of the general forum. Not sure what I think about that myself but surely it's better to argue with the actual point rather than quibble over the way people have expressed themselves?

Okay life is too short to keep arguing about this and now that I think about it, it would have taken a lot less energy to just ignore this stupid fucking thread rather than log on and complain about it, for that I admit I was short sighted and for that I do apologize. Just to make sure I don't sully the water any more I will stay clear of this thread entirely.

Funny thing is that I thought the thread would go down today, but then you started pushing it up again and again. As result others have written some interesting statements after this, as example Teshra and Magnitus.

Edit: Forgotten to also mention Starmarkers posting of course, it's indeed also an interesting idea to restructure the forum.