Like you saying THQ games are awesome!!! :P

This is just dripping with irony. -1

When I see a post that I strongly disagree I, when I feel like it, reply and say so. Why not?

Especially when people present their opinions as universal fact my heart beat increases by 30% because I feel this makes a decent discussion impossible. The same goes for posting at the border of rudeness or just general trollish behavior.

Ignoring is probably the most wise option, but I cannot do it all the time.

Well they are, that's just an objective fact! Even American Girl: Julie Saves the Eagles! In fact, especially American Girl: Julie Saves the Eagles!

yeah i got up to this post and this gives me an image of why all of this might be happening
(fyi i am not one of the down reppers, i don't even follow the whole thing but here follows a fact)

seriously, making comparisons between what someone said and the people that murdered 6 million Jews is a FANTASTIC way to offend people and makes sure they will never listen to anything you say in the future

NEVER make any comparisons to hitler and the nazis unless releasing a shitstorm is your main and only goal.
i would definitly feel very offended if someone compared anything i said to those genocidic maniacs knows as nazis.

besides someone once told me "no matter how wrong the others are and how right you are, start by searcing for what you might have done wrong. finding faults in others is the easy way. finding the faults in yourself the hard"

I wasn't quite sure if I should respond to you or Arjohl but he seems to be a "lost cause" so I just respond to you and say I agree with you. Stating something as a subjective opinion is never a problem but stating it as an objective fact is a problem. Facts matter and in todays mass media marked, PR, instant gratification, consumerism and commercialism - facts and opinions get more and more blurred and there is a real danger in that. "I think the earth is flat" is a valid statement but "The earth is flat" is NOT.
In todays world of scammers, crooks, scoundrels, criminals and politicians we NEED more critical thinking. Oh yes, and get rid of the downrep system I THINK it sucks.

I dream about days when people finally understand that every post I make is my opinion andI don't have to add IMHO to every post I make...

When they give them back, you could put that in your sig? :P

I will use my sig for propaganda only :P

I'm sure ther's enough room for both, unless your REALLY keen on propaganda! :D

Being downrepped on 2013 GOG.com is an honor when you consider the influx of "mainstream" gamers to the forums. Many of the questions/discussions on the main page are about games that aren't even on GOG, threads no different than you'd see on Steam community forums or wherever.

I'm not saying more users is a bad thing for GOG, the opposite in fact, but in the internet age of Facebook and twitter, every person seems to think they're a super special snowflake and their opinions are completely unique, they don't try and integrate into a forum community and adopt it's culture, they try and take it over with their badly formed sentences and emoticons.

Same thing goes for "old games", even on this board many people express that they are unable to get into older games due to the graphics, interface, and not having the patience to read the provided manual and learn the game's systems.

I'm a fan of the "old" days of internet forums when people didn't blurt out their ill-informed "opinions" before they had accumulated all the necessary information to make an informed decision, and simply lurked without posting until they felt ready to actually contribute.

You don't. But as I said, most of this topic deals with presentation: If you present your opinion as your opinion, IE you say "THQ games are awesome!" well... That is fine and no one is going to get offended by it, everyone's going to know what you mean (well, mostly). But if you say, as anjohl does, "First Deus Ex is much worse than Human Revolution and whoever says otherwise is blinded by nostalgia!", that's just saying 'My opinion is the only correct one'.

There were dozens of topic saying "new games are better than old ones, and whoever says otherwise is blinded by nostalgia!", and there was a general applause to such topics and opinions.

It's not a matter of presentation. If majority agrees with you, you may say "religion is dangerous tool to brainwash oridinary people" and you will not get a single -1 here.

If you say something that is in minority or considered a blashpemy in community (like saying anything is better than Deus Ex), you will start a shitstorm.

So it's not really about HOW you say things, but ABOUT WHAT you say things in definitive , absolute ways.

For example, being a Republican here is a very tough position to begin with. If you are a republican, you may present your views in polite way, it doesn't matter - GOG community will still call you a bigot, racist, with general applause.

It all comes to which option you represent, not how you represent it. And this is just sad.

How will one know if something you post is more than an opinion? Opinions can be strong or weak, they can be based on many facts or on heresay. I guess there is just no way to know more about what you mean if you don't use phrases like "it might be", "I guess" "my feeling is", .... And I think is is not too much effort either.

And if someone who is new to the forum and doesn't know this specialty then he might think your posts are supposed to the facts and disagrees and then the misunderstanding starts.

This thread reminds me of a Joss Whedo quote: "Remember, always be yourself. Unless you suck."

Sometimes people in the name of self-acceptance think others should respect their douchbaggery as a personality trait that makes them such a unique snowflake. In reality nobody is born with patience, respect and manners. These are things all people have to learn. Self-respect and being yourself does not mean one should not try to grow as a person. We all have our faults to work with. Social shortcomings are not one of the most uncommon.

Perhaps people who constantly find themselves in these sort of situations would be better off by taking some time for introspection instead of blaming everyone else for their woes.