You do have a few good points. +1

But for one: FUD can only spread when there is no transparency. Having the users discover the gifting restrictions and keeping silent about it for hours is unprofessional. I believe the reasons for the restrictions are valid and all, but we should have learned it from the horse's mouth with no room for rumours and speculation.
And you can't hold it against people if they make fun of the "temporary" if the same "temporary" measures have been in place for Witcher 3 for months.
Of course, verbally abusing the team is just immature and nasty. And it won't solve a thing.

I still think the gifting restrictions should have been announced on the front page, with a "We're sorry" and "It's to protect the legitimate customers" and "We're working on it as fast as we can". Transparency.

Obviously I missed the Victor Vran thing... Sounds ridiculous.

Being open, honest and reliable is the only way to fight "fear, uncertainty, and doubt caused by an irrational fears." Lack of communication and not keeping promises without explanation only fuels such fears.

Because that's their job. I'm sorry, but that is what it comes down to. I don't defend people who get hostile and fling insults, but the fact a few people cannot control their temper does not invalidate the other customer's right to be fully informed of the situation.

Besides it's not just about the community on this forum. Like I said, there are a lot (the majority in fact) of customers who are not active on the forum, and they have every right to know what is going on. They can't be expected to search the whole forum for a single post in that one thread somewhere.

Right now we have problems with chat and gifting restrictions. They concern some, the don't concern others. But the reall issue is how GOG communicates about such issues with the community and customers. If we let this lack of proper communication and utter unreliability slide now, sooner or later other problems will arise, this time concerning other users, maybe all users, and we will again be left in the dark.

I think toxicTom and Breja make very good points. I've just written to support asking for GOG to be more transparent, and I recommend that others who want to see this change do the same. If they don't seem to read feedback on the forum, maybe they'll read it through support.

EDIT: Since I couldn't find them when searching the wishlist, I have made two wishes regarding this topic:

Here is a wish for GOG to communicate better and be more transparent

Here is a wish for GOG to make news posts when games are removed, rather than just forum posts

Victor Vran was the same problem as the gift restrictions - bad explanations at first, then users discovered the 'free gift' code could only be activated online. Naturally many people immediately criticized GOG for tying a single player game to online activation. The only reason we got more explanations and eventually got the dev to backtrack was because there was such an outcry.

If people hadn't complained immediately and loudly, we would still have a game in the catalog with single player features tied to online activation.
Yes, this. GOG has a long history of horrible communication, and it got worse after TET left. Really seems like GOG grew too fast and is scrambling to catch up. Scrambling well so far, what with getting Bethesda and all, but some serious issues are getting overlooked.

As for ranting lessening transparency...anyone who follows ArenaNet knows that people are gonna rant regardless of whether a company puts out info or not. Communicating the important facts from the a customer's point of view is necessary and GOG has sometimes had major failures with that. It could be a lot worse though. I just wish they didn't need to have this pointed out over and over. It's some kind of structural issue where they keep trying to do better and not quite getting it.

Voted and commented on the first.

As for the second... Tbh I think GOG has always tried to make removals as transparent and painless as possible, even giving away games (like with Fallout) or putting them on sale (like ARMA). I think they are doing ok in this department. They should be more open about technical/legal issues like the gift-blocking.

Good call, I voted for both. I hope more people will.

I agree that they're doing well with handling game removals, which is why I made it a separate wish from the communication issues. I just think the extra convenience would be nice so that people who don't visit the forum much can be made aware when a game like Mob Rule has to be suddenly removed.