Is anyone else experiencing the same problem? I think it started at the start of June. Half of the time I can't access the forums. It loads extremely slow and then I see a tiny bear holding the world picture.

It doesn't matter which day or hour.

I don't seem to have any problems with other websites.

I am trying to see if it is a general, regional, or client problem.

I asked the same question a few days ago, and while most of the explanations would have meant the problem would have always been there, this https://www.gog.com/forum/general/very_slow_load_times/post6 post by Timboli might show the cause of the recent escalation of the problem.

Do a search on the general discussions, or try to look at recent post replies, and it will crash 9/10 times.

I get it on all of the very large threads with hundreds of posts that have been going on for years.

Happens to me whenever I try to access my "Forum replys".

My "solution" to this is to open the "Forum replys" in a new tab.

Mind you - the first try will inevitably fail - but the second does the trick (most of the times).

I've had this issue with Forum replies for ages, definitely not only recently but before the pandemic even, I think.

Generally, the forum bears appear a lot more often during big sales though like the one we had recently, when the servers are overwhelmed with the mass of users suddenly interested in accessing the sites at the same time.

Yes, whenever I try to buy more than a handful of games.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/am_i_the_only_one_having_problems_with_adyen_payments

Thank you, everyone, for your detailed and varied replies.

The Atlas GOGBear is a common variety of GOGBear. It can be seen whenever the forums crack and buckle under the pressure of their years, which is once every 10 minutes at least :P...

Thanks to this, I was *finally* able to remove that one unread reply notification that I've had for ages.

GogBear has broken free and is trying to steal the world!

It would be server issues, impacted by number of users (sales especially), plus any maintenance or updating that GOG may be doing, plus we cannot ignore the impact of any denial of service attacks that may be happening at any one time.

And opening up multiple GOG pages in tabs at such times, would just increase the likelihood of seeing the GOGbear.

Well, it has been an issue for me in the past, that's true.
But never constantly (not for me, at least).
And yes - it started to be an issue again with the start of this year's summer sale.

Well, summer sale is over, but the issue remains.

"Fun" fact: today I needed six tries to enter my "Forum replies" section.
Five times the (long) loading time ended with the GOGbear.

It sometimes happen when trying to access the main page.

I am also unable to recall the last time I was able to successfully access the recent replies button, making hunting down replies a bit of a [expletive].

I imagine it's the forum database getting a bit moldy again.