Chris. Firstly, Thank you for taking the time to reply at length. You are very good at making nice forum posts. 
It is true that I have not used the tool that you discuss before so I cannot fully judge what I have not personally tried. I am a long time forum user though. I have been on many forums over the years so I can talk some about them. I do appreciate the forum interface and over time have found some inherent qualities to the concept of forums as a feedback tool.
I will share with you some of my thoughts on the subject and respond specifically to some of your expressed concern.
- I think you greatly miss much of the intent. First, I will say that they have done a good job of allowing the game to run in the background. That being said, there are often issues when trying to minimize a game in fullscreen mode, especially in early versions. But that is still not the point. Having to browse through and the attempt to find duplicate issues is not fun and in no way am I willing to take the time to do it. Instead I just post whatever issue I have.
GalCiv III uses a borderless windowed fullscreen mode, which provides a glitch free and instant Alt-Tab to anything else. This being said I do not constantly alt-tab out of the game to write on the forum. I just have a paper sheet and write down any problem or idea I have while playing the game. Later on I will log to the forum and reorganize all my notes into a single feedback post. I feel this makes for a better quality result than posting whatever comes to my mind just as I am thinking of it.
- Tell me, how do I insert an image into this forum easily? First I find somewhere to store the image that provides me with a link, then I use that link to paste the image? My goodness that is by no way simple quick and easy. How could you even suggest such thing?
I am used to it. This is why I can suggest such a thing. But I can understand it is annoying if you are not.
I will tell you my exact method for sharing just any custom screenshot and having it uploaded on the web in under a minute. I use it to post pictures on any forums, facebook, chatroom, you name it. I do this pretty much everyday and it is a very useful method for me. I have to thank Imgur for being such a quick en efficient tool for doing this.
-Press print screen
-Alt tab out of the Game and Open Ms Paint ( I have it on shortcut Ctrl-Alt-P so it is quick. )
-Press CTRL-V
-Add text to the picture where I want it.
-Select the area I want and Press Ctrl-C
-Click on my imgur link in my browser. It logs in automatically to my public album. ( although Imgur is free for your first 250 picture, I do have a paid account personally, because it is so cheap and I use the thing daily. If you dont have paid account it will delete your oldest pictures to make room for new after 250)
-Press Ctrl-V The area I selected in MS-Pain is automatically uploaded to the site right from the clipboard, this takes a few seconds.
-As soon as it is over a thumbnail apppears, I can click on it and click a button to copy the link in the clipboard.
-In the forum press the insert image button. Ctrl-v the link from imgur and click ok.
-Done
That might sound complicated but actually I just did it now and checked the clock and it took me 35 seconds. Including adding red text to the screenshot, uploading the image and copying the link to the forum.
- Let me give a quick walkthrough of how easy this could be.
- Click the Feedback button while in the game.
- A window comes up allowing you to type some information.
- Click a button in the window allowing you to take a snipit/screenshot.
- You literally drag the mouse (select the area of the screen you wish to insert).
- The snipit is automatically inserted into the message.
- You type more information taking more snip-its if needed.
- Select the problem type (bug, issue, suggestion, etc...) form a dropdown and click send
30-60s and I'm done.
How does this compare to a forum post?
-snip
The ingame tool might be easier/faster to have some immediate piece of information out of your mind reach the devs, but I feel like a forum has other advantages.
Let me first say I do not see how the built in system would reduce duplicate information. On the contrary, I would expect anyone being able to easily post anything on their mind from inside the game would result in spam at the other end. A forum keeps things just complicated enough that people who post usually have something they really want to say.
Posters and devs can see what the hot topics are from the number of replies, previous discussions can all be browsed so if you dont want to post something duplicate you can read the post titles of what has been posted before. Of course most people do not do this so we end up with duplicate posts anyway, but its not such a big deal. Most of the feedback are stuff that SD already know themselves anyway.
A forum is mostly a place to discuss and exchange information. This is its main strength, others can add yo what you say, or correct you if you are wrong. There also seems there is a sweet spot as to how much traffic it can have. Too little posting and it is a dead forum. Too much posting and it becomes overwhelming. I think StarDock forum is in the green zone so I like coming to it and reading replies to interesting topics without having dozens of new pages to read everyday. I can also do this during lunch at work, while opening the game is impossible.
And last but not least, forums are fun
