Just a thought,

I have not heard of any, but perhaps I've missed a trick, is there any way to get a raw XML feed of the forums?

If we could get that, I could write a client to filter out posts I didn't like, people I didn't like, things I wanted to be alerted to, etc. Any thoughts on this. What have I missed?

Ok, with fear of the don't bump threads post, I'd still like to expand on this.

I want to create a forum client, so that I don't have to endure the less polite members of the forum. I will if necessary parse the html, and get the data that way (assuming GOG don't sue / take action against me). This will be hard and fragile. Is there an easier way?

Greasemonkey and custom CSS sounds about 100 times easier. At worst you can use Greasemonkey as a base for your little FF extension (or Chrome or whatever).

But admit it, you'll miss when when you can no longer read me;)

You might be able to do the same thing using Javascript or another programming tool. A friend of mine is getting his Bachelor's degree in computer engineering, and he seems to do this sort of stuff all the time. As to how you would write such a thing, I'd have no idea. Of course, you'd have to be ready to adjust the tool to add or remove people as needed without it backlash against the whole program.

Fear not my square jawed friend, you would not be excluded. However a simple script to strip out poster is not just where it's at. I prefer client apps. This whole web thing annoys me (even though I write the stuff). I'm happier having a nice fat client with loads of options and features. So I'll write on for myself (and share it if desired). Forum clients used to exist, they should still.

I would like to try it out for sure.

A friend of mine does something similar with PHP, but since you're looking for desktop stuff...

Something like this maybe?

http://jamesrossiter.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/easily-retrieve-html-content-from-websites-using-c-and-html-agility-pack-htmlagilitypack/

EDIT: That code is not for this issue exactly, but I guess it can be modified to suit your needs. Although I think you'd have much work on your hands. :)