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Getting rid of Closed account taglines

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  • 10-10-2016 3:17pm
    #1
    Boards.ie: Mark
    Boards.ie Employee Posts: 5,461 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Boards.ie Employee


    Hi everyone,

    Something that many of you are asking for is for something to be done about the Closed ​account taglines.​​

    At best, it's distracting to read through some of the classic threads only to see some infamous users who have closed their account; at worst it makes Boards look like an unwelcoming place when there are reams of​
    ​Closed ​Accounts, even though some are users who have re-registered ​and are still on the site with a new account.​

    After some input and a discussion with the mods, we have decided to remove those taglines ​from under a user's name in threads and on user profiles - there will be no user title on those user accounts, the space will be blank.
    ​
    ​The 'Closed Account' usergroup will still be visible to Mods and Admin in Modutils for reference, so ​there's no getting around that one! :)

    How can I? User's guide to some features on the new site

    Post edited by Shield on


«134

Comments

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    #2
    Fr_Dougal
    Registered Users Posts: 9,167 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    I think the "Closed Account" tag should stay. Removing it serves no real purpose to the community.


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    #3
    D0NNELLY
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭D0NNELLY


    It is absolutely distracting. Delighted to see the back of it, good decision.


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    #4
    Annasopra
    Registered Users Posts: 41,010 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    Whats the point of removing them?

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



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    #5
    KERSPLAT!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 31,152 ✭✭✭✭KERSPLAT!


    Joeytheparrot wrote: »
    Whats the point of removing them?
    Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »
    Hi everyone,

    Something that many of you are asking for is for something to be done about the Closed ​account taglines.​​

    At best, it's distracting to read through some of the classic threads only to see some infamous users who have closed their account; at worst it makes Boards look like an unwelcoming place when there are reams of​
    ​Closed ​Accounts, even though some are users who have re-registered ​and are still on the site with a new account.​

    After some input and a discussion with the mods, we have decided to remove those taglines ​from under a user's name in threads and on user profiles - there will be no user title on those user accounts, the space will be blank.
    ​
    ​The 'Closed Account' usergroup will still be visible to Mods and Admin in Modutils for reference, so ​there's no getting around that one! :)

    .


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    #6
    The Hill Billy
    Registered Users Posts: 22,764 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    Posts deleted.

    If you wish to give feedback - please do so.

    Smart remarks & off-topic posts will be removed.

    tHB


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    #7
    OldGoat
    Registered Users Posts: 12,633 ✭✭✭✭OldGoat


    I thought the tag was a requirement under the data protection malarkey.

    I'm older than Minecraft goats.



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    #8
    Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Employee Posts: 12,597 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Community Manager


    OldGoat wrote: »
    I thought the tag was a requirement under the data protection malarkey.

    No, Sean has spoken to them about it to confirm. It's not a requirement that accounts be publicly labelled as closed.

    How can I? User's guide to some features on the new site



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    #9
    dudara
    Registered Users Posts: 33,519 ✭✭✭✭dudara


    For clarity, can you confirm that the blank will only appear on Closed Accounts. Accounts with custom tag lines, and the system standard tag lines will be unaffected?


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    #10
    Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Employee Posts: 12,597 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Niamh
    Boards.ie Community Manager


    dudara wrote: »
    Just to confirm that the blank will only appear on Closed Accounts. Accounts with custom tag lines, and the system standard tag lines will be unaffected?

    That's correct, all other usergroups and their taglines (custom or otherwise) will remain unaffected.

    How can I? User's guide to some features on the new site



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    #11
    Barry Badrinath
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,460 ✭✭✭Barry Badrinath


    Personally, I don't see the point.

    I haven't seen many people complain of the tag line distraction. It's no more of a distraction than any other tagline, coloured stars, post count or signature.

    Boards (legally I suppose) had to give users the option to close their account. Users choose to do so. Their account goes dead and their tagline reflects this.

    If you do not have a "closed account" tagline, you are implementing a blank space. To me, that's more distracting. Long time users will know why it's a blank space but it may be confusing for new users, which lets be honest. That's what this is about.....making the site look popular and a place where people stick around. New users won't want to stick around because of the lack of "closed account" tags.

    I would wager they leave for other purposes than a "closed account" tagline. It's like sticking a plaster on a lacerated artery. It's not going to work if this is about new user retention and not aesthetics.

    The decision to implement this feature...or lack of feature looks completely like a bluff job. It's basic level pandering to show as if you are listening to existing users and implementing the site changes they are shouting for.

    It's an easy "win" for Boards. Do something small and simple to keep the masses happy.

    I'm not going to go over tired old ground, there's enough positive criticism of the site in Feedback as it is, most of which seems to be ignored or a case made against it.

    As a nobody on this site, the guys pulling the strings owe me nothing but at least think of an answer to this.

    Why are you really removing the "closed account" tagline and what do you hope it will tangibly achieve?

    Danke


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    #12
    knucklehead6
    Registered Users Posts: 6,758 ✭✭✭knucklehead6


    Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

    Why are you really removing the "closed account" tagline and what do you hope it will tangibly achieve?

    Danke


    Well mark said it's to try to make the place seem more welcoming.

    personally speaking i'd be of the opinion that if you want to make the place seem more welcoming get rid of the BANNED tagline and replace that with the blank.

    People close their accounts, that's no biggie... Especially if they re reg. I'm one of the re regs,


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    #13
    Boards.ie: Mark
    Boards.ie Employee Posts: 5,461 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Mark
    Boards.ie Employee


    One of the first things that I did when joining Boards was I went through a variety of Feedback threads across the site to see what issues were being highlighted. The Closed Account tagline came up more frequently than you might think and Seán heard about it firsthand from the moderators.

    Yes, it is an easier win than some of the issues that cropped up, but we're not planning to change the Closed Account tagline and then sit back all chuffed with ourselves. The developers here are working flat out on a variety of things (including a buglist and some fancy new Responsive Site features), and the Admins, CMods, and Mods are making changes behind the scenes (some more subtle than others).

    I agree with you on a couple of points; users are going to leave for a variety of reasons other than Closed Accounts. The reasoning varies and can include angles like "I need to focus on college", "Someone called me wrong on the internet and I'm upset about it", "I don't like the direction the site is going, or "I made a snap decision....and then set up a new account after a few days/weeks/months."

    It's not necessarily that new users won't stick around because of Closed Account taglines, but if they happen upon a thread where people have closed their accounts, will they even stick around to see the good and the bad of Boards.ie?

    There is more to be done, we understand that, but this is something that many users have been asking for. And we don't intend this to be the only example of us saying "we are listening to you."
    Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

    Why are you really removing the "closed account" tagline and what do you hope it will tangibly achieve?

    To sum up, we're removing it as it's something that existing users have been asking for and it is something that can be done quite quickly. It will hopefully make for a more pleasant browsing experience for current users and it will mean that new users aren't put off by closed accounts if they find their way here from Google.

    How can I? User's guide to some features on the new site



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    #14
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    When is this being implemented ? I still see closed account labels ..


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    #15
    D0NNELLY
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭D0NNELLY


    Agree with the other poster, remove the BANNED tag while ye have the bonnet up.

    Nothing worse than going through old threads with nothing but closed account and banned under posters names.


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    #16
    osarusan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,578 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Could you just leave it blank in all cases except for Mod, Admin, Employee?


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    #17
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    Well the whole BANNED thing is another story, from a site with 75k banned posters, there needs to be some rethink of the moderation.


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    #18
    The Hill Billy
    Registered Users Posts: 22,764 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    Well the whole BANNED thing is another story, from a site with 75k banned posters, there needs to be some rethink of the moderation.

    But you know that the 75K banned accounts are largely due to a huge volume of spammer accounts being banned in a short space of time. You even thanked the post. Claiming that this is now a driver for a change in moderation is disingenuous.

    If you have thoughts on what moderation changes may be required to reduce permanent sitebans while still keeping out spammers & re-reg trolls - start another thread & let's keep this to feedback on the Closed Account taglines.

    tHB


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    #19
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    OK 75k isn't a true number of individuals, but I have no other number to pick from - either way it's still going to be relatively high.


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    #20
    dudara
    Registered Users Posts: 33,519 ✭✭✭✭dudara


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    OK 75k isn't a true number of individuals, but I have no other number to pick from - either way it's still going to be relatively high.

    Believe it or not, it's a relatively small pool of posters who continuously re-reg*. The 75k number in no way reflects the true number of banned individuals (as opposed to banned accounts, or banned shillbots)

    *Based on my experience


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    #21
    Winterlong
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,759 ✭✭✭Winterlong


    osarusan wrote: »
    Could you just leave it blank in all cases except for Mod, Admin, Employee?

    I like this idea. And if you click on someone's profile then you should be able to see if the account is closed or not.


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    #22
    hatrickpatrick
    Registered Users Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Personally I feel that this smacks of a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the exodus of sorts which has taken place over the last year for various reasons, and removing people's ability to register their disagreement with the direction Boards was going in for a while (thankfully things now seem to have changed). That's just me - a lot of people closed their accounts as a protest against what they saw as ideological censorship, and this is widely known. If that made Boards look unwelcoming, it was the situation itself rather than disgruntled users' reactions to it which caused that, and in my view trying to hide this is a pretty underhanded move. Especially seeing as the fact that some mistakes were made with regard to ideological policing was openly acknowledged in one of the recent feedback threads.

    It's like a journalist writing an atrocious opinion piece and then disabling comments, or a YouTube user making an inflammatory video and then disabling likes/dislikes in order to obfuscate the extent of objection to it. Account closured have lately been used to make a statement, and this feels - even if it isn't actually the reason - like an attempt to pretend that Boards hasn't had some issues lately which are being worked through at the moment.


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    #23
    the groutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,096 ✭✭✭✭the groutch


    osarusan wrote: »
    Could you just leave it blank in all cases except for Mod, Admin, Employee?

    subscribers have paid for certain benefits, including the ability to create their own tagline.
    it wouldn't be fair to suddenly take that away from them.


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    #24
    osarusan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,578 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    the groutch wrote: »
    subscribers have paid for certain benefits, including the ability to create their own tagline.
    it wouldn't be fair to suddenly take that away from them.


    Ok, fair enough, that could be an exception. I'd never have imagined that was much of the appeal of becoming a subscriber, but I could well be wrong

    I think that the 'unwelcoming' aspect that comes with lots of 'Closed Account' or 'Banned' taglines does so because of the contrast with 'Registered User' that appears as a tagline the vast majority of the time.

    Even if there is an absence of a particular tagline, posters will know what that absence means - the account has been closed (although new/potential users might not understand) - so I'd wonder how well it actually addresses the problem, for existing users at least.

    But if there are no taglines other than Mod, Admin, Employee - or personalised taglines for subscribers - then there is no 'unwelcoming' contrast to be made.


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    #25
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers Posts: 47,283 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    hatrickpatrick wrote: »
    Account closured have lately been used to make a statement

    Accounts are closed for many reasons and in most cases we have no idea why the account has been closed. While some may have been closed to make a statement, we have no way of knowing if they make up 1% or 99% of the total closures. People are still free to close their accounts, and if they want they can state why in a post before they do so, but removing the closed account tag isn't removing any imagined right from them because it never existed in the first place.


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    #26
    The Hill Billy
    Registered Users Posts: 22,764 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    No mention the significant number of members who close accounts only to re-register under a new name, sometimes doing this many times.


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    #27
    Fr_Dougal
    Registered Users Posts: 9,167 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    Commercially this makes a lot of sense actually. Hopefully we can attract more advertising and talk-to accounts.


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    #28
    gandalf
    Registered Users Posts: 26,458 ✭✭✭✭gandalf


    hatrickpatrick wrote: »
    Account closured have lately been used to make a statement, and this feels - even if it isn't actually the reason - like an attempt to pretend that Boards hasn't had some issues lately which are being worked through at the moment.

    I agree with you nearly 100% here. It is dealing with a visible side effect rather than the actual reason for people closing their accounts. I do also see the reasoning for the move because it is very off putting to open up a thread and see half the users are either banned or closed accounts. It does give the impression that boards as a community is rotting from the inside and in ways I believe it is (Well more like the Chinese saying "The fish rots from the head!").

    If this is brought in then there has to be a way, maybe when you click into the profile where that account is clearly marked as a closed account to mitigate the situation where a user could potentially try to discuss something with a empty shell that won't reply.

    At the end of the day the clear problem is still communication from Boards HQ. I'm not talking about the CM or their new assistant I am talking about the top level. They have been anonymous and at this stage I believe they should be clearly sharing the vision and direction they have for this site, especially as we are the product they are selling and the content generators that attract new users to the site.


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    #29
    o1s1n
    Registered Users Posts: 34,602 ✭✭✭✭o1s1n
    Master of the Universe


    It is very off putting to go into a thread and see a whole rake of closed accounts alright, so I'd definitely agree with removing the tag line.

    I don't think it's going to fix any of the major current problems, but it might help generate a little more content as folks might be a bit more inclined to post if they don't get the impression they're talking to dead accounts. Content begets content.

    As mentioned, why the lack of transparency from the top in regards to vision and where the site aims to go? As an end user without access to the moderator forum or anything with a bit of 'behind the scenes' access, it currently feels like the answer is 'because we've no idea' rather than 'because we're planning something really big'.


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    #30
    Lovely Bloke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,748 ✭✭✭✭Lovely Bloke


    tagline or no, the likes of us, and eventually everyone, is going to know a blank tagline is a closed account.


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    #31
    Elliott S
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,475 ✭✭✭Elliott S


    I think this is a great idea. Seeing a thread filled with 'Closed Account' taglines is a bit of a downer.

    But reading this thread is illuminating. I hope never to be as cynical as some of its contributors. There are some people here who I get the impression will never be happen, no matter what boards.ie does.
    Lovely Bloke wrote: »
    tagline or no, the likes of us, and eventually everyone, is going to know a blank tagline is a closed account.

    New users won't and it might let them bed in a bit before they realise.


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