The evolution of boards.ie

Cloud

Hope you enjoy my presentation from BarCamp Galway at the weekend, featuring new statistics on how our topics have evolved since 1998.

http://www.slideshare.net/Cloud/the-evolution-of-boardsie/20

(See the summary slide version.)

Boston

this all apears as just the underlining html code, but when i go to quote it appears correctly as embedded flash.

Jesus Wept

You have a lot of stars.

All you need to do is approve the Microwave and Time Machines forum, and your vision will be complete

Interesting. I think I saw some of it before elsewhere. Is the future for the next while confined to social.ie or will there be additional sister-sites/services coming on stream?

Cloud

Yeah, a link will work better - edited.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054978195

tsk tsk


cool slide show, onwards and upwards!

Ruu_Old

Nice one Cloudie. Love the stats.

Stephen

Wow, gamers gone from the dominant majority here to a small minority!

Terry

Nice, but I don't believe it evolved.
God did it all. Are you God?

Also, the 3% rise in the use of the Rec catergory over the last year is completely down to me.
You're welcome.

Mr Magnolia

Very informative. Onwards and upwards....

Mr. Presentable

Congrats on the success of .ie, but others I have visited, .jp and .us are basically in need of a kick up the arse. The only time there's any activity on .us is when .ie is down.

Maybe a consolidation or rationalisation of the empire is in order - make what works better, and what doesn't experience gained and history.

1.5 million visits (posts?), from 750,000 visitors is an odd stat. How few in number are the posters with a higher number of posts?

The Hill Billy

Interesting to see the progression over the years - particularly to a relative n00b like myself. Something to be very proud of!

Would liked to have seen the coke:hookers stats & how they've progressed; not to mention the Nazi Mod Machine & their army of LolCats that keeps the whole place running.

quarryman

nice and flashy but no slides devoted to spiralling search ability.

JIZZLORD

1.5 million visits (posts?), from 750,000 visitors is an odd stat. How few in number are the posters with a higher number of posts?

abou half the members have never posted

Pherekydes

Congrats on the success. Long may it continue.

I was very interested by the "topics trend" slides. Interesting to see the other topics catch up and overtake gaming.

Also, I never really realised the physical infrastructure behind boards.ie.

As a non-paying member (may be about to change ), I would like to thank those who provide such a great free service.







P.S. Anyone who feels the need to lambast me over the latter, do so in a PM. Let's keep this topic in a congratulatory vein.

Cloud

Thanks all...

I should say that we do plan to employ someone full-time in the short term.

I think that this is the first step in our evolution towards a more business-like entity (in a good way), and will mean that we can no longer refer to boards.ie as a 'hobby'!

6th

I'm actually proud to tell people the stats for this place, I genuinely feel like I am part of something .... even if some of you hate me

Karoma

Cloud wrote:

Thanks all...

I should say that we do plan to employ someone full-time in the short term.

I think that this is the first step in our evolution towards a more business-like entity (in a good way), and will mean that we can no longer refer to boards.ie as a 'hobby'!

Exxxcceeelllllent.

AlmightyCushion

Cloud wrote:

Thanks all...

I should say that we do plan to employ someone full-time in the short term.

I think that this is the first step in our evolution towards a more business-like entity (in a good way), and will mean that we can no longer refer to boards.ie as a 'hobby'!

That would be pretty cool. Congrats on all the success so far and I hope it continues long in to the future. Quick question cloud. Do you know where that thread you posted about how boards started out is. I could have sworn it was stickied in the newbies forum but it isn't there. It makes for very interesting reading.

Sarky

Cloud wrote:

I should say that we do plan to employ someone full-time in the short term.

Full-time hooker/coke dealer?

Terry

Cloud wrote:

Thanks all...

I should say that we do plan to employ someone full-time in the short term.

I think that this is the first step in our evolution towards a more business-like entity (in a good way), and will mean that we can no longer refer to boards.ie as a 'hobby'!

Gis a job. Seriously. I need one where I can work from home.

mike65

Page 22 clearly contains a lie.




















8 min 34 seconds????? Pah!


Mike.

Ruu_Old

Finally!

/me crosses out all work experience and replaces with S-mod boards.ie, References: Cloud, boards.ie

Suaimhneach

That is really cool John, seems like a lecture worth viewing. Would probably be good with some narration / opinion, but great all the same.

Sparky

AlmightyCushion wrote:

That would be pretty cool. Congrats on all the success so far and I hope it continues long in to the future. Quick question cloud. Do you know where that thread you posted about how boards started out is. I could have sworn it was stickied in the newbies forum but it isn't there. It makes for very interesting reading.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1

That the one?

Maybe not

Stargal

That's some really interesting stuff, thanks for posting it. Just out of idle curiosity, did you take questions about boards after the presentation? If so, what kind of things did people ask you about?

RuggieBear

Cloud wrote:

Thanks all...

I should say that we do plan to employ someone full-time in the short term.

I think that this is the first step in our evolution towards a more business-like entity (in a good way), and will mean that we can no longer refer to boards.ie as a 'hobby'!

oh now there is a can of verms...

AlmightyCushion

Spankeh wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1

That the one?

Maybe not

No that isn't it. It was about how it started out and some of the things that happened through the years. It was pretty cool.

http://wiki.boards.ie/wiki/Pre-History
http://wiki.boards.ie/wiki/History
http://wiki.boards.ie/wiki/Future

Blowfish

wow, 208 countries, that I didn't expect.

mike65 wrote:

8 min 34 seconds????? Pah!

Ok, in your case it stands for 8 hours 34 mins

Karoma

Blowfish wrote:

wow, 208 countries, that I didn't expect.

Proxies+banned users?

<snip>

AlmightyCushion

Karoma wrote:

Proxies+banned users?



<SNIP>

<_<
>_>

Karoma

>_>
<_<

AlmightyCushion

Karoma wrote:

>_>
<_<

I know I guess you were right about the <snip>.

Blowfish

Karoma wrote:

>_>
<_<

It would look more like this:

|__|

smashey

Good presentation. I hope the next one mentions the fact that we now have aliens and lizards posting.

Beruthiel

*sheds a little tear*

sunny2004

Well done !

Tom Dunne

Beruthiel wrote:

*sheds a little tear*

*hugs Ruthie*

Great work Cloud, an incredilbe story, and I'm sure it's only just the beginning.

*polishes off CV*

Tazzle

i for one miss the game culture & community :<

David Michael

Tazzle wrote:

i for one miss the game culture & community :<

Notces Counter strike in your tag...

That was a good giggle.


Shinji FTW!

DeVore

I too miss the gaming culture but I dont think that Boards left it behind, it seemed to disintegrate of its own accord somewhere between CS and Q3 and then spiral down to just voice comms over Xbox...
In the mean time Boards went the place it was intended to go...

DeV.

entropi

Sarky wrote:

Full-time hooker/coke dealer?

Such a shame us long term members who ain't mods can't avail of this benefit

Back on topic though, nice layout there, shows that boards has really succeeded and continues to flourish.I for one am glad to be posting here such a long time, and will continue to do so. A big well done to all those involved and keep up the good work

Slutmonkey57b

DeVore wrote:

I too miss the gaming culture but I dont think that Boards left it behind, it seemed to disintegrate of its own accord somewhere between CS and Q3 and then spiral down to just voice comms over Xbox...
In the mean time Boards went the place it was intended to go...

DeV.

The gaming culture that boards grew up on at the time ('95-'98ish) was a much more narrow grouping though - at the time, PC gaming was the dominant factor, the playstation was only starting to get into its stride, and particularly multiplayer gamers relied either on cybercafe's or the fact that they were in college. LAN gaming wasn't a big deal, the days of multiple PC's in the home still being a short way off. College computer labs were the stronghold of multiplayer gaming and they fostered a totally different culture to the multiplayer environment that exists in the home, not least because there was still a mixture of different gaming cultures (tabletop and magic still had a strong following), and from people of different backgrounds all being mixed in together. Essentially, if you weren't in university, or didn't have the option to sit in a cybercafe until 4am, you probably weren't playing proper multiplayer (4 joypads plugged into one tv doesn't count in this scenario), and you certainly weren't doing it online. Online multiplayer gaming was very much the preserve of the university crowd, and boards certainly reflected that.

At the very start, it was little more than the crew of "guys who thought they might be able to make a living at this quake thing" and their college mates. But even early on, it showed signs of being a powerful bonding force. I can't think of much else that would encourage arrogant Trinity College pricks to associate with University of Limerick heads. Not that the culchies didn't get a good slagging for their trouble anyway mind you.

DeVore

OMG!! SlutMonkey57b!! Where you been man? Good to see you posting.

I think you are broadly right, but there was a new wave of gamers too, those who had a new fangled technology called ISDN which allowed them to compete against the dread LPBers.

I honestly made good long term friends from online gaming but I think you are also right that the modern "multiplayer experience" doesnt engender that same "intrepid explorers" feeling that many of us had when we were sneaking memory upgrades into the Eircom server room and building clan webpages...

Everything changes though, new territories to explore I guess, but I still view it (nostalgically) as a golden age of internet gaming....

DeV.

Slutmonkey57b

DeVore wrote:

OMG!! SlutMonkey57b!! Where you been man? Good to see you posting.

Where have I been? I've been at Yore Ma's - taking her from behind.

I think you are broadly right, but there was a new wave of gamers too, those who had a new fangled technology called ISDN which allowed them to compete against the dread LPBers.

I honestly made good long term friends from online gaming but I think you are also right that the modern "multiplayer experience" doesnt engender that same "intrepid explorers" feeling that many of us had when we were sneaking memory upgrades into the Eircom server room and building clan webpages...

Everything changes though, new territories to explore I guess, but I still view it (nostalgically) as a golden age of internet gaming....

DeV.

The other thing to remember is that modern online gaming is pretty much fractured into two groups; PC gamers are caught up in MMORPG's, which are all huge communities, but are very much long-term time commitments and don't foster the same sort of social dynamic as you got from playing a few rounds of quake, followed by C&C, followed by Warcraft, followed by MUD... and there's a lot more ****ing furries about now that the "normals" are involved.
Consoles are the home of short-term hop-in gaming now, but they're limited in scope to a couple of very samey games - halo, gears, etc, and being played from home pretty much 100% of the time will never engender the same community spirit that guys who lugged boxes to the first LAN parties, or guys that all descended on a single computer lab or cafe had.

These kids today. They don't know what they missed.

Blade

Dev, there seems to be a bit of a QuakeWorld revival happening, not so much in Ireland but in the rest of Europe which we can now get to with 30 to 50 ping. If you feel nostalgic, download ezquake and join us. I started back on it about 8 months ago.

growler

very interesting to see how this has happened, well done and keep up the good work lads.

Agent Smith

Blowfish wrote:

wow, 208 countries, that I didn't expect.
Ok, in your case it stands for 8 hours 34 mins

own up...


who's here from north Korea?

kowloon

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

These kids today. They don't know what they missed.

Oh for the days of srv2, clan giblets and the crowd, campers, cross-dressers and lpbs with their 36k modems.
We few, we band of brothers, and brothers pretending to be sisters.............

gandalf

err those with 36k modems were the HPB, the LPB's were the tossers from Clan Trinity.......