FEEDBACK: What do you find good/bad about the Rugby forum

Crash

Hey guys, i'd like to see this kept as constructive as possible, so please post what you find good about the rugby forum, and want to see encouraged, what really gets on your tits, and finally any rule changes you think we should consider in the charter.

Cheers!

Arguments are good.
Arguments about what team has won what are stupid.

People shouldnt feel to restricted in what they say.If people want to argue about provinces it should go in a thread like the thunderdrome where anything goes.It would stop mods having to ban people and edit every post.

A thunderdrome style thread should be created.

There should be 4 permanent provincial thread to discuss team news and goosip etc,then a seperate match day thread,like the soccer forum.

A super 14 thread should also be created for gossip and team news etc.

Serenity Now!

Provincialism, that inexplicable handy form of tribalism when the national team doesn't do so great.

Having said that, inter-provincial bullsh is not only here on this forum. There are hordes of deluded one-eyed tribalists out there.
Sod'em.

Diamondmaker

Well I have been a member of boards 3 years now, initially 90% of my posts have been in the rugby forum, lately I dont post much and scan read threads at best.

Certain posters just post the same stuff week in week out. The amount of petty bickering has become unbearable and subjective discussions on who is a better player always descend to childish slaps.

I actually posted a thread a while ago in frustration: " why has the rugby forum turned to tripe lalely" or words to that effect...

I have no issue with new fans, its good for the sport. Since the dawn of the professional era Ireland, although never living up to - ( to date ) - to their full potential, have probably progressed further than all nations relative to their pre pro status.
Therfore we are likely to see and expect growth in the fan base and this is a positive.

I just wonder why after one or 2 salvos from each side people cant just accept the others view and leave it. Some posters are just hell bent on "shouting" their point of view home and turning a thread into mindless toing and frowing on a given issue vaguely or a mile off topic.

It is moderated well and the guys do a good and unenviable job. I guess its all to be expected from such growth.

I reckon a rule that you cant make, or rephrase, the same point ad nauseum more than X amount of times. Probably impossible to practically enforce but occasionally when some one is really taking the mick and just wont give over, it could be invoked.

Also some posters are clearly always out for a row, the mods should have more freedom to just tell these people to cop on and there should be no whinging about it. Again tough to enforce evenly and without complaints from agrieved parties. Lets not even go down the Minster Leinster scheiss, nuff said...........

Anyway more power to the game and its increased enjoyment.
Post like gentlemen play like animals.

Fozzie Bear

Gunner Stale Stringer wrote: »

Arguments are good.

A thunderdrome style thread should be created.

Yes please! I don't post all that often here but I read regularly and the whole Leinster v Munster thing gets on my t1ts. It's juvenile name calling muck and it's just annoying reading it as they go back and over at each other. Give them a thunderdome, no rules, gloves off and let them have at it hell for leather. But the second they bring any of that crap out of the thunderdome and onto the regular threads in the general rugby forum ban them immediately! That way the rest of us (and them) can discuss, debate and read each others comments without it decending into the usual...... if they need to go name calling they can invite the other poster/side into the thunderdome from the rugby forum and off with them.

Gunner Stale Stringer wrote: »

There should be 4 permanent provincial thread to discuss team news and goosip etc,then a seperate match day thread,like the soccer forum.

Not sure about this one. First would it not be even more work for the mods to regulate all those extra sub forums? Second I think the general rugby forum is fine as is. I can see all threads relating to all provinces and can dip into them if I want. I could not be arséd going into rugby and then into a provincial forum and back out and into the next just to see if there is any interesting stuff. Plus lets face it out from Leinster and Munster the other two forums would be fairly empty due to the greater majority of posters being from the Blue and Red provinces.

Otacon

I can't stand Provincialism. Its like the fanboi-ism of the rugby world. Trying to accommodate for this in any way cannot be good for the forum...

Everything else is peachy. Perhaps a standardised form for match-threads though, like HEC for Heineken Cup, ML, GP, 6N etc... with a standard date and time format, in the subject line, and, if possible, what TV or radio channels it will be available on in the thread.

anonymous_joe

Other than the provincial bickering it's a good forum. Well modded.

Erm, there needs to be balance between support, debate and rivalry.

The problems in Irish rugby in the near past led to a lot of scapegoating and arguing. Think people did need to be a bit more mature. On all sides.

I think team threads for general province news might not be a bad idea. Just to keep an eye on transfers, squad health, etc.

themont85

Hastier deleation of posts which insight an argument. Mostly the posts which entail an attack on a province come from newbies and people who don't who don't follow rugby normally but peddle one eyed stereotypical BS(ie 'Leinster fans are d4 bleach haired ladyboys'), not from regular posters. Banter is grand like, but there is a line between that and people who actually believe and write such things.

Agree with Gunner Stale Stringer, each province have their own thread, maybe an Ireland international news thread. A S14 thread, AIL, schools rugby ect with match threads for big games.

louthandproud

Seems to be a lot of posts slagging the poster rather than the posting.
If someone disagrees with a post they should counter argument it not tell the poster he is stupid etc etc..

There also seems to be a lot of underhanded provincial subjectivity when discussing players, teams or whatever from CERTAIN posters. If someone doesn't like a player because they are from a particular province, just come out and say it and stop trying to dress it up with other arguments and general BS.

I don't see anything wrong with provincialism when it comes to the provincial/club competitions bu there is no place for it when discussing the national side.

A lot of total crap talked about snobbery v the common man in the provincial argument, this has fcuk all to with Rugby and mostly crap anyway.

Stev_o

Think one thing that i personally dislike is that some people go out of their way to lay into other posters if a poster thinks X is not as good as Y and then it snowballs from there. Criticism i think is fine if it's backed up and not personal attacks on a player but i hate reading responses that go "You idiot do you even watch rugby?? X is a great player and has achieved more then you'll ever will and btw Y is ****e hahahah " etc.

chupacabra

I like how everyones opinion is treated as is, and there are no pompus feckers who think that just because they have been here longer they have seniority.. like a few other rugby forums i have experience with.

Provincialism is unfortunate, but somewhat unavoidable i think.

Sangre

Not much to change. Any problems are from posters being petty, one eyed and childish. Not much you can do about that. I think people just need to accept other people will be bias. You will naturally favour a player if you see him a lot more than other players, its rarely intentional.

Big no to the 4 Provincial threads. If I want to join/read a topic that might provincial heavy I don't want to wade through a big massive thread to do so.

sm.org

All the rugby mods are from Leinster (I'm open to correction on this) and I think they're far too easy on some of the more colourful Leinster posters.

sm.org

sm.org wrote: »

All the rugby mods are from Leinster (I'm open to correction on this) and I think they're far too easy on some of the more colourful Leinster posters.

Oh please.

The difference is the Leinster fans can walk the white line and use their linguistic skills to avoid bans,while the other fans walk themselves straight into trouble.

On a side note,the mods on this forum are the best on boards.ie,the amount of **** they have to deal with is ridiculous,most of it involving myself.

[Jackass]

I don't think you could accuse Ruggie in particular of being in any way biased towards either Leinster or Munster fans!! He just hates all of us equally!!

I also think Goose's origional post about a "get it off your chest" thread where the slap heads can slap the sh*t out of eachother is a good idea, I like the team thread idea and then match day threads.

For the most part I think the forum is well run and well moderated. I don't know what happened Amz and Trojan and DaveIrl but they all seem to have gone over the years, but Ruggie and Crash (stop changing your name!!!) seem to be doing a good job at keeping the peace and order.

Crash

On the name change, I don't have a choice, CuLT kept changing it on me for fun. :P

By the way, I won't be responding to anything on this for a few days to keep it fairly unbiased etc. - but lots of good suggestions/comments so far.

Crash should change his name.

leeroybrown

I think the only real problem is that some threads occasionally descend into blinkered province-centric trolling. I've got no issue with posters thinking that their own province is better but when some descend into repeated trolling, particularly after incidents in interpro games, I think they'd be better off cooling off with a ban.

Apart from that I'd just add another big no to any idea of provincial sub-forums or threads. They're not needed and most of what happens in the four provinces (probably three for some posters) is of general interest to Irish rugby and everyone here. If posters can't behave in the the main forum then we're better off without them.

zAbbo

The mods do a good job, but there's not enough pre-emptive modding, and only 1 dedicated mod (Crash), with Ruggie (Who's great) a CMod on sports, and DaveIRL modding a few forums - guys do a good job but are probably a bit lenient and thinly spread.

A lot of the issues on this forum could be sorted out by laying down better guidelines and implementing them. (not as easy as it sounds)

Here's a bunch of random suggestions

1) Match threads - only have 1, and the onus is on the OP to include as much relevant information on the game as possible, like juvenal does and not this

2) Article/News linking and opinions - Some users paste an article with no comment, and no reference to the source - does my head in, and thread descends into balls, I like to know who wrote the article and where it comes from and when it was written.

3) Provincial rivalry & trolling - it just needs to be nipped in the bud, if someone says ROG is a weak defensively, I'd expect it to be backed up and maybe we might have a discussion.

4) George Hook - if anyone here repeats an opinion George Hook (Or any other pundit) has - state it, and at least back up the argument, e.g Tommy Bowe is too slow, O'Leary takes too many steps - I don't mind someone's opinion as long as they can say "here's why O'Leary taking steps is bad...."

5) Posters - a lot of new ones, possibly having used munsterfans/leinsterfans/other boards before - and the rules are slightly different here, some of which are openly argumentative and dismissive of others opinions.

There's probably more, maybe it's just my perception, but I felt that the forum was in serious decline in the last 2 years, but seems to have picked up this year and is certainly more read worthy if not instantly post worthy.

Just to echo Diomandmakers thoughts, I remember the thread he started - here, a couple of [then] mods post and close it, and here we are - 3 months later trying to address it...this is typical of the difference in attitude long time posters now feel with this forum, mods coming and going, changing their names and only semi visible - I know modding a forum ain't easy (I own one full of teenagers!) - but if the mods aren't available, they should step down.

Appreciate the effort you're putting in here Crash, but I'm semi sceptical if what's posted here will make a difference and will probably result in an updated charter - which few read, I've never read it - I judge what is and isn't allowed by reading the threads - and therein lies the problem with this forum.

zAbbo

Did anything every happen from this?

I know there was a mod reshuffle.

Think some forum tidy up is in order, 10 stickies could be reduced.

Some guidelines around the Lions tour and the up coming Semi Final (where threads will undoubtedly get over heated - it's happening already, lots of little jibes appearing)

Orizio

Leinster vs Munster hate threads. Can't we just have one thread where 'fans' of both provinces can just take the piss out of each other and let the rest of us to discuss rugby in peace?

toomevara

Orizio wrote: »

Leinster vs Munster hate threads. Can't we just have one thread where 'fans' of both provinces can just take the piss out of each other and let the rest of us to discuss rugby in peace?

All for it, at the minute most of the threads on the forum are no go areas, hell you cant even discuss the Lions or even more improbably, attendance figures, (ferchrissakes!!!!) without provincial **** creeping in.

But the "hate, mong, idiot' or (my favourite) the "I know feck-all about rugby but feel free to appear on the rugby forum whenever there's a big Heino Interpro to spread bile and spout nonsense" thread has, to my knowledge been tried before to little or no avail...

Just do what I do Orizio and avoid any thread which revolves around Inter-pro/Munster/Leinster rugby...realise that means half the forum is a no-go but you really ain't missing much...

RuggieBear

i'm not in favour of those types of thread.it's been tried before and it always just pollutes the forum.

i'll just have to back to absolute zero tolerance again.

thomond2006

Ruggie, move the RL in Ireland to the RL forum. It's taking up space plus nobody has posted a reply.

murphym7

I enjoy the forum, you get to learn a lot from other peoples perspectives. It can fall into a pi##ing contest from time to time but it is moderated well, not an easy job. I would second the idea about keeping one thread per match and having everything in there, they can be spread out over a couple of threads and they end up being repeats.

RuggieBear

thomond2006 wrote: »

Ruggie, move the RL in Ireland to the RL forum. It's taking up space plus nobody has posted a reply.

that's actually there to point people towards the RL forum

thebaz

I rarely post here , but I feal there is an over-sensitivity to Munster / Leinster rivalry - fact is , particularly this week coming up, one of the most talked about things in Irish rugby - its hardly Rangers/Celtic vitriol - bit of banter in my mind

athtrasna

I think there are too many duplicate threads on here. Threads should be merged faster. Why when there was a Lions tour squad thread of 4 or 5 pages was it then necessary to start up an "Official" Lions tour thread within minutes?

NickNolte

Immediate, permanent bannings for any inter-provincial trolling and pettiness would be the best step to take to make this forum better. Rugby doesn't need these idiots and neither does the rugby forum.

leeroybrown

Knee-jerk permanent banning would be worse than the current situation. It's just unfortunate that I end up losing interest in some threads because some provincial sniping from posters who aren't justifying their argument or adding anything else.

NickNolte

leeroybrown wrote: »

Knee-jerk permanent banning would be worse

Knee-jerk bannings would be. Justified bannings would vastly improve the forum. Warnings for borderline infringements would be good as well. Sometimes the retarded squabbling can go unpunished on some threads for days. Heavy handed zero tolerance FTW. If people can't disucss rugby intelligently they shouldn't be allowed post.

danthefan

I know I've only a handful of posts but I've been reading this board for ages so I'll comment. The only thing I don't like is the seeming insistence everything stays on topic. As long as things stay civil is there really any harm in a discussion taking a wander?

Stev_o

danthefan wrote: »

I know I've only a handful of posts but I've been reading this board for ages so I'll comment. The only thing I don't like is the seeming insistence everything stays on topic. As long as things stay civil is there really any harm in a discussion taking a wander?

F*ck no I and many others don't want to go into a thread discussing who will be TOL's replacement to then be confronted with several posters arguing about how caps has John Hayes got and how many matches he's played compared to French players. It's stupid and takes away the whole point of having a thread in the first place about a specific issue.

thehighground

Stev_o wrote: »

F*ck no I and many others don't want to go into a thread discussing who will be TOL's replacement to then be confronted with several posters arguing about how caps has John Hayes got and how many matches he's played compared to French players. It's stupid and takes away the whole point of having a thread in the first place about a specific issue.

One poster (Joe) claimed that they would have to be international standard. A lot of the present international standard OHs are off-form (like Blair & Reddan). I think there is a fair chance for them if they get to play in the knock-out stages of the HCup or are involved in play-offs. Joe claims that these are not of sufficient standard because the French teams (even though full of international standard players) are not involved because they are too tired from playing too many games. I'd disagree with that, because as far as I can see, Hayes & Co. play as many seriously competitive games as their French counterparts. That is why we are trying to figure out if number of games would be a factor.

So, IMO, anyone who plays in a team that gets to their League playoffs, Heineken Cup knock-out stages should be considered. The likes of Ben Foden , etc. should not be considered for the Lions in such a key position as SH (but I wouldn't have a problem with him going out as a FB).

Whats the point of a thread if all its going to be is "I think <insert SH name> should replace Tomas O'Leary ....

Its frustrating of course for people who can't tolerate anyone disagreeing with them

leeroybrown

NickNolte wrote: »

Knee-jerk bannings would be. Justified bannings would vastly improve the forum. Warnings for borderline infringements would be good as well. Sometimes the retarded squabbling can go unpunished on some threads for days. Heavy handed zero tolerance FTW. If people can't disucss rugby intelligently they shouldn't be allowed post.

That's more like it. My point was that the "Immediate, permanent bannings" that you called for in your previous post aren't the right answer. Permanent bans for persistent trolls who add nothing to the forum would be a reasonable step but only after other less severe options have been used first.

Junior

leeroybrown wrote: »

Knee-jerk permanent banning would be worse than the current situation. It's just unfortunate that I end up losing interest in some threads because some provincial sniping from posters who aren't justifying their argument or adding anything else.

I know I got a Knee Jerk reaction ban from a Mod over that Paddy Power spoof 6 Nations site. A little sense of humour would go along way, I know there can be unenviable amounts of sh*te talked between Munster and Leinster and that has to be dealt with hard and fast but some humour should be allowed in the forum... rather than oih you no - banned !

Otacon

RuggieBear wrote: »

that's actually there to point people towards the RL forum

Why not rename this forum Rugby Union?

stephen_n

NickNolte wrote: »

Knee-jerk bannings would be. Justified bannings would vastly improve the forum. Warnings for borderline infringements would be good as well. Sometimes the retarded squabbling can go unpunished on some threads for days. Heavy handed zero tolerance FTW. If people can't disucss rugby intelligently they shouldn't be allowed post.

Suppose that depends on how you define justified, some of the bans I have seen handed out in this forum are unbelievable and kind of go against the idea of freedom of speech or at least freedom of opinion, is the idea of an internet forum not to encourage debate. Yes stupid slagging and personal attacks do not help but they do occur in every walk of life as do personal agendas and I think since i have started using this section of Boards I have seen pretty much every one of the regular posters get involved in it in some way shape or form.

I think over all though it works quite well some people maybe need not be so sensitive about defending players and their provinces but I suppose it at least shows a passion for the game.