What's going on in Soccer?

astrofool

I'm a regular reader in there and regular enough poster (prob about 1 post every couple of days). Never been infracted/banned myself.

Every day I'm seeing more and more posters disappear, I've seen the helpdesk reports from the last few days, and it doesn't look good (someone getting infracted for calling someone a lazy bum, another for posting a bizarre PM).

We had the Spurs supporters thread blow up a few months (which I was a regular poster in), and a seeming promise from Dav to take a look into things, and sort things out (nothing has happened).

We're almost at the end of a World Cup, and I thought, Jeez, if someone had half a brain here, they'd set up a WC/Internationals soccer forum and see if they can experiment live with the structure of having a massively busy forum with massive long threads clogging up the front page.

But no, half a brain from the organisation side of this seems to be far too much to expect.

• So, what's the story?
• Is Devore still treating the soccer forum as a problem, that needs to go away?
• Do any of the site admins care?
• Is there a plan to sort out the structure/Spurs forum?
• How many times can a mod justify themselves, while pursuing what seems to be personal vendettas?
• Does losing most of the regular posters matter?
• Is this the "atmosphere" and "uniqueness" that the mods are talking about, when they worry about sub forums, and losing some control?

It just all seems completely and utterly stupid, and it's a shame that boards.ie has let it get this far.

Is there a feedforward thread, with decisions, but disappeared off the front few pages?

Will a soccer forum thread in helpdeskFeedback survive without being locked after a day or two?

astrofool

I meant to post this in Feedback, can a mod move?

LoLth

astrofool wrote: »

But no, half a brain from the organisation side of this seems to be far too much to expect.

• So, what's the story?
• Is Devore still treating the soccer forum as a problem, that needs to go away?
• Do any of the site admins care?
• Is there a plan to sort out the structure/Spurs forum?
• How many times can a mod justify themselves, while pursuing what seems to be personal vendettas?
• Does losing most of the regular posters matter?
• Is this the "atmosphere" and "uniqueness" that the mods are talking about, when they worry about sub forums, and losing some control?

It just all seems completely and utterly stupid, and it's a shame that boards.ie has let it get this far.

Is there a feedforward thread, with decisions, but disappeared off the front few pages?

Will a soccer forum thread in helpdeskFeedback survive without being locked after a day or two?

it seems that polite questions are also too much to expect?

but, to answer what I can of what you have asked:

whats the story?
The soccer forum is still a work in progress. One of the main problems I see with making any changes is the almost even split in the userbase. 50% go "I'll quit if you make that change" and the other 50% go "I'll quit if you dont!". Look at any recent, or not so recent, debate on any potential change to the soccer forum for evidence of the split. look how long it goes on for with neither side willing to compromise.

Is Devore still treating the soccer forum as a problem, that needs to go away?
I dont think Dev has ever treated soccer that way. he may have thought it, you'd have to ask him, as i'm sure many people have thought it but at teh end of the day, Soccer is what users want to talk about and boards is here to provide a place to do just that. Now, the structure of the talking place, thats a different kettle of aquatic lifeforms.

How many times can a mod justify themselves, while pursuing what seems to be personal vendettas?
42? seriously though, just because a mod is accused of X, Y or Z 10 times or a hundred times, it doesnt make it true. Sure, after the nth claim we'd look that little bit closer and the mod should be thinking to himself "is there somethign to this?" but if the mod is innocent of the accusation then the number of tiems it is made shouldnt matter. The loudest voice is not always shouting the correct answer.

Is there a plan to sort out the structure/Spurs forum?
wasnt there a discussion on this in feedback recently?

Does losing most of the regular posters matter?
Yes it does. of course it does. However, are they being lost because the forum is not laid out the way they want it to be? Are they being lost because of personal issues with other posters? Are they being lost because the discussion is not of the calibre they would like? Not all of these are actionable by mods/cmods/admins.

Is this the "atmosphere" and "uniqueness" that the mods are talking about, when they worry about sub forums, and losing some control?
I'll let the mods answer that one.

It just all seems completely and utterly stupid, and it's a shame that boards.ie has let it get this far
have you got a suggestion for a fix? Keeping in mind the split in users opinions and the fact anyhting efnorced from "on high" will be met with "you cant tell us what to do! its our forum!" etc etc 99% of the time. Seriously, I will read any suggestion you make and I'll also read any response to any suggestion you make. if an idea coems up that usable, then you never know, you might just be the user that saved Christmas something.

Is there a feedforward thread, with decisions, but disappeared off the front few pages?
Not 100% sure as at the time of postign this, but I'll do a quick search and see.

Will a soccer forum thread in helpdeskFeedback survive without being locked after a day or two?
that remains to be seen, but starting a series of questions calling people stupid certainly isnt a good indicator. But, hopefully, things will get a boost in civility as the discussion continues (hey! it *could* happen!) and this could be the thread that resolves ..stuff...'n things.

Iago

don't have a huge amount of time right now, so I'll keep it short and simple.

Every poster in the SF knows that there's a end of season review thread going to be posted after the World Cup final where we can discuss all of these issues and more in the forum that's most likely to be seen by the users it concerns.

I have already stated that if there are any users, that cannot post in the SF for whatever reason, they can PM me and I'll ensure their opinions are included in the thread in question.

As such I think this thread is out of place and won't be a huge help to the process. In any event I'll be back later on and if the thread is still going I'll comment further at that point.

astrofool

I didn't call anyone stupid, I said the actions, or lack of, were stupid (or half brained). I doubt we have many stupid mods/admins on boards.ie (it would have collapsed long ago if that was the case), but again, a perfect opportunity to trial a change to the forum has been let slip, and all the same problems still exist, and we're hemorrhaging a lot of the most regular posters to bets/bans/apathy.

In each of the cases over the last few days, the mod(s) went too far in issuing a ban, unless there is some super secret information not posted in the relevant threads, I don't see how any reasonable person can be on the moderators side, other than the cliquey(this is the perception, true or not) nature of the mod team protecting them.

As to suggestions, lots have been made, the only one the mod team has come up with was a superthread forum. There's been no trialling of sub forums, and no attempt to tidy up the mess caused by the Spurs forum. These aren't sudden issues, they have been there for years, since the first "superthreads" started appearing.

Again, I apologise if you think I was calling a mod or admin stupid, this was not intended (attack the post/action, not the poster/actioner).

LoLth

Iago wrote: »

Every poster in the SF knows that there's a end of season review thread going to be posted after the World Cup final where we can discuss all of these issues and more in the forum that's most likely to be seen by the users it concerns.

well, it seems that not every poster knew this but now that the poster has been informed its one step closer

@astrofool: there ye go. discussion to be held after world cup where your questions can be asked and discussed. As Iago posted, having this discussion now would be just duplicating a process and voiding a decision already agreed upon. You've given your feedback and you've gotten answers to some degree. the only thign I can add at this point is a request that you have the patience to wait until the soccer forum thread is up and running, oh, and a suggestion that you try to keep terms like "half brain" and "stupid" out of your observations. Also, try to avoid branding anyone that disagrees with your point of view with a name/label before you even hear the reason for their decision.

As an illustration:
"In each of the cases over the last few days, the mod(s) went too far in issuing a ban, unless there is some super secret information not posted in the relevant threads, I don't see how any reasonable person can be on the moderators side, other than the cliquey(this is the perception, true or not) nature of the mod team protecting them."

1. while there is a definite effort to be as transparent as possible about decisions, not all information is for public consumption there very well could be information to which you are not privy and have no right to know.

2. so anyone that is on the moderator's side is either unreasonable or a member of a clique? you know that as a 100% definite fact.

reminds me of a (really really bad) movie where a presidential candidate smear campaign was being run "Bob didnt attend the cancer victim support rally. Bob must not support cancer victims! Bob must like cancer! A vote for bob is a vote for cancer!"

LoLth

but at least, based on this experiement, we are one step closer to an oanswer for one of your questions:

Will a soccer forum thread in helpdeskFeedback survive without being locked after a day or two

closing the thread as it is only going to cover ground that is already scheduled to be covered in a manner that will involve everyone concerned.