Forum Feedback - Winter 2012

Clareman

Hi all,

We have used the Forum Feedback mechanism in the past and in different forums and we find it very useful in sorting out a lot of issues that maybe festering, so with this in mind we are throwing the floor open to you the posters to let us know what you think of the forum, what you would like changed (if anything), anything you think we could/should do differently? etc. etc.

I will ask that you keep your feedback constructive and in the interest of fairness and we will ask that all posters limit their feedback to 2 posts per day.

We the mods will not actively reply on this thread until at least Wednesday in order to give you all the opportunity to get your opinion across. We will discuss any issues that are raised and will do our best to facilitate whatever changes are needed.

Finally a reminder all posts will be expected to be within the rules of boards.ie

redzerologhlen

Simply just let it flow, I dont use this forum much and mainly stick to Farming and Forestry and its rare that a moderator has to step in, They let things flow as much as possible and put on the mod hat only when things are getting out of hand or at the sight of an obvious troll or spammer. On another thread Clareman a poster who clearly in my eyes re-reg'd to have a go at you and mrsd wasnt even infracted?? I wouldnt have taken it to be honest and have seen posters infracted on this forum over less. I know there are certain legal issues that cant be discussed and thats fine but a bit of lively debate between people is no harm either within reason. Thats my 2 cents anyway and I dont mean to have caused any offence to any of the moderators!!

Mr. G

Over the last few months, there has been a lot of legal discussions, for example the weapons in a primary school, travellers and legal preceedings. While I understand why bans and closed threads were done, I feel a lot of threads have been closed and it would be great if everyone wasn't regulated. Having said that, I understand, accept and fully respect the mods concerns and reasoning but please let the forum flow where possible.

It is a great forum and good to learn things that you might never have known. Mrs_D has done a tremendus job and has really put a lot of effort into the forum. Fair play to Mrs D and clareman over the last few weeks.

Perhaps there could be a sticky for local events, like a noticeboard?

And by the way, its feedback not feeback :P

Claregirl

It's great to see this thread and to know that you are trying to be pro-active in revitalising the Clare forum.

I would agree with Mr_Grumpy and redzerologhlen but would also add that there needs to be greater consistency with how the site is moderated where one thread is closed because a moderator is being abused and the conversation is off topic while another is left open.

If a thread has run-its-course why not let it disappear into obscurity rather than locking it as is the case in other forums?

To be honest I've debated with clicking the close account button recently particularly with regard to the way I was treated by a moderator in this forum.

I'm a "lurker" in that I often read posts/threads and would only post when I feel I have something to contribute to the topic or feel strongly about an issue. It's been inferred that my opinion is not worth the same as someone with thousands of posts with the recent comment by a moderator that "You've made 20 posts on the forum in the last 12 months"

As a boards member I would have thought that my opinion would be as valued as any other member but that is obviously not the case.

I think we are all well aware of the legal implications while posting to this forum and by and large most posters recognise this while it's obviously hard work steering a thread in the right direction this has to be preferable to shutting it down. Mods have the power to remove / delete and even amend posts and these options should in my view be utilised where possible instead of closing conversations to all.

That's my tuppence worth for what it's worth:)

5h4mr0(k

Be consistant in the moderating. There was a thread recently about an event that was on in Limerick. As I recall (it might just have been a very bad and boring dream) the thread was locked as it was a limerick event even though The original poster said it might be of interest to people in Clare that don't follow the limerick forum.
Yet in the Limerick forum there are threads about Shannon airport which remain open and aren't moved.

Claregirl

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

Yet in the Limerick forum there are threads about Shannon airport which remain open and aren't moved.

Did you not know that Shannon is in Limerick

CptSternn

Yeah, I'm not falling for this one.

The last person who offered helpful feedback was bullied and then the total number of posts that user had made was posted here and they were browbeaten by the staff and made to feel insignificant since they had not posted more often.

The mods here seem to be overly sensitive to the point they seem very insecure and quite often appear to abuse the limited amount of power they have in this world, which appears only to exist here in the Clare forum on boards.ie.

Carazy

Let discussions flow, if someone is out of line ban or warn them, leave the threads flow without need for ''locking them''. A recent poster added new information to a thread and was told the ''thread had run its course'. I felt it hadn't as this was new information regarding the topic but the thread was locked. It doesn't let Clare posters build up discussions.

The Clare Forum seems like a Discover Ireland/Clare advert most of the time in comparasion to other County forums.

Clareman

I'll try to address some of the feedback here first.

@Mr_Grumpy Thanks for the feedback, we'll look into the "Noticeboard" idea, we tend to reduce the amount of stickies in forums now as they make navigation through the mobile version of the site difficult.

@5h4mr0(k Sorry about not moving the Shannon Airport thread sooner from Limerick, I honestly didn't see it, I've it moved now. Us mods aren't staff of boards, we have real world responsibilities as well and can't really get to every thread that is posted in the forums we mod, for myself that would mean in the past 24 hours having to go through over 250 threads, we are reliant on posters reporting posts for a lot of stuff. It's actually amusing that during the last Limerick forum feedback thread a poster's feedback was that we were too quick to move threads to do with Cratloe/Shannon I also tend to lock threads rather than delete them as this allows members to see the content that was posted even without having the ability to post on the thread.

@redzerologhlen In regards the poster who registered and had a pot at me, that poster was new and didn't show up as a re-reg or anything like that in the Mod tools we had, at the time I figured that there was a lot of "heated" debate going on and if I went ahead and banned or infracted a user it could have made us seem worse, this goes to other posters who could have easily have been infracted for some of their posting, we don't go out of our way to do stuff to make things difficult, we only try to enforce the rules.

@ClareGirl The issues you are bringing up I don't think are best suited for discussion here, I would suggest either PMing a Cmod or opening a thread in Feedback.

@CptSternn Your post could not be considered feedback or constructive, if you have such issues with the forum here I would suggest you not feel compelled to visit here, if you feel you are being hard done by feel free to PM me, another mod, Cmods or open a feedback thread, if this thread wasn't a Feedback thread I would have banned you for what I see as an insulting post towards myself and other mods as well as, take this as your only warning before a ban and don't take this thread as a place to discuss this warning, take it to the places mentioned above if you wish.

@Carazy, point taken and wherever possible we will try to do this.

Thanks all for your constructive feedback, feel free to add to it.

Insect Overlord

Just a few points to add to what Clareman said above.
I've spent the last hour going back over the past 2 years worth of threads in the Clare Forum.

Out of 1,148 threads (excluding the old Charter and the new one):

• 7 re-directs.

These were either merged with other threads on the same topic or sent to forums where they would fit in better/receive more expert answers.

• 45 deleted.

27 of them in 2011, 18 in 2012. The vast majority of those were spam/shills. The lower number for the past 12 months is mainly down to the improved spam controls implemented in the site's registration process. A hand-full were removed because they breached the defamation guidelines. 2 were deleted at the request of their OPs. 2 for being blatant troll threads.

• 79 locked.

40 in 2011, 39 in 2012. 18 of those 39 were in the last 6 months, and 8 of those in the last 4 weeks. Main reasons: "zombie" threads; on-going legal cases; market research/spam/shill threads; mods being "called out"; threads going irrevocably off-topic. Looking back on those closures now, I feel that 7 or 8 were the wrong decision and that they could have been left open.

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

There was a thread recently about an event that was on in Limerick. As I recall (it might just have been a very bad and boring dream) the thread was locked as it was a limerick event even though The original poster said it might be of interest to people in Clare that don't follow the limerick forum.

In that case the OP had posted the same thread in Limerick, Clare and Tipp. There wasn't really a need for 3 threads about the one event.

The catch-all Midwest Forum could really do with a bit more traffic though, so that might be the best place for threads like that in future.

Claregirl wrote: »

I'm a "lurker" in that I often read posts/threads and would only post when I feel I have something to contribute to the topic or feel strongly about an issue. It's been inferred that my opinion is not worth the same as someone with thousands of posts with the recent comment by a moderator that "You've made 20 posts on the forum in the last 12 months"

Your opinion is just as valid as that of any other poster.

The point I was trying to make by highlighting your relatively low post-count was a very different one. You started a thread giving out about the content and moderation of the forum. This was in spite of the fact that you'd offered very little constructive input to the forum in well over 12 months. You were complaining about moderators despite having had very little direct interaction with them yourself.

All take and no give.

CptSternn wrote: »

Yeah, I'm not falling for this one.

The last person who offered helpful feedback was bullied and then the total number of posts that user had made was posted here and they were browbeaten by the staff and made to feel insignificant since they had not posted more often.

Explained above. We are not "staff". We look after this forum in our own free time, as volunteers, to try to keep things running smoothly.

CptSternn wrote: »

The mods here seem to be overly sensitive to the point they seem very insecure and quite often appear to abuse the limited amount of power they have in this world, which appears only to exist here in the Clare forum on boards.ie.

This thread is not for trolling. Give us some decent feedback, or get lost.

5h4mr0(k

Insect Overlord wrote: »

In that case the OP had posted the same thread in Limerick, Clare and Tipp. There wasn't really a need for 3 threads about the one event.

The catch-all Midwest Forum could really do with a bit more traffic though, so that might be the best place for threads like that in future.

I think it would be better if it was possible to have a thread that would appear in more than one category. I can see why a person would post an event in more than one forum. Just as I can see why people might post about Shannon airport in the Limerick forum, as the airport affects the whole Midwest. Not every topic is black and white and can't be just tidied away into one place.
People don't go to every forum on the off chance that there might be a thread there today that is relevant.
So threads that are relevant to several boards, should appear on them all.

Clareman

5h4mr0(k wrote: »

So threads that are relevant to several boards, should appear on them all.

If St. Senan's in Shannon were going to have a tag rugby and astro turf soccer tournament for teams from Munster and Connacht should we allow discussions in Rugby, Soccer, Clare, Limerick, Galway and the other regional forums? This can lead to spam very quickly and have boards inundated with duplicate threads as well as being a nightmare for Ops to keep a track on updating all their threads.

That's against the sitewide rules unfortunately but it is something we will look into, I'm thinking of a few shortcuts or something like that, thanks for the feedback, we'll see what we can do about it.

Claregirl

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Looking back on those closures now, I feel that 7 or 8 were the wrong decision and that they could have been left open.

We're all human we all make mistakes:D

Insect Overlord wrote: »

You started a thread giving out about the content and moderation of the forum.

Maybe you should go back again and read the first post it was in no way giving out it was an observation based on my own perceptions from browsing the forum and looking for feedback from other posters (kinda like what ye’ve done here). Traffic on this forum is down on the same period last year and the content has in my opinion become dull and as other posters have pointed out probably because threads are not being allowed to “flow” which backs up what I was at pains to point out!

No. of threads Jan to Oct 2011 = 465 Posts 5,513
No. of threads Jan to Oct 2012 = 399 Posts 4,731

Insect Overlord wrote: »

You were complaining about moderators despite having had very little direct interaction with them yourself.

How about no interaction? It demonstrates that I had no beef, grudge, gripe or hidden agenda relating to any of the moderators and was simply expressing my opinion on the Clare Forum and it’s content.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

All take and no give.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

5h4mr0(k

Clareman wrote: »

If St. Senan's in Shannon were going to have a tag rugby and astro turf soccer tournament for teams from Munster and Connacht should we allow discussions in Rugby, Soccer, Clare, Limerick, Galway and the other regional forums? This can lead to spam very quickly and have boards inundated with duplicate threads as well as being a nightmare for Ops to keep a track on updating all their threads.

That's against the sitewide rules unfortunately but it is something we will look into, I'm thinking of a few shortcuts or something like that, thanks for the feedback, we'll see what we can do about it.

I wasn't proposing allowing duplicate threads. I was proposing that it should be possible for a thread to be in more than one forum. For example, if there was a thread on proposed boundary changes for limerick it should be in both Limerick and Clare, but it should be the one thread. (this isn't something a moderator can currently do but it should be possible to modify things to be able to work it like that)

buck65

CptSternn wrote: »

Yeah, I'm not falling for this one.

The last person who offered helpful feedback was bullied and then the total number of posts that user had made was posted here and they were browbeaten by the staff and made to feel insignificant since they had not posted more often.

The mods here seem to be overly sensitive to the point they seem very insecure and quite often appear to abuse the limited amount of power they have in this world, which appears only to exist here in the Clare forum on boards.ie.

Interesting post Cpt Sternn, don't remember this. Clareman I'm surprised by your reply to this tbh.

Insect Overlord

buck65 wrote: »

Interesting post Cpt Sternn, don't remember this. Clareman I'm surprised by your reply to this tbh.

Ah now, be fair. There was no need for comments like "overly sensitive", "very insecure", "abuse... of power", and the suggestion that we are worthless outside of the Clare Forum on Boards.ie.

buck65

We were asked to give feedback about the forum, okay people may not enjoy the feedback and thinks it goes too far but being threatened with a ban is hardly the way to promote debate.
Far too curmudgeonly around here.

Insect Overlord

buck65 wrote: »

We were asked to give feedback about the forum, okay people may not enjoy the feedback and thinks it goes too far but being threatened with a ban is hardly the way to promote debate.
Far too curmudgeonly around here.

You think we should let people troll a feedback thread freely? It would be an interesting approach, I suppose. Possibly an entertaining one too.

Would be a disaster to manage though, if we were just to let people spout their petty personal grievances instead of communicating something useful.

Clareman

I said in the warning above that I wasn't going to discuss it on this thread, I guess that could have been interupted as being for 1 poster only, it was for all, but in the interest of clarity I will outline the reasoning here, I won't discuss it again here, if you want to query it it, feel free to bring it through the steps above.

The idea for this thread was to provide constructive feedback, I didn't see the post as constructive, in fact calling out mods in that way in most other forums would lead to a ban, the fact that the post that was being referenced to had also being reviewed by a CMod who backed up the mods here only makes it seem more like trolling, a number of which points which are against the rules of boards.ie, which all posts should adhere to.

kollegeknight

I think Clareman and Mrs D are great. They are very hard working and well done to them for their work. Mrs Ds info is great; I would like to see more of that and a positive news sticky.

Johnboy1951

I have a dislike of threads being locked ..... a lot of the time on boards it is because it was posted in some time previously.

I would much prefer that a thread with 'historical' information could be added to and even come alive again, rather than the present scheme where a new thread must be created on the same subject, but the old info is not present.

I honestly don't know how that would work out, but maybe it could be considered for some threads at least. I am sure the mods are very capable of deciding if an older thread has info pertaining to a current discussion.
I might even go so far as to merge a new thread with some older one in those circumstances.

The other aspect of moderation I would like to see practised more is that of editing (or even deleting) specific posts, rather than locking a thread or deleting it.
Yes I know it is done ..... but it could possibly be used more.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the mods for their work, and their valuable contributions to discussions.
It is difficult to be the one with the mod hat on.

Any mod actions I might disagree with are down to opinion.
We can't all be mods (thankfully)

Clareman

Great feedback Johnboy, thanks for that.

The reason we lock "Zombie" threads is because they have an impact on the overall running of the site, as you can imagine boards.ie is a rather large site with over 1500 separate forums, this means that the database that it's running is under a lot of pressure and needs to be well maintained, that's what the folks in the office do. To make sure that page load times and search options are as seamless as possible, threads are moved out of the main database and into the archive after a few months of inactivity, when someone posts in the archived thread this puts a lot of pressure on the main database and can cause performance issues. Because out forum is relatively small we tend to just lock the thread so people can see the post and maybe help out with other threads, I'll speak to 1 of the admins and find out how best to deal with them in the future.

The Hill Billy

CptSternn wrote: »

Yeah, I'm not falling for this one.

The last person who offered helpful feedback was bullied and then the total number of posts that user had made was posted here and they were browbeaten by the staff and made to feel insignificant since they had not posted more often.

The mods here seem to be overly sensitive to the point they seem very insecure and quite often appear to abuse the limited amount of power they have in this world, which appears only to exist here in the Clare forum on boards.ie.

I wish to address a couple of points in this post...

1. The feedback offered was not helpful & contained personal digs at a Moderator, ultimately dragging the thread off topic.
2. There was no bullying involved - I made that very clear in my review of that thread.
3. Now I find that you are making personal digs at the Moderators of this forum. Whom, I might add, are not staff but volunteers who give their time freely to keep this site running.

If you further disrupt this thread with your trolling your access to this forum may be removed.

tHB (Region CatMod)

Balagan

Carazy wrote: »

Let discussions flow, if someone is out of line ban or warn them, leave the threads flow without need for ''locking them''. A recent poster added new information to a thread and was told the ''thread had run its course'. I felt it hadn't as this was new information regarding the topic but the thread was locked. It doesn't let Clare posters build up discussions.

The Clare Forum seems like a Discover Ireland/Clare advert most of the time in comparasion to other County forums.

And unfortunately some of the "information" and statistics included in posts just before the thread was closed were incorrect, a fact that was obvious to anyone who had read recent related references to Co. Clare in the national papers, either of the two main local papers or listened to Clare FM or read its website. With the thread closed, there was no opportunity for anyone to correct the information and so it stands on the closed thread.

Clareman

Thanks for the feedback Balagan,

IF a thread is closed I believe it is still possible for a user to edit their post, it will still definitely be possible for a mod to edit a post, I would suggest that if there is something in a closed thread that is clearly wrong that the poster or a mod could be PM'd to get the information changed.

Also, if a user reports the post that they've an issue with it'll be brought to all the mods attention

redzerologhlen

Clareman wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback Balagan,

IF a thread is closed I believe it is still possible for a user to edit their post, it will still definitely be possible for a mod to edit a post, I would suggest that if there is something in a closed thread that is clearly wrong that the poster or a mod could be PM'd to get the information changed.

Also, if a user reports the post that they've an issue with it'll be brought to all the mods attention

I think after 2 days only a mod can edit a post Clareman. Had to get a mod to do it for me before after I put up a pic with the number plate of my jeep without thinking and I couldnt edit it myself when I spotted it.

Clareman

I guess reporting the post is the best way to go, thanks for that Red, I didn't know that.