is boards dying in popularity?

Skid X

Boards will keep going as long as new people can register, find something they like and become regular posters.

I'd like to see a bit more done to guide newbies in the right direction. It's a maze of forums and it's not easy to find what you are looking for.

It would be helpful if someone in HQ could do a few Youtube videos to help them out. A walkthrough of where to start, where to find the best place for your query, FAQ's, that kind of thing.

BillyMitchel

spank_inferno wrote: »

Modern social media can gravitate to the extreme.

As a poster of the politics forums I'm grateful of the quality of moderation keeping things civil & sensible.

Without it, there is just the mob & opinion sharing & discussion dies.

An example is the (mostly) unmoderated cousin site: TheJournal.ie.
Its comoments area are often an awfull example of every prejudice people can articulate.
Some pretty vile stuff.

Boards is the sensible guy in the middle.
So therefore some may feel its lost its edge.
However, IMO, that's a good thing!

The Journal went downhill pretty quick. The comments section is a disaster. I wouldn't even read it now. Apart from breaking news everything can be found on Reddit the day before.

Davarus Walrus

The Journal comments section. Who are these people? It's a damming sign that democracy just doesn't work.

Me?

I hope AH is closed down, it's a terrible place full of the most despicable sorts.

iForgetMyPW

jane82 wrote: »

I think its because they keep banning everybody op. Dispute resolution is non stop. Any pub landlord will tell you "you cant bar everybody in the town sure then thered be nobody in the place".

Yeah they banned me for 2 weeks because I gave a witty answer to a moderators friend.

This forum is a joke, I can't wait until it dies off! Sites like reddit.com/r/Ireland are much better

BillyMitchel

iForgetMyPW wrote: »

Yeah they banned me for 2 weeks because I gave a witty answer to a moderators friend.

This forum is a joke, I can't wait until it dies off! Sites like reddit.com/r/Ireland are much better

Reddit Ireland isn't worth a ****.

iForgetMyPW

Roger_007 wrote: »

I've been on Boards for a couple of years now and my experience is that, apart from AH, there tends to be a clique associated with each forum. The long-standing contributors, (experts of course), give the impression that they "own" the forum and interlopers are really not welcome unless they tow the line and agree with their betters. This is especially true if the newcomer expresses a radical or non-conventional view; almost immediately the term 'troll' is trotted out.
Of course Boards will die eventually; every dog has its day. It will die because a new generation will see it as old and fuddy-duddy. Eventually, the only people on boards will be geriatrics and the main forums will be residential homes and the merits of complan.
In the meantime there is AH where at least we can have a bit of banter and cheeky humour. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Yeah this is why I was banned because I gave a witty response to a regular, the reason for the ban was "trolling to get a response from other members" which is dumb because the 'regular' was the one who was trolling me so I trolled him back but I was the only one banned

DeVore

Well... dont let us keep you

gugleguy

spank_inferno wrote: »

Modern social media can gravitate to the extreme.

As a poster of the politics forums I'm grateful of the quality of moderation keeping things civil & sensible.
example is the (mostly) unmoderated cousin site: TheJournal.ie.
Its comoments area are often an awfull example of every prejudice people can articulate.
Some pretty vile stuff.

don't forget People's Republic of Cork as another eloquent specimen

iForgetMyPW

DeVore wrote: »

Yes, the "right" to close your account was somewhat forced upon us. We fought to have it moulded into something reasonable and I think its just about ok now.

Why don't you make it harder for people to close their account?

For example:

Make it harder to find and a much longer process

If A wants to close his/her account he can 'close' it. But if he signs back in after 6 months his account will be reopened.

DeVore

We don't want to make it harder. You are all grown adults (mostly) and can make your own decisions. If you choose to close your account, we shouldnt be putting roadblocks in the way of that.

As for identifying people who return... its very hard to do with any level of certainty. Its plagued with false positives and alternative explanations for the data we see.

Wibbs

iForgetMyPW wrote: »

Why don't you make it harder for people to close their account?

For example:

Make it harder to find and a much longer process

If A wants to close his/her account he can 'close' it. But if he signs back in after 6 months his account will be reopened.

IIRC Boards didn't do this off their own bat, it came down from on high as a legal requirement, they had to work it in such a way as to not be too intrusive. What you suggest wouldnt fulfill the legal requirement foisted upon them. Be thankful the legal guff isn't even dafter than it already is(thanks Mr Sherlock). I could see some gimp pushing for the right to be forgotten entirely and that would wreck over a decades worth of public discourse on online Ireland, bad and good(not just on Boards either).

gugleguy

Skid X wrote: »

It would be helpful if someone in HQ could do a few Youtube videos to help them out.

What about a boards.ie youtube channel?
Just might be a shot in the arm that boards.ie needs. Just might. Well this is AH afterall! I run my own youtube channel.

power101

According to similarweb its had huge growth in the last 6 months

http://www.similarweb.com/website/boards.ie

According to Alexa its had huge growth in the last 6 months however its still way down on where it was in 2013. This might mean that boards.ie increased advertising in order to stop the rot and increase hits.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/boards.ie

irishrepeat2

what the hell!
the irony *facepalm*
do my first thread on how boards is dying and it gets 13 pages of responses:O
perhaps it is dying(I cant say for sure how popular it was)
but one thing Im sure about is that it certainly isnt dead.

Sh1tbag OToole

Maybe Dev can pass the hat around for a rack of servers in some far flung place that still has a good connection but no riduculous libel laws and legal requirements.

Maybe move the company itself as well to be sure, to a place where one google ad click buys you a decent 3 course meal, just so everyone can relax, drink copious amounts of Malibu in the sun and not worry about McDickheads Ltd. suing them.

DeVore

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Maybe Dev can pass the hat around for a rack of servers in some far flung place that still has a good connection but no riduculous libel laws and legal requirements.

Maybe move the company itself as well to be sure, to a place where one google ad click buys you a decent 3 course meal, just so everyone can relax, drink copious amounts of Malibu in the sun and not worry about McDickheads Ltd. suing them.

We considered both of those options and for a while we had our servers in the US for that very reason.

However, Irish law states that the offence is caused when the 1's and 0's are rendered into human-readable form. ie: on your screen.

The company may be held responsible (depending on a few things like the E-Commerce Directive from the EU or our own Defamation Act) but if we are, then any director living in, or visiting Ireland can be held culpable. (Hence the Anglo directors scarpered... but not far enough, Ireland is having them extradited from the US at the moment).

So, the location of the servers is irrelevant. Where the company is based, is irrelevant (the same would be true of Facebook... which is why no one wants to look very closely at the defamation act and facebook at the same time ). The revelant thing is where the directors of the comapny are sitting. If its in Ireland, or somewhere with an extradition agreement with Ireland, then its game over anyway.

I'm not going to move to Venezuela (and never come back!). Nor are the other directors.

Besides, if we DID and the site made political/social waves, Sean Sherlocks new law could have it removed from the DNS systems for Ireland.


'To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.' - Voltaire.

gugleguy

Maybe reflective of society and how seriously online presence is still regarded in a very empty and hollow perspective. Maybe it explains my own shyness for all things Twitter and Facebook, indeed you see the f symbol in every rural town and village here in Ireland. Sorry folks, does'nt give any more credibility about facebook to me.

dxhound2005

gugleguy wrote: »

Maybe reflective of society and how seriously online presence is still regarded in a very empty and hollow perspective. Maybe it explains my own shyness for all things Twitter and Facebook, indeed you see the f symbol in every rural town and village here in Ireland. Sorry folks, does'nt give any more credibility about facebook to me.

If I had any idea of what that meant I might agree with you.

riveratom

Is Boards turning a profit does anyone know? I know it's part of Distilled Media but I've wondered before whether it's profitable or being subsidised by the larger media group.

For Forks Sake

riveratom wrote: »

Is Boards turning a profit does anyone know? I know it's part of Distilled Media but I've wondered before whether it's profitable or being subsidised by the larger media group.

Don't know about Boards, but I read recently that TheJournal are losing an absolute fortune

FactCheck

DeVore wrote: »

'To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.' - Voltaire.

This is not actually a quote by Voltaire but rather the American neo-Nazi and generally unpleasant individual Kevin Strom.

Ironically the misunderstanding over this came to prominence when the quote was featured (and misattributed) on Reddit.

DeVore

It makes enough to pay its staff, but profit isnt something we're terribly used to

DeVore

FactCheck wrote: »

This is not actually a quote by Voltaire but rather the American neo-Nazi and generally unpleasant individual Kevin Strom.

Ironically the misunderstanding over this came to prominence when the quote was featured (and misattributed) on Reddit.

Seems thats true: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/to_learn_who_rules_over_you_simply_find_out_who_you_are_not_allowed_to_crit

But idea's aren't responsible for the people who believe in them

RDM_83 again

FactCheck wrote: »

This is not actually a quote by Voltaire but rather the American neo-Nazi and generally unpleasant individual Kevin Strom.

Ironically the misunderstanding over this came to prominence when the quote was featured (and misattributed) on Reddit.

Thats an amazingly appropriate username you have there