The Standard of Posting

Ave Sodalis

This is something I've noticed becoming more prevalent in recent times. It seems After Hours style of posting is starting to seep into other forums were it isn't appropriate, and there's very little being done about it. Forums shouldn't be limited to those who are already knowledgable about the topic, but it seems to me that that is what some people are trying to do. Maybe I just happen to be reading the wrong threads, but it seems those who post in certain forums who don't know the general standard of knowledge, get ridiculed and have snide comments thrown at them instead of useful and helpful comments. This isn't always by every poster but it seems nothing is being done about the posters who do.

It makes posting in some forums intimidating, and there's a few forums I know that I definitely won't go to to ask for advice because I've read a few posts from them that pop up on the home page. There's the risk of asking the 'wrong question', when the point of these forums are to get help on something you don't know much about.

Maybe it's just me, I don't know but I think it's becoming more widespread across the site and I'm getting tired of seeing it. Interesting questions that I would have been interested in knowing the answer to as well have been met with condescending, sneery remarks that laugh at the ignorance of the OP. I would hate for Boards to become a difficult place to post. These replies have a place (to a certain extent) in AH, not in other forums.

Shield

Do you have any examples?

Into The Blue

Shield wrote: »

Do you have any examples?

I hoped one of the posters in the cycling forum worked with a cyclist who caused €800 worth of damage to my car..

What i got, was ah answers

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057502740/1/#post97242164

In the end, after reporting the crap posts, and nothing happening, i just asked that the thread be deleted or closed

Penn

Into The Blue wrote: »

I hoped one of the posters in the cycling forum worked with a cyclist who caused €800 worth of damage to my car..

What i got, was ah answers

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057502740/1/#post97242164

In the end, after reporting the crap posts, and nothing happening, i just asked that the thread be deleted or closed

Without trying to be unfair, I would have thought your post was a parody and not a serious one. You were asking people who cycle if they knew a cyclist who, on that occasion was wearing a light blue jacket and was at that specific place at that specific time. The odds of any of them knowing him are practically zero.

It's like asking a bunch of Peugeot owners if they know a Peugeot driver who scraped your car door at 15.22 on some random street in Galway.

Into The Blue

Penn wrote: »

Without trying to be unfair, I would have thought your post was a parody and not a serious one. You were asking people who cycle if they knew a cyclist who, on that occasion was wearing a light blue jacket and was at that specific place at that specific time. The odds of any of them knowing him are practically zero.

It's like asking a bunch of Peugeot owners if they know a Peugeot driver who scraped your car door at 15.22 on some random street in Galway.

It was a specific time/place. I wasnt asking cyclists in general if they knew him, but if any posters were at the junction at the time and worked with him as it was rush hour going home time. No one asked for clarification.

It was actually the guards idea.. Long shot i know, but if they weren't at the junction at the time, don't post.

Beasty

Into The Blue wrote: »

It was a specific time/place. I wasnt asking cyclists in general if they knew him, but if any posters were at the junction at the time and worked with him as it was rush hour going home time. No one asked for clarification.

It was actually the guards idea.. Long shot i know, but if they weren't at the junction at the time, don't post.

I have no doubt your post was serious and do not think anyone responding to it considered it a parody even if thy chose to respond in whet they considered a jestful manner. What other response did you expect? You had not actually opened up a discussion, simply requested anyone who may have witnessed the incident to "get in touch" (which they could do via PM rather than posting in-thread). In fact the responses you did get served the purpose of bumping your notice several times

We have perhaps 100+ "regulars" in the forum. There are going to be many tens of thousands of people who regularly cycle in Dublin. The sort of response you got was certainly nothing new within the forum - people were perhaps highlighting for your own benefit the chance of someone seeing that post who may have witnessed your own incident was, to say the least, remote.

Nodin

sup_dude wrote: »

This is something I've noticed becoming more prevalent in recent times. It seems After Hours style of posting is starting to seep into other forums were it isn't appropriate, and there's very little being done about it. Forums shouldn't be limited to those who are already knowledgable about the topic, but it seems to me that that is what some people are trying to do. Maybe I just happen to be reading the wrong threads, but it seems those who post in certain forums who don't know the general standard of knowledge, get ridiculed and have snide comments thrown at them instead of useful and helpful comments. This isn't always by every poster but it seems nothing is being done about the posters who do.

It makes posting in some forums intimidating, and there's a few forums I know that I definitely won't go to to ask for advice because I've read a few posts from them that pop up on the home page. There's the risk of asking the 'wrong question', when the point of these forums are to get help on something you don't know much about.

Maybe it's just me, I don't know but I think it's becoming more widespread across the site and I'm getting tired of seeing it. Interesting questions that I would have been interested in knowing the answer to as well have been met with condescending, sneery remarks that laugh at the ignorance of the OP. I would hate for Boards to become a difficult place to post. These replies have a place (to a certain extent) in AH, not in other forums.

Far worse places on boards than AH.

Gatling

Nodin wrote: »

Far worse places on boards than AH.

PC comes to mind

Taltos

Gatling wrote: »

PC comes to mind

Have to disagree with that.

The local mods and cmods have taken a recent step of Category banning some troublesome posters who seemed intent on causing grief. Hopefully either when the bans expire we'll see a return to positive posting or those trolls (for want of a better word) will stay away and let everyone else get on with enjoying the forums.

Ave Sodalis

Shield wrote: »

Do you have any examples?

Most of them are scattered incidents which I couldn't pin point. A few are making an attempt to be cleaned up, as above and as in A&PI (although I would still be hesitant posting in A&PI). Then there's the first page of the current "what does it feel like to give birth" post. I've posted myself in planning and construction and although a lot of the posts were helpful, some of them were not so much. I didn't report them because there was a mod on thread but nothing was done.

These are just examples but there are more. It's not necessarily a widespread problem yet, but it just seems it's becoming more common.

Neyite

sup_dude wrote: »

. Then there's the first page of the current "what does it feel like to give birth" post. I've posted myself in planning and construction and although a lot of the posts were helpful, some of them were not so much. I didn't report them because there was a mod on thread but nothing was done.

These are just examples but there are more. It's not necessarily a widespread problem yet, but it just seems it's becoming more common.

That thread was originally entitled "****ing a watermelon through a garden hose" or something very similar, and posted in the Pregnant forum. I asked if they had a personal interest - if they were themselves expecting or their partner was. Nope. At worst it was trolling, and at best, it was just inappropriate curiosity.

Usually in other forums, the OP is asked not to news-dump or ask questions without sharing something themselves to get the discussion going, and that's the same view I'd take in Parenting. And especially when asking pregnant women a question like that. I asked him why he was asking, he said it was just curiosity, and I renamed the thread, moved to to a more appropriate forum and told him that if anyone wanted to share their birth stories, it was up to them. I thought that was more than fair.

The OP of that thread is an 18 year old who's previous posts mostly consist of airsoft and porn apparently. The responders saw that, so why should they share their most intimate moments so he can get his idle curiosity sated? He wasn't interested in discussion because after he initially replied to me, he didn't participate in the discussion at all.

Ave Sodalis

Neyite wrote: »

That thread was originally entitled "****ing a watermelon through a garden hose" or something very similar, and posted in the Pregnant forum. I asked if they had a personal interest - if they were themselves expecting or their partner was. Nope. At worst it was trolling, and at best, it was just inappropriate curiosity.

Usually in other forums, the OP is asked not to news-dump or ask questions without sharing something themselves to get the discussion going, and that's the same view I'd take in Parenting. And especially when asking pregnant women a question like that. I asked him why he was asking, he said it was just curiosity, and I renamed the thread, moved to to a more appropriate forum and told him that if anyone wanted to share their birth stories, it was up to them. I thought that was more than fair.

The OP of that thread is an 18 year old who's previous posts mostly consist of airsoft and porn apparently. The responders saw that, so why should they share their most intimate moments so he can get his idle curiosity sated? He wasn't interested in discussion because after he initially replied to me, he didn't participate in the discussion at all.

The title was then amended and the crappy comments were allowed to continue. Not by you in particular but other comments.

Does it matter what his previous posts were? Unless it's a completely new poster with an obvious agenda, I don't see how they're relevant. I've also had threads were I've posted in held against me (not even the posts in them). It's idiotic and serves absolutely no purpose.

In fairness, I wouldn't have replied if I was the OP either. I didn't join the thread until after the posts actually started answering the OP but if I seen the first few replies only, I wouldn't have bothered coming back. I mean, what it feels like to give birth is an interesting topic and something I would imagine many people who haven't experienced it wonder about. It's not a dumb or stupid question, as a poster on the thread pointed out.

Neyite

It's not a stupid question at all, and one that's been answered time and time again on the parenting forum.

But you don't ask how painful it is in a forum full of pregnant women! Many of whom might be nervous about impending birth, or be told that may have a complicated delivery. A thread like that is inviting the horror stories of what can go wrong.

Would you go into Bereavement and ask what its like to have a parent die, out of curiosity? Or into A&P and ask what its like to put a pet to sleep? Birthing is intensely personal and while women on that forum happily support and share personal stories to benefit others, satisfying some young fella's curiosity might not push them to share their stories with him.

That poster subsequently was proven to be trolling elsewhere at the same time so it stands to reason that this thread was also part of his spree. I have no doubt now that he started the thread to cause trouble, but I did give him the benefit of the doubt at the time to facilitate discussion if he wanted it.

The Hill Billy

Gatling wrote: »

PC comes to mind

Just a reminder of the Feedback forum charter considering that you are currently serving a ban from PC...

Users currently serving a ban from a forum with a duration over 1 month are not allowed to post on feedback threads concerning that forum.

That'll also cover commenting on that forum in any Feedback thread.

tHB

Ave Sodalis

Neyite wrote:

That poster subsequently was proven to be trolling elsewhere at the same time so it stands to reason that this thread was also part of his spree. I have no doubt now that he started the thread to cause trouble, but I did give him the benefit of the doubt at the time to facilitate discussion if he wanted it.

I just felt that this was an example of where posters were allowed to make comments inappropriate for the forum. You gave the OP time to facilitate discussion, but there was no attempts to prevent the other posters from making silly comments which didn't add to the discussion at all. He was in the wrong forum. Surely he should have just been moved and that be done with? Isn't saying that you allowed discussion but then the post allowed to have comments such as endacl's on it a little bit contradictory? I still feel that comments such as the first few on that post have no place in forums outside of forums like AH.

Neyite

Why didn't you report the posts you thought were inappropriate?

Ave Sodalis

Neyite wrote:

Why didn't you report the posts you thought were inappropriate?

There was a mod on thread and I see it as more a site wide problem than the individual thread so I thought feedback would be more appropriate than reporting a load of individual posts. Again, the giving birth thread is just an example.

Zascar

OP I agree with you. There has definitely been a strong a decline in the standard of posting - people are more concerned with getting their post count up with puns, snarky comments and then just illogical rubbish than actually addressing the topic of the post and giving their actual opinion on the subject, and having some genuinely interesting discussion. It's happening all over the place, and the reason is because it all stems from After Hours.

I remember the day when After Hours used to be an interesting place with lots of discussion on a multitude of different topics - with a little bit of fun and banter thrown in. Now it's like the Thunderdome or Cuckoos Nest. All the time I see people starting really interesting thread around a topical issue, where they state their view and ask the opinion of the rest of boards, but usually within a few posts its gets totally derailed with a stupid irrelevant comment or a bad pun, followed by several follow up's and then basically RIP thread. Yes, I know this is After Hours, but does this mean there is actually No bottom standard for the main forum whatsoever? There seems to be absolutely no desire to try to clean it up - and it filters throughout the site. After Hours the single most popular forum on the countries most popular discussion website, and it's like listening a bunch of moronic teenagers. It's embarrassing, and such a shame... It could be so much better.

Like many, these days I spend more time on Reddit where this type of rubbish is downvoted and quickly hidden in the depths - while the quality interesting topics rise to the top. It's why Reddit is so popular. It's main forum "Ask Reddit" is an absolute treasure trove of interesting discussion, with lots of fun and quirky stuff thrown in - all without the garbage that we see on after hours.

I once suggested we do something similar and have an "Ask Boards" forum - but that was quickly shot down. We all know how resistant to change boards is. We could keep after hours and set up some new forums under the same line to take some of the main stuff like topical news stories & events, or a General Discussion forum to act like After Hours for adults - minus all the idiocy. I think it would be great. If only we could even just try it out and see... Sadly OP none of this is really ever going to change...

Overheal

We all know how resistant to change boards is.

Eh I'd disagree with that. The site doesn't run on much, and what it does run on is hamsters and a trail of tears. Getting the site off of vBulletin has been on the wishlist probably since before my time and its identified as one of the problems pushing the site down; regularly enough over the years we've seen great suggestions come into feedback etc. that even reference other versions of vBulletin (eg. filtering out the ability to resurrect 'zombie' threads, etc) but because the site runs on a cocktailed version of vBulletin currently, in order to be the way it is, its hard to implement new features. Probably a point more salient to the touch/beta thread but the fact remains, I think development wise the team behind boards would like to be more agile in implementing better ideas but the groundwork for doing that is a tall order.

The Hill Billy

Zascar wrote: »

It's happening all over the place, and the reason is because it all stems from After Hours.

I disagree. It stems from posters who think that they get away with stupid/uncivil/inappropriate posts in other forums.

If members see such posts - report them & let the mods deal with it. Don't allow it to drag the standard of the forum down by just hoping that a mod will see it & action it.

Likewise, if the stuff gets reported, it is up to the local mods to take care of it in line with the site guidelines & the forum charter.

Blaming poor posting standards across the site on AH is just wrong, not to mention very disrespectful to the AH Mod team.

And while we're at it - when mods post "Take it to AH" - they only serve to perpetuate the myth that any sort of muppetry is permitted in there, despite the efforts of the hard-working AH mods who strive to stamp this stuff out every day.

tHB

Overheal

And there's this

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057536726

So we have people complaining the standards are slack while others argue the standards are too strict. /shrug

Ave Sodalis

Overheal wrote:

So we have people complaining the standards are slack while others argue the standards are too strict. /shrug

Mine is with regard to other forums outside of AH

Overheal

well the two cant be unrelated, is the AH style posting bleed out of AH if AH style posting isnt allowed in AH? It could be people just walking out of AH for instance looking for the mick, but I'd say reporting the posts should have a reasonable effect, or talking to the mods in your favored forums.

Ave Sodalis

Overheal wrote:

well the two cant be unrelated, is the AH style posting bleed out of AH if AH style posting isnt allowed in AH? It could be people just walking out of AH for instance looking for the mick, but I'd say reporting the posts should have a reasonable effect, or talking to the mods in your favored forums.

It could be that, I genuinely have no idea why it's happening.

The problem with reporting the posts is that it only counters that post in that thread at that time. If it's a case I've seen several times where there's a mod already on thread reading the posts, is it likely there will be much of a change over all? I think it needs to be tackled on a widescale basis, rather than lots of individual posts.
Being honest, my two followed forums have yet to have example of this.

Wibbs

Zascar wrote: »

I remember the day when After Hours used to be an interesting place with lots of discussion on a multitude of different topics - with a little bit of fun and banter thrown in.

Utter nonsense, with a side order of rose tinted nostalgia for a time that never was. Go back through the pages in time and come back to me on that. The first thing you'll notice is how short thread titles tend to be and how rare interesting threads came up. It's a far more diverse forum these days. Common enough old fart/snobbish take on AH mind you. QV "moronic teenagers". Fair enough grandad. TBH then suggesting no desire to clean it up on the part of the mods? That's right prickish IMH.

Like many, these days I spend more time on Reddit where this type of rubbish is downvoted and quickly hidden in the depths - while the quality interesting topics rise to the top. It's why Reddit is so popular.

Reddit? Hahahah…. with a straight face too? Oh wait, you're being serious. Christ *facepalm*

nesf

Wibbs wrote: »

Reddit? Hahahah…. with a straight face too? Oh wait, you're being serious. Christ *facepalm*

Just like Boards varies massively between forums, Reddit varies massively between subreddits. And this reason the thread topic is problematic, there really is no one "standard of posting" across either site and you can only really talk about individual forums or subreddits.

Nodin

Zascar wrote: »

OP I agree with you. There has definitely been a strong a decline in the standard of posting - people are more concerned with getting their post count up with puns, snarky comments and then just illogical rubbish than actually addressing the topic of the post and giving their actual opinion on the subject, and having some genuinely interesting discussion. It's happening all over the place, and the reason is because it all stems from After Hours.

..............

Rather a nonsense, I'm afraid. There are far worse fora on Boards than AH. I believe Hill Billys post represents the reality.

NI24

You brought up a couple of interesting points here Hill Billy, mainly these two:

The Hill Billy wrote: »

If members see such posts - report them & let the mods deal with it. Don't allow it to drag the standard of the forum down by just hoping that a mod will see it & action it.

Likewise, if the stuff gets reported, it is up to the local mods to take care of it in line with the site guidelines & the forum charter.

How are posters supposed to know that mods are dealing with it exactly, considering there's no transparency on reported posts? Or, to take it further, what if the mod is the author of the post? Are we to believe that a moderator would yellow card their own post? Especially if the other moderators of the forum, many of whom are in general agreement on issues, have thanked it.

KERSPLAT!

NI24 wrote: »

You brought up a couple of interesting points here Hill Billy, mainly these two:


How are posters supposed to know that mods are dealing with it exactly, considering there's no transparency on reported posts? Or, to take it further, what if the mod is the author of the post? Are we to believe that a moderator would yellow card their own post? Especially if the other moderators of the forum, many of whom are in general agreement on issues, have thanked it.

If you have an issue with a mod post and either aren't comfortable reporting the post or don't believe it will be actioned for whatever reason, PM a Cmod to look into it.

The Hill Billy

NI24 wrote: »

You brought up a couple of interesting points here Hill Billy, mainly these two:


How are posters supposed to know that mods are dealing with it exactly, considering there's no transparency on reported posts?

You need to trust the mods. This topic has been done to death in this forum & we're not doing it again in this thread.

NI24 wrote:

Or, to take it further, what if the mod is the author of the post? Are we to believe that a moderator would yellow card their own post? Especially if the other moderators of the forum, many of whom are in general agreement on issues, have thanked it.

What KERSPLAT! said.

NI24

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

If you have an issue with a mod post and either aren't comfortable reporting the post or don't believe it will be actioned for whatever reason, PM a Cmod to look into it.

I've thought about doing so but then I thought, well, isn't that considered an abuse of the Cmod's time? Even the regular moderators make it obvious that they consider reported posts an abuse of their time.

K-9

What?

Mods probably spend most of our time on reported posts.

KERSPLAT!

NI24 wrote: »

I've thought about doing so but then I thought, well, isn't that considered an abuse of the Cmod's time? Even the regular moderators make it obvious that they consider reported posts an abuse of their time.

Fire up some examples of mods saying that.

Mods rely heavily on reported posts. We welcome and encourage them.

NI24

The Hill Billy wrote: »

You need to trust the mods. This topic has been done to death in this forum & we're not doing it again in this thread.

So let me get this straight Hill. On the one hand you say trust the mods, yet on the other hand you say if you don't trust the mods, go higher up. If the mods are trustworthy then why suggest going above their heads at all, huh? Why does the DRP thread exist?

In fact, I can think of one moderator off the top of my head who continually brought down the standard of posting over and over and over again, yet he was allowed to do so over and over and over again. He has recently closed down his account, but it didn't stop him (for years, I might add) from dragging discussions down into the toilet where his opinions belonged. I have also seen posters whose opinions I loathed get banned simply because it wasn't the popular opinion on the thread at the moment. So it's no wonder the op thinks the standard in threads has gone down when moderators themselves are frequently incapable of

a)quality posting themselves and
b) not letting biases and sheer laziness drag down a thread.

I'm sorry if moderators' egos are bruised when they are criticized for it, but nobody held a gun to their heads and forced them into this role so the excuse that is often trotted out of "unpaid volunteers" doesn't really fly with me.

Also Hill, like I said about the gun to the head, you are under no obligation to post in this thread, and, unless my eyesight has left me, you are not the feedback moderator, so it is not up to you to decide what will or will not be discussed. Whether or not moderators are actually acting on reported posts is 100% related to the topic at hand.

Actually, it seems my eyesight has left me. You are an administrator which I'm guessing is higher than moderator and so you have the power to steer the discussion any way you want. So steer away....

NI24

K-9 wrote: »

What?

Mods probably spend most of our time on reported posts.

Well I'm happy to hear that. Doesn't mean they do anything about it, unless it's an obvious troll or something.

K-9

Sometimes we might not do anything, but note the RP and keep an eye on a thread or a poster. It would be rare nothing was done.

Maybe the RP didn't get the action you deemed necessary, but that is different to mods ignoring reported posts.

Sometimes forums might not have a mod about due to different reasons, I'd suggest reporting it again or contacting a C-Mod to bring it to our attention. We try and keep track of things like that but things can be missed, so a pm would be appreciated.

NI24

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Fire up some examples of mods saying that.

Firstly, no mod would come out on a forum and say that directly. Secondly, they were in PMs from over a year ago and I have since deleted them. But thirdly, and most importantly, it's always a passive aggressive jibe that is phrased in such a way that when confronted on it, they can have plausible deniability. And to their credit, it's an ingenious way of abdicating responsibility from what they've said.

K-9

NI24 wrote: »

Firstly, no mod would come out on a forum and say that directly. Secondly, they were in PMs from over a year ago and I have since deleted them. But thirdly, and most importantly, it's always a passive aggressive jibe that is phrased in such a way that when confronted on it, they can have plausible deniability. And to their credit, it's an ingenious way of abdicating responsibility from what they've said.

There isn't much in there we can address though, it's too vague.

We'd a similar problem in politics with a poster alleging an ex mod said something about bias. Despite assurances from other mods, C-mods, admins and IIRC, the owner of the site, the poster still probably believes the ex-mod.

We can't do anything about that, people are entitled to their opinions, even if loads of people say they are wrong.

As for minority opinions in a thread, I'd be conscious of trying to ensure debate actually happens in a thread, back slapping threads are just boring, but we have to be consistent as well, it's a balancing act. If a poster doesn't help themselves on a thread, not a lot we can do, otherwise we are inconsistent.

NI24

@K-9 There's no need to keep defending yourself-- Hill Billy is an administrator and has made it perfectly clear that moderators don't have to be held accountable for their decisions and in a weird way I agree. Boards is a private site, they can be as biased as they want, they can be as transparent as they don't want and if people don't like it they can go to reddit, which is where people are headed anyways. And boards can go down in history as the bloated dinosaur that it has become...

K-9

Maybe you can name the site that does this moderating stuff well then, and give us something we can actually work on.

Ave Sodalis

I think even just keeping forums (or even just threads) that are made for advice solely for advice and clamping down hard on those that try to wander, or judge, or even just have some "witty" comment.

The Hill Billy

NI24 - You asked about two different matters...
1. Reported posts in general & the transparency with which they are dealt. My response - This ha been done to death & reporters of posts will not receive individual responses to say what action will be or has been taken.
2. If you have a specific issue with moderator action - PM a CMod. Do not hijack this thread because you have an issue with a particular mod action which appears to be the case based on your response.

NI24

The Hill Billy wrote: »

NI24 - You asked about two different matters...
1. Reported posts in general & the transparency with which they are dealt. My response - This ha been done to death & reporters of posts will not receive individual responses to say what action will be or has been taken.
2. If you have a specific issue with moderator action - PM a CMod. Do not hijack this thread because you have an issue with a particular mod action which appears to be the case based on your response.

Yes, I understand that this is not the discussion which is why I asked K-9 to stop being so defensive. And for the record, it is not one particular mod action, it was several, and I'm not the first to complain about it.

So anyways, the op complained about the standard of posting and a moderator immediately jumped in to put the blame on the posters. Which is funny, because moderators are quite prolific posters, so it was basically moderators trying to deflect blame when they are just as much apart of the problem as anyone else, probably even more so when they are supposed to set an example of proper posting and keep civility in threads.

Sup dude's experience is not new, it has been said numerous times that many forums on here are unfriendly, snobbish, and, well, to use a crude phrase, a "circle-jerk". And there are essentially 3 reasons for this:

1) moderators not doing their job
2) the posters themselves and
3) the general cliquey and provincial nature of Irish culture

Obviously number three isn't going to change that's just how Ireland is in general and it's an Irish site.

Number two is the reason the site exists in the first place as posters are the backbone of the site, but if you start dictating too much what posters can post, the tone in which they can post it and so on, then people will just get tired of walking a tightrope and leave.

Number one is probably the biggest influence on the quality as moderators are responsible for posters keeping to the general guidelines and leading by example and fostering an environment for differing opinions, not just opinions different to their own but different to the collective opinion of the thread or forum. And in that last respect, boards fails miserably, hence the reason a lot of forums see very little traffic and why some are almost collecting cobwebs at this point.

When you see, as I have seen, extremely fair, popular and prolific moderators, not posters mind you, but moderators leaving boards for reddit, and specifying its because of the declining quality, then its obvious there's a problem. Whether it's new rules being implemented at a higher level which is making it increasingly difficult for moderators to do their job we will never know, as we are not privy to that information. But whatever the reason, numbers here are down, forums have become increasingly hostile to people who don't hang around them on a consistent basis and its becoming stale.

Would also like to add that I have been reading this site for a very long time (over 8 years now) and in the past would go so far as to suggest it to people, but too many times in the last year and a half I've had people tell me it's extremely unwelcoming, boring, etc. etc., so it's not just my imagination.

looksee

The OP posted saying that posting was too lax and that other forums were becoming like AH; in other words, he suggested, too casual and jokey. Now we are being told that people are leaving because the moderation is too tight and is resulting in boring threads where people are told what they can and cannot say.

Can someone please clarify which direction modding should go, to satisfy everyone?

Edward Hopper

looksee wrote: »

The OP posted saying that posting was too lax and that other forums were becoming like AH; in other words, he suggested, too casual and jokey. Now we are being told that people are leaving because the moderation is too tight and is resulting in boring threads where people are told what they can and cannot say.

Can someone please clarify which direction modding should go, to satisfy everyone?

A strong weak, whilst riggidly lax, form of moderation.

Azalea

Boards is by far the best site of its ilk out there. It'll have its problems naturally - it's pretty big now - but compare it to TheJournal.ie or Politics.ie or any of the newspaper comments sections or Facebook...

Ave Sodalis

Azalea wrote: »

Boards is by far the best site of its ilk out there. It'll have its problems naturally - it's pretty big now - but compare it to TheJournal.ie or Politics.ie or any of the newspaper comments sections or Facebook...

These aren't modded though. I don't really accept the "well there's worse out there so put up with it". Surely Boards is striving to improve the whole time?

Azalea

sup_dude wrote: »

These aren't modded though. I don't really accept the "well there's worse out there so put up with it". Surely Boards is striving to improve the whole time?

Sher you've got people simultaneously to you saying it's over moderated and people can't express an opinion that's not PC (rubbish of course - it's not what you say, it's how you say it) - I think it does a good job with the resources it has. The mods are volunteers so it's never going to be perfect, particularly as it gets bigger.

looksee

Even if they were paid professionals I reckon you would still get stuff that different people would disagree with/ complain about.

Ave Sodalis

Azalea wrote: »

Sher you've got people simultaneously to you saying it's over moderated and people can't express an opinion that's not PC (rubbish of course - it's not what you say, it's how you say it) - I think it does a good job with the resources it has. The mods are volunteers so it's never going to be perfect, particularly as it gets bigger.

And I appreciate what mods do. I still don't see that as a reason to brush things under the carpet.

What if it gets to the stage (although in some, it's nearly there already) where there's certain forums where it will only be the regular posters who will be posting because it would be too initimidating for other posters.

Boards isn't a set forum. Some forums and threads are going to be more lighthearted than others. However, I think the line is getting a bit too blurred and it's getting harder for posters who are looking for advice, to just get advice instead of remarks etc.