Getting rid of Closed account taglines

Boards.ie: Mark

Hi everyone,

Something that many of you are asking for is for something to be done about the Closed ​account taglines.​​

At best, it's distracting to read through some of the classic threads only to see some infamous users who have closed their account; at worst it makes Boards look like an unwelcoming place when there are reams of​
​Closed ​Accounts, even though some are users who have re-registered ​and are still on the site with a new account.​

After some input and a discussion with the mods, we have decided to remove those taglines ​from under a user's name in threads and on user profiles - there will be no user title on those user accounts, the space will be blank.
​
​The 'Closed Account' usergroup will still be visible to Mods and Admin in Modutils for reference, so ​there's no getting around that one!

Fr_Dougal

I think the "Closed Account" tag should stay. Removing it serves no real purpose to the community.

D0NNELLY

It is absolutely distracting. Delighted to see the back of it, good decision.

Annasopra

Whats the point of removing them?

KERSPLAT!

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

Whats the point of removing them?

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Something that many of you are asking for is for something to be done about the Closed ​account taglines.​​

At best, it's distracting to read through some of the classic threads only to see some infamous users who have closed their account; at worst it makes Boards look like an unwelcoming place when there are reams of​
​Closed ​Accounts, even though some are users who have re-registered ​and are still on the site with a new account.​

After some input and a discussion with the mods, we have decided to remove those taglines ​from under a user's name in threads and on user profiles - there will be no user title on those user accounts, the space will be blank.
​
​The 'Closed Account' usergroup will still be visible to Mods and Admin in Modutils for reference, so ​there's no getting around that one!

.

The Hill Billy

Posts deleted.

If you wish to give feedback - please do so.

Smart remarks & off-topic posts will be removed.

tHB

OldGoat

I thought the tag was a requirement under the data protection malarkey.

Boards.ie: Niamh

OldGoat wrote: »

I thought the tag was a requirement under the data protection malarkey.

No, Sean has spoken to them about it to confirm. It's not a requirement that accounts be publicly labelled as closed.

dudara

For clarity, can you confirm that the blank will only appear on Closed Accounts. Accounts with custom tag lines, and the system standard tag lines will be unaffected?

Boards.ie: Niamh

dudara wrote: »

Just to confirm that the blank will only appear on Closed Accounts. Accounts with custom tag lines, and the system standard tag lines will be unaffected?

That's correct, all other usergroups and their taglines (custom or otherwise) will remain unaffected.

Barry Badrinath

Personally, I don't see the point.

I haven't seen many people complain of the tag line distraction. It's no more of a distraction than any other tagline, coloured stars, post count or signature.

Boards (legally I suppose) had to give users the option to close their account. Users choose to do so. Their account goes dead and their tagline reflects this.

If you do not have a "closed account" tagline, you are implementing a blank space. To me, that's more distracting. Long time users will know why it's a blank space but it may be confusing for new users, which lets be honest. That's what this is about.....making the site look popular and a place where people stick around. New users won't want to stick around because of the lack of "closed account" tags.

I would wager they leave for other purposes than a "closed account" tagline. It's like sticking a plaster on a lacerated artery. It's not going to work if this is about new user retention and not aesthetics.

The decision to implement this feature...or lack of feature looks completely like a bluff job. It's basic level pandering to show as if you are listening to existing users and implementing the site changes they are shouting for.

It's an easy "win" for Boards. Do something small and simple to keep the masses happy.

I'm not going to go over tired old ground, there's enough positive criticism of the site in Feedback as it is, most of which seems to be ignored or a case made against it.

As a nobody on this site, the guys pulling the strings owe me nothing but at least think of an answer to this.

Why are you really removing the "closed account" tagline and what do you hope it will tangibly achieve?

Danke

knucklehead6

Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

Why are you really removing the "closed account" tagline and what do you hope it will tangibly achieve?

Danke

Well mark said it's to try to make the place seem more welcoming.

personally speaking i'd be of the opinion that if you want to make the place seem more welcoming get rid of the BANNED tagline and replace that with the blank.

People close their accounts, that's no biggie... Especially if they re reg. I'm one of the re regs,

Boards.ie: Mark

One of the first things that I did when joining Boards was I went through a variety of Feedback threads across the site to see what issues were being highlighted. The Closed Account tagline came up more frequently than you might think and Seán heard about it firsthand from the moderators.

Yes, it is an easier win than some of the issues that cropped up, but we're not planning to change the Closed Account tagline and then sit back all chuffed with ourselves. The developers here are working flat out on a variety of things (including a buglist and some fancy new Responsive Site features), and the Admins, CMods, and Mods are making changes behind the scenes (some more subtle than others).

I agree with you on a couple of points; users are going to leave for a variety of reasons other than Closed Accounts. The reasoning varies and can include angles like "I need to focus on college", "Someone called me wrong on the internet and I'm upset about it", "I don't like the direction the site is going, or "I made a snap decision....and then set up a new account after a few days/weeks/months."

It's not necessarily that new users won't stick around because of Closed Account taglines, but if they happen upon a thread where people have closed their accounts, will they even stick around to see the good and the bad of Boards.ie?

There is more to be done, we understand that, but this is something that many users have been asking for. And we don't intend this to be the only example of us saying "we are listening to you."

Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

Why are you really removing the "closed account" tagline and what do you hope it will tangibly achieve?

To sum up, we're removing it as it's something that existing users have been asking for and it is something that can be done quite quickly. It will hopefully make for a more pleasant browsing experience for current users and it will mean that new users aren't put off by closed accounts if they find their way here from Google.

cowboyBuilder

When is this being implemented ? I still see closed account labels ..

D0NNELLY

Agree with the other poster, remove the BANNED tag while ye have the bonnet up.

Nothing worse than going through old threads with nothing but closed account and banned under posters names.

osarusan

Could you just leave it blank in all cases except for Mod, Admin, Employee?

cowboyBuilder

Well the whole BANNED thing is another story, from a site with 75k banned posters, there needs to be some rethink of the moderation.

The Hill Billy

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

Well the whole BANNED thing is another story, from a site with 75k banned posters, there needs to be some rethink of the moderation.

But you know that the 75K banned accounts are largely due to a huge volume of spammer accounts being banned in a short space of time. You even thanked the post. Claiming that this is now a driver for a change in moderation is disingenuous.

If you have thoughts on what moderation changes may be required to reduce permanent sitebans while still keeping out spammers & re-reg trolls - start another thread & let's keep this to feedback on the Closed Account taglines.

tHB

cowboyBuilder

OK 75k isn't a true number of individuals, but I have no other number to pick from - either way it's still going to be relatively high.

dudara

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

OK 75k isn't a true number of individuals, but I have no other number to pick from - either way it's still going to be relatively high.

Believe it or not, it's a relatively small pool of posters who continuously re-reg*. The 75k number in no way reflects the true number of banned individuals (as opposed to banned accounts, or banned shillbots)

*Based on my experience

Winterlong

osarusan wrote: »

Could you just leave it blank in all cases except for Mod, Admin, Employee?

I like this idea. And if you click on someone's profile then you should be able to see if the account is closed or not.

hatrickpatrick

Personally I feel that this smacks of a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the exodus of sorts which has taken place over the last year for various reasons, and removing people's ability to register their disagreement with the direction Boards was going in for a while (thankfully things now seem to have changed). That's just me - a lot of people closed their accounts as a protest against what they saw as ideological censorship, and this is widely known. If that made Boards look unwelcoming, it was the situation itself rather than disgruntled users' reactions to it which caused that, and in my view trying to hide this is a pretty underhanded move. Especially seeing as the fact that some mistakes were made with regard to ideological policing was openly acknowledged in one of the recent feedback threads.

It's like a journalist writing an atrocious opinion piece and then disabling comments, or a YouTube user making an inflammatory video and then disabling likes/dislikes in order to obfuscate the extent of objection to it. Account closured have lately been used to make a statement, and this feels - even if it isn't actually the reason - like an attempt to pretend that Boards hasn't had some issues lately which are being worked through at the moment.

the groutch

osarusan wrote: »

Could you just leave it blank in all cases except for Mod, Admin, Employee?

subscribers have paid for certain benefits, including the ability to create their own tagline.
it wouldn't be fair to suddenly take that away from them.

osarusan

the groutch wrote: »

subscribers have paid for certain benefits, including the ability to create their own tagline.
it wouldn't be fair to suddenly take that away from them.

Ok, fair enough, that could be an exception. I'd never have imagined that was much of the appeal of becoming a subscriber, but I could well be wrong

I think that the 'unwelcoming' aspect that comes with lots of 'Closed Account' or 'Banned' taglines does so because of the contrast with 'Registered User' that appears as a tagline the vast majority of the time.

Even if there is an absence of a particular tagline, posters will know what that absence means - the account has been closed (although new/potential users might not understand) - so I'd wonder how well it actually addresses the problem, for existing users at least.

But if there are no taglines other than Mod, Admin, Employee - or personalised taglines for subscribers - then there is no 'unwelcoming' contrast to be made.

Zaph

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Account closured have lately been used to make a statement

Accounts are closed for many reasons and in most cases we have no idea why the account has been closed. While some may have been closed to make a statement, we have no way of knowing if they make up 1% or 99% of the total closures. People are still free to close their accounts, and if they want they can state why in a post before they do so, but removing the closed account tag isn't removing any imagined right from them because it never existed in the first place.

The Hill Billy

No mention the significant number of members who close accounts only to re-register under a new name, sometimes doing this many times.

Fr_Dougal

Commercially this makes a lot of sense actually. Hopefully we can attract more advertising and talk-to accounts.

gandalf

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Account closured have lately been used to make a statement, and this feels - even if it isn't actually the reason - like an attempt to pretend that Boards hasn't had some issues lately which are being worked through at the moment.

I agree with you nearly 100% here. It is dealing with a visible side effect rather than the actual reason for people closing their accounts. I do also see the reasoning for the move because it is very off putting to open up a thread and see half the users are either banned or closed accounts. It does give the impression that boards as a community is rotting from the inside and in ways I believe it is (Well more like the Chinese saying "The fish rots from the head!").

If this is brought in then there has to be a way, maybe when you click into the profile where that account is clearly marked as a closed account to mitigate the situation where a user could potentially try to discuss something with a empty shell that won't reply.

At the end of the day the clear problem is still communication from Boards HQ. I'm not talking about the CM or their new assistant I am talking about the top level. They have been anonymous and at this stage I believe they should be clearly sharing the vision and direction they have for this site, especially as we are the product they are selling and the content generators that attract new users to the site.

o1s1n

It is very off putting to go into a thread and see a whole rake of closed accounts alright, so I'd definitely agree with removing the tag line.

I don't think it's going to fix any of the major current problems, but it might help generate a little more content as folks might be a bit more inclined to post if they don't get the impression they're talking to dead accounts. Content begets content.

As mentioned, why the lack of transparency from the top in regards to vision and where the site aims to go? As an end user without access to the moderator forum or anything with a bit of 'behind the scenes' access, it currently feels like the answer is 'because we've no idea' rather than 'because we're planning something really big'.

Lovely Bloke

tagline or no, the likes of us, and eventually everyone, is going to know a blank tagline is a closed account.

Elliott S

I think this is a great idea. Seeing a thread filled with 'Closed Account' taglines is a bit of a downer.

But reading this thread is illuminating. I hope never to be as cynical as some of its contributors. There are some people here who I get the impression will never be happen, no matter what boards.ie does.

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

tagline or no, the likes of us, and eventually everyone, is going to know a blank tagline is a closed account.

New users won't and it might let them bed in a bit before they realise.

Tar.Aldarion

Seems reasonable. Is there a notification if your and PM somebody that their account is closed? Or maybe even replying as that could get confusing. And also waste peoples time. May have been answered I did not read thoroughly.

hullaballoo

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

tagline or no, the likes of us, and eventually everyone, is going to know a blank tagline is a closed account.

My blank tagline isn't a closed account. So, no, it won't mean that.

The Black Oil

There's a mod who closed her account 18 months-2 years ago. At that time her profile clearly said Closed Account. I don't know if it's since the new site, but now it says she's a registered user...I presume you can't reactivate a closed a/c, so I guess this is a glitch.

editorsean

Another suggestion would be to change the tagline to something neutral such as 'Guest', similar to the tagline vbulletin shows by default if guest posting is enabled.

If the final decision is to get rid of the closed account taglines, I would suggest adding a CSS style tag such as 'display:none' to collapse the empty space.

MugMugs

Good idea. You've got bigger fish to fry over this I would have thought?

The Black Oil wrote: »

There's a mod who closed her account 18 months-2 years ago. At that time her profile clearly said Closed Account. I don't know if it's since the new site, but now it says she's a registered user...I presume you can't reactivate a closed a/c, so I guess this is a glitch.

If their ID can be confirmed by an Admin the old account is renamed and then their new account is renamed to their old name...... If that makes sense.

Big Turd

Boards.ie Mark

One of the first things that I did when joining Boards was I went through a variety of Feedback threads across the site to see what issues were being highlighted.

Keep it up Mark!

I'm liking the Boards News Thread over in announcements aswell. Keep doing it. You could automatically subscribe everyone to that forum so people know that you guys might finally be starting to listen.

New Forums created in a week rather than fecking years like it has been taking! Lord almighty!!

All badly needed.

You could do with bringing down (or look at doing away with?)the usage restrictions for new users/accounts, bit of a PITA they are!

I forget how to do manual quotes, theirs a slash in there somewhere.

ArmaniJeanss

I doubt I'm alone in liking being able to see the Closed Account tag.
Maybe have it as option (defaulted off) in user cp?

KERSPLAT!

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I doubt I'm alone in liking being able to see the Closed Account tag.
Maybe have it as option (defaulted off) in user cp?

Blank will be closed. Grand job.

The_Valeyard

Does the user have the option to remove all posts, threads, they partook in, if closed account, rather than appear to be still a site member?

The Hill Billy

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Does the user have the option to remove all posts, threads, they partook in, if closed account, rather than appear to be still a site member?

Nope. This is covered in the Terms of Use, IIRC.

Lavinia

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I doubt I'm alone in liking being able to see the Closed Account tag.
Maybe have it as option (defaulted off) in user cp?

I too like it as that is the truth.

Why hide the truth to "appear better"?

You could at least leave it as a setting for user to choose but don't remove it, thanks.

The_Valeyard

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Nope. This is covered in the Terms of Use, IIRC.

But how do you know If a user is still a member or not, just by regular posting?

As for removing all posts, it has been reported on other sites such as reddit that you have indeed deleted every post and account from certain users who are in the courts or on the news??

Zaph

The_Valeyard wrote: »

As for removing all posts, it has been reported on other sites such as reddit that you have indeed deleted every post and account from certain users who are in the courts or on the news??

If there's an ongoing legal case and there's a chance that certain posts by, or about an individual, could be construed as potentially having a bearing on the case, then Boards is legally obliged to remove them to avoid being in contempt of court.

The_Valeyard

Zaph wrote: »

If there's an ongoing legal case and there's a chance that certain posts by, or about an individual, could be construed as potentially having a bearing on the case, then Boards is legally obliged to remove them to avoid being in contempt of court.

Ahh cheers. Was curious.

Boards.ie: Mark

The Closed Account tagline change has been rolled out now.

Big Turd wrote: »

Boards.ie Mark

You could do with bringing down (or look at doing away with?)the usage restrictions for new users/accounts, bit of a PITA they are!

Funny you should mention that

Fr_Dougal

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

The Closed Account tagline change has been rolled out now.



Funny you should mention that

So yourself and the mods etc had a discussion, decided it would be best if the 'Closed Account' tag was removed. Yet the only people who cannot tell if an account is closed or not now are non-mods.

Transparency has always been a challenge for the site, it's getting worse.

Removing the Closed Tag from user profiles reminds me of that movie 'Weekend at Bernies".

The Hill Billy

The decision was based on feedback received from site members.

Cathmandooo

How come some closed account users still have stars under their name and others don't?

A random example, I picked this thread

Two posters seem to have closed accounts, both with thousands of posts under the belts but one has stars and the other doesn't

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=70124141&postcount=2
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=70141176&postcount=8

Personally I like the Closed Account tag gone, it somehow looks better. I like the stars though too so not sure why some have them and others don't

El Weirdo

May as well get rid of the Registered User tagline too. It serves no purpose that I can see.

Boards.ie: Mark

Cathmandooo wrote: »

Personally I like the Closed Account tag gone, it somehow looks better. I like the stars though too so not sure why some have them and others don't

The rank (which results in the stars on display) is actually cleared when an account is closed, so no closed account should have them. However, there is some inconsistent data, most likely from rollbacks and data restores, which has led to some keeping them.