Getting rid of Closed account taglines

Pawwed Rig

Chorus_suck wrote: »

Any other feedback from those threads "received and acted upon"?

Or is it a coincidence that the only feedback acted upon suits the new agenda of the site??

Less infractions and bans for a start. In my 2 forums there have been very few since the ghost town thread. Wider latitude given to posters, lesser mod intrusion on thread etc etc
In my category we have demodded a heap of inactive mods and are going through the fora one at a time to identify gaps and issues. Also trying to stop threads being locked unless absolutely necessary.
These things take time unfortunately and to be fair changes may never go far enough for some posters.
Moderation will not disappear (imo) which I think is what some want. You can see elsewhere the levels of vitriol that appear where moderation is absent.

dudara

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

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."



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.

I'm going to quote Mark's earlier post here, for the benefit of posters who may not have read the start of the thread.

Your feedback has been received and it has been listened to. The mods, CMods and Admins are taking steps where they can to make improvements. HQ is also making steps, of which this 'Closed Account' tag line removal was one.

Give some time folks...as someone who cares quite passionately about this site, I must admit to feeling very tired and drained upon reading all these unrelenting messages.

Please continue to provide constructive feedback, that can be interpreted and acted upon.

Chorus_suck

This post has been deleted.

KERSPLAT!

Chorus_suck wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I doubt it was prioritised. It's one of the easiest, quickest changes to implement.

dudara

Chorus_suck wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I'll have to leave it to HQ to respond to your questions. They will decide what to communicate and what level of detail to communicate. I'm not pawning you off here, but it's better handled by them.

Chorus_suck

This post has been deleted.

The Hill Billy

Let's stay on-topic here, please - i.e., Closed Account taglines.

If you have feedback on other topics please address in a separate thread & let's not lose focus here. Thanks.

tHB

my3cents

Zaph wrote: »

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.

So why don't boards.ie back that up for you by posting the results of the exit poll they ask you to take when you close an account?

If someone is closing their account to make a point I suspect they will also make that point in the exit poll.

Boards.ie: Mark

The Boards is becoming a Ghost Town thread (along with a few other feedback threads since the start of the year) indicated that people weren't happy with seeing Closed Accounts. One point made was that these Closed Accounts negated the community feel of Boards. Tackling why someone closed their account is obviously a goal, but in some instances it's as simple as they're unhappy that someone disagreed with them on the internet.

Closed account taglines were something quick and easy to tackle that many people were asking for. And, as Pawwed Rig added, other things are changing too. New users can post images/links much sooner, mods have been tweaking how they approach certain situations; some threads and posts are being given more leeway; the roster of moderators is being reviewed; and other things are ticking away behind the scenes. Other issues are trickier and slower to address, and patience is appreciated.

I can't speak for Dav - maybe it was a tongue in cheek statement, maybe he thinks some of you ARE a pain in the arse Anyways, I prefer the term "constructive feedback." Telling us something sucks is one thing, telling us why it does or what you'd prefer instead is another and is far more useful.

Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

On topic... Does anyone have a link to the original thread where people were asking for this change or the topic was discussed?

Anyone?

KERSPLAT!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057592798

Probably in there.

Foresty

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057592798

Probably in there.

Here a link to every mention of "closed accounts" in that thread.

http://www.boards.ie/search/submit/?thread=2057592798&query=closed+accounts

sonny.roofer

I see the 'Close Account' taglines are still shown on the 'touch site' when you haven't logged in but are gone from the 'full site' when you haven't logged in.

Is this intentional, or incompetence?

Boards.ie: Niamh

sonny.roofer wrote: »

I see the 'Close Account' taglines are still shown on the 'touch site' when you haven't logged in but are gone from the 'full site' when you haven't logged in.

Is this intentional, or incompetence?

It's neither. The touch site displays Usergroup rather than User title as it always has. The team are investigating whether or not this can be amended.

Zaph

sonny.roofer wrote: »

I see the 'Close Account' taglines are still shown on the 'touch site' when you haven't logged in but are gone from the 'full site' when you haven't logged in.

Is this intentional, or incompetence?

It's due to the touch site being built in a different way to the full site which means that the taglines will continue to be displayed. But don't let that stop you getting a snide dig in so you can pick up a few thanks.

sonny.roofer

Zaph wrote: »

It's due to the touch site being built in a different way to the full site which means that the taglines will continue to be displayed. But don't let that stop you getting a snide dig in so you can pick up a few thanks.

So incompetence then.

Insect Overlord

sonny.roofer wrote: »

So incompetence then.

Go away.

dudara

sonny.roofer wrote: »

So incompetence then.

Incompetence in the sense of not understanding, or not wanting to understand, a technical explanation

Vic_08

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

The Boards is becoming a Ghost Town thread (along with a few other feedback threads since the start of the year) indicated that people weren't happy with seeing Closed Accounts. One point made was that these Closed Accounts negated the community feel of Boards. Tackling why someone closed their account is obviously a goal, but in some instances it's as simple as they're unhappy that someone disagreed with them on the internet.

Closed account taglines were something quick and easy to tackle that many people were asking for. And, as Pawwed Rig added, other things are changing too. New users can post images/links much sooner, mods have been tweaking how they approach certain situations; some threads and posts are being given more leeway; the roster of moderators is being reviewed; and other things are ticking away behind the scenes. Other issues are trickier and slower to address, and patience is appreciated.

I don't recall a sitewide survey being made to gauge the views of the majority on this (or any other topic). It sounds like you have based this on the opinions of a very small sample in this forum which I am guessing is highly weighted with people likely to be more inclined to want to hide the fact that people have actively closed their accounts.

My opinion is that if a long standing member closes their account they will have done it for a reason, rather than just not posting anymore. Addressing the underlying reasons why these members have done this rather than hiding the fact they have closed their accounts would be a step in the right direction. Pretending there isn't a problem by hiding the closed accounts is rather pathetic.

I know that many do it as a final protest at their dissatisfaction with parts of the site, do you really think that blocking this form of protest is likely to give current members the impression you are more or less interested in any issues they may have with the site?

This is a very bad choice of a change to signal you are open to reforming some of the issues ordinary members have with boards.

Zaph

Just restating what I said earlier in this thread about this point:


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.

my3cents

Zaph wrote: »

Just restating what I said earlier in this thread about this point:


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.

You keep stating that yet boards.ie has an exit poll for those that leave that asks why they left and you are saying no one has ever looked at that feedback.

Outlaw Pete

Boards.ie: Mark

my3cents

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? You'll be back when you've fixed it?

Outlaw Pete

Just to be clear there folks, I was referring to the 'Closed account' taglines, not myself.. sure I never left

Should really have used another example.

hullaballoo

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Just to be clear there folks, I was referring to the 'Closed account' taglines, not myself.. sure I never left

Should really have used another example.

Thanks for posting the saddest example of why the close account feature is such a curse! :mad::(

whoopsadoodles

hullaballoo wrote: »

Thanks for posting the saddest example of why the close account feature is such a curse! :mad::(

my3cents

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Just to be clear there folks, I was referring to the 'Closed account' taglines, not myself.. sure I never left

Should really have used another example.

I'd only just realised you only need to go up the page to post #77 (second post from top) to see if the Closed Account taglines are still there.

DeadHand

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

at worst it makes Boards look like an unwelcoming place when there are reams of​
​Closed ​Accounts

There are reams of closed accounts because it is an unwelcoming place for those not sufficiently submissive to the pervasive, bullying mod culture and/or not of the correct politic mindset.

Look at the politics forums, it's basically a few rightist or centrist posters arguing with a gang of admins and mods who are uniformly leftist. It's like referees taking on the players with all the imbalance that brings. More diversity in mod selection required. I can, off the top of my head, name maybe three mods who ever express any sentiments outside of the PC catechism.

The composition of the army of mods here is neither reflective of Irish society nor (more importantly) the user base.

DeadHand

Speaking of mod bullying...

An File wrote: »

Go away.

... A nearby case in point.

How "welcoming".