Now Ye're Talking - to Boards.ie: Sean

Boards.ie: Mark

For our next AMA, we have one that was much sought after in the AMA Wishlist thread. JCX BXC and Victor requested that Boards.ie staff or management make an appearance, and so we have Boards.ie: Sean here to talk all things Boards.ie.

Please remember that some information may be quite sensitive and he won't be able to disclose absolutely everything. Fire ahead with your questions below

Boards.ie: Sean

Hi all. As CEO of Boards.ie I'm happy to answer any of your questions (as best as I can ).

There may be some things of a sensitive or confidential nature that I won't be able to go into too much detail (if that's the case I'll let you know) but what I can share I will so ask away.

Cheers,
Sean.

Fr_Dougal

Hi Sean, thanks for doing the AMA.

The removal of the Feedback forum has annoyed most posters on boards.ie, it has taken away the majority of feedback and silenced dissent amongst posters.

Even in the commercial TalkTo forums, more than one poster is allowed to comment on a single thread.

Feedback should be considered a gift, boards.ie seems to treat it with contempt. My question is, why has this ridiculous decision regarding Feedback not been reversed?

Boards.ie: Sean

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Hi Sean, thanks for doing the AMA.

The removal of the Feedback forum has annoyed most posters on boards.ie, it has taken away the majority of feedback and silenced dissent amongst posters.

Even in the commercial TalkTo forums, more than one poster is allowed to comment on a single thread.

Feedback should be considered a gift, boards.ie seems to treat it with contempt. My question is, why has this ridiculous decision regarding Feedback not been reversed?

Thanks for the question. So the Feedback forum hasn't been removed, you can find it here. However, there were some changes made to the way it operates and when making those changes the forum was temporarily closed, hence the possible confusion. But rest assured, it is open now.

Rather than Feedback being a free-for-all (as it had become) we felt it could be most useful for genuine feedback if we allowed anyone to start a new thread there but restrict the threads so only the original poster can post in the thread. Posts are now pre-moderated and must be approved by an Admin (or in some cases moved to a more appropriate forum like Help Desk or Site Development). However all threads and posts in the Feedback forum remain readable by all users.

We did this to ensure that users still had the ability to post their feedback about the site but where we weren't in a situation where Admins spent more time dealing with the tangents of threads than the original feedback.

We posted details of these changes along with some of the reasons why they were made in this post

5rtytry56

What boardsie would you like to meet in person from their postings?

frozenfrozen

what differences do you see for boards.ie in 5 years time

Gloomtastic!

Hi Sean,

I believe it takes about 10 years to get to the top in any media business. How long did it take you?

Compared to all the other brands in the Distilled SCH group, Boards.ie is probably the least commercially viable - there’s no mention of it on the Distillled Media mobile site. As a businessman how do you justify the continued financial support of Boards to your shareholders?

If you could, and you had unlimited funds, what changes would you make to Boards to make it profitable?

Are you a techie or a salesman? What do you think Tom and the other founders of Boards think of you?

Kuva

Boards.ie: Sean wrote: »

Thanks for the question. So the Feedback forum hasn't been removed, you can find it here. However, there were some changes made to the way it operates and when making those changes the forum was temporarily closed, hence the possible confusion. But rest assured, it is open now.

Rather than Feedback being a free-for-all (as it had become) we felt it could be most useful for genuine feedback if we allowed anyone to start a new thread there but restrict the threads so only the original poster can post in the thread. Posts are now pre-moderated and must be approved by an Admin (or in some cases moved to a more appropriate forum like Help Desk or Site Development). However all threads and posts in the Feedback forum remain readable by all users.

We did this to ensure that users still had the ability to post their feedback about the site but where we weren't in a situation where Admins spent more time dealing with the tangents of threads than the original feedback.

We posted details of these changes along with some of the reasons why they were made in this post

What you've done to feedback is unforgivable.

Ignoring ALL of the feedback in the big last few threads in feedback is unforgivable.

I opened the first page of a thread in feedback not long before it was nuked but actually didn't read it until maybe 5 hours later, I then hit refresh and at least 3, in my eyes, utterly harmless posts had been deleted, I don't even know myself what I want to ask from that other than to say it doesn't go unnoticed the stuff that gets deleted around here and that's before the tonnes of stuff that can't be mentioned in the first place anymore...is this your doing? To please who?

I've just come back from abroad, the state of that responsive site (how have bugs that have been reported a thousand times "IN FEEDBACK" on the touch mobile site ended up being replicated in the responsive site? It must be 7 years in the making, how has it taken so long to get to the pitiful state it is in now?

Why do boards staff leave?

What are the usage figures for the site now versus when you started?

Thats it for now.

Cookie_Monster

Boards.ie: Sean wrote: »

Thanks for the question. So the Feedback forum hasn't been removed, you can find it here. However, there were some changes made to the way it operates and when making those changes the forum was temporarily closed, hence the possible confusion. But rest assured, it is open now.

it has been gutted so much to make it unusable and unfit for purpose.
Is this going to be addressed at any point or will it continue to be ignored?

5rtytry56

Sean, what do you see as the most successful social platform right now?

Boards.ie: Sean

5rtytry56 wrote: »

What boardsie would you like to meet in person from their postings?

Without a shadow of a doubt padraiggg but only so he can introduce me to the legend that is Trent

GLaDOS

If you had unlimited funds, what changes would you make to boards?

Boards.ie: Sean

frozenfrozen wrote: »

what differences do you see for boards.ie in 5 years time

One of the interesting ways of approaching a question like this is ask yourself what would success look like for Boards 5 years from now. Thinking about that, for me success would include ... having a vibrant and growing community of passionate and active users ... using a platform that is fit for purpose, robust, stable and (where appropriate) making use of new technologies and frameworks ... where conversations continue to be topic/forum based (as opposed to many other social media platforms) ... where the company is profitable and experiencing sustained revenue growth ... where Boards is seen as a primary source of information and insight into what is happening in Ireland and what Irish people are talking about and thinking about ... and where new products and/or services are launched that leverage the unique strengths we have (an existing large and engaged user base, insight and experience into growing and managing communities and technical expertise in building high traffic, high availability web platforms).

Picking this apart a bit about what we would need to do over the next 5 years to get there and therefore what would be different in 5 years time:

- we need to get a lot better at onboarding new users when they register with Boards (for example we did an analysis of new registrations in a one month time preiod, 55% of people who went to the trouble of registering with Boards never made a single post, if we want a vibrant and growing community we need to change this)

- we need to encourage new voices to get involved in conversations; this is the only way we can ensure the long-term viability and vibrancy of Boards. This requires a whole community effort rather than just us here in the office

- we need not only to maintain the current legacy site (which let me be clear we are committed to doing) to significantly improve the current responsive site (which we are currently working on)

- the realities of the world are that we need to generate revenue in order to keep Boards running and digital advertising (like everything else) is evolving. It is no longer good enough to have a couple of ad slots on the page and just sell banner ad placements. That type of business model is dying. Advertisers now are looking at measures like the viewability of an ad (how long the ad actually appears on the screen, rather than being loaded off screen at the bottom of a long thread, for example), new formats (for example instream and outstream video) and native formats (in Boards' case things like sponsored posts and sponsored subforums). This is where the advertising spend is moving to and anyone replying solely on the old banner style ads over time will die. So whether we like it or nor we will have to adapt to these industry trends in order to stay relevant form an advertising perspective

- we need to think about what our products and services we could build to complement our core offering which is Boards. But before jumping into that, in the short term we need to address any major outstanding issues on the legacy site and the planned improvements for the responsive site

Boards.ie: Sean

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Hi Sean,

I believe it takes about 10 years to get to the top in any media business. How long did it take you?

Hi Gloomstastic! I haven't had the most traditional career path in getting to my current role with Boards. I was involved in a couple of tech companies back in the late nineties / early two thousands, then took a different route (I co-founded and ran a not-for-profit organisation that invested in high potential start-up charities and social enterprises, helping them get their ideas off the ground) and then moved to Boards just over 3 years ago (for anyone who's interested, and I'm sure that won't be many, a quick search on LinkedIn for Sean Coughlan Boards will give you a bit more detail)

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Compared to all the other brands in the Distilled SCH group, Boards.ie is probably the least commercially viable - there’s no mention of it on the Distillled Media mobile site. As a businessman how do you justify the continued financial support of Boards to your shareholders?

I know there may be some confusion out there regarding Boards and Distilled Media (technically Distilled SCH). Boards used to be part of Distilled Media but in 2015 we moved out independently of Distilled, primarily because Distilled was focusing on classified sites, of which Boards clearly was not. Distilled subsequently entered into a joint venture with DoneDeal, another classified site. That's why we are not listed on the Distilled site.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

If you could, and you had unlimited funds, what changes would you make to Boards to make it profitable?

As it turns out Boards has been profitable in both 2015 and 2016, so that's good!

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Are you a techie or a salesman? What do you think Tom and the other founders of Boards think of you?

I think that I'm a bit of both, but in both areas there are people on the team who are a lot better than me For a short while back in the late nineties I did code before moving into product management. And in all the roles I have been in since then there has always been a strong element of selling. However, we have both a very talented dev team and a very talented sales team here in Boards that are way better than anything I bring to the table. I guess what I bring is what management generally brings, an ability to understand the different sides of the business (which I do), to manage the team you have working with you, to coordinate and prioritise how the company will best utilise the resources at its disposal and to plan for the future.

As to what Tom and John and the other founders and original Boardsies think of me, I think it's best to ask them!

robyntmorton

I always thought that an employee doing an AMA here would turn into a bit of a trainwreck for people complaining about things being done in a way that they don't like, so thank you for stepping into the lions den!

As head honcho, can you hint at anything the userbase has coming its way? Obviously I'm aware that you can't give away anything solid before time for commercial reasons, but hinting at how Boards is evolving for and with the userbase, maybe?

job seeker

Hi Sean, What's the strangest private message you've received?

Also, is coke and hookers still in fashion or a is it a thing of the past?

Finally, what advice would you give someone who would love to follow in your career path?

GypsyByName

What has been your favourite AMA that you have read?

begbysback

As CEO do you have the power to rescind a yellow card?

Boards.ie: Sean

Kuva wrote: »

What you've done to feedback is unforgivable.

Ignoring ALL of the feedback in the big last few threads in feedback is unforgivable.

I opened the first page of a thread in feedback not long before it was nuked but actually didn't read it until maybe 5 hours later, I then hit refresh and at least 3, in my eyes, utterly harmless posts had been deleted, I don't even know myself what I want to ask from that other than to say it doesn't go unnoticed the stuff that gets deleted around here and that's before the tonnes of stuff that can't be mentioned in the first place anymore...is this your doing? To please who?

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

it has been gutted so much to make it unusable and unfit for purpose.
Is this going to be addressed at any point or will it continue to be ignored?

Firstly, everyone's entitled to have a viewpoint and at times it will be different to ours. And I'm not trying to argue that we're right and other people are wrong when they disagree with us about the changes we made to the Feedback forum.

What I will say is this. Some people had strong views that the old Feedback forum was not working well. Some people have strong views (Kuva and Cookie_Monster amongst them) that the new Feedback forum is not working well. So we have the well worn but true cliché that you can't please all of the people all of the time. If we left the Feedback forum as it was some people wouldn't be happy. If we change it some people won't be happy.

Lots of decisions we have to make are like this, it is rare that we have the happy task of making a decision that we know is going to be universally welcomed. So our job is to balance those differing view points, along with the views of our mods and admins, along with an analysis of the implications it will have for the site (which could include one or all of the implications it will have from a technical, community and/or commercial perspective) and make a call.

That's what we've done here. Some people think it's a bad call - that's fair enough. We try to make the right call and we do it in good faith. For sure, sometimes we get it wrong but that is inevitable, making a decision based on imperfect information means that you won't always get it right.

But I would say this. We do have a Feedback forum so anyone saying we haven't is factually incorrect. People are free to post in it and everyone is free to view those posts. We think the current setup is better than the last one but if it turns out, after having run it this way for a period of time, that it isn't working well then we will revisit it and change it if necessary. Personally, I don't think that's an unreasonable approach.

Thanks.

Boards.ie: Sean

Kuva wrote: »

Why do boards staff leave?

Like most business, there's no one overriding reason why staff leave, it's normally for a variety of reasons, and I actually think that we have very little staff turnover which I take as a positive, people like working at Boards.

But to give you a flavour, the three people to leave Boards in 2017 did so for the following reasons:

- One got headhunted by a start-up that focused solely on sports. The combination of trying out the start-up environment and getting to work solely on sports (they were genuinely sports mad) was the clincher

- One wanted to travel the world so to do an English language teaching course in Barcelona with plans to travel from there

- One was on a fixed term contract and got offered a full time, permanent role

As you can see, the reasons are both varied and understandable

Boards.ie: Sean

Kuva wrote: »

What are the usage figures for the site now versus when you started?

I started in 2014 and have usage stats from Dec 2014 to Sept 2017. Here are some of the relevant ones:




From a peak in early 2015, pageviews are holding relatively steady and there are encouraging trends in sessions and particularly new registrations

irishgrover

How difficult is it to get the balance right between commercial realities and community spirit?

I'm thinking specifically in relation to the "Talk to" forums.
For example, a very clear behavior has emerged in the Talk to forums where the pattern goes as follows..
1. A member makes a request from a "Talk to" company
2. The "Talk to" company then sends a PM to the OP, and then states publicly (via public post) that information has been given / the issue resolved.
3. The OP refutes this, and to defend themselves and their reputation shares directly or refers to the PM.
4. The tread gets closed by boards because sharing of PM's is against rules.
5. I fully understand the original concept of protecting PM's between individuals but when it is being used as a vehicle for purposely mislead, does it not concern you?

Alternatively, another example is obviously Gearbest, where a poster would get labeled a shrill and be shot on sight for even mentioning them, and then overnight after they pay to hop into bed with you, boards an gearbest are suddenly best of friends, and end result is allegedly counterfeit and potentially dangerous products being bought by unsuspecting boardsies..

I fully understand that you exist to make a profit from our existence, and hopefully provide a service in return, but is it difficult to get the balance right? How do you balance between top line and community ?

hawkelady

Have you ever been contacted by solicitors looking to sue because of a post ?? Have guards ever contacted you looking for info on a poster because of something that was posted?

Colonel Claptrap

1. The previous iteration of the Politics Cafe turned toxic fairly quickly. A lot of long-time posters shut down their accounts which was a pity.

Management of the forum looked like such a pain for the mods and admins. Are you happy with the Cafe currently? Looking back, do you think shutting down the old Cafe was the right decision?

2. What does a day in the life of the boards CEO look like? Is it as glamourous as it sounds?

3. I understand that targeting new revenue streams - such as sponsored forums - is vital to Boards future. But is there an active plan to increase the number of active posters? Would you be willing to share some stats on posting trends?

Thank you.

Why did ye ditch Vbulletin? The answer might be obvious but I know **** all about running a forum

joujoujou

Boards.ie: Sean wrote: »

I started in 2014 and have usage stats from Dec 2014 to Sept 2017. Here are some of the relevant ones:




From a peak in early 2015, pageviews are holding relatively steady and there are encouraging trends in sessions and particularly new registrations

Sadly I can't see any of the attachments you posted.

I guess they're uploaded into a section of Boards where no usual boardsie have access to.

So, if you don't mind me asking - what's average monthly data transfer to and from boards.ie servers?

irishgrover

Oh yeah, I forgot one that is so obvious and so annoying that we have almost just accepted it :-)

Q: Why is the search functionality so very very bad in this day and age

Esel

Can't see the usage stats (or a link to them) either.

Tokyo

Usage stats posted by Sean earlier, for those who currently can't view them:

begbysback

Stats in the last graph are exaggerated by CSG

Boards.ie: Sean

mike_ie wrote: »

Usage stats posted by Sean earlier, for those who currently can't view them

Thanks mike