Goodbye 2017, hello 2018

Boards.ie: Niamh

The holidays can be tough for some people. You can get help and support from several places which you will find listed here.

2017 hasn't been a bad year in all for Boards. As with any year, there have been highs and lows and much change. A number of new forums have opened, some old forums have closed or been merged and the office team has changed slightly. Three new people joined us during the year; Carly was working on the sales team but has since left to go travelling and to teach English, David is working his magic on the tech team and Ademir is working in design. Our head of sales, Matt, moved off to pastures new and we're hoping to replace him in 2018. I couldn't even begin to count how many changes we've had with the mods, cmods and admin teams but there have been many and anyone who takes on these voluntary roles is very much appreciated.

Mark firmly got his feet under the table here :pac: and has been doing stellar work in keeping the community up to date with all changes and tech issues as well as some great user support, newsletters and the What's On weekly compendiums. He was also promoted to the title of Community Manager in October which is well deserved. Well done, Mark!

Everyone deserves some time off so please be patient over the next week or two as mods, cmods and admin (and ourselves) also take some time away to spend our time with friends, family, pets, maybe Netflix and might not get back to things as quickly as we normally would.

However myself and Mark will be checking in on things sporadically over the next week and a bit for anything urgent. Anything non-urgent will have to wait until we return to the office on 2nd January. We'll be back to normal working hours then, Monday - Friday 9.00am to 5.30pm.

We plan to have some Boards stats about 2017 to share with you in January, some fun ones and some interesting and Mark is working on a rundown of some of the most popular threads from throughout the year which will be great to look back on too. I'm putting my money on a Storm Ophelia thread in the Weather forum making an appearance in the top 5!

Thanks everyone for your brilliant posts, your kindness and helpfulness to fellow members and your support throughout the year - let's have lots more of it in 2018

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate and enjoy the break if you'll be lucky enough to have one,

All the best,
Niamh, Mark and all of the Boards.ie team.

Boards.ie: Niamh

We recognise that this is not a good time of year for everyone and for some people it is the worst time of year.

If you feel you need to talk to someone, here are some helpful numbers and websites of people you can contact:

Samaritans or free call number 116 123

Aware (supporting depression) 1800 80 48 48 daily 10am – 10pm

Turn2Me.org No phoneline but website might be of help.

Parentline Lo Call 1890 927277 or 01 8733500

Childline 1800 66 66 66 or Text Talk to 50101

Teenline 1800 833 634 (8pm-11pm) or Free Text ‘TEEN’ to 50015

Society of St. Vincent de Paul 01 8386990 - you will find the numbers for individual area offices on the site linked.

Fr Peter McVerry Trust

Simon Community

Focus Ireland

HOMELESS HELPLINE at 1800 707 707 (Dublin only, CentralPlacement Office)

You can also find more helpful sites and numbers in this sticky in After Hours and this sticky in Personal Issues. Take care.