Future of boards.ie lack of young blood

Fr_Dougal

riffmongous wrote: »

Some shocking evidence of the fall off in young people here on Boards

DCU forum
2009 -8500
2011 -5800
2013 -1500
2015 -1000
2016 -100

NUIM
2009 -11700
2011 -12000
2013 -6800
2015 -1500
2017 -90

UCD
2009 -16500
2011 -13600
2013 -6000
2015 -1500
2017- 496

Wow...fall off a cliff...

riffmongous

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Wow...fall off a cliff...

Yeah I was wondering if Boards was banned in unis or something , but sure everyone has a phone nowadays, back in the old days we had to go the computer room

beauf

o1s1n wrote: »

Boards.ie was completely ruined when the menu system was changed to the current one.

Previously folks would browse random forums as they were all immediately available in the dropdowns at the top of the page. You'd just hover your mouse and you'd see loads of places to discuss different things.

Now you've got four drop downs only, two of which arent even dedicated to discussion forums. There are way too many clicks to get to anything of substance.

Not only has this killed random sifting through forums (and as a result, traffic in a lot of them is at zero), I even find it difficult sometimes to find the forums I'm looking for.

This was the point I was making earlier. For me there was a night and difference in activity on may of the forums I used after this.

Even now when I search for information on something the results are mainly from before the re-design.

Buford T. Justice XIX

beauf wrote: »

This was the point I was making earlier. For me there was a night and difference in activity on may of the forums I used after this.

Even now when I search for information on something the results are mainly from before the re-design.

Do you not follow forums and click on the 'My forums' tab at the top right of the screen?

Lists all your forums and shows which have new posts, easy peasy.

_Kaiser_

For me, there's several "milestone" events that stand out as decisions that were completely wrong if the powers that be actually want to have a Boards.ie in the future

- Killing off the last incarnation of the Politics Cafe and replacing it with the castrated sanitised version that is now supposedly filling the gap rather than just dealing with the handful of truly problem posters and ignoring the complaints from the "grown up" Politics regulars who weren't happy with the traffic the Cafe was getting

- Similarly neutering Feedback. Again rather than deal with the issues and take on-board the huge numbers of genuinely constructive posts made by people, let's just ignore it by denying the platform in the first place

- In general I don't have many issues with Moderation, but there are a few forums where some individual Mods just can't be objective and really take "their" kingdoms far too seriously
A far bigger issue is the shutting down of high-traffic/current-event threads because posts don't fit with the "agreed" narrative (eg: any thread on the migration issue)

I've been here a long time, and most likely I'll still come here until the site goes offline, but less and less frequently. As it is I am spending more time on Reddit of late (something I previously just couldn't "get" and couldn't be arsed to.. but events like the above gave me the incentive to do something about it)

To be honest I'm genuinely surprised this thread is still going as they're normally locked long before they get this far

Kuva

beauf wrote: »

This was the point I was making earlier. For me there was a night and difference in activity on may of the forums I used after this.

Even now when I search for information on something the results are mainly from before the re-design.

Ah thats only temporary.

_Kaiser_

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Do you not follow forums and click on the 'My forums' tab at the top right of the screen?

Lists all your forums and shows which have new posts, easy peasy.

Yes (and I do it myself ) but that's not the point... with everything needlessly hidden away in the "temporary" (as I recall) menu, there are dozens of forums that most people probably don't even realise are there.

beauf

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Do you not follow forums and click on the 'My forums' tab at the top right of the screen?

Lists all your forums and shows which have new posts, easy peasy.

...What new posts?....:D

_Kaiser_

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

All these chat threads in forums are killing the forums too. What are you eating, where are you, annoying things etc. Turning forums into half a dozen cliquey chatty threads.

That's a big issue on one of the other popular forums here with new posters being made completely unwelcome by the "regulars". I've pointed it out a few times and to be fair one of the Mods PM'd me back only recently saying that they were trying to address it, but it's an uphill struggle.

Ironically it's probably tolerated to encourage traffic, but ends up doing the complete opposite. Boards is just not Twitter/Facebook/Reddit and the reasons people come here are not the same as those they go to those other sites for.

jeonahr

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Do you not follow forums and click on the 'My forums' tab at the top right of the screen?

Lists all your forums and shows which have new posts, easy peasy.

What if they're looking for information? I've encountered this myself when trying to find a forum on something and the latest forum I'd find would be from 5/6 years ago. The search engine isn't very good in my opinion.

tomwaterford

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

That's a big issue on one of the other popular forums here with new posters being made completely unwelcome by the "regulars". I've pointed it out a few times and to be fair one of the Mods PM'd me back only recently saying that they were trying to address it, but it's an uphill struggle.

Ironically it's probably tolerated to encourage traffic, but ends up doing the complete opposite. Boards is just not Twitter/Facebook/Reddit and the reasons people come here are not the same as those they go to those other sites for.

This is true most definitely....like never went to effort of pm anyone to complain (like it's not worth getting bothered over)



But did have at least one good friend (only found out I knew irl via PM) who used post very exact and good technical and helpful info and any questions/opinion he voiced/asked were just flat out ignored after a few weeks he just didn't bother anymore


(For clarity a regular could come in and ask similar question/voice similar opioions and they'd get feedback/discussion).....I think it's same forum were talking about

_Kaiser_

jeonahr wrote: »

What if they're looking for information? I've encountered this myself when trying to find a forum on something and the latest forum I'd find would be from 5/6 years ago. The search engine isn't very good in my opinion.

That's the other issue.. several key parts of the core functionality (like Search and a wholly committed to Touch version) is unfinished or was never fixed (like the aforementioned "temporary" menu on the Legacy site) which doesn't help navigation or use, and ultimately only puts people off even more.

_Kaiser_

tomwaterford wrote: »

This is true most definitely....like never went to effort of pm anyone to complain (like it's not worth getting bothered over)



But did have at least one good friend (only found out I knew irl via PM) who used post very exact and good technical and helpful info and any questions/opinion he voiced/asked were just flat out ignored after a few weeks he just didn't bother anymore

What I find in the forum I referred to is a new poster will ask a genuine question and is jumped on by the regulars for their ignorance or belittled with post after post of "witty" banter between themselves.

It's incredibly off-putting.. even for someone here years!

tomwaterford

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

What I find in the forum I referred to is a new poster will ask a genuine question and is jumped on by the regulars for their ignorance or belittled with post after post of "witty" banter between themselves.

It's incredibly off-putting.. even for someone here years!

90% sure we're talking about same forum now

Buford T. Justice XIX

tomwaterford wrote: »

This is true most definitely....like never went to effort of pm anyone to complain (like it's not worth getting bothered over)



But did have at least one good friend (only found out I knew irl via PM) who used post very exact and good technical and helpful info and any questions/opinion he voiced/asked were just flat out ignored after a few weeks he just didn't bother anymore


(For clarity a regular could come in and ask similar question/voice similar opioions and they'd get feedback/discussion).....I think it's same forum were talking about

That's a big problem across the site and across all sites, I think. I joined a forum in the last few months and posted regularly and it's only now that I'm accepted as being there for the long term and getting replies. I see something similar in F&F and try to answer new posters threads where possible as new posters tend to be ignored by most, I think.

It's not a Boards problem, it's a widespread problem across all sites, I think.

_Kaiser_

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

That's a big problem across the site and across all sites, I think. I joined a forum in the last few months and posted regularly and it's only now that I'm accepted as being there for the long term and getting replies. I see something similar in F&F and try to answer new posters threads where possible as new posters tend to be ignored by most, I think.

It's not a Boards problem, it's a widespread problem across all sites, I think.

I don't know.. the forum I'm talking about naturally attracts a lot of people who haven't a clue about the topic but are looking for help from the most obvious source.

(I can name it if you like but I'm trying to be fair to the Mods)

Anyway, almost without fail will some smart-ass regular jump in with a completely unhelpful and insulting post, followed shortly thereafter by more from their "friends" and it deteriorates from there.

It's going on for years now and it's largely in part to the numerous chat threads on the forum in question coupled with some very hands-off/odd moderation from several of the Mods.

beauf

There is a post count snobbery on forums. People often will ignore a low count poster.

Thats true in real life though the new guy syndrome.

keith_sixteen

Not sure what's happening with boards but it's definitely not the enjoyable, make you laugh out loud, learn something new experience it used to be.

The Rugby forum in particular has gone to the dogs. The main Ireland team talk thread was closed for review for almost the whole month of December. There were a couple of challenging posters, but nothing that could not be sorted out with a bit of common sense moderation.

Instead, one of the regulars in there opened up a couple of threads mocking the posters. Absolute cringe. No explanation when the Ireland thread was suddenly re-opened.

Tom Mann Centuria

It's not hard for a mod to remember all his regular posters**, all mods should learn their regulars names to create a friendly atmosphere *




*If you're on mobile I mod Rugby League


**and have about 4 (albeit excellent) regular posters :pac: Early happy New Year!

Don Kiddick

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

It's not hard for a mod to remember all his regular posters**, all mods should learn their regulars names to create a friendly atmosphere *




*If you're on mobile I mod Rugby League


**and have about 4 (albeit excellent) regular posters :pac: Early happy New Year!

"*** Not real rugby ***

Tom Mann Centuria

Don Kiddick wrote: »

"*** Not real rugby ***

:P

beauf

Some forums the moderate posters are completely swamped by very fanatical posters, who are allowed to post all sorts of crud, without sanction. Its a bit odd. I've avoided some forums because of that. I never understood how inconsistent across forums that is.

skinny90

Think some promotion of beginner forums should be brought in with separate rules to avoid situations where regulars are just not helpful....forums like photography would be ideal to try this out. From experience asking questions about advice for cameras and accessories for entry level devices and cropped lens cameras felt like I was insulting members for their expertise

Ubbquittious

I went into the a certain forum recently and it just has a couple of regulars who are qualified tradesmen with an anti-"DIY Warrior" agenda and a heavy handed mod who started deleting my posts when I took the piss out of the way certain jobs require a member of a closed shop trader's guild by law.

Id say some of the regulars in there are just hoping they'll get a few jobs through posting and fearmongering.

One time I also had someone fearmongering that changing the timing belt in my car was especially not a DIY job on this model car but I didnt take any notice and changed the thing anyway without much bother. Then you have all these fecking clowns who pull out all sort of excerpts from the statute books lest you make any progress with anything. Im thinking these guys just really want you to give them the job or are really lazy themselves and can't stand to see someone else getting something done.

Hotblack Desiato

beauf wrote: »

There is a post count snobbery on forums. People often will ignore a low count poster.

Thats true in real life though the new guy syndrome.

It's no wonder when you look at the amount of complete and utter scutter posted by serial re-reggers.

They inevitably get stomped on and then, just as inevitably, come back...

Ubbquittious

skinny90 wrote: »

Think some promotion of beginner forums should be brought in with separate rules to avoid situations where regulars are just not helpful....forums like photography would be ideal to try this out. From experience asking questions about advice for cameras and accessories for entry level devices and cropped lens cameras felt like I was insulting members for their expertise

I used to post in a photography forum on a Canadian site and there was a regular clique who would take the piss out of every newbs' posts and one of the regulars could post a blurry picture of some cats pawprints and the regs would be all over it. Twas almost a competition for them to come up with the most putrid criticism of anything a newb would post

Hotblack Desiato

I don't get the outcry over having to request access to Politics Cafe. Soccer is the same (and for pretty much the same reasons) and it's not a problem there. When they relaxed the rules during World Cup / Euros it went to shit with trolling and low post count re-reggers.

Muahahaha

beauf wrote: »

There is a post count snobbery on forums. People often will ignore a low count poster.

Thats true in real life though the new guy syndrome.

There is definitely something in this. Personally most of the time Im not bothered with peoples post counts. But what does grind my gears is when a brand new reg comes into a forum asking a question that has been done to death. A simple search would have sufficed to get their answer. Plus it is the equivalent of rocking up and taking from a community before you yourself have even contributed. IIRC politics.ie dont allow new regs to start threads until they have 40 or 50 posts to their name. I think its a good rule as it means trolls and re-regs are cut off and it means regular posters are no longer going :rolleyes: at the same question being asked for the 100th time.

skinny90

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I used to post in a photography forum on a Canadian site and there was a regular clique who would take the piss out of every newbs' posts and one of the regulars could post a blurry picture of some cats pawprints and the regs would be all over it. Twas almost a competition for them to come up with the most putrid criticism of anything a newb would post

In my case, maybe 3/20 responses were helpful. The issue is the photography forum is populated by guys and gals who are passionate in what they do and for some it, may be their full time profession. So I get the feedback received but I have to start somewhere. I too need to realise that it’s an expensive investment to go full frame so I need to be fully convinced to invest. But for the likes of myself who has an interest in this and would like to develope slowly into the higher end of equipment where do I start on boards.ie? Maybe having a sub forum might cater towards my needs.

This would be adaptable for other forums too

Noveight

Muahahaha wrote: »

Plus it is the equivalent of rocking up and taking from a community before you yourself have even contributed.

That's often the case on the Leaving Certificate forum. Seems like people register, have their question answered and then see nothing else worth hanging around for.