The slow death of forums *see OP for Admin warning and update 28/02/18*

TheAnalyst_

I find it incredible that when web traffic is consistently increasing along with participation rates that forums like boards are suffering huge falls in visitors.


CSO
Households with access to the internet
% of households
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
72 78 81 82 82 85 87 89

We've seen a 44% fall in posts on boards since 2011. It looks to be a terminal decline at this stage so I suppose we can enjoy the next few years before it gets shut down for good. Or is it possible that something can be done to turn it around?

boards total posts per year
2017 3,123,577
2016 3,348,994
2015 4,048,985
2014 4,748,112
2013 4,935,597
2012 5,308,684
2011 5,618,076
2010 5,330,972
2009 4,610,143

EDIT: Admin warning added 01/01/18

Beasty wrote: »

Just a word of warning here. Points have been made from both sides about the most recent closure in AH. I do not think there is anything more to say on that example, so let's leave it there.

If anyone thinks they have anything new to add on this particular point, please PM me

Thanks

Update 16/01/18
Please see post 1796 for Admin update and proposals to take some of these suggestions forward

Update 28/02/18
Please see post 2156 for Admin update following re-opening of thread

Fann Linn

Probably down to people having more things to do elsewhere.
Like work.
Not coincidental that the highest number of posts coincide possibly with the height of the recession.

begbysback

Forumkiller lol - should receive an amnesty imo

Jobs OXO

IBTL

Harry Palmr

Soon AH will consist of nothing but threads about how no one is on boards.

The_Valeyard

I like to think that the werewolf forum has done its part keeping posts up.

Shenshen

Forums have mods and certain minimum requirements - things like no text speak, no personal attacks on posters, a set of banned curse/swearwords and enforcing general basic levels of civility. You know, all those "PC" things that people already have to put up with in real life for fear of getting decked otherwise, but the likes of Twitter and Facebook have no problem with whatsoever.

I think what we're seeing is that there are far fewer people than we ever thought interested in any real form of discussion or exchange of ideas, and that there are actually untold numbers that just want to rant, bully, and generally be the kinds of b*stards they don't dare to be in real life. And they found the perfect places to live out their deepest, darkest fantasies.

Fr_Dougal

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Soon AH will consist of nothing but threads about how no one is on boards.

Nah, it will be full of ‘u ok hun xxx’ posts.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Fann Linn wrote: »

Probably down to people having more things to do elsewhere.
Like work.
Not coincidental that the highest number of posts coincide possibly with the height of the recession.

Yeah the recovery really stopped people arsing around on the internet. Except on all those other platforms which have boomed in the 2010s.

Irish Guitarist

There are too many things you can't say on forums like Boards. You just can't discuss certain things and are supposed to agree with whatever the current status quo or you'll be banned. If someone starts a thread about, say, transsexuals there's no point in even replying unless you want to talk about how great transsexualism is. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but what's the point in a discussion forum with threads where you're supposed to agree with everyone else rather than actually have a discussion? And there's no telling what will be a no go area of discussion next.

If I sign in here and see the front page is full of threads on transsexualism and abortion I usually sign back out again because there's just no point in replying to any of them.

TallGlass

More and more I find myself going to post, writing a post out and then going 'naaahhh' not worth the effort and cancel it.

The Pheasant2

The least they could do is sort out the bloody search function

begbysback

TallGlass wrote: »

More and more I find myself going to post, writing a post out and then going 'naaahhh' not worth the effort and cancel it.

Didn't happen this time though

Buford T. Justice XIX

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Nah, it will be full of ‘u ok hun xxx’ posts.

u ok hun? xxx









:P

tomwaterford

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

I find it incredible that when web traffic is consistently increasing along with participation rates that forums like boards are suffering huge falls in visitors.


CSO
Households with access to the internet
% of households
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
72 78 81 82 82 85 87 89

We've seen a 44% fall in posts on boards since 2011. It looks to be a terminal decline at this stage so I suppose we can enjoy the next few years before it gets shut down for good. Or is it possible that something can be done to turn it around?

boards total posts per year
2017 3,123,577
2016 3,348,994
2015 4,048,985
2014 4,748,112
2013 4,935,597
2012 5,308,684
2011 5,618,076
2010 5,330,972
2009 4,610,143

Boys. .I'm a pure nerd....where do ye get the figures off

Remember seeing that the 3rd level collages one have fallen off a cliff

TheAnalyst_

Legacy site. Follow a forum. Search field blank in advanced search and apply a date range. Then on the left select all forums instead of the followed forum.

I've probably made it over complicated but that works.

DeanAustin

Shenshen wrote: »

Forums have mods and certain minimum requirements - things like no text speak, no personal attacks on posters, a set of banned curse/swearwords and enforcing general basic levels of civility. You know, all those "PC" things that people already have to put up with in real life for fear of getting decked otherwise, but the likes of Twitter and Facebook have no problem with whatsoever.

I think what we're seeing is that there are far fewer people than we ever thought interested in any real form of discussion or exchange of ideas, and that there are actually untold numbers that just want to rant, bully, and generally be the kinds of b*stards they don't dare to be in real life. And they found the perfect places to live out their deepest, darkest fantasies.

I think that's a great point. No matter how bizarre or out-there your opinion is, there is undoubtedly hundreds or thousands of people who share it and some sites give you access to those people and you can share those opinions unchallenged.

Even at a less sinister level, the amount of misinformed **** I see posted and re-enforced by others on places like Facebook scares me. It just becomes an echo chamber and you end up getting whatever news suits your world view. It's extremely dangerous in my opinion.

BowSideChamp

Boards.ie is went downhill when they revised the layout. Total muck. Add to that over the top PC moderation & the data breach in 2010.

After hours is now just full of **** threads just filling up space - what are you wearing, what are you eating etc.

evolving_doors

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Soon AH will consist of nothing but threads about how no one is on boards.

Mainly from low count re-regs with a chip on their shoulder :rolleyes:

Harry Palmr

The boards redesign as mentioned must have done some damage, I never switched and will be using the legacy vbulletin software until it dies.

has anyone looked at the wider demographics? Ireland was always famous for it's youthful population, presumably that cohort is now well into it's 30s and just has other things to do.

other sites like reddit allow for uncensored discussion (good and bad points to that) and also more specific topics by way of the subreddits.
more people have discovered that and other such sites.
things like the journal allow you to comment on stories below the actual news article which has also eaten away at places like boards.

Harry Palmr

glasso wrote: »

other sites like reddit allow for uncensored discussion (good and bad points to that) and also more specific topics by way of the subreddits.
more people have discovered that and other such sites.
things like the journal allow you to comment on stories below the actual news article which has also eaten away at places like boards.

Any given post on that site is beaten by a brick when their respective IQs are measured.

tomwaterford

Though alot of boards may been from swallowing up smaller forums which folded in tge recession like afr and premierview for just two gaa forum examples??

And people realised reddit is better for general use (but I do find gaa forum good here!)

Alter-Ego

I used to post on Boards quite frequently up until a few years ago.

After a few incidents of genuinely interesting discussion being shut down by the ridiculous levels of moderation here, and the growth of sites like Reddit, I just started visiting less and less. I stopped posting regularly because I never knew what was a bannable opinion to have from forum to forum, such is the inconsistency, so I removed boards from my bookmarks bar, and only view/contribute to forums on certain topics occasionally.

The Reddit structure of up/down voting lends it self much better to open discussion than the traditional forum approach of appointing members as enforcers, which boards has done to it's detriment. Granted, certain subreddits can descend into hivemind hell, but overall it's a better system than manual moderation.

5rtytry56

In the last 2 years especially, a type of boards poster has become prominent where they start a thread on some topic, or post some 'assertion' where they have'nt a leg to stand on. And they never change their behaviour. They still receive thanks for the posts, and other posters, who sometimes have just joined up funnily enough come out to stand up for them.

Stoner

A decent app would help

Beasty

A lot of people had a lot more time on their hands back in 2009. Many of them have found gainful employment since then and probably have a lot less spare time to spend on sites like this. I'm not saying that's the only reason, but in my view it's a significant contributor

Beasty

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

boards total posts per year
2017 3,123,577

That's a more than 50% increase on 2007 when there were just over 2m posts....

Arghus

Said all I had say really about the issue in the thread about it that was uncermoniously locked a few days back.

At the risk of sounding like one of the tinfoil hat brigade, that was the most boards thing I'd ever seen.

Harry Palmr

Beasty wrote: »

That's a more than 50% increase on 2007 when there were just over 2m posts....

and what's the smart phone population growth since 2007 I wonder?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

dav3

Does anybody really care about the number of post counts? Surely quality over quantity is better.

boards.ie continues to stay in the top 20/30 most popular websites in Ireland, it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Although it appears lately that a few people who had their feelings hurt by mods are trying to tell anyone who'll listen that the site is dead.

Mickeroo

Fann Linn wrote: »

Probably down to people having more things to do elsewhere.
Like work.
Not coincidental that the highest number of posts coincide possibly with the height of the recession.

Ironically the site is at its busiest by far during office work hours on weekdays.

Beasty

Mickeroo wrote: »

Ironically the site is at its busiest by far during office work hours on weekdays.

That's probably always been the case, except, of course, for some of the Sports forums that liven up over the weekend

Beasty

Harry Palmr wrote: »

and what's the smart phone population growth since 2007 I wonder?

I would hazard a guess at more than 50%, particularly as the iPhone was only launched in the middle of 2007:)

Arghus

dav3 wrote: »

Does anybody really care about the number of post counts? Surely quality over quantity is better.

boards.ie continues to stay in the top 20/30 most popular websites in Ireland, it won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Although it appears lately that a few people who had their feelings hurt by mods are trying to tell anyone who'll listen that the site is dead.

Quality and quantity are both down.

traveller0101

Traditional forums don't scale well. It's hard to get information in a 50 page thread with a mod note on post #429

Boards has a number of flaws that stop it growing:
* traditional online forum format (this is changing/will be changed)
* notification system
* threads don't become viral in the same way a lovindublin post can become viral on fb
* mods and censorship. it's really easy to be banned here which is a massive problem for growth.

tayto lover

Some of the mods leave a lot to be desired though insofar as there's no two of them the same. A bit like GAA refs.

Mountainsandh

dav3 wrote: »

Although it appears lately that a few people who had their feelings hurt by mods are trying to tell anyone who'll listen that the site is dead.

I don't know about that Dav.
I've hardly ever had any trouble with Mods, and yet I feel the restrictions and self-censure, and it spoils the fun and dampens my interest.

There isn't much to refresh the front page for these days either, so I just go off and do something else.

I'm another one of these posters who would write a post and delete instead of submitting it. Not worth the hassle if a thread is going to be locked soon, or the more outspoken I might agree or disagree with are going to be gagged shortly.

recyclebin

Was there only 450,024 posts in 2003!!!

https://www.boards.ie/search/submit/?date_from=01-01-2003&date_to=31-12-2003&sort=best&page=1&query=%2A%3A%2A

This then jumped to 1,313,282 in 2005.

https://www.boards.ie/search/submit/?date_from=01-01-2005&date_to=31-12-2005&sort=best&page=1&query=%2A%3A%2A

How Soon Is Now

I find I can dive into reddit and do what I want and never see same person twice or keep coming across same issues.

This suits me a lot more in general but I do like the smaller more local approach on here for certain things.

My main issue with here is a lot of the forums are cliquey and it irritate s ****e out of me.

I don't post in After hours as much anymore but when I did I noticed it a lot. In the soccer forum for example though there's a few people even in section of the team I support that I'd love to snack the head off because there pompous ****s who think there better then everyone else.

So ya I love boards for its sometimes more down to earth approach but ultimately I spend my Internet time on reddit!

Fr_Dougal

Beasty wrote: »

A lot of people had a lot more time on their hands back in 2009. Many of them have found gainful employment since then and probably have a lot less spare time to spend on sites like this. I'm not saying that's the only reason, but in my view it's a significant contributor

I disagree.

Look at all the education fora, they’re dying too. Stats were posted on the other thread(which was ‘temporaryly’ closed and never reopened and no reason whatsoever given).

You would expect students to be constant posters as employment isn’t really a factor, but nope. They’ve stopped posting too.

Boards doesn’t know what it wants to be, and The Office ™️ are ignoring posters who have genuine concerns, thus alienating their life blood. Look at the Feedback forum for example. It’s fingers in the ears and ‘la la la la la we’re AWESOME’.

TheAnalyst_

dav3 wrote: »

Does anybody really care about the number of post counts? .

Count is everything as it tells you the level of activity and engagement. In a community based discussion forum that is what matters. If the count goes too far down then people will stop visiting altogether and the quality will fall through the floor.

If nothing changes then this forum will a zombie in 4 years. I don't really care about the business side of boards but its a resource I would hate to see disappear.

The 3rd level forums are already in zombie mode and they should be the lifeblood for new users.

Never Say Never Again

It was embarrassing the way this site banned Discussion on graham dwyer even after he was found guilty

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I don't know about that Dav.
I've hardly ever had any trouble with Mods, and yet I feel the restrictions and self-censure, and it spoils the fun and dampens my interest.

There isn't much to refresh the front page for these days either, so I just go off and do something else.

I'm another one of these posters who would write a post and delete instead of submitting it. Not worth the hassle if a thread is going to be locked soon, or the more outspoken I might agree or disagree with are going to be gagged shortly.

Same as, never had a run in with mods and some of the criticism of moderation in weird, but still see the effects of it and it's negatively impacting my experience.

On the front page, there are some forums that seem very active, farming and soccer spring to mind, but they're rather specialist ones which I don't happen to be interested in.

I do very very frequently read and post in specialist subreddits, there's not the userbase for them here on boards. What I've generally used boards for is shooting the shít about broader topics, and the userbase isn't big enough to support an enjoyable experience on that front here now either. I'm here long enough that I can see a thread title in AH, politics café, personal issues, the ladies' lounge or whatever, see the OP and last poster and pretty much get the broad strokes of the thread in my head just from that (edit: and I'm sure plenty posters have the same reaction to seeing my username pop up). Threads are boring and predictable, there are users who contribute a huge amount of quantity to the forums but once you've read 12 of their posts it's just variations on a theme and they just end up clogging up threads with huuuuuuuuuuuge long posts that I have to scroll past.

dinorebel

TallGlass wrote: »

More and more I find myself going to post, writing a post out and then going 'naaahhh' not worth the effort and cancel it.

I'm the sa

badabing106

Someone needs to headhunt Mike65 and get him back on board

Fr_Dougal

badabing106 wrote: »

Someone needs to headhunt Mike65 and get him back on board

Someone needs to engage with the re-regs.

Facebook groups & twitter have meant that forums are for old folk (25/30+)

It's independent of the positives that boards.ie offers.

dudara

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Someone needs to engage with the re-regs.

We have re-regs who register with abusive names, racist names and downright nasty names. We will never engage with those.

We have re-regs who try to blackmail Boards users, threaten them with exposure, or exposure to their employers. We will not engage with those. We need to protect our regular users.

We have re-regs who register to share racist or other bigoted views. We will not engage with those. Boards is not the platform for their views.

Any one who has been banned has Prison open to them to appeal, to work with mods and Admins. Anyone who engages openly with us will be listened to.

TheRiverman

Everyone is entitled to their opinion,unfortunately not always here on Boards