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

Fr_Dougal

BowSideChamp wrote: »

Thread tags was the best thing about After Hours. Anyone remember them?

They haven’t gone anywhere.

GreeBo

Arghus wrote: »

You can ignore them...with your mind?

And yet they will still push other posts off page 1, despite my extraordinary powerful mind.

How is that so hard to grasp?

I don't know what else to add?



+1
Today has been a bad day for adding to my list

Zaph

GreeBo wrote: »

That answer wears a bit thin after the first 5 years or so.

Look at Virgin/Horizon/NTL

Their useless EPG has people leaving them also, because it's been rubbish for years and ignoreD.

The difference being that Virgin have the money and resources to improve things significantly and haven't, whereas Boards doesn't as a lot of the effort is expended simply keeping the site running. I'm sure the guys in the office would love nothing more than a wad of cash and a few extra developers, but they can't magic them out of thin air. And just in case you think that I'm trying to fob you off, there are technical things I'd love to see fixed/improved/developed myself with no sign of them being done in the short to medium term, so I can completely understand your frustration.

GreeBo

Zaph wrote: »

The difference being that Virgin have the money and resources to improve things significantly and haven't, whereas Boards doesn't as a lot of the effort is expended simply keeping the site running. I'm sure the guys in the office would love nothing more than a wad of cash and a few extra developers, but they can't magic them out of thin air. And just in case you think that I'm trying to fob you off, there are technical things I'd love to see fixed/improved/developed myself with no sign of them being done in the short to medium term, so I can completely understand your frustration.

How does a private company with less traffic have less money than two lads in a shed?
Especially considering the fantastic addition of the Talk To threads....

Being in the business, I'm not sure I understand what day to day work developers could be doing too keep a site running...?

Ken.

I've fixed it so that the TA,TH and WAYN threads are gone.

Zaph

GreeBo wrote: »

How does a private company with less traffic have less money than two lads in a shed?

Being in the business, I'm not sure I understand what day to day work developers could be doing too keep a site running...?

I'm not in the business so I have only a vague idea what the developers do and therefore I can't answer that I'm afraid.

the_pen_turner

GreeBo wrote: »

And yet they will still push other posts off page 1, despite my extraordinary powerful mind.

How is that so hard to grasp?

I don't know what else to add?



+1
Today has been a bad day for adding to my list

the problem is you want TA,TH , stinge,etc moved
I don't like seeing trump so want that moved
anna 80 wants abortion moved
LMB wants beautiful women moved
etc
etc
etc
etc

eventually there wont be any threads left only one off threads. those die off very fast.
you need steady flow or a forum will die. look at all the countless dead forums we have already

Fr_Dougal

Conspectus wrote: »

I've fixed it so that the TA,TH and WAYN threads are gone.

GreeBo

Zaph wrote: »

I have only a vague idea what the developers do.

And that's how we like it!

GreeBo

the_pen_turner wrote: »

the problem is you want TA,TH , stinge,etc moved
I don't like seeing trump so want that moved
anna 80 wants abortion moved
LMB wants beautiful women moved
etc
etc
etc
etc

eventually there wont be any threads left only one off threads. those die off very fast.
you need steady flow or a forum will die. look at all the countless dead forums we have already

Only the long running chat threads were mentioned AFAIK, not just random threads people didn't like.

Btw, most active forums are made up of new one off threads.

Beasty

GreeBo wrote: »

How does a private company with less traffic have less money than two lads in a shed?

Maybe you could ask these two lads to send their CVs to the office?

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

GreeBo wrote: »

Only the long running chat threads were mentioned AFAIK, not just random threads people didn't like.

Btw, most active forums are made up of new one off threads.

Here's an idea, don't click into something you don't want to read.
No interest? That's fine, partake in the threads you do like.
This forum is for everyone, not just you

GreeBo

Beasty wrote: »

Maybe you could ask these two lads to send their CVs to the office?

One of them is too busy being a crypto millionaire, the other jacked it all in I believe.

Going back further, he just floated away.

GreeBo

Adalynn Quaint Fossil wrote: »

Here's an idea, don't click into something you don't want to read.
No interest? That's fine, partake in the threads you do like.
This forum is for everyone, not just you

That argument has been refuted multiple times already.

KERSPLAT!

Still going in circles

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

GreeBo wrote: »

That argument has been refuted multiple times already.

Well then, start building your bridge and climb over it

Beasty

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Still going in circles

I've given up TBH. Going to watch a bit of cricket, and prepare myself for another 4 pages discussing "chat" when I get up in the morning...

KERSPLAT!

Adalynn Quaint Fossil wrote: »

Well then, start building your bridge and climb over it

How does that help anyone? Points were made for and against, you're just stirring shyte. Why bother ffs.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

How does that help anyone? Points were made for and against, you're just stirring shyte. Why bother ffs.

Well now f that's what you think then feel free to report my posts??

KERSPLAT!

Beasty wrote: »

I've given up TBH. Going to watch a bit of cricket, and prepare myself for another 4 pages discussing "chat" when I get up in the morning...

If you're modding the thread you could always do something about it... I'm not being a smart arse. It's been done to death at this stage.

Esel

Double the default page length?

GreeBo

Adalynn Quaint Fossil wrote: »

Well then, start building your bridge and climb over it

the_pen_turner

Esel wrote: »

Double the default page length?

I agree

the max is 40 at the moment.
surely we could have 60-80

it would really sort out some of this nonsense

GreeBo

Esel wrote: »

Double the default page length?

No use on mobile or vomit touch site.

Beasty

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

If you're modding the thread you could always do something about it... I'm not being a smart arse. It's been done to death at this stage.

I've tried to stop it going round and round at least 3 times. I have deliberately tried to avoid being heavy handed in this thread, particularly as I have been contributing significantly to it (although I have dropped from pole position to a distant 3rd in the posting stakes in this thread over the past 48 hours). If certain posters want to continue with this incessant repetition of their points then so be it. I already have my 16 takeaways plus another from today. When the thread returns to constructive feedback I'll start jotting them down again. In the meantime, it's as you were....

hatrickpatrick

Beasty wrote: »

I've tried to stop it going round and round at least 3 times. I have deliberately tried to avoid being heavy handed in this thread, particularly as I have been contributing significantly to it (although I have dropped from pole position to a distant 3rd in the posting stakes in this thread over the past 48 hours). If certain posters want to continue with this incessant repetition of their points then so be it. I already have my 16 takeaways plus another from today. When the thread returns to constructive feedback I'll start jotting them down again. In the meantime, it's as you were....

This is a fairly big improvement and departure for Boards - usually threads which are considered to be "going in circles" or "run their course" are locked by (micro)management, even if people are still perfectly happy to post in them and others are perfectly free not to participate if they don't want to. :pac:

KyussB

Mountainsandh wrote: »

The idea of a setting to hide some threads is not a bad one isn't it ? Just like you can follow or unfollow, or ignore a user, you could hide a thread ?
That way whoever is bothered by chat threads could remove them as an individual setting.

Maybe that completely un-achievable technically ?

Oh it's very much achievable technically - it just isn't something the site devs are actually going to do, because they have been allowed to use complexity as an excuse, for indefinitely delaying these kinds of site improvements - yet ploughing tons of effort into Talk To and a completely dead 'responsive' site, over the years, hasn't been a problem...

Someone with authority, is going to have to commit, and make a push to get this started Right. Now. for it to actually happen...Otherwise, it will just be added to a lengthy 'todo' list and backlogged, like most constructive suggestions from Feedback threads.

So if people want to see this actually happen, it's worth being a bit vocal and cynical about the sites willingness to actually implement this - because if you play nice and just trust that they'll get around to it, then it won't happen. Make the effort - push for it - and push for proof/accountability that it's actually being worked on.

If the admins want a takehome from this: Pick 1 Site Dev task at a time, voted on by the community or moderator team, for a dev to put 'x' amount of work hours in on per week (even just 2-4 hours is grand), for however long it takes (fine if it takes ages) - and have them keep the community informed of how it's going, for accountability.

If we have something as modest as that, I'm sure Boards will have a 'Hide Thread' feature by 2019.

If the site owners can't even meet that kind of meagre priority, they just show they don't care much about the moderator teams or community - that amount of time is not much to ask for.

Omackeral

the_pen_turner wrote: »

the problem is you want TA,TH , stinge,etc moved
I don't like seeing trump so want that moved
anna 80 wants abortion moved
LMB wants beautiful women moved
etc
etc
etc
etc

eventually there wont be any threads left only one off threads. those die off very fast.
you need steady flow or a forum will die. look at all the countless dead forums we have already

1 Clean up redundant stickies into one all-encompassing Mega sticky (or AH Bible) with links to Charter, Legendary Threads,Help Desk etc

2 How many of these chatty threads are there? Like 3 or something? The merging of the stickies makes way for these. No front page real estate lost.

3 Maybe have a "chat welcome" header in the title of one (or all of) the chatty threads. At least people will know then.

4 Just click on Page 2 of After Hours. It doesn't take all that much effort. You've come into AH, it's not a giant step to go to on a page.

All the talk of hiding threads and making this that or those invisible. We're all adults that have somehow made it here, just click on another page!

I'm not mad on the chat in those threads but you can dip in and out. It's not difficult. It's actually refreshing to return to one after a while and splurge on one. I think most of these issues require maybe a tiny bit of tweaking, not much technological input and a tiny bit of effort/will power/compromise from people.

GreeBo

It does feel a bit like old-boards is the loss leader to get numbers to show to the people paying for a TalkTo forum.

It wouldn't surprise me if the touch site was developed specially for showcasing the TalkTo stuff in a jazzed up fashion to bump up the price.