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

Dj Tom

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

And you on about lack of sex from your partner. You’re a winner alright.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

He's just jealous.

Anyway he has averaged 24 posts a day to your 8 and my 5, so his point is moot.

antodeco

I'm now in my 18th year on boards! Just cause people don't post, doesn't mean the site isint being used! I browse 10x times more than I post.

I'm hoping boards offer some cool thing for 20 years with of posting service! (Even every 5 years would be nice!)

Buford T. Justice XIX

Dj Tom wrote: »

Well said, big post count tiny penis.

Mod note:Settle down! There's no need for the insults.

Thanks in advance,

Buford T. Justice

Surreptitious

Dj Tom wrote: »

And you on about lack of sex from your partner. You’re a winner alright.

I know who this is.

DrumSteve

antodeco wrote: »

I'm now in my 18th year on boards! Just cause people don't post, doesn't mean the site isint being used! I browse 10x times more than I post.

I'm hoping boards offer some cool thing for 20 years with of posting service! (Even every 5 years would be nice!)

i feel the same, been here a while and a lot of the time i cant be bothered replying to threads because they descend into the same crap all the time. easier just to browse.

Stheno

Surreptitious wrote: »

I know who this is.

Report it so

Vladimir Poontang

Tell me how wrote: »

You've deduced a lot in your time here. All two months of it.

Oooh someone is a bit touchy.

Vladimir Poontang

antodeco wrote: »

I'm hoping boards offer some cool thing for 20 years with of posting service!

You'll probably get banned.

Surreptitious

Stheno wrote: »

Report it so

It's sorted.

hatrickpatrick

The cycle of these issues on Boards has always been, ideological moderation reaches a crescendo, users revolt, admins / mods agree to look in to it, everything calms down for a while, ideological moderation starts to creep back in, repeat.

I'd love to say I have faith in this time being different, but we've been here numerous times before in my experience of Boards, and every time, IMO, the steps which are taken serve only to evade doing what would easily solve most user complaints (allowing irreverent Irish people to be irreverent on an Irish forum, and allowing right wing opinion without micromanagement) - closing Feedback, neutering the cafe, etc.

I said it earlier in this thread, but it's pretty clear that those in charge have an idea or an opinion as to what Boards' culture should be like, and they refuse to allow the forum to blossom into anything that isn't what they want it to be. Because that clashes with what a huge number of users (and in my view, your average Irish person) would want it to be, these conflicts persist and the forum declines over time.

It's just my opinion obviously - I hope I'm wrong. I'd love it if things changed, but I doubt they will. Threads about controversial topics will continue to be locked for no clear, defined rule-breaking reasons but because "this is getting out of hand" (vague and meaningless phrase loosely translated to "we don't like the cultural viewpoint that is emerging here" or "we don't like that most posters advocate an ideology which we find personally unpalatable, or which the current societal Overton Window does not permit discussion of"), and forums which continually resist this (as the Cafe used to) will eventually be castrated in a similar manner.

And yet those of us who miss the old, lighthearted and un-curated Boards will continue to post here for the sake of nostalgia, while occasionally grumbling about how much this site has been pummelled into submission by aggressive culture-policing over the years, because it's still Boards and it's still the only large Irish forum which doesn't serve just one subject (like politics.ie, foot.ie etc).

uck51js9zml2yt

One of the things that's puzzled me over the last 7 years and 13k posts ( but whose counting?) is moderation and its lack of transparency.
Let me clarify..
What are the criteria for someone becoming a mod?
How are people made mods? Do they supply Beasty with a supply of tubes for his bike or perhaps people think his name is Lance and supply other stuff;)

Having modded elsewhere, it's a thankless task and underappreciated on boards.
Overall, I've not seen the problems with moderation others speak about.
Occasionally mods get it wrong but they're human as well( or so it's rumoured).
If some.people learnt how to behave we'd have a better forum. Quiet frankly,I've given up on a couple of the forums I post in due to the cra.p that gets posted on them mainly by people who've no interest in the subject.

Adelaide Colossal Bakery

Adelaide Colossal Bakery wrote: »

One of the things that's puzzled me over the last 7 years and 13k posts ( but whose counting?) is moderation and its lack of transparency.
Let me clarify..
What are the criteria for someone becoming a mod?
How are people made mods? Do they supply Beasty with a supply of tubes for his bike or perhaps people think his name is Lance and supply other stuff;)

Having modded elsewhere, it's a thankless task and underappreciated on boards.
Overall, I've not seen the problems with moderation others speak about.
Occasionally mods get it wrong but they're human as well( or so it's rumoured).
If some.people learnt how to behave we'd have a better forum. Quiet frankly,I've given up on a couple of the forums I post in due to the cra.p that gets posted on them mainly by people who've no interest in the subject.

Why should it be "appreciated"? Nobody forces them to work for a profit making company for no pay.the reason they do it? Only they know that,but i have my own reasoning on it.

ArtSmart

Can't see Boards.ie fading away myself. Too much data across too many areas.
Some folk seem to think that After Hours is Boards. It's not, AH is just one part of it.

Whatever about declining posts, there's a wealth of information specific to Irish issues on the site - so when I do a google search on a topic and add Boards.ie, there's almost always some information there.

I, like others whose lives are getting busy in other areas, and therefore post less, still peek into the Boards data, at least twice a month.

K.Flyer

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I know this is a post from much earlier, but I think certain forums do need mods on the forum who have an interest in the subject matter.
Take the Electrical, Plumbing & Heating, Shooting etc. as examples, these are subjects with particular technical and legal aspects to them and IMO require mods who would be familiar with these aspects and not just someone to monitor petty arguments or trolling.

BBDBB

droidman123 wrote: »

Why should it be "appreciated"? Nobody forces them to work for a profit making company for no pay.the reason they do it? Only they know that,but i have my own reasoning on it.

Because
1) without them, any forum would be a mess to view - eg multiple threads being started on a topical news story, the mod does the janitorial job of merging them.
2) they also answer a host of questions and try to help those that contact them with advice about how to post stuff
3) they have to do the difficult job of intervening when a conversation starts to deteriorate into petty squabbles and full blown arguments. Thats much more complicated than you would think as they have to judge when to intervene and who to identify as the culprit(s) then decide on a fair sanction thats also consistent with the forums history

I bet I can guess why you think they do it and you'd probably be incorrect in most cases

Greyfox

antodeco wrote: »

I'm now in my 18th year on boards! Just cause people don't post, doesn't mean the site isint being used! I browse 10x times more than I post.

I'm on boards nearly every day for almost 12 years and I've only 880 posts which is just under 1.5 posts a week. I'm just that lazy

Tell me how

Tell me how wrote: »

You've deduced a lot in your time here. All two months of it.

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t necessarily see someone as new to boards just because their username is a couple of months old.

And if they were a new poster, doesn’t telling them that their opinion means diddly squat because they are new give an impression that new posters are not welcome?

Tell me how

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t necessarily see someone as new to boards just because their username is a couple of months old.

And if they were a new poster, doesn’t telling them that their opinion means diddly squat because they are new give an impression that new posters are not welcome?

Did you read what they posted?
Is it likely that as a new poster they joined, posted x amount of times in 2 months and were able to deduce "what boards had become"? Over what period?

Or is it more likely that they were a re-reg and in such case I wonder, if it's so bad, why come back?

No platform wants to lose numbers but I can't understand why people stay somewhere when they seem to dislike everything. But hey, that's just an opinion.

GreeBo

This thread is turning into a perfect example of whats wrong.

It starts off all normal and civil, people are free to express differences of opinion and indeed argue with each other in a civil manner.

Then out of no where it gets all edgy and personal with people taking offence and responding in kind until its a cluster**** and mods have to step in.

I dont know how you can fix boards when the problem stems from idiots posting.

/edit
Thanks to judicious use of my ignore list lately I've improved both my experience and my own posting.

Reati

GreeBo wrote: »

This thread is turning into a perfect example of whats wrong.

It starts off all normal and civil, people are free to express differences of opinion and indeed argue with each other in a civil manner.

Then out of no where it gets all edgy and personal with people taking offence and responding in kind until its a cluster**** and mods have to step in.

I dont know how you can fix boards when the problem stems from idiots posting.

Like some cleverness Capcha thing you need to complete to unlock the reply button?

GreeBo

Reati wrote: »

Like some cleverness Capcha thing you need to complete to unlock the reply button?

I don't even think the captcha has to be that clever:

Answer the following question:

Are you being a dick by posting this?

o Yes
o No

Tell me how

Tell me how wrote: »

Did you read what they posted?
Is it likely that as a new poster they joined, posted x amount of times in 2 months and were able to deduce "what boards had become"? Over what period?

Or is it more likely that they were a re-reg and in such case I wonder, if it's so bad, why come back?

No platform wants to lose numbers but I can't understand why people stay somewhere when they seem to dislike everything. But hey, that's just an opinion.

I get ya but is it possible that posters re-reg for whatever reason and then distance themselves from certain forums, post a lot less, etc?

Boards is pretty addictive

GreeBo

It would probably be too difficult to implement on boards but a daily posting limit per user might improve things

If you can only post 10 times a day, maybe the standard of your posts increases? And if not then at least you can only inflict 10 crappy posts on the rest of us.

Also, infractions & bans could reduce your daily allowance.

Two things, as a not hugely active poster but one who definitely sees value in an irish-based popular general discussion board

1: The respectful fetish around re-reg posters and facilitation of same. Dunno why anyone would be allowed to do this or expect it as a norm on a discussion forum. Like, what is the point of the 'close my account' feature?

2: I dunno what the figures are, but I use my phone pretty much exclusively. That means that I get a list of threads from everywhere without much underlining of what subboard applies- it doesn't support a 'many fora, many charters, many different versions of what is acceptable'. There really does need to be a slim, covers-all-bases charter rather than the vague reliance on real-time moderator judgement underpinned by twenty different charters.

GreeBo

GreeBo wrote: »

It would probably be too difficult to implement on boards but a daily posting limit per user might improve things

If you can only post 10 times a day, maybe the standard of your posts increases? And if not then at least you can only inflict 10 crappy posts on the rest of us.

Also, infractions & bans could reduce your daily allowance.

Ummmm, you haven’t played a game of werewolf on here, have you? Hehe

Beasty

Deleted User wrote: »

Like, what is the point of the 'close my account' feature?

My understanding is it came about because of data protection laws. Similarly we have no way of preventing posters discarding their old accounts and starting new ones. I appreciate that can get very frustrating when posters keep popping up apparently under different guises. The one rule we can, and do enforce, is that posters cannot post via more than one account at the same time. Equally they cannot abandon one account, start a new one, then go back to the old one

And yes we do see some people starting new accounts every few days, with no poor "history" to hide or discard. Why they do it is anyone's guess. We have others that may "refresh" every year or two. They are less of an issue as most topics discussed are reasonably current and there is less chance of them causing any confusion.

My view is anyone doing this may well feel "enfranchised" to provide feedback based on their full history. However I do think those who have perhaps shown a bit more of a stable long-term history on the site are worth listening to more than those throwing away accounts like confetti

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Beasty

Why? Because I value it more. Others may have a different view, but if you throw away your history like that why should you get any credit for it?

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