Boards News - July 2019

Boards.ie: Mark

Happy July everyone!

It's a little hard to believe that it's July; we are barreling through the year. To make it even more surreal, some people are celebrating Christmas in July. It's more of an Australian thing, but our own Christmas forum is happy to join in the celebrations! There is a dedicated Christmas out of season thread and other threads to help pass the time until the most wonderful time of year. The forum is also in the process of putting together its very own podcast/panto. You can follow the project and get involved here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057300719.

There are a few other community projects and activities taking place across the site at the moment. The Dublin City Marathon (DCM) Mentored Novices support programme is still going strong 11 years after its initial thread. The training group are into their fourth week and the thread is full of chat, advice and support. It's not too late to join in if you feel that this year is the year to get your first Dublin City Marathon under your belt.



In the Limerick forum, a thread has been setup to help people find someone who could do a job around their house. Word of mouth recommendations are always going to be more reassuring, so Limerick Boardsies can now request someone to take care of an odd-job and get suggestions.

The Golf Society is nearing the end of its season; there are just three more outings to go. Its next outing will be to Castleknock Golf Club on Saturday, July 20th. You can find out more about the day out and how to get involved here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057993431. Another thread that got up and running recently is one where golfers can share courses that they are a member of and ones that they would like to play. The hope is that players can link up with one another and arrange an invite.

If you were glued to Wimbledon - and many were thanks to some upsets, big personalities, and a cracking final - you can still join the chatter in the Racquet Sports forum. Wimbledon often inspires people to dig out an old racquet and hit the court (new balls, please!), so it's a great time to get involved in the discussion. Will Ireland ever have a top level tennis player, and is Federer weaker than Djokovic and, if so, why?

We're just weeks away from the start of the Premier League, which means it's time to put together a fantasy team all over again. It's the one element of soccer/football (not getting involved in that debate!) that consoles you when a team you dislike scores and causes annoyance over your own team scoring one more goal. If you want to get feedback on your own team and bounce some ideas around, the Rate My Team thread is a great resource. Once you feel you're ready for some healthy competition, why not sign up for a league. It looks like there are a number of paid and free leagues being setup by community members.



In a similar vein of drafting the perfect team, but with fewer budget concerns, the Soccer forum is conducting a draft of All Time Premier League Players. You can read through the Picks thread here along with the reasoning behind a pick, while any chat about picks can be found here.

If you enjoy Hip-Hop and fancy a trip down memory lane, a new On This Day thread has been started. As the name implies, this thread highlights notable releases through the ages. It can be interesting, but also a little upsetting, to see how long ago a certain record was released and then see how well it has stood up to the test of time.

One game that's taken Nintendo fans by storm is Super Mario Maker 2. If you've tried your hand at creating levels or you simply want to see levels that Boardsies have created you can find a showcase thread here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057994091

In a different vein, but still gaming related, the Forum Games forum is still keeping busy. There always seems to be new games of Werewolf, Sheep (and the Peehs variant), and completely new game types cropping up. You can find out more here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1770. Meanwhile, the second annual Codenames World Cup is underway. It's getting serious now as we've hit the semi-final stage. You can follow the action and catch up with previous game threads here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057988290

Occasionally, we stumble across some interesting or clever ideas. One such idea comes from the Gigs & Events forum. Tickets to a gig can be a great present, but we're now in an era where tickets are either digital or horribly plain printed ones. sabrewulf creates their own tickets and they're so much nicer than what you would now get in the post. While most people would have already handed over Ariana Grande tickets, these templates may be a nice souvenir or may inspire you to whip something up for a future gig.

Now we turn our attention to some forum reorganisation and general Boards news.

The Science, Health & Environment category has seen some movement with the wonderful (albeit quiet) Astrophotography forum folding in under Astronomy & Space. For more photos like the below, keep an eye out for allinthehead's posts. Meanwhile, Physics & Chemistry's new home is under Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry.



The long-awaited Current Affairs forum went live at the end of June. We're hoping that this can help strike a balance for those who wanted fewer serious threads in After Hours and those who wanted to discuss these serious topics.

If the Current Affairs forum was long-awaited, an updated About Us page was long overdue. Many of those who featured in the old page have moved onto pastures new and there have been additions since the page was last updated, myself included. If you'd like to find out more about the current crop of Boards staff, including the forums that we enjoy browsing, you can read it here: https://www.boards.ie/content/about-us

And finally, would you like to come work for Boards? We are looking for a Senior PHP developer and don't worry, shades are not mandatory (this makes more sense if you looked at the About Us page). You can read the job spec in full and find out how to apply here: https://careers.thejournal.ie/tech/senior-php-developer/

That's it for another month. I'll be back with another update in August, but maybe I'll see some of you visiting the office in the near future should the job sound interesting to you!