Boards News - August 2019

Boards.ie: Mark

Hi everyone,

It's been a little frantic as of late, so this update is a little later than planned. In case you missed it, we had someone using the Private Message system to spam messages with a dodgy link (and an image/message that many would have preferred not to get!).

As is - or should I say was - standard practice, an email was sent to users to alert them of this new Private Message with the contents of the message included. The Admins were great for keeping on top of these new accounts, while the dev team and ourselves implemented measures to try to put a stop to their gallop.



There were some casualties; the Private Message function no longer includes the ability to display a picture using the organising a beers. EatYard/The Bernard Shaw is the place to be on August 30th if you want some merriment.

If the madness of an After Hours beer isn't for you, the Forum Games forum is planning a gathering of its own. Head to Oscars on August 23rd for some food and beers and in-person games of Werewolf (which they say aren't as tense as online games, but that might have to be seen to be believed!). Find out more about the beers here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058001859

The Boards Golf Society's season is drawing to a close in the coming months. The Ryder Jug will take place on October 26th at Tulfarris Golf Club. Unlike other events during the season, this is more exclusive. As benny79 explains, the top 10 players over the course of the season along with the captain's two picks will take on another society that day for the illustrious trophy. Players will have earned points throughout the season based on their finish at an outing with each player's top five (out of a possible eight) scores counting towards their tally.

For those looking to make a very late charge, or those who want to see what the Boards Golf Society is all about ahead of next year's season, there will be an outing to Carlow Golf Course on Saturday, August 24th.

Given the mixed weather of late (even within the one hour), the Weather forum is certainly worth keeping an eye on. Although at the moment we're prepared for anything when we leave in the morning. Sunglasses - check, rain jacket - check, umbrella - check, willingness to leave it down if it's too windy - also, sadly, check. These updates tend to be poorly timed to alert users of the next weather forecast contest, but if you think you can predict max temperature, rainfall, and other metrics of a month, keep an eye out for the September weather forecast thread. You can get an idea of how this contest works by reading through August's contest thread.

Spare a thought for those planning to take part in their first ever Dublin City Marathon this year as they try to get their runs in these changeable conditions. We're nearing the halfway mark in the plans, so some people may be hitting a wall. These training plans and the support network of the thread are very important at a time like this! You can read through the upcoming week's plan as well as other tips and advice here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=111011226#post111011226



Last year, we covered the release of a new app that would help festival goers plan out their day and see clashes at a glance. PabloAndRoy has continued to work on the Festable app and rolled out updates over time. It's still available on the App Store and it's free. With Electric Picnic coming up, this may be a useful addition to your mobile.

Another useful tool from a member of the community is the Boards Companion browser extension. s_mcloughlin has added functionality since its first launch and now it's possible to tag users, minimise empty space between posts and infinitely scroll. The extension is only available on Chrome, but they may look at bringing it to Firefox too. You can find out more about the browser here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058003686

These aren't the only Boardsies putting their inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit to good use. tacofries made a recent appearance on Dragon's Den UK. You can read about their experience and get some insight into the process (and the cutting room floor) in the Reality TV forum.

Over in the Bargain Alerts forum, a new subforum for sharing Referral Codes has been created. There are some rules to follow to be able to share a code (as suggested in the initial forum request), as users don't want to be inundated with newcomers only signing up to reap rewards. You must be a member for 3 months, have made 100 posts, and indicate what you personally gain from each referral. If you've been looking to share a service and benefit for doing so, check out the Referral Codes subforum.

And finally, we have had some Sponsored Threads dedicated to the launch of Noteworthy, a new investigative journalism platform from TheJournal.ie. It was launched in April of this year and the team asked Boardsies to share items that they might like investigated. Since then, a range of topics have been explored and stories published, some of which occurred on the basis of suggestions from Boardsies. You can read more about the platform and read through some of the stories covered thus far here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058007149.

That's it for another month! Hopefully there won't be so much drama ahead of the next update in September!