How will Boards.ie eventually end and be no more?

TheBoyConor

So Boards.ie is definitely one of the most stable and constant sites on the internet, having started back in 1998. But nothign lasts forever. How is Boards.ie likely to end its days?

Timberrrrrrrr

TheBoyConor wrote: »

So Boards.ie is definitely one of the most stable and constant sites on the internet, having started back in 1998. But nothign lasts forever. How is Boards.ie likely to end its days?

I don't think it will end but maybe fade away into internet obscurity, you will still have people posting but it will be a much smaller site with a tiny % of members/posters.

Bees Tea

The day they actually figure out how to catch re reg trolls, user numbers will plunge by 90-95 percent and whoever it is eeking out small change on this site will be forced to pull the plug.

The One Doctor

Boards will just wither away eventually. It's still a very good resource now though.

TheBoyConor

Bebo went out with a bang. All of a sudden. Then it came back so people had a chance to take down their photos and save them

Same with fotopic.net. They collapsed and the site went off line. It then also returned in a limited form for a period so that users could recover and download their photos.

Something similar might happen. A phased wind down.

The four horsemen might suddenly materialise from the underworld. I'll be retired in Marbella at that stage, having inherited Bertie's golf course for services rendered.

El Weirdo

Bees Tea wrote: »

The day they actually figure out how to catch re reg trolls, user numbers will plunge by 90-95 percent and whoever it is eeking out small change on this site will be forced to pull the plug.

To be fair, some of them are really fucking obvious.

Johnny Sausage

Deleted User wrote: »

The four horsemen might suddenly materialise from the underworld. I'll be retired in Marbella at that stage, having inherited Bertie's golf course for services rendered.

ah no Ric Flair is well retired now

Apiarist

TheBoyConor wrote: »

..How is Boards.ie likely to end its days?

Hey guys, this is my 10,000th post!

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Anyone?

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Ah sure, I'll come back in another couple of months.

The EU will introduce a law that makes it impossible for anyone to have an opinion online without serious legal repercussions for the site owners. End of boards.

scheister

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

I don't think it will end but maybe fade away into internet obscurity, you will still have people posting but it will be a much smaller site with a tiny % of members/posters.

Think this is pretty much what happened to politics.ie. It is still there but not at the level it once was.

gifted

Think people will just get bored of it and move onto something else.......then those people get replaced with new people and then those people just get bored of it ....and the cycle begins again so it probably might not die but it certainly won't get any better.....

TheBoyConor

Yes, i'd agree that it would probably fade into obscurity like someother sites like IRN and Politics.ie. Those two I would say, particularly IRN, largely faded out because the discussion and members migrated their posting to Boards.ie. That is certainly the case with IRN where many of the members in that now post in the Train and Railway Systems forum here.
IRN is still there, but it pretty much a dormant shadow. One day, it will be just be switched off.

I imagine similar will happen with boards. Something else might come along, or not, but usership will gradually decline to a point where it is no longer worthwhile for Distilled Media to keep it going. like other dormant sites, it may linger on with minimal usage for some time. Then perhaps, something like a failure in the server hardware or it's software becoming obsolete and no longer supported might be the final nail in the coffin if the owners are not willing to repair the hardware or buy/update the relevant software.
Even something like the business relocating or a change in lease of the building where Boards have their servers might bring about the dicision that it is not worth reassembling and it'll just come to an end.

Of course, it could also evolve morph into something completely different and live on in a different form, something we might or might not recognise as being related to Boards.ie

1o059k7ewrqj3n

When it no longer becomes profitable to do so - cost of maintaining servers, buying more servers, generating ad revenue etc

TheBoyConor

One thing is sure, it won't last indefinitely. Sooner or later, at some stage, it will come to an end. Same as all of us, same as the the Earth, the Sun and everything else in this universe, it will with the patience of time, slowly fade and evaporate away into the infinite cold silent blackness of the ether for all eternity.

MrMusician18

El Weirdo wrote: »

To be fair, some of them are really fucking obvious.

Indeed. Certain parts of the site have been swamped with them recently, - so they are not that hard to discern.

I wonder how much content they actually account for, whether in their own posts or the baiting of others? Gut feeling says it's a lot, so much in fact that they cannot be done without.

TheBoyConor

Do you think that perhaps some of the trolls might be employees or other agents of Boards deliberately trolling and baiting their own site in order to "fertilise" the site and generate traffic, posts and ad views.

ancapailldorcha

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Do you think that perhaps some of the trolls might be employees or other agents of Boards deliberately trolling and baiting their own site in order to "fertilise" the site and generate traffic, posts and ad views.

No.

NeinNeinNein

Nationalisation.

Seth Brundle

TheBoyConor wrote: »

So Boards.ie is definitely one of the most stable and constant sites on the internet, having started back in 1998. But nothign lasts forever. How is Boards.ie likely to end its days?

When the authorities discover Nein11

TheBoyConor

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

No.

lol, sure what else would someone like you say?

Like the USAF denying the existence or Area 51. Or the KWP flat out denying that there are labour camps.

ancapailldorcha

TheBoyConor wrote: »

lol, sure what else would someone like you say?

Like the USAF denying the existence or Area 51.

Someone like me? Do elaborate.

Silent Running

404

TheBoyConor

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Someone like me? Do elaborate.

Part of the Boards.ie machine.

Alternatively.. when typing, and traditional internet access comes to an end, and we all go towards VR chats/discussions. I suspect the more active nature would appeal to younger people of the newer generations.

ancapailldorcha

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Part of the Boards.ie machine.

Ah yes. I get it. The machine you rage against.

TheBoyConor

Deleted User wrote: »

Alternatively.. when typing, and traditional internet access comes to an end, and we all go towards VR chats/discussions. I suspect the more active nature would appeal to younger people of the newer generations.

like a return of the chat rooms. just in VR form.

Timberrrrrrrr

Seth Brundle wrote: »

When the authorities discover Nein11

Never talk about fight club :mad:

machaseh

Most internet forums are slowly declining in favour of social media. The same goes for boards.

Yet, boards has a consistent community of faithful posters plus a much larger collection of people who only post on it a couple of times to ask some questions about various matters. So I dont think it will go down anytime soon.

Hotblack Desiato

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Do you think that perhaps some of the trolls might be employees or other agents of Boards deliberately trolling and baiting their own site in order to "fertilise" the site and generate traffic, posts and ad views.

Dunno about that, but a certain ex-mod of AH was always starting very clickbaity threads in there.

EmmetSpiceland

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Dunno about that, but a certain ex-mod of AH was always starting very clickbaity threads in there.

Got a bit “shirty” too when certain, other, posters started taking up the “mantle” of inane thread starting.

Boards IS slowly declining:

I joined initially in late 2009: Then boards had a vibrant Models forum, even without drones. More activity in Audio and video Editing.
More liberal too.

Of course then real world events advertised and talked about were more enthusiast and less about getting your hard earned cash for this "unmissable occasion and expert speaker!!!!".

..End of babble.

o1s1n

machaseh wrote: »

Most internet forums are slowly declining in favour of social media. The same goes for boards.

Yet, boards has a consistent community of faithful posters plus a much larger collection of people who only post on it a couple of times to ask some questions about various matters. So I dont think it will go down anytime soon.

I really thought a few years ago that it was done due to Facebook. Numbers just kept dropping off.

A fair few forums that I would have frequented a lot back in the day are completely dead now (Airsoft for example was one of the largest forums on boards at one point with multiple retailers and sites advertising there and paying good money to do so, now it's lucky to get a post a week. )

I'd also put a lot of the decline down due to the category restructure and the new responsive site, it completely removed browsing random forums and basically killed a lot of them.

GMSA

Whenever Skynet becomes self aware. Then everything is fooked. They'll pull the plug in the panic.

mikeecho

Over zealous mods, and more snowflakes than you can shake a carrot at.

It's already begun.

railer201

We're suckers for nostalgia in this country, just look at the longevity of the 'Late Late Show' and 'Reeling in the Years'. Rumours of Boards demise could be much exaggerated, in any event what would all the 'know it alls' do with themselves if it collapsed ?

Stevieluvsye

railer201 wrote: »

We're suckers for nostalgia in this country, just look at the longevity of the 'Late Late Show' and 'Reeling in the Years'. Rumours of Boards demise could be much exaggerated, in any event what would all the 'know it alls' do with themselves if it collapsed ?

Funnily enough probably the best thread on this site every Friday over in Television

Top quality posters

skallywag

Wouldn't it be fitting if there was nothing left in the end other than folk discussing the finer points of Quake?

o1s1n

mikeecho wrote: »

Over zealous mods, and more snowflakes than you can shake a carrot at.

It's already begun.

People have been touting the 'over zealous mods' line for well over a decade now.
(actually probably approaching two decades)

skallywag

I think the forum format will almost certainly fade with time, and not just Boards.

Anyone else here remember using Newsgroups before forums existed? Was more or less the same discussion type format. Though I wonder who still uses them now ...

El Weirdo

o1s1n wrote: »

People have been touting the 'over zealous mods' line for well over a decade now.
(actually probably approaching two decades)

Yep.

TuringBot47

It'll probably end with another massive data breech.

TheBoyConor

El Weirdo wrote: »

Yep.

Some asshole just close the inaugral thread on Boards.ie?
That is pretty bad. That closing of that thread is very ominous. The end might be nearer than we think.

Stevieluvsye

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Some asshole just close the inaugral thread on Boards.ie?
That is pretty bad. That closing of that thread is very ominous. The end might be nearer than we think.

I'm sure the admin shuts it after they post to avoid the sh!tshow that is the other 99% of threads here

TheBoyConor

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Some asshole just close the inaugral thread on Boards.ie?
That is pretty bad. That closing of that thread is very ominous. The end might be nearer than we think.

Barricading themselves.

Irish Guitarist

I suspect people will just gradually get bored of it. Look at that thread about that Yaniv person suing a salon over them not doing a Brazilian wax. If you didn't refer to this person as 'they' you'd get a warning or be banned. I wouldn't touch a thread like that with a barge pole. I couldn't be arsed twisting myself into knots referring to a singular person as 'they'. It's going to get worse too and soon there will be no point in talking about anything.

Bobblehats

It would take something gradually underhand where our identities are dissected deconstructed and disseminated over time. Like some sort of creeping death or, bad b-movie

Rufeo

It will end when the electricity runs out.

Your Face

Maybe it gets sued into oblivion by someone with lots of money and a vainglorious fear of any criticism.

Tom Mann Centuria

It's clear poster numbers are dropping, all the little forums that used to have small but regular poster numbers are more or less dead, the bigger forums have less active posters and the site is more or less becoming AH/whatever offshoot to AH they try, current affairs the most recent.

It's a slow death, but it's dying.

s7ryf3925pivug

pretty sure it happened a few years ago.