Why do some people stop using online forums?

vitreouss

Like boards or others? I know this forum has been controversial for some but I don't get why some posters with 5,000+ posts and having been here for over 5+ years just suddenly stop posting.

Is it death, boredom?

Gregor Samsa

Some just get board with it.

Mullaghteelin

In fairness, internet forums probably peaked around 2006.

jimmycrackcorm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

If you annoy some of the mods a bit too much, you get 'disappeared.

Only on the sinn fein forum

Lesalare

https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/boards.ie

Bass Reeves

Deleted User wrote: »

Only on the sinn fein forum

An Ceapaim


Ni Ceapaim

YoshiReturns

I've done this a couple of times.
Sometimes it's good to take a break.
Give your mind a rest and space.
Cold turkey.
Recommend it.

85603

the culture war/ left-right thing killed a lot of the conversation.

any mild opinion just got you accusations of belonging to such and such a camp, and references to historic events, and how your views on a 5 euro change in council tax will manifest in the rising to power of extreme forces and the eventual destruction of society. as per 19-whenever.

so you'd just end up *talking with some partisan loon in a basement, and they'd never give in even if faced with physical proof. so it was just time to say fck it.

Trigger Happy

Its the satisfaction in committing murder with your online persona as the victim.

RobbingBandit

I'll close mine when I'm CaughtBandit

Hamachi

Been reading Boards for years but only started posting about 12 months ago. I expect I’ll stop posting again when we return to post-Covid normality.

I find a few posters on here quite annoying and really don’t enjoy their input at all. It’s easier to tune them out when you aren’t actively posting.

There was a girl who used to post on here for quite a few years. She lived in Madrid and posted regularly about her life there. I always found her content interesting, particularly as I lived abroad myself at the same time. She just stopped posting overnight and never returned under a new persona. One of the few posters who really resonated with me and whose content I genuinely missed.

Strumms

I dissapeared off a forum i was involved running although id zero involvement in setting it up... it was music based.. for about four or five years it was fun, interesting, informative.. friendly...music based in the main but it had a section for general fun and good natured bòllocks much like after hours here....plus cinema, travelling and more besides...

It got taken over by a seemingly older cohort of oddballs... who seemed like ok a bit eccentric... a bit lost and perhaps lonley.. moaning if anybody was drifting off topic on 'their' threads but it was ok for them to waffle endlessly about the most random nonsense.. where people were talking about music / current affairs / .... the guy running it was too nice to want to let us fix it and basically... after a user complained for the third time that these chumps were derailing threads on purpose.. it wasnt the job..of any of us to act às social workers for these people i just said good luck...

Wibbs

Changing technology and cultural shifts online and off. The move to phones and tablets for many if not most tends to drive quick and short responses and is more a device for forwarding of memes and conversations. As 85603 notes the imported from Yankland culture war stuff has also divided people more, or at least more obviously so. That in turn and human nature in general tends to prefer places where they can hang out with generally similar minded people, so we have the increase in so called "echo chambers" where different opinions are downvoted to oblivion or never invited in the first place.

I say human nature because the rise of the interwebs was initially mostly populated by nerds and there was that barrier. I've found nerdy folks in general tend to be brighter than average, more open to different opinions and more into rules of conduct. They do tend to be more "left wing" too, but that's part of the more open to different opinions as a general thing. Like any new arena it starts small and with some general mutual agreement about the rules coming soon after. As more and more people show up, more and more internal groups form and look to mark themselves out. Kinda like if you open up a club and 20 people show up at first they'll tend to hang out together, when the numbers hit a 1000 you get far more groups forming. I reckon the above is a lot of it anyway.

Add in generations coming along who seek different outlets for conversation and attention and the ageing demographic in here. As people age they tend to get very set in the thoughts and philosophies they have decided fit(doubly so for men in my experience) so they're less up for debate in general. Younger people, again in general are far more fluid on this score, more engaged, less rigid, more open.

Hdjsjsjsj

Guess it's due to interest changing. I posted in an Android Forum for about 5 years and one day for no particular reason I just stopped.

Novelty wore off I guess

AllForIt

Hamachi wrote: »

Been reading Boards for years but only started posting about 12 months ago. I expect I’ll stop posting again when we return to post-Covid normality.

I find a few posters on here quite annoying and really don’t enjoy their input at all. It’s easier to tune them out when you aren’t actively posting.

There was a girl who used to post on here for quite a few years. She lived in Madrid and posted regularly about her life there. I always found her content interesting, particularly as I lived abroad myself at the same time. She just stopped posting overnight and never returned under a new persona. One of the few posters who really resonated with me and whose content I genuinely missed.

I think you fancied her.

Who's annoying?

They might have died?

Hamachi

AllForIt wrote: »

I think you fancied her.

Who's annoying?

On the former, I’ve no idea what she looks like, so no idea. Do you remember her too?

On the latter, not going there!

For millions of reasons I imagine. People change and move on, they no longer get anything out of posting, the community changes or disappears, interests change. I don't think it always means that the particular medium becomes an issue for them.

Some of the reviews of Boards on Trust Pilot were interesting. I wonder if they are from posters who had an axe to grind?

Wallet Inspector

This isn't my first account. I stopped posting for a good while because I was busy and this was a distraction. I wasn't planning on returning - not for a while longer anyway, but I wanted to join a particular show's discussion on the TV forum.

Hamachi wrote: »

On the former, I’ve no idea what she looks like, so no idea. Do you remember her too?

On the latter, not going there!

I know who you're referring to. All good by her.

Sharpyshoot

Cock blocking.

Hamachi

Celchick wrote: »

I know who you're referring to. All good by her.

Good to see you back! Used to look forward to your latest slice of life from Madrid

Wallet Inspector

Hamachi wrote: »

Good to see you back! Used to look forward to your latest slice of life from Madrid

Oh no it's not me but I know her from here. She's getting on fine anyway!

Hamachi

Celchick wrote: »

Oh no it's not me but I know her from here. She's getting on fine anyway!

Ah ok! Glad to hear that. I’m sure she would think it extremely weird that an anonymous stranger on the internet remembers her, but her posts chimed with my own life abroad at the time. I occasionally wondered if something negative had happened that caused her to disappear. Good to know that’s not the case!

Wallet Inspector

Hamachi wrote: »

Ah ok! Glad to hear that. I’m sure she would think it extremely weird that an anonymous stranger on the internet remembers her, but her posts chimed with my own life abroad at the time.

Not at all. There are always posters that we connect with!

GarIT

I've left twice and reluctantly came back. Usually it's biased moderation that pushes me away.

Celchick

Celchick wrote: »

Not at all. There are always posters that we connect with!

There are a few from the long ago I wonder about

arccosh

clubbing forums were great... I miss them

When I first joined boards there was a poster called e_e who I found I was on a similar wavelength to with similar tastes etc and then they closed their account out of the blue. A thread like this would remind me of them and make me wonder, are they still on boards now with a different username or if not was everything ok for them or what made them close.

arccosh

arccosh wrote: »

clubbing forums were great... I miss them

the gaa forums used be mad.....lads in school used log in,during computer class

Then there would be wholesale investigations as regards,who was who across several forums......our class used line up with some schools in kk and tipp and general laugh and pisstakes to be had



Alot of people made good friends there and linked up at oxygen/college/back packing etc........great "internetting culture" where noone took serious,.....pity they died off tbh,as much as reddit is good etc,they had a good natured wildness that reddit is too big to have

arccosh

Deleted User wrote: »

Alot of people made good friends there and linked up at oxygen/college/back packing etc........great "internetting culture" where noone took serious,.....pity they died off tbh,as much as reddit is good etc,they had a good natured wildness that reddit is too big to have

that's it, facebook is too personal, reddit hasn't the granularity or the "die hards" that forums usually attracted...

glad to have kept a good few forum friends

Church on Tuesday

There are 3 or so posters who have left here in fairly recent times who I had a lot of time for.

Church on Tuesday

I'm on my third account now, I had a few thousand posts on my last two I think. I closed my last account because I got fed up of certain people who take an internet forum extremely seriously and who seemed to develop a deep hatred/obsession of and with me for reasons I'll never know. It was very strange so I decided to close the account and start anew, it's mad how some people behave with complete strangers on an anonymous web forum. I still keep an eye out for posts by people I liked and had gotten on with but I won't interact with them much either, Boards has lost it's appeal for me.

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

There are 3 or so posters who have left here in fairly recent times who I had a lot of time for.

Appreciate it.

The way the forum is run, threats, or just generally to stop sinking so much time into it are just a few I’d see from my point of view anyway. Certainly would be why I’ve considered it before.

Some just get found out, and have their names scrambled which is the coward's refuge. Imagine threatening legal action over a Walter Mitty. No, me neither.

Pussyhands

Mullaghteelin wrote: »

In fairness, internet forums probably peaked around 2006.

I think it was 2009/2010

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote:

Some just get found out, and have their names scrambled which is the coward's refuge. Imagine threatening legal action over a Walter Mitty. No, me neither.

I read that three times and still can't figure out what you meant :pac:

Investor12

Reddit has killed many of the traditional forums which have an antiquated layout.

Seems like the average boards.ie user is well into their 40s and 50s. Some of the sub forums such as leaving cert and college are completely dead.

looksee

Investor12 wrote: »

Reddit has killed many of the traditional forums which have an antiquated layout.

Seems like the average boards.ie user is well into their 40s and 50s. Some of the sub forums such as leaving cert and college are completely dead.

Could you expand a bit on why this is a problem? Are you suggesting that the internet is only for people under, say, 30? Why would you think that? Should there be a cut off age at which people are not allowed to post on message boards?

NIMAN

Love the latest review:

"...left wing far right despots".

EmmetSpiceland

NIMAN wrote: »

Love the latest review:

"...left wing far right despots".

MORE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS BEING PUSHED ONTO US BY THE TOXIC GREENS. THEY WON'T STOP UNTIL THEY HAVE SUCCESSFULLY RUINED SUPERMACS!!

fits

I don’t post near as much as I used to as I hate typing on phone. When people browsed from pc I think there was a lot more content in here. Still a great resource for information though.

I also can’t be bothered getting into arguments online these days.

BrianD3

Boards age profile is probably a lot older than than used to be and several posters have mentioned having cancer or other serious conditions. Some of these will have died without anyone on here knowing. I know of one poster who died without any publicity on here, only reason i know he died is because I knew someone who knew him in real life and could make the connection from what he posted on here.

Graces7

BrianD3 wrote: »

Boards age profile is probably a lot older than than used to be and several posters have mentioned having cancer or other serious conditions. Some of these will have died without anyone on here knowing. I know of one poster who died without any publicity on here, only reason i know he died is because I knew someone who knew him in real life and could make the connection from what he posted on here.

That is sad. I have had several long breaks from boards and always when I return I miss folk and wonder. But very much we are " ships that pass in the night" with no mooring ropes or anchors and that can be a helpful thing at times.

The DayDream

I went through a long stretch of unemployment which wasn't my fault (educated, good CV, but stuck in a crap location with no car and unable to afford to move or get on the road when every penny went to bills and rent).

I had to stop using boards because of the constant dole bashing threads being allowed. People with no clue about how hard it is to get by on benefits, who barely felt either recession (whereas I graduated college at the height of it) putting me down, lumping me in with junkies, telling me there were plenty of jobs, bla bla bla really didn't help my mental state.

Even now I feel like boards is mainly a fascinating reveal of how the supposedly happy go lucky enternally friendly Irish are often in reality seething balls of bitter hate inside. It's a very fake society that way, yet they'll tell you how false Americans are (when in fact most of them are pretty up front about stuff).

Now I just make sure to limit my time on the site, ignore the arseholes and carry on. But when my self esteem was really low from being unemployed this wasn't a site to hang out in.

AdrianBalboa

From what I have observed most of the people who post on Boards are middle aged people, I doubt there are many posters on here aged under thirty five who haven't been using the site since their teens. With middle age comes a lack of flexibility and boards.ie has earned a bad reputation on the wider internet for being the Irish home for right-wing cheerleading, and for over-zealous moderation.

I am speaking from my own experience posting on the forum: a left-leaning poster who cuts through the right-wing racist/bigoted bull**** will be reprimanded for not being "civil" enough (like I have been, many many times). Whereas a right-wing bully and a racist will be deemed fine to post so long as their language is camouflaged with the right kind of polished niceties. "I'm not anti-trans, I'm pro-woman" that sort of thing.

The "civility above all else doctrine," like boards.ie itself, is a relic of the Clinton-era end-of-history neo-liberal period where it was determined that ideological perfection has been attained and there's no need for to shout as we fine-tune it.

I'm not saying that personal abuse should be tolerated however I do think that the administrators need to realise that boards.ie has become a vessel for dog-whistlers concealing hate-speech. Posters who care about the vulnerable in society need to be able to call a spade a spade without fearing removal from the site.

As it stands boards.ie is being overrun with middle-aged crypto-fascists and young people who don't feel like being dragged down to the gutter with them.

artanevilla

People like a safe space where their world views won't be challenged. Unfortunately forums are not such a space.

Oranage2

Life happens, also liverpool winning the league was probably the worst thing to have happened to boards, plenty of fans left the soccer forum because Liverpool fans are un-tolerable. Lucky their 1 season flukehas ended and they've been put back in their boxes.

Oranage2

Oranage2 wrote:

Life happens, also liverpool winning the league was probably the worst thing to have happened to boards, plenty of fans left the soccer forum because Liverpool fans are un-tolerable. Lucky their 1 season flukehas ended and they've been put back in their boxes.

I sh!t you not, last season on motd Danny Murphy called them the greatest team the premier league has ever seen. Was chatting about it in work the following day and a standard deluded Liverpool fan who was giddy off the back of winning the league agreed with it and said they were better than that united team. You know the one that won heaps of titles?....

cj maxx

vitreouss wrote: »

Like boards or others? I know this forum has been controversial for some but I don't get why some posters with 5,000+ posts and having been here for over 5+ years just suddenly stop posting.

Is it death, boredom?

Pissed off with people opening accounts ,and a week later posting inane threads

artanevilla

artanevilla wrote: »

People like a safe space where their world views won't be challenged. Unfortunately forums are not such a space.

Reddit is.

An Ri rua

Hamachi wrote: »

I find a few posters on here quite annoying and really don’t enjoy their input at all. It’s easier to tune them out when you aren’t actively posting.
.

Yeah, that's Mods for you. Right partypoopers.

Only kiddin Mods!!