So, Who Made it back Here (after the Site Change)?

Declan A Walsh

It was mentioned in another post that some of the Forum Games regulars have not returned so far.

So, who is back so far?

Kolido

Nothing

Air101

Also Starring Lever Burton

Irish Aris

Necro

Electric Nitwit

Trigger

Quickbeam

Neowise

Sawduck

Homer J. Fong

Capt'n Midnight

ShaneU

Osh

JP Liz V1

HeidiHeidi

TheValeyard

HildaOgdenx

Mollyb60

Deja Boo

Zaph

fixXxer

SineadSpears

cee_jay

speckle

yOssar1an22

BuileBeag

bubblypop

cdeb

Mam of 4

davetherave

Edser

Strawberry Milkshake

aaronjennings

duffman13

Arghus

Looksee

Noo

HeyV

Sephiroth_dude

Hillybilly4

Baggly

Sullivlo

Ted_YNWA

kitten_k

Toto Wolfcastle

Who else returned?

HeidiHeidi

I feel like I'm only barely hanging on by my fingernails 😩

God, I miss the old site soooooo badly!

nothing

It's definitely taking some getting used to. I've not ventured onto the desktop site yet

Purgative

Never really left but hanging on like HH. At the moment I just don't trust notifications. I either get none or guzillions. Well 48 this morning. 48, FFS that's like having a job.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Back, but going forward will be far less present than I had previously been, especially once I'm fully vaccinated (mid-late August hopefully). Will be starting to sit out of far more games anyway (except for Walruses, I can't resist the lure of a Walrus).

Even before the changeover, I had been planning to start gradually fading into the background more and more, so less to do with being incompatible with the new boards and more to do with an already shifting focus.

ari101

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117653948#Comment_117653948

When you have 100 or more it just says 99+ there are so many I've stopped looking at them 🙈

Declan A Walsh

Besides Purgative, here are more regulars that resurfaced:

Ectoplasm

beakerjoe

Rikand

Khalessi

Would Bounty Hunter and Guffy be considered regulars - I don't think I had come across them before until I viewed a Werewolf Game.

osh

I'm getting a ton of notifications constantly. Makes it very annoying and impossible on mobile.

Any parts of the site I follow seem much quieter than normal. Probably to do with the decent weather too though.

HeidiHeidi

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117654190#Comment_117654190

I'd say traffic on the site is about 10% of what it was pre-migration.

If I was bored of an evening, I could happily surf the home page which would turn itself over every 10 mins or so (or less, even), clicking into random threads that I had zero interest in, and even less understanding of.

Now, I post on a thread, and I'm still looking at my name as last poster 3 or 4 hours later 🙄

I'm really, really hoping they can get over the pothole they seem to have run themselves into with this new site/platform/ whatever 😥

It's all just Such Hard Work now.....

Sephiroth_dude

I barely made it out alive.

osh

I guess it will improve over time. If they listen to what's needed. There's so many useful features the old site had which aren't on this one.

People will just adapt too as they get to it, but traffic is down a crazy amount alright.

Arghus

Quite pleased to be considered one of the gang. *you guys!*

I've been back, but, man, things are just not the same since the changeover are they?

I hope things will change in time, or at least gradually get better, at the moment it's kinda heartbreaking to use the site: it was pretty much perfect from a user perspective and so much of that has just been flushed away.

It just bums me out to use boards at the moment , it's so hard to navigate and lots of basic features have vanished.

You can turn notifications off though. Click on your profile pic and click the bell icon on the left, you should see another icon - like a control or a volume button - on the right. Click on that and it will bring up the list of all the different types of notifications and you can toggle each one on or off.

quickbeam

Would Bounty Hunter and Guffy be considered regulars - I don't think I had come across them before until I viewed a Werewolf Game.

Of course, they are some of our elder statesmen.

@Declan A Walsh

quickbeam

If I was bored of an evening, I could happily surf the home page which would turn itself over every 10 mins or so (or less, even), clicking into random threads that I had zero interest in, and even less understanding of.

I miss the Thanks tab showing most thanked posts on a given day. It often brought me to threads that I never would have come across otherwise.

@HeidiHeidi

Trigger

I'm quite liking the mobile site on a dark theme, although I'm not really fussed by much, like who was the last poster and followed forums. Never really followed forums anyways only threads.

I've also never really been much of a poster on desktop, so it's probably been an easier transition for me as a predominantly mobile user.

KathleenGrant

I am just back. Finding new site awful but was not the only reason. Last couple of years were not easy but I was grand.......until I wasn't. So bit of time off work to take stock. So back I am.

Electric Nitwit

Hope you're doing OK Kathleen

The past year or so has been tough enough, never mind having it on top of other stuff. Look after yourself, hope a little break helps

Rikand

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117655160#Comment_117655160

Thats the thing I am finding horrible - Mobile is just hideous. Desktop is workable for me but I'm done using a mobile for the moment. It's just so horrible. I'll only be using mobile for the upcoming werewolf game

Trigger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117655329#Comment_117655329

What are you finding horrible about it? I find it easy enough to get around. I suppose that may be I don't really venture outside my bookmarked threads or forums that I mostly use

rainbowtrout

Hadn't participated in a game for a good few weeks before the upgrade because I was busy with work, and I'm still busy with work, but the new site is crap. Hard to find stuff, horrible layout and most forums are dead. Like a post above I did a bit of casual browsing on other threads aside from my regular spots and now there's so few posts there's nothing to browse.

Also the demented baby face icon under my name is horrible.

quickbeam

Also the demented baby face icon under my name is horrible.

@rainbowtrout

You can change your avatar, I believe. You could pick something nice, like:

cdeb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117655349#Comment_117655349

Yeah, once you get used to it and as features are added, it's fine. I've my My Forums set back up and can filter in there, which is handy. Couple of things missing like notifications by thread rather than by post, or Most Thanked, but it's getting there.

Surprised I'm a regular here, but I'm back anyway! 🙂

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117654772#Comment_117654772

That's what I miss, browsing through the most thanked posts. Often landed on a thread or forum that I would not have read otherwise.

Apart from that, while I'm not mad about the changes, (to say the least) I'm getting used to the new layout. Everywhere is so much quieter than usual, the same threads seem to sit on the front page now for quite some time.

I never followed any forum, and seldom if ever followed threads, so any changes there make no difference to me.

Declan A Walsh

Great to see Kathleen Grant and Rainbowtrout back! Barna77 is back as well!

Declan A Walsh

JohnGreenFan is another returned regular!

Kolido

No sign of our colourful container.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117665060#Comment_117665060

The Purple Tin? Yeah, I noticed that.

quickbeam

Yeah, once you get used to it and as features are added, it's fine. I've my My Forums set back up and can filter in there, which is handy.

@cdeb is that only on mobile? I can't see how to filter My Forums on the desktop.

cdeb

Yeah, I think it is alright. Maybe it's possible to do it on desktop, but not sure how, and they look like two separate websites. On mobile, the default is that it shows all posts, but you can toggle between "All" and "Following" and it'll do the trick.

quickbeam

Thanks. That’s what I thought. Trouble is there are forums like AH and TV that I might only follow a thread or two so there’s no point following the full form and having My Forums full of threads I’ve no interest in.

Sephiroth_dude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117665060#Comment_117665060

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117665177#Comment_117665177

I noticed before the site migration, he actually closed his account unfortunately .

Kolido

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117669465#Comment_117669465

Ah no, did he. Hope all is well with him.

Declan A Walsh

I saw Lord TSC on Werewolf. I had not seen his name until recently. Was he a Forum Game regular that returned - maybe a Werewolf regular?

Necro

I'm still here but to be honest I'm really struggling with the new upgrade. It's not user friendly and doesn't feel like Boards anymore. Haven't been massively active as a result as I'm a bit downbeat about the whole situation to be quite honest. It's been three weeks now, I've given it a chance and I just... I hate it. I understand the old site couldn't keep going as is but this thrown together piece of junk is just awful, it's quite clear that the new platform Vanilla is not capable of running a site in the way boards was.

It's upsetting tbh, I love this Forum but it's actually getting to the point where I hate logging on to the site.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670712#Comment_117670712

On the plus side, we might rediscover the things we used to do - that was what I said coming up to the temporary shutdown of the site!

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670712#Comment_117670712

Exactly how I feel.

I'm hanging in, hoping they'll pull it together in the end, but that hope is waning by the day - and I fear even if they do, the critical mass of posters that made boards what it was will be gone 😪

I would have been all over a heap of threads before, and on a boring night dipping in and out of all sorts of weird and wonderful thread titles just to see what on earth was behind them (which I suspect is how I stumbled across forum games if I'm honest).

Now, I have about 5 threads on the go, and it's really boring, and at this stage it's just making me sad 😥

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670731#Comment_117670731

I still haven't even re-opened that book that I threatened to finish on the back of your post 🙄

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670785#Comment_117670785

With one developer and more problems than you can shake a stick at I'd imagine it will be quite a while before everything is running as it should be 😥

ForumGames.ie anyone? 😂

Electric Nitwit

I'm the same 😔

Hardly looking at the site now. I threw the Welcome Back Sheep up as I'd written it but the fact it's so quiet, and the loss of PM downloading, means I'm not so enthusiastic now. Hopefully we'll get used to it, ultimately it's the people not the site that make it

Plus I've got about four walrus' planned now, I hope everyone stays around 😂

Gru

i'm still here, kind of, i was hoping i'd adapt in time to the new layout as i've always hated change, but i find it really awkward to use, more on the side of i'm not getting used to it, used to love popping into forum games and playing away but find it so hard to find anything i give up out of frustration and go elsewhere now.

nothing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670957#Comment_117670957

I've been testing today for my Doctor KangaWho reveal. Posts copied from word keep their formatting, sheepulator copies ok into excel, with a few tweeks, and I've only 10 or so entrants so copying one by one into it won't be too bad, plus it means I can double check each entry as I go.

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117671003#Comment_117671003

Yeah, I saw the your test thread, I'll probably add to it

Not too worried about the mechanics of the reveal, hopefully people will be around. Copying the entries is a pain but not too bad. It's the missing people and posts that are the real issue, I'm missing my nemeses 😋

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117671003#Comment_117671003

It's fab you're doing that nothing. Massive kudos.

The major problem though is that it's a lot of extra work that wasn't needed prior to the upgrade and could be very intimidating for anyone new wanting to run a new game.

And that's not good for the long term future here because we need new people wanting to run their own games.

This turned into a soliloquy and it's not intended as having a go at you because you're a fabulous addition here who has taken to game running like a duck to water. And we need more like you!

I don't really have the answers but I do feel this change to boards is not good for this forum and that's what I'm mostly worried about.

Arghus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670712#Comment_117670712

Yeah. A lot of how I feel tbh.

I'm not going to even pretend to know enough on a technical level to start going on about the reasons for changing the platform in the first place. Maybe they were totally valid, you read all kinds of opinions and the golden rule of boards is that a lot of people don't have a clue what they are talking about, so who knows. But I find it a bit strange that a platform that was supposedly on its last legs worked so seamlessly from a users perspective. Boards was a dream to use and navigate.

And it is just a message board so how righteous can I get about it at the end of the day? I read some of the commentary in AH and feedback and think some people need to get a grip a bit too.

But, even with those caveats, it has been terribly handled really. A textbook example of how not to do this.

The week down - the horrible redesign, the lost functionality. It really does stink. It says a lot that it isn't just entirely the usual never happy whingers that are whinging, even mods and established users have been calling it out for being shyte. Because it plainly is shyte: it's junk. Forums are dying on their arse.

Something intangible seems to have been lost in the changeover. It kinda feels that you're not interacting with people the same way anymore. Tiny things make that difference: proper avatars not these shytey little circles and inane smiley faces, usernames that don't look tiny and disconnected from posts, the ability to quote people properly, thanks and the visual satisfaction of seeing them under posts, all that empty space everywhere. It all feels disconnected and devoid of something that made boards what it was. I'm still posting, but we all know the feeling of not being half as pushed as we were.

I'll still keep using the site, but I genuinely wonder what might happen now. The pace of alterations and fixes is glacially slow and the longer it goes on the more traffic dies and people stay away and then it becomes a vicious cycle.

I feel more pessimistic now about the future of the site than I did when it initially came back, nothing has changed really since then. It makes me think of that "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" line. I thought initially, okay, this is crap, but there's still a big userbase and hopefully the wheels will start turning to improve the user experience - but there's really been fck all change since the relaunch and you can really feel forums starting to quieten now.

Electric Nitwit

It kinda feels that you're not interacting with people the same way anymore. Tiny things make that difference: proper avatars not these shytey little circles and inane smiley faces, usernames that don't look tiny and disconnected from posts, the ability to quote people properly, thanks and the visual satisfaction of seeing them under posts

That's a very good description @Arghus

I've not been able to put my finger on exactly what's wrong, or what would fix it for me, but you're right. And the changes to how avatars and names are displayed should be an easy fix

quickbeam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117670626#Comment_117670626

Very much an old and regular Werewolf player. The bastard killed me a few times too!!

I have just seen this thread, which is typical of my experience with new boards.

I have never been the most technical person and I am no genius with computers and stuff. It is so hard to find things now, either on purpose or by accident!

My followed forums have disappeared or have become hundreds of forums........

I don't know, I'm trying, I always loved forum games, but it's been made harder to find/use.....maybe I'll get more used to it.

cee_jay

I went offline from 16th July until this Monday. I expected things to be better from the initial release but it doesn't feel like much has changed. I've been using mobile exclusively and only this morning found the forum I mod!

I spent some time this morning following all my favourite forums again. I turned on notifications (thanks to those in the WW dead room for some guidance on how to do all this).

This is giving me some sense of normalcy as to what I see but it feels like a ghost town with very few posts everywhere.

Baggly

Ive been posting on boards for a long time (too long some would say) - ive seen a lot of changes and improvements in that time - ive seen platform changes and introductions of new ways of using the site - but suffice to say i had found my way of using boards that i was happy with and had gotten into a deeply ingrained habit of doing (the unofficial app for checking in and quick posting, desktop for WW, modding and anything else that required a little added functionality - never used the mobile site). This has all been thrown out of alignment for me. The app doesnt work anymore and desktop on mobile isnt perfect. The mobile site is ok but has a long way to go.

No sugar coating it, the transition to the new platform has been bad. Functionality has disappeared that i hadnt even noticed i needed until it was gone; some of the basics arent working or arent working consistently; and we dont really have visibility on whats coming back and/or when.

Having said that, ive treated the past 3 weeks on boards as a holiday. Ive stopped logging in as much and, frankly, havent been able to mod - certainly not as i was before.....and its been ok. Ive been posting pretty much 5 posts a day on boards (minimum) for a decade and a half, and taking the break has been fine. The sky hasnt fallen in; im a bit less stressed; im maintaining contact with people from FG.

I understand people are frustrated and disenfranchised with the switch. The only thing i will say is that boards and FG isnt the platform; its the people that contribute. FG will be fine and we will find ways to adapt (as we always have). Dont leave over the platform - it will keep improving and will eventually get where it needs to be. If you need a break or cant get used to it, my advice is to take a break, but do come back and we will all eventually get used to the new platform (and will do so as it becomes more and more familiar in function and navigation). The old site as it was before the migration took constant development over the course of 20 years to get right, so im willing to give the dev responsible for restoring function some time to get back where we were (and my understanding is thats the intention).

With regards to new game runners and game mods coming on board - this has been a constant worry for myself since i became a FG forum mod. Its nothing new here. Boards traffic is down, it seems to me, but all we can do is remain the forum we have been and trust that if we keep hosting games and having fun, others will want to return and/or join in on running games. I have learned the hard way that whether i worry about recruiting new game runners or not, what will be will be, and i can only control my own input.

Im not speaking for Boards by any means here - and i dont really have more info than anyone else. Im just adding this here because i believe that the absence of control over this situation, combined with a level of uncertainty over if things will improve is affecting members of the community; which is really hard to see. I am determined, personally, to stick with the site; mainly to try to protect the FG community, which is, after all, the best part of boards.

Electric Nitwit

Baggly now...

You're right though, of course you are. I think we'll lose a few people as a result of this, which is a real shame, but hopefully the games survive

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117671637#Comment_117671637

That's a comment I have made on a few different threads. It feels like shouting into the void, rather than chatting or discussing stuff now. It's not great (to say the least) and stuff stays on the front page for ages whereas previously it would have moved rapidly on with the level of traffic there was. I'm getting used to some things though and finding my way around, hoping that it will improve...