Goodbye to 2021 - a message from the Boards team

Boards.ie: Niamh

2021, what a year. We all bade a not-very-fond farewell to 2020 hoping for better things in 2021 but I’m not sure it was a whole lot better. Before going on, I say this every year because it is true every year…Christmas time can be hard for some people and especially if/when we cannot see loved ones. If you are finding things difficult and need some extra help and support around this time, then there is a list of helplines and emails here which you can access. 

Last year, Mark and I compiled a list of things that had happened on the site or real life events that were talked about extensively on the site to add to a round up of the year passed. Mark wrote it up for us all and it was a great way to look back over the year. You can read the 2020 round up here. It’s hard to believe some of those things only happened last year to be honest! 

This year, I have struggled to write the round up. A lot has happened. At the start of the year we were working on migrating to a new forum. For various reasons it was pushed out more than once but in July we finally took the site offline to facilitate the move. Not everything went to plan to say the least and we are still picking up some of the pieces. The migration however was necessary to get us off vBulletin and onto a more robust platform. You can read more about the move in the various threads in the Feedback forum. 

Much earlier in the year in March, we added two new forums which seem to be going quite well. Give them a visit if they are of any interest to you:

• 3D Printing
• Childfree by Choice

In August we had a huge shock when our lovely colleague Mark died very suddenly in his sleep. After over a year of working from home and seeing each other only on video calls, it is still hard to believe that he’s not just ‘offline’. The Boards team had been due to meet up on a Thursday so we could wish Mark well as he’d decided to move on to pursue other goals. Sadly I spent that Thursday driving to his funeral in Limerick instead. He had a beautiful send off and lots of Boardsies expressed some lovely thoughts about him in this RIP thread.

We are so grateful to those of you who have stuck with us through the migration, who went off and came back and to our new members as well. We couldn't run the site without our volunteer mods, cmods and admins so a very heartful and huge thank you goes out to you guys in particular. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful contributions, your kindness, helpfulness and generosity to fellow members and your support, feedback and patience throughout the year - let's have more of the same next year. We hope to have lots of new work done on the site in 2022 to keep improving the Boards experience.

Everyone deserves some time off so be patient over the next couple of weeks as mods, cmods, admin and staff take some time away to spend with friends, family and pets.

I think that is all I have to say to wave off 2021. Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it and enjoy the break if you'll be lucky enough to have one.

I can't believe I managed a whole update without mentioning Covid! Been there, done that 4 weeks ago and I hope you all manage to avoid it or get a very mild dose. Stay safe everyone.

All the very best,

Niamh & all on the Boards.ie team 💙

Boards.ie: Niamh

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We recognise that this is not a good time of year for everyone and for some people it is the worst time of year.  

If you feel you need to talk to someone, here are some helpful numbers and websites of people you can contact:

Samaritans - how we can help you or FREE call number 116 123 available 24/7

Aware (supporting depression) Call 1800 80 48 48 daily 10am - 10pm or email supportmail@aware.ie

Turn2Me.org No phoneline but the website might be of help.

Gay Switchboard Ireland - Call 01 872 1055 Monday to Friday 6.30 – 9pm or Saturdays and Sundays 2 – 5pm.

Parentline - guiding parents, supporting families - Call (01) 873 3500 Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 9.00 p.m. and Friday 10a.m. - 4.00 p.m

Childline - 1800 66 66 66 or Free text TALK to 50101. There is also Live Messaging on the website.

Teenline - 1800 833 634 available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. 

Society of St. Vincent de Paul - 01 8386990 - you will find the numbers for individual area offices on the site linked.

Fr Peter McVerry Trust - support line 1800 140 244 Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm | 01 823 0776 National Head Office (9am-5pm Mon-Fri) 

Simon Community

Focus Ireland - call 01 881 5900 or email help@focusireland.ie

HOMELESS HELPLINE at 1800 707 707 (Dublin only, Central Placement Service)

You can also find more helpful sites and numbers in this sticky in After Hours and this sticky in Personal Issues.

Take care.

Merry Christmas, Niamh 😊

pixelburp

Season's greetings to all and hope however you spend the time, it's a good one

Dempo1

Happy Christmas Niamh and to all the Team 🙂

davidconroy46

Happy xmas to Niamh and all family and friends. Also to all engineers who answer many questions on intruder, cctv, access control, gate automaton and fire. Hope everyone has a good xmas with their families a d friends. And most of all stay safe hopefully of covid.

DvB

Merry Christmas guys.

Wearb

Happy Christmas to you all Niamh. ❄❄❄🎅🎅🎅

Manach

Merry Christmas all.

From the book Word Perfect from Susan Dent, may all your Yule-holes* expand gracefully.

* Defined in the OED as the hole in one's belt which is adjusted to allow for repletion after Christmas celebration feasting.

An Ri rua

Happy Christmas to all.

Sure, Boards was a bit of a struggle this year,as was daily life. But life is struggle, interspersed with joy and mad moments, and life without Boards would be a lesser experience. Been a great mainstay over the years.

Thanks to all the subject experts, even all of the recently accredited epidemiologists :D

Condolences again on your colleague. We can all forget we're just people with families.

Nollaig Shona daoibh

Tom Mann Centuria

Hopefully Father Christmas visits you all, have a good one, cheers.

ShamoBuc

2021 was a tough year indeed.

But onwards and upwards!

Nollaig Shona Folks!!

HeidiHeidi

Should thread title not read "Good Riddance to 2021"?

Thanks to everyone at boards, both management and users - that was not an easy year on a lot of fronts, but here we are, and next year can only be better!!!

Happy Christmas to everyone.

Purple Mountain

Thinking of Mark's loved ones at this time.

PaulT21

Best wishes to all the staff and members of Boards.ie. I hope everyone stays safe and that 2022 is special for everyone.🌲

Kelly j

Best wishes to all the staff and members of Boards.ie. I'm very happy to join guys at that very special time 🤗

Merry Christmas all

blackbox

Everything may not be the way you'd like it to be. But just hang in there.

And thanks for everything you do.

gussieg

Thanks for your time and efforts and again so sorry for your loss and may this year ahead and the site be all Mark and the team and us hope it could be, a place to share stuff you can't find anywhere else., and if I could just ask a small favour or intercession when you return, to be able to delete a post after 24hours well one in particular that's bothering me, yours Gussie

xhomelezz

Enjoyed reading your post Niamh.

Merry Christmas to all, hope everyone can relax a bit, enjoy the time with loved ones and get ready for the next year.

Šťastné a veselé Vánoce lidi !

(as we say back at home)

YellowFeather

Thanks Niamh! You’ve really kept the site going this year, which is a great Christmas present for a lot of people. Hopefully 2022 will be the year of holidays, parties, and more boards. :)

Happy Christmas!

Cork Lass

Thanks for all your hard work Niamh and here's hoping 2022 is a better year for all.

CiDeRmAn

Merry Christmas and a better, happier and safer New Year to everyone

Loughc

Happy Christmas and here to a happy and healthy 2022 to you Niamh and all at boards HQ.

Fathom

Happy holidays Niamh.

johnamid

Hello guys merry Christmas stay healthy in the nw year 2022

Strumms

Happy new year, hopefully ’22 is more sexy, fun, fabulous and fantastic to and for us all…. here is Frank bouncing into ‘22…. He says it’s going to be a grand year… blame him if it goes arse over cerebellum…