What happened to Boards.ie - genuine question

mirwillbeback

Came on this morning for a snoop at the inevitable Tubridy threads and from there ended up seeing a few different threads, one of which contained the link below

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/boards-ie-knows-how-to-get-people-talking-1.371873

It really got me thinking back to 2004 -2007 when i worked in a bank and spent most of my day on Boards using the GamblerPaul user name where I must have posted 20-30 times a day in groups where there really was a community feel. I remember being into MMA and a poster telling me about Pride in Japan and actually sending me (totally free) a load of DVDs to enjoy.

I remember social events being arranged on forums where interest was niche to say the least, and I also remember the Personal Issues forum where I only ever posted once, in a time of crisis, and the advice I got back was so so bad that I remember the poster's name (Beruthiel - doesn't see to have posted in a long time, I hope they didn't pursue a career in mental care!)

I read a few posts this morning like "when it was good" and also I do know there were technical issues a few years ago, but what is the current situation - is it not what it was, are the volume of users still here. If not, why not, is it to do with rise of Reddit and Twitter, a culture change or moderation issues? I actually don't even know what made me stop frequenting here, so maybe no fair to ask everyone else. This is a genuine question, I really remember fondly the days of chatting on here.

Threadbans

Risteard81

ancapailldorcha

It's not the same beast it was because the internet isn't the same as it was. We've seen the consolidation of the internet into the hands of a tiny few corporate CEO's. Social media firms actively editorialise by pushing extreme content to rile up their user base for "engagement". Engagement means clicks which generates ad revenue.

Boards.ie is ill-suited to this model. Sure, we do have advertisers but the nature of this site is geared towards conventional conversations. Reddit is based around upvoting whatever best fits the groupthink and downvoting any dissent into oblivion. Twitter is based on quips and 280-character comments. On Boards, you see the opposing viewpoints so it makes for more rounded debate but the issue is that people now want echo chambers and the market is evolving accordingly.

Finally, there's the effect of time. People want their content shorter and to the point. Witness TikTok, Youtube shorts and Facebook's imitation. This site doesn't work that way. In addition, I think its userbase is more middle-aged than young now. It's become Bebo or Facebook with a declining user base and the same problems with trolls that persist the tech giants with none of the revenue.

I hope Boards.ie is still with us for a long time to come but that's far from a certainty.

Wibbs

What Ancap wrote. Forums in general have died a death. I used to have a list of specialised forums I'd visit, but the majority are dead or gone full 404 with all that specialised knowledge gone. A real pity as the forum format was very good for asking, getting and searching for specialised info. Some of them moved to facebook, but it's nearly all pics of stuff, or pics of stuff someone wants to sell and meetups. Those that gravitated towards reddit are as bad. Either dead or a couple of hardcore posters who dominate the place with upvotes and too often their info is 100% wrong but still gets upvoted.

That's the specialised end of things, general forums like Boards are nigh on extinct. As Ancap noted people it seems actively want echo chambers and short sharp ones with no nuance and the ability to narrow the echo chamber down even more. Forums, outside of putting posters on ignore don't allow that to nearly the same degree. You kinda have to see opposing views.

Most people go online with phones so that limits things anyway. I'd also add the demographics shift. When forums took off going online required more of a buy in and basic knowledge from posters. It was more "nerdy" as it were, so while you always had edginess and rancour or people going full Sheldon Cooper it was generally of the more intelligent type. Now every smooth brained quarter wit with a phone and opposable thumbs can jump in. It was also less corporate with less spin, even government(s) spin. Today it's a far more curated and special interests space which muddies things further.

Shamo

There's no dark mode anymore.

con747

As the above poster said, since the "upgrade" the site has become a virtual ghost town compared to what it was. In the past you couldn't keep up with the amount of posts being posted in a single thread whereas now you can keep up with the whole site's number of new threads most of the time. Also a lot of moderators have left due to the "upgrade" without being replaced. It is rampant with trolls and bots as well these days.

Cluedo Monopoly

Boards has certainly changed. More extreme views and lots of anger. I still like it though. The Mods have a harder job than GAA refs!

artanevilla

They stopped paying the mods with coke and hookers due to the woke mob.

megaten

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753661#Comment_120753661

Didn't help but things went downhill way before that. I don't think there's been a meanignfull change in the userbase (in terms of atmosphere of the site).

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753781#Comment_120753781

There has, in my opinion. A big one. The place is a lot more unpleasant and we've lost several good contributors. If I'd to name a few, I'd go with Links234, The Corinthian, Permabear, FactCheck and Joeytheparrot. Just throwing out some names. I'd have added Wibbs but he's obviously still around. We've seen an influx of new accounts pushing culture war narratives in an aggressive manner which exacerbates the unpleasantness I mentioned.

seamusk84

It’s still good.

Same as you OP, back between 05-08 when I worked in a bank I spent a lot of the day on boards. Even when I rejoined in 2014 on this username the place was pretty electric.

Times past and we are all in our late thirties and forties + with less time to doss. The younger generation aren’t into message boards like we were.

Whatever anyway, there are a few thousand of us to keep it going for another couple of decades. Hold together and talk about our latest bowel movements in AH!

Podge_irl

One element of it is going to be that there is always natural drift away from places such as this as life takes over sometimes and there is far fewer new members to replace them as kids these days don't use forums!

greencap

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058302046/what-happened-to-boards-ie-genuine-question

Id like to say why but I cant.

Ill just say that things are not always as they seem.

(Yes I can see it, could see it years back, and I doubt im the only one).

Furze99

Moderating is hard we can see and particularly as mostly voluntary. But at same time, over moderation is a factor and mods mixing their own beliefs and agendas with their roles.

hoodie6029

Age of user base has increased, the giant platforms have hoovered up the users. People want video, likes, reposts and shares etc etc. You just don’t hider that here and never will.

This site will appeal to some people (like me) who have no internet in Reddit/Facebook etc.

+1 on the culture war posters/threads though. They are pure echo chambers. I ventured in there a few times and they are vicious. ‘Ireland for the Irish’ ‘End immigration’ etc and no dissent allowed or entertained. I hope it’s the same 5 guys with multiple accounts arguing in there though.

On a positive note, the Motors forum which used to be very active was a dead parrot for a few years. With the help of the mods we got it revamped and the dead subforums merged and there is much more activity on it now.

mirwillbeback

Great replies, thank you all! Nostalgia is great.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753673#Comment_120753673

uh, you've not been getting the mails so?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753818#Comment_120753818

One of those you mentioned is still here.

One of those you lament was a gross misogynist - good riddance.

Yeah Links was lovely.

Oh Personal Issues OP - I remember members could be so disgustingly vile to obviously distressed people. Telling them to cop on and get over it - great. 🙄

One time a woman had a similar issue to me and I was glad to see a thread about it. Oh my god the responses were so fu*king despicable. She was so upset (as was I). She was being badly treated and was told she was the one at fault and was just being needy. Gaslighting 101.

megaten

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753818#Comment_120753818

Sorry, I agree with that but its not the software change that cause that I mean. There was certainly a concetrated effort by people turn turn After Hours into an anti craic zone and use it as a platform for their personal hobby horses which did a lot of damage but unless I'm misremembering that was all in full swing years before the switch to Vanilla.

Large companies poured millions of dollars into research about how to maximise 'engagement'. Discussion forums didn't stand a chance.

JohnJoe1000

I've set up an account to reply to the thread as i fear otherwise i'd be warned/banned etc...

I've been a member since 2003 and have always enjoyed the contribution from different members but find myself not posting a lot of days now and i've gone from an average of around 8 posts a day 10 years ago to about 1 or 2 now. Was very active on the Soccer forum until the site changed over to the new platform and haven't been arsed since then. Actually it's easy to blame the changeover for what happened to the site but im of the thinking the platform was on a downward spiral since around 2017 for whatever reason but i do think the American culture wars and the willingness of mods to ban posters for discussing issues contradictory to their own and the site ethos has played a big part.

Boards was a discussion forum first and foremost but it's hard to have a discussion with posters who all have the same view of the world and it's become more and more of an echo chamber as the years have rolled on.

As an example i found myself at the time agreeing with a lot of posters who posed questions about the Covid lockdowns but i noticed those posters being warned or thread banned off the site altogether for raising those particular concerns and lately over the last year anyone questioning the obvious mental decline of the American president seems to be removed from that particular thread.

At the end of the day it's a private forum and the site owners can do as they please but let's not pretend the place will still exist in the coming years if the present format isn't altered to be more inclusive of all viewpoints.

I won't hold my breath

megaten

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120754239#Comment_120754239

I'd take Permabear over the current crop of headwreckers. His sthick was a more entertainign kind of oddball.

"Boards was a discussion forum first and foremost but it's hard to have a discussion with posters who all have the same view of the world and it's become more and more of an echo chamber as the years have rolled on."

Yup.

Gatling

Too many posters playing games theses days along with too many people having multiple accounts,the same people will cry to mods to get people removed because they can only things one way ,and it you do don't agree you get posts like hopefully a mod will be along soon to remove posts , very clique centered too when you see people getting warnings for not breaching the charters or any boards rules ,yet people who do repeatedly break rules and charters seeo to do so with immunity,

If you can't have a adult discussion why run to a mod to cry teacher, teacher that person won't agree with me send them away please.

Sonic the Shaghog

Tbh you'll always hear the site redesign and the rise of other sites used as the reason the place collapsed off a cliff but it was nosediving due to over the top and biased moderation which was supported by higher ups at the time who often held the same viewpoints.

I'm often talking about threads which would have been started about too much immigration in Europe/Ireland etc getting shut down from the get go or mods just itching to use that one gen racist looper post as an excuse to close the thread.

Repeat for a slew of different topics.

You just had to look at the feedback thread wars between posters and the higher ups/the hardcore minority of posters who were left wing to see the feeling of the userbase at the time.

If you are here long enough and used the place enough you can see the difference in moderation is night and day between then and now. I remember several of the more high profile posters throwing toys outta the pram about how the site was becoming a far right, racist, trump supporter, insert whatever when the moderation started to hit a more in the middle tone. They clamped down on actual racists trying to stir and gave the same to the posters on the other side who used only come in trying to get the threads shut down.

I only lurk there days but half the threads allowed run now wouldn't have made a few weeks one time.

In saying that all places come and go eventually. Even Facebook which was blamed here a lot with various hobby groups for taking away users while still shows "growth" you only have to look at the under 30s and definitely the under 25s to see that's being seen as old fashioned now.

Same will happen to the others eventually. In fact I can see places like here maybe even make a little comeback eventually somewhat

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753666#Comment_120753666

Some mods are trigger happy with bans and warnings for hardly any valid reasons even more since the boards swap

joe40

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753836#Comment_120753836

So all these bank workers spending too much time on boards back in 05-08. The real reason for the crash..

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120754898#Comment_120754898

Where do you think they got all their harebrained schemes from...

hoodie6029

Another point about the decline from my POV was the cliques that formed. I was mostly a Motors forum. A few posters had followers and nobody else got a look in either when they started threads or responded.

A few posters voiced concerns about it but nothing ever changed and ultimately people voted with their feet. If you could start your own interest group on Facebook with minimal friction and no need to worry about overheads, what was the point of hanging around here?

riclad

i think boards is the best forum to discuss anything thats related to ireland , on facebook you are mostly talking to a small group of followers or family members .the one thing constant is change, i understand young people spend alot of time watching short videos . people get older ,get married ,maybe have children, they may have less time to post.the point of using boards is you have a big potential readership, you can get advice on any subject ,or talk about current affairs .if you post something of interest to people you,ll get a positive response.

i understand young people may think reading a text only forum is old fashioned compared with watching videos on youtube, tik tok or netflix.people have a wide range of options even compared with 56 years ago.

i also find reddit /ireland to be a useful website if you want to keep up whats going on in ireland .

RedXIV

I'll always have a soft spot for this place, some great memories back in 08/09 of chaos all over the place and plenty of smaller communities within the overall population. I do agree that we've lost some amazing characters, (PigHead was a favourite to see posting in a thread) and the stuff that used to become lore within the regulars was fantastic.

I think it is a case though of just not evolving. This really was the best place for online conversations for a long time before social media platforms took root, but honestly it's hard to compete with them now, they are built to offer as many dopamine hits as you can take.

But I'd be lying if I said I still put the same effort in here myself. I was averaging 20/30 posts a day back in 08/09 but I'd be lucky to get one a day for the last number of years.

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120754571#Comment_120754571

You mean the ultra high net worth friends and the multiple kids with his nanny were all lies???????

Well now I dont know what to believe!!!

Tbh, what really started the downward spiral of the site was the close account option. Before it was introduced there were times when Id step away from the computer and declare that I was done with the site only to come back a few days later. When the close account feature came in that introduced a finality to proceedings and an awful lot of the best people around the site used it.

Its also the passing of time. Boards existed before Facebook et al and as others have mentioned, there was a genuine community spirit to it. I modded The Gentlemens Club way back and some of the beers we had were epic, there were a couple in Nearys on Chatham street that must have had 40 or 50 people at it, then on to Doyles, really fun times. But me now, Im married, couple of kids, mortgage etc and Im sure many people from the mid 00's that were part of the site becoming what it did are the same. You get older, the real world takes over, stuff that wasnt on your radar as a younger person now takes centre stage.

Its an inevitability that the site will die, its not sustainable from a financial perspective without massive ad revenue and this means massive ads which screws the UX.

Boards.ie was the undisputed internet king for me for a number of years but its now a bloated, punch drunk, pale comparison of itself. Sad really but it is what it is.