What happened to Boards.ie - genuine question

Hodors Appletart · 29-06-2023 12:24PM

There's just no real craic anymore.

I've been round the houses on this site, met my wife at a Boards event and my child is around because of this place (I know of a few others in the same boat), and I dedicated a good chunk of my life involved in an endeavour that brought Boardsies together on a weekly basis to take part in a sport they played wearing the Boards.ie logo. I've modded a good few forums too.

A lot of people on this thread will know who I am, will have met me in real life and we've had some great nights out together. I made what I consider to be lifelong friends because of this website.

That's all gone now.

It started, in my opinion, with the fairly hamfisted attempt to monetise the site. Every failure since can be traced back to that decision.

At some point too, there was a culture shift where sheer volume of content was deemed more important than the quality of that content, and some sort of unwillingness to simply throw trolls off the site. Mods were told to basically build dossiers on suspected trolls and re-regs, there was a point system implemented and instead of simply getting rid of people there was an insistence that "oh you can't be doing that, you need the proof".

the fact that re-reg/new accounts still have free reign to post wherever they like is also an issue, once the close-account thing became a necessity (and I understand why it needed to come in), there should have been measures put in place to mitigate the abuse of that. Make it extremely hard for anyone closing/opening accounts to post anywhere other than the most asinine of forums. Instead re-regs are completely allowed to continually disrupt, troll and have free reign over the place. All, in my opinion, in the name of content-generation. Rage-clicks, rage-bait - get people hot under the collar and they'll generate more content.

Oscar_Madison · 29-06-2023 08:30PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120781648#Comment_120781648

Interesting post - I guess the standard response on boards these days to a post like that is “ show me the proof” !!!

I won’t be asking that question of you - you’ve posted what I’ve felt for a long long time - I don’t need “the proof”, I know it’s true.

Oscar_Madison · 29-06-2023 08:41PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120780840#Comment_120780840

Mod decisions need to be much clearer to all-“ how did they act and why?”-

this whole secrecy bullsh1t where mods state “they’ve dealt with the situation” and don’t give anything else away is just killing the site .

if someone is a troll or acting like a d1ck, mods used to call those people out- now it seems being a troll or a d1ck is protected under legislation similar to ethnicity or sexual persuasion - couldn’t possibly confront these idiots or tell you how we’ve gently warned them in case it upsets their feelings🤪

nachouser · 29-06-2023 08:48PM

I think Hodor makes a good point. I used to be a mod for some online games and if anyone was talking dodgy sh*t in chat they were just booted.

Like, you know they're just taking the p*ss. No need to go through anything more. Just boot them.

hotmail.com · 29-06-2023 08:50PM

What's with this recent trend of writing up "genuine question".

It sounds ridiculous.

And that is a genuine question.

Glaceon · 29-06-2023 09:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120784430#Comment_120784430

I've said that in the past if I think what I'm about to say might be misread as trolling or nasty when that's not my intention.

Annasopra · 29-06-2023 10:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120784376#Comment_120784376

Yeah

Posts get deleted now if they break the rules.

Many years ago posts were edited and there was clear transparency on moderator actions on thread. Now it's all hidden cloak and dagger and the third secret of fatima about what moderator actions are taken..

29-06-2023 11:33PM

I think they should increase the ability of anonymity of a user on the site of posters...it's the one thing that separates it from Facebook other social media and especially in a small country like Ireland etc.. also it attracts the weird and wonderful....

Also many 'crazy opinions' ignite discussion ...but there's more scope for eventual reasoning or genuine learning because threads are linear...

You can still have a community thingy....but also free expression....or can you have free expression?

Like for example.....I too am a victim....of chore sex lol 😂😂😂

30-06-2023 12:19AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785244#Comment_120785244

How would anonymity be increased? Surely it's the responsibility of the poster to take care of the information they give.

30-06-2023 12:44AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785387#Comment_120785387

There's I'm sure ways to increase anominity....like being able to delete, change username...etc I'm just saying I'd say more here than I would on Facebook cause of the perceived anonymity but I'm also aware Ireland is a small place so I think the user should be able to use anonymity to their advantage and the boards peoples 🙄 should recognize that's an advantage...... you think there's not a crowd of young people who don't want to discuss current affairs or stupid **** like who's better looking ed Sheeran or that Scottish guy my mam keeps harping on about?

30-06-2023 12:46AM

Really it's whether boards could advertise the value of anonymity and promote it.

30-06-2023 12:47AM

And actually enforce it. Lol

30-06-2023 01:02AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785450#Comment_120785450

Again I do think it's the poster's responsibility.

sydthebeat · 30-06-2023 01:07AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120780202#Comment_120780202

Oh if only that was the case here..... Unfortunately it's not

30-06-2023 01:15AM

Fine of what you think...you think poor divin knows what not who's got himself in a jam talking **** on a group on an American Facebook group chat who doest really give a **** about him and he's living in the bog of Ireland and he's probably not had good home advice but could come here as an alternative without judgement is all on him ...

Anyway lol i'm taking about boards marketing themselves....as an anonymous website.....

Overheal · 30-06-2023 01:58AM

There's plenty of shitholes for that which aren't even on the dark web, like Parler or Truth Social, 8chan, Twitter, etc. if you mean promoting anonymity as a feature to be used to the nth degree.

If you just mean someone's personal cybersecurity that's a personal matter no matter where you go online. Boards protects user privacy as well as anywhere else.

30-06-2023 02:18AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120780495#Comment_120780495

I remember you. You were one of those people that was here constantly (40k posts!!!). I was only ever a casual user. I remember one time I posted a question (not soccer related) in a sub forum. You conned me into reposting it in After Hours where you knew I'd be ridiculed. And yes I was ridiculed.

That became the problem with boards for me. Some people desired to take things to an extreme. They were here constantly and because of that ended up being moderators.

It's like in online gaming if you play a non competitive casual game but yet there's people with like 11k hours and play on super computers. Some people just have to be flat track bullies.

At it's best boards was a great resource and great fun. But those hard core users just drove everyone away with their moderation, their deep-throating of each other and their favourites/sycophants.

Xavi6 · 30-06-2023 02:35AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785524#Comment_120785524

If that's the case (even if I'd question the use of "conned") then let me take the opportunity to apologise. I haven't closed my account or hid from my post history and definitely said/posted stupid things here back in the day that could be brought up at any time. As I did IRL. Early 20s me was a lot different from late 30s me, stating the obvious.

But that's kinda my point - I dislike the impersonal nature of boards now with accounts being opened and closed at will and it's why I gravitated to a WhatsApp group where everyone knows each other. And I've said plenty of stupid things there too.

30-06-2023 02:52AM

All I mean is emphasising anoniminity....however they would do that....it's 'technically' an anonymous website (but they need to place more value on that)...that's it's difference from other social media.....so they should play on that for people who have something to say but want to remain anonymous....

There's a whole load of people who love to engage in conversation/debate and want to be recognized for it (forming communities) but don't want to be actually recognized for it lol...Facebook and the likes don't offer that kind of thing ...really unless you set up fake profile and you're part of a group but the groups in Facebook etc are too specific...but say for example an Irish or English user....who wants to engage in general conversation/debate...online about real issues and also bit of fun/random things too ...well I just think the anominity is boards.ie greatest advantage and they should play on that...that's all :/

Leg End Reject · 30-06-2023 03:07AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785538#Comment_120785538

What more do you expect a website that allows you to register without revealing your identity, and use a made up name to do?

Do you want someone to charge in and alert you that a post you made by your own free will might possible contain some identifiable information?

"Hi heather, just a friendly heads up from Boards HQ, we think your mother might possibly recognise you from that post. Please try to be more vague in future."

30-06-2023 03:20AM

Funny you posted leg end reject cause you're always right in there aren't ya... but it might actually help if random users like yourself and other long term users didn't seem to miraculously know all the goings on in the site and leave newer users feeling left out and dumbfounded and acting like ye all know whats going on on the inside... lol....there can be too much 'community' in here aswell which will also make new users run a mile.