Site is a graveyard - How can boards save itself? [Threadbanned users in 1st post]

Murt2024

Seems to be getting worse and worse. How can boards save themselves?

New backend system?

Not been afraid to have controversial topics? If the site owners are worried about this they really need to get an education on the internet.

Better moderators? Maybe younger ones who are up to speed with the younger generation?

Realizing people have their own opinions?

Its different than reddit but Reddit seems to flow contionusly with great conteant and controversial opinopns are allowed.

I just think boards need better research. Its not the year 2000.

Moderator:

List of threadbanned users:

Green Peter (Permanent)

Mad_Lad (expired on April 12th)

dxhound2005

What age are the Moderators?

Jim_Hodge

It depends on what topic or forum you're looking at. There's always at least 50 threads with posts within any half hour. Some forums are busier than others. After Hours has slowed a bit in recent years but other topics are very active. The traffic is there but maybe not where you're interested. There's a huge about of information, support and advice posted every day.

It probably suits a certain demographic but as long as it's active on any topics, and being used by enough posters, then it's doing what it's meant to do.

Ted222

I’m no expert but I suspect moderation relates to legal exposure.

It may be handy to assume that everyone can say anything they want at any stage without consequence, but I suspect the site is always exposed to the threat of legal action.

In the circumstances, it’s perhaps understandable that the unpaid moderators will err on the side of caution from time to time.

raxy

My biggest bug about this site is not allowing recommendations unless they are by pm. Means any post I read because I'd like to see the recommendations are useless.

I get that people can post recommendations for their own companies but I'm not an idiot, I don't take what I read on boards as gospel. But it would be nice to be able to see them so I can look them up myself.

I made a post before & a mod replied to say recommendations by pm only even though the rules of the forum said recommendations were allowed. Needless to say the mod did not reply when I asked why he was going against forum rules.

Purple Mountain

It's the age demographic. No new blood. The younger generations aren't going to be hanging out on boards.ie

It's going like the Catholic church; fazing out.

Citizen Six

Maybe start hosting in russia?

ejmaztec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954763#Comment_121954763

They should allow the moderators to marry. 😛

Purple Mountain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954770#Comment_121954770

Let the wimmen run it...

Mehaffey1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954763#Comment_121954763

That's it exactly, have never talked about boards.ie with anyone younger than myself that has heard of it and I'm 30.

Downlinz

Boards is essentially a retirement home in terms of internet demographics, the more you open the floor for controversial opinions from elderly cranks the more it's going to give the site a bad reputation and scare away young people.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954714#Comment_121954714

"Slowed a bit" is an understatement. There was a time when you could ask a question on any topic and you'd have a reply in minutes, After Hours front page was ever changing with new posts every few seconds. These days it's tumbleweed in most forums.

ottolwinner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954763#Comment_121954763

it’s probably not visual or fast enough for younger users.
I’ll have to resign myself to being an oldie now so!! I like the pace of it. Check in and out when you like a and be able to follow where you left off reading.

Gusser09

The site is gone to the dogs because of heavy handed modding. Its that simple. Ive a lifetime ban from the football forum ffs 🤣. The football mods are like the SS.

Also we're not allowed to discuss the most relevant topics of the day due to draconian site rules. Id agree its on its last legs. They only have themselves to blame.

Donaldson charged in NI. Reddit and social media blowing up. Yet a certain mod wants us to pretend the charges dont exist. Thats just one of many examples.

They really need to look at the laws around defamation and libel and educate themselves.

con747

I think we got numbers once or twice since vanilla in relation to the traffic visiting but that vanished quick enough. When you could see the amount of members and visitors online it was easy to know if it was worth bothering but now I see the site with no new posts for anything up to an hour at night. It's lost a lot of people since the big change and losing more each day.

dxhound2005

Boards is dead and buried. But in three days time it will rise again and appear to many.

Man Vs ManUre

They should change the name to Z.

Ezeoul

Inconsistency and unfairness by moderators in who, if, when and how they apply sanctions, or not, as the mood suits them, would be my main criticism.

Also when there is a problem with a mod, the Cmods and Admins will usually circle the wagons, rather than overturn an unfair action by a mod.

(I'll probably get a warning for this).

This is it

Meh, blaming the mods is too simplistic. It's certainly part of it but I don't think it's the main reason.

Say Your Number

Don't think there's ever been a time when posters around here haven't been moaning about mods, and it never stops the same banned users re-regging over and over and over again.

Rooks

Mods on Reddit are no better. This discussion format is a dying breed.

Arghus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954763#Comment_121954763

I think that's pretty much it. How many people under the age of 25 are on the site? It's as clear as day if you look at a thread on Reddit and if there's an equivalent thread here that the demographics of the posters are totally different. The bottom line is that user base is aging out and there's no new blood taking their place. A lot of people would take one look at the craic in CA and run a mile.

People have been taking umbrage with the moderation on boards since the year dot. IMO boards seems to less moderated now than ever before. Certain fora like television and radio seem relatively lawless now compared to how they used to be. And other sub-forums where the moderation was always traditionally light touch are similarly dying on their arse. This shows to me the complete fallacy of blaming the slowdown of the site on moderation.

Boards is still lively enough for what it is, but the days of being able to spend hours on AH are a thing of the past. But are there many other big forums out there that are still booming in this day and age - there can't be many. There were other forums on the internet I would have frequented back in the day and the majority of them are currently alive in name only. Next to them boards is in rude heath.

I don't know if anything can be "done" as such. Times have changed and boards is a bit old fashioned. Everyone I know uses Reddit - I never hear boards mentioned in conversation, aside from people occasionally talking about how they used to post on it.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954831#Comment_121954831

Modding isn't the issue. The site never really recovered from the DDoS attack a few years back and the extended unscheduled downtime during the changeover to Vanilla - followed by the absolute shìtshow that was the change in interface - did the rest of the damage.

As much as I and others want it to be otherwise, Boards is dying a death and has been for quite a while.

r3nu4l

I'm a former Admin, Category Mod and Mod on this site. People have been complaining about Mods, since the day I joined this site. Some mods are excellent, some are good, some not so much and some are sh*t.

Admins do take note of such things and in my time as an Admin and before my time, some mods were demodded. Irish law is not kind to site owners in the way US law is, so Reddit will always allow stronger opinions and commentary than Boards can. As such, some mods need to be a bit more heavy handed on some threads. They're human, they sometimes get things wrong but Boards would have been dead from lawsuits at the height of its fame if it weren't for the mods. Most mods on this site really are excellent though and they do sometimes receive a lot of abuse.

As for recommendations, I once had to siteban two accounts because one was a shill for a weight loss clinic and the other was his second, sockpuppet account. He used both accounts to hold conversations with each other about the supposedly great experience one of the accounts had when using the weight loss clinic. Hundreds of posters were invested in this thread and these seemingly genuine experiences. That was really unfair to people looking for genuine recommendations.

Rubberchikken

ITa not on young peoplea, under 30, radar.

With them it's Reddit plus whatever else is out there.

Having said that there are some good helpful posters on here with advice etc when needed.

The mods are what they are. Probably some of them doing it too long

They lost me as a reader/poster For a long time when they went to vanilla. The site became disastrous and I just couldn't deal with it.

Came back last year with the tubridy carry-on. Some great posts on that.

It'll struggle on but they'll only have themselves to blame when they go south.

Sephiroth_dude

Mod

Moved to feedback.

tayto lover

I like Boards and even though i've had plenty of cards and bans over the years I don't blame the mods. I actually had good discussions on message with them. Its fast enough for me as i'm no chicken now.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954831#Comment_121954831

yip. That’s it. Prime example today, the dirty dog J.Donaldson and boards mods first reaction is you cant post about it. Deleting posts in a frenzy

And I fully expect to be banned or warned….again for this. Because heaven forbid we say anything bad about the mod-excellence

28064212

Amazing how every one of these threads is always posted by someone with a rereg date within the last few months. Almost as if it's someone who's telling everyone how site can't keep any users, while also being absolutely incapable of staying away from the site.

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954844#Comment_121954844

This is partly it, alright. Am I right in saying the mods are not paid?

But being unable to discuss current court cases and ongoing issues due to court proceedings is ridiculous. This is not the established media with standards. X, reddit, and other forums are way ahead on this type of thing.

Gusser09

To be fair the site would be even quieter and without the re regs.

They arent the problem.

sporina

boards was class pre Vanilla.. the changeover was a bullet.. slowly dying..

Notmything

Maybe serial re-reggers could stop joining up to say how bad this place is.

con747

Only a matter of time before the thread is shut down after being moved here.

riffmongous

Reddit is next to useless for discussion though, they might allow controversial posts but unpopular posts, including most likely your controversial one, are self censored by the community

evolvingtipperary101

How do you know if someone is re-regger?

Mehaffey1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954958#Comment_121954958

If you throw them in water and they float, they're a re-reg…if they drown they deserved it.

Mehaffey1

It's just the format and how people use the internet that is killing boards. There's no way of preserving it long term just prolonging the decline. People, including myself, are getting more and more used to either a 10 minute video on Youtube vs watching a movie, then it's watching a 30 sec TikTok vs a 10 minute Youtube video. The attention span and willingness to put in effort online is just getting less and less.

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954936#Comment_121954936

A mod shouldn't need to be paid to be consistent in their actions.

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954820#Comment_121954820

The tech fora are prime examples of that.

Once upon you could ask the most niche question and a detailed answer would appear in minutes

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954971#Comment_121954971

But their only 'pay' in that scenario is the "power" of being a mod. They're, ultimately, being used. That's problematic on multiple levels.

nearly every second poster is seeking to be offended and needs to be protected by the mods (mummy)

Then the mods jump on and ban/warn etc. less regulation might help

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954986#Comment_121954986

I don't think the argue the post, not the poster is the problem here. That's a good rule. But it's only applied on the subjective whim of a mod. They're human and have their faves. And if you've had an issue with a mod who mods a forum/thread they let whomever do whatever to you after that. And it's easy for them to justify. Another issue.

Arghus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954957#Comment_121954957

That's the thing - old school message boards are just way superior for actual discussion. The format lends itself to linear and ongoing discussion.

The likes of Reddit, as busy and all as it is, are painful to use and experience for that kind of thing. You'd never scroll through a Reddit thread in its entirety to see what people are saying - well I wouldn't any way. It just becomes a disjointed collection of random opinions.

It does lend itself to the constant repetition you'll see on Reddit. Threads start, they blow up for a while, die away, someone else starts a thread on the same subject shortly afterwards and the cycle repeats itself. There's no "memory" There's threads here that have ran for years and, at their best, are repositorys for poster's knowledge and advice etc that's built up over time. Reddit doesn't have this kind of archive. It's absolutely one thing going for it that boards has that Reddit doesn't.

Fully agree with the downvoting phenomenon turning things into an echo chamber. But, on the other hand, the equal prominence given to every post on a message board thread can often mean that the most overbearing and/or witless are given more oxygen than is due. Double edged sword I guess.

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954763#Comment_121954763

It's Phasing out not fazing out! Tch, the younger generation...!

realdanbreen

12

walshb

Mods seem far too eager to shut down and stifle debate, fearing whatever it is they think is fearful. Maybe they’re way too preoccupied in legal mumbo-jumbo. Case in point today regarding an OTT fear of discussing Jeffrey Donaldson.

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954919#Comment_121954919

Why were you a chicken before?

Patrick Mahomes

Even moving this thread from After Hours to a quieter part of the site that sees less traffic is a way of killing a discussion that is critical of the site and some of the moderation is just typical.

Regards,

p..

yagan

Internet forums have suffered since social media took off.

Plus a lot of the demographic that was active in the first decade are mostly settled down now with kids taking up all their free time.

Padre_Pio

I remember a few years back where every thread on the home page was had a new comment less than 2 minutes old, unless it was the dead of night.

Just goes to show how the interaction has decreased.

For me the issues are A. the vanilla update being so poorly executed. Never mind the site being down, but the site design is still stuck in the early 2000s. B. deleting comments and thread with no warning or context C. The demographics changing, less casual posters and more "extreme" views

It seems the joy and the chat has disappeared. There's a certain bitterness and feeling that posters are only commenting to push an agenda.