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

REDBULL68

Just to follow up ,if we can't discuss court cases in other countries ya may as well delete all the donald trump thread's.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121995183#Comment_121995183

Indeed you are dragging off topic with your comments about another poster . .an apology to that poster for the sxxxy behaviour would have been appropriate not from just you , two others involved in this here today whom I have had words with earlier about the same thing .

I was quite happy not to continue this and would have preferred not to be doing this here in front of the site but it really is not on , the way people have been behaving on those threads and ye just want to take a good long look at yourselves .

Never mind be asking others to look at THEIR behaviour , and the other two as well , sniping and bullying just because others have and are well able to express their own opinions but don't agree with you .

And coming on here to supposedly continue with impunity ?

Anyway said all I will say for now and will take whatever consequences I have to for this ..

Because that's what adults do .

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121993931#Comment_121993931

A good time to do that would probably have been when Boards moved to this new platform. It still tries to be a platform for everything on the internet, but there are way too many categories and sub-subforums.

Polar101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121994094#Comment_121994094

Letting threads evolve "naturally" would just lead to discussing the same things in every thread, and no-one would be able to follow any discussions.

Big Bag of Chips

@Ezeoul your first post on this thread said "I'll probably get a warning for this" yet here you still are, no warning.

You seem determined that your posts are not going to be liked by the moderators or admins. I have commented on some of your posts and your reply has been "sorry you don't like my post". I neither like not dislike them. I'm just discussing.

You yourself admitted that there is nothing positive about the forum. That you're here out of bad habit. From that I assume you also mean you don't even like posting here. So again I'm taking that to mean you don't even see your own contributions as positive. I said I didn't believe that you were getting nothing positive from the site. You reiterated that you couldn't think of anything. From that I assume you're pretty fed up (miserable?) posting here but can't stay away.

I've said it elsewhere on the thread that you'd make an excellent opposition politician because you argue against every point put forward. You have no idea what changes will be implemented. Yet are deciding nothing will change.

I have not hidden behind any "mod powers" on this thread. I have been open and honest. I have acknowledged a lot of excellent feedback and things that need to change. I have not blamed the posters for all the problems. Of course posters have their part to play too as they are the userbase. But if the site is to continue to move forward it will take changes, both in moderator and poster behaviour. That is not in doubt.

But much as you think you're wasting your time I am absolutely certain I am wasting my time trying to discuss anything with you, because you are immoveable in your stance. That's ok. I'm not here to change your mind. But just because you are unlikely to adjust yourself don't assume everyone else is too. The site will continue. You will no doubt continue to post. I just hope at some point you actually start to get some benefit from the site. Even if it's just the thrill of getting a moderator to argue with you, but not ban you!

(I am going to leave it there because there is nothing worse for posters than watching 2 posters locked in a circular argument. We are not going to agree, you are absolutely going to disagree with every point in this post, but that's ok. We don't need to agree but we can still move on)

Big Bag of Chips

Now... Is there anything to be said for getting back to a few positive suggestions. It went well, for a few posts!

knucklehead6

Some of the posts in this thread remind me of a scene in Tom Clancy's Book, Red Store Rising.

First Lieutenant Michael Edwards: Let's have an attitude check!
Tower crew: I hate this **** place!
Edawrds: Let's have a positive attitude check!
Tower crew: I'm positive I hate this **** place!
Edwards: Let's have a negative attitude check!
Tower crew: I don't like this **** place!
Edwards: Let's have a short attitude check!
Tower crew: Fuckit!

Vote4Squirrels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121995537#Comment_121995537

I had a rough day yesterday and the Trivially Annoying posts made me smile!

Tom Mann Centuria

If following has been said before apologies.

Would changing thread titles to make them more Google search friendly help traffic?

In the (inferior brand of 😃) Rugby forum, you have popular and busy threads dedicated to the Provinces. As an example Munster's thread is called:
Munster Team Talk Thread - Snymans are(n't) Forever

Would that get more eyes from the almighty Google if it included keywords like Rugby, News, Discussion in the thread title?

Munster Rugby Team Talk, News and Discussion thread - Witty bit at the end.

I've no idea, but I'd be interested to know if this kind of thing makes any difference at all, or is it as I suspect, pissing in the wind.

As a suggestion for what boards can do, bring Soccer and Ranting and Raving out of Groups, allow anyone to post and put it with the rest of the forums.

osarusan

You facilitate more positivity across forums/the site by removing relentless, grinding, contrarian negativity.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121994885#Comment_121994885

I wouldn't worry. It's the same handful complaining about Mods again. It's not representative.

Shoog

I like to share my knowledge especially in the area of DIY energy efficiency and Campervans (though that has gone a bit dead of late). I like the fact that you can get a quick response to technical questions in an Irish context. My first post, and the reason for joining in the first place, was when I was running my car on home filtered veg oil and there was a bit of a buzz around that whole area back then.
I enjoy the political discussion but find there is a lot of the sort of trolling from the right wingers here and it will kill a discussion dead. I have been moderated and thread banned and ultimately I think there is just about the right balance between open discussion and closing down the personal hate that tends to creep in.
I personally think that the forum is doing fine.

Arghus

Why do I still use boards?

Well, a lot of it is habit. Being here for years - but aside from just habit I still enjoy a lot of it.

I like how it's a big catch all forum with an Irish slant. You can find conversations about a wide variety of subjects. There's some great knowledge and great posters still on here. I use Reddit - or, more accurately,I look at it - but I just find the conversations more natural on here. I like how many good threads and forums have been going for years. A lot of good posters and knowledge are no longer here - but there's still many good posters and threads etc to be found.

I tend to avoid CA in the main I think posting in there is largely a waste of time. I think if you spend the majority of your time there you'll probably have a very different impression of the site than people who never go near it.

Vote4Squirrels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121994448#Comment_121994448

@Big Bag of Chips I know we are keeping it positive but one way would be that when a poster slanders two others and it gets ignored, that makes for a negative experience. Thanks in advance.

Ezeoul

You yourself admitted that there is nothing positive about the forum. That you're here out of bad habit.

For the record, while I did say I was here out of habit - I never said there was "nothing positive" about the forum.

However, after being told (by an Admin) on thread that I contribute nothing to the site, I am done here.

I'm out.

suvigirl

I loved the old competitions that used to run here before the change over. I'm not sure what it was that stopped them running the way they did, but they're a massive loss, entertaining, light hearted and a bit of fun.

I have had a few different posters on here go out of their way to give me assistance, even in real life about issues I had posted on. You wouldn't get that elsewhere online.

The post of the day was great too.

JP Liz V1

@Gormal and others are good contributers with competitions to enter

It's nice to get a win or hear of others winning

archfi

….

ozmo

A thread I was following for a couple years - got a reply to day - I went to view it and saw the whole thread deleted -

Why would a mod delete this thread - people take the time to post - I think this site, being(or was) the top Irish forum, has a responsibility in archiving what people take time to post - in this case a very useful reminder/tip on not getting your driving test cancelled - an expensive mistake.

When would a thread lock be justified ? - When would a whole thread delete be justified? - how much more of boards data has been deleted?

Right now - you can see the post still in google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=Driving+test+cancelled+due+to+the+disc+strip+is+faded+from+green+to+blue&safe=active&ssui=on

Vote4Squirrels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121996767#Comment_121996767

I was going to suggest like a poster of the week, mod of the month, something along those lines ?

Discussion of the week maybe ?

Leg End Reject

On the subject of deleting threads, why are non-contentious threads started by a banned rereg automatically deleted? Why not let them run?

I can understand if it's a deliberately inflammatory thread, but surely others could be left.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121997353#Comment_121997353

usually not to give them oxygen

Ten of Swords

When a rereg is banned typically all of their content is removed. Removing post #1 of any thread means the entire thread is removed

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121997353#Comment_121997353

We have to remove so many re-reg and troll accounts that it would simply be a massive time sink to analyse every thread they create to see if it's worth keeping or not.

In general, I will nuke the account if they haven't got a lot of posts.

For the very few re-regs / trolls that manage to accrue a large post count before getting caught I will generally leave their content as it can cause a bit of a mess deleting a lot of posts.

Shan Doras

Has boards considered doing a gofundme type campaign to move to a better platform than vanilla?

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121996767#Comment_121996767

I was just about to mention the 'Post of the day' thing too. I remember when the thanks function was first introduced to the site and that was a cool little feature that resulted from it.

If I remember correctly, there was an account that 'liked' all the Post of the Day posts and you could click on that account's profile to look back through all the best posts.

Some of the charity fund raising stuff was great. Lots of boardsies in their nip in public spaces there for a bit. 😁