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

Irish Aris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006528#Comment_122006528

I think forum games can still be run but we can't organise enough numbers to make the games meaningful. We did an x factor a few weeks ago. I'm I'm between jobs now so I will try to organise a walrus. 🙂

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006528#Comment_122006528

Games hosts use excel to tot up scores and they don't format correctly in Vanilla. For werewolf games you need to be able to isolate one player's posts and read them, that's tricky with Vanilla whereas in Vbulletin you could just click on the number of posts from the home page and select a player there, you could also select a specific forum from their profile page.

suvigirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006528#Comment_122006528

Yeah, I can't remember why it stopped, was definitely the best thing on boards

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006434#Comment_122006434

Well I think you are being a bit offhand there about the posts on this thread which is what you said . I didn't misread you saying " this thread " .

People are taking time to say how they feel about the site . And the vast majority are putting themselves out there to do it .

We will have to try harder it seems ! ;)

I get your point about loads of rubbish being posted as opposed to quality but if that is the yardstick you, for example, are using , I would be very concerned as to what and who would be accepted to post in a closed group.

There is not a whole load of rubbish being posted here , at least I don't think so .

But I guess I am not talking about soccer :)

Furze99

Here are two examples that I've noticed today that really reflect some of the ills of Boards.

First up we have a thread in the Politics forum on the upcoming Unified Patent Court referendum. As a citizen that will be voting on this, I've raised a few pertinent questions - perfectly reasonable and sane questions such as why we are having this referendum from a political pov in that they are inherently risky for the gov of the day and in association with this, has there been lobbying for this vote to take place and who might benefit the most. In other words the sort of questions and thoughts that are perfectly suited to a Boards Politics forum. I look up the Dáil debate and advice from likes of Chartered Accountants etc. No one can answer these and the general thinking is just vote yes as it's good - mom & apple pie etc.

Then we get this below: WTF?? You'd swear I was a member of some fifth column, not just a voter/ poster with an interest!! What else is supposed to be discussed on this thread? Baffling.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006078#Comment_122006078

Secondly, apparently the activist Gemma O'Doherty is arrested this morning. In among the largely derogatory comments, we get these two choice observations from a CMod:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004449#Comment_122004449

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004757#Comment_122004757

Dark Horse who is a CMod tells us "She's a hateful menace and she deserves everything she gets." & "She's a vile human being. It really is that simple."

If this is the sort of written abuse that moderators can dish out on a thread, why shouldn't ordinary regular posters be as forthright? And what would any new user make of this, what sort of an example is this?

These two examples just plucked from today make a nonsense of the new vision of thoughtful moderation and the calls for all users to be moderate in their choice of words.

I won't be making any friends for sure posting these examples but there's a fierce amount of hypocrisy at times here.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006039#Comment_122006039

this thread for example has 38 pages for example but every post is not worth reading.

This is what you said, you have dismissed some posts here, nothing to do with soccer.

It doesn't surprise me that you're the mod/cmod/admin to do that though.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006934#Comment_122006934

Yeah so every single post here is feedback is it?
all 38 pages are absolutely crucial and important feedback correct?
there’s absolutely no griping, arguing or anything else that wouldn’t be considered feedback whether site wide or forum specific?

My recollection is there’s plenty of complaining about specific mods and forums of which the admin needed to step in and put a stop to it.

So yeah all 38 pages are not feedback and not all the feedback is even possible to implement anyway so I’m sorry but can you please not misrepresent my post and accuse me of disregarding feedback thanks.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006889#Comment_122006889

No hypocrisy at all similar to you Burke thread carry on, if you go looking to be offended on the behalf a laughing stocks thats on you, not the moderation team.

You seem to be desperatly dancing on the borderline of suicude by mod for yonks.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006680#Comment_122006680

I’ve been following this thread since it opened and I can tell you now there’s plenty of posts that are just griping rather than providing actual feedback.

Honestly why I’m even entertaining this is beyond me it’s absolutely crazy. I’m trying to illustrate a point that quantity doesn’t equal quality. Every thread with 1000’s of posts doesn’t mean top quality content. A post count is not a metric of success of a forum either or indeed a thread.

Take it another way if you want I can’t help you there, but if you think I’m disregarding the feedback provided I am certainly not. I have in fact adjusted my own approach based on the feedback here.

Including recently applying a time limited threadban as opposed to “open ended” and being mindful in my attempts to discuss warnings etc with posters who wish to dispute them.

Overall I am keeping in mind the concerns and criticisms raised here and I take great exception to any notion I am waving off the feedback as anything but important.

But you are surely not telling me that every single one of the posts here is feedback. Even now our back and forth is not feedback actually. It’s disproportionately outraged response to my attempt to draw parallels between quality over quantity and how a forum being closed to the public and having a lower post count as a result doesn’t mean it’s “dying” or indeed that a splurge of extra posters having immediate and unrestricted access would improve the forum. As is the core point being argued re soccer that leaving it closed means it’s going to die.

If I came across as if I am hand waving the absolutely vital feedback provided by our mods and users then I sincerely apologise. It was not my intention at all.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006889#Comment_122006889

can you provide an example of any regular poster being infracted for critiquing Gemma as per the example above?

Otherwise it doesn’t really make any sense what your complaint is? They were not speaking to or about a poster on boards calling them these names.

Gemma IS a hateful lunatic! She thinks Hitler is great and the Jews made up the holocaust I mean cmon man.

callaway92

Are you allowed say things like that about someone on here? (ie saying Gemma O’ Doherty is a ‘hateful lunatic’)

Just curious is all

I just feel like if something like that was said about a sportsperson or soemtbing the treatment would be different (negative treatment)

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004059#Comment_122004059

Yeah, if you want to tell yourself the soccer forum is busy then more power to you, but those of us around for a few years know that it is a ghost town compared to how it used to be. Most active sports forum on boards is like me saying I'm the fastest in my family and thinking that that proves I'm fast.

Like has already been pointed out, that feedback thread got only 14 replies. You have a Manchester United thread that gets single digit daily posts at times. Do you know how many posts were in that thread on 24th March? The answer is 4. On the 25th March? None. Zero posts in a Manchester United thread, you want to call that active? That club used to get people posting in the dead of summer, now its dead in the middle of season, who are we kidding here?

So be it. Personally I think the mods would be perfectly happy for it to remain quiet and easy to manage.

Last thing I'll say because why bother, but look at that feedback thread again. Here is a quote from it.

Making Soccer more visible in particular when using the search function is something we will discuss with Admins.

Thats nine months ago, I wonder how that discussion went.

There are 30 posts in the 2022 soccer feedback thread and they are almost a carbon copy of the discussion here now. People like that the trolls are gone but the forum is too hard to find and there are concerns about the traffic. Mods have concerns about opening it up but will take feedback on board and update on any changes.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058253225/soccer-forum-feedback-2022

Its basically been a few years now, seems clear there is no intention of changing the status quo.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007109#Comment_122007109

It really depends on if that person is a lunatic?

Like it'd be hard to say it about someone here as anyone praising Hitler or denying the holocaust likely aint gunna be around long enough to get called out.

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007036#Comment_122007036

Some of the comments by the mods are unbelievable - after that level of hatred how can they have any credibility with the average boardsie?

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007141#Comment_122007141

I get you. Just feels wrong that mods seem to be happy out making those kinds comments. In the end of the day it’s a family member of someone potentially on here etc.

Vote4Squirrels

Back to negativity sorry - and we all know who we’re taking about here - posters who openly troll by taking the absolute p*** out of genuinely held beliefs and carefully crafted opinions.

Why are they allowed to operate with impunity???

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007154#Comment_122007154

Haha, good one. Wait, you’re not serious, are you?

Vote4Squirrels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007154#Comment_122007154

There’s a “motoring and transport” moderator posting in the “attack oh motorists” thread and is clearly anti-car.

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007187#Comment_122007187

Crazy shhhhheeeitttt if true

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007154#Comment_122007154

What hatred? Those banging the edgy perma-victim drum have zero credibility.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007160#Comment_122007160

I cant imagine any family member of Gemma's disagreeing with the sentiment tbh.

Sometimes people are actually just a big auld bag of cùnt. Granted its harsh but in some cases its just an actual fact and said bag has brought it completely upon themselves so sympathy will be in incredibly minute supply.

callaway92

Fair

Have just seen warnings that myself and others have gotten and neither of us would’ve thought the other warranted a warning (saying stuff like ‘you’ve lost the plot’), but it’s ok to call other people lunatics etc then!

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007187#Comment_122007187

If it's the mod I think you mean they don't moderate on motoring, they moderate on aviation and similar. A list of who mods what here.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674422#Comment_118674422

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007242#Comment_122007242

There is a different standard if you are addressing another poster versus commenting on a public figure.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122003156#Comment_122003156

I'm not suggesting that everything CA would become unavailable unless you requested access.

Rather, I am suggesting there is a space created to allow a particular type of conversation to happen without it impacting the rest of the site.

Take for example the topic of the conflict in Gaza. That is a discussion that evokes very strong feelings, and I feel that sometimes with threads like that on here, those feelings are unnecessarily curtailed because of the moderation that exists. And the moderators would say that the moderation that exists is absolutely necessary (which I dispute) to keep the site pleasant for most users.

A consequence of this is a lot of displeasure about the moderation around these threads (this thread = exhibit A). So its to help deal with that I am proposing a members only type corner of Boards. I'm not suggesting personal abuse that crosses a line or genuinely inappropriate stuff, but that line is not as restricting as it currently is.

Take for the example that was given on here yesterday of someone who feels that Moderation on a CA thread was excessive. They say they were accused of being racist, but that they weren't. I disagree with their view, strongly, but I'd be ok with letting them say what they said and being called out on it on thread.

I was warned and then banned for saying something was an idiotic statement with the mod justifying this saying 'It was the same as calling the poster an idiot'. I'm in my mid 40's discussing a highly contentious public current affairs topic and being treated like a kid. That interaction was one of the straws that broke the camels back for me in walking away from the site.

So this is a proposal to create an environment where mods don't feel the need to moderate as they are doing so because of the fear of the impact that that is having on areas of the site with heavy traffic.

Say this area of CA was set up, threads could exist within it that exist in the open area of CA (or AH or wherever) as well as the members only area. In the same way as threads that exist in CA and Politics. But the level of contribution is expected to be different in the two areas, and the moderation is also.

I feel this could allow more 'real world' (non problematic) debates on these topics, and would result in less acrimony towards the Mods who attract such acrimony at the moment with their particular style/influence in these spaces.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007242#Comment_122007242

Its not acceptable to call another forum member having lost the plot. It falls under the basic civility rules.

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007258#Comment_122007258

Doesn’t seem right. Was healthy discussion with me and another poster and warnings just completely sucked the life out of things then. I think he even got a thread ban for harmless stuff.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007270#Comment_122007270

See my post just before yours in this respect.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007093#Comment_122007093

I'm genuinely baffled. Surely one the very first duties of a moderator on this site is to protect it against libel??

Your words above that this person 'Gemma IS a hateful lunatic' along with Capall's slurs are just very ill advised. Do you think before you hit Post?

I wouldn't be a great fan exactly of the proposed Hate Speech bill but if it addresses this sort of language directly used against an individual, well maybe it's needed.

If I used language like this against a named individual, I'd expect to be banned!

soap1978

Boards is done ,they ruined it a few years ago when they change the site,no app either ,the man utd chat use to be very busy has gone now because of the new way of doing things

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007160#Comment_122007160

ah Jesus man it’s like you’re taking the mick? Gemma o Doherty, the same one who’s been arrested and in court tomorrow for harassing a woman who’s son died, falsely claiming he died as a result of Covid vaccines and you’re worried one of her family members might see?

Look, I think it’s safe to say Gemma’s family is well aware of craic. Does it strike you at all as maybe a bit weird you never hear of her family being in support, to my knowledge they didn’t attend court yesterday for instance. I doubt they’ll be there tomorrow either.

Tell me this if I warned you for calling O’Doherty a lunatic would you accept that or take it to DRP? Seriously?