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

Big Bag of Chips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021640#Comment_122021640

Honestly, I'm not going back over 45 pages to outline that to you now!! Have a read back yourself to see what we've highlighted as possible to change and what we've already ruled as simply not workable.

It's a 45 page thread that needs to be worked through. Discussion is already ongoing with moderators. Feedback will be provided, and moderators in individual forums will also be making changes that will be noticeable to the users. Charters may need to be updated. Moderators will be responsible for their own forums and will be the ones implementing any changes.

As mentioned by Mike, some suggestions made involve changes to the layout of forums etc. These are all things that need to be discussed and investigated.

Feedback will be provided over the coming weeks.

EmmetSpiceland

I, personally, think that the first “take away”, from all of this, is that the majority of the site stand behind the Mods and Admins.

Yes, it has to be said, there is a vocal, and disgruntled, minority but, it should be noted, they are a very small minority.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021723#Comment_122021723

Grand and hope you find some solutions and guidelines to help stabilise the site, keep current posters and attract more.

To follow up on an earlier thought of yours as I recall - all moderators at various levels should be reviewing how they both interact with threads themselves, if at all and how they interact with posters. And of course, how they manage threads in an unbiased and fair manner.

As has been noted by several people, the age profile of most boards users is likely 25+. It's not a school playground, lecturing and warning posters as if they are bold kids is entirely counter productive. It's an attitude that is more likely to drive away users.

The site has many practical forums that are useful and largely uncontroversial, these tend to have lower participation but serve a purpose. Sporting threads also generate a lot of mostly non controversial activity. Soccer is completely invisible to most. Threads on AfterHours/ Current Affairs/ IMHO/ Politics/ Media matters all attract more usage and controversy and are needed to drive site use.

The site has to balance reasonable interaction between posters with threads that are of interest and attract debate. Shutting down or censoring what might or might not be controversial threads is counter productive. We're all aware that other social media platforms like to court and even encourage heated debate in order to drive up stats and generate more advertising. It's a reasonable marketing approach. Just a matter of how it's managed. IMHO it's not managed well on the whole at the moment, too much personal bias and over caution.

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021629#Comment_122021629

Yes, I think there was a very short period where the site was using the default skin but I think that was only on mobile. I don't remember the desktop version looking much different.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021265#Comment_122021265

It's not often possible. Take this new user, wading in with great gusto:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122020756#Comment_122020756

There's a high degree of probability that their previous moniker(s) will be found on Page 1. But which one?

And of course, they could be a completely genuine new user of the site.

Regardless, why not just let them at it.

blackbox

Some people would like to cut it down, but I like the fact that there are so many categories and sub forums. It's a great source of information.

I have no problems with moderation on the site. Undoubtedly some mistakes get made, but I can live with that. I don't see any conspiracy. I'm generally not in favour of closing threads.

What I would really like to see is to get the search function back to where it was before vanilla.

Boards.ie: Mike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021880#Comment_122021880

Stop discussing other threads here!

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022113#Comment_122022113

? I'm simply referencing it as an example of why Beasty's mod advice is impractical. Surely one has to give at least an example? No interest at all in discussing the thread referenced, could be one of many.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022100#Comment_122022100

there are too many dead/overly specialist forums. to pick on the military forum; there have been 11 threads active in 2024 in the main forum, and it has six subforums, with a grand total of 8 threads in those active in 2024. why not unify them all under the main forum?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022493#Comment_122022493

That takes me back…

Politics used to have the main forum and four subfora: United States, European Union, Political Theory, & International Politics. We quite rightly consolidated them into the main forum since they were all but dead (save for the 2016 election thread) but of course the moment we did, someone complained and wanted the back!

Feels like so long ago now.

Tom Mann Centuria

If there's to be a slimming down. My beloved Rugby League doesn't really need it's own forum now (much as I loved modding it for a pretty long time, it probably never had enough interest to justify it's own forum and I think the Admins were extremely kind to me in keeping it open).

It could happily sit in a Thread in Rugby and that'd be one less forum on the list (preferably stickied to make it easier to find but the lads in "Rugby" might prefer it not to be clogging up the front page).

JP Liz V1

Having a working search function would be great, eliminate or merge duplicate threads

Ezeoul

Having a hide thread or hide forum function, as mentioned earlier, would be useful.

con747

Can we bring back this chap?

Larry Bee

While I don't post here very often I spend way too much time reading Boards and I'd really like to thank all the mods/cmods/administrators for putting so much time and effort into keeping the site running. Like someone above said I think most people are behind the mods and that they do a great job. There are some inconsistencies but you'll always get them. I'd like to see some more communication and explanation into some of their decisions - they may be making the same decisions hundreds of times a week and think its obvious why the decision has been made but the posters/reader in question it may be the first time.

I'd like to see the some charters being updated or stickies put up to let posters know that there is going to be a crackdown on trolling and then the mods enforce it. I think that's the best way of dealing with that.

I also think that there are way to many forums. I don't know if there is a way to see when forums have have been last used, but I'd imagine there is some ghost towns there.

Also I'd like to see the The Cooking Club coming back.

John

osarusan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021271#Comment_122021271

Don't agree with this - it can be very obvious that a new poster is a rereg without being certain which one of a number of recently banned posts they are a rereg of.

The mods/admin can use whatever tools are at their disposal to do a bit of investigation.

Same with reporting posts - report it if you think something is wrong, then it's up to the mods.

tayto lover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122021804#Comment_122021804

There's no problem with the mods imo that can't be sorted out with a quick PM. I'm so popular with them that i'm soon being appointed my own moderator.

Boards.ie: Mike

This discussion is now closed. We will make updates here as these issues are reviewed and discussed. Thank you all for your contributions to the thread.