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

deirdremf

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

And about the Donaldson thread, the whole business is in a different jurisdiction, so it's very hard to understand being banned from discussing it in an Irish as opposed to a UK forum. Mad altogether to think we're able to discuss and even disparage Trump in the US, Putin in Russia, but not something happening in the UK.

Shield

”Have you any suggestions how Boards can save itself?”

Yes! And I sent my ideas across to the sole owner of Boards some time ago but none of them were even discussed let alone trialled.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955650#Comment_121955650

depends on the forum. These days i action 100% of the reported posts from the fitness forum. There’s about 1 per month.

I banned someone for the first time in 5 years a couple of weeks ago. It was after warning multiple people for not arguing with moderation in the thread and politely asking for PMs.

We aren’t all trigger happy and drunk on power. I’d say very few of us are. If you’re being treated harshly, it’s probably because you were being a dickhead.

Having said that, I have stopped posting in AH and Current affairs because it feels pointless. Impossible to have a debate.

Bobson Dugnutt

In some ways the site has gotten better. There used to be a forum where total dorks and jobsworth dweebs would go around measuring the length, width and image size of posters’ signatures and reporting them if they were a pixel too big. This really used to happen.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954729#Comment_121954729

To do with site income versus potential legal costs. Big sites can afford to take a lot of risk owing to the sheer amount of advert income they enjoy.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955646#Comment_121955646

Before I looked at the head of your post I thought for a short moment if was valid 🤣

funkey_monkey

Reddit is dung. Consensus views are promoted and dissenting viewpoints are voted down. There is no real flow to the threads.

Ezeoul

The basic rule of "Don't be a dick" still stands.

But does it also apply to mods? Because I've seen some mods behaving like absolute dicks and not just on the forums they moderate.

Surely mods should be expected to behave in a manner that upholds the standards they are supposed to enforce on the rest of us?

Aside from that, as already stated, my biggest issue with the moderation on boards is the hit and miss inconsistency of how it is done.

Some posts/posters warned or sanctioned on thread while others saying the same thing or behaving worse in the same thread, go completely ignored by the mods.

It's frustrating to the point of giving up on some forums completely.

The Continental Op

I read a few of the posts here and then got fed an advert for this……………………

https://www.lightinthebox.com/en/p/i-may-be-old-but-i-got-to-see-retro-vintage-casual-street-style-men-s-3d-print-t-shirt-tee-sports-outdoor-holiday-going-out-t-shirt-black-navy-blue-ar_p18493696.html

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955924#Comment_121955924

I think he lost interest very soon after starting, if he ever had any interest that is.

ednwireland

130 replies in 2.5 hours , yeh nail the lid of the coffin shut.

🤔

Fr Tod Umptious

People complaining about moderation are like opposing fans at a sports event, they all give out about the ref.

It's the same with complaining it's gone too right wing, the other side are complaining it's gone too left wing.

The two week outage for the move to the new platform was a killer.

Soccer used to be a great forum for the likes of myself who don't follow a team but are generally interested.

Now it's a dead zone, lost, with nothing but team super threads.

Other sports forums like GAA have dried up.

In GAA you used to have a match thread for every game from the quarter finals onwards, now a single championship thread is sufficient.

I suppose it's just the way social media is going.

The tech specific forums are still good though for getting questions answered.

But things like Current Affairs is just full of cranks.

Big Bag of Chips

But does it also apply to mods? Because I've seen some mods behaving like absolute dicks and not just on the forums they moderate.

Surely mods should be expected to behave in a manner that upholds the standards they are supposed to enforce on the rest of us?

Yes it does. Moderators have been nudged, advised, warned etc just like other posters. Moderators have been spoken to about their style of moderating. And moderators have been demodded or quit themselves after being spoken to.

purifol0

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956134#Comment_121956134

I recognize all the posters in this thread. And it's not because I post often. The userbase is shrinking

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955650#Comment_121955650

This is exactly as I'd expect. The problem is the lack of any feedback loop on reports.

I'm not blaming you for this, but it would be great if posters were getting feedback to know if reports were accepted and actioned or not. This would help in knowing whether I'm wasting my time in making future similar reports.

Arghus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956134#Comment_121956134

Nothing brings the place back to life more than discussing its imminent death.

Say Your Number

I remember last year the Eurovision thread was noticeably quiet, especially during the voting and the Late Late Toy Show thread got as much posts as an average LLS thread in 2016, Rock and Metal forum has only had a handful of posts this last month.

This site probably will go for at least a few more years, but the difference between now and 5 years ago is definitely hard to ignore.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956272#Comment_121956272

It would be great if there were enough mods to provide feedback but there's not enough, and they're volunteers.

Boards struggled for mods when I was a mod/cat mod 6 or 7 years ago, I can only imagine the difficulties now. Hard enough to get through the reports without having to justify the action either way.

I don't bother reporting posts anymore, but I did appreciate the time posters took to report genuine problem posts.

BaywatchHQ

I've never had positive interactions with moderators online in general but the ones here are particularly aggressive and speak to you like a school teacher would. I have loads of warnings from them but learned to stop even opening their messages.

BaywatchHQ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121954871#Comment_121954871

I can't even use most sub reddits as I can never get my karma high enough. I usually post about blackpill incel related topics so it is very easy to rack up the down votes. Reddit is the perfect example of an echo chamber as they only allow views that are popular.

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955190#Comment_121955190

When it comes to that mod, I know I will be targeted. Multiple threads now. And that's because I complained about the mod and their treatment of posters on Feedback (related to the Tubridy thread). Numerous good posters lost due to the mod's behavior on that thread. Of course, that feedback thread was binned. The usual clique. Within a short time to that, I got banned from the Gangland thread for posting about drugs and their ties to gangland when it's about gangland hits. When I tried to create a gangland and drugs thread, it was closed because there was already a gangland thread!!! That's the kind of targeting posters are talking about and sick of, I'd imagine. Same mod warns me for posting about Donaldson's expenses from 2009 - yet it was absolutely nothing related to the recent charges which the mod said not to post about. You can't win. Looks like that mod has been taken off the thread now but no good to me or you when we've been warned or thread banned.

Strumms

this is an excellent post which really explains succinctly the problem with boards.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956036#Comment_121956036

Arghus

I think moderation is the epitome of an impossible task. There's no way to do it in a way that keeps everyone happy. Some people want more, some want less.

Without a degree of moderation the place would become a shytshow.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956317#Comment_121956317

Fair enough on the mod time demands. Even some automated system would be great, to tell us the outcome of each report.

Sephiroth_dude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956482#Comment_121956482

This is already being done, In CA or after hours for example if I or another mod warn a poster for something, generally we will edit the post and write "Mod warned for this"

Backstreet Moyes

The charter in CA really needs to be updated really because most bans are at the whim of mods.

Anyone who is a regular and not biased can see the bias towards certain posters.

Probably the best one was when people on the less favorable side were warned about talking about Biden in a Biden thread while the more favorable side kept on talking about Trump.

The Black Oil

Learned a lot here, whether it's the Cooking Club, parkrun, travel, how to run a marathon or buying cars. I've been a mod for 6 years and haven't banned anyone, though tbf, they're pretty non-controversial fora.

I can't think of any old school type message board I know that's thriving, though. Really started to drop off probably 10 years ago. It's a shame. Vanilla has made such an unholy mess this place, dreadful.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121956272#Comment_121956272

but that’s never been the case. Why do you suddenly need feedback when never before was it necessary?

Signore Fancy Pants

I'm here since 2007, it was great craic.

For me, the downfall started with the GDPR and account closure option, combined with discussion limits (rightly or wrongly), Vanilla clusterfcuk, changing demographics, and site leadership lack of communication killed it.

It's had a minor bounce back, but I'm not sure how long it realistically has left

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955650#Comment_121955650

" In at least 50% of the cases a moderator will decide no action is needed."

You see this is interesting and whilst it may only be a generalisation, it implies that in 50% of cases a moderator does intervene in some way. So the tactic by some of reporting posts is a valid one, you get a 1 in 2 'success' rate. Given that many posts are not reported and people just let them slide, it also implies that this is not a very efficient way of monitoring.

Obviously only certain people are privy as to who are serial reporters. It must be possible to generate reports of a posters reporting history.

FWIW, there are clearly forums where very little moderation is required. If I were to suggest an improvement, it would to assign a particular mod to contentious threads as they arise in AH/CA or elsewhere. Let them follow it but not participate in it and adjudge whatever actions are needed on the basis of the thread as a whole and the charter and with little or no input from reports. I'm fully aware and appreciate a lot of work is done on a voluntary basis. However the number of threads that are contentious and long running are not that great in number. This I think would be fairer in the round. As it is, it's impossible to express quite valid, every day and reasonable opinions on some threads without censure.