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People on boards, are you also on reddit and which one is better?

1356

Comments

  • #62
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,728 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Your Face wrote: »
    I like different things.

    No. You must choose!


  • #63
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,728 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    Also, why should the most 'liked' comment be top?

    Why should the first comment by top? Often it makes no sense when a better answer to the questions asked or topic raised can be found deep in the thread (or not found because of that).

    Reddit and boards are different and I use them in different ways but if I had to drop using them I'd miss Reddit more.


  • #64
    r93kaey5p2izun
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,962 ✭✭✭r93kaey5p2izun


    Earthhorse wrote: »
    Why should the first comment by top? Often it makes no sense when a better answer to the questions asked or topic raised can be found deep in the thread (or not found because of that).

    But better is subjective in most discussions. You're putting a lot of faith in a bunch of anonymous users to pick what you read for you if you stick with this layout. I just can't see the appeal


  • #65
    um7y1h83ge06nx
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,029 ✭✭✭um7y1h83ge06nx


    curiousoranje wrote: »
    Hiding away useful forums and replacing them with useless 'talk to ' forums where every thread consists of a question and a reply of "pm us" or hypocritically selling out to gearbest. Madness.

    That drives me mad, if the majority of responses are "pm us" they may as well just stick to emails.

    Also the new site is total utter shìt, completely dumbed down. And it's not if the legacy site was complicated to use in the first place.

    Of course r/Ireland had an interesting thread on a very senior Boards person leaving, supposedly a post went up on Boards and was rapidly taken down. Maybe some fresh staff might help turn things around.

    Oh and I've starting using Reddit in the past month as a Boards replacement as things are getting quieter here. I'm getting to like it.


  • #66
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,728 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Selena Zealous Sticker wrote: »
    But better is subjective in most discussions. You're putting a lot of faith in a bunch of anonymous users to pick what you read for you if you stick with this layout. I just can't see the appeal

    Rather that than blind luck.


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  • #67
    The Moldy Gowl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,889 ✭✭✭✭The Moldy Gowl


    Selena Zealous Sticker wrote: »
    But better is subjective in most discussions. You're putting a lot of faith in a bunch of anonymous users to pick what you read for you if you stick with this layout. I just can't see the appeal

    On the big threads it's usually a few thousand up votes and you can collapse a comment so it goes away.
    Saves you reading through pages and pages of people bickering.


  • #68
    Outlaw Pete
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,423 ✭✭✭✭Outlaw Pete


    Earthhorse wrote: »
    Why should the first comment by top? Often it makes no sense when a better answer to the questions asked or topic raised can be found deep in the thread (or not found because of that).

    Why does it 'make no sense' though? Reddit threads are discussions at the end of the day and so how can you follow a discussion when the replies are sorted by popularity? I get that it would be interesting to see which replies people liked best (and I think Boards should make it easier to do that here) but I just don't see why they should be sorted that way by default.

    It's also a self fulfilling prophecy in many ways as posts being displayed first will see that they remains so, given that they will undoubtedly get a disproportionate amount of likes based on their positioning alone. Posts seen more.. will be liked more.
    Reddit and boards are different and I use them in different ways but if I had to drop using them I'd miss Reddit more.
    I like both also. Both have their pluses and minuses for sure.


  • #69
    The Moldy Gowl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,889 ✭✭✭✭The Moldy Gowl


    It's easier to get the info that way pete. It floats to the top particularly with big events.
    The facts are there and I can tap the comment to make it go away and move down to the next one.
    Far easier to browse.


  • #70
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,728 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    Why does it 'make no sense' though?

    It makes as much sense as ordering it chronologically.
    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    Reddit threads are discussions at the end of the day and so how can you follow a discussion when the replies are sorted by popularity?

    Because each top level comment is the beginning of a discussion in and of itself. The top level comments are posted in reply to the original topic and then people reply to those as they see fit. It's easy to follow the discussion, they just tend to be more granular and shorter on Reddit.


  • #71
    anothernight
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,539 ✭✭✭anothernight


    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    It's also a self fulfilling prophecy in many ways as posts being displayed first will see that they remains so, given that they will undoubtedly get a disproportionate amount of likes based on their positioning alone. Posts seen more.. will be liked more.

    The algorithm Reddit uses when sorting by "best" (the default), accounts for age. It calculates what "best" is by taking into account the number of upvotes and the age of the comment so that new comments aren't penalised for being new and therefore often having fewer upvotes, compared to an older comment.

    What you're saying happens if you sort by "top", which is sorting by raw vote count.


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  • #72
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    Wibbs wrote: »
    Good luck with that T. Nobody's listening. Oh sure, every so often one of the staff will make a pronouncement that they're listening, but nothing changes, or very rarely, so it's mostly platitudes. They're still pushing the utterly stupid "responsive site", the only allowance to the mass WTF over it was to keep the legacy site going for a little longer. The category rejig which killed the site stone dead is still in play unless you go back to the old legacy. Looking at the site now, it comes across as a knock off donedeal, a turnkey help desk system for Irish business(which doesn't like complaints) and a "topics" menu. Go back to the legacy layout and be shocked how big the site actually is. Or was.

    Looky here,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj4wcuo9Mgo


    I feel like partying!!!!


  • #73
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,387 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    _Tombstone_ wrote: »
    Looky here,


    I feel like partying!!!!
    If you like this site you really shouldn't T. Dav is not the problem. He might be the guy in the public view, but he lives and breathes this site/used to be community. And I say that as someone who has had disagreements with the chap in the past.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • #74
    Aongus Von Bismarck
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Aongus Von Bismarck


    I'm an occasional visitor to both. AH can be moderately amusing occasionally once you give a wide berth to the tedious threads that involve bores from the far left and right spouting their tiresome rubbish.

    I find reddit far superior for more specialised subjects. I'm a dilettante of military history and reddit has a number of forums that have really knowledgeable contributors to the discussions.

    I'm also a wine buff and there are a number of excellent subreddits dedicated to the subject. Discussions on wine here on boards seem to invariably descend into arguments about wine snobbery by posters whose own knowledge on the subject is limited to guzzling back 2 bottles of Château Topaz or Grand Cru Aldi 4.99.


  • #75
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 18,046 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I'm confused.. You post like you use reddit but not the same way everyone else does. Sorting by popularity could never work on boards.ie because there's only one line of posts.

    Not going to try and prove you wrong but do want to point out a couple of things.
    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    Can you imagine how that would go down on Boards, if threads were sorted by 'most liked' by default? Some of the biggest load of tripe ever posted on Boards (no offense Boards) has received a ton of thanks here. Also, discussions can start off with a lot of comments getting well thanked but ultimately the user will be shown to be incorrect within a few hours (sometimes a few days).

    Threads being sorted and posts being sorted a very different things. You can click NEW for either.

    On reddit, the biggest tripe ever posts can be closed and all replies disappear. On boards.ie, they can take over an entire conversation.
    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    Also, you ignored by point that often top posts on Reddit will be referencing other posts that have not been liked and so how the hell can any user know if what is being said in the well liked post is true or not. I have often been on reddit and then had to go hunting for posts which I had read being referenced in those top posts. Highly irritating. Discussions should flow and be read as they take place. It's really not a good reflection on today's society that people only want to see what the consensus says is good. Fcuk the consensus.

    Could you explain what this means? I don't know how a top post can reference another post in such a way that it's hard to find.. Either it's linked or it's the parent?

    Again, I feel like you think every post on a page is sorted by popularity. That's not how it works.. Every parent is sorted and then each child under it. Each of which can be collapsed.
    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    Why does it 'make no sense' though? Reddit threads are discussions at the end of the day and so how can you follow a discussion when the replies are sorted by popularity? I get that it would be interesting to see which replies people liked best (and I think Boards should make it easier to do that here) but I just don't see why they should be sorted that way by default.


    It's also a self fulfilling prophecy in many ways as posts being displayed first will see that they remains so, given that they will undoubtedly get a disproportionate amount of likes based on their positioning alone. Posts seen more.. will be liked more.
    And again.. Reddit threads aren't discussions. They're groups of discussions. You read one at a time or collapse them if you don't like the parent / child post. It's incredibly easy to follow a discussion as it happens since derailing isn't a thing and the age of a post doesn't matter.

    On boards.ie, when a thread has 100 replies, the first 80 never get replied to because it would be as mess. On Reddit, the first chronological post could be the one discussed longest.

    Look at this post for example.. I'm quoting you from page 3 and page 5. On Reddit, all of this would be under the post on page 3 and everyone replying to you would be grouped together.

    It's not a self-fulfilling prophecy at all. On Reddit, because it's so easy to collapse a set of posts, it's far easier to go and find the post parent you want to reply to and the conversation continues. I'd often collapse say 10 parents, thus skipping maybe 100 posts in a no time at all.



    Outlaw Pete wrote: »
    I like both also. Both have their pluses and minuses for sure.

    I don't think you understand the pluses of Reddit and you should give it another go, with RES extension installed.


    This is the structure.

    Opening post
    -Parent
    --Child
    --Child
    ---Child
    ---Child
    -Parent
    --Child

    And there's a dropdown at the top to change order.

    I just picked this one at random.. It's not great but visit https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4t9ono/what_is_something_people_do_in_2016_that_will_be/ and collapse the top level posts to see how conversations actually work.



    Why am I posting such a long message? Not to prove that it's better. But to explain some of the misconceptions many people have about Reddit. It's a great site, when you understand it and find the subs you're interested in. The tech it uses just encourages more conversation.. I get replied to 90% of the time as opposed to feck all here.


  • #76
    intheclouds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,175 ✭✭✭intheclouds


    What's "RES extension"?


  • #77
    anothernight
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,539 ✭✭✭anothernight


    intheclouds wrote: »
    What's "RES extension"?

    http://redditenhancementsuite.com

    It's a browser extension that makes using Reddit a lot nicer and easier to use. For example, RES lets you collapse comments under all replies in a particularly long thread, making it much easier to read the thread. You can then display comments for each individual reply, rather than having to look at everything in one go.

    It has a lot of very handy features. I wouldn't use Reddit without RES.


  • #78
    fg1406
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 433 ✭✭fg1406


    Reddit is much better. I like the collapsible views for long threads and comments that kinda take a way of their own. Also the mod heavy banning that goes on here is a lot less prevalent. More able to speak your mind without the fear of offending some power tripping mod. (And ban in ...3...2...1)


  • #79
    Guy:Incognito
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38,227 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    Liam Unimportant Jazz wrote: »
    That drives me mad, if the majority of responses are "pm us" they may as well just stick to emails.
    .

    You could always stick your account details on a public forum and see how you get on with that......


    Earthhorse wrote: »
    It makes as much sense as ordering it chronologically.


    .

    The punchline of a joke would probably prove the most popular part. You wouldnt want to read it first though.


  • #80
    anothernight
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,539 ✭✭✭anothernight


    Guy:Incognito wrote: »
    You could always stick your account details on a public forum and see how you get on with that......

    Does that not make you question whether the Talk To forum setup is fit for purpose? Same reps on Talk To as other customer service avenues for these businesses (email, phone call), but with the added step of being told to PM account details, rather than just stating them at initial contact.

    The punchline of a joke would probably prove the most popular part. You wouldnt want to read it first though.

    You wouldn't read it first on Reddit either though.


  • #81
    um7y1h83ge06nx
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,029 ✭✭✭um7y1h83ge06nx


    Guy:Incognito wrote: »
    You could always stick your account details on a public forum and see how you get on with that......

    True of course but why would these companies bother with Boards.ie at all. Surely it's not that difficult for a person to look up the Contact Us page of a company's website and ring/email/live chat them.

    I'm a customer of AIB, Bank of Ireland, Meteor, Electric Ireland (and Irish Water? best not to bring that up!) and wouldn't bother contacting them on here as it adds too many steps to dealing with someone 1:1 (Write a post, company employee sees it and asks you to PM them, you PM them and end up batting PMs back and forth).

    I'd love to know how much it's costing these companies to be on Boards and if they are getting concerned with the falling traffic numbers here.


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  • #82
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 12,694 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Cant get in to reddit I have tried the Irish bit is similar/no better that boards.

    What has happened to boards something, I don't like is that cranks and obsessives are given too long of a run for example their are threads on politics cafe that have long ago run their course and should have been locked I am sure it is the same on other forums. I suppose it all just all needs to be freshened up a bit.

    You will never please everyone with how it is moderated so their is no point in trying.


  • #83
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 21,740 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Thinly veiled "boards is crap, it used to be better, blaa blaa, mods, blaa blaa, I remember when, blaa blaa" thread.


  • #84
    The Moldy Gowl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,889 ✭✭✭✭The Moldy Gowl


    Not really. We all like boards to a degree but can see reddit has better content and better potential.

    A lot of this is the rules that are imposed by boards.


  • #85
    Notorious
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,167 ✭✭✭Notorious


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    Thinly veiled "boards is crap, it used to be better, blaa blaa, mods, blaa blaa, I remember when, blaa blaa" thread.

    It's true though. Well maybe not that part about it being better.

    Never liked the small community feel that was prevalent when I was a regular boards user. All the mods and the users with a high post count knew each other, met up regularly, and had their own secret groups on boards. If you spoke out against the clique, you'd face the wrath of the ban hammer.

    Reddit feels more anonymous. It's perfect for those of us who don't have the time to read through a 200+ post thread. With ten minutes to burn you can hop on Reddit, check out the top posts, easily see the top comments, and if you want more detail you can scroll down.

    There's 'boards' for everything too. Whether your niche is cute cat photos, PlayStation 2, Fender Amps, or interracial micro-penis bondage, you'll find that its up on Reddit with its own dedicated forum.

    You see a lot of old boards usernames on r/Ireland too.

    EDIT: they've awesome AMAs too.

    EDIT2 for the poster who complained about serious topics on /r: on Friday night there was news about the Turkish coup all over the media. On Reddit they had a huge thread with continuous updates from news outlets, Twitter and the like. There was bits of info on the history of Turkey and previous coups for those unaware of the goings on.

    That was good in itself, but then we had posters commenting from Istanbul and Ankara. They were updating their posts with what they could tell was happening - Erdogan was just on tv via FaceTime, massive explosion heard nearby, shooting on the streets etc. It was the best news source I'd been a part of in a long time.


  • #86
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 21,740 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Notorious wrote: »
    It's true though. Well maybe not that part about it being better.

    Never liked the small community feel that was prevalent when I was a regular boards user. All the mods and the users with a high post count knew each other, met up regularly, and had their own secret groups on boards. If you spoke out against the clique, you'd face the wrath of the ban hammer.

    One of the reasons I like boards is because of the sense of community I get here. I also believe that most of the mods do their best. However I agree that there is a strong cliquey thing between certain mods and users. Then there was the bizarre love in that has occurred a few times for an ex mod. That's all a bit strange.


  • #87
    Notorious
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,167 ✭✭✭Notorious


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    One of the reasons I like boards is because of the sense of community I get here... However I agree that there is a strong cliquey thing between certain mods and users. Then there was the bizarre love in that has occurred a few times for an ex mod. That's all a bit strange.

    I can understand that. I know a friend of mine is big into athletics, and they've supposedly an excellent community here.

    I should point out that I haven't been a regular user here in 5/6 years, so things might have changed since then. I do remember stories about love triangles though. Always hilarious stuff!


  • #88
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 21,740 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Notorious wrote: »
    I can understand that. I know a friend of mine is big into athletics, and they've supposedly an excellent community here.

    I should point out that I haven't been a regular user here in 5/6 years, so things might have changed since then. I do remember stories about love triangles though. Always hilarious stuff!

    Love triangles! That sounds about right for boards. I love the little stories that spring up from this place :)


  • #89
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,387 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Thinly veiled "boards is crap, it used to be better, blaa blaa, mods, blaa blaa, I remember when, blaa blaa" thread.
    It was better and had far more of a community feel to it. Contrary to popular it was less moderated too. After Hours was more freewheeling with less rulez stuff going on*. Moderation on Boards was pretty good as who the hell wants a youtube style free for all, but it became too much of a good thing and nobody put on the brakes. There were also far fewer hand wringers screaming "phobic!!" and "isms" about the place. Far fewer rabid right wingers too mind you. Again more a reflection of wider society polarising more and more.

    Reddit is more anon as Notorious said. It actually feels more "nerdy" to me. Now that Boards has lost much if not most of the community feel in the majority of forums that had them - AH never really did funny enough. AH beers were nearly always small affairs - the appeal of Boards has dropped. It was one of it's major selling points. I suppose when those running it merge all communities under one menu, never mind the really obvious attempts to extract cash from said communities and glaring hypocrisy with it(gearbest for example), all the while ignoring the people who made the community it's to be expected.



    *old timer memory here. Remember Terry? Mod of AH and voted most popular mod on Boards(that awards thing went the way of flesh when the "wrong" people kept being popular...). No way in hell would someone like Terry be a mod on boards today, never mind of AH(he's not the only highly regarded past poster/mod like this). They go for safe and corporate every time these days and rarely enough from the community like in the past. Half of them I've frankly never heard of.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • #90
    Little CuChulainn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,624 ✭✭✭Little CuChulainn


    For Irish things, Boards is usually better. You have more freedom in the Ireland subreddit but it's a very politically one sided population.


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  • #91
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Yeah, reddit is atrocious for any kind of conversation. Very US-heavy opinion set so you get a lot of people with ridiculously unreasonable points of view on some topics, that would be considered normal in the states.

    Self defence and driving are two topics that the Americans are insane and unreasonable on, but there are others.

    My understanding is that reddit as a community is quite immature, the male -v- female radio is still insanely high. So the amount of willy waving and superman fantasies can ruin threads at times.


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