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Is Boards a little out of touch with real Ireland ?

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,435 ✭✭✭pumpkin4life


    red ears wrote: »
    I have never met a hardcore sjw type, i read plenty from them on boards but i never meet them in real life.

    They exist. If you're a university graduate from the past couple of years (especially if you're not in STEM) you're guaranteed to come across them.

    This SJW shìte is a very young persons thing. Average age being 20-25, and predominantly middle to upper class in background, if I was to guess. No working class. If you're any bit older than that, you're probably lucky enough to never come across any of them.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    oneilla wrote: »
    How is anti-women/feminist (in broad terms), anti-worker, anti-anyone who isn't white and Irish, "f**k the Muslims", anti-social welfare recipients etc. considered "liberal" or left-wing ie. socialist. Do people even know what these words mean?

    (That's a rhetorical question obviously)

    The OP is nonsense. It's just cultural politics nonsense in place of actual political arguments. OP has a comment on cultural conventions in place of political positions.

    Is there another Boards.ie somewhere?


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    prkly wrote: »
    It has been said that Generation Z, that is teenagers born since 2000, are set to be the most conservative generation since WWII. So of course they are repelled by Boards which shamelessly promotes a fiercely left-wing agenda. They prefer sites where free speech is catered for and they can say what they truly feel, like 4chan or Reddit. Look how internet culture (which is pretty much youth culture these days) got behind the Trump campaign and churned out memes on an industrial scale. The kids thought it was funny to troll the establishment and get mainstream news discussing a cartoon frog.

    Anything your parents like is automatically uncool to teens. Your parents support gay marriage? You think sodomy is degenerate. Your parents promote multiculturalism? You become a nationalist and hang out with only the white kids at school. The pendulum swings with every generation.

    Depends on how well you get on with your parents. If the parents are extreme in either direction then I can see how the offspring would react to that.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 125 ✭✭BeerFarts


    oneilla wrote: »
    How is anti-women/feminist (in broad terms), anti-worker, anti-anyone who isn't white and Irish, "f**k the Muslims", anti-social welfare recipients etc. considered "liberal" or left-wing ie. socialist. Do people even know what these words mean?

    (That's a rhetorical question obviously)

    The OP is nonsense. It's just cultural politics nonsense in place of actual political arguments. OP has a comment on cultural conventions in place of political positions.

    Exactly. From what I've seen of boards it's anything but left wing. I think it might have been in the past but it reads far more like the comments section on the journal or daily mail these days.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,626 ✭✭✭Glenster


    Post

    "I think equality of opportunity for men and women should be enforced under law"

    on one of the feminist threads and tell me how liberal boards.ie is


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 465 ✭✭Fox Hound


    414515.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,346 ✭✭✭King George VI


    Ireland is composed of nearly 4.6 million people of different political opinions, backgrounds and thoughts on just about everything. You can't just say "this is what the country is". Some people lean left, some people right. Some are racist and some are tolerant and diverse. Some are black.... most people here are white though, but there are many Polish and nearly 4,872 South African people here. Some like pints of beer all the time, some like pineapples on a pizza (cunts). Some people voted for Enda Kenny because they genuinely think he's a good person, some people voted for the Mr Tayto because of the lol. A lot of people have controversial opinions on such things as immigration, Islam, feminism, pineapples on pizza...etc and a lot of people have the opposing views.

    The point is, there is no real Ireland. There are only 4.6 millions cunts with different ideas than I have, and I'm ok with it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,338 ✭✭✭Bit cynical


    CramCycle wrote: »
    It is not the arts faculty but it is an arts degree (ans in a B.A. rather than a B.Sc.).You mean a Arts degree, they mean anything with B.A. in the award. huge differences but well, sin e.
    I think Trinity generally calls its undergraduate degrees, with a few exceptions, BAs regardless of whether they are arts or science degrees.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    But - by definition, people who sit around writing on the internet

    Are
    a) connected to the internet.
    b) most likely can write
    c) under 45
    d) lacking real world social connection

    How do you account for all us 'old' people on the boards then and some of us acutely have friends in real life as well. I love how the op knows what all boards subscribers are like despite it being an almost anonymous internet chat site.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,759 ✭✭✭Winterlong


    Boards represents a subset of the population that chose to post here.

    Given that the age spread of posters differs from the age spread of the population as a whole (for example) then I suppose it stands that boards and ireland would be different.
    We saw the differences a few years ago when we did the general election simulation and the boards results were very different to the actual results. More left leaning IIRC.

    But also - as said above - people are a lot quicker to hop on their high horse when behind a keyboard than in real life. Or perhaps people who post on boards just prefer a good argument more than others?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 71 ✭✭NASlad


    I stopped visiting here regularly several years ago because of the way the community has changed negatively.

    But no, boards is totally not a representation of real Ireland and never has been. This place is bizarre and the things people believe here are so out of touch. I'm not even talking politically. I just mean every day stuff. You see the height of ignorance here all the time from both ends of the spectrum.


    Neither is this place "left wing" at all. Not even close. Mix of liberal/conservatives both roaring at each other mindlessly.


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,371 Mod ✭✭✭✭CramCycle


    I think Trinity generally calls its undergraduate degrees, with a few exceptions, BAs regardless of whether they are arts or science degrees.

    Precisely, you get awarded a BA in micro or biochem or zoology. This does not make them arts degrees. I never understood why some people seem to think they were.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭Arcade_Tryer


    CramCycle wrote: »
    Precisely, you get awarded a BA in micro or biochem or zoology. This does not make them arts degrees. I never understood why some people seem to think they were.
    TSM course in Trinity is essentially an arts degree, of which economics and mathematics are subjects offered.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    But - by definition, people who sit around writing on the internet

    Are
    a) connected to the internet.
    b) most likely can write
    c) under 45
    d) lacking real world social connection

    Seriously?
    red ears wrote: »
    I have never met a hardcore sjw type, i read plenty from them on boards but i never meet them in real life.

    I'm inclined to wonder at some of the sjw types on Boards, when I read posts that equally blindly support some less than liberal political parties.

    I'm inclined to wonder how much of the "social justice" angle is more a defense of a policy decision by a particular party than any particular desire for social justice - especially since some of those posters argue with equal passion against measures that would normally be accepted by those with an interest in social justice, but are not supported by a particular party....

    Then again, maybe they're just trolls....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,973 ✭✭✭RayM


    prkly wrote: »
    It's not Leftists being banned from this site en masse, it's conservatives. Just look at the link to the immigration posted further up.

    People get banned because of their behaviour though, not their views. I'm not a conservative, but I've been banned from AH in recent months for making jokes (about conservatives) that the mods claimed were in poor taste. I might have disagreed with the mods' interpretation of those posts, but it was my behaviour that got me banned, not some imaginary witch-hunt against people with my opinions. I think right-wingers should maybe calm down a bit and lose the old persecution complex.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    RayM wrote: »
    People get banned because of their behaviour though, not their views. I'm not a conservative, but I've been banned from AH in recent months for making jokes (about conservatives) that the mods claimed were in poor taste. I might have disagreed with the mods' interpretation of those posts, but it was my behaviour that got me banned, not some imaginary witch-hunt against people with my opinions. I think right-wingers should maybe calm down a bit and lose the old persecution complex.

    That's debatable. And there have been feedback threads about it and quite a few mentions about heavy handed or biased moderation. If it was as clearcut as you say I doubt most users would be questioning it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,973 ✭✭✭RayM


    That's debatable. And there have been feedback threads about it and quite a few mentions about heavy handed or biased moderation. If it was as clearcut as you say I doubt most users would be questioning it.

    Are most users questioning it? A few sore right-wingers who lack the maturity to take responsibility for their own behaviour doesn't constitute most users.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,716 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    That's debatable. And there have been feedback threads about it and quite a few mentions about heavy handed or biased moderation. If it was as clearcut as you say I doubt most users would be questioning it.

    I don't think most users are questioning the moderation to be honest, some are but I honestly think it isn't that big an issue for the majority of users.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 39,022 ✭✭✭✭Permabear


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,624 ✭✭✭✭meeeeh


    What is 'real' Ireland? I'm not Irish but it's comforting to know that I can become part of 'real' Ireland just by watching Mrs Brown.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,474 ✭✭✭deadybai


    Boards is great for things like bargain alerts but dont you dare give an opinion thats different because you will be ganged up on and slated and/or given a warning. I dont even bother giving a view on this site anymore theres no point.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    RayM wrote: »
    Are most users questioning it? A few sore right-wingers who lack the maturity to take responsibility for their own behaviour doesn't constitute most users.

    Strange.

    I'm neither a right-winger, nor one of those who were banned, yet, I'd consider some of the bans to be a bit questionable, in fairness.

    However, this is both OT, and bordering on breaking the don't question the mods on thread rule, so, I'll leave it at that.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,563 ✭✭✭dd972


    dd972 wrote: »
    Surely you don't mean beards in the plural, unless your sister-in-law is acting as one in LGBT parlance? :confused:

    18 thanks, a record, I must be funny after all.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,116 ✭✭✭RDM_83 again


    _Brian wrote: »
    Boards is representative of A real Ireland, former TCD grads between 2000-2010, some NUI people from the same era and a bunch of people who work in IT or are professionals.
    Generally its not at all though, good example is when the census comes out and people do the OMG most people in Ireland totally arent Catholics thing

    I think the Farming & Forestty forum is something like the fourth busiest forum and wouldn't be represented in your summary above.

    True I am part of the narrow demographic i am complaining about so i don't see the areas of boards that don't interest me


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    RayM wrote: »
    Are most users questioning it? A few sore right-wingers who lack the maturity to take responsibility for their own behaviour doesn't constitute most users.
    Arghus wrote: »
    I don't think most users are questioning the moderation to be honest, some are but I honestly think it isn't that big an issue for the majority of users.

    I meant most of those who are questioning it probably wouldn't be if it was done differently, I didn't mean most Boards users are questioning the moderation.

    RayM your ''sore right wingers'' attitude is out of order.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,833 ✭✭✭✭ThisRegard


    Permabear wrote: »
    This post had been deleted.

    It's within the science faculty though as opposed to Arts. Others have pointed out the BA/BSc thing which is maybe why it's seen by some as Arts, but I've always known it to be within Science.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32 Systemsdarken


    Some parts of Boards are useful because they reflect people's lives. Some less so because Ireland is more complex than some can cope with.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,684 ✭✭✭✭Samuel T. Cogley


    What part of the boards.ie website is liberal or left wing, I'd like to visit it please.

    Most of the views in AH are slightly left of Hitler.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 242 ✭✭PREG1967


    boards is a bit like a north korean concentration camp policed by more mods than posters


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,373 ✭✭✭tonycascarino


    deadybai wrote: »
    dont you dare give an opinion thats different because you will be ganged up on and slated and/or given a warning. I dont even bother giving a view on this site anymore theres no point.

    True. It is like as if there is a weird bunch of liberal pc geeky types who desperately crave for their voices to be heard, who nobody listens to in reality, but who get their satisfaction from the virtual world. I often wonder do mods here have a special button to press which says ''Different opinion alert'' that brings out all those liberal types because god forbid if your opinion differs to theirs. Before you know they are gathered around you like fleas on ****e.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,671 ✭✭✭dav3


    I think if we take the last general election results, which represent ‘real Ireland’, then Boards is more than a little out of touch.
    The actual issues that motivate people to get out marching and protesting differ from what you would see posted on after hours for instance.
    Having said that, the dozen or so lads that continually re-reg and create multiple accounts to give the illusion of greater numbers may play a part in all the right wing sh*tposts.

    So to answer your question OP. Based on the last general election, Boards is indeed out of touch with ‘real Ireland’. Real Ireland is far more left wing than would be represented on here.

    Unless there has been another election in the past 12 months that I haven’t heard about.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,973 ✭✭✭RayM


    RayM your ''sore right wingers'' attitude is out of order.

    In what way? They're right-wing and they're sore about getting themselves banned.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    And then there is the trolling/windup issue with some/ a lot of the responses to threads.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    So - is this liberal , left wing talking shop , actually a very small representation of real Ireland ?

    I honestly don't see how Boards can be described as a left wing talking shop. The mods and administration clearly veer in that direction and I've spoken out against the unfair persecution of right wing views here, but I'd argue that actually right wing views seem to be in the majority, just often silenced or dissuaded from speaking due to moderation. And I'd actually argue that in this vein, Boards is generally a little further right than Irish society at large.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I honestly don't see how Boards can be described as a left wing talking shop. The mods and administration clearly veer in that direction and I've spoken out against the unfair persecution of right wing views here, but I'd argue that actually right wing views seem to be in the majority, just often silenced or dissuaded from speaking due to moderation. And I'd actually argue that in this vein, Boards is generally a little further right than Irish society at large.

    So how could you decide whether an opinion is racist, loopy, misogynist ect or a reasonable opinion what criteria would could you use.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    mariaalice wrote: »
    So how could you decide whether an opinion is racist, loopy, misogynist ect or a reasonable opinion what criteria would could you use.

    I wouldn't. An opinion is an opinion. When you state an opinion as fact without any qualification, that's when in my view you're into the moronic territory.

    In other words: "I believe that allowing unchecked immigration from warzone countries could lead to terrorist attacks in Europe" - opinion. Not one I agree with, FWIW, but opinion nonetheless.

    "Unchecked immigration from warzone countries will lead to terrorist attacks in Europe" - stating opinion as fact, AKA propaganda.

    Another example:

    "I don't find promiscuous women attractive" - opinion. Again, not one that I personally agree with.

    "Promiscuous women are not attractive" - propaganda, stating an opinion as an independent fact.

    Personally while I'd disagree with both of the former statements, I wouldn't advocate for censoring either - opinions simply shouldn't be censored, with the exception of those which slander specific individuals because they could invite legal issues. They may offend people, but if people aren't intellectually capable of responding to being offended with debate and argument rather than tantrums, IMO they should just f*ck off the internet altogether and leave the rest of us to enjoy it.

    On the other hand, people who state opinions as if they were facts, and provide nothing to back up those opinions, those people IMO are fair game for modding as they just utterly poison any discussion in which they get involved. Clearly identifying opinions as opinions and not disguising them as facts is about as important to a decent conversation as bloggers clearly identifying sponsored product plugs as distinct from their genuine articles.

    Regarding libel: I don't ideologically agree with censoring libellous opinions where they are stated as opinions and not as facts, but the law disagrees and to be fair, Boards has been hit previously in this regard because Ireland rather moronically does not have the standard "content platforms are not responsible for policing their users' generated content" laws to protect platforms. Therefore:

    "John Doe is a paedophile", and
    "I believe John Doe is a paedophile"

    are, legally speaking, identical statements - both can invite a lawsuit for defamation of John Doe, unless of course they are backed up with enough evidence for such a lawsuit to fail.

    I can foresee that law changing in the near enough future to be honest, after this whole DoB mess - a light has been shone on how Ireland's libel regime restricts the media, both traditional and social, and I think it's very possible that this or the next government will act to offer more protections in the event of a future, similar incident.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,518 ✭✭✭rgossip30


    True. It is like as if there is a weird bunch of liberal pc geeky types who desperately crave for their voices to be heard, who nobody listens to in reality, but who get their satisfaction from the virtual world. I often wonder do mods here have a special button to press which says ''Different opinion alert'' that brings out all those liberal types because god forbid if your opinion differs to theirs. Before you know they are gathered around you like fleas on ****e.

    You play the ball not the man get them banned like a ban sniffer does better to have a right wing mod on your side .The left wing mods are easier to find though . Mods posting is questionable as to disagree with them you play with fire .


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,731 ✭✭✭✭Princess Consuela Bananahammock


    I honestly don't see how Boards can be described as a left wing talking shop. The mods and administration clearly veer in that direction and I've spoken out against the unfair persecution of right wing views here, but I'd argue that actually right wing views seem to be in the majority, just often silenced or dissuaded from speaking due to moderation. And I'd actually argue that in this vein, Boards is generally a little further right than Irish society at large.

    My experience of liberal posting is that you post a point challennging someone's assumption, and they either attack the poster personally or ignore the point altogether and then claim they've been censored.

    Everything I don't like is either woke or fascist - possibly both - pick one.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    My experience of liberal posting is that you post a point challennging someone's assumption, and they either attack the poster personally or ignore the point altogether and then claim they've been censored.

    The Right on Boards has in general been more guilty of this, certainly in the past. During the early years of the financial crisis and the austerity programme, many debates on the politics forums would devolve into personal attacks, with the right wing using phrases like "SF/IRA", "Shinnerbots", "magic money tree", "looney left" etc to attack anyone left of centre. I've acknowledged previously how ironic it is that the left now uses the same tactics it would have rightly disparaged just a few years ago - name calling, shouting down debate with irrelevant and inflammatory rhetoric, etc.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 39,022 ✭✭✭✭Permabear


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    I don't know about Real Ireland but they are out of touch with Provisional & Official Ireland.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    oneilla wrote: »
    "Boards.ie promotes a left-wing agenda".

    "the youth of today are the most conservative since WW2 and thus prefer where websites allow free speech".

    Logic of this post is all over the place. Hint: conservatives don't favour free speech~!

    Aye, older people today might be very conservative at the moment, but the mainstream youth in Ireland is more left-wing & liberal then its ever been at any time in the history of the state.

    There is a very small amount of young people in Ireland & Britain who are attracted to far-right / facsist politics. But fascism is not conservatism.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    Permabear wrote: »
    This post had been deleted.

    Maths relies on logic and numbers. They either stack up or they don't. Maths is the very top of scientific hierarchy, the nuts and bolts of the universe, physics is merely maths in action. Everything else is downstream and second rate with arts and social sciences at the bottom.
    Making maths a liberal arts subject?
    2+2=4
    Question: wouldn't that equation look much prettier in pink?
    No, doesn't quite work...

    Mathematics is science in its purest form.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    Aye, older people today might be very conservative at the moment, but the mainstream youth in Ireland is more left-wing & liberal then its ever been at any time in the history of the state.

    There is a very small amount of young people in Ireland & Britain who are attracted to far-right / facsist politics. But fascism is not conservatism.

    I'm not sure, swings n roundabouts. Nations change, people change.


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