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Now Ye're Talking - to Boards.ie: Sean
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15-11-2017 3:32pm#1For our next AMA, we have one that was much sought after in the AMA Wishlist thread. JCX BXC and Victor requested that Boards.ie staff or management make an appearance, and so we have Boards.ie: Sean here to talk all things Boards.ie.
Please remember that some information may be quite sensitive and he won't be able to disclose absolutely everything. Fire ahead with your questions below
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Hi all. As CEO of Boards.ie I'm happy to answer any of your questions (as best as I can).
There may be some things of a sensitive or confidential nature that I won't be able to go into too much detail (if that's the case I'll let you know) but what I can share I will so ask away.
Cheers,
Sean.0 -
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Gloomtastic! wrote: »Hi Sean,
I believe it takes about 10 years to get to the top in any media business. How long did it take you?
Hi Gloomstastic! I haven't had the most traditional career path in getting to my current role with Boards. I was involved in a couple of tech companies back in the late nineties / early two thousands, then took a different route (I co-founded and ran a not-for-profit organisation that invested in high potential start-up charities and social enterprises, helping them get their ideas off the ground) and then moved to Boards just over 3 years ago (for anyone who's interested, and I'm sure that won't be many, a quick search on LinkedIn for Sean Coughlan Boards will give you a bit more detail)Gloomtastic! wrote: »Compared to all the other brands in the Distilled SCH group, Boards.ie is probably the least commercially viable - there’s no mention of it on the Distillled Media mobile site. As a businessman how do you justify the continued financial support of Boards to your shareholders?
I know there may be some confusion out there regarding Boards and Distilled Media (technically Distilled SCH). Boards used to be part of Distilled Media but in 2015 we moved out independently of Distilled, primarily because Distilled was focusing on classified sites, of which Boards clearly was not. Distilled subsequently entered into a joint venture with DoneDeal, another classified site. That's why we are not listed on the Distilled site.Gloomtastic! wrote: »If you could, and you had unlimited funds, what changes would you make to Boards to make it profitable?
As it turns out Boards has been profitable in both 2015 and 2016, so that's good!Gloomtastic! wrote: »Are you a techie or a salesman? What do you think Tom and the other founders of Boards think of you?
I think that I'm a bit of both, but in both areas there are people on the team who are a lot better than me For a short while back in the late nineties I did code before moving into product management. And in all the roles I have been in since then there has always been a strong element of selling. However, we have both a very talented dev team and a very talented sales team here in Boards that are way better than anything I bring to the table. I guess what I bring is what management generally brings, an ability to understand the different sides of the business (which I do), to manage the team you have working with you, to coordinate and prioritise how the company will best utilise the resources at its disposal and to plan for the future.
As to what Tom and John and the other founders and original Boardsies think of me, I think it's best to ask them! 0 -
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What are the usage figures for the site now versus when you started?
I started in 2014 and have usage stats from Dec 2014 to Sept 2017. Here are some of the relevant ones:
From a peak in early 2015, pageviews are holding relatively steady and there are encouraging trends in sessions and particularly new registrations0 -
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Boards.ie: Sean wrote: »I started in 2014 and have usage stats from Dec 2014 to Sept 2017. Here are some of the relevant ones:
From a peak in early 2015, pageviews are holding relatively steady and there are encouraging trends in sessions and particularly new registrations
Sadly I can't see any of the attachments you posted.
I guess they're uploaded into a section of Boards where no usual boardsie have access to.
So, if you don't mind me asking - what's average monthly data transfer to and from boards.ie servers?0 -
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If you had unlimited funds, what changes would you make to boards?
Now you did say unlimited, right? Not just a large injection of cash. Okay, so this is not an exhaustive but if I had unlimited funds, here as a starter for ten, are some of the things I'd do:
- Hire 5, 10, 15 times more developers, however many it takes, and fix all the issues that our users have told about on the legacy site, add in the new features they've requested and realise (i.e. develop, test and release) the plans we have for the responsive site (which I think are really good, it's just taking us a while to get there), keep both versions of the site running and supported, build proper apps, develop a class leading onboarding process
- Remove all the ads forever (remember it's unlimited funds). I'd still keep things like sponsored posts and sponsored subforums because I think there's value for both the community and brands to be able to interact in these types of fora, but other than that no more ads
- Do something nice for all our mods and admins and do it regularly (a night out, a Christmas pressie, whatever). I think the voluntary, community-led aspect of moderation on Boards is really powerful and I wouldn't want to lose it so I wouldn't see all mods getting paid for their work or anything like that. However, they put it a huge amount and time, effort and dedication to Boards and they don't get nearly enough recognition for it. In fact, often it's only when people have a complaint about them or a decision they've made that they hear from the community. They're human and like all of us they won't always get it 100% right but they do put a huge amount into the site and Boards couldn't operate without them. We should all give them a bit more love
- Spread our wings a bit ... develop and test some new products (we've got a couple of ideas but it's still too early to go into any details as yet)
- Get the word out there about Boards. I think Boards is a great resource and more people should know about it and use it. A bit of marketing and promotion wouldn't go amiss
- Get a table tennis table for the office (we'd need a bigger office ...)
I'm sure I'll think of more but hopefully that's enough to be going on with0 -
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job seeker wrote: »Hi Sean, What's the strangest private message you've received?
To be honest, none of the PM's I've received have been that strange. They all either telling something isn't working on the site interspersed with the occasional offer of help or enquiry about a collaboration opportunity. All quite mundane, really ...job seeker wrote: »Also, is coke and hookers still in fashion or a is it a thing of the past?
Are they ever out of fashion? (but, hell, what would I know)
job seeker wrote: »Finally, what advice would you give someone who would love to follow in your career path?
- You don't need a 40 year master plan for your career (nothing wrong with having one if that works for you) but at any point in time you need to be able to answer these two questions: am I satisfied that at the moment this is where I want to be in my career? if not, am I clear where I want to go next and what I need to do to help me get there? You always need to be clear about your direction of travel, either happy staying doing what you're doing now or planning for the next move
- Opportunities don't necessarily come knocking at your door, you have to go out and find them (this is a variation on the theme that you create your own luck which for me means being proactive)
- If you're going to do something, even if it's an unavoidable couple of years slogging away in some uninspiring and/or boring role, do it well. It will be noticed and it's a great skill to develop ... even the most inspiring jobs have parts of them that mightn't be particularly interesting, developing the self-discipline to push through those aspects of the role and do them well will serve you well
- Aim for what you want to do, not what others are telling you to do (you're master of your own career). If you want to make a bucket load of cash, great, figure out where your particular skill set can best be employed in parting their hard earned cash from other people and go for it; if you want to save the world then same thing applies, figure out the best match between your skills and the opportunities and work towards that
- Be persistent and resilient, sometimes you have to put in the hard yards to build up the skills / contacts / experience / opportunities you need to get to the next stage of your career0 -
GypsyByName wrote: »What has been your favourite AMA that you have read?
The AMA by Sonics2k - Now Ye're Talking - To A Man With 2 Mothers
It was an open, inspiring piece, got a huge level interest on Boards and was brilliantly topical coming as the Marriage Referendum campaign was gearing up - I thought it was great0 -
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irishgrover wrote: »How difficult is it to get the balance right between commercial realities and community spirit?
I'd describe more as delicate rather than difficult.irishgrover wrote: »I'm thinking specifically in relation to the "Talk to" forums.
For example, a very clear behavior has emerged in the Talk to forums where the pattern goes as follows..
1. A member makes a request from a "Talk to" company
2. The "Talk to" company then sends a PM to the OP, and then states publicly (via public post) that information has been given / the issue resolved.
3. The OP refutes this, and to defend themselves and their reputation shares directly or refers to the PM.
4. The tread gets closed by boards because sharing of PM's is against rules.
5. I fully understand the original concept of protecting PM's between individuals but when it is being used as a vehicle for purposely mislead, does it not concern you?
On the specific issue above, you can give me any rule you want and I will give you the exception that proves the rule, you can always find examples where any rule or policy does not work particularly well. But that doesn't necessarily mean the rule is a bad rule. In general sharing publicly PM's is a bad thing particularly since both parties have an expectation of privacy of the communication and one party unilaterally breaking that understanding of privacy without the consent of the other seems unfair. And I would point out any Boards member is still free to express their views on whether the issue was adequately dealt with or not and they can do this without sharing the PM.
The alternative is that there is no restriction on sharing PM's in which case they stop being PM's and become just M's. I think this would not be good for Boards, there needs to be a mechanism where users can communicate with each privately if needed.irishgrover wrote: »Alternatively, another example is obviously Gearbest, where a poster would get labeled a shrill and be shot on sight for even mentioning them, and then overnight after they pay to hop into bed with you, boards an gearbest are suddenly best of friends, and end result is allegedly counterfeit and potentially dangerous products being bought by unsuspecting boardsies..
Ok, Gearbest previously misbehaved on the site , they were called out on it and banned. They went away, thought about things and cam back a while later and said that they wanted to do things the right way - pay for a sponsored forum, be clear that they are a paying customer of Boards and are on the site as company representatives etc.
There are two ways you can approach a situation like this:
1) Say that if commercial companies have misbehaved previously on Boards then we want no truck with them in the future
2) Say that we want companies to do the right thing by Boards, to be up front with our users about who they are and what they are trying to promote and sell. And so, if by previously banning companies who misbehave we get them to re-evaluate their approach, we welcome them back because they have agreed to abide by our rules
Like other things we talked about in this AMA there is no right or wrong answer to which of the above two approaches to take. But let me give you two reasons why we have chosen to take the second approach:
- firstly, if we take the first approach there is zero incentive for other similar companies to do the right thing. If other companies see that by holding their hands up, admitting their mistakes and trying to do things in the right way, the response from us is "No, you've brunt your bridges and we don't ever want you on the site" why would they even bother. At best, this would mean we get the same level of shilling as now, at worst we get even more
- secondly, no question about it, it helps get a bit more revenue into the company
Personally, I admire Gearbest for holding their hands up and trying to do the right thing. And they have worked very hard to try and be responsive to the community against some very significant headwinds of negative sentiment. Fair duece to them, I say 0 -
Boards.ie: Sean wrote: »The AMA by Sonics2k - Now Ye're Talking - To A Man With 2 Mothers
It was an open, inspiring piece, got a huge level interest on Boards and was brilliantly topical coming as the Marriage Referendum campaign was gearing up - I thought it was great
And not mine??????? 0 -
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