Future of boards.ie lack of young blood

Eire Go Brach · 25-12-2017 2:47pm

Nothing, everything runs it’s course. The only question we need to ask is cremation or burial?

beauf · 25-12-2017 3:49pm

For me half the page is taken up by ads.
Every new page it goes to the bottom of the list, not the top.
The default on opening a thread (that your already subscribed to )is the first post not the last. So you always have to click to the last page. Everytime. Use to go to the last automatically.
It multi quotes people, rather just the post your replying to. So on a small screen you get a tonne of quotes that fill up the screen.
Editing an existing post, is sooooo slow. Its like its stopped working.
Did I mention Ads, so many ads.
I don't have any of these problems on other forums.

Many of us said these design choices and the moderation style would eventually effect the site. Seems like that is happening. Though perhaps its just the Irish people, especially the younger generations are so obsessed with media and social media and self image. That they aren't interested in a forum anymore.

Perhaps we are wrong. The unsung hero's of the site are the mods. they would have a better sense of whats happening.

Discodog · 25-12-2017 3:51pm

I still use Boards a lot but I don't have the same loyalty since a moderation dispute. I am long over it but it really changed my opinion. If certain people decide that they want you out then nothing will stop it, if they are part of the clique.

Lots of users are falling away & genuine criticism is being stifled. I can't get on with Reddit & I much prefer things here but it's not the same as it was.

The lack of young blood shouldn't be an issue as the population in general is getting older. The loss of established users is more of a concern

donegaLroad · 25-12-2017 3:52pm

It's a bit like BBC radio 2 present djs were on BBC radio 1, twenty years ago playing Oasis and Blur.

Discodog · 25-12-2017 3:54pm

beauf wrote: »

For me half the page is taken up by ads.
Every new page it goes to the bottom of the list, not the top.
The default on opening a thread (that your already subscribed to )is the first post not the last. So you always have to click to the last page. Everytime. Use to go to the last automatically.
It multi quotes people, rather just the post your replying to. So on a small screen you get a tonne of quotes that fill up the screen.
Editing an existing post, is sooooo slow. Its like its stopped working.
Did I mention Ads, so many ads.
I don't have any of these problems on other forums.

Many of us said these design choices and the moderation style would eventually effect the site. Seems like that is happening. Though perhaps its just the Irish people, especially the younger generations are so obsessed with media and social media and self image. That they aren't interested in a forum anymore.

Perhaps we are wrong. The unsung hero's of the site are the mods. they would have a better sense of whats happening.

Have you tried an add blocker ? Works for me

Discodog · 25-12-2017 3:55pm

donegaLroad wrote: »

It's a bit like BBC radio 2 present djs were on BBC radio 1, twenty years ago playing Oasis and Blur.

Smashy & Nicey - Boards Admins :pac:

Ralf and Florian · 25-12-2017 3:58pm

Donald Trump wrote: »

I volunteer my jizz to any fertile ladies willing to procreate in order to repopulate the site membership

Assuming you have no Cork blood in you. Kind of a "one drop rule" if you will.....if you have Cork blood you don't even get one drop of The Donald's batter

Are you Donald Trump from the Proc?

Arghus · 25-12-2017 4:21pm

beauf wrote: »

Some of the other forums I use are pretty much unchanged and as popular as ever. But they are far more consistent in every area, and the design, moderation, navigation than boards has been across all areas.

I find boards very hard to use on the mobile. Tend to avoid using it mobile.

I'm sure there's still a few out there that are going as strong as ever, but boards certainly isn't the only message board that's in decline. Most of the sites I would have turned to daily up until a few years ago are nowhere near as busy these days. Sites that are bucking this trend are exceptions to the rule, rather than the norm and I'll be willing to bet that even those places that are still bustling are also less busy today than they were back up until around 2010/11.

I work and socialise with people from 20-40 and in the last 3-4 years I've literally never heard anyone under the age of 25 in that group mention any message board - aside from Reddit, if that qualifies - let alone Boards. People use facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. The idea of a a place like this is increasingly quaint for people.

People like to blame the design, the moderation, who owns it etc, etc, but the bottom line is that the slightly older internet user generation that made up Boards user base is aging and doesn't have the free-time,interest and stamina to devote hours and hours to posting and reading the site every day. And the site is the users.

There used to be regular piss-ups for boards users across different forums - I went to a few for The Galway City forum, which wasn't one of the bigger forums, back in the day that got over twenty people at them: twenty! You wouldn't get twenty even going so far as posting on the thread about the beers meet up these days, but that was all a by-product of boards being a younger place, full of people with freer time and willing to go to a random beer session at the drop of a hat. Boards had a social aspect to it, but that was down to it being populated with people who were, by and large, of that extremely sociable age. It's a damn shame that all that is largely dead now.

But that It's natural: you've more real life commitments when you are 32 as opposed to 22. But there isn't the same numbers coming up from younger ages to make up that shortfall and that's because the whole concept of message boards is as foreign and removed to them as a 56k modem - so long term, while I can't see the site disappearing, it diminishes slightly month to month, year to year.

I might have a few quibbles with the way this place is laid out, but I'm amazed people find Boards hard to use and navigate: it's piss-easy compared to other huge message boards!

leggo · 25-12-2017 4:35pm

I'd say it'd be more dramatic than that: with tech, rather than dying a slow death, things tend to drop off a cliff overnight when something else that suits a majority comes along. Think how Bebo became a barren wasteland in just a few months once Facebook caught on. I'm not sure of boards' business requirements, I know a few years ago it was thriving, but assuming they need to generate user-based revenue, if that were to happen it could speed up any demise.

Don't get me wrong: I don't think it's dying as is and still remains one of Ireland's biggest websites, but the fact that it seems to be ageing is generally symptomatic that we're one decision that pisses a lot of people off plus one opportunistic IT whizz (who could be reading now and get the wheels spinning) creating a catch-all solution from having a major situation.

If I owned the site, I'd be looking at it as a great selling opportunity: it still gets serious traffic so you could sell high, but its value will diminish rapidly at an unforeseen time.

That said, I like this place so I'd love if an admin came along with some hard stats that showed this to absolutely not be the case.

LuckyLloyd · 25-12-2017 4:45pm

Think Arghus nails it: lack of young people. An influx of young people would shake up more than just discussion: it would filter into how the place is organised and run also. As it is, the people with influence over such are either older or employed by the business. Keep it ticking over; what you have you hold; minimise perceived negativity and drama. All vibrancy and sense of an engaged community is gone and probably will never return.

So it will gradually run down, providing business value for a while before we reach a tipping point where awkward questions will be asked about how to maintain it post profitability without pulling the plug. The only question is the timeline really.

TheAnalyst_ · 25-12-2017 5:07pm

I don’t understand the decline in forums. Nothing else compares in terms of functionality. Twitter, Facebook or reddit. The debate, high jinks and anonymity are incomparable.

Wibbs · 25-12-2017 5:31pm

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Think Arghus nails it: lack of young people. An influx of young people would shake up more than just discussion: it would filter into how the place is organised and run also. As it is, the people with influence over such are either older or employed by the business. Keep it ticking over; what you have you hold; minimise perceived negativity and drama.

I would say this is a large part of it LL. I have noticed with my peers the trend is the older they get the fewer loud noises they like and the more they like stasis. They tend to reach a point(particularly men) in their 30's where they've figured out a template for who they are and will ride that all the way to the grave. This approach bleeds into how they view and organise the world around them. There tends to be a drift to the safe, to the Beige. Passion is generally mistrusted and to be avoided("youth" tends to be mistrusted or patronised). I've seen that hereabouts. It's very much more a play it safe and much less freewheeling dynamic and I would say that is a reflection of both the ageing demographic of those in charge and the corporate business side. Take mod appointments. I could name a shedload of very good mods who really enlivened forums and the community back in the day who wouldn't be next nor near in the running for that role today. And they were usually well known big posters. Nowadays with most appointments it's much more a case of "who?". Nothing against any individuals, but that's a big shift.

As Arghus notes the older swing also hit the community sense. Good luck in organising a beers these days. Maybe among the private forums(though they tend to have a 2-3 year trajectory of growth - peak - stagnation - game over).

Moderation is a bit of a red herring, but the perception of Boards moderation has not been helped by it. I would say thread closures happen too damned often. Board's, now you're talking locked. The Left/Right thing is another one. The fact that so many, usually at the more extreme, are convinced it's too right/left[delete as applicable] near proves it's neither. Things like Feedback being castrated is only a sign that far fewer people actually care. That's the bad sign. Ten years ago the merest suggestion that Feedback would be "restructured" in such a manner would have had a lot of people crying fowl, including most of the mods and admins. Then: WTF! Now: Meh.

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

I don’t understand the decline in forums. Nothing else compares in terms of functionality. Twitter, Facebook or reddit. The debate, high jinks and anonymity are incomparable.

Anonymity I would say is a major aspect. It's much less seen as a "feature" these days, especially with the younger set. More than the younger set of say ten years ago they want to be known. They want recognition. Nothing wrong with that BTW, it's just a different viewpoint. If anything one could argue that the anonymity of the wilder days of the interwebs was more unsocial, even odd.

Four Phucs Ache · 25-12-2017 5:57pm

Im fookin stuffed.

Autochange · 25-12-2017 6:34pm

Four Phucs Ache wrote: »

Im fookin stuffed.

You are banned.

wakka12 · 25-12-2017 6:35pm

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

I don’t understand the decline in forums. Nothing else compares in terms of functionality. Twitter, Facebook or reddit. The debate, high jinks and anonymity are incomparable.

Yeh I don't get what people are saying about boards being boring. I think theres lots of witty posters still even if the forum is more serious than in the past, and really interesting topics and debates with very knowledgable and interesting posters

UrbanFret · 25-12-2017 6:41pm

Childish moderation.

beauf · 25-12-2017 11:07pm

I don't think it's a lack of younger people. I think it's a general decline across all age groups. It maybe more noticeable in the younger group, if you are younger yourself.

Since they fractured the sub forums a lot of the smaller sub forums withered and died. No content, nothing to engage with regardless of age.

Wibbs · 25-12-2017 11:15pm

beauf wrote: »

I don't think it's a lack of younger people. I think it's a general decline across all age groups. It maybe more noticeable in the younger group, if you are younger yourself.

True enough at least in my experience. I'm on a few forums, mostly speciality ones and have noticed most have taken a nose dive in the last few years. Some are near ghost towns. Where once they could have lots of chatter, now they're down to a few posts per week. One in particular, a particular model of car forum, which was fantastic for the techie stuff has died a death. Most went to Facebook. A few to Reddit. So today if you want techie information in a database you go to the forum as a reader, if you want to have general chats, with pics of folks cars(and sales) you go to Facebook and if you're really bored or want a techie question answered quickly you go to the Reddit sub(though majority rules there and can too often be wrong info). Oh and these are across age groups too. I'd say most owners of the cars are well in their 30's and older.

Another forum I'm on for years is a watch forum and the majority of those were always older guys and even there the traffic has dropped right off.

In neither forum's case was moderation ever an issue. TBH I couldn't even tell you the names of most of the mods. Actually that goes/went for most forums I've been on. Except in the very early days when the "cult of the moderator" was common enough. Boards for some reason kept that going as a thing for far longer than most? Maybe it's a local cultural thing? The Irish and authority. We love to think of ourselves as rebels and sometimes we are, but we are also quick to tug the forelock to authority too.

briany · 25-12-2017 11:19pm

If you're properly nerdy about something, I don't see much of a replacement for a good old-fashioned forum. It's the place that offers its users the ability to engage in interminable discussion on a subject or strand of thought. You can't really get this in the same way on Twitter or Facebook, or even Reddit. Even the largest Reddit discussion has a shelf life of only a few days.

IMDB closed its forums last February. Every page they had for an actor, a movie or TV show had it's own dedicated board, and all that discussion was lost. Granted, many of the posts on that site deserved never to be seen again because the lack of moderation made it a bit of a troll's paradise, but among all that was some great insight and knowledge, especially on more niche stuff, or stuff that was more than a couple of years old. Discussions on such content rarely got the troll attention that more current/popular stuff did. Anyway, IMDB said they were to close these forums and move the discussion to Twitter and Facebook. Do they offer the same level of discourse? You tell me, because I'm never on them, but I do know that my use of the IMDB has plummeted.

In a way, I like being part of something a little bit arcane like a message board. I remember seeing older computer users talking with zeal about the days of the BBS, when the users you'd communicate with would all be from the same town, usually, and it was a pretty close-knit community, and comparing that to the encroachment of the web. We'll probably be, or really already are, talking about message boards in the same way vs. social media 2.0.

youngblood · 25-12-2017 11:20pm

I know I dont post much but..............

dublinman1990 · 26-12-2017 1:59am

briany wrote: »

If you're properly nerdy about something, I don't see much of a replacement for a good old-fashioned forum. It's the place that offers its users the ability to engage in interminable discussion on a subject or strand of thought. You can't really get this in the same way on Twitter or Facebook, or even Reddit. Even the largest Reddit discussion has a shelf life of only a few days.

IMDB closed its forums last February. Every page they had for an actor, a movie or TV show had it's own dedicated board, and all that discussion was lost. Granted, many of the posts on that site deserved never to be seen again because the lack of moderation made it a bit of a troll's paradise, but among all that was some great insight and knowledge, especially on more niche stuff, or stuff that was more than a couple of years old. Discussions on such content rarely got the troll attention that more current/popular stuff did. Anyway, IMDB said they were to close these forums and move the discussion to Twitter and Facebook. Do they offer the same level of discourse? You tell me, because I'm never on them, but I do know that my use of the IMDB has plummeted.

In a way, I like being part of something a little bit arcane like a message board. I remember seeing older computer users talking with zeal about the days of the BBS, when the users you'd communicate with would all be from the same town, usually, and it was a pretty close-knit community, and comparing that to the encroachment of the web. We'll probably be, or really already are, talking about message boards in the same way vs. social media 2.0.

I agree with you said in the point I highlighted above in that what makes Boards so good in specialist subjects. It really is an eye opener the amount of information you can get on Boards from particular forums that suit your interest. Reading the specialist mega threads on Boards about Saorview Connect, BusConnects, DART Expansion Programme/DART Underground & Metro North by naming a few examples to me is just fascinating. What makes these topics so good is that you get unlimited access to a whole heap of information right in front of your eyes about what you want to look at or what question you want to ask from people who are in the know on that subject. I'm fascinated by it all simply with just reading the quality of content that is available from all the posters in these threads. These things do keep me on Boards for a very long time to come. I'm sure that I could name a few more threads that I like reading on here but the list would be far too long. This is the sort of stuff that keeps Boards to survive long into the future. I hope that stuff like this does continue into the future because it will be a huge loss in not getting that information to other generations from other avenues of modern social media such as Twitter or Facebook & so on.

uch · 26-12-2017 2:02am

As long as Two Sheds Jackson is around, we're safe

Esel · 26-12-2017 3:15am

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I agree with you said in the point I highlighted above in that what makes Boards so good in specialist subjects. It really is an eye opener the amount of information you can get on Boards from particular forums that suit your interest. Reading the specialist mega threads on Boards about Saorview Connect, BusConnects, DART Expansion Programme/DART Underground & Metro North by naming a few examples to me is just fascinating.

What makes these topics so good is that you get unlimited access to a whole heap of information right in front of your eyes about what you want to look at or what question you want to ask from people who are in the know on that subject. I'm fascinated by it all simply with just reading the quality of content that is available from all the posters in these threads. These things do keep me on Boards for a very long time to come.

I'm sure that I could name a few more threads that I like reading on here but the list would be far too long. This is the sort of stuff that keeps Boards to survive long into the future. I hope that stuff like this does continue into the future because it will be a huge loss in not getting that information to other generations from other avenues of modern social media such as Twitter or Facebook & so on.

Paragraphs, ta!

Doltanian · 26-12-2017 12:12pm

This is a Marxist site and you can only have one opinion or you will get banned.

Wanderer78 · 26-12-2017 12:18pm

Doltanian wrote:

This is a Marxist site and you can only have one opinion or you will get banned.

Again, I'm a lefty, and I'm constantly getting warnings and bans, your statement doesn't make sense at all!

Doltanian · 26-12-2017 12:21pm

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Again, I'm a lefty, and I'm constantly getting warnings and bans, your statement doesn't make sense at all!

BANNED :D

Hotblack Desiato · 26-12-2017 1:01pm

boombang wrote: »

Anyways, I'm off to the post office to collect my pension; where's my Zimmer frame?

All the cool OAPs just get it paid into their bank account these days. The forum of the post office on pension day is dying off...

pilly · 26-12-2017 1:14pm

Can't understand people complaining about ads. I don't get any ads on Boards?

limnam · 26-12-2017 1:21pm

King of Kings wrote: »

I occasionally drop in and our of boards
I'm 40 so not exactly young.
But I find the place over moderated and speech quite regulated.
It's less appealing cos of that.

40 with a dashing of teenage angst.

You'll do.

o1s1n · 26-12-2017 1:43pm

Boards.ie was completely ruined when the menu system was changed to the current one.

Previously folks would browse random forums as they were all immediately available in the dropdowns at the top of the page. You'd just hover your mouse and you'd see loads of places to discuss different things.

Now you've got four drop downs only, two of which arent even dedicated to discussion forums. There are way too many clicks to get to anything of substance.

Not only has this killed random sifting through forums (and as a result, traffic in a lot of them is at zero), I even find it difficult sometimes to find the forums I'm looking for.

Future of boards.ie lack of young blood

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