Welcome to the new Boards.ie platform - Version 1.0 :)

Those fixes only help a portion of the user base. I think Niamh mentioned previously that the majority are mobile users so any fixes should probably be prioritised there.

I use the mobile site almost exclusively and it isn’t too bad for my usage style. It needs an improved search and the same ability to view thanks but for me it’s usable

Some threads I've read are still showing as unread

nothing stopping somebody doing something similar for the mobile version. waiting for boards.ie to do something is optimistic at best.

I figure they've either blown way past the budget for the year trying to make the site even semi-usable again, or they're out of support credits (or whatever cover they have) with Vanilla.

Do Boards publish accounts? I reckon this year's will be interesting reading. I wonder will Odhran be doing a cost-benefit analysis between the last 4/5 months (downtime, lost revenue and I assume lost advertisers and business customers) and what they were paying to maintain the "old" site.

Loads of other fora have managed it just fine-for very modest amounts of moolah-for a place this size, the hosting is the biggest outlay surely.

There's so much wrong with this platform-every update is in the hands of the people in Canada, and should they themselves update, all the "fixes" will then have to be made compatible.

They supposedly went down this road because vB was end of life, and they had customised it so much, it was untenable, and it was costing too much. So they have moved to yet another platform they have no control over, and have, or intend to introduce a whole raft of new customisations, all of which will cost money, at least once the goodwill from Vanilla runs out, and all to try and get back to where they were in the first place.

They have ostracised their users, mods and admins. Their CEO has done a legger.

Whoever owns this place (who? please say it's not Ginnitty) needs to make a call now. Explore some form of co-operative/collaborative effort, and look at a whole new platform along the lines of PROC, once they can extricate themselves from whatever contractual obligation they have agreed with Vanilla.

Involve the users and the volunteers-and move on.

Hosting I'm sure is a big ongoing expense but that is directly proportional to traffic, which and revenue is too. Custom code is a large capital expense that must be paid for whether it's 1 user or a million. When you make capital investment, you have to have a plan for growth, which we don't have here. What's the draw, the USP, over other online time sinks?

Why would anyone put money into this site to bring back old features which didn't drive growth before the migration?

As for getting a collaboration going with the community, to be honest I don't see that working. What's the motivation to create custom code for free for a for-profit site? Where would the oversight be? The site ownership structure would need to change to a charity/trust tbh.

Indeed it won't happen. The major difference with moderation is that anyone can do it - it's not a particular skill set, and people mostly mod topics that they have a personal interest in - though I do wonder why they work for free, but they must get something out of it. In order to get code, you'd have to appeal to a very small subset of users to get them on board to voluntarily do in their spare time to do what they get paid for. You might do it for a charity, or a sports club, but a for profit company that made a balls of a migration?

Some of us are sticking around to help in whatever way we can despite all the moaners and trolls.

How long has this turd been released now, 4 or 5 months?

Its still only barely better than the day one release..whats going on. Its a total **** of a site..do **** something.

This attitude really annoys me - what do you expect to get from it? Maybe a PM attaboy from a Mod or something? Or is it just to rile people up?

The site is a shadow of its former self and 4/5 months later shows no real sign of getting back to even that previous level of functionality. Communication and feedback is almost non-existent (with the exception of Niamh who's been left to put out what updates she can - and I get the feeling she's often not looped in either on things behind the scenes) and Odhran seems to have vanished. Now admittedly poor engagement with the users has been a long-standing issue with this site, but it's especially obvious (and painful!) since this migration.

Recognising these things, asking for information and a direction, or expressing deep unhappiness and regret over how things have turned out is not trolling or moaning - many users have put hundreds of hours and several years into contributing to this site - sharing their insight, knowledge, help, modding efforts, and just random banter... all of which Boards.ie the company has been using as a selling point to commercial customers and advertisers (and presumably continues to do so). It's not too much to ask that those same users be given clear statements as to intent and the future of the site.

It's attitudes like yours that are a bigger problem. Apparently content to just take what you're given and put up with it. There's a lot of people like that in this country though. It explains why things are still broken in that sense too.

Im not sure why you reference attitude when I am stating facts. You cant deny that the new site has attracted trolls and in many of the feedback threads I see the moaning and complaining from the same people yet most of them dont have anything positive to offer.

However I agree with most of what you say as I have made my feelings known both here and in private. Vanilla is a disaster as far as I'm concerned and while some improvements have been carried out there is still a serious amount of sh1t to be sorted out. Im one of the few mods speaking out publicly on this matter but (and probably against my better judgement) Im sticking it out for the time being. But if things dont improve in the near future then I'll be gone from here.

That's a very clear outline of the kind way things could be implemented. I wonder if the powers that be have put similar thought and effort into how things could be fixed.

Of the things that you identify that could be fixed, I suspect the categorisation of reported posts is most likely, assuming that the thread they are located on is also identified in some way.

Have we any idea of the features current being worked on? I get the feeling that users and moderators are being strung along here, and that there will be no significant features added to the current site.

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