What happened to Boards.ie - genuine question

It's not the same beast it was because the internet isn't the same as it was. We've seen the consolidation of the internet into the hands of a tiny few corporate CEO's. Social media firms actively editorialise by pushing extreme content to rile up their user base for "engagement". Engagement means clicks which generates ad revenue.

Boards.ie is ill-suited to this model. Sure, we do have advertisers but the nature of this site is geared towards conventional conversations. Reddit is based around upvoting whatever best fits the groupthink and downvoting any dissent into oblivion. Twitter is based on quips and 280-character comments. On Boards, you see the opposing viewpoints so it makes for more rounded debate but the issue is that people now want echo chambers and the market is evolving accordingly.

Finally, there's the effect of time. People want their content shorter and to the point. Witness TikTok, Youtube shorts and Facebook's imitation. This site doesn't work that way. In addition, I think its userbase is more middle-aged than young now. It's become Bebo or Facebook with a declining user base and the same problems with trolls that persist the tech giants with none of the revenue.

I hope Boards.ie is still with us for a long time to come but that's far from a certainty.

Didn't help but things went downhill way before that. I don't think there's been a meanignfull change in the userbase (in terms of atmosphere of the site).

It’s still good.

Same as you OP, back between 05-08 when I worked in a bank I spent a lot of the day on boards. Even when I rejoined in 2014 on this username the place was pretty electric.

Times past and we are all in our late thirties and forties + with less time to doss. The younger generation aren’t into message boards like we were.

Whatever anyway, there are a few thousand of us to keep it going for another couple of decades. Hold together and talk about our latest bowel movements in AH!

Id like to say why but I cant.

Ill just say that things are not always as they seem.

(Yes I can see it, could see it years back, and I doubt im the only one).

Age of user base has increased, the giant platforms have hoovered up the users. People want video, likes, reposts and shares etc etc. You just don’t hider that here and never will.

This site will appeal to some people (like me) who have no internet in Reddit/Facebook etc.

+1 on the culture war posters/threads though. They are pure echo chambers. I ventured in there a few times and they are vicious. ‘Ireland for the Irish’ ‘End immigration’ etc and no dissent allowed or entertained. I hope it’s the same 5 guys with multiple accounts arguing in there though.

On a positive note, the Motors forum which used to be very active was a dead parrot for a few years. With the help of the mods we got it revamped and the dead subforums merged and there is much more activity on it now.

Sorry, I agree with that but its not the software change that cause that I mean. There was certainly a concetrated effort by people turn turn After Hours into an anti craic zone and use it as a platform for their personal hobby horses which did a lot of damage but unless I'm misremembering that was all in full swing years before the switch to Vanilla.

I've set up an account to reply to the thread as i fear otherwise i'd be warned/banned etc...

I've been a member since 2003 and have always enjoyed the contribution from different members but find myself not posting a lot of days now and i've gone from an average of around 8 posts a day 10 years ago to about 1 or 2 now. Was very active on the Soccer forum until the site changed over to the new platform and haven't been arsed since then. Actually it's easy to blame the changeover for what happened to the site but im of the thinking the platform was on a downward spiral since around 2017 for whatever reason but i do think the American culture wars and the willingness of mods to ban posters for discussing issues contradictory to their own and the site ethos has played a big part.

Boards was a discussion forum first and foremost but it's hard to have a discussion with posters who all have the same view of the world and it's become more and more of an echo chamber as the years have rolled on.

As an example i found myself at the time agreeing with a lot of posters who posed questions about the Covid lockdowns but i noticed those posters being warned or thread banned off the site altogether for raising those particular concerns and lately over the last year anyone questioning the obvious mental decline of the American president seems to be removed from that particular thread.

At the end of the day it's a private forum and the site owners can do as they please but let's not pretend the place will still exist in the coming years if the present format isn't altered to be more inclusive of all viewpoints.

I won't hold my breath

Tbh you'll always hear the site redesign and the rise of other sites used as the reason the place collapsed off a cliff but it was nosediving due to over the top and biased moderation which was supported by higher ups at the time who often held the same viewpoints.

I'm often talking about threads which would have been started about too much immigration in Europe/Ireland etc getting shut down from the get go or mods just itching to use that one gen racist looper post as an excuse to close the thread.

Repeat for a slew of different topics.

You just had to look at the feedback thread wars between posters and the higher ups/the hardcore minority of posters who were left wing to see the feeling of the userbase at the time.

If you are here long enough and used the place enough you can see the difference in moderation is night and day between then and now. I remember several of the more high profile posters throwing toys outta the pram about how the site was becoming a far right, racist, trump supporter, insert whatever when the moderation started to hit a more in the middle tone. They clamped down on actual racists trying to stir and gave the same to the posters on the other side who used only come in trying to get the threads shut down.

I only lurk there days but half the threads allowed run now wouldn't have made a few weeks one time.

In saying that all places come and go eventually. Even Facebook which was blamed here a lot with various hobby groups for taking away users while still shows "growth" you only have to look at the under 30s and definitely the under 25s to see that's being seen as old fashioned now.

Same will happen to the others eventually. In fact I can see places like here maybe even make a little comeback eventually somewhat

So all these bank workers spending too much time on boards back in 05-08. The real reason for the crash..

Another point about the decline from my POV was the cliques that formed. I was mostly a Motors forum. A few posters had followers and nobody else got a look in either when they started threads or responded.

A few posters voiced concerns about it but nothing ever changed and ultimately people voted with their feet. If you could start your own interest group on Facebook with minimal friction and no need to worry about overheads, what was the point of hanging around here?