The future of Watches & Timepieces if Boards dies

banie01 · 10-07-2025 03:08PM #1

Folks!

Given the grim outlook posited by Mike in the "Important News" update?

I am wondering if anyone has given any thoughts on what might come next for this sub-forum if boards.ie succumbs to the simple calculus that as a business, it's untenable at current expenditure rate?

I know many of us are also on other fora, such as TZUK, WUS and FB groups but, I do think that the loss of this forum would be almost a tragedy.

A few of the other sub-forums have started discord groups and whilst it can be a little mind bending to get used to…

it's nowhere near as bad as Vanilla was, and indeed will be again when the customisations are canned.

I'm happy to set up a discord server, to start a few categories and chats and send invites by PM request. I'd also propose that if Wibbs is amenable that he'd be appointed as an admin. I'm not proposing myself for such a role long term and indeed I'd hope that any group that did start, could manage to be relatively self policing.

I think that if we start of a server with a few beginner threads such as copying across the titles of our "for sale", "Chat", "Photos" and "SOTC" and see what develops.

The poll is anonymous, feel free to vote or not but, I'd love to hear what ideas people might have for keeping this corner going if needs transplanting elsewhere.

o1s1n · 10-07-2025 03:15PM

From what I've seen in the Arcade & Retro Discord, that's definitely the way to go. Would love to get an invite to this one if you set it up :)

Pablo_Flox · 10-07-2025 03:56PM

TBH, even if boards manages to save itself I think a lot of communities will start to move to other options, resulting in even less traffic and even more problems... Time to face that it's on life support and not going to get better.

C0N0R · 10-07-2025 05:26PM

Don’t fully know what discord is, but not interested in Facebook and probably nor Reddit. So voted that.

scwazrh · 10-07-2025 07:06PM

There’s probably only 15 -20 regular users on this subforum and weekly posters probably less than 10 users .I think a replacement forum while well intentioned would suffer the same defeat quick enough .You see it on the Irish FB pages for watches & adverts , theres just not a huge amount of watch enthusiasts for Irish base only.

WUS seems to be the most active forum for watches and has the benefit of being well organised as well.Not all watch enthusiasts are interested in the same watches and WUS caters to that well.

LuckyLloyd · 10-07-2025 07:59PM

what’s the full name of “WUS”?

I love this place - if there was a discord I’d be on it. But you’ll always get conversation from randomers stopping by that you lose in a discord.

Wibbs · 10-07-2025 08:02PM

Just my humble; but of the options Discord seems the best, especially for smaller groups.

Facebook is kinda crap. I've known a few car and other forums I was on that died and migrated to FB and they died even harder there, or at best turned into a sales section(which can be useful) or meetup organiser, with extra "thanks". Reddit is a bit better, but messy and both are much more temporary and transitory in content than forums tend to be(and going beyond hobby forums on Reddit might make you weep for what passes for humanity that can dwell there).

Tbh I think the interwebs has fundamentally changed over the last few years(phones kicked off some of the rot, being awkward to type more than old style Twatter posts) & even more rapidly since around covid. Things have become more shortform, throwaway, general, too often antagonistic and almost unsearchable. And of course the AI sh1te has really kicked in with bots and algorithms driving… well rarely enough debate or better information(it seems to be slightly better within the EU. About a year ago I VPN pretended to be a US googler and the image results were far more polluted with AI slop). The Dead Internet theory can at times look less a tinfoil hat conspiracy than a reality.

Forums are pretty much dead & personally I mourn their wider loss for a few reasons. Not just nostalgia either. As a middle aged fart I've learned to be wary of that all too easy emotion. They were great repositories of knowledge on niche subjects, more permanent and searchable and connectable, for the want of a better word.

Scwarch mentioned WUS and even that huge site has fallen off a cliff in posts. It can be tumbleweed in the smaller forums, even though they consolidated a fair few. What are you wearing today in the general forum seems to be the biggie for traffic. I still get notifications from there(and other old skool forums) and it's pretty common to see "new posts" being weeks even months old. Hodinkee's once heavy enough traffic comments section seems to now be made up of about a dozen people, and some are suspiciously bot like. A huge mostly US based car forum I was on for yonks is pretty much now just a searchable resource(its Reddit equivalent is crap by comparison with "hot" replies from forum faves too often dispensing Man in the Pub© ballsology as fact). Thankfully it's still up and searchable as sadly a few other forums simply went "404" and all their knowledge and community went with it. :( The MWR(milwatch forum) seems to be ticking along with its small, but interested group of fellow old and older farts keeping some of the faith.

TL;DR? Imho and fwiw Discord is by far the best of a bad lot as an alt.

banie01 · 10-07-2025 08:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123621813#Comment_123621813

watchuseek.com

I agree with you on the loss of the joy of the random conversation via drop ins if someone is using discord. The site here has been circling quite a while and it's the hardcore of stubborn posters that hold on that have kept any sense of community going here.

On the discord front, I have set up a server and whilst as Schwarz has mentioned the core group here is only 15/20, having that group keep up some kind of engagement will make any loss of this corner a bit easier.

I won't share the invite code publicly just yet if only as a means to avoid spam members but, if anyone wants an invite? Just drop me a PM and I'll reply with the code.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123621823#Comment_123621823

All good points and I agree with you re: Discord being the best of the remaining options.

IV1916 · 10-07-2025 08:39PM

Reddit or Discord, either works.

893bet · 10-07-2025 09:21PM

Reddit and a WhatsApp could be an option. Though I have seen WhatsApp’s with 20 people in it become an echo chamber with 2 people providing 80 percent of the chat.

Maybe a discord and a Reddit. Keep the discord invite only and it will allow safe sales.

Deep Thought · 10-07-2025 09:29PM

I only ever use boards for this forum. Rest is tat and full of moaners and assholes.

never used Discord,

No to Facebook.

Reddit is also good

Wonder if a representative group approached Eddie Platts of TZ and asked for an Irish sub forum? At least we could see TZ stuff and Irish stuff in one place.

WhatsApp could also work

DT

893bet · 10-07-2025 09:31PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123622079#Comment_123622079

TZ is more fucked than boards; closed to membership. Someday the lights will go out there with no warning unless he sells it.

Deep Thought · 10-07-2025 09:33PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123622083#Comment_123622083

good point..

Reddit or discord so

scwazrh · 10-07-2025 09:35PM

Reddit is probably the most reasonable choice . I’m sure a good few of us here already use it.

TZ sub forum might work but as 893 says it has its own problems .

banie01 · 10-07-2025 09:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123622083#Comment_123622083

+1 on this. It's grand if you're in but I can't remember when the last new member joined.

It's slowly turning into a graveyard too with even the forum hoovers slowing down at this stage. It's becoming what I imagine a posh club with elderly members dying off is like (not that I'll ever know🤣)

I didn't suggest WhatsApp in the poll as it never occured to me but, now that it's raised? It's hard to keep track of single chats without a decent means of threaded views or single topics when a group hits 10 or 12.

Fitz II · 10-07-2025 09:39PM

Before the changover to Vanilla boards had a lot of issues, members were moderated like ****, moderators were treated like ****. The changeover was a disaster and the site is basically un-navigable since. I begged and pleaded with the admins to rethink the changover. I could never understand why hosting it on free vbullitin was any different to vanilla, seems was a business decision with little thoughs for users. As an ex mod of several forums I retreated into the watch forum, a very nice area, well moderated, left to its own devices, good natured for the most part and everyone with a common interest. It would be a shame for the watch forum to die and moving it to another forum or instagram might be an idea as watches are a very visual hobby.

As for boards.ie….if it dies, it dies….IMHO good riddance, its been a long and painful terminal illness, boards was wonderful back in the day but time to do the only kind thing and put the old girl down.I would encourage everyone if boards is shut down to ask for you posts to be anonymized or deleted under GDPR legislation.

Deep Thought · 10-07-2025 09:40PM

I’d go for reddit or discord..

happy with both

patspost · 11-07-2025 10:59PM

Reddit or discord

893bet · 12-07-2025 09:54AM

Subscriber options open.

For those self employed it’s tax deductible (arguably). I need to figure out access to the email I used to sign up.

In any case its pittance.

I have saved many 100s in bargain alerts (and lost many thousands here…).

scwazrh · 12-07-2025 09:56AM

the amount of time we’ve all spent here over the years , €50 in return isn’t much of an ask.

Oscar_Madison · 12-07-2025 10:19AM

Reddit or Discord- however, some additional thoughts.

Outside of current affairs, there are a good handful of very popular, very well run forums devoted to specific interests.

I don’t know much about these alternative social media and how effective or challenging they might be to keep the community aspect going -BUT- considering many such fora now have a similar thread to this one running on their front page, if there was anyway whereby a decent group of specialist forums could agree to all set up in the same general location on another social media platform, it might keep all forums alive with crossover traffic?

As sport is such a vast topic, leave sport out as it makes sense for them to self organise . But I dunno, say food, BBQ, gardening, (complementary forums in themselves) photography (don’t even know if that exists anymore) along with say bargain alerts and Watches and timepieces - if they were all close by each other on the one platform, whilst no it wouldn’t be boards.ie- but it might keep all fora alive ?

Just a thought - considering all these forums have moderators, inter-mod discussions coupled with user feedback might get the result most people could “live” with?

banie01 · 12-07-2025 02:26PM

Thanks to everyone for the comments, votes and indeed ideas so far.

I use Reddit quite a bit and for some things it is brilliant. That said, I don't use the official Reddit app as I find it flooded with ads and other usability issues that I just don't like.

That said, I use it and in the sub-reddits I'm active on? I enjoy it. I'm happy to set up a sub over there or indeed if someone else wants to do so fire ahead.

The discord is set up and we have a grand total of 6 members so far! Explosive growth don't ya know 😁 out of 22 who voted for Discord option and 34 votes for all options so far.

banie01 · 12-07-2025 05:24PM

I've had a bit of free time today between the Lions game and the Boks game 😉 along with floating in the pool...

So I've used it to create a sub-reddit for us over at

https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchesAndTimepieces/s/66wZoIbBzK

Feel free to join or not, it is after all only a contingency for us.

banie01 · 12-07-2025 05:27PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123626645#Comment_123626645

I do appreciate the desire to save not just the sub-fora but the entire web of interconnectedness that comes with boards and the front page.

I honestly don't know how that's possible without transplanting the site, the categories and the users to a new platform but I'd certainly be on board with any effort to try and do so.

Lorddrakul · 12-07-2025 06:04PM

Thanks @banie01 Joined!

Oscar_Madison · 12-07-2025 07:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123627872#Comment_123627872

and look, either do I - maybe it’s an idea for the future- let all forums “survive” today …and hopefully “thrive” tomorrow

Eoin · 14-07-2025 09:50AM

Joined the Reddit sub, thanks for setting it up.

I joined boards 21 years ago this month so it's sad to see the current state, but it feels a bit inevitable. I'll probably subscribe here, but feels a bit like sending flowers to the funeral. I remain very bored with the whining about the "heavy handed moderation". I may be somewhat biased, but I think it made this site a lot more civil than many other forums that were just downright unpleasant.

This forum is the only one I visit regularly since the disastrous switchover from vbulletin, and even then I really only lurk. I've lost a lot of my interest in watches in general anyway, so I don't think another medium will change that.

Fitz II · 14-07-2025 11:16AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123632546#Comment_123632546

"feel a bit like sending flowers to the funeral" - indeed, well put. I think a lot of people (honestly myself included) have an amount of schadenfreude about the issues and use it to highlight their considered opinion on why the site has fallen so far. But in reality, this sort of forum is dying. All the users are middle aged at best, and young people dont have the patience for this sort of old hat format. Boards decline into irrelevance was inevitable. It had its time, its was magnificent, and I knocked some amount of crack out of it. Half the time I was only happy when I was deep in some sort of agro and giving out contrary opinions. My wife would know I was deep in some argument ("cant talk now honey, somebody on the internet is wrong" stuff) buy the speed and power I would strike the keys on my keyboard while I will supposed to be watching something with her. However, in hindsight, I dont know how good for me that was.

RIP boards, you were loved.

893bet · 14-07-2025 12:25PM

I think it’s worth saving and preserving.

Based on the 300-400 subs so far then there is limited chance of hitting the 2000 needed.

scwazrh · 14-07-2025 01:50PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123633182#Comment_123633182

Agree is worth saving .There seems to be a lot of "its had its day " and "good riddance "which I dont really understand.Yeah most users are probably middle aged but that means its user base still has 30-40 years left so its not going to run out of users today or tomorrow.

Based on the 300-400 subs so far then there is limited chance of hitting the 2000 needed

I'd guess its more than that though as the subscription is being managed in true boards fashion of being done arseways , for those of us that are lazy and just clicked apple pay to subscribed its not logging against your username unless it was the same email address so doesnt show as youve subscribed .If / when they fix that we might see more accurate numbers.Also are the 2000 needed immediatly? achieving 2000 over the year may work once they see the potential of the subscription model and market it correctly.

artanevilla · 14-07-2025 03:04PM

I joined in 2007, so works out at €2.70 a year. Or €0.00434 per post.

That's cheap lads.

The future of Watches & Timepieces if Boards dies

The future of Watches & Timepieces if Boards dies 45 votes

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