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Boards is becoming a Ghost Town

WarZ

Is it just me or is boards.ie becoming extraordinarily quiet? It's something I've started to notice and its making me go elsewhere (Reddit is incredibly busy in comparison). I'm not sure if its because the quality of posting is taking such a dive or if its because of over zealous moderation. Perhaps both. I think a balance needs to be struck; posting needs to be better but at the same time a lot of mods in the forum have over exerted their influence to the extent where we've lost so many great posters. The site is becoming too nany-esque however I'm aware the site was suffering from a huge problem with trolls and racists. I'm just wondering what are the thoughts of the admins on this issue?

Seems like boards is dying out.

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Wibbs

Links234 wrote: »

It had so much more character as well, the site today feels so much more sterile and Facebook-lite.

But yeah, comparing it to Reddit's front page, where you've got a list of subs running all across the top bar, you've got trending subreddits, basically loads of stuff thrown at you. It's messy and nowhere near as neat looking as boards is now, but so much more available to you straight off the bat, it's all right there for you.

Yep it's messier than Boards used to be yet is powering along with growth. I wonder if the same opinions Boards brought in would find it "impossible to navigate" too?

Edward Hopper

intheclouds wrote: »

Ah lads, why cant we just go back to this - so much info on screen! No ads!

https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195603/http://www.boards.ie/

Much more likely to just click on a random thread there if something grabbed your interest, it was so much better. That's what got me into boards in the first place, first time around, was only looking for satellite info then clicked on a random thread, then another, then another etc etc. Seems quite a sensible way of encouraging users to browse and delve further into boards.

Unlike the modern choice of a few threads on homepage and hiding whatever content is left under a sea of clicks. No wonder smaller forums are dying.

Faith

From my perspective, the forums I post in have gone from lovely and busy, to near ghost towns. Across the Food & Drink category, there have been ~50 posts in the last 24 hours. That's across 8 subforums. We used to have that many new posts per day in Cooking & Recipes alone!

I'd love to merge all of the Food & Drink forums into one big forum. Who cares if you're cooking, baking or drinking? It's all consumption, it's something we all do every day. With the new re-org, I couldn't find my own forums if I wasn't subscribed to them.

Calhoun

Bambi wrote: »

You've had that in both directions in various forums though.

The one thing that did my head in was the degree to which mods could work their own personal hobby horses and neuroses into charters and modding.

Like one loon of a mod who was handing out bans for strong language because they did not approve of such

The same forum where one poster was given the run of the place and then later convicted in court of the very thing they had spent all their time crusading against.

I reckon people should be limited in the amount forums or categories that they can mod. In general there's a tendency for neurotic busy bodies to be promoted to mod and then they quickly rack up the amount of area's they're managing.

Damn I didn't think it was that bad nor was I aware of said individual.

I think the day of the selfless moderator donating time allot of effort to keep the site going is dwindling. While not all have an agenda there are those who get some other tangible value from doing their job as they have been able to set the narrative and tone in the environment.

Links234

intheclouds wrote: »

Ah lads, why cant we just go back to this - so much info on screen! No ads!

https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195603/http://www.boards.ie/

It had so much more character as well, the site today feels so much more sterile and Facebook-lite.

But yeah, comparing it to Reddit's front page, where you've got a list of subs running all across the top bar, you've got trending subreddits, basically loads of stuff thrown at you. It's messy and nowhere near as neat looking as boards is now, but so much more available to you straight off the bat, it's all right there for you.

I don't know though, I kinda think that forums like boards have just had their day. I used to post on a load of them with a similar format, but a lot of them have just dwindled as well. Gotta wonder if the bulletin board style is on it's way out in general. Another place that I used to be very active in a few years back seems dead in the water now. I'd say it's the fact that you've got places like Reddit, where anyone can create their own community with ease within this one big platform where you only require one login for thousands and thousands of different communities, or Facebook where you can create a page for anything with no fuss at all, that's making bulletin boards go out of fashion pretty fast.

GLaDOS

I really miss having that many threads visable on the front page

LuckyLloyd

intheclouds wrote: »

Ah lads, why cant we just go back to this - so much info on screen! No ads!

https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195603/http://www.boards.ie/

Ha - far superior to the redesign!!

intheclouds

Ah lads, why cant we just go back to this - so much info on screen! No ads!

https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195603/http://www.boards.ie/

KomradeBishop

Just another random idea: Can't browser plugins like Greasemonkey/Stylish be used to redesign websites clientside/in-the-browser? (without changing the actual hosted website on the server)

That could be used as a limited method of experimenting with site redesigns, and even getting some of the Boards community involved in experimenting/competing with different site redesigns - though they'd need to be handy with such scripts - and you could find the best design through either iterative-improvements or competition between different designs.

Less disruptive than server-hosted redesigns, allows a lot more experimentation to find a good design, and can be incorporated into the main site when a good design is developed/found.

_Kaiser_

weisses wrote: »

What worries me is the consensus between (long) term users cmod's and mods in regards to how boards is being run into the ground

.. and even more so, how little this seems to be bothering the higher-ups/owners.

At this point I think a prominent front-page/site-wide statement acknowledging the concerns, holding their hand up and admitting they've got the haphazard deployment of this "new site" wrong (and indeed recognition that serious consideration should be given to going back to the drawing board) and less of the "well this is the way we're going regardless", would go a LONG way to restoring the faith and indeed support being offered by those users... but only if it's actually followed-up with proactive engagement by all sides.

"Something has to be done to grow the site" - fair enough... but alienating your userbase in the process in the vague hope of replacing them with a new one doesn't seem very sensible, or indeed sound business practise.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Dyr

Calhoun wrote: »

For me the writing was on the wall when boards not only became more liberal but was allowed to be used as a platform for change by certain political viewpoints. I remember it got so bad at one stage we had a category moderator reacting to the general online community outside of boards and was trying to enforce a viewpoint to curb behavior that didn't exist, the good posters of boards were being punished for the sins of another community.

The worst part of it is when you are so focused on a certain political viewpoint the group think sinks in and anyone with an opposing view is either branded a loon or out and out banned. So yes while the site layout maybe at fault I believe picking and choosing community volunteers who are not neutral on matters also has a big part to play.

You've had that in both directions in various forums though.

The one thing that did my head in was the degree to which mods could work their own personal hobby horses and neuroses into charters and modding.

Like one loon of a mod who was handing out bans for strong language because they did not approve of such

The same forum where one poster was given the run of the place and then later convicted in court of the very thing they had spent all their time crusading against.

I reckon people should be limited in the amount forums or categories that they can mod. In general there's a tendency for neurotic busy bodies to be promoted to mod and then they quickly rack up the amount of area's they're managing.

Dyr

A lot of the smaller forums were killed off by the last layout change, it relegated the "my forums" list to a cramped list in the right hand corner so no one bothered checking out the slower forums out anymore as those posts would never show up in the main "my forums" tab, they'd always be pushed down by posts from the higher traffic forums

The one thing this otherwise woeful upcoming layout does right is put "my forums" list back into the main area.

Also Mods are dicks etc, etc.

Calhoun

For me the writing was on the wall when boards not only became more liberal but was allowed to be used as a platform for change by certain political viewpoints. I remember it got so bad at one stage we had a category moderator reacting to the general online community outside of boards and was trying to enforce a viewpoint to curb behavior that didn't exist, the good posters of boards were being punished for the sins of another community.

The worst part of it is when you are so focused on a certain political viewpoint the group think sinks in and anyone with an opposing view is either branded a loon or out and out banned. So yes while the site layout maybe at fault I believe picking and choosing community volunteers who are not neutral on matters also has a big part to play.

Don't get me wrong either I am not advocating for a liberal or conservative viewpoint to rule on the site but outside of discussing items that are blatantly illegal a mature debate on anything should be possible. Like that episode of southpark with the sea manatees once a certain topic becomes taboo they all do.

Its quite the pity as boards used to be a staple for me on a daily basis, there is probably one forum that keeps me still interested otherwise id be hitting the close account button aswell.

andekwarhola

Wibbs wrote: »

There's also a wider societal shift, a greater sense of polarisation on a few matters. More matters have turned into serious bizness in that time. In say 2008 who had heard of say MRA's, or SJW's or Safe Spaces, or Rape Culture, or Virtue signalling or Triggering to any great degree? None of that was mainstream and/or on Boards. You had to dig pretty deep on the interwebs to find it and it was usually full on loons who were spouting such. Sure we always had the Right on and the Right, by dint of the age and background demographic, but even there not to the same degree as today. I think that polarisation has led to less of a community spirit too. And there's eff all we can do about that.

You know, this is one thing that people are not really acknowledging. These Boards golden era(s) that people are mythologizing probably won't ever be back because it was a different net space/era, whatever. More and more (and all kinds of) people (not just tech types invested in the concept of forum community) use the net now. There's far more sites. Accessed from far more device types. And it's far easier, even for neophytes, to cover their tracks if they wish.

By all means, I agree that the usability of the site can be vastly improved and that feedback about the management of the site is sorely needed and should be acted on but I'd seriously doubt that's it's feasible to haul boards back to some retrospective idea of community SafeSpace (for want of a better word) while staying (and growing as) a huge site these days.

weisses

What worries me is the consensus between (long) term users cmod's and mods in regards to how boards is being run into the ground

Myrddin

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

What good are they when no one listens?

I'm listening for one

Theirs nothing new in this thread that hasn't been mentioned in all the other ones...you'll lock this tomorrow or the next day and sign off with "Lots here to take in....Talk about it behind the scenes...we'll get back to ya"

Never to be heard from again.

I can't guarantee anything will come from any of the constructive feedback so far, but I will initiate an admin discussion on it & see what we can do, where we can tighten up, etc.

I've gotten the same sort of hassle from Mods all over the site - only place I haven't is in Astronomy & Space...I've 97 Threads there...half of them talking to myself unfortunately (give up now) but looking...one mod hasn't posted in there in 3 years and the other is nearly a year so that's probably why....they shouldn't be Mods either, if you've no interest in the Topic then why are you modding it long term?

To be honest, I'd read a fair bit of content in Astronomy & Space myself. You do generate a lot of threads there, but so many of them are just a bare link with a snippet of the article embedded in. Personally, I find threads like that stand little chance of generating discussion because the opening post is being treated like a news site. People want to hear the thoughts, musings, and opinions of others, not simply to see links pasted into posts. If you're posting like that in Aviation, it could be the source of your difficulties there too...try put something of yourself into those posts, & they'd read so much better.

Anyway, that's some of my reasons for going elsewhere lately or doing anything else other than coming here but for the habit of coming here.

The feedback is appreciated, thanks.

smash

Wibbs wrote: »

The usual response is that vbulletin isn't fit for purpose under the bonnet and doesn't work for as big a site as Boards.ie. OK but I have two problems with that. I'm a member on a few that run the same software and they're running along fine. Watchuseek has half the members of Boards and a third of the posts but it's still a big site and it's growing. Even though it can be slow to load. That doesn't put people off. Hondatech has the same number of members(and no close account option) has ten million more posts, a crapload of forums and it's running fine on vB. There is a I believe a Doyouevenliftbro forum that is ginormous, much bigger than Boards and again using vB.

Lets not forget Steam, Sony, EA and even NASA. All a whole lot bigger than boards.

Wibbs wrote: »

Secondly. OK let's agree vB is pure shíte, so why not put all the efforts into rebuilding the "engine" while leaving the look and feel alone? That's not going to alienate anybody, plus has the lovely bonus of having the possibility of extra quid coming Board's way if it can provide a better vB engine. You could sell that to other forum owners who feel that vB needs more.

Or the current version of VB could have been upgraded?

_Kaiser_

smash wrote: »

The relevance of boards solely depends on the ever dwindling user base, which is what the owners need to concentrate on keeping and growing. Removing access to forums and replacing this access with the promotion of 'talk to' is just plain nonsense. Businesses already have FB pages, Twitter accounts and live chats. I can see them jumping off boards sooner rather than later. Especially with the userbase dropping. The new design alienates existing users and forum access!

I'd agree with this. Most of the companies involved (certainly the bigger ones) already have an extensive online presence, not to mention telephone helpdesks etc

From a user perspective most posts in those forums seem to be "I'm having x problem" with a response of "please PM us your details" and maybe a follow-up thanks - or alternatively, a copy/paste "from the script" answer that doesn't actually address the OP's question. I'm not sure what value that adds for anyone.. certainly myself I find it's much quicker to pick up the phone to the company involved in most cases.

I get why The Office sees value in it, but it offers nothing special to the users/customers that they can't get elsewhere and as you say, certainly the bigger corporates would drop it in the morning if the mood took someone. If that's the (funding) hope for the future, it seems like a shaky model.

This site has always been about the community interaction and the content, discussion and information it generates. Throw that away (which doing things like ignoring feedback or giving the same "from the script" answer, and pushing a clearly hugely unpopular redesign on people) and there'll be nothing left to attract those commercial customers.. unless you're aiming to be the Bonkers.ie equivalent for Support forums,

Wibbs

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Theirs nothing new in this thread that hasn't been mentioned in all the other ones...you'll lock this tomorrow or the next day and sign off with "Lots here to take in....Talk about it behind the scenes...we'll get back to ya"

Never to be heard from again.

There can be an element of that alright.

I'm amazed we haven't had some version of "Why are you posting if you don't like it so?" in here yet from some Mod or Admin, the usual dribble that comes out of one of ye in these Threads...rather than like do your Job and listen to the Feedback.

For a start T the mods including admins are volunteers. Outside of a couple of admins employed by Daft this is not a "job". I dunno where some get this idea(inc some mods BTW). Secondly if you take the mods are **** blinkers off for a moment and you'll see that a goodly chunk of the people on this and other relevant threads are mods and ex mods who are just as pissed off at the changes we see as a threat to this community. One that many of us have put in many hours over many years to foster. Again as Volunteers.

That's actually a big problem here, their's lots of Mods who want to be seen to be Mods but that's it. If you can manage to get a reply outta some of them (if needs be) it's a how quick can i respond to this eejit and get rid of him response.

Are there a few like that? I don't doubt it. There have been a few down the years where I see their handle and think *facepalm* and roll my eyes so hard I"m in danger of whiplash. I certainly engender that feeling in some. However most are grand and again they're volunteers so time factors can come into it. Having lives and such.

One particularly memorably time in one of the Tech Forums, I had a Thread about Android phones deleted for being Spam, I was like so I PM'ed Mod and it turned out he hadn't even read it at all. "It looked spammy" and I was relatively new on site so he just deleted it. And he wasn't undeleting it. Presumably cuz he'd then look like a silly head.

That sounds a bit thick alright. TBH there are certain forums I'll read from time to time, or would have before the category change, but would never post in and sometimes it's because of the "local" vibe to the place. A touch of the smug circle jerk of how clever we are vibe. That's certainly not just a Boards thing mind you.

only place I haven't is in Astronomy & Space...I've 97 Threads there...half of them talking to myself unfortunately (give up now)

FWIW T I read and thank your stuff there on a near daily basis and again FWIW you will be missed by me and others.

LizT wrote: »

The category reorganisation has spoiled boards for me. I used to love going to the front page and finding random threads in forums I didn't know existed. Now I pretty much stick to my subscribed threads and forums and rarely venture outside them.

+1. I used to post my bullshít all over the site and now just stick to my subbed forums. Though maybe this is a good thing.

Something that could be driving users away is the perceived lack of response to feedback. For example, with any recent redesigns all we've been told is 'we're moving away from vbulletin, it has to be done.'
That's fine but I don't think we've been told why we have to completely change the look of the whole site?

The usual response is that vbulletin isn't fit for purpose under the bonnet and doesn't work for as big a site as Boards.ie. OK but I have two problems with that. I'm a member on a few that run the same software and they're running along fine. Watchuseek has half the members of Boards and a third of the posts but it's still a big site and it's growing. Even though it can be slow to load. That doesn't put people off. Hondatech has the same number of members(and no close account option) has ten million more posts, a crapload of forums and it's running fine on vB. There is a I believe a Doyouevenliftbro forum that is ginormous, much bigger than Boards and again using vB.

Secondly. OK let's agree vB is pure shíte, so why not put all the efforts into rebuilding the "engine" while leaving the look and feel alone? That's not going to alienate anybody, plus has the lovely bonus of having the possibility of extra quid coming Board's way if it can provide a better vB engine. You could sell that to other forum owners who feel that vB needs more.

I know they did some testing with people who haven't used boards before and the feedback was that they found it nearly impossible to use.

Yep. They had a Meeting(™) with Consultants(™). I'll be straight here, if said so called experts found it near impossible to use then they're quite simply not experts. They're chancers trying to justify their consultancy fee. This is scarily common in the corporate world. I have seen it for myself and I have also seen management types get the hard on for such experts. Management types often feel the need to justify themselves too and that can come out as "changes I want to bring in on my watch, going forward in holy paradigm shifts. All praise the paradigm. With bar charts and powerpoint".

I don't know how the new site could be an improvement, you've lost nearly half the content that used to be displayed in one page. I can't be arsed with the new 'topics', it's takes twice the amount of time to get to where you want to go on the site now. That's not creating an easier browsing experience.

But… but Lt, experts.

o1s1n

kneemos wrote: »

Moderated into oblivion imo.

I wish it were that simple

kneemos

Half way down the first page of AH it's four hours since the last post,six hours at the bottom.
I know it's fairly early,but that ain't good.
Moderated into oblivion imo.

LizT

The category reorganisation has spoiled boards for me. I used to love going to the front page and finding random threads in forums I didn't know existed. Now I pretty much stick to my subscribed threads and forums and rarely venture outside them.

Something that could be driving users away is the perceived lack of response to feedback. For example, with any recent redesigns all we've been told is 'we're moving away from vbulletin, it has to be done.'
That's fine but I don't think we've been told why we have to completely change the look of the whole site? I know they did some testing with people who haven't used boards before and the feedback was that they found it nearly impossible to use. I don't know how the new site could be an improvement, you've lost nearly half the content that used to be displayed in one page. I can't be arsed with the new 'topics', it's takes twice the amount of time to get to where you want to go on the site now. That's not creating an easier browsing experience.

There's definitely a feeling that boards are pushing for new users, rather than asking what will keep our existing community alive.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

I used to enjoy reading your posts in Astronomy & Space, haven't clicked into that forum in a while though...

_Tombstone_

Myrddin wrote: »

@Permabear, some good points there

What good are they when no one listens?

Theirs nothing new in this thread that hasn't been mentioned in all the other ones...you'll lock this tomorrow or the next day and sign off with "Lots here to take in....Talk about it behind the scenes...we'll get back to ya"

Never to be heard from again.

I'm amazed we haven't had some version of "Why are you posting if you don't like it so?" in here yet from some Mod or Admin, the usual dribble that comes out of one of ye in these Threads...rather than like do your Job and listen to the Feedback.

That's actually a big problem here, their's lots of Mods who want to be seen to be Mods but that's it. If you can manage to get a reply outta some of them (if needs be) it's a how quick can i respond to this eejit and get rid of him response.

smash wrote: »

I'm subscribed to 9 forums. Over the last 5 hours there's been only 35 threads updated from those 9 forums. That says a lot for how slow the site is going with user interaction.

I've been on Boards for over 10 years now. I'd be classed as a "content creator". Depending on my interests at the time I've bombarded be it Tech, Gardening, Science....whatever over the years with News/links/breakthroughs etc and it's ALWAYS been a pain cuz of awful Mods.

One particularly memorably time in one of the Tech Forums, I had a Thread about Android phones deleted for being Spam, I was like

so I PM'ed Mod and it turned out he hadn't even read it at all. "It looked spammy" and I was relatively new on site so he just deleted it. And he wasn't undeleting it. Presumably cuz he'd then look like a silly head.

He's has no interest in the Forum Topic, nearly never posts, shouldn't be a Mod there.

I'm now banned from Aviation for asking on thread why the Mods there let the same user write "clickbait" on 3 threads I'd started. And why they'd deleted a Thread about Radar lock - never got an answer to that, it never reappeared.

Here's my all over the place ban post that mentions other problems

Stupid Forum.

I've gotten the same sort of hassle from Mods all over the site - only place I haven't is in Astronomy & Space...I've 97 Threads there...half of them talking to myself unfortunately (give up now) but looking...one mod hasn't posted in there in 3 years and the other is nearly a year so that's probably why....they shouldn't be Mods either, if you've no interest in the Topic then why are you modding it long term?

Anyway, that's some of my reasons for going elsewhere lately or doing anything else other than coming here but for the habit of coming here.

smash

I'm subscribed to 9 forums. Over the last 5 hours there's been only 35 threads updated from those 9 forums. That says a lot for how slow the site is going with user interaction.

ThisRegard

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Many people have stated this, but it's being ignored.

Used to be that I'd hover over (for example) "Science" and then the drop down would come, and I'd see the list of "sciency" topics and go into them one by one. I literally never do that any more, because nothing happens automatically any more. It's effort. I've no particular interest in any of the science topics at all, so I don't make the effort to go into them.

But "The Office" either don't understand the issue there, or are of the opinion that there is a huge horde of people just waiting for a major site redesign before actually posting. How many different "betas" have we seen in the last couple of years? Has the posting base increased or decreased?

Lots have raised this issue on this thread, and it was raised a lot coming up to the redesign of the menus, predicting exactly as above.

Starokan

I love reading Boards and from a viewpoint of reading more than posting its blatantly obvious that it is becoming a quieter site.

It's hard to know if its transforming or slowly dying - in fairness the site has not had it easy from hacks to the DDOS attacks - its a testimony to its popularity that so many people still have it as a go to site every day despite the numerous difficulties in accessing posting etc in recent times.

I think myself the future for the site lies very much in After Hours and how its treated, its the gateway to the site and figuring out how to capitalise on its mass appeal would seem to me to be the best way to retain users and regenerate

I would lose many of the sub forums , its discouraging when you go into a forum and see like maybe two posts over four months - why would you start a thread, comment on an old one or even revisit the area.

Keep the really active forums separate, lose the inactive forums and find a way to let all else through AH would be my way forward. Definitely do something about the search function too

On the site changes I am probably one of the few who liked the new look but the current version is too full of bugs and is simply to slow for anyone to use, its totally off putting to use it at the moment

I get the theory that the consultants say new users will be brought on board by the changes but I certainly believe from all I have read that this will not happen. I think the opposite may now occur and I base this purely on the level of feedback I have seen.

Often people will pick holes in something for the sake of it but in this case I don't think its the case, the quality of most of the posters is without question (by quality I mean well established long term users that are not trolls) .

The feedback is overwhelming - the vast majority do not like or want the new layout - i would imagine the amount of people clicking legacy is very very high.

At some stage in any plan you have got to sit back and go maybe we got this wrong - feedback here certainly indicates this is the case . Based on the numerous posts from the core mass of regular users I cannot see the sense in implementing the new look, if these posters follow through by using less and less or closing then there will simply be very little going on that can attract and retain the new user. I know from all I have read that switching from V bulletin must occur - no issue there but perhaps time to revisit the new layout as in listen to the feedback and change it up before its too late.

I hope boards keeps going, its a super site and hopefully the slow down in posting reverses itself.

dr.bollocko

Every major change made over the past 5 years has made the site worse. Re-orgs, search functions, mobile interfaces, home page layouts, mod tools. They were all changed and none of these changes improved on the original.

Couple that with the unreliable nature of the site and the refusal to make things work for mobile devices at all and what do you expect to happen? People stop coming here. Something that suits how people browse comes along.
The mobile app for iOS is so immediately buggy it just beggars belief it ever saw the light of day.

K-9

Wasn't there an article about boards a year or so ago with the journo complaining about the structure of the site?

The main menu has got so streamlined that the actual whole point of the site, discussion, is getting less prominence.

Then when you get down into the sub headings there can be too many sub forums.

@permabear, politics is actually the simplest category, the cafe and general. The 2 sub forums in general could be merged into the general sub forum to just leave 2 choices.

If anything, that is too simplistic but that's the general direction things should be going.

On that note Toots as C-mod, the mods and admins did great work merging sub forums in languages and religion, and we do try and keep an eye on having active mods in fora.