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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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Permabear

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smash

Permabear wrote: »

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The thing is that the article states there's 70,000 users a day on boards. This is when he took over. Now I'd be surprised if there's 10% of that. This shows a huge issue and highlights failure. I get the feeling that the new redesign is the final attempt to fix what has been broken over the years. But by god it's going to do the opposite.

intheclouds

Im so much enjoying being on an old skin and having New Posts right there in front of me to click on anytime I like!

I heard it claimed that people dont use "New Posts" - thats cos you cant bloody find it unless you are on an old skin - and I thought the old skins were all gone.

So many threads, so many forums - Id forgotten you could hover over the top menu and see lists of forums so easily.

I tell you one thing though - browsing this way really highlight the ghost town - I hadnt noticed it so much til there was so much content available to me on one screen.

Shame, terrible shame.

Dunno why it had to be destroyed with UI upgrades that reduced functionality.

Permabear

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Lurkio

Permabear wrote: »

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It would be interesting to compare the busiest forums at certain times of year 4-5 years ago, vs now.

Dyr

Lurkio wrote: »

O God jesus no.....

Ontrapaynoor

Looks theres a gensai loads of dip****s in this country who think that word alone is some sort of social movement.

How do you think the web summit managed to fleece so many of them?

smash

Permabear wrote: »

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Yea the penny just dropped and actually the article figure is misleading, as is the "current users" figure. What's need is the active registered users figure. Which is currently at 1,456.

Starokan

Permabear wrote: »

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An AMA with Sean Coughlan would be really interesting , it would show the thought process behind the changes along with the thoughts on the feedback being delivered along with linking him to the community in general.

I heard him speak once, seems like a highly intelligent interesting person - would be a fascinating AMA as he would have the answers everyone is looking for

smash

Starokan wrote: »

I heard him speak once, seems like a highly intelligent interesting person - would be a fascinating AMA as he would have the answers everyone is looking for

Hi Sean

:pac:

Permabear

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gandalf

intheclouds wrote: »

Im so much enjoying being on an old skin and having New Posts right there in front of me to click on anytime I like!

I heard it claimed that people dont use "New Posts" - thats cos you cant bloody find it unless you are on an old skin - and I thought the old skins were all gone.

So many threads, so many forums - Id forgotten you could hover over the top menu and see lists of forums so easily.

I tell you one thing though - browsing this way really highlight the ghost town - I hadnt noticed it so much til there was so much content available to me on one screen.

Shame, terrible shame.

Dunno why it had to be destroyed with UI upgrades that reduced functionality.

Yep it is a far better browsing experience isn't it. You get to the content which is what this site is about and has always been about. The whole UI project has been an unmitigated disaster and in reality whoever is in charge of it should be paying with their job. They certainly should be fired for thinking the Beta site that was released was fit to be let out into the wild. I am surprised at the lack of response still from Boards.ie Management since last week? Again it appears that they are hiding from us?

smash

"Boards.ie, that grand old dame of the Irish internet, is about to get an overhaul and its head is promising a better experience for users as the site gets closer and closer to becoming legally of age."

http://www.thejournal.ie/boards-ie-update-2306493-Sep2015/

The comments in that article are pretty damning too. There's a whole lot of people out there who don't like the mods. I think you're an alright bunch.

LizT

smash wrote: »

The comments in that article are pretty damning too. There's a whole lot of people out there who don't like the mods. I think you're an alright bunch.

Your cheque's in the post

NyOmnishambles

maudgonner wrote: »

For me the old adage 'content is king' is what should be driving this site. That's the reason I come to boards, and the reason I keep coming back.

Hiding the content away seems absolutely crazy. A colourful interface won't draw me in, I should be presented with threads that catch my attention and draw me further into the site.

I used to liken using Boards as going down the Youtube Rabbit Hole, you know where you go on looking for one thing and then see something else that grabs your attention and click and click and click and all of a sudden 2 hours have gone by and you have no idea where you started or how the hell you ended up watching a Mexican midget beating the bejaysus out of a Pinata

Boards with its old supposedly clunky design used to be like that, you found weird and wonderful interesting threads you didn't know you had an interest in

With nearly ever subsequent design (I like the old Boards Beta that CuLt was involved in) they have removed the content further and further away and made the place seem smaller, which it now is as people don't post as much as they either can't find the topics or just aren't seeing anything to grab their attention

Wibbs

Links234 wrote: »

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Now don't quote me L, but AFAIR the site wide Boards beers were somewhat discouraged alright. For good reasons I suspect. Boards had gotten too big and the chances of nastiness kicking off at a site wide beers was only a matter of time and that would be a nightmare for Boards. The smaller regulate meet ups on public forums have died a fair bit alright. There are meet ups coming from private forums though. I've only ever been in three and each one had meet ups on the regular enough.

Permabear wrote: »

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Well let's be fair whether he truly believed that or not his job requires stating that. Turkey's won't vote for xmas and all. Industry reportage is laced with political puff. It's the very nature of it, regardless of the industry too.

I think forums should be moderated by people who have such a burning passion for the subject that they can't help but share their enthusiasm with the world, and build a community of energized, like-minded people around it. That's entirely different from the mod who only ever visits a forum when there's a reported post (if that).

+1000. TBH that was the reason I stepped down from the Ladies Lounge. Had been there for something like five years, but started to get into reported post moderating, rarely posted and personally couldn't justify myself in the role. Not when someone else, some new blood with an interest in the place might be out there.

intheclouds wrote:

So many threads, so many forums - Id forgotten you could hover over the top menu and see lists of forums so easily.

I tell you one thing though - browsing this way really highlight the ghost town - I hadnt noticed it so much til there was so much content available to me on one screen.

I hear that.

Dunno why it had to be destroyed with UI upgrades that reduced functionality.

They had a Meeting(™) goddamit.

Wibbs

smash wrote: »

The comments in that article are pretty damning too. There's a whole lot of people out there who don't like the mods. I think you're an alright bunch.

You get that with most interwebs forums. Though Boards is about the most moderator aware of any I've been on. In both good ways and bad. Some mods are very heavy handed. I've been accused of it myself from time time, but I'd hope I was relatively OK that way. It depends on the topic too. Fun topics should IMH be left the hell alone. Serious topics require more oversight.

From the article;

The new site launch, scheduled for October, would give Boards a “very different look and feel” that made it easier for people to find the information they were after,

Hmm, yet the different look and feel as made it harder to find information. That's before we get to the plain fact the search engine couldn't find it's own arse with both hands and a map. Never mind that the category rejig has already made the community look far smaller.

the mobile version for smartphones and tablets would also be updated to offer the full functionality mirror the confusion of the desktop site.

Fixed that for them.

Looking further ahead, Coughlan said the company was toying with ways to use mobile device location data to better tailor information to users,

Jesus.

Duggy747

I think it's pretty obvious that the site is being transformed into a money sponge for adverts and Talk To forums. Added clicks through more pages means more for adverts to load up.

Had a look at AH, for example, on the new layout without an adblock and couldn't believe how much the adverts (6 adverts on the page with 3 of the large banners in the main body) separate up all the topics. I'm on a lot of forums and I've never seen any of them go to this length with advertising.

Permabear

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smash

Permabear wrote: »

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Does adverts run at a loss? Because they're the same site.

Permabear

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Dyr

Duggy747 wrote: »

Had a look at AH, for example, on the new layout without an adblock and couldn't believe how much the adverts (6 adverts on the page with 3 of the large banners in the main body) separate up all the topics. I'm on a lot of forums and I've never seen any of them go to this length with advertising.

It looked a bit like one of those crappy free file hosting sites you download game mods from

Beasty

Permabear wrote: »

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Made a loss of €76k in 2014. Accumulated losses at that date just shy of €0.5m

Duggy747

Permabear wrote: »

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Nobody (or at least I'm not) is saying that Boards shouldn't have Talk To forums or have adverts. Of course sites rely on advertising, and I've found the odd Talk To forum helpful.

The site has it's problems even outside of this layout change, but I really think adding this on top of the pile will be the site's death-knell and final straw for a lot of people.

The new layout looks cheap with how front and center they are now over the actual meat of site itself. Throwing loads of adspace out there to recoup costs isn't going to fix the other problems of the site, it looks like a desperate act.

Wouldn't surprise me if the next step would be this current fad of horrible "Sponsored By" adverts that are appearing everywhere being added in down the line.

This all feels too similar to what Digg did that killed their traffic; Enforcing a design change on the userbase who didn't want it and the feeling that it was more about generating revenue, all the while ignoring the core problems of the site.

Many people have said it for years, but the forums and topics are spread out too much leaving the site too thin. Add to the fact that every subsequent design change have hidden these forums more and more to where we then, unsurprisingly, get forums that haven't seen posts in years because nobody wanders into them anymore or forget they exist.

intheclouds

Permabear wrote: »

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What are the expenses?

smash

intheclouds wrote: »

What are the expenses?

Off the top of my head....

Hardware
Software
Licencing
Premises
Staff
Bills and Rates

28064212

intheclouds wrote: »

What are the expenses?

At least 17 servers in production, at least three developers as well as Niamh, Dav and Gordon (and possibly others), and an office

smash

28064212 wrote: »

At least 17 servers in production

Possibly for the entire distilled media network. But no way for boards on it's own. If this is true then they desperately need to hire an architect.

28064212 wrote: »

at least three developers as well as Niamh, Dav and Gordon (and possibly others), and an office

And no designers

intheclouds

smash wrote: »

Off the top of my head....

Hardware
Software
Licencing
Premises
Staff
Bills and Rates

Interesting.

I thought Distilled Media would have a hardware budget - cant imagine boards.ie itself using much in the line of heavily expensive hardware.

Same comment for software. I didnt think vBulletin was that expensive anyway. (I include licensing costs in software).

Premises - for who? Surely staff can work from home given the nature of the site?

Staff - who? All I ever see here is people going on about Mods being volunteers - so there must only be developers and admins. And given the speed of development Id be surprised if its more than one person. How many admins?

Bills and Rates - if staff worked from home they wouldnt need office space.

Id be interested to see a breakdown tbh, how did the site run before there was advertising revenue?

Hollister11

intheclouds wrote: »

Interesting.

I thought Distilled Media would have a hardware budget - cant imagine boards.ie itself using much in the line of heavily expensive hardware.

Same comment for software. I didnt think vBulletin was that expensive anyway. (I include licensing costs in software).

Premises - for who? Surely staff can work from home given the nature of the site?

Staff - who? All I ever see here is people going on about Mods being volunteers - so there must only be developers and admins. And given the speed of development Id be surprised if its more than one person. How many admins?

Bills and Rates - if staff worked from home they wouldnt need office space.

Id be interested to see a breakdown tbh, how did the site run before there was advertising revenue?

So with your ideology Facebook engineers can work from home.

The managers, developers and designers need to be able to collaborate and have meetings when necessary, and I don't think they would be conformable doing that at home.

If you have a business, you need office space. End of.

KERSPLAT!

intheclouds wrote: »

Interesting.

I thought Distilled Media would have a hardware budget - cant imagine boards.ie itself using much in the line of heavily expensive hardware.

Same comment for software. I didnt think vBulletin was that expensive anyway. (I include licensing costs in software).

Premises - for who? Surely staff can work from home given the nature of the site?

Staff - who? All I ever see here is people going on about Mods being volunteers - so there must only be developers and admins. And given the speed of development Id be surprised if its more than one person. How many admins?

Bills and Rates - if staff worked from home they wouldnt need office space.

Id be interested to see a breakdown tbh, how did the site run before there was advertising revenue?

Ah will you go on outta that :rolleyes:

hate that smiley but I feel its appropriate here.

Servers, space, software licences, staff (of which I know there are definitely 3 but probably more), office (even a 1 room office in town costs a bomb), etc, etc.

3 x staff alone you're talking €100k+