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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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gandalf

LiamoSail wrote: »

I can't speak about the prison thread as I've no experience, only the talk to thread.

I used it last week and the PM I received from Niamh, who I believe runs it, essentially told me to eff off and don't be questioning this particular business.

I did query it, however she didn't have the courtesy to reply

Well if companies on the talk to forums aren't prepared to answer customer queries then why the hell are they here. I haven't had any dealings with Niamh but if those are the types of response she sends then there is a serious question about her professionalism. It would also lead to the question has this negative attitude to the contributors on boards permenated the whole office at boards?

Fr_Dougal

I know a tiny handful of very vocal posters like them, but those flirty chatty circlejerk threads such as the Online Dating thread and How's your weekend should not be allowed in AH. There's an Online Dating forum for people to flirt with other, they're an absolute cringefest.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Well said Red Alert. I agree with everything you have said.
I'd also include a sixth item that many posters have already mentioned - the bloody menu change/category reorganisation. What were Ye thinking??

I find I am using boards.ie far less and have moved to other sites like reddit.

Red Alert wrote: »

Boards.ie as far as I can see it is becoming irrelevant, but slowly. ...QUOTE]

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

I know a tiny handful of very vocal posters like them, but those flirty chatty circlejerk threads such as the Online Dating thread and How's your weekend should not be allowed in AH. There's an Online Dating forum for people to flirt with other, they're an absolute cringefest.

yeah, i don't bother clicking in to them either

Hotblack Desiato

For me, the only things that make Boards usable are a dogged adherence to the old vBulletin skin, and lots of bookmarks to forums I'm interested in. I gave up on the menu system ten years ago and I doubt it's got better since.

I haven't visited the 'front page' in years and it was a disaster even then. I don't want Boards to be some analogue of Reddit or Facebook, tyvm. I avoid those sites for a reason.

I rarely use Boards on mobile because it's so painful (I actually use vBulletin on mobile, tiny print and all it's still better than the touch site.) and the current site is horrible, never mind the beta. Just because I have a wide screen and lots of screen real estate on a laptop doesn't mean I want to waste it, I often have a football match thread open at 350px wide auto-updating on one side of the screen while reading other threads (or sites) on the other side. Real world use cases don't appear to have been taken into account at all, I hate sites that are 'optimised for mobile' (i.e. unusable on anything else) and actively avoid them, if that's the way Boards goes then sayonara.

KERSPLAT!

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

I know a tiny handful of very vocal posters like them, but those flirty chatty circlejerk threads such as the Online Dating thread and How's your weekend should not be allowed in AH. There's an Online Dating forum for people to flirt with other, they're an absolute cringefest.

And yet if they were locked for those reasons the AH mods would be torn to shreds.

Esel

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

I know a tiny handful of very vocal posters like them, but those flirty chatty circlejerk threads such as the Online Dating thread and How's your weekend should not be allowed in AH. There's an Online Dating forum for people to flirt with other, they're an absolute cringefest.

Shouldn't be aloud, Joe! People should just whisper where whispering aloud is allowed. I don't care where they do it Joe, as long as I don't have to be made look at them doing it Joe.

I was walking in the Phoenix Park Joe, minding me own business like, when I heard a noise from the bushes. I coulda walked on, probby shoulda... But seein' as I'm a nosy fupper, I had to walk over an' have a gawk. Jaysus Joe I wish I hadna done dah. Brewtal, dat's wot it was Joe. Animals Joe. Dere shud be a law against dah Joe. I taw I was in de azoo Joe.

Fr_Dougal

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

And yet if they were locked for those reasons the AH mods would be torn to shreds.

By a very vocal minority. I can see that the mods are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and truly feel sorry for you guys. But we lose political discussions and get what in return? Adolescent flirty drivel.

AH was never a place for that sort of crap.

Why not put a link up to the access thread for the online dating forum up beside the link for Politics Cafe? Move all those other chit-chat threads to FlirtTar; that's why those fora were originally created.

Pelvis Parsley

It is something of a compromise in fairness. I can remember when AH was alternately both.

As in, festooned with in jokes and cliquery or used as a soapbox by one or two individuals.

The politics cafe revamp saw the loss of some very worthwhile threads as well.

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

By a very vocal minority. I can see that the mods are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and truly feel sorry for you guys. But we lose political discussions and get what in return? Adolescent flirty drivel.

AH was never a place for that sort of crap.

Why not put a link up to the access thread for the online dating forum up beside the link for Politics Cafe? Move all those other chit-chat threads to FlirtTar; that's why those fora were originally created.

[Deleted User]

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

By a very vocal minority. I can see that the mods are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and truly feel sorry for you guys. But we lose political discussions and get what in return? Adolescent flirty drivel.

AH was never a place for that sort of crap.

Why not put a link up to the access thread for the online dating forum up beside the link for Politics Cafe? Move all those other chit-chat threads to FlirtTar; that's why those fora were originally created.

Would you also move threads that get started after a poster has had a few drinks and is asking about something random and silly? Or what about the thread that whoops created especially for Kneemos? So After Hours can become a more serious forum for earnest discussion which never veers off it's path.

Neyite

I'm a mod of one of the more heavily modded forums on here and chances are that the way that we mod that forum makes us come across as overbearing. I'd put forward the point that in our particular forum, we have to be.

All us PI mods feel quite protective of someone coming in looking for advice on something upsetting them. We want wise posters to come along and give the OP another perspective, or to help them unravel their problem to get to the root of it. Opposing views are fine - a range of options or points of view can be helpful to an OP in getting closer to a resolution that suits them.

What they don't need is posters nitpicking with each other's posts or dragging the thread off topic. They don't need the type of poster that rocks up and just says "well, WTF did you expect when you did that? I hope you get dumped" They don't need to deal with the poster who gets the hump because their flavour of advice wasn't followed immediately. They don't need trolls to tell them that they are worthless or worse. Sometimes it feels like an uphill struggle making PI a place where someone feels that even if they fcuked up, they could post and ask for support or solutions that might help them. And if they cant get that in PI, they simply wont post, and the forum dwindles.

Speaking of dwindling, I've posted a lot less on Boards over the last year or so. I signed up years ago to ask a question about a course. I lost that short lived account in The Great Hack, I restarted with this one and simply got nattering on different threads. I never looked any further than that really. I never really thought much about how all those innocuous comments over the years might all add up to being pretty identifiable. Then I did. I know Boards have a policy of not deleting posts and I understand why - its frustrating to read a thread on other forum and you see gaps where posts have been deleted. So the option is to close my account, or simply not post as freely as I would have before.

I know and accept that the counter argument is that it's the internet, and you own your words. That the vent you had about your siblings spouse or made an off colour joke that in hindsight you'd never make now will stay there. That's fine, and has long been Boards stance. But then Boards cant turn around and expect us to contribute to the forums the way that we used to then either. These days, instead of jumping in and having a good old discussion, I usually stop and think about potential fallout if my mother/ boss/ neighbour linked me in RL to the post I was about to submit so invariably I press the back button and don't post at all. I've all but stopped discussing on a discussion site. Now I just have a dwindling list of threads I follow but would never post in because of the above reasons, and as a result, enjoy the site a lot less than I used to, and that feeling is increasing.

Surely there is a happy medium that can be found?

Wibbs

Neyite wrote: »

I'm a mod of one of the more heavily modded forums on here and chances are that the way that we mod that forum makes us come across as overbearing. I'd put forward the point that in our particular forum, we have to be.

+1. PI was always the exception and for good reason because of the oft sensitive nature of the forum. In my time there I found it easy to moderate because of that funny enough. Fewer grey areas. I also can't recall any wider comments about the strict moderation there as the vast majority of folks can fully understand why. Though it's been years since I was directly engaged there, so maybe that has changed N?

These days I do sometimes feel what is a heavy mod presence and action requirement in PI has made a home in forums that need a much lighter touch.

Speaking of dwindling, I've posted a lot less on Boards over the last year or so. I signed up years ago to ask a question about a course. I lost that short lived account in The Great Hack, I restarted with this one and simply got nattering on different threads. I never looked any further than that really. I never really thought much about how all those innocuous comments over the years might all add up to being pretty identifiable. Then I did. I know Boards have a policy of not deleting posts and I understand why - its frustrating to read a thread on other forum and you see gaps where posts have been deleted. So the option is to close my account, or simply not post as freely as I would have before.

I know and accept that the counter argument is that it's the internet, and you own your words. That the vent you had about your siblings spouse or made an off colour joke that in hindsight you'd never make now will stay there. That's fine, and has long been Boards stance. But then Boards cant turn around and expect us to contribute to the forums the way that we used to then either. These days, instead of jumping in and having a good old discussion, I usually stop and think about potential fallout if my mother/ boss/ neighbour linked me in RL to the post I was about to submit so invariably I press the back button and don't post at all. I've all but stopped discussing on a discussion site. Now I just have a dwindling list of threads I follow but would never post in because of the above reasons, and as a result, enjoy the site a lot less than I used to, and that feeling is increasing.

I've heard similar from a fair few people. I dunno how that can be changed. In many ways, IMH, it's perception too. I've seen people being very open, sometimes to an embarrassing degree on Facebook/twitter/blogs using their own names, yet feel more vulnerable on Boards for some reason.

Neyite

+1. PI was always the exception and for good reason because of the oft sensitive nature of the forum. In my time there I found it easy to moderate because of that funny enough. Fewer grey areas. I also can't recall any wider comments about the strict moderation there as the vast majority of folks can fully understand why. Though it's been years since I was directly engaged there, so maybe that has changed N?

These days I do sometimes feel what is a heavy mod presence and action requirement in PI has made a home in forums that need a much lighter touch.

Fully agree - from a mod standpoint it's an easy modding job because its got very black and white rules. But like you, I see other forum that appear to be heavier handed than us in terms of modding. There may very well be good reason for it, but none except the mods may know why.

Maybe a think tank where mods teams get assigned another forum to read for a week, discuss and give their thoughts on improvements back to the other team - fresh eyes so to speak. Maybe mods would look at PI and have very good suggestions that we never thought about. Or they could give us feedback that would be a non-runner but it could generate some new ideas.

wrote:

I've heard similar from a fair few people. I dunno how that can be changed. In many ways, IMH, it's perception too. I've seen people being very open, sometimes to an embarrassing degree on Facebook/twitter/blogs using their own names, yet feel more vulnerable on Boards for some reason.

I'm not sure either. I saw on another forum that usernames and avatars were only visible if you logged in, logged out all you'd see is an ID number for that poster. It depersonalised the poster a bit.

Then maybe archiving threads that are a certain age, each thread having a 'do not archive' tick box for the ones we'd want to keep as searchable. It's the chattier ones anyway where people would tend to inadvertently reveal more over time.

Another forum has a chat forum where thread are automatically deleted after 30 days. The good or memorable ones get moved to the classics section.

Who really brings up old threads anyway? Newish posters who didn't realise they were zombie ones and get a mod rap on the knuckles for their efforts giving off a negative impression, or posters looking to dig up that Thing Wot Wibbs Said in 2008 that contradicts Wot Wibbs is saying now in a heated debate and then get a mod rap on the knuckles anyway. I've only seen a handful of times an old thread was linked to in an appropriate way.

FB /Twitter/ Blogs are different beasts - we can control our own content on those, and honestly I don't use them much if at all. I can talk about mooncups in TLL but I'd not really want my male colleague on FB to know I use them. Or, I can be pro-choice on a thread here, but since I have some family who are staunchly pro-life its a subject I do not touch in RL pretty much with anyone. It's the anonymity here on Boards that encourages the discussions that make the place what it is.

Back when Boards decided the no-delete rule, it was a much smaller place, and less folks knew about or utilised social media. Now everyone and their nan is on FB, Instagram, Twitter, Linked-In. And if forums in general are suffering or getting left behind, then maybe we need to look at how people today use social media and adapt Boards to suit that.

Turtyturd

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Would you also move threads that get started after a poster has had a few drinks and is asking about something random and silly? Or what about the thread that whoops created especially for Kneemos? So After Hours can become a more serious forum for earnest discussion which never veers off it's path.

That should be the first thing to go.

[Deleted User]

I'd say that the moderation in PI is better now than it used to be. I made use of it many moons ago and had a fair bit of "ah you're just looking for an ego stroke" or "I bet this post is a joke" when, in fact, I was going through a really bad period in my life and trolling was the last thing on my mind. It wouldn't be tolerated nowadays and that's a great thing.

[Deleted User]

Turtyturd wrote: »

That should be the first thing to go.

To be honest I don't mind such threads. I was using the above as an example to show that chatting in the forum exists. After Hours operates in a very non specific manner. It's not fair to target some threads as being ridiculous while forgetting about others that are much the same.

I don't understand why the terms 'circle jerk' and 'clique' are applied to some threads. Online discussions will often mirror real life. Some people will be comfortable enough to have a bit of craic with each other. I see that comfort as being a positive. Not every thread needs to be cold and devoid of human connection.

Penny Tration

Karsini wrote: »

I'd say that the moderation in PI is better now than it used to be. I made use of it many moons ago and had a fair bit of "ah you're just looking for an ego stroke" or "I bet this post is a joke" when, in fact, I was going through a really bad period in my life and trolling was the last thing on my mind. It wouldn't be tolerated nowadays and that's a great thing.

I remember similar about 8 years ago. Posted something on an old account (lost in the big hack), and got snotty comments on-thread that went un-modded, and a seriously nasty PM.

I see nothing like that anymore and as someone who posts there a lot to offer advice, mods in PI/RI are very quick to deal with reported posts.

Skylinehead

Turtyturd wrote: »

That should be the first thing to go.

Realistically, what harm does it do?

Wibbs

Penny Tration wrote: »

I remember similar about 8 years ago. Posted something on an old account (lost in the big hack), and got snotty comments on-thread that went un-modded, and a seriously nasty PM.

I see nothing like that anymore and as someone who posts there a lot to offer advice, mods in PI/RI are very quick to deal with reported posts.

To be fair to previous(and current) PI mod teams who I'll defend to the end having been on "the other side", there's quite the bit of rose tinted going on there. We see similar when talking about how "bad AH used to be", or indeed "how good it used to be".

I've dropped back in over the years and lurked and I see little difference in the modding(there have been great improvements in the resource lists). It's still as very high quality and as consistent as ever and has always been one of the best moderated forums on Boards.ie. They/we always did deal with reported posts and quickly. Indeed we regularly got stick for being too quick to jump in(never mind regular Feedback threads questioning why it should even exist as a forum in the first place, which thankfully seems to be history). I also remember that you would have posts that were advice and not malicious being reported simply because it was advice people didn't want to hear and all they wanted was an echo chamber. That was common enough too, so you had to step back and ask if they were actionable or not, depending on the thread. Or you'd not get reported posts and were somehow expected to read every thread from start to finish. To be frank if you say you reported those posts and they were "snotty" and nothing was done I call shenanigans. If they were reported of course. Nasty PM's would have been beyond any local mods remit, so nada to do with the moderation in PI, or any other forum for that matter.

TL;DR. PI mods will always have my respect for the job they do with that forum(s) and have done from the get go.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

Would you also move threads that get started after a poster has had a few drinks and is asking about something random and silly? Or what about the thread that whoops created especially for Kneemos? So After Hours can become a more serious forum for earnest discussion which never veers off it's path.

Well to be fair those threads are short lived affairs with comparatively few responses.

I'm afraid I'm with Fr Dougal on this, I really don't like the dating thread. It's just become a chat thread loosely based on dating and features the same posters making much the same observations repeatedly, rather than getting involved in other more diverse topics.

Same with the trivial annoyances, but at least that's less echo-chamber-y.

I'm not criticising you Persepoly, as I know you like the thread. I just don't think it's good for AH generally.

Generally, I think moderation on this site is excellent and not particularly part of the problem of lessening traffic, though I do think there should be more lighthearted threads and these should be let run as long as fun is being had and it's not getting personal or cliquey. The fun is gone to a big extent, and I'm not sure how that can be got back.

There are one or two posters who tend to monopolize certain threads and suck the life out of them with incessant, pointless, and pedantic multiquoting, apparently for the sake of it, but I suppose there's little can be done about that. Their appearance on a thread is the point I hit unfollow, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

TLL was a place I used to enjoy a lot more, but haven't spent much time there in years as there was a very vocal core of users and one particular mod (no longer there) who would be quite intolerant of contributions that even slightly veered from the groupthink. That's just my opinion, but it's what put me off. There's a busy chat thread there that I've looked at a few times, but the posters are so well established in that thread that I would feel like I was intruding if I wanted to get involved. And I think that chat thread is why there's less going on elsewhere in the forum.

Generally speaking, chat threads seem to suck traffic into one area and slows down the rest of a forum, to it's detriment.

[Deleted User]

Yes the fun is gone. What's so wrong with a bit of chat? What is so terrifying about a bunch of people on the Internet being nice to each other?

[Deleted User]

Candie wrote: »

TLL was a place I used to enjoy a lot more, but haven't spent much time there in years as there was a very vocal core of users and one particular mod (no longer there) who would be quite intolerant of contributions that even slightly veered from the groupthink. That's just my opinion, but it's what put me off. There's a busy chat thread there that I've looked at a few times, but the posters are so well established in that thread that I would feel like I was intruding if I wanted to get involved. And I think that chat thread is why there's less going on elsewhere in the forum.

That's exactly what mods have said in the past about chat threads, hence them being referred to as cliquey. So they weren't wrong!

[Deleted User]

Karsini wrote: »

That's exactly what mods have said in the past about chat threads, hence them being referred to as cliquey. So they weren't wrong!

Everywhere you have groups of people you will have cliques. What I find works is joining in.

KERSPLAT!

Karsini wrote: »

That's exactly what mods have said in the past about chat threads, hence them being referred to as cliquey. So they weren't wrong!

For once!

Ken.

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

I know a tiny handful of very vocal posters like them, but those flirty chatty circlejerk threads such as the Online Dating thread and How's your weekend should not be allowed in AH. There's an Online Dating forum for people to flirt with other, they're an absolute cringefest.

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

And yet if they were locked for those reasons the AH mods would be torn to shreds.

17, the number of separate people that pm'd me after I closed that thread last week. Every pm was asking why I closed it and could it be opened again.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes the fun is gone. What's so wrong with a bit of chat? What is so terrifying about a bunch of people on the Internet being nice to each other?

Ah Persepoly! Of course there's nothing terrifying about people chatting and being nice to each other! No one suggested anything like that, least of all me.

I can understand the fondness for the thread, but it does divert posters from other threads. It's just a funnel for traffic, and the rest of the forum suffers.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Ideally what would AH be then? It just seems less clear cut than say the parenting forum, relationship issues, the ladies lounge etc. It's not for politics, it's not to talk about Dublin issues, it's not for less serious threads, it's not for having a debate that goes against the grain on more serious subjects.

I'd definately agree with Candie, when people are multi quoting and dissecting each and every sentence of someone's post, twisting it and arguing for the sake of just being different is very off putting. I tend to stay away from threads like that because honest to god it's a melt trying to read it.

To be fair, I do think the mods in AH get a hard time and I say that as a poster that's more on the poacher side than gamekeeper. They're generally fair, you see them involving themselves in threads and you see posts by them without anything bolded. I think they do relate to the other users, and none of them seem unapproachable, so I'm not understanding where this overly heavy handed modding is coming from. I'm sure it happens occasionally and I've been annoyed when threads are moved or closed but only because I like more light hearted threads and a lot of posters don't, so they're going to be damned if they do and damned if they don't, really.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

Everywhere you have groups of people you will have cliques. What I find works is joining in.

But what if I have no interest in online dating or only a passing interest in people trivial annoyances? Why would I join in?

There's an online dating forum, I just don't see the need for an infinity thread going in AH about it. That's not objecting to people chatting, just maybe pointing them to where it wouldn't do any harm.

And funnelling traffic into threads that substantial numbers of posters have little to no interest in makes the whole forum suffer.

I'm with the mods on this one, I groaned when I saw it re-opened. Again, it's nothing personal against any of the posters involved in it, I just think there are more appropriate places for it.

[Deleted User]

Candie wrote: »

Ah Persepoly! Of course there's nothing terrifying about people chatting and being nice to each other! No one suggested anything like that, least of all me.

I can understand the fondness for the thread, but it does divert posters from other threads. It's just a funnel for traffic, and the rest of the forum suffers.

Objectively, putting my own feelings of certain threads aside, I don't understand how the rest of the forum suffers. Right now there are lots of different threads going on with different types of posters contributing. Surely it's a case of people posting on a topic that interests them. The gangland crime thread has thousands of posts. It's not in any way impacting negatively upon the rest of the site.

I think the trouble is that After Hours doesn't know what it's supposed to be. Serious threads about abortion and feminism don't interest me because I want a bit of escapism while I'm on here. They do receive lots of input from others and that's great. Other people who may not necessarily post in the Trivial Annoyance or Online Dating threads. That's ok too because those places have their contributors.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

Objectively, putting my own feelings of certain threads aside, I don't understand how the rest of the forum suffers. Right now there are lots of different threads going on with different types of posters contributing. Surely it's a case of people posting on a topic that interests them. The gangland crime thread has thousands of posts. It's not in any way impacting negatively upon the rest of the site.

I think the trouble is that After Hours doesn't know what it's supposed to be. Serious threads about abortion and feminism don't interest me because I want a bit of escapism while I'm on here. They do receive lots of input from others and that's great. Other people who may not necessarily post in the Trivial Annoyance or Online Dating threads. That's ok too because those places have their contributors.

Well the difference is that the threads like the crime one don't become de facto chat threads based on the posters who contribute. I know attempts are being made to stop the OD and TA threads from being too chatty, but by their nature they still turn out that way, and more so the OD one.

Chat threads that centre around a core of posters always become cliquey, that's just the nature of people and it's not an accusation. I think they can be quite divisive really, and as I say they funnel peoples contributions into one or two threads instead of making wider contributions.