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4 suggestions.

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  • 29-09-2018 2:38pm
    #1
    Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo
    Registered Users Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭


    A bit long, but have numbered these friendly suggestions that I think would improve Boards. :)

    1. Change the name of Coupons and Living Frugally to something like the Money Saving forum. If I can generalise about Irish people, it is a thing where nobody wants to be seen as a tight arse, if you don't pay up your fair share in a given circumstance people get annoyed. Conversely, Irish people love to 'stick it to the man', or be a cute hoor, or getting a great bargain (I got it in Penney's ;)). Boiled down these are the same thing, but the wording of the forum might encourage more people to post.

    2. Have separate forums for Television and Irish TV. There's so many forums for individual shows and it seems to work. It feels hodge-podge at the moment. Chat about The Late Late show or Irish Dragons Den (3 presidential candidates) or Amy Huberman's show are distinct from television series like Magnum PI or Chicago Fire. The Irish shows with threads feel much more like the Radio forum, where people post about the personalities and stories that involve Irish life. Whereas primarily US and British TV shows with their plots and story lines feel much more different to me. The only thing Irish TV shows and American series have in common is the fact they are watched on a television, but so is soccer and golf and YouTubers and cooking shows; they are all very different imo.

    3. I don't really care about this suggestion as it is not as important. But you can choose Random Task from the Austin Powers film as an avatar. He's in jail for life without parole for doing very bad things. It might be best to get rid of it. He's never getting out of jail he was so bold.

    4. I care even less about this suggestion but here goes. WWE should not be listed under the sports sub heading. The only thing that makes it a sport is that the channel it's on is called Sky Sports. It is scripted and should be under Entertainment. It is like Coronation Street or Cirque du Soleil, or a mixture of both. But a sport it is not.

    I know I've rambled here, but they are my suggestions for attempting to very marginally improve Boards. :)
    Post edited by Shield on


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    #2
    Boards.ie: Mark
    Boards.ie Employee Posts: 5,461 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Mark
    Boards.ie Employee


    Thanks for the suggestions :)

    Couple of my own thoughts, but I will bring these up with Admins and see what other people respond with here too.

    Perhaps re-titling the sub-forum "Coupons and money savers" would be a good halfway point. It sits under Bargain Alerts, which is essentially the Money Saving forum (but I don't imagine us messing around with BA itself). I can see the point that "living frugally" may have negative connotations attached, so it might be worth trying something new there.

    The quantity of forums is a balancing act. On the one hand, it's great to have forums for every niche and topic, but these also require active conversations to spur further conversation. The Television forum's Finished & Cancelled TV Shows sub-forum was recently reviewed and some shows were folded back into the main Television forum. We don't want to spread things too thin, which additional forums can do. Now, if a show started to dominate a forum with threads or a megathread was too large and unwieldy, it would be worth reviewing to see if it could justify a standalone forum (similarly if the chat shows like Brendan O'Connor's show, TLLS, The Graham Norton Show could sustain a forum).

    I'll have to see how easy/flexible it is to add and remove avatars - could use an update all round tbf. Had been a while since I looked into the various categories. Hilarious that the Enlarger Pump is an option!

    Sports causes some controversy when the subject of what is/isn't a sport comes up. Some will argue for or against the likes of Golf, Poker, Chess, and so on. WWE certainly requires sporting prowess and physical fitness, so it ticks certain boxes there. Now, it is scripted...but then soccer has had its own issues with scripting :D

    Thanks for the suggestions. Will be interesting to get other peoples' takes on these topics.

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    #3
    Inviere
    Registered Users Posts: 7,536 ✭✭✭Inviere


    Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »
    Will be interesting to get other peoples' takes on these topics.

    Money Saving is a far better title than the current Coupons & Living Frugally forum.

    The Entertainment category still needs work. For instance, My Little Pony has had what, 6 posts in over three years? Gameshows & Quizzes has threads going back to Feb '15 on its first page. The Top Gear forum died a death when Top Gear died a death, this could be handled with weekly/episodic threads in the main TV forum. Discworld dead as a dodo also, threads on the first page going back to March '13. Doctor Who & Torchwood should be renamed as Doctor Who (Torchwood is years finished). Harry Potter forum has threads going back to Feb '15, very dead. Speaking of dead, how about HGttG, threads going back to December 2010 on page 1! Joss Whedon almost as bad. Red Dwarf deader than dead, still going though as a show, so again, weekly threads for the new eps. Transformers dead too.

    ^^ So many dead forums sitting in prime locations, it just serves to make the category look antiquated. It could do with a bit of a revamp, to bring it up to speed with current entertainment trends.

    As for WWE, do we have a kids tv section??



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    #4
    s3rtvdbwfj81ch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,691 ✭✭✭s3rtvdbwfj81ch


    can't be offending the creepy bronies there lad


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    #5
    dudara
    Registered Users Posts: 33,519 ✭✭✭✭dudara


    1 & 3 are fine with me. Quite sensible

    4 is a non-runner IMO. It may be scripted entertainment but it’s still based on wrestling and all the stars are highly experienced athletes. If I’m going to pick a hill to die on, it’s not going to be about the merits or lack thereof, of WWE. I’m happy to leave it in Sports.

    Some good points made around cleaning up the TV forums. Definitely some room for rationalisation.


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    #6
    Ken.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,898 ✭✭✭✭Ken.


    I'll post this and then be uncontactable in my bunker for a few weeks.

    Create a new sub forum of sport and put Cycling and Wrestling in it. Call it Juiced up Sports.


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    #7
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,757 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Putinbot wrote: »

    Create a new sub forum of sport and put Cycling ... in it. Call it Juiced up Sports.
    Banned


    :pac:


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    #8
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,757 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Just on the topic of Pro Wrestling, even if it is scripted (is it?:eek:), as dudara points out there is a major athletic requirement, and indeed it frequents dedicated sports channels. Putting it anywhere other than in Sports may actually reduce traffic, and I don't see any point (or demand) to change things


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    #9
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    I would agree with the suggestion we clean up the Entertainment section some more; those dead fora like Red Dwarf, My Little Pony, Discworld et al surely must reflect badly on Boards from the view of outsiders IMO: the lack of posts is bad enough, but the borderline irrelevant subject matter feels as bad to me - makes Boards seem way behind the curve.

    Better to have a smaller number of busy, chatty fora than a huge number of mostly-dead ones.


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    #10
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 75,757 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    pixelburp wrote: »
    I would agree with the suggestion we clean up the Entertainment section some more; those dead fora like Red Dwarf, My Little Pony, Discworld et al surely must reflect badly on Boards from the view of outsiders IMO: the lack of posts is bad enough, but the borderline irrelevant subject matter feels as bad to me - makes Boards seem way behind the curve.

    Better to have a smaller number of busy, chatty fora than a huge number of mostly-dead ones.
    Any thoughts (from anyone!) about what to do with the inactive forums? Have them in the Finished/Cancelled Shows section? I see there is a separate section for Sci-Fi & Fantasy. Should these be pushed back into the relevant Films/TV forums, and again treated as discontinued. I can see some merit in perhaps retaining a Dr Who section as that is certainly an ongoing show (and I am probably one of the few people around here who actually pre-dates it - I'm even older than Coronation Street!), but Harry Potter has had a single post in the past year. Those that are inactive can become single threads in TV or Films if there is an interest in ongoing discussion

    Secondary question - should they be closed to new posts? The advantage is they then require no mods. However many of these shows may well come back to life via re-runs. Would posters want to be able to continue to post? Maybe close to new posts but re-open if we get a request (with some support perhaps via the Forum request process)?


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    #11
    Inviere
    Registered Users Posts: 7,536 ✭✭✭Inviere


    Beasty wrote: »
    Any thoughts (from anyone!) about what to do with the inactive forums?

    Roll their content into the relevant TV/Films forum, so it remains searchable, findable, and isn't lost. Or, see below, and roll it in all in there.

    Make the Finished/Cancelled Shows section a forum, rather than a container. That way discussion from old shows can come and go without needing a dedicated forum to house it. Set up [TAGS] if delineation is needed. It's really really low volume posting there, so a modding team wouldn't see a noticeable increase.

    Keep Dr. Who forum open, but get rid of the Torchwood name from the forum name. Torchwood is long finished. A rename just brings the 'look' of the forum back up to date a bit.

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    #12
    Ken.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,898 ✭✭✭✭Ken.


    Create prefixes for the finished cancelled shows and then do as Inviere says and make it in to a forum rather than a holding tank.


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    #13
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Yup would agree with the above approach: personally I'd have just moved all the dead threads into their respective 'parent' forum and added a tag / prefix to the title, but moving them all into one single forum makes as much sense.

    Basically we should be doing something IMO, rather than let these dead fora fester and rot the place.


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