How Irish is boards.ie?

TerrorFirmer

Asok wrote:

Rabies

Pansy, it is the regular users that supply the bulk of the information in most threads when someone posts a question.

A mod doesn't reply to every thread posted on the forum they look over. Their knowledge of certain topics is always a help, but they are also there to stop the crap from building up.

delly

Hey Pansy, your named after a flower, that is so ghey. Also you could be Harry's sister, so why didn't you get him rescued from under the stairs?

Oh look, what I posted is a load of crap, just like the first post in this thread.

The Hill Billy

I for one am very pleased that there is a wide & varied demographic on boards. It would be a boring & insular place if it were just populated by Irish people that lived in Ireland who only had views on Irish matters.

OP - Is that what you would like to see here? If not bigotry/isolationism - What was the actual purpose of your original post?

r3nu4l

Pansy, you keep going on about local issues. Are you saying that someone in Cork cannot comment on the state of a road or shopping centre development in Dublin?

Perhaps that person was driving on that road in Dublin only yesterday or works for the company planning/building the shopping centre develpment? How would you know from their location?

Also, I have contributed to discussions on very local events in Lucan, Dublin. A discussion on a tiny section of the N4 less than 100metres in length. How was I able to do this?

1. I know the area like the back of my hand and all the issues associated with it.

2. At the time of the event in question, I had driven on that road only two days before the discussion opened!

3. I was able to cite the history of the road for people who didn't know anything about it.

Location is a guide to where people are living but that's all. There are many Cork/Galway/other places users who live in Dublin but have their home town/city in their location. I am home in Lucan far more often these days than I was when I lived in Maynooth, only 6 miles down the road. When I was living in Maynooth did that mean I was somehow more in tune with what was happening in Lucan (my local town)? Answer is no. Your point is groundless in many cases I'm afraid.

Also, for the motor forum, you don't need to be living in Ireland to talk about the merits of French cars over Italian or American or vice-versa.

For the sports forum you don't need much/any 'local' knowledge, nor for Music, Games, Consoles, Technology, Lirterature, Mythology, Tattoos, Films, Cycling...etc.

There are certain circumstances where I won't be able to contribute to a discussion because I know nothing about it but I like to read about it Once I have enough knowledge about it, maybe based on my experience, I'll post something, otherwise I won't and as has ALREADY BEEN POINTED OUT TO YOU when a boardsie posts inaccurate information, there are usually at least one or two posters who will correct him/her and at least one or two trolls who will provide smart-arsed comments about him/her

So don't worry so much about it, I can see where you are coming from in theory but your point is just groundless.

letterman

Pansy Potter wrote:

IMHO I believe a moderator should be a voice of reason, a calming influence. I don't think CuLT has contributed anything meaningful to this discussion, This "I'm better than you, I can make multiple quotes", "I was making fun of you" is frankly childish. I can see why he's a moderator for mostly children's activities. Is his behaviour considered normal for a moderator?

Good point, I've spent some time looking through the various replies in the thread. Some good some bad and some from people with their heads so far up their own arses thay have never seen the light of day.

Boards, I thought, is where you can express an opinion and can expect to generate a reasoned debate about the points contained therein.

OP made her point and got jumped on. I may not agree with her point but shoot at the message not the messenger. Some of the replies( from users AND mods) have come across as smug and seem to attack the status and familiarity of Pansy Potter with the internal workings of the Boards community.

TempestSabre

letterman wrote:

....Boards, I thought, is where you can express an opinion and can expect to generate a reasoned debate about the points contained therein....

Actually its where you can post anything you like ones its within the rules, or what the mods permit. Its always not fair, its often complete nonsense, and its not always consistent. For some people its a complete fantasy, where they post about things far removed from their experience and knowledge. But thats is the nature of the internet and forums. Its not the real world.

aidan_walsh

Who is the moderator of this forum?

The Admins. As you would know had you read the stickies like you're supposed to do before posting on a forum.

As I said earlier there are some situations where you just have to be there. That is the only point I was making. I was not targetting moderators or ordinary posters - I was just saying that local knowledge can on many occasions supersede information gleaned from the net.

You keep saying that, but I have yet to see an example. You have also not answered whether you think that someone who lives in Ireland yet is outside the locality of the topic should be allowed to respond or offer an opinion.

I don't think CuLT has contributed anything meaningful to this discussion

Should he have to? See below.

I can see why he's a moderator for mostly children's activities.

Just be thankful Amp hasn't found this thread. Yet.

Is his behaviour considered normal for a moderator?

Moderators are moderators inside their own forums only (with the exception of Cat Mods, who are mods inside their own catagory listings only). In the rest of the site they are just regular Joe Soap users, bound to the same rules as everyone else.

r3nu4l

letterman wrote:

OP made her point and got jumped on. I may not agree with her point but shoot at the message not the messenger. Some of the replies( from users AND mods) have come across as smug and seem to attack the status and familiarity of Pansy Potter with the internal workings of the Boards community.

Pansy Potter has completely failed to address any of the points I have made and yet I am one of the people on this site whom her post is directly questioning the validity of.

I have made very valid and reasoned arguments for why a posters location may not be considered to imply 'lack of local knowledge' but have not received a single acknowledgement from her. Is this because she cannot abide her point being voided? Why?

I cannot respect a psoter who completely ignores evidence provided against her original point and prefers instead to engage in the 'Feedback forum' game of snipe and snipe back instead. I understand that it is difficult to ignore these jibes from other posters but at least make some effort to address my points. How can I amke this happen? She seems to respond to jibes but I refuse to do that so I'll wait and wait and wait...

Pansy Potter is her own worst enemy here.

CherieAmour

letterman wrote:

Good point, I've spent some time looking through the various replies in the thread. Some good some bad and some from people with their heads so far up their own arses thay have never seen the light of day.

Boards, I thought, is where you can express an opinion and can expect to generate a reasoned debate about the points contained therein.

OP made her point and got jumped on. I may not agree with her point but shoot at the message not the messenger. Some of the replies( from users AND mods) have come across as smug and seem to attack the status and familiarity of Pansy Potter with the internal workings of the Boards community.

I totally agree with this post. You should be able to start a thread or post a message without being personally attacked. Smart replies are the lowest forms of addressing the issue. There also seems to be huge inconsistencies on here in what some Mods think is acceptable and what they think isn't - this includes their own behaviour in certain cases.

delly

Pansy Potter = Trolly McTroll

Do Not Feed The Troll

gandalf

As has been stated here by others, the location of the mod does not effect their ability to moderate forums. What people seem to forget is the majority of moderation work is clean up work, we are like the janitors of boards. People also do not seem to be able to realise that moderators are ordinary users of boards and there is absolutely nothing special about us. Yes boards can be very cliquey but remember alot of us know each other for over 10 years.

I am glad we have such a variety of users it makes boards a better discussion board, also bear in mind eventhough you see alot of different locations like London, Switzerland, Greece the vast majority of these people were born or lived in Ireland at one stage.

I also think that as an Irish Community we should be proud and happy to welcome users from outside this country as well. If thats something you are not comfortable with then I suggest you find a corner on the net that does reflect your views and/or wishes.

r3nu4l

gandalf wrote:

As has been stated here by others, the location of the mod does not effect their ability to moderate forums. What people seem to forget is the majority of moderation work is clean up work, we are like the janitors of boards. People also do not seem to be able to realise that moderators are ordinary users of boards

Can we make this a sticky across all forums, or at least in the feedback forum? I wouldn't mention the 'nothing special' bit, some mods might get touch about that

This thread started off about an issue that was nothing related to mods and yet again ends up as a discussion on how terrible and inconsistent the mods are!

Kharn

Kharn wrote:

If someone wasn't up to the job of moderation, they'd be removed in the dead of night (the admins have people for these sorts of jobs).

Hired goons?

Pansy Potter

I will say this for the final time.

I am not having a go at anyone - mods or otherwise. I am merely stating that the internet is not the only answer to everything. Local knowledge is often far more important. I accept what r3nu4l is saying. I have said at the outset that I am happy with my boards experience. I know that it is mainly benificial to its members, but there are a lot of assholes whose sole objective seems to be to provoke strife. There are also many who refuse to read what has been said by others and just go shooting their mouths off; and then there are the ones who just post for the sake of their precious post count.

Letterman wrote:

OP made her point and got jumped on. I may not agree with her point but shoot at the message not the messenger. Some of the replies( from users AND mods) have come across as smug and seem to attack the status and familiarity of Pansy Potter with the internal workings of the Boards community.

CherieAmour wrote:

You should be able to start a thread or post a message without being personally attacked. Smart replies are the lowest forms of addressing the issue. There also seems to be huge inconsistencies on here in what some Mods think is acceptable and what they think isn't - this includes their own behaviour in certain cases.

Some people recognise that boards is for the opinions of all not just the cliques with thousands of posts.

Gandalf wrote:

People also do not seem to be able to realise that moderators are ordinary users of boards and there is absolutely nothing special about us. Yes boards can be very cliquey but remember alot of us know each other for over 10 years.

I wonder if some of the moderators who have been posting here, where they are just "regular Joe Soaps" would tolerate the insulting jackboot stuff they are coming out with here in their own forums.

Aidan Walsh wrote:

Just be thankful Amp hasn't found this thread. Yet.

Is that some kind of a threat?

lostexpectation

CherieAmour wrote:

Yes I have been around boards and yes I know Irish people slag off Ireland all the time - but he is not Irish. You will find that some of those who presistently slag off this country, call it a kip etc etc etc love nothing better than to bring anything green they have with them when they go abroad, drape the tricolour off their holiday balcony and spend their times in Irish pubs going on to everyone else about how great it is here. You will NEVER find an Irish person slagging off Ireland and the Irish people to a crowd of English / British folk. It's something you just don't do. If he was Irish and understood what it is to be Irish he wouldn't have done it in a million years.
Maybe I should have elaborated. He told them about working in Abrakebabra and how a Chinese member of staff dealt with racist / rude customers with 'I hope you Irish paddies die in the famine' to which the English crowd roared in approval, jumping up and down clapping, cheering and waving their fists. Several were laughing in my face as, at the start of the gig Bishop asked for all Irish people to put their hands up, which I did and they knew then where I was from. He said nothing about how good the country is, how it gave him his living, how he's happy to sleep with our 'freckled' women who are mainly 'products of incest' - and they are direct quotes folks!
I've had no time for him after that because of the way he made me feel that day.

you'll find most comedians have a very limited range of jokes, and im pretty sure he's done the same jokes infront of an Irish audience, slagging the Irish in the same way infront of Irish.

aidan_walsh

Pansy Potter wrote:

Is that some kind of a threat?

I lol'd.

Yes. Yes it is. Why the heck not.

r3nu4l

Pansy Potter wrote:

I wonder if some of the moderators who have been posting here, where they are just "regular Joe Soaps" would tolerate the insulting jackboot stuff they are coming out with here in their own forums.

All fora are modded differently and you'll find where there are multiple mods (like in AH) they will sometimes disagree with each other on what action/if any should be taken. Also after a certain well-respected mod posted an insult to a user I witnessed WWM tell that mod that he will be banned from WWM's forum if he ever posts a similar insult again.

Basically some fora and some mods have different rules, Feedback appears to be loosley modded, which can be good and bad PI is heavily modded and rightly so. Mention gigs by a certain concert promoter and your ass will be modded out of boards altogether

Pansy Potter wrote:

Is that some kind of a threat?

Nah, Aidan is basically saying that certain posters might be even more aggressive with you than anything that has previously been posted, it's kind of a joke (with some truth in). Not a threat I think :eek:

The Hill Billy

Getting off the whole "mods are b@stards" thing...

Would the OP care to clarify exactly what s/he meant by the following (which is what the nub of this thread is about):

Pansy Potter wrote:

I'm not sure that a poster or moderator that is not living in Ireland is fully tuned in. Its easy to compare prices/quality etc. from different websites wherever you are in the world, but for some things you just have to be there.

Even when a posting can be resolved by pointing the OP to a website, I find it strange when a poster who lives in England, or the U.S. or elsewhere suggests aldi.ie or some other Irish store. They mightn't have a clue how the site performs, or what the recommended store is like since they last saw it when they were last in Ireland.

I suppose many that have moved abroad might miss the 'oul sod' and boards.ie gives them a little taste of home, but what makes Boards stand out from other discussion sites is its Irishness. Many international sites have answers, opinions and languages so diverse as to be mostly useless, and definitely soulless. Everyone on boards speaks the same language, they understand the Irish way of doing things, Irish humour etc. Those things to me are what makes its appeal.

I fear, however, that particularly with moderators from overseas, who are out of touch with the Irish zeitgeist that boards.ie could be colonised by outside cultures.

I am not referring to any specific individual(s) above; its just something I've noticed in my thrawling through many many threads. I can't even remember the names.

OP

What should be done to keep boards from being colonised by "outside cultures"?
What would the benefits of this be to the boards community?

If you feel that you have answered the above already - you haven't. Hence, the last 5 pages of argument.

koneko

Do you have something against mods who are foreign, but living in Ireland, aswell? Outside cultures invading and all that.... Just checking :rolleyes:

Gordon

Pansy Potter, can you actually give us some solid evidence to back up your point?

Stark

Pansy Potter wrote:

I fear, however, that particularly with moderators from overseas, who are out of touch with the Irish zeitgeist that boards.ie could be colonised by outside cultures.

Hmm, which to use: "They took our jobs!" or "This is a local site for local people"? I can't decide.

SouperComputer

Pansy Potter wrote:

Local knowledge is often far more important.

This, right here is the strongest part of your point; it’s also the Achilles heel. Local knowledge is not important at all, correct and accurate information is! What you are saying is small-minded, incorrect and presumptuous.

It all comes back to what others have asked, are there (multiple, as I’m sure out of 85000 people at least one has gotten it wrong at some stage!) examples of cases where a poster or contributor from outside the 26 or 32 counties (your choice) have provided incorrect or misleading information as a direct result of their physical location.

My experience has been very much contrary to your views and again I stress the point that you are simply being presumptuous rather than basing it on some sort of substance.

As they say, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one!

Marksie

Pansy Potter wrote:

Many international sites have answers, opinions and languages so diverse as to be mostly useless, and definitely soulless. Everyone on boards speaks the same language, they understand the Irish way of doing things, Irish humour etc. Those things to me are what makes its appeal.

I post a lot in PI, i am not irish though living here. There are posters in PI who arent irish..does that make their observations useless or soulless? Or perhaps just a different refreshing perspective?

monkeyfudge

How about... You must be at least this Irish or more to post here.

The Sweeper

I'd like a list of the moderators who Pansy Potter feels are inappropriate to their forums because they are not based in Ireland.

I would also like at one link to instances where those moderators have responded to threads offering inaccurate and out of date information that they believe to be true, because they are out of touch with Irish culture.

Without a response to the above two requests, this thread is nothing but a rabble-rousing, unsubstantiated allegation by an attention whore, who based on number of posts, registration date and vociferousness of opinion is probably the re-registration of a banned user or a second account.

After you, Pansy Potter, substantiate your claims, or I shall throw custard pies at you and piss all over your worthless allegations.

Pansy Potter

This has become something of a Mods convention. Where are the rockers when you need them?

Stark, Koneko, Gordon and Hill Billy, don't be so lazy. Read what has been written.

I HAVE ALREADY SAID THAT I AM NOT TARGETTING ANY INDIVIDUAL. I AM MERELY EXPOUNDING THE THEORY THAT THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING, AND THAT SOMETIMES LOCAL KNOWLEDGE IS FAR MORE USEFUL THAN ANYTHING FOUND ON THE NET AND THAT SOMETIMES NON-RESIDENT POSTERS ARE OUT OF TOUCH.

Some people on boards seem to think that the internet is the only source of information. e.g. Someone recently asked the question "Anyone know where my nearest Meteor shop is. I live in Waterford" FFS unless they are permanently bed ridden or blind they should be able to find that out for themselves. In this case even the non-resident poster can get them the answer from the meteor site. But in other situations the non-resident may not have the best available knowledge.

What I have learned from this thread is that there are a lot of frequenters of boards who enjoy seeing their name up - what they say isn't as important. I've also learnt that many of the moderators who have participated in this discussion are paranoid, and abhor criticism, real or perceived. Some are petty minded arrogant bullies who "attack the messenger rather than the message", to paraphrase another poster. I can imagine their gloating when they post their scathing ripostes. As some other poster said, "big and clever"

I suppose that boards users are a cross section of society in general, and to see it encapsulated like this is depressing. Reminds me of Lord of the Flies.

The Sweeper

Pansy Potter wrote:

I AM MERELY EXPOUNDING THE THEORY THAT THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING, AND THAT SOMETIMES LOCAL KNOWLEDGE IS FAR MORE USEFUL THAN ANYTHING FOUND ON THE NET AND THAT SOMETIMES NON-RESIDENT POSTERS ARE OUT OF TOUCH.

That may be what you're saying now, but it's frankly not remotely what you started out saying.

aidan_walsh

Oh go away, silly person.

You continue to fail to provide the examples you have been asked for, provide an example you yourself admit a non-resident could answer with a little work, but maintain that there are times when the whole system could go to pot because someone doesn't live in the area.

But in other situations the non-resident may not have the best available knowledge.

Then they will be corrected by someone who is resident, and the world won't take off on a tangent into space.

If you want to ask a regional question, ask on the regional boards. Thats what they're there for.

Some are petty minded arrogant bullies who "attack the messenger rather than the message"

Read your own posts again. I don't see you doing anything much else youself. You certainly haven't provided what was asked of you by the few people who decided to take you seriously (decreasing in number as the thread goes on), and as such are no longer providing anything bar speculation, accusation and hyperbole to your own discussion.

koneko

I'm not lazy, I just disagree with what you're saying. If every single thread on here was "Where is the nearest shop in x town where I can get what I need?" then you'd have a point. But it isn't. Even then, I wouldn't really agree, because mods aren't there to answer your questions, they're not support "staff", they're janitors.

I spend most of my time here on the gaming boards. It matters very little if the mods are on the other side of the world, all they're supposed to do is keep the place clean. If someone posts spam or calls someone else a dickhead, how will living in Ireland help? It won't.

I think you're freaking out over nothing now. People disagreed with you. Your reaction is, to be honest, over the top, and you're dismissing people that disagree with you when some may have perfectly valid points.