UL forum

sebastianlieken

The entire UL forum has for far too long been an absolute shambles. I have found out on numberous occasions from personal experience and from three of my friends that there is just no room in there for new people who want to discuss an idea or voice an opinion. though it should be said that in my experience, question answering is fine.

however, the UL forum largly consists of the same group of people who use the forum for their own unproductive and "cliquey" agenda. these group (of approx 5 friends) often gang up on opposition and demean opposition also (personal experience) ive also had personal abuse thrown at me on more than one occasion, called the moderator up on it, and all that was in the reply was along the lines of "oh right, ill have a word with him then if I see him again"

obviously, his actions were ineffective as that definatly wasnt the end it all.

poor moderating in terms of extremely leanient passage for the "cliquey" bunch in there, is what I have to say.

I tend to stay as far away from the thread as much as possible becasue of this, and I know my three friends do the exact same.

An improved and less leanient moderater should in my opinion be called upon.

Seb

Cuddlesworth

UL?

sceptre

You might have noticed my more recent (very recent) postings on the forum, which are moving towards an end of the pseudomadness.

The UL forum got added to my lineup a good while back and between fourth year coursework and what amounted to a full-time job in the evenings it's had far less of my time in the past three months than it should have. I've been using it but I tend to ignore the chatty threads in there as in my head they don't add anything to the forum but like all the college forums there's always an element of chat in there that doesn't take up much space. However, I'm one click away by the report post feature or you can PM me if you just want me to check something out. And I'm clamping down on the overly chatty nature of the forum a bit as frankly one thread dedicated to it is enough.

sebastianlieken wrote: »

ive also had personal abuse thrown at me on more than one occasion, called the moderator up on it, and all that was in the reply was along the lines of "oh right, ill have a word with him then if I see him again"

I obviously wasn't the mod in question. Drop me a PM and I can sort it out post-haste. A link will do but I'm happy to have a chat about it as well, assuming you're around UL I'm happy to do that in person if you'd rather, but PMs are completely fine. I'm pretty hardline about personal abuse and always have been in any forums I've moderated and don't have a problem banning someone for a short or long period for it.

obviously, his actions were ineffective as that definatly wasnt the end it all.

poor moderating in terms of extremely leanient passage for the "cliquey" bunch in there, is what I have to say.

Drop me a line Seb, I'll deal with whatever you have.

On the "clique" element (it's funny, I've heard this used to describe various things around UL for as long as I can remember), there is an element of clique about the forum but UL being the kind of college it is and the college it's become (lots of people retreating into their houses in the evening, registrations for student organisations falling through the floor in the past ten years), there's long been an element of small groupings banding together. To a great extent, given that a amount of disparate people use the thing, the forum created the clique rather than the clique arriving in the forum - most of the people you see getting far too chatty are actually in quite different courses and initially knew each other through the forum.

Now, having said that, there's an element of chicken and egg about it. I tend to flick through all of the college forums on occasion and some (not all, mind you) of the edu forums that are less chatty are also far less used. There's an element of balance that needs to be introduced, which I intend to do (and definitely intended based on the more recent silly season around exams) with the adage that I've often used of "this isn't your playground". Cliques (there's that word again) will develop and as, unlike some of the other edu forums, the entire group appears to meet up for beer on a semi-regular basis, they will persist.

I'm not greatly worried about the silly season posting, at least not during the silly season (which ran out yesterday when exams ended) but I'd like to see the forum become more of a resource, bearing in mind, as I said yesterday on the forum itself that hitherto it's been more an outlet for boards users that happen to be in UL than an outlet for UL students that we can get to use boards (or just the forum itself, but it could and should be a nice hook to get more UL people using boards.ie as a whole, as with all the edu forums). Silly season is over though.

I'd like you to drop me a line about the personal abuse in particular, preferably including links, which will make it easier for me. Apart from the greater problem of the forum, I can at least start with your particular issues there.

sceptre

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

UL?

University of Limerick. If you're from Dublin, you know it as that large polytech in the midwest.

Peteee

sebastianlieken wrote: »

The entire UL forum has for far too long been an absolute shambles. I have found out on numberous occasions from personal experience and from three of my friends that there is just no room in there for new people who want to discuss an idea or voice an opinion. though it should be said that in my experience, question answering is fine.

As Sceptre's pointed out, there is definetly an element of cliquiness about the UL forum. Its part of its culture going back as far as I have been a member.

In my experience everything gets argued with a fair and balanced agenda from lots of differing viewpoints. While there is an element of cliquiness it goes as far in that we have regular beers (The last one there must have been at least 5 new faces at, all who had a good time) this will naturally lead to a 'chatty' atmosphere.

However, new people are always welcome to express ideas and opinions, and indeed there has been a large influx of new people on the board this year who have contributed greatly.

however, the UL forum largly consists of the same group of people who use the forum for their own unproductive and "cliquey" agenda. these group (of approx 5 friends) often gang up on opposition and demean opposition also (personal experience) ive also had personal abuse thrown at me on more than one occasion, called the moderator up on it, and all that was in the reply was along the lines of "oh right, ill have a word with him then if I see him again"

Can you point out these 5 friends. I have a feeling I know who it is but I'd like it explicitly stated (In PM preferably). I'd hate to think anyone is 'ganging' up on anyone.

obviously, his actions were ineffective as that definatly wasnt the end it all.

As for that I did have a 'word' with him in private. He said he wouldn't do it again, and I cant see any point in which he has been personally abusive towards any member (Aside from being in a jokey manner to people in the 'clique' of course).

poor moderating in terms of extremely leanient passage for the "cliquey" bunch in there, is what I have to say.

I tend to stay as far away from the thread as much as possible becasue of this, and I know my three friends do the exact same.

Again as sceptre pointed out, its silly season at the moment with exams being on, and theres lots of 'messy' threads about, which should drop off soon. The awards threads being a prime example of this 'stupidity' theme.

I'll try and keep the 'randomness' to one thread in future.