Raison D'etre for Boards.

DeVore

I've been working on a basic, short declaration of the long term purpose, raison d'etre, mission statement, call it what you will.

Here's what I have come up with so far:

---

Boards.ie exists to provide a platform for the mature and reasonable discussion of topics of interest to its members. To entertain, educate and inform both its members and its readers and to provide a neutral place to interact.

Its holds these tenets at its core.

1. That true, meaningful discourse is civil.
2. That its members have a right to hold and civilly express reasonable opinions.
3. The membership is a privilege which can be revoked.

---

Thoughts?

DeV.

tbh

thoughts are: I agree. As would 90% of posters. It's the 10% you're writing that post for, and they are the 10% who either won't read it, or will read it and won't care. So should you bother? I know it stresses you out, is it worth it? I don't like being so negative, but....it is what it is brother.

DeVore

I'm not taking a vote here
I'm looking for people to add or subtract from it with logical reasons for 'why'. I've found that the best way forward is to "check my head" before committing to something which then has to be corrected on day 2.

There is a lot more behind this document but you are right, most people wont care. I think its important and will become more important as we move forward. Right now, I'd like to nail a decent "objective".

DeV.

Orion

I'd change 3 to "The membership is a privilege which can be revoked for breach of #1 or #2"

seamus

Macros42 wrote: »

I'd change 3 to "The membership is a privilege which can be revoked for breach of #1 or #2"

But now you're applying conditions to it and someone will try to fight a siteban because they didn't breach #1 or #2.

tbh

seamus wrote: »

But now you're applying conditions to it and someone will try to fight a siteban because they didn't breach #1 or #2.

exactly. Ok, if you're looking for contributions, then keep it simple.

"Boards.ie reserves the right to withdraw membership for any reason. If you have a problem with that, don't sign up"

Asiaprod

I prefer it to be open ended and not specific to any one thing. There are many reasons why a membership can be revoked and it is impossible to list them all.

3. The membership is a privilege which can be revoked.

FlutterinBantam

DeVore wrote: »

I've been working on a basic, short declaration of the long term purpose, raison d'etre, mission statement, call it what you will.

Here's what I have come up with so far:

---

Boards.ie exists to provide a platform for the mature and reasonable discussion of topics of interest to its members. To entertain, educate and inform both its members and its readers and to provide a neutral place to interact.

Its holds these tenets at its core.

1. That true, meaningful discourse is civil.
2. That its members have a right to hold and civilly express reasonable opinions.
3. The membership is a privilege which can be revoked.

---

Thoughts?

DeV.

I'd definitely remove the comma after 'that true'.

Seems to refer to the opening paragraph.

Oryx

Ive read your tenets, and they are nicely succinct. The main thing I personally hope that boards maintains, is respect for other posters. I think what you are saying is trying to ensure that.

There is already so much muck and 3-second-attention-span type sites on the net, I hope that boards is more than that, that there is no dumbing down here. To me its like a real life/real time/personal, information and social centre. It is civillised, and sane. Mostly. Thats what I like about the place.

The only other point I have, and it seems contradictory, is that the mission statement comes across as a little po-faced. Boards is also slightly nuts, in a good way. You need to find a balance and place for that amongst the respect and civillity.

seamus

Having looked at it again, I would remove the words "true" and "meaningful" from point 1 and replace them with a single word - worthwhile.

The best threads aren't always true, and are not always meaningful, but they're always worthwhile.

dr.bollocko

Hehehe
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055748913
Great minds and all that.

Terry

DeVore wrote: »

I've been working on a basic, short declaration of the long term purpose, raison d'etre, mission statement, call it what you will.

Here's what I have come up with so far:

---

Boards.ie exists to provide a platform for the mature and reasonable discussion of topics of interest to its members. To entertain, educate and inform both its members and its readers and to provide a neutral place to interact.

Its holds these tenets at its core.

1. That true, meaningful discourse is civil.
2. That its members have a right to hold and civilly express reasonable opinions.
3. The membership is a privilege which can be revoked.

---

Thoughts?

DeV.

That's very hard to put a standard on.
What's reasonable to some is unreasonable to others.
I'd add something like within the rules to the end of it.

The same could be said for civility.
A couple of weeks ago, I banned someone from AH for what was a mild insult.
Some people questioned the ban and said that I shouldn't have banned someone for something so tame.
They felt that the word used shouldn't have been classed as an insult. I took the hardline approach that any personal attack is a bannable offence.

Basically, you can't please all of the people all of the time. Clauses in this mission statement are needed.

Dades

I have a little issue with the word "mature". The entire site isn't a conduit for mature discussion (and long may that remain the case). So maybe not inferring it is would be prudent?

Maybe this instead?

Boards.ie exists to provide a platform for the open and reasonable discussion of topics of interest to its members. To entertain, educate and inform both its members and its readers and to provide a neutral place to interact.

Terry

@Dades, you can't claim open discussion is allowed here.
People interpret open in their own way and will cry oppression if their thread is locked or they are banned.

Now, I'm not complaining about this. I'm fully aware that it's not possible to have a site with full open discussion hosted in this country.

--amadeus--

seamus wrote: »

Having looked at it again, I would remove the words "true" and "meaningful" from point 1 and replace them with a single word - worthwhile.

The best threads aren't always true, and are not always meaningful, but they're always worthwhile.

Or replace "true" and "meaningful" with "interesting". Because not only is good discussion not always either true or meaningful it is often not worthwhile. But it should always be interesting

Dades wrote: »

I have a little issue with the word "mature". The entire site isn't a conduit for mature discussion (and long may that remain the case). So maybe not inferring it is would be prudent?

I agree - no reason to lay down a standard of maturity. Indeed why qualify it at all:

to provide a platform for the discussion of topics of interest to its members

Ludo

To me that all sounds good until you get to the very last sentence (3. The membership is a privilege which can be revoked.).

It does not fit in to a mission statement/raison d'etre. Everything else in it is a positive statement about what the purpose of the site is and your vision...point 3 is a negative which appears to be tagged on unnecessarily. It should be a term and conditions apply kind of statement on an advert...not an actual part of the mission statement.
You didn't set up the site with a wish to ban people did you? Therefore this point is not a part of the core tenets. No need to go negative in something like this just because of < 1% of the users.

Just my immediate thought on reading it.

DeVore

one the basic things we have to get our heads around is that there arent any rules. We will never have a sufficient rule book for Boards.

So, its completely ok to use words like "civil" as they are going to be interpreted by the Moderators along with things like "racism". I also dont want to end up tying ourselves in knots trying to cover all the edge cases. I'd like to nail the spirit of the thing. To that end, I take the point about "mature" not being a terrific word in the context. This is the sort of stuff I was looking for posting here though, if I wrote it as a "fait accompli" it would have to be revised and revised.

DeV.

bonkey

The concept of forums (emphasis on the plural) is, perhaps, missing.

A central tenet of The Way Things Work here is that reasonable discussions also have an approriate forum (or, in some cases, appropriate forums). We have "homes" for all sorts of discussions, including discusions about problems, and so on...and ccnsequently, discussions are reasonable in an appropriate forum.

Maybe its a level of detail too far, though...its just that boards.ie seems to me to provide a collective of platforms, rather then a single platform.

Jazzy

DeVore wrote: »

1. That true, meaningful discourse is civil.
2. That its members have a right to hold and civilly express reasonable opinions.
3. The membership is a privilege which can be revoked.

---

Thoughts?

DeV.

sounds like a club. Id want to stay away from that image as much as possible

Papad

Jazzy wrote: »

sounds like a club. Id want to stay away from that image as much as possible

Which is the impression (to many, except to the club members) of boards.ie already.

"The membership is a privilege which can be revoked." is a bit much, irrespective of the fact that it is in private ownership. It gives the air of "ain't we lucky to be part of it".

Bringing a "Constitution" into play opens up a whole new can of worms.

Jazzy

it also creates the problem of mentality. if ppl join thinking its a 'club' and not a discussion website then any actual views they have will be skewed towards keeping it cool in da club. it will add to the already rampant ass lickery and do nothing to promote intelligent discussion

DeVore

I do want to promote a sense of "membership" of a community rather then just "somewhere I can rant", so I dont mind if it implies that. I take the point it might be a bit negative though.

The inclusion of the basic concept of "multiple communities" might well solve the issue of mature vs fun discussions. I'll try to reword things to take those into account.

DeV.

The Hill Billy

I've always been drawn to the community aspect of boards myself.

What about:

"Boards.ie exists to provide a platform of community forums for the mature and reasonable discussion of topics of interest to its members..."

and

"3. Community Membership is a privilege which can be revoked."

--amadeus--

I've always thought of / explained Boards as a collection of websites under a single URL.

And it's not membership thats revoked, it's posting privileges, which are slightly different things. You can still watch from teh sidelines when banned, you just can't take part.

Jazzy

DeVore wrote: »

I do want to promote a sense of "membership" of a community rather then just "somewhere I can rant", so I dont mind if it implies that. I take the point it might be a bit negative though.

i think it isolates irelands most popular chat website away from what it is though. its like purposely putting it on a higher tier then other sites simply to make it look better. it shows a certain lack of modesty

Oryx

Bearing in mind the points that have been made here, this is how it would read to me... much the same as your original.


Boards.ie exists to provide a platform for the discussion of topics of interest to its members. To entertain, educate and inform both its members and its readers and to provide a neutral place to interact.

Its holds these tenets at its core.

1. That discourse between members is civil.
2. That its members have a right to hold and civilly express reasonable opinions.
3. The the right to contribute is a privilege which can be revoked.

Overheal

This business of Mature and Civil - basically does away with the Cuckoos Nest, Thunderdome, After Hours, Lolocaust, etc etc. and yet what normally goes on in those forums is perfectly acceptable in those forums.

themadchef

Hill Billy wrote: »

"3. Community Membership is a privilege which can be revoked."

Don't get me wrong but it sounds a bit like exiling someone from a cult Hope Dev is going to wear some mad gear and a tin foil hat and promise us all a space ship will come for us .

When i joined Boards it took a bit of getting used to. I think you find your feet fairly fast here, and if you like the place you'll stay.

Number 3 sounds a bit like being here is a privilege we can take from you any time we like, and that's fine when you're in here and get to know how things work. If i heard that day one i think i would have skipped along though.

Just my 2 cents.

5starpool

What about:

Boards.ie: It is what it is, so take it or leave it.

Wibbs

themadchef wrote: »

Number 3 sounds a bit like being here is a privilege we can take from you any time we like, and that's fine when you're in here and get to know how things work. If i heard that day one i think i would have skipped along though.

Yes I would agree. I know it's not DeV's intention, but the wording of that may put a fair section of people off. That and the club vibe that jazzy referred to. I have heard that from a lot of people who lurk but never join up. I would suspect its one of the reasons for that and for those who join up and don't stay(which is a pretty huge number).

Hard one to balance in words though without it either sounding like rant central or at the other end cliquey in a bad way. Ditto with the notion of posts being "important". It depends on viewpoint.

I would be of the opinion that a mission statement type deal is mostly of use/interest for those who come up with it for their own personal yardstick for direction and the odd person outside of that who is interested. I would say the vast majority of users and potential users respond and react for good or ill to other more subtle things on a forum to forum basis. So taking the analogy of say a golf club; The owners of the club, the board and the commitaaaay will have a strong interest in such things. The average member/player won't really unless it impacts on them for good or ill in their pursuit of knocking a golf ball around.

That's not to say it's not important. It is. Nice to see it being discussed too. I'm not surprised it is either, which for me is a major thumbs up. Kudos on that score.

Fajitas!

I definitely think boards as a community should be part of it, as in to provide an online community/support/platform/learning experience for a range of interests. Tbh, I think it's one of the most attractive parts of Boards.ie in the long term for a user.