Topical discussion, no place for it in AH

Xavi6

Fair enough, I do understand your point.

You have to concede however that a free for all forum would completely undermine the access rules to Soccer which have very valid reasons for being in place. Essentially you are giving the troublemakers who may be banned from Soccer for whatever reason a platform to act the bollox again.

Not sure it's fair to put that on the AH mods.

OutlawPete

Xavi6 wrote: »

You have to concede however that a free for all forum would completely undermine the access rules to Soccer which have very valid reasons for being in place.

I don't doubt that for a second and have seen those users at play myself.

However, they tend to most troublesome when it comes to club soccer.

I don't agree that such a thread would be a "free for all" though.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Essentially you are giving the troublemakers who may be banned from Soccer for whatever reason a platform to act the bollox again.

The users would be under the same rules that exsist there now for all other threads; no trolling, no personal abuse, no racisim etc etc.

I'm sure there have been many users that have found refuge in the political threads on AH, that had been banned from the Politics forum for instance.

These users usually reveal themselves quick enough and end up suffereing the same fate in AH, as did elsewhere.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Not sure it's fair to put that on the AH mods.

Sure there are nine of them now, they'll be grand :P

Rabies

Jazzy wrote: »

the AH mods tend to be the n00bies to moderating so they often wade in and lock threads and do stuff without really thinking about it. i think they are often playing catchup a lot of the time so they just close threads instead of trying to facilitate them

Thats a bit rash now itsn't it.

Dr B, Java, Frada and theZohan were all first time mod in AH. They have a good following with many posters and were good at it.
Don't expect all our decisions to be right. We have back tracked and altered our actions before because it wasn't the right choice or something was done in haste. Other times threads are locked and discussed in the mod forum.
When posters start threads that they know should be started, then locking early and/or deleting is the best option.

I can't believe I'm arguing such a ridiculous point.. Let us have a thread, everyone happy. I think it's obvious the Ah regs want it and it's them who keep the forum going.

Anyone have any invites to these private forums? I'm a nice guy really.

biko

Xavi6 wrote: »

Not sure it's fair to put that on the AH mods.

I don't mind banning soccer trolls, they smell just like normal trolls.

pickarooney

There should be a 'current events' type forum for these kind of things. Christmas, Halloween, World Cup, anything with a scheduled start and end time that would interest a wide range of people.

ibarelycare

It seems that the AH mods don't really care what the posters of AH want, they just want to make life easier for themselves.

biko

It's not a democracy, it's a meritocracy.

The mods of AH has to look beyond the scope of the general poster and also look at the history.
- What happens of we allow footie discussions in a separate forum from Soccer, even for a few weeks?
- Will it set a precedent for other events/sports that suddenly wants the exposure of the biggest forum in the nation?
- Will it increase the workload for the mods as there is no access policy to AH? We are still just volunteers you know, with jobs and families.
- How has previous attempts at letting footie discussions worked in AH?

That said, boards should look for what is best for its users.

If a megathread is started it will be for this event only and just because it happened once does not mean it may happen again.

ibarelycare

Deleted

Mint Sauce

Its the consistancy i have an issue with, i started a WC theamed thread on wearing a particular shirt down the street or in my local, no reference made to any particalar match, player, or result. thread was locked after a couple of pages, fair enough i thought

then a mega thread was started by another poster, on the whole it kept away from particular matches, and made fun of the WC more than anything else, ie, the crowds, the horns, funny moments, etc, etc, it was eventully locked, after running to over a couple of hundred posts at least

but currently, there are still at least two different WC theamed threads still open, that have been contributed to in the last couple of days, why are these still open when others have been closed

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055938307
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055937999

like the others that were locked, they have not mentioned particlar matches, so again, wheres the consistancy?

Brava

biko wrote: »

If a megathread is started it will be for this event only and just because it happened once does not mean it may happen again.

So IF a megathread was started like when the Thierry Henry handball incident happened and if we reported actual match play posts, could we have a WC megathread?

Dr Galen

WHile by no means a prolific poster in AH, I'm there pretty much everyday, reading and lolling away, like many others.

I can see both sides of this in fairness, maybe its because I don't have the personal investment that some of the AH regs do, and obviously because I'm not a Mod of the place.

I do think though that its a bit mad that posters in AH, which is lets not forget one of the biggest forums on boards can't be accomodated in some way. I think the Soccer forum can be a bit of a scary place for the casual "armchair" fan in fairness, and we all know that load of posters have mad postcounts but rarely post outside of AH too.

Could a compromise be to allow some WC related threads into AH. Maybe a megathread for the usual AH funnery and say a "post while your watching thread" with a limited enough number of relevant threads, strictly relating to big events, e.g Engerland getting beaten, Ronaldo's head exploding etc. In addition, what about making 1 or 2 temp additions to the AH Mod team. Maybe some of the guys (or girls ) from soccer would oblige, or any other Mod who knows football/football culture/football trolls, just for the month or so. They wouldn't have to worry about any of the usual AH modding. Their sole function would be to help out with the WC related threads. This wouldn't mean that the crrent AH Mods don't have a part in those threads of course, but it might make things a little easier for them. Once the WC is over and for a short enough period after, the extra Mods could go back to their normal fora and all would be well.

Might be a useful experiment in relation to other topics too, draft in a bit of experience in the particular area, to help out, add some extra specialist ModBrane Powah, learn from it, and then bring that newly gained knowledge into making the forum a cooler place.

Just a thought......

biko

irish-stew wrote: »

Its the consistancy i have an issue with, i started a WC theamed thread on wearing a particular shirt down the street or in my local, no reference made to any particalar match, player, or result. thread was locked after a couple of pages, fair enough i thought
...
like the others that were locked, they have not mentioned particlar matches, so again, wheres the consistancy?

I understand the consistency concern but with many mods it's difficult to get it right every time, particularly when there are grey areas. All I can say is that we are discussing it atm and may, or may not, change our minds about this event.

Until that time the Soccer forum is there, open for any type of soccer discussion.

May I ask a few of you - with Soccer being there why do you insist on having WC discussions in AH? Is it an access issue or do you not want to stray from AH? Or something else?

My name is URL

biko wrote: »

May I ask a few of you - with Soccer being there why do you insist on having WC discussions in AH? Is it an access issue or do you not want to stray from AH? Or something else?

The soccer forum is focused on the technical side of the sport, and going off on tangents within a thread there is not appreciated. For me it's about being able to talk about such a popular current event, in a forum where it's ok to stray off-topic and for multiple discussions to take place at once

Brava

biko wrote: »

May I ask a few of you - with Soccer being there why do you insist on having WC discussions in AH? Is it an access issue or do you not want to stray from AH? Or something else?

You cant have as much craic/piss taking in the soccer forum. We wouldnt be discussing Kaka's pass to Fabiano unless one of them fell flat on their face or something funny. Like i said before, if people were discussing the match in play in a serious way then we could just report the posts.

The mods can state the rules in the first post and warn everyone before it starts out.....

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

biko wrote: »

May I ask a few of you - with Soccer being there why do you insist on having WC discussions in AH? Is it an access issue or do you not want to stray from AH? Or something else?

Sorry to react with a question,but may I ask you if you feel that the NYPost journalism thread was actually about the World Cup?

Jazzy

biko wrote: »

I don't mind banning soccer trolls, they smell just like normal trolls.

you'd think that but amazingly soccer trolls can troll for, quite literally, years and have nothing happen to them

OutlawPete

biko wrote: »

May I ask a few of you - with Soccer being there why do you insist on having WC discussions in AH?

Well, because AH is the forum where I discuss everything else that is a current affair.

I want to debate and laugh about the World Cup with AH regulars.

It has a cast of characters like no other forum, some I love like (lets not get carried away ) and some, not so much.

Nonetheless, it is there where I want to discuss the WC, as it is a very topical event.

I am an Aston Villa fan and there is no way that I would ever want team gossip or their match threads in AH. I don't think anyone would want that for their respective teams. The Soccer Forum fulfills a role, and it does it well, no problem with posting their in those situations.

However, when it comes International Sporting events, it is no longer just about Soccer (in the case of the World Cup) or Horse Racing (in the case of the Grand National).

They are of mass public appeal and should be up for discussion and banter just as any other topical event is in AH.

The fact that this debate has to be had every time something like the World Cup, a big International game or the Grand National comes round, is astonishing to me.

You say, quite rightly that there has been a sticky advising that people should apply for Soccer Forum access months ago, but that does not make your stance a correct one.

You were not the only one(s) to foresee the situation, others had also advised that a WC thread be considered months back too. I myself made the following post back in April, when the Grand National threads were locked:

OutlawPete wrote: »

One Grand National thread would not have taken much modding.

I would say deleting the ones that were starting and dealing with the angry PMs was more of a headache than the modding of one thread would have been.

The same will happen when the World Cup starts in June.

Threads will be started everytime something significant happens in South Africa.

England player gets sent off, France lose, France win, Holligans, France Cheat, Referee makes a serious error, fans flash bewbs live on TV etc etc.

ALL these threads will be locked and people will be told: The Soccer Forum is THAT way

---

>

If After Hours does not allow one thread for the four weeks of the World Cup, then you better get ready to delete threads every hour..

Mint Sauce

biko wrote: »

May I ask a few of you - with Soccer being there why do you insist on having WC discussions in AH? Is it an access issue or do you not want to stray from AH? Or something else?

My name is URL wrote: »

The soccer forum is focused on the technical side of the sport, and going off on tangents within a thread there is not appreciated. For me it's about being able to talk about such a popular current event, in a forum where it's ok to stray off-topic and for multiple discussions to take place at once

+1

I post on the soccer forum biko ocassionally, and its not that i insist on WC thread being in AH, but its a major event that has everyone talking, even the irrelavent and the humourous side, such as our ringing ears from the horns (still cant quite get the spelling or pronouncation), the cute brazillian zamba dancers, dunphy ending every arguement with 'baby', and bill saying 'okay dokey' to break up every arguement, etc etc.

A thread like that i assumed could have worked for people who never intend to post in soccer or for other regulars who want to keep the technical and humourious stuff seperate. Yes, if you want to talk about about the Fabios use of Gerrard and Lampard working together in a mid feild role, what warrents having green (englands failed keeper) in the side, etc etc, take that to soccer, where its appreicated and understood by like minded posters. Now if you wanted to take the p1ss out of green that would not be accepted in soccer, an AH thread would, again and i assume, allow a light hearted approach to it.

biko

Poll http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055939730

Dr Galen

whoops

wrong tab, thought this was the soccer forum

Sarky

Oh yeah, the World Cup's happening around now.

Must stock up on pics with which to replace any soccer-related post that's dumb enough to wander into any forum I moderate. Furries are old news since the French handball thing though, so if anyone has any fresh suggestions for me, PM plx.

Now, to change my avatar and sig to cheer for France.

OutlawPete

Cheers URL .. you must be reading The Audacity Of Hope

Any chance of getting this guy on the Trustee list so that he can have write access to FF?

He clearly has his finger on the pulse of what AH should be about, second only to that Bollocko guy.

stovelid

Sarky wrote: »

Oh yeah, the World Cup's happening around now.

Must stock up on pics with which to replace any soccer-related post that's dumb enough to wander into any forum I moderate. Furries are old news since the French handball thing though, so if anyone has any fresh suggestions for me, PM plx.

Now, to change my avatar and sig to cheer for France.

Are you always so daring in your flaunting of nonconformity?

Sarky

Heavens, no. I usually just PM the ideas to myself and agree wholeheartedly with them alone in the safety of my room, before deleting them out of the crippling fear that someone might hax0r my account and discover the thoughts I once dared to think, and make a witty dry comment to crush what little self-esteem I possess. Oh, I don't know how I would go on if that happened.

Also, I think soccer is stupid.

Dionysus

vodafoneproblem wrote: »

I don't see the harm in having at least one megathread on a subject that's on everyone's lips at the moment. I'm quite baffled by the current situation where you can tell a lot of people would love to add their 2c about matches (in the most popular general discussion area on boards) but not necessarily in the more intense atmosphere of the soccer forum. Perhaps if the current mods don't want to look after it then one or both of Url and Pete could be made temporary mods for the duration of the WC just for that thread? I really don't foresee any more trouble in it than the average AH thread, though.

Like the Meath-Louth match thread which has just been closed down in AH because it was about sport?

It's blatant bias to lock GAA threads and keep a soccer thread open.

PS: As shocking as it might be to some, a substantial majority of the Irish population has no interest whatsoever in the soccer world cup. This is the reality, no matter how much hype there is.

Mint Sauce

Dionysus wrote: »

Like the Meath-Louth match thread which has just been closed down in AH because it was about sport?

It's blatant bias to lock GAA threads and keep a soccer thread open.

PS: As shocking as it might be to some, a substantial majority of the Irish population has no interest whatsoever in the soccer world cup. This is the reality, no matter how much hype there is.

have you reed all this thread, its not biased, bassically, the WC is a once every four years international event, and has caused great debate amoungst many people, also if you read the AH thread, and all of it, there is as much debate on the funny, contraversal spects of it, from what happens in the studio, the stands, south africa its self, not just whats happening on the pitch and the results. as for the majority of irish people having no interest, even my gran has watched some of the WC, and she usally has about as much interest in football as i have in doing her knitting

K-9

Dionysus wrote: »

Like the Meath-Louth match thread which has just been closed down in AH because it was about sport?

It's blatant bias to lock GAA threads and keep a soccer thread open.

PS: As shocking as it might be to some, a substantial majority of the Irish population has no interest whatsoever in the soccer world cup. This is the reality, no matter how much hype there is.

Try the GAA Board, unlike Soccer, it doesn't require access.

My name is URL

Dionysus wrote: »

Like the Meath-Louth match thread which has just been closed down in AH because it was about sport?

It's blatant bias to lock GAA threads and keep a soccer thread open.

PS: As shocking as it might be to some, a substantial majority of the Irish population has no interest whatsoever in the soccer world cup. This is the reality, no matter how much hype there is.

The type of discussion in the AH world cup thread is fairly off-top and random which wouldn't be allowed in the Soccer forum. And many of the people posting in it aren't all too interested in the sport.

The Louth thread was related specifically to a GAA issue and would be well placed in the GAA forum..

Dionysus

irish-stew wrote: »

have you reed all this thread, its not biased, bassically, the WC is a once every four years international event

Louth was just robbed of its first Leinster Final win since 1957 in a match which went beyond sport and into other issues. There are much more people around me concerned about that, including the 40,000-50,000 Irish people who left their armchairs and went to the match. How many Irish people left their armchairs and went to World Cup matches? The fact that the World Cup is an international event with no Irish involvement makes it less worthy, not more worthy, of having a thread on After Hours than does a match with 100% Irish involvement and active Irish interest.

irish-stew wrote: »

and has caused great debate amoungst many people, also if you read the AH thread, and all of it, there is as much debate on the funny, contraversal spects of it, from what happens in the studio, the stands, south africa its self, not just whats happening on the pitch and the results.

Precisely the same applies to today's match in Croke Park, indeed more so as the non-football side of it has become much more important by this evening.

irish-stew wrote: »

as for the majority of irish people having no interest, even my gran has watched some of the WC, and she usally has about as much interest in football as i have in doing her knitting

For a majority of Irish people to be interested in it, we need to see viewing figures of well over 2 million people in this state on average for each of the games in the tournament. Until then, claims that a majority of the population is interested in the World Cup are unsubstantiated.

K-9 wrote: »

Try the GAA Board, unlike Soccer, it doesn't require access.

If people are keen enough to talk about soccer they can get access to it. Or, if there are enough of them, they can get the support to set up another board. The current situation does not justify a policy which excludes a GAA-related thread from Afterhours and permits a soccer-related thread.

My name is URL wrote: »

The type of discussion in the AH world cup thread is fairly off-top and random which wouldn't be allowed in the Soccer forum. And many of the people posting in it aren't all too interested in the sport.

The Louth thread was related specifically to a GAA issue and would be well placed in the GAA forum..

By exactly the same thinking, the World Cup thread was, as the name suggests, specifically related to a soccer issue and would be well placed in the Soccer forum or, at the very least, in a soccer-related forum. From a look at the WC thread on Afterhours this evening it is naturally enough dominated by the matches, even more so than the Louth thread was dominated by the actual match. Yet the latter was closed by an After Hours moderator.