Soccer Forum Annual Review Thread

astrofool

Dub13 wrote: »

Its not a great comparison in fairness....I know BMW drivers hate Merc driver etc etc but its nothing even remotely like a UTD & Liverpool dived.Football fans are tribal,and most of them will stay with there own kind if not encouraged to mingle.

But Motors didn't divide up into Merc and BMW. Classic cars, 4x4's etc. applies to owners of all car types, as would (say)

Premiership
LOI
International
Other leagues

If I was a Manu fan, who went to see shamrock rovers and Ireland occasionally, as well as following SPL and Primera Liga, all those forums apply to me, and i'd mingle whether I liked it or not.

I don't see how forcing LOI fans into the same forum as primera liga and EPL fans is a good thing for the forum as a whole, especially as all the minor league threads disappear under a raft of EPL threads (not just superthreads).

I also don't see why GAE forum is being held as an example of a forum that doesn't work. It was a niche team, for a small set of people. As time went on, some of those people disappeared and the forum died. LOI/EPL/Int'l wouldn't have the same issues.

Pro. F

I think the thread prefix idea could work for the super thread issue. Any idea of splitting up the forum with sub forums would be a terrible choice imo and should be avoided.
............
Trolls - they are still a problem. The six yellows thing doesn't work. It's hard enough for a troll to get one yellow.

The real problem (at least, what I imagine the problem is) is that the mods have to feel secure that they can stand behind their judgement of troll. Too many trolls hide behind the excuse of being retarded. Being a retard should not be an acceptable defence. If somebody is continuously posting contrarian views in a thread but is failing to back those views up with sensible arguments then they are messing up the thread. I would like to see the mods being more willing and able to make a judgement call and step in more often.
The forum does not need gobshìtes so it shouldn't really be an issue for the mods to have to worry about whether a troll is a actually a dumb halfwit or whether he is just pretending to be one. If some simpleton with an inability to understand or construct a reasoned argument is sitting quietly in the corner, drooling and occasionally making inoffensive noises in his own teams' super thread, fine, that's not a problem. If the simpleton is actually regularly posting contrarian views in his rivals' super thread then that is a very real problem. His arguments should be held up to intense scrutiny and if the mods can agree that there is a clear patern of wrong headed arguments from the poster with retarded logic to back them up then he should be punished.

The factors of a decision on trolling imo should be:
*What - are they posting drastically against the grain (obviously not a bad thing on it's own)
*Where - is the suspect doing this work in a rival team's super thread?
*When - is he doing it often?
*How Retarded - there needs to be strong proof that they are making intelligent arguments if they are to be allowed to continue.

It's the last point that is most difficult for the mods I guess. I would just like to see the mods making more judgement calls.

I think there will always be a problem with trolls, either people will be complaining in these forum review threads that the mods aren't harsh enough or the prospective punished trolls will be starting endless feedback threads of their own when they get punished.
............
Headshot - the system of six yellows over a season is reasonable for me but in the case of HS two of his yellows were just plain wrong, his ban should be over turned.

keane2097

I agree strongly with what Pro F has said there.

People seem to be afraid of their lives to mention him, but Conno16 on the United thread is the prime example.

The guy appeared a couple of weeks ago, making a series of short, sweeping, often ridiculous posts that wound up probably 99.9% of people who read the thread.

He was repeatedly engaged on his posts, asked to back up his statements. Whenever this happened he would invariably disappear, only to come back an hour or so later with another one-liner that seemed designed to aggravate (e.g. United should ship Javier Hernandez, Jonny Evans is useless etc.).

Now the thing is, there's nothing wrong with having these opinions obv, but if you're just being glib, contrary and refusing to engage with people who take issue with your statement, you're either deliberately winding people up, dense or pig-lazy.

Either way, posters who carry on like this make the forum experience much worse for the majority of posters, and as such I don't know why we should be looking to accomodate them.

The worst thing is, the aforementioned poster was eventually spoken to by a mod and made a pretty good post explaining the reasoning behind a lot of what had been driving people fcuking batty for a month or more which was well worth the read.

The question is whether it was worth the month or more of bullshít to get to the one decent post in all that time. Doubtful imo.

K-9

The humour thread is a good idea too, as long as posters aren't too precious and there are clear guide lines on it. The mods might think it would be a lot of work though?

keane2097

By the way - Tagging threads is a GREAT idea IMO.

jaykay74

keane2097 wrote: »

People seem to be afraid of their lives to mention him, but Conno16 on the United thread is the prime example.

before someone says put him on ignore it doesn't work, someone will always engage him and another couple of pages of nonsense are posted. once or twice grand but this happens a number of times every day. fair enough if good posters are banned if they step out of line but please remove trolls like this guy.

report the posts you might say. then i would have to report all bar 1 of his posts. berba is useless. sell the mexican. evans is crap. all grand but when you are engaged back it up, don't just disappear to reappear an hour later.

pickarooney

jaykay74 wrote: »

all grand but when you are engaged back it up, don't just disappear to reappear an hour later.

Are you excluding the possibility that some people have jobs to do or courses to attend and might have to log off boards occasionally?

Paul Tergat

pickarooney wrote: »

Are you excluding the possibility that some people have jobs to do or courses to attend and might have to log off boards occasionally?

But what about no response/backing up a point at all. The only time the poster is seen again is posting another 3 liner looking for a reaction. Its very tedious tbh.

Thanx 4 The Fish

keane2097 wrote: »

By the way - Tagging threads is a GREAT idea IMO.

I agree, this is certainly worth spending some time looking at.

Frisbee

When people say tagging do they mean prefix's before the threads?

Like in Bargain Alerts etc?

5starpool

Ya, was wondering that. Can't see any point to it if that is what is being talked about.

Xavi6

Same as. Those tags would really serve no purpose as the threads are still visible.

jaykay74

Frisbee wrote: »

When people say tagging do they mean prefix's before the threads?

Like in Bargain Alerts etc?

5starpool wrote: »

Ya, was wondering that. Can't see any point to it if that is what is being talked about.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Same as. Those tags would really serve no purpose as the threads are still visible.

Someone posted a link to the forum below as an example earlier.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=502

Notice the tags on each thread. "the tags, they do nothing" I hear you cry.

Nopw see the pull down menu that says "any prefix" in the area above the first thread. Select the tag you are interested in and click "show threads".

Thats the perfect solution for this issue with the soccer forum it would seems Tags such as LoI Epl etc.

jaykay74

pickarooney wrote: »

Are you excluding the possibility that some people have jobs to do or courses to attend and might have to log off boards occasionally?

you have quoted me out of context.

You should have quoted. "sell the mexican. evans is crap. all grand but when you are engaged back it up, don't just disappear to reappear an hour later."

I have no problem if the above happens to someone on occasion but when this is how you operate fulltime it gets a bit tedious.

pickarooney

jaykay74 wrote: »

you have quoted me out of context.

You should have quoted. "sell the mexican. evans is crap. all grand but when you are engaged back it up, don't just disappear to reappear an hour later."

I have no problem if the above happens to someone on occasion but when this is how you operate fulltime it gets a bit tedious.

Fair enough. Personally I don't understand how anyone can get annoyed by this, but obviously it's a bit of a bugbear.

keane2097

pickarooney wrote: »

Fair enough. Personally I don't understand how anyone can get annoyed by this, but obviously it's a bit of a bugbear.

It has completely derailed discussion in the United thread repeatedly over the course of several weeks.

If it happened four or five times a day in a thread you regularly frequented you might say different.

TBH the fact that you came along and talked about "ignoring the possibilty that someone has a job" when we're talking about a named and speficic example where that is clearly not the issue just smacks of wanting to stick your oar in and point out what a cool chilled out guy you are tbh.

L'prof

jaykay74 wrote: »

Someone posted a link to the forum below as an example earlier.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=502

Notice the tags on each thread. "the tags, they do nothing" I hear you cry.

Nopw see the pull down menu that says "any prefix" in the area above the first thread. Select the tag you are interested in and click "show threads".

Thats the perfect solution for this issue with the soccer forum it would seems Tags such as LoI Epl etc.

No, it's not perfect as that button would have to be clicked every time. The perfect solution would be if there was a way of saving your selection for future visits to the forum.

pickarooney

keane2097 wrote: »

It has completely derailed discussion in the United thread repeatedly over the course of several weeks.

If it happened four or five times a day in a thread you regularly frequented you might say different.

TBH the fact that you came along and talked about "ignoring the possibilty that someone has a job" when we're talking about a named and speficic example where that is clearly not the issue just smacks of wanting to stick your oar in and point out what a cool chilled out guy you are tbh.

Point taken.

Hopefully United will be so lucky at Wigan.


(is that how it works?)

jaykay74

L'prof wrote: »

No, it's not perfect as that button would have to be clicked every time. The perfect solution would be if there was a way of saving your selection for future visits to the forum.

Depends on how you get to the soccer forum I guess but I tend to have it bookmarked rather than browse to it. If its bookmarked like the bookmark below then no extra work.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=502&page=1&pp=20&prefixid=xbox360&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1

pickarooney

Is there such thing as a NOT filter so you can choose to display all except superthreads?

jaykay74

pickarooney wrote: »

Is there such thing as a NOT filter so you can choose to display all except superthreads?

The options on the link ( http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=502 ) for tags show :

(any prefix)
(no prefix)
[specific prefix, eg, xbox]

A simple way would be only prefix the superthreads. The option (no prefix) would show all except superthreads I think. Also then users who are starting new threads just do nothing with tags so no extra work/confusion.

keane2097

jaykay74 wrote: »

The options on the link ( http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=502 ) for tags show :

(any prefix)
(no prefix)
[specific prefix, eg, xbox]

A simple way would be only prefix the superthreads. The option (no prefix) would show all except superthreads I think. Also then users who are starting new threads just do nothing with tags so no extra work/confusion.

Better if the superthreads were the only ones without tags imo.

I'd like to be able to browse by competition, league etc...

pickarooney

It would be neater if everything had a tag, but I just don't see posters taking the time to do that. This would mean the moderators have more donkey-work to do in order to make the system workable, so maybe just tagging the superthreads would be a good compromise.

jaykay74

keane2097 wrote: »

Better if the superthreads were the only ones without tags imo.

I'd like to be able to browse by competition, league etc...

That would be better but puts the onus on the thread creators to use tags and then mods have to tidy up when they don't. People complain that the superthreads take over page 1. Filtering out superthreads is a way around that. Anything else while good might be too ambitious as a first step.

keane2097

pickarooney wrote: »

It would be neater if everything had a tag, but I just don't see posters taking the time to do that. This would mean the moderators have more donkey-work to do in order to make the system workable, so maybe just tagging the superthreads would be a good compromise.

Just put it in the rules - "All new threads must be accompanied by an appropriate tag".

Allow a bedding in period where people are warned if they don't oblige, then eventually if people repeatedly ignore the rule infract.

I would imagine in the vast majority of cases being warned/asked once would be enough to get posters to use the system.

keane2097

jaykay74 wrote: »

That would be better but puts the onus on the thread creators to use tags and then mods have to tidy up when they don't. People complain that the superthreads take over page 1. Filtering out superthreads is a way around that. Anything else while good might be too ambitious as a first step.

You make it sound like people are completely retarded. It's not rocket science, it's [EPL], [ECL], [LOI] etc in front of a thread title.

I really can't see it being a problem for more than a week.

jaykay74

keane2097 wrote: »

You make it sound like people are completely retarded. It's not rocket science, it's [EPL], [ECL], [LOI] etc in front of a thread title.

I really can't see it being a problem for more than a week.

Ok, so in that system what does someone who wants everything except superthreads do (re Tags) which is the complaint here ? Not saying there isn't a way but first thoughts is you can't. Unless you want to look at each tag seperately one by one which is a bit pointless.

I can be completely retarded at times though.

keane2097

jaykay74 wrote: »

Ok, so in that system what does someone who wants everything except superthreads do (re Tags) which is the complaint here ? Not saying there isn't a way but first thoughts is you can't. Unless you want to look at each tag seperately one by one which is a bit pointless.

I can be completely retarded at times though.

[Any Prefix]

Right?

Frisbee

I really couldn't see the point of prefix tags.

A lot of people who don't want to see Superthreads may still want to post on the EPL. But if the Superthreads are tagged as EPL then when they view that prefix then you'll just have a frontpage full of superthreads still.

A better I dea if you were to use tages would just be to have a 'Superthread' tag. That way people can just view the other, although having to click on that and then click okay to filter it is two clicks. And two clicks could get you to page three and past the superthreads with a lot less hassle.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

I really couldn't see the point of prefix tags.

A lot of people who don't want to see Superthreads may still want to post on the EPL. But if the Superthreads are tagged as EPL then when they view that prefix then you'll just have a frontpage full of superthreads still.

A better I dea if you were to use tages would just be to have a 'Superthread' tag. That way people can just view the other, although having to click on that and then click okay to filter it is two clicks. And two clicks could get you to page three and past the superthreads with a lot less hassle.

Like I said above, I like the concept of being able to filter out the superthreads, but the current filtering system with tags isn't ideal unless your selection can be saved.

Frisbee

L'prof wrote: »

Like I said above, I like the concept of being able to filter out the superthreads, but the current filtering system with tags isn't ideal unless your selection can be saved.

afaik your choice filter can't be saved. Also you can't filter out stuff you don't want to see, only filter in stuff you do want to see. Which could mean you'd have a 'Superthreads' prefix and everything else would have to be stuck with an 'Other' or something similair prefix in order to just filter out the superthreads.

The Muppet

I've been blessed with an inbuilt ignore function. Any user I want to ignore I do so without the aid of technology, when I see their username in posts or quotes I don't read them. I find that works fine for me.:)

keane2097

Frisbee wrote: »

afaik your choice filter can't be saved. Also you can't filter out stuff you don't want to see, only filter in stuff you do want to see. Which could mean you'd have a 'Superthreads' prefix and everything else would have to be stuck with an 'Other' or something similair prefix in order to just filter out the superthreads.

No, you just don't give the Superthreads a prefix and then select threads with [Any Prefix] in the options. You then get all threads besides the Superthreads.

I said this like three posts ago.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

afaik your choice filter can't be saved. Also you can't filter out stuff you don't want to see, only filter in stuff you do want to see. Which could mean you'd have a 'Superthreads' prefix and everything else would have to be stuck with an 'Other' or something similair prefix in order to just filter out the superthreads.

I can't see it being difficult to implement though. Maybe it's asking too much, but it's the only solution that would leave the majority of users happy enough. If not, then I'd like to see a superthread forum, even though that would face more opposition!

keane2097

L'prof wrote: »

Like I said above, I like the concept of being able to filter out the superthreads, but the current filtering system with tags isn't ideal unless your selection can be saved.

Jaykay answered you above:

jaykay74 wrote: »

If its bookmarked like the bookmark below then no extra work.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=502&page=1&pp=20&prefixid=xbox360&sort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1

L'prof

keane2097 wrote: »

Jaykay answered you above:

I'll check it out later, but I don't see why I should have to bookmark individual sections on boards!

pickarooney

L'prof wrote: »

I'll check it out later, but I don't see why I should have to bookmark individual sections on boards!

I don't think anyone is suggesting you have to do anything In order to benefit from a proposed improvement, you would have the option of doing it

L'prof

pickarooney wrote: »

I don't think anyone is suggesting you have to do anything In order to benefit from a proposed improvement, you would have the option of doing it

The option of doing what exactly?

pickarooney

L'prof wrote: »

The option of doing what exactly?

Is it Alzheimer's day?

The option

to bookmark individual sections on boards!

Frisbee

pickarooney I'd advise you to drop the snide condescending attitude of your last two posts now.

keane2097

L'prof wrote: »

The option of doing what exactly?

Paying someone to wipe your arse for you.

Jesus Christ :rolleyes:

keane2097

Frisbee wrote: »

pickarooney I'd advise you to drop the snide condescending attitude of your last two posts now.

In all fairness, he's asking the same question multiple times, while being too lazy to click on a link that was provided the first time he was asked.

Frisbee

keane2097 wrote: »

In all fairness, he's asking the same question multiple times, while being too lazy to click on a link that was provided the first time he was asked.

Just don't answer then. For someone advocating the ability to ignore certain threads ignoring a poster should be a doddle.

keane2097

Frisbee wrote: »

Just don't answer then. For someone advocating the ability to ignore certain threads ignoring a poster should be a doddle.

If I could just do it at will I wouldn't need the tags would I? :pac:

Frisbee

keane2097 wrote: »

If I could just do it at will I wouldn't need the tags would I? :pac:

Touché

L'prof

keane2097 wrote: »

In all fairness, he's asking the same question multiple times, while being too lazy to click on a link that was provided the first time he was asked.

Too lazy or it's impracticat because I'm posting from my phone??? Whatever lads. As far as I could see, that was a post to the fifa thread, which if you check my previous posts I've used as an example, but I've already stated that the system being implemented there isn't a real improvement on what we already have.

Edit: I see now that the bookmark contains only xbox tags. The thing is, that's just a workaround for a flawed system really, the option should be built within the site.

Mitch Connor

L'prof wrote: »

Too lazy or it's impracticat because I'm posting from my phone??? Whatever lads. As far as I could see, that was a post to the fifa thread, which if you check my previous posts I've used as an example, but I've already stated that the system being implemented there isn't a real improvement on what we already have.

Edit: I see now that the bookmark contains only xbox tags. The thing is, that's just a workaround for a flawed system really, the option should be built within the site.

it is if people want to see the board without the super threads.

Give them a prefix <sup>and have the option to only show stuff without prefixes. Easy solution for those that want to use it.

For people like myself the only change is 5 extra characters.

Personally I think it is the best solution to the super thread 'problem'.</sup>

L'prof

Mitch Connor wrote: »

it is if people want to see the board without the super threads.

Give them a prefix <sup>and have the option to only show stuff without prefixes. Easy solution for those that want to use it.

For people like myself the only change is 5 extra characters.

Personally I think it is the best solution to the super thread 'problem'.</sup>

The best option imo would be if your preference could be saved (can't be difficult to implement) and not having to use a workaround.

Mitch Connor

L'prof wrote: »

The best option imo would be if your preference could be saved (can't be difficult to implement) and not having to use a workaround.

that would be even better, but as it is the solution is either 3 clicks or a bookmark. It is hardly a laborious solution.

If they can add it to the cookies then great, but even if they can't it is still the best proposed solution to the 'problem'.

L'prof

Mitch Connor wrote: »

as it is the solution is either 3 clicks or a bookmark. It is hardly a laborious solution.

This is a suggestions thread, my only suggestion is that there be a change to the system so that you can save your preference if tags were introduced to the soccer forum. I don't see the point in you or any other regular user for that matter telling me that under the current system this can't be done and all I have to do is use a bookmark. I know this already, which is why I made the suggestion.