Boards.ie Politics forum is a poor man's Politics.ie

Wolfe Tone

GuanYin wrote: »

There is no new code.

The rule you fell victim to and are debating here has been in place and enforced since March 2009.

It certainly was not enforced when I joined and began posting on the site.

nesf

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

It certainly was not enforced when I joined and began posting on the site.

It should have been but due to various reasons the mods of the forum dropped the ball to an extent during the middle of last year.

ISAW

Tragedy wrote: »

That's fantastic, unfortunately we're on the internet where there's no such thing as shared responsibility, collectivism or ..well, you know, consequences past getting banned

In fact people would claim the internet is even more anarchistic than other media.

Scofflaw

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Funny how its popularity dwarfs that of the boards politics section if that is the case? The fact is, it's not a thunderdome, it's a good place to say what you want about politics in Ireland. Far from perfect, true, but politics is different to any other forum topic - if people can't speak, they will find a way to make themselves heard one way or the other.

The Politics forum usually has somewhere around a fifth to a third as many people online as politics.ie. At times like the IMF bailout, politics.ie rises close to 2,000 people online, while the Politics forum hits over a thousand - so the ratio in times of political crisis is more like half.

Given that politics.ie does a lot to promote itself, that's hardly a case of it 'dwarfing' the Politics forum.

At the moment, the signal to noise ratio on politics.ie is higher than usual, because party activists are more active on the site than usual - party activists are also more active on the Politics forum than usual, which in our case has led to a drop in the signal to noise ratio.

cordially,
Scofflaw

ISAW

nesf wrote: »

Honestly I really wish I didn't have to argue for this kind of intervention but if you appear to support or condone bombings in a thread it'll just turn that thread into one long trainwreck of a pitched battle between those who agree with you and those who don't regardless of what the thread was originally about.

And it was throught such thinking that the Brimingham six and Guildford four and Mc guire seven ended up in the situation they were.
I was at a party in a Garda station some years ago. One Garda told me that if you had a suspected rapist in the cells that someone has to "stick up" for him and demand that standards of justice and innocent until proven guilty etc. apply because the guy could end up being lynched (whether he deserves it or not).

That is what I witness currently happening to Ivor Callelly FF etc. and I would be loathe to see the reverse happen to Labour FG or whoever in fiver years time. i don't want Ireland to become like the US with Tweedledum and Tweedledee taking turns in government and supporters of one group like the Judean Peoples Front viewing another group like the Peoles Front of Judea as the worst thing on Earth. In the bigger picture their is a broader need to support justice for all and not favour any particular political grouping for biased treatment.

This is why

if you appear to support or condone bombings

becomes contentious.

If the Guildford people were put on trial today and all of them sung the praises of the IRA I still would demand that they be assumed innocent until proved guilty no matter what they claimed to support!

big b

Very short on free time this week, but I'd like to ask this:

even if setting aside that a 3am bomb with a warning could still kill unfortunate passers by, there can surely be no argument that such actions cause terror to many innocent civilians.

Unless I'm much mistaken, isn't that illegal? Isn't detonating a bomb illegal?

And isn't there something in the Boards.ie charter about not promoting illegal activity?

ISAW

big b wrote: »

Very short on free time this week, but I'd like to ask this:

even if setting aside that a 3am bomb with a warning could still kill unfortunate passers by, there can surely be no argument that such actions cause terror to many innocent civilians.

Unless I'm much mistaken, isn't that illegal? Isn't detonating a bomb illegal?

And isn't there something in the Boards.ie charter about not promoting illegal activity?

Indeed yes.
and as I have stated before
Showing the reasons for violence is not justifying violence.

Nor is it justifying what someone may have done the same as saying that someone should be given a fair trial, even if you believe they are guilty.

Particularly if mob will against the IRA, FF, the Church or whatever is the order of the day it is all the more reason to oppose the vitriol of the mob even of you actually believe their target is guilty. Need I recite the one about "they came for the Jews, homoiexuals, gypsies, foreigners etc. and I did nothing because I was not jewish/gay/foreign..."?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...

gandalf

Amhran Nua wrote: »

My point is that less moderation and fewer rules are the way forward. The more you stamp down on people, the more they just leave. To really see the politics forum blossom, you have to grant more freedom - note there is a difference between that and licence.

I disagree with you totally on this and the growth of boards and of the politics forum backs me up. I have been on boards since the start and I modded the forum from the start up until a couple of years ago. The numbers on there is quite impressive compared to the early days and they are continually growing. I believe this is the case because there is good moderation on the forum and on boards in general. People do not want to try and wade through reams of slagging contests to read what others think or to give their own opinions.

As has been said already Politics.ie is a site dedicated wholly to politics discussion in Ireland and it does it well. It has chosen to moderate its site a certain way I disagree with it but again it works for them and their regulars. It does spend a bit publicising itself in the media while this site doesn't. Then again at the moment they have 779 people on their site and there are 3954 on boards so advertising is not really needed.

I read Politics.ie but I do not post there unless I am really exercised to do so why because of the fractured nature of discussions there. In contrast the reason I like interacting on boards is the ability to learn new facts in a reasonably calm environment which is nurtured by moderation as based on my long term experience here that will only continue.

RDM_83 again

RDM_83 again wrote: »

"Leave it as X was evil but some good came out of it in the end. I don't think any of the other mods would have a problem with such a statement."

Is this statement applicable to current events to which the outcome is not clear.

IE
"X last week was evil, though I understand the reasoning behind it from the perpetrators point of view and I feel some good may come of it"

So is my statement acceptable?

2nd question,

How does Boards.ie perceive itself? (and I don't mean this in a political sense more like the way a business which it is) Is it an all Ireland forum (I would think it is as the regions forum includes NI), and if this is the case, as politics doesn't have a separate NI forum, would it not make sense to appoint a mod that at the very least isn't deeply opposed to mainstream Republicanism after all if you look at an Ireland context about 650,000 people vote for them* (and the real level of support is probably much higher these days).
Thats an awful lot of people and it probably should be reflected within moderation to at least a slight extent. After all I presume boards.ie is trying to move/expand away from its trinity routes?


*roughly worked out on 25% support NI, population 1.7 million, 5% ROI pop 4.5 million

Nodin

Tragedy wrote: »

More moderation and more rules are the way forward. The more you stamp down people,(...............)moderating team.

You cannot have discussions in anarchy.

I've never seen heavy moderation and rules increase a boards popularity, save in the case of a board thats been "hijacked".

Light moderation doesn't mean anarchy, IMO. It means theres a broad set of general rules that give a wide parameter for discussion. Those rules are strictly enforced.

Tragedy wrote: »

Eh, people are avoiding the politics forum because it's a cesspit..

Its far busier now than say two years ago. I would suggest you're exaggerating.

Guanyin wrote:

The rule you fell victim to and are debating here has been in place and enforced since March 2009. ..

...an ill thought out knee jerk reaction. Any "triumphing" or "gloating" is quite clearly flamebait and could have been dealt with as such.

Wolfe Tone

big b wrote: »

Very short on free time this week, but I'd like to ask this:

even if setting aside that a 3am bomb with a warning could still kill unfortunate passers by, there can surely be no argument that such actions cause terror to many innocent civilians.

Unless I'm much mistaken, isn't that illegal? Isn't detonating a bomb illegal?

And isn't there something in the Boards.ie charter about not promoting illegal activity?

But no one has promoted it at all....... people have said why they did it

FlutterinBantam

What we have here folks is the single biggest reason why Politics is such a contentious forum.

We have a guy who was banned presumably,still arguing on the head of a pin 200+ posts into a feed back thread!!

What will be the outcome is that the Mods there will need a senior council behind them to deconstruct the implications and nuances of each post if this ,I'll call it 'stupidity' continues.

Any half sensible Mod would say "Fook this,not worth the hassle and i'm out of here"

It's an internet forum for Chrissakes, the Mods can't always get it right, the posters can't always get it right, take your ban and move on like most sensible people would do:mad:

LoLth

ok, this thread has completely derailed.

OP was : Boards.ie is a poor mans Politics.ie with an example of the style of posting.

Some users have provided good feedback. Others have elected to soapbox or drag arguments from politics to here. the discussion has gotten bogged down in minor details. There is absolutely no sign of this topic getting back on track.

The moderators of the Politics forum have already stated that they are discussing changes to the modding style to encourage political debate while trying to dissuade trench warfare. I am sure they will reference this thread in their discussions and will take many of the relevant points into consideration.

This thread however, is no longer feedback and will now be closed.


thanks

LoLth