Who killed AH?

kneemos

Sucked the very life out of it they have.Dry as a cracker.
There used to be quite a few characters that made it worth reading now it's just mundane and predictable with little of the traffick it used to get,or so it appears.
It also has nine Mods for some reason,half of which I've forgotten the names of since it's so rarely if ever they appear.

dr.bollocko

It was probably me.

P. Breathnach

dr.bollocko wrote: »

It was probably me.

For which I thank you. Much less ugly stuff there than in the past.

El Weirdo

kneemos wrote: »

It also has nine Mods for some reason,half of which I've forgotten the names of since it's so rarely if ever they appear.

That's a good thing, surely? You don't want them popping into every thread to "suck the life out of it" now, do you?

OldGoat

I'd be interested in seeing some links to threads that the OP conceders as yet unsucked, some samples of what AH SHOULD be like in their opinion.

Super-Rush

I killed it.

El Guapo!

Super-Rush wrote: »

I killed it.

And I hid the body.

Earthhorse

dr.bollocko wrote: »

It was probably me.

I hate to say it... it's hard to say it ...

kneemos wrote: »

Sucked the very life out of it they have.Dry as a cracker.
There used to be quite a few characters that made it worth reading now it's just mundane and predictable with little of the traffick it used to get,or so it appears.
It also has nine Mods for some reason,half of which I've forgotten the names of since it's so rarely if ever they appear.

I think it's just too big now for any characters to stand out much. AH killed itself.

dr.bollocko

Earthhorse wrote: »

I hate to say it... it's hard to say it ...



I think it's just too big now for any characters to stand out much. AH killed itself.

In terms of browsing and posting AH appears to be busier now than it was before.

It's gotten more busy. More people. More characters and less likely for the cream to consistently rise to the top.

AH as you and I might perceive it is a different animal now to what it ever was but other people won't remember past greats and will just continue posting happily to the AH as it exists today.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

El Guapo! wrote: »

And I hid the body.

...ate it's liver with some fara beans and a nice chianti.

Calhoun

If you have been around long enough you know that AH goes through cycles, for such a popular forum its bound to happen that people run out of things to say.

It also has changed nature a little bit as the folks of AH have grown up a bit with the forum so its a become a vessel for soft politics, which is probably what your talking about as those discussions can be very polarising due to the sheer volume of people and opinion.

Earthhorse

dr.bollocko wrote: »

AH as you and I might perceive it is a different animal now to what it ever was but other people won't remember past greats and will just continue posting happily to the AH as it exists today.

Yes, but I assume that's the OP's point and what I was getting at.

GLaDOS

People have complained about AH not being as fun as it used to be since I joined boards

Nodin

kneemos wrote: »

Sucked the very life out of it they have.Dry as a cracker.
There used to be quite a few characters that made it worth reading now it's just mundane and predictable with little of the traffick it used to get,or so it appears.
It also has nine Mods for some reason,half of which I've forgotten the names of since it's so rarely if ever they appear.

People have been saying that for longer than you've been here.

kneemos

Nodin wrote: »

People have been saying that for longer than you've been here.

Yet people agree that it has changed.

All the changes are probably not bad but as I say drier than a Good Friday in a monestary.

GLaDOS

kneemos wrote: »

Yet people agree that it has changed.

All the changes are probably not bad but as I say drier than a Good Friday in a monestary.

I say you're going to the wrong monastery

hullaballoo

Kids these days. :rolleyes:

Wibbs

I dunno AH seems way better with far more diverse subjects than it ever had. Go back in the history 5 years say and look at how many two, three word thread titles there are and how many of them would only be of interest to 12 year olds. Grand if your ma and blast it with piss jokes give you the trouser tent. That's not to say AH wasn't a good forum back in the day, but it's better now *nerdspeak* by all metrics.

If anything AH has become Boards, or a large chunk of it. Humanities is near death as a forum as the subjects tend to go to AH now and with the largest audience by far on the site, more and more people dive in. It's taken traffic from other forums too. Plenty of political stuff, gender stuff, current affairs, sex, funny stuff, even personal issues type stuff near 24 hours a day. It's a pretty damn good catchall. If I could only browse one forum on Boards it would be AH by a long margin and if Boards ever goes downhill in numbers and dies off, then I'll bet the farm AH will be the last forum standing.

El Guapo!

Wibbs wrote: »

I dunno AH seems way better with far more diverse subjects than it ever had. Go back in the history 5 years say and look at how many two, three word thread titles there are and how many of them would only be of interest to 12 year olds. Grand if your ma and blast it with piss jokes give you the trouser tent. That's not to say AH wasn't a good forum back in the day, but it's better now *nerdspeak* by all metrics.

If anything AH has become Boards, or a large chunk of it. Humanities is near death as a forum as the subjects tend to go to AH now and with the largest audience by far on the site, more and more people dive in. It's taken traffic from other forums too. Plenty of political stuff, gender stuff, current affairs, sex, funny stuff, even personal issues type stuff near 24 hours a day. It's a pretty damn good catchall. If I could only browse one forum on Boards it would be AH by a long margin and if Boards ever goes downhill in numbers and dies off, then I'll bet the farm AH will be the last forum standing.

I read this post in Morgan Freeman's voice.
Brings a tear to the eye.

Ruu

I suggest it was Colonel Mustard, in the Conservatory, with the wrench.

Wibbs' post sums things up.

I will leave you with these thoughtful lyrics, sing a long if you will...

♪♪ That's just the way it is
Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is'
Ha, but don't you believe them ♪♪

Micky Dolenz

kneemos wrote: »

Sucked the very life out of it they have.Dry as a cracker.
There used to be quite a few characters that made it worth reading now it's just mundane and predictable with little of the traffick it used to get,or so it appears.
It also has nine Mods for some reason,half of which I've forgotten the names of since it's so rarely if ever they appear.

How would you like to see things and how would you like to see them come about?

Genuine question.

Wibbs wrote: »

I dunno AH seems way better with far more diverse subjects than it ever had. Go back in the history 5 years say and look at how many two, three word thread titles there are and how many of them would only be of interest to 12 year olds. Grand if your ma and blast it with piss jokes give you the trouser tent. That's not to say AH wasn't a good forum back in the day, but it's better now *nerdspeak* by all metrics.

If anything AH has become Boards, or a large chunk of it. Humanities is near death as a forum as the subjects tend to go to AH now and with the largest audience by far on the site, more and more people dive in. It's taken traffic from other forums too. Plenty of political stuff, gender stuff, current affairs, sex, funny stuff, even personal issues type stuff near 24 hours a day. It's a pretty damn good catchall. If I could only browse one forum on Boards it would be AH by a long margin and if Boards ever goes downhill in numbers and dies off, then I'll bet the farm AH will be the last forum standing.

Good points as always Wibbs. Maybe AH has moved away from what it was originally intended for and is a lot more general now than in the past. Maybe removing some topics from AH would be a good thing. Politics and religion spring to mind.

Wibbs

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Maybe removing some topics from AH would be a good thing. Politics and religion spring to mind.

Maybe MD, though would that improve the respective forums, or would it disimprove AH? I suspect the latter. There might be subjects I'd be happy to read that may find a home in other forums, but AH may give a different angle and I'd prefer to read, never mind comment on them there.

"Local" forums tend to be more restrictive with regard to freewheeling opinions, so the subjects raised in AH may never be raised at all in the subject specific forums. Plus you get more of a specific audience/aficionados/experts involved in the specialty forums and sometimes it's better, or more enlightening to dive into a topic with a general audience if you know what I mean MD? EG a discussion on say world war one would have a different vibe in AH compared to say the History forum. Neither bad nor good BTW, just different.

Nodin

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

How would you like to see things and how would you like to see them come about?

Genuine question.



Good points as always Wibbs. Maybe AH has moved away from what it was originally intended for and is a lot more general now than in the past. Maybe removing some topics from AH would be a good thing. Politics and religion spring to mind.

Wouldn't strike me as a constructive move, even though my blood pressure would benefit considerably betimes.

Micky Dolenz

Wibbs wrote: »

Maybe MD, though would that improve the respective forums, or would it disimprove AH? I suspect the latter. There might be subjects I'd be happy to read that may find a home in other forums, but AH may give a different angle and I'd prefer to read, never mind comment on them there.

"Local" forums tend to be more restrictive with regard to freewheeling opinions, so the subjects raised in AH may never be raised at all in the subject specific forums. Plus you get more of a specific audience/aficionados/experts involved in the specialty forums and sometimes it's better, or more enlightening to dive into a topic with a general audience if you know what I mean MD? EG a discussion on say world war one would have a different vibe in AH compared to say the History forum. Neither bad nor good BTW, just different.

Yeah, I get you. People are more likely to give an opinion in AH as they know they aren't surrounded by experts or people well versed on the specfic topic.

I think there has to be a middle ground of where AH stops and when subjects are best suited to topic specific fora. I'm not saying it is easily defined

It would take a lot of work from mods and posters across a fair few forums for it to work out seamlessly.

kneemos

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

How would you like to see things and how would you like to see them come about?

Genuine question.



Good points as always Wibbs. Maybe AH has moved away from what it was originally intended for and is a lot more general now than in the past. Maybe removing some topics from AH would be a good thing. Politics and religion spring to mind.

It used to be a bit anarchic but I doubt that's an option.
One think would go a long way is if the Mods loosened the reigns a bit,I know that if the rules weren't broken people wouldn't get banned but it does I think make posters wary.Perhaps follow the spirit rather than the rule of the law and maybe a polite or not so polite warning rather than an infraction or a ban would IMO give a more relaxed feel to forum.

El Guapo!

kneemos wrote: »

It used to be a bit anarchic but I doubt that's an option.
One think would go a long way is if the Mods loosened the reigns a bit,I know that if the rules weren't broken people wouldn't get banned but it does I think make posters wary.Perhaps follow the spirit rather than the rule of the law and maybe a polite or not so polite warning rather than an infraction or a ban would IMO give a more relaxed feel to forum.

Just out of curiosity, in what way do you think the reigns should be loosened?
People aren't banned or carded on a whim. It's generally deserved and thought gets put into it first. A lot of things are taken into account first.

What regular posters don't see, is the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There's often a quiet word had with posters through pm's. Sometimes posters take no heed of that and continue to cause trouble and generally raise the blood pressure of the entire forum.
More often than not, there are also mod warnings on thread before things get out of hand. People see these warnings and yet continue to ignore them.

I can't speak for every mod but, in my own opinion, I prefer a hands off approach to modding and I don't like giving out cards or bans. I like to give people a chance to sort things out themselves. We're all adults at the end of the day. I've often spoken to people and told them to calm down a bit before they end up getting a card.

I think one major thing that people keep ignoring time after time is Don't Feed The Trolls. I know it can be difficult at times but I can never understand how people can call people trolls, report their posts as trolling, and yet still continue to argue with them in the thread. It baffles me.
I'd bet that a lot of the intense debates that get people warnings etc. are a result of responding to trolls and getting sucked in.
Just my 2c on it but I'd be interested in hearing how the forum could be improved.

kneemos

El Guapo! wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, in what way do you think the reigns should be loosened?
People aren't banned or carded on a whim. It's generally deserved and thought gets put into it first. A lot of things are taken into account first.

What regular posters don't see, is the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There's often a quiet word had with posters through pm's. Sometimes posters take no heed of that and continue to cause trouble and generally raise the blood pressure of the entire forum.
More often than not, there are also mod warnings on thread before things get out of hand. People see these warnings and yet continue to ignore them.

I can't speak for every mod but, in my own opinion, I prefer a hands off approach to modding and I don't like giving out cards or bans. I like to give people a chance to sort things out themselves. We're all adults at the end of the day. I've often spoken to people and told them to calm down a bit before they end up getting a card.

I think one major thing that people keep ignoring time after time is Don't Feed The Trolls. I know it can be difficult at times but I can never understand how people can call people trolls, report their posts as trolling, and yet still continue to argue with them in the thread. It baffles me.
I'd bet that a lot of the intense debates that get people warnings etc. are a result of responding to trolls and getting sucked in.
Just my 2c on it but I'd be interested in hearing how the forum could be improved.

Don't know what goes on behind the scenes but hardly ever see a thread warning.
Of course control has to be kept it just appears at lot more control is been kept than used to.
I had the impression that there was a lot fewer new threads than usual but if the forum is busier than ever I must be mistaken.

Wibbs

kneemos wrote: »

Don't know what goes on behind the scenes but hardly ever see a thread warning.

May be a couple of things going on there K? AH as a very busy forum moves fast, so if trouble kicks off there can be a time delay on cleaning up some messes, so the warnings might be a page or two after the initial issue(and that could be only five minutes later), so easily missed by people reading? Plus with the workload the odd issue might slip through initially, be actioned and rather than cock up the flow of the thread three pages later it's left alone as it has settled down? I've done similar myself on fast moving chat threads and the like when I modded heavy traffic forums back in the day.

Of course control has to be kept it just appears at lot more control is been kept than used to.

I'd say there was more control going on a couple of years ago, or it was a lot more visible anyway. I've seen quite the hands off approach latterly.

I had the impression that there was a lot fewer new threads than usual but if the forum is busier than ever I must be mistaken.

Well again MH but it does seem to have more traffic, more differing opinions and more varied thread subjects than the "it was better in the old days" AH. I dunno, maybe I'm missing this stuff because AH feels better. more suited to me nowadays. I don't think so. I've seen posters who in the past would avoid the place join in so that's a good sign. More women for a start and more enthusiasts about their thing too.




BTW lads and lasses, it's not "reigns" should be loosened, it's "reins" as in horses. Reigns are the length of time rulers... well... rule. Like Bollocko's reign of terror, that git is outa control. Drunk on power and cheap whiskey. I'd watch him folks. Free advice like. Just sayin... *would get carded for grammar naziism on AH, relatively immune here, awaits Loloth or Trojan typing in Bold* :eek: *runs*

El Guapo!

Wibbs wrote: »

BTW lads and lasses, it's not "reigns" should be loosened, it's "reins" as in horses. Reigns are the length of time rulers... well... rule.

You used to be cool, man.




And it's lassies. With an "i".




:pac:

Annasopra

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Yeah, I get you. People are more likely to give an opinion in AH as they know they aren't surrounded by experts or people well versed on the specfic topic.

I think there has to be a middle ground of where AH stops and when subjects are best suited to topic specific fora. I'm not saying it is easily defined

It would take a lot of work from mods and posters across a fair few forums for it to work out seamlessly.

Good point.

I do think AH will tear itself apart over the equal marriage referendum next year and that some threads on it should be moved to the referendum forum or lgbt forum

Czarcasm

mango salsa wrote: »

Good point.

I do think AH will tear itself apart over the equal marriage referendum next year and that some threads on it should be moved to the referendum forum or lgbt forum

I couldn't agree more tbh. I'm only on page 34 of the latest episode of "The Phil and Nodin Show" at the moment. Don't spoil it for me as to how many more times Nodin asks and Phil dodges, while everyone else in between just gangs up on the fly-by objectors.

Template thread that comes at least once a month in various guises in AH, same posters, same lack of arguments, throw in a couple of trolls, re-regs and fly-bys, and you've got a recipe for one head melter of a thread where nobody learns anything and eventually a Moderator figures enough is enough till next month.