Boards - as good as it used to be?

PARlance

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Too many bulsh1t threads in AH now, in my opinion. The likes of word association threads and crap like that. They used to get moved to The Cuckoos Nest, now they clutter the forum.

If I wanted to play a word association game I would head dead.

Calibos

I nearly spat out my coffee reading the OP.

Back in the olden days around 2010.....

Looks at own join date to the left of the screen.

Feb 2002

Son, you don't know the meaning of the word olden days!!

Its not beyond the realms of possibility that I literally was on boards when you were still in diapers!

Ruu

Remember when the whole site fit on one computer? I don't but heard the story.

MadDog76

Boards needs a 24 hour purge-like free-for-all every year so we can all post/say what we really want to say without being Mod-slapped.

Cookie_Monster

No, it's not. A lot of fora seem quieter these days and AH is way too safe and sanitised compared to what it used to be like.

Anything every remotely offensive gets everybodys backs up and card out instead of lots of lols and moving swiftly on.

But that's what happens when it has to be a corporate supporting itself, has to be cleaned up so advertisers are happy to pay for it too keep running.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

There's no fun at all left in you bolloxs anymore. You've all grown up and/or left.

Any youngsters that join up here now are a bit thick in fairness to them or even too childish that they can never fit in.

But one of the great threads was when dr. Bollocko was found passed out by his brother, so he did the sensible thing and started an AH thread with a picture and asking what to do to him !

Ya just don't get gold like that anymore.

NachoBusiness

Can it be that it was all so simple then or has time rewritten every line.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

furiousox wrote: »

Page 1 of most threads can be interesting but jump to the last page and it's usually gone miles off topic and you're left with 2 posters going "again you failed to answer my question" and "wow, way to miss the point completely" etc.
Tedious.

Apt, last post of page two, nicely done sir :pac:

djflawless

Pc

CFlat

I'm not here that long so I don't know what it was like in the day but the annoying thing to me is the agenda driven political bullsh1t that's been going on over the last while and with an election on the way is probably going to get worse.

Example- OP Number 1- Well folks of AH if you wanted to be a superhero which one would you like to be and why?

Post Number 150(10 pages later) WELL F**K YOU IF YOU THINK IM PAYING WATER CHARGES AND DON'T START ME ON ENDA KENNY.

Mods need to ban these tools from AH and I think posters who have left may return and get the humour back. Someone recently started a thread on AH about flatulence or belching, something like that, which was silly but harmless. Mod shut it down. Over moderated sometimes, undermoderated other times.

Tom Dunne

Bring back LOLcats, I say.

keithclancy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm1A9Ob2NmE

kupus

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Tis a bit like me.

I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was.

Thats just the cold hard truth..

seamus

People have been whinging since boards was set up that it's "going downhill", "bring back the good old days", and of course complaining about it being too PC and mods too heavy-handed.

Has boards gotten a little more PC? Yeah, I think so. It's moved beyond a place where gamers and almost exclusively young men congregate and call each other retards & fags while making the same sexist and racist jokes over and over ad nauseum, to somewhere that you wouldn't be embarrassed to show your partner or your parents.

And that's not a bad thing. As the Internet has moved beyond the realm of computer scientists and gamers to being used every day by your average person on the street, the likes of 4chan have fallen more and more behind and become a "dark corner" of the web. There was a time when 4chan was just a little bit edgier and more nefarious than some other forums, but it was pretty popular. Now it appeals to a tiny corner of the web, most rational adults steer clear.

Even reddit, which somewhat prides itself on being a wide-open talking shop with a diverse userbase has a population massively skewed towards young white middle class males, moreso than most other popular sites.

Boards has for the most part been able to keep with the times and deliver the kind of thing that most people want to use - somewhere that you can have a discussion or post a question and you get back mostly coherent and respectful responses rather than an unintelligible stream of crap or some obscure meme response. Look at facebook. You cannot have a rational and coherent discussion on facebook, unless it's between a couple of friends. There is no forum for debate there because there's no control.

Sleepy

As the internet has become pervasive in society, the average IQ of posters on all on-line fora has dropped. It used to be the case that those on-line were likely to be middle class guys (with a small minority of girls) either heading for, in the middle of or recently out of university. As smartphones and cheap broadband became the norm there was an influx of "working" class, "lads", attention whoring "girlos" and an all around less educated demographic.

Most of the early posters here had to go out and get internet, they were the early adopters rather than many of the younger posters who've grown up with it in the house.

smash

seamus wrote: »

Boards has for the most part been able to keep with the times and deliver the kind of thing that most people want to use

Have you seen the new beta website?

Harry Palmr

Sleepy wrote: »

As the internet has become pervasive in society, the average IQ of posters on all on-line fora has dropped. It used to be the case that those on-line were likely to be middle class guys (with a small minority of girls) either heading for, in the middle of or recently out of university. As smartphones and cheap broadband became the norm there was an influx of "working" class, "lads", attention whoring "girlos" and an all around less educated demographic.

Now this is the sort of thing that might get one banned! Lower orders roaming free online and thus needing to be watched carefully.

seamus

smash wrote: »

Have you seen the new beta website?

Yep. It's not bad. A few bugs, a few missing features.

Mobile and tablet displays are quickly overtaking desktops as the browser of choice online. Last company I worked sold stuff online and the mobile -v- desktop contingent was 3:1, increasing from 1:20 in the space of 24 months despite the company's site looking like sh1te online.

There's still a lot of browsing from work for sites like boards, but I imagine the mobile traffic is quickly catching up on desktop, if it hasn't already.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, we're going to have to accept the fact that as time moves on most sites will put the bulk of their energy into optimising for mobile displays and desktop will become a little sterile.

A bit like dial-up users who started complaining that 10kb was too big a page size for boards, it was taking forever to download, eventually those who don't move on in technology have to be left behind.

smash

seamus wrote: »

Yep. It's not bad. A few bugs, a few missing features. I

Mobile and tablet displays are quickly overtaking desktops as the browser of choice online. Last company I worked sold stuff online and the mobile -v- desktop contingent was 3:1, increasing from 1:20 in the space of 24 months despite the company's site looking like sh1te online.

There's still a lot of browsing from work for sites like boards, but I imagine the mobile traffic is quickly catching up on desktop, if it hasn't already.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, we're going to have to accept the fact that as time moves on most sites will put the bulk of their energy into optimising for mobile displays and desktop will become a little sterile.

A bit like dial-up users who started complaining that 10kb was too big a page size for boards, it was taking forever to download, eventually those who don't move on in technology have to be left behind.

That's all well and good Seamus, but the beta site isn't optimised for mobile. It's just an awful mash up of bad design, with a very poor UI and an even worse user experience. There's literally nothing new, or good about it.

RDM_83 again

Been browsing/posting (occasionally) for close to ten years now.
Its definitely far less funny than it used to be because humour is often dark and nasty.

Better place for discussion in last 5/6 years but in say the last 2 years its been getting worse for that too. Maybe its because I am getting more right wing as I get older or maybe its the fact that with even stricter moderation the "untouchable" diversionary posters become even more obvious than before thats the reason.
Dav's posts on feedback would tend to make me think this isn't my imaginings, I considered closing account recently and starting a new one but thought against it as being a fresh account and not being a consensus poster tends to lead to bans if you reply to goading.

Wibbs

seamus wrote: »

Has boards gotten a little more PC? Yeah, I think so. It's moved beyond a place where gamers and almost exclusively young men congregate and call each other retards & fags while making the same sexist and racist jokes over and over ad nauseum, to somewhere that you wouldn't be embarrassed to show your partner or your parents.

Funny S, I have found Boards if anything has become a little more nasty in places. Even under the veneer of "more PC". It's become more fractured, more "local", less an overall community.

Tom Dunne

What has happened is, every moron with a connected device feels he has the right to say what he wants, without fear of consequences.

Well newsflash, you cannot say what you want, you are not anonymous on the internet and both you and Boards.ie can be held accountable for what you say.

So get over it.

What is missing is the cutting satire that can be witty, gets the point across while remaining civil.

osarusan

Regarding After Hours - It probably goes in cycles but the amount of people being obnoxious to 'stick it to the PC brigade' seems to be worse then before.

Duggy747

I've definitely found AH to be a far more unfriendlier place as the years go by, with people very quick to jump down each other's throats for ridiculous reasons or grammar taken up the wrong way (Which I'm sure is nearly intentional in a lot of cases).

There's a select few who continuously shít on threads the moment they start because they themselves don't find the topic interesting or remember that the topic was covered back in 2009. It's not very inviting for someone to start a topic if the clique are going to come down on them like a ton of bricks.

AH's lowest point for me was the sticky about misogyny, that left a very sour taste for this forum.

jamesbere

I like boards and find I get some great information off the site thanks to some well informed poster's. But having said that some of the threads descend into chaos at times with some totally veering away from the original topic, some light hearted discussions turn into arguments in a couple of pages which is disappointing to see.

Stranger Danger

It's become an over-moderated sterile place.

Most people come to AH for craic and banter, not po-faced mods on a power-trip trying to shut down anything that doesn't conform to their narrow definitions of 'appropriate'.

Ultimately the site will suffer drops in traffic if this policy continues.

The King of Moo

I like the new competition to shoehorn simplistic political polemics into the most unrelated threads possible:

Has anything genuinely creepy or unnerving ever happened to you?
"When the government used my tax money to give the banks a blanket guarantee! :rolleyes:"

Stingiest thing you've seen stingy people do
"I know this fella called Enda, even though he promised he wouldn't, hes cut my wages to pay the bondholders, and of course he blames the fella before him! :rolleyes:"

Trivial things that annoy you
"Having to pay for water twice, even though it falls free from the sky :rolleyes:"

So is prostitution to be outlawed in Ireland or what?
"Doesnt look like it, sure havent we all been pimped out to Angela by this government? :rolleyes:"

No more coppers
"Dont worry, there'll still be plenty of coppers trying to stop peaceful protestors who for some reason think its wrong that we have to pay for water. :rolleyes:"

Cutting dole for criminals
"What about cutting bonuses for the banksters, arent they the biggest criminals of all? :rolleyes:"

What's your favourite colour?
"Blue, because that's how I feel about the bondholders taking my hard-earned tax money! :rolleyes:"

What time is it?
"Time to burn the bondholders who are making us pay for water! :rolleyes:"

super_furry

Funny how most of the people complaining about boards and After Hours in particular not being 'as good as it was' often seem to have new accounts.

the old grey mare she
aint what she used to be
aint what she used to be
aint what she used to be

jamesbere

The King of Moo wrote: »

I like the new competition to shoehorn simplistic political polemics into the most unrelated threads possible:

Has anything genuinely creepy or unnerving ever happened to you?
"When the government used my tax money to give the banks a blanket guarantee! :rolleyes:"

Stingiest thing you've seen stingy people do
"I know this fella called Enda, even though he promised he wouldn't, hes cut my wages to pay the bondholders, and of course he blames the fella before him! :rolleyes:"

Trivial things that annoy you
"Having to pay for water twice, even though it falls free from the sky :rolleyes:"

So is prostitution to be outlawed in Ireland or what?
"Doesnt look like it, sure havent we all been pimped out to Angela by this government? :rolleyes:"

No more coppers
"Dont worry, there'll still be plenty of coppers trying to stop peaceful protestors who for some reason think its wrong that we have to pay for water. :rolleyes:"

Cutting dole for criminals
"What about cutting bonuses for the banksters, arent they the biggest criminals of all? :rolleyes:"

What's your favourite colour?
"Blue, because that's how I feel about the bondholders taking my hard-earned tax money! :rolleyes:"

What time is it?
"Time to burn the bondholders who are making us pay for water! :rolleyes:"

It's worse on facebook, any news story your guaranteed to see any of the above and more.

jamesbere

bluewolf wrote: »

the old grey mare she
aint what she used to be
aint what she used to be
aint what she used to be

Ghost Buster

I miss all the religion and traveller threads....silly Mods!

gandalf

Stranger Danger wrote: »

It's become an over-moderated sterile place.

Most people come to AH for craic and banter, not po-faced mods on a power-trip trying to shut down anything that doesn't conform to their narrow definitions of 'appropriate'.

Ultimately the site will suffer drops in traffic if this policy continues.

TBH "new user" that's been said since day one yet the traffic levels keep increasing

gandalf

jamesbere wrote: »

It's worse on facebook, any news story your guaranteed to see any of the above and more.

Don't even look at the comments on Thejournal!

jamesbere

gandalf wrote: »

Don't even look at the comments on Thejournal!

Forgot about The journal, That place is awful.

Sh1tbag OToole

Ghost Buster wrote: »

I miss all the religion and traveller threads....silly Mods!

October/November were always good months for the religion threads. In December the people posting in those switched to hating Christmas. In January they usually mellowed out a bit

Dyr

gandalf wrote: »

TBH "new user" that's been said since day one yet the traffic levels keep increasing

Linkz plz






:pac:

Sam Kade

Robsweezie wrote: »

looking through old threads from about 2010-2011 and you see a lot of banned posters, messy grammar and people just being pure dicks to each other . all of these are seen at a much lesser extent nowadays it seems. cleaner, more sterilised. a lot of ''trolls'' have been weeded out.

I think the site has grown up a bit and changed, but for the better? is it as good as It used to be? ive only been on 3 years so im not familiar with the early days.

Also a lot of posters have become americanised :rolleyes:

mzungu

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

In January they usually mellowed out a bit

...until Good Friday rolls up, then its bashed again in the name of getting the boozer to open!

Wibbs

gandalf wrote: »

TBH "new user" that's been said since day one yet the traffic levels keep increasing

I dunno about that G. I'd bet the user base is well down from a peak in around 2010/11. If nothing else from strong twitter/facebook/reddit competition. Web stats are notoriously dubious anyway. The number of content contributors that actually drive a forum can be remarkably low and still the numbers can appear large. I've seen this on private forums where you might only have 10 or 20 members. Half would be regular posters and half of them again would make up quite the bulk of content. Yet I've seen numbers of posts and threads with that few forum members that would be way ahead of a helluva lot of public forums on Boards.ie. It's remarkable to me how quite small numbers of folks can generate so much. I can think of a couple of forums where the vast majority of the content is down to two or three keystone posters. I can think of one where it's pretty much down to one and when he/she stops posting the forum goes silent. There have been recent successes like farming and forestry and the Politics Cafe to name but two which is fantastic and the Talk to forums are going great guns(and actually help fund the place), but there are an awful lot of ghost town forums around.

Here in AH, the most popular forum on the site by a margin? I'd reckon a rolling turnover of around 100 keystone content generators.

smash

Wibbs wrote: »

Here in AH, the most popular forum on the site by a margin? I'd reckon a rolling turnover of around 100 keystone content generators.

You're such a boards slut. Every forum's had a piece of you! :pac:

Sh1tbag OToole

mzungu wrote: »

...until Good Friday rolls up, then its bashed again in the name of getting the boozer to open!

If I owned a boozer I'd be offering selected boardsies the chance to buy from me on Good Friday on the qt albeit at a much higher price, so they can experience the secular utopia for themselves as well as quelling their anger

recylingbin

I got banned once for trying to sell stolen goods.
when I explained that I was joking having read a thread by someone else who had been broken into, the ban was upheld but the reason changed to creating a parody thread, which apparently is banned
When I queried it, the ban was doubled for laughing at someone else's misfortune.
The op of the parody thread was thanked by the guy who had been burgled.

Its this type of white knighting and being offended on behalf of the 'injured party' and the perception that everyone is posting with a razor blade in their hand ready to top themselves if they aren't protected to the nth degree that sucks the fun out of the place imo

recylingbin

recylingbin wrote: »

I got banned once for trying to sell stolen goods.
when I explained that I was joking having read a thread by someone else who had been broken into, the ban was upheld but the reason changed to creating a parody thread, which apparently is banned
When I queried it, the ban was doubled for laughing at someone else's misfortune.
The op of the parody thread was thanked by the guy who had been burgled.

Its this type of white knighting and being offended on behalf of the 'injured party' and the perception that everyone is posting with a razor blade in their hand ready to top themselves if they aren't protected to the nth degree that sucks the fun out of the place imo

Nope.

Just had a look back there.

You weren't banned. You were infracted. There was no "doubling of the ban". And it was 5 years ago and by a mod who no longer even posts on the site.

So it was just after you registered, and yet you're using it as an example of why the site isn't as good as it used to be!!!

OldGoat

Too many peoples! Ban everyone registered from 2005 onwards and then only accept noobs when one of the old school dies...or gets assassinated.

Cuban Pete

I get the feeling that, going by the people who've thanked my post (more specifically that they've been saying the opposite of what I did), people are somehow getting the opposite of what I meant. Which I can see now as I did word my post a bit ambiguously.

I don't have a problem with social issues being discussed but when it's just the same old "rabble rabble liberal lefty PC do gooder" bull**** it gets just a teensy bit stale over time. As for people making jokes, what I meant was that people didn't have to be assholes in order to make jokes. The forum's turned very bitter and personal over the years and there's no shortage of dicks willing to hide behind "why can't you take a joke".

The remark about agenda-driven posters was about the kinds who fall over themselves to complain about anything even slightly to the left of centre. Which has been getting worse as it has across the internet. Although it is amusing to see the same types whinging about offence, themselves take offence to so much.

The few other forums I use - I haven't seen a radical change. They've changed, sure, but I couldn't say if it's better or worse. But AH specifically? Time was it was just a general/off-topic forum. Nowadays... I don't even know what to call it.

Sheep Lover

It could do with being a bit more lax, but I suppose the moaning and reported posts by the eternally offended has influenced the situation.

smash

Sheep Lover wrote: »

It could do with being a bit more lax, but I suppose the moaning and reported posts by the eternally offended has influenced the situation.

You should only be allowed report a certain amount of posts a day.

Sheep Lover

smash wrote: »

You should only be allowed report a certain amount of posts a day.

A week even. But seriously, if you're offended by the puns and sarcasm on AH you've led a sheltered life.

Potatoeman

Duggy747 wrote: »

I've definitely found AH to be a far more unfriendlier place as the years go by, with people very quick to jump down each other's throats for ridiculous reasons or grammar taken up the wrong way (Which I'm sure is nearly intentional in a lot of cases).

There's a select few who continuously shít on threads the moment they start because they themselves don't find the topic interesting or remember that the topic was covered back in 2009. It's not very inviting for someone to start a topic if the clique are going to come down on them like a ton of bricks.

AH's lowest point for me was the sticky about misogyny, that left a very sour taste for this forum.

It wasn't even misogyny it was sexism or sexist opinions. Which isn't even technically misogyny.