The Dublin city forum, can it be saved

Dyr

It's pointless as a region forum now, it's just "where can I" forum for dublin


Make a sub forum for the "where can I buy vietnamese wheat pastry" queries and try entice some of the old mods back.

Zaph

Have you voiced your concerns to the forum mods or the Region Cmods?

Edward Hopper

Bambi wrote: »

It's pointless as a region forum now, it's just "where can I" forum for dublin


Make a sub forum for the "where can I buy vietnamese wheat pastry" queries and try entice some of the old mods back.

Unless the old mods were prolific posters themselves what would they be expected to do?

Do you post there much yourself OP?

The Hill Billy

When I actively modded DCF a couple of years ago we tried a corralling the 'Where can I find..." requests into a couple of threads so the forum wasn't full of them. We had one for food, another for places to stay, & so on. We let it run for a few weeks, but the feedback from the forum regulars at the time was that they preferred to see all the individual threads & deal with them on a case by case basis.

biko

In Galway we had the same problem and have had a "I am looking for ( x ) in Galway City" for years where we move smaller requests to (food stuff and small items), this seems to work well with everyone in the forum.

If we think a request will spark a bigger discussion we usually allow it in a separate thread.

Dyr

Zaph wrote: »

Have you voiced your concerns to the forum mods or the Region Cmods?

No, I went to the feedback forum to give feedback instead. Or just to elicit the usual kneejerk defensive responses from mods I guess

Unless the old mods were prolific posters themselves what would they be expected to do?

Mods like Makikomi contributed a lot with topics and general sensible decision making

In Galway we had the same problem and have had a "I am looking for ( x ) in Galway City" for years where we move smaller requests to (food stuff and small items), this seems to work well with everyone in the forum.

If we think a request will spark a bigger discussion we usually allow it in a separate thread.

It's the obvious answer as much as it pains me to agree with Biko the culchie.

Zaph

Bambi wrote: »

No, I went to the feedback forum to give feedback instead. Or just to elicit the usual kneejerk defensive responses from mods I guess

There was nothing kneejerk or defensive about my post, if that's what you are inferring, it was a genuine question. The vast majority of Boards posters wouldn't use that particular forum so would not be aware of any particular issues there may be with it, so feedback here would be of limited use. However by speaking directly with the mods and/or CMods you might find that they have similar concerns or that other posters have also raised the issue with them. Another possibility is discussing with the mods starting a thread in the forum itself to elicit responses from the regular posters there as to what can be done to improve the forum.

Dyr

Zaph wrote: »

There was nothing kneejerk or defensive about my post, if that's what you are inferring, it was a genuine question. The vast majority of Boards posters wouldn't use that particular forum so would not be aware of any particular issues there may be with it, so feedback here would be of limited use. However by speaking directly with the mods and/or CMods you might find that they have similar concerns or that other posters have also raised the issue with them. Another possibility is discussing with the mods starting a thread in the forum itself to elicit responses from the regular posters there as to what can be done to improve the forum.

Start a thread about the dublin city forum in the dublin city forum? This a forum where a mod once got pissy because I moaned about dublin bus in the dublin city forum instead of the transport and commuting forum, I'd say it would got down well alright

uck51js9zml2yt

The OP hasn't said what s/he'd prefer to to see in the forum.
There is only so much that can be asked or discussed in a region specific forum.

Zaph

Bambi wrote: »

Start a thread about the dublin city forum in the dublin city forum? This a forum where a mod once got pissy because I moaned about dublin bus in the dublin city forum instead of the transport and commuting forum, I'd say it would got down well alright

Well I did suggest discussing it with the mods first. Tbh, I don't use the forum at all, the only regional forum I use the the D15 one, so I'm not aware of any potential issues that may be there. But if you feel that the mods are being unfair or unreasonable then please do speak to the CMods, that's what they're there for. It may well be that the mods have different ideas as to what the forum is for and how it should operate than the posters, but this is the sort of thing that the CMods are used to dealing with.

Anahi Tasteless Knapsack wrote: »

The OP hasn't said what s/he'd prefer to to see in the forum.
There is only so much that can be asked or discussed in a region specific forum.

I agree, and there is always going to be an element of crossover, such as the Dublin Bus example the OP gave above. However what might be of use is for the OP to have a look at some of the other, larger regional forums to see what's in them and what works and doesn't work.

Beasty

It's not for the mods to start discussion threads to steer the forum away from the sort of threads mentioned by the OP. Regional forums by their very nature are going to attract requests for local information.

Just looking at the Dublin City forum, and comparing it with one I am more familiar with, Dublin County North where there's a couple of election threads, an events thread and a thread covering 1916 commemorations on the front page. I recall one poster used to contribute to a lot of threads about the history of the region. Another thread covers photos taken by contributors. Of course there are plenty of threads asking basic information, but ultimately subject to forum charters and how they may restrict what can be discussed, content is down to users.

Gaspode

As a user of the forum (and leaving my CMod hat off for a moment), I have no problem with those types of threads the OP mentions. They are generally positive and people go out of their way to help the OP, cant see why that's a sign that there's something wrong with the forum. We have a lot of similar threads in the Dublin 15 forum and I don't believe any of the users there have ever mentioned it to be a negative thing.
The fact that the OP hasn't said what exactly the problem with those threads is doesn't really help, so I cant see things changing based on a single isolated comment.