Boards is becoming a Ghost Town

K-9

Jaysus I don't know, is that site responsible for loads of thread closures? It isn't very busy. I wouldn't want to give them more credit and influence than they deserve.

While I completely understand Lexie's point of view, I'd be wary of driving any traffic to people who think doing that is okay because they hate boards or any site on the Internet.

Other than maybe a site wide notice about thinking carefully about linking to social media sites, I'm not sure what else could be done. Something similar happened before with people posting a link to an ask me anything type site, their online "enemies" started abusing them there.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

K-9 wrote: »

Other than maybe a site wide notice about thinking carefully about linking to social media sites, I'm not sure what else could be done. Something similar happened before with people posting a link to an ask me anything type site, their online "enemies" started abusing them there.

+1.

I agree wouldn't give them the satisfaction, however, hiding this is happening isn't doing anyone any favours. For the idiots like myself among us, maybe just let posters know Doxxing is an actual thing, no site in particular, just a general warning.

riffmongous

Now I am just confused, the last page is almost impossible to follow, Boards posts are being used to identify people on some other website and this is why some people close their accounts?

Tilly

LexieOnRale wrote: »

+1.

I agree wouldn't give them the satisfaction, however, hiding this is happening isn't doing anyone any favours. For the idiots like myself among us, maybe just let posters know Doxxing is an actual thing, no site in particular, just a general warning.

Did you delete your post?

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Tilly wrote: »

Did you delete your post?

I did. No point hysterically making a point, saw zaph posted after me and I assume he's taken my feedback on board

hatrickpatrick

Politics and weather forums are still great. AH has gone to sh!te in my view, it has the dubious honour of being more over-modded than GameFAQs.

The vast majority of the threads which were popular on AH when I first started posting regularly on Boards in 2007 would get locked in an instant these days.

RDM_83 again

riffmongous wrote: »

Now I am just confused, the last page is almost impossible to follow, Boards posts are being used to identify people on some other website and this is why some people close their accounts?

To be honest so am I! and no offense Lexie but apart from you being a woman (and that is enough for some posters, and I say that as not a particularly nice poster on here and a serial derailer) but I'm sort of surprised that your social/political views align enough with with a disliked demographic to make you a target

I took a browse on the site I think people are referring to, - maybe I am wrong but it begins with a V and the searching Boards will bring it up- (delete if too much info) but if that place has an actual impact on traffic here as a much bigger issue than that forum. Boards.ie is meant to be a big busy site I shouldn't be able to identify everybody the posters are complaining about instantly, that a worrying sign that boards is too much dependent on a very small handful of power users.


TLDR: If a forum that complains about less than ten posters on boards has an impact on traffic on site, while they aren't right in what they do that points to a much bigger problem here that a handful of posters are way to prominent (and influential to site discourse)

KomradeBishop

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I agree Tilly, it is on me. It's 100% on me what I post and I am very open. What never even crossed my mind was a) I'd ever be interesting enough to warrent my own stalker and b) my stuff being yanked from here and being used to try stalk me everywhere else. It's weird. I didn't even know it was a thing.
This isn't boards fault AT ALL, but it's happening and they need to deal with it better. At least let users know this is out there, were being targetted by bitter virgins wearing skidmarkked yellow y-fronts, be careful posting your mush, basically.

If this relates to the site others are alluding to, I wouldn't worry about it tbh - it seems to be just attention-seeking/shít-stirring, and nobody targeted seems to be of special interest in any way, they just have to be a prominent enough poster to have run into eventually - or just hold political/social views the person disagrees and has tangled with.

Nearly all of it is clearly just one person, talking to themself anyway - the multiple accounts are very unconvincing.

Maireadio

riffmongous wrote: »

Now I am just confused, the last page is almost impossible to follow, Boards posts are being used to identify people on some other website and this is why some people close their accounts?

Yes, I have no idea what is going on here at all.

Pawwed Rig

Maireadio wrote: »

Yes, I have no idea what is going on here at all.

A post was deleted making all posts after it meaningless unless you have background information.

DEFTLEFTHAND

You should have never nuked the original Politics Cafe.

I like this site a lot, I have over 10,000 posts on it. But these days I'm finding the likes of Reddit and Politics.ie more appealing.

Lurkio

RDM_83 again wrote: »

TLDR: If a forum that complains about less than ten posters on boards has an impact on traffic on site, while they aren't right in what they do that points to a much bigger problem here that a handful of posters are way to prominent (and influential to site discourse)

Even for boards, that bit of "blame the victims" is a bit much.

Esel

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

A post was deleted making all posts after it meaningless unless you have background information.

Loads more posts should be deleted, including this one, and yours. Not as in a forum deletion, because that would not be PC.

Sometimes it is OK to cut the oxygen off, gently. Very, very gently.

Wibbs

Mark Refined Wintergreen wrote: »

I know we should all be careful about what we post online as a matter of course, and I understand not wanting to give them oxygen, but the little dance for joy they'd do for five minutes over a sticky with a general warning about doxxing outweighs the good it might do?

It might certainly be nasty and unwelcome, but it's hardly doxxing if someone else reposts information you have already chosen to put up on the internet. If I put my Facebook link into my sig or profile picture, I can hardly be surprised, nonplussed or angry if someone clicks on it.

A good few years back I had a PM from someone freaking out at me for some odd reason, because his internet anonymity had been "compromised". I didn't know the chap from Adam and was concerned in case there had been a leak somewhere(this was pre hack). At first. Went to his profile and there was his Facebook and a blog linked, the latter giving a rambling accout of his life and movements with lots of selfies. I got back to him and his response wasn't even embarrassed, no thanks, kiss me arse, nada. Apparently it was still somehow my fault. *shakes head*

I honestly don't know what any forum or site could do. Make it a rule no personal photos, no links to arsebook, twatter, etc? Otherwise we are assumed to be adults and responsible for what we post on the site(and others). Boards would be responsible if their security was lax and a hacker got in and started stealing personal deets, but I dunno how they're responsible for people freely giving aways same.

i do think society wise we need education in navigating the online world and it should start in Junior school. People can be scarily blasé about it.

Lurkio wrote: »

Even for boards, that bit of "blame the victims" is a bit much.

Really? Bringing "victim blaming" to the table? Are you having a laugh? Oh sorry I forgot, personal responsibility isn't fashionable any more and it's always someone else's fault.

One eyed Jack

Wibbs wrote: »

It Make it a rule no personal photos, no links to arsebook, twatter, etc?

Oh please can we implement this? Please!!

To be perfectly honest, I always wondered with the arsebook and twatter integration, on a social media site -

"Why? And then people wonder why traffic is down? Because people with the attention span of a goldfish aren't coming back to the site once they're done sharing a link. They're catching up on the rest of their newsfeed or poking, creeping (whatever they're calling it nowadays) on their friends and neighbours and that girl who they went to school with who just posted a selfie of herself in her underwear... Come back to Boards to read the latest migration or dole thread? Fúck that!!"

i do think society wise we need education in navigating the online world and it should start in Junior school. People can be scarily blasé about it.

If they were handing out rubber medals for advice on how to cope in a more connected world where six degrees of separation have become two, I'd be nailing the above to the forehead of every child in Ireland. Seriously.

Really? Bringing "victim blaming" to the table? Are you having a laugh? Oh sorry I forgot, personal responsibility isn't fashionable any more and it's always someone else's fault.

I never understood that, it's like people want to be excused from doing things that are entirely likely to come back and bite them in the ass. I was never one for "I told you so", and I wouldn't wish ill will on anyone, but jesus christ how did we ever evolve as a species if we didn't learn from our mistakes? It's ok to make a mistake, it's not ok to ignore consequences and do it on purpose.

Wibbs

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I never understood that, it's like people want to be excused from doing things that are entirely likely to come back and bite them in the ass. I was never one for "I told you so", and I wouldn't wish ill will on anyone, but jesus christ how did we ever evolve as a species if we didn't learn from our mistakes? It's ok to make a mistake, it's not ok to ignore consequences and do it on purpose.

I agree, though - and apologies to anyone if I came across as harsh in my above post - the speed at which the online world has expanded has caught many people off guard. You nailed it when you pointed out "six degrees of separation have become two" and many, hell most people don't get that.

Years back now I was part of an offline convo at a Board's forum beers where this subject came up and what struck me was how many around the table had the feeling that when they were chatting in a thread with five or ten other people, those five or ten other people 1) felt like friends and 2) they felt they were only chatting to those five or ten other people on a publicly viewable thread. The reality was anyone on the entire planet with an interwebs connection could read that "private" conversation.

The online world short circuits the natural human social environment. It makes the public feel personal and private(going both ways). Far more than any technology that came before and we've yet to catch up with that.

Tell me how

The point I would add to Wibbs's and OEJ's comments is that I think the time has already passed to consider educating people on this.
Today's teens and pre-teens who use social media have grown up in this world, the 2 degrees of separation that now exists has been their reality. I don't think it shocks them that things they say online are public knowledge because that's what they expect.
You tell a 14 years old that everything they put on FB can be seen by everyone worldwide, they'll look at you with a raised eyebrow like "that's the point".

It's those that experienced the relative privacy of the web before the loudspeaker broadcasting that is today's "social media" who need educating. But, we're a dying breed, the wheel is always turning.
I'm not saying it's fact, or that it's a better world (I think not), its just how I think it is now.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Wibbs wrote: »

It might certainly be nasty and unwelcome, but it's hardly doxxing if someone else reposts information you have already chosen to put up on the internet. If I put my Facebook link into my sig or profile picture, I can hardly be surprised, nonplussed or angry if someone clicks on it.

A good few years back I had a PM from someone freaking out at me for some odd reason, because his internet anonymity had been "compromised". I didn't know the chap from Adam and was concerned in case there had been a leak somewhere(this was pre hack). At first. Went to his profile and there was his Facebook and a blog linked, the latter giving a rambling accout of his life and movements with lots of selfies. I got back to him and his response wasn't even embarrassed, no thanks, kiss me arse, nada. Apparently it was still somehow my fault. *shakes head*

I honestly don't know what any forum or site could do. Make it a rule no personal photos, no links to arsebook, twatter, etc? Otherwise we are assumed to be adults and responsible for what we post on the site(and others). Boards would be responsible if their security was lax and a hacker got in and started stealing personal deets, but I dunno how they're responsible for people freely giving aways same.

i do think society wise we need education in navigating the online world and it should start in Junior school. People can be scarily blasé about it.

Really? Bringing "victim blaming" to the table? Are you having a laugh? Oh sorry I forgot, personal responsibility isn't fashionable any more and it's always someone else's fault.

I do agree Wibbs, 100%. But you've also got to realise while there's a lot of posters with an interest in IT and all things Internet, there's a lot of posters who aren't. To put the comparrison, if I put my photos up on like plenty of fish or something, I don't expect someone to come and copy them and use them elsewhere trying to link them up with anything else about me.

That's not boards fault, of course it's not, but make people aware it's happening surely? At least then people can make an informed decision.

As for putting social media links up. Some posters have. I personally have not. I've posted and talked about personal events in my life that make me quite identifiable. I am fine with that. I post a lot in a forum specifically on boards that tbh if someone came into work that was also a regular poster on there and asked me if that's who I was, I'd laugh it off.
In fact, my best friends dad outted me last year! Went over to her house, he opened the door and said "hello Lexie! ... Onrale!" I stood on the doorstep, laughing, saying "busted!" Asked him who he was, had a good ole laugh, no issue.

It's not even being outted that's intimidating. It's just unnerving that a small group of people so bitter are "after" you. Like I posted already, I have no political views worth talking about. I vote every 4 years putting my #1 #2 #3 #4 next to the people I find asthetically pleasing. It's hardly me being a "leftist".
I don't care if there's 100 Muslims living in my garden as long as they're not in my way or impacting my life. I don't care about anyone except myself. I don't have any controversial views, apart from slight paranoia about germs and bold kids. That's it. And yet, still, it's enough to have them swipe my pic.

Someone that bitter? Clearly not well. I think we can all agree. Nobody that does stuff like that could be described as well and healthy. That's what's making me uneasy. Not the fact they'll find out my name, fecked if I care about that. If someone wanted to know who I am so bad send me a PM and I'd tell you myself ffs. It's what they want to do with the info when they find out. That's unsettling.

Again - personally, they didn't post anything I didn't share myself. I take 100% responsibility for that. They have my pic now, not much I can do about it. But stealing people's photos and making fun of their looks before finding their social media or online dating sites, cmon. Not cool.

Boards can't do anything. I know this. But it's happening to material being pulled from their site. They KNOW this is happening, and they're not warning anyone.

gandalf

On any sites you shouldn't put up any information you are not comfortable being in the public domain unfortunately some may misuse it but tbh you can't hold boards.ie responsible for this. The site responsible is the site it is being posted on. If that site is anyway legitimate it will have policies that prohibit behaviour where people are victimised on the internet.

I do agree that boards should put out a general warning about posting personal information on boards and how it could be misused.

gandalf

Just to add the people posting this personal information are actually in breech of the User Agreement on that site.

Specifically.

Keep Personal Information Off xxxx: You agree to not post anyone's sensitive personal information that relates to that person's real world or online identity.

Obviously I have removed the sites name to deny the oxygen of publicity but there is an arguement that it should be publicised to ensure all those being bullied/targeted are aware it is actually occurring.

seamus

gandalf wrote: »

Just to add the people posting this personal information are actually in breech of the User Agreement on that site.

That site was hastily promoted during a brief "OMG MUH FREE SPEACHES" incident on another site where people were annoyed that they were being prevented from being nasty.

As with everyone who sets up a "truly" free-speech site in protest against moderation, the owner of that site quickly realized a fundamental truth of the internet - Give the sociopaths free reign to say what they want and nobody else will come to your site.

Hence the sudden appearance of EUAs and rules on that site when it was supposed to be a free for all. The owner is currently snowed under with complaints about doxxing and the site has no income. It'll be closed before long.

Cookie_Monster

gandalf wrote: »

Obviously I have removed the sites name to deny the oxygen of publicity but there is an arguement that it should be publicised to ensure all those being bullied/targeted are aware it is actually occurring.

this super mystery site thing is getting super tedious...

gandalf

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

this super mystery site thing is getting super tedious...

Yep by hiding it they are making it far more interesting than it actually is. My opinion is everyone should get a chance to see it and decide for themselves what they think of the "contributors" to it.

RDM_83 again

Lurkio wrote: »

Even for boards, that bit of "blame the victims" is a bit much.

Whats happening there isn't right

But the fact that a different forum targeting probably less than ten users on whats meant to be a massive discussion site having a big impact point to either (A) a site thats not actually very busy or (B) a site where certain posters are too important.

A question I'm not defending doxxing but I remember reading on a different forum about users proving that a mod (on a forum I don't read) was completely fake AFAIK they didn't dox the person themselves but proved what they were posting couldn't be true.
Whats the stance on that?

Lurkio

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I never understood that, it's like people want to be excused from doing things that are entirely likely to come back and bite them in the ass. I was never one for "I told you so", and I wouldn't wish ill will on anyone, but jesus christ how did we ever evolve as a species if we didn't learn from our mistakes? It's ok to make a mistake, it's not ok to ignore consequences and do it on purpose.

It would help if people actually read what I was responding to..........

Lurkio

RDM_83 again wrote: »

Whats happening there isn't right

But the fact that a different forum targeting probably less than ten users on whats meant to be a massive discussion site having a big impact point to either (A) a site thats not actually very busy or (B) a site where certain posters are too important.

A question I'm not defending doxxing but I remember reading on a different forum about users proving that a mod (on a forum I don't read) was completely fake AFAIK they didn't dox the person themselves but proved what they were posting couldn't be true.
Whats the stance on that?

Do please explain this phenomena.

Nody

gandalf wrote: »

Yep by hiding it they are making it far more interesting than it actually is. My opinion is everyone should get a chance to see it and decide for themselves what they think of the "contributors" to it.

I've seen the site; in summary it's about 5 users who think posting things such as X is a ****ing jew, n*, leftist etc. makes them edgy and their total doxxing skills basically consists of being able to click on a user name and list all posts done on boards to try to find if a user posted a photo/information about themselves.

Now compared to "proper" doxxing I've seen which included posting medicals they were on, prison sentences inc. for under age sex, home phone number, parents home phone number, Adult Friend Finder photos (that would be full nude) and full real life address etc. and include causing some serious havoc in real life (from dildo orders to signing them up every religion as interested wanting a visit to burning dog turd before ringing the bell etc.) they are honestly pathetic not only in attitude but also ability.

K-9

RDM_83 again wrote: »

Whats happening there isn't right

But the fact that a different forum targeting probably less than ten users on whats meant to be a massive discussion site having a big impact point to either (A) a site thats not actually very busy or (B) a site where certain posters are too important.

A question I'm not defending doxxing but I remember reading on a different forum about users proving that a mod (on a forum I don't read) was completely fake AFAIK they didn't dox the person themselves but proved what they were posting couldn't be true.
Whats the stance on that?

One person thought it might be a big reason for loads of closed accounts. Doubt it myself.

I think 1 forum on here has now gone private for those wanting to post pictures. Not foolproof either for somebody determined to build up a profile to get around it, and let's face it, these types would do that.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

K-9 wrote: »

One person thought it might be a big reason for loads of closed accounts. Doubt it myself.

.

Not loads of accounts, but looking through the site, looking at the timing of when people's names and pictures were put up and when accounts were closed here, it's not hard to join the dots. It's a handful of people, but they're long time users, big content generators, and in some cases moderators. I certainly noted their absence and missed them.

I'm not saying boards should be expected to control this, of course not, and I'm not saying this/ese guy/s are worth any kind of serious worry, but not warning people and allegedly deleting discussion when it comes up seems pretty ****ty to me

DeadHand

Mark Refined Wintergreen wrote: »

but not warning people and allegedly deleting discussion when it comes up seems pretty ****ty to me

Warn people of what exactly? That information or pictures you posted voluntarily on the internet could be hijacked for nefarious purposes?

If you do not know this without someone warning you then you have no business using the internet.

The blame for the existence of the nasty site that Cannot Be Named lies partly with the boards who, through excessive moderation and clear political bias, managed to aid in the creation of a monster. That combined with the anger, spite and frustration of the few involved.

The blame for said few having information/pictures to attempt to hurt people with lies solely with the people who willingly broadcasted the information/pictures in the first place- not the boards. The blame for any hurt caused lies with the few- not the boards.

Indeed, discussion of the site that Cannot Be Named should not be shut down- the air of mystery and taboo only serves to strengthen its dubious attraction.

Sadly, shutting down discussion is the MO around here.