Boards is becoming a Ghost Town

Legal Action

Lurkio wrote: »

....people approving of the genocide of the Rohinga? How the "jews" are behind it all? thinly veiled calls for violence against minorities?

Then quit Boards if opinions on here upset you. How does someone saying the Jews did 9/11 affect you? You're free to debate that person or simply ignore them. The consensus is Boards does not need any more censorship.

And to be honest I get the feeling Boards would be pretty boring for you if you didn't have 'racist trolls' to argue with.

Lurkio

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Hey look, they can sing happy birthday to hitler if they want. They're probably very disgusting people, but you cannot control their opinions. You cannot turn their heads to your way of thinking. They can think whatever they like. They're making themselves look ridiculous. People are allowed not have the same opinions as you. It doesn't make this site a bad site, it doesn't make mods bad for not shutting it down. It's a discussion board. It's not a "I only want to talk to like minded people" board. Yes it's frustrating, but it takes all sorts doesn't it?

O I don't care what they think, this side of having to listen to their "thoughts".

DeadHand

LexieOnRale wrote: »

You cannot reasonably expect everyone who doesn't hold your views to be shut down and banned from the Internet. It's not how a discussion board works.

Indeed it is not, regardless of how much some present wish it were.

Lurkio

Legal Action wrote: »

Then quit Boards if opinions on here upset you. How does someone saying the Jews did 9/11 affect you? You're free to debate that person or simply ignore them. The consensus is Boards does not need any more censorship.

And to be honest I get the feeling Boards would be pretty boring for you if you didn't have 'racist trolls' to argue with.

For most of my time here, there was far less tolerance for that kind of thing. Then, with no public declaration, there was a shift. Now theres been an attempt to row back, a lot of angry people seem to have appeared, screaming that they are being oppressed.

Legal Action

Lurkio wrote: »

For most of my time here, there was far less tolerance for that kind of thing. Then, with no public declaration, there was a shift. Now theres been an attempt to row back, a lot of angry people seem to have appeared, screaming that they are being oppressed.

Well you're not compelled to argue with anyone and you're never going to change anyone's opinion. Censorship will achieve nothing except kill this site.

K-9

I'm afraid there are a few re-regs and banned members that aren't boards fault at all. Blaming Boards for not allowing hate filled bile and them then posting hate filled bile elsewhere... That's like saying trolls are Boards fault!

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Lurkio wrote: »

O I don't care what they think, this side of having to listen to their "thoughts".

Put them on ignore.
Stay out of threads that'll get you into trouble.
Close your account if it's not for you and it's not enjoyable.
Set up your own forum for people with like minded views.

There's so many options. Instead of demanding a massive board panders to you and only your opinions.

05eaftqbrs9jlh

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

You posted in the wrong forum as that one is very specific.

Could it not have been moved? The forum is so massive and it's hard to browse, particularly on mobile which is how I usually access it. That kind of Gestapo-esque carry on of closing threads which have been open for 6 hours in the middle of the night is just a flagrant misuse of moderator abilities and I don't see any sense in it. It's not helpful to users and it's not upholding a code of conduct.

Lurkio

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Hey look, they can sing happy birthday to hitler if they want. They're probably very disgusting people, but you cannot control their opinions. You cannot turn their heads to your way of thinking. They can think whatever they like. They're making themselves look ridiculous. People are allowed not have the same opinions as you. It doesn't make this site a bad site, it doesn't make mods bad for not shutting it down. It's a discussion board. It's not a "I only want to talk to like minded people" board. Yes it's frustrating, but it takes all sorts doesn't it?

It might help if I clarify and add some background - I was under the impression that certain things were banned, and saw written confirmation that indeed they were. Extreme posts were reported but little if anything done.

The venom aimed at other posters essentially at one stage had driven off everyone with a different view save myself from a particular thread. I stopped bothering reporting a lot of the - in theory - prohibited posts as clearly there was an unwritten standard being applied. Then I was warned for mocking these posts, in a forum which was for 'light hearted discussion'. Private requests for what the actual rules were went unanswered, and what correspondence I received left me even less certain of what was going on than before.

Further confusion arrived when I received a mod message that advised me to try and find 'common ground' with the people posting these views, and at the last I was carded for describing a fairly bigoted post as "bigotry" as this was deemed an attack on the poster, not the post. Almost simultaneously a thread in this forum that I had started that asked what the rules for the place in question were, was deleted (it literally contained that question and no padding) with no explanation or message.

Now that there has been some shift in policy to redress what I was warning about 5-6 months ago, we have a large group of angry posters on "somewhere else" and a lot of new a/c's singing very familiar hymns here.

Lurkio

K-9 wrote: »

I'm afraid there are a few re-regs and banned members that aren't boards fault at all. Blaming Boards for not allowing hate filled bile .........

...'Blaming boards for going back to its normal policy on hate speech' is a bit more accurate, wouldn't you say? Because before the row back, that other place was dead.

Pawwed Rig

Davion Purple Theme wrote: »

Could it not have been moved?

Probably. PM the mod that closed it and ask him. Alternatively copy and paste it into a more appropriate forum (which is probably a quicker way).
The mod in question (I am sure) would be happy to help

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Right well I'm not really sure what else to say to be honest, except for I don't think most of the posters on here would have much interest in a discussion board that only lets one side of the discussion be heard. Just my 2cents. Not getting any further into it.

Edward Hopper

Lurkio wrote: »

...'Blaming boards for going back to its normal policy on hate speech' is a bit more accurate, wouldn't you say? Because before the row back, that other place was dead.

Well thank goodness you were here to show boards the light.

K-9

Lurkio wrote: »

...'Blaming boards for going back to its normal policy on hate speech' is a bit more accurate, wouldn't you say? Because before the row back, that other place was dead.

It has 5 or 6 regulars, possibly 1 user with multiple accounts.

So we could go all Daily Mail and say they've quadrupled in size. Why did 1 or 2 people start posting on it again? Who knows.

DeadHand

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Put them on ignore.
Stay out of threads that'll get you into trouble.
Close your account if it's not for you and it's not enjoyable.
Set up your own forum for people with like minded views.

There's so many options. Instead of demanding a massive board panders to you and only your opinions.

Excellent post. Well said.

Another problem with this site, as I see it, is the complete inability of a tiny minority of posters to handle any kind of opposition to their own narrow dogma in a mature, mannerly fashion. This sort of rabid intolerance may well be putting prospective posters off. Hence, "Ghost Town".

As well as generating distasteful content, I'm sure this handful waste a lot of moderator time with constant reporting of posters who dare not conform to their world view and infantile gestures such as ragequitting after lengthy expressions of self-pity and self-righteousness in dispute resolution and/or the prison thread that need to be dealt with- often only to return shortly after looking rather silly!

Not a lot, of course, the moderators can do about such drama queens other than try not to pander to their sanctimonious nonsense.

KERSPLAT!

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Right well I'm not really sure what else to say to be honest, except for I don't think most of the posters on here would have much interest in a discussion board that only lets one side of the discussion be heard. Just my 2cents. Not getting any further into it.

Come on Lexie, no one believes that to be the case, as well you know.

There's a difference between not wanting someone to have a differing view than yourself and someone trolling and spreading vitriolic crap across every thread they post in.

Lurkio

Edward Hopper wrote: »

Well thank goodness you were here to show boards the light.

I've no idea what light they saw, but its nothing to do with anything I said. Ultimately all I wanted was a clearish set of rules that made some form of sense. I'm perfectly happy to take the piss out of most goonery if its within the rule set provided.

Lurkio

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Right well I'm not really sure what else to say to be honest, except for I don't think most of the posters on here would have much interest in a discussion board that only lets one side of the discussion be heard. Just my 2cents. Not getting any further into it.

Well, you might acknowledge that's not quite what I wanted, given my last post.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Come on Lexie, no one believes that to be the case, as well you know.

There's a difference between not wanting someone to have a differing view than yourself and someone trolling and spreading vitriolic crap across every thread they post in.

Well obviously someone trolling and posting obviously nasty stuff, I'm not going to even give examples deserves to be banned but someone with a different opinion? Cmon.

For example - I CANNOT BEAR spoilt kids. Can't cope. I get myself into awful trouble in those parenting threads. You have the people who love the sound of a child wrecking havoc and you have people like me freaking out at the thoughts of them so much as dropping their fork.
As frustrated as the other side make me, at least we can both post our own opinions, without either of us accused of being a troll.

Same with abortion. People very much for it, people very much against it. Nobody is wrong. Plenty of assholes but nobody is wrong.

I keep well out of religious threads and migrants. I'd rather cheese grate my nipples than read those kinda threads. But you'll get one person with one view, someone else with another view. Calling for someone to be banned because they've a problem with the burqua, feck that.

Lurkio

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I keep well out of religious threads and migrants. I'd rather cheese grate my nipples than read those kinda threads. But you'll get one person with one view, someone else with another view. Calling for someone to be banned because they've a problem with the burqua, feck that.

You didn't read the examples I referred to earlier, I take it.

Legal Action

I'm opposed to multiculturalism and mass immigration and I think those who support it are suicidal but I don't think they should be banned and have their ideas censored.

KERSPLAT!

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Well obviously someone trolling and posting obviously nasty stuff, I'm not going to even give examples deserves to be banned but someone with a different opinion? Cmon.

Where is this coming from? Who exactly wants people with differing opinions banned? Can you point them out!?

I must be missing something here.

KERSPLAT!

Legal Action wrote: »

I'm opposed to multiculturalism and mass immigration and I think those who support it are suicidal but I don't think they should be banned and have their ideas censored.

And while I don't agree with you, this is a discussion board so stay within the charter and there should be no issues. That goes for both sides.

DeadHand

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Calling for someone to be banned because they've a problem with the burqua, feck that.

This is the problem in a nutshell.

Put simply, while it certainly attracts its share of nutbags, the "conservative" (for want of a better term) side of the immigration/integration debate is largely happy to argue the issues with the opposition while a loud minority on the "liberal" side (for even greater want of a better term) demand that any opposition be banned altogether.

RDM_83 again

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Come on Lexie, no one believes that to be the case, as well you know.

There's a difference between not wanting someone to have a differing view than yourself and someone trolling and spreading vitriolic crap across every thread they post in.

True stuff shouldn't be brought into threads where its irrelevant but at the same time as long as it doesn't actually break the rules as they are written (and I mean actually break them not having it labeled as "agenda" posting and so on) they should stay

I think there is a perception, created because of the socio-political world view of a lot of the site management and mods of the social forums like AH as well as maybe 20-30 power posters, that the user base of Boards is a lot more in tune with that world view and the posters that object (to paraphrase Dav) have dangerous opinions.
Its not true though, look at the poll on the "do you support multiculturalism in europe", at the minute it 282 YES 495 NO. Thats not the result you would expect if we listened to what the site hierarchy and the power users I refer to perceive boards to be like.

Pushing a certain political view point to far will simply alienate the majority of users not just a the obsessives that post on that other forum.

KERSPLAT!

DeadHand wrote: »

This is the problem in a nutshell.

Put simply, while it certainly attracts its share of nutbags, the "conservative" (for want of a better term) side of the immigration/integration debate is largely happy to argue the issues with the opposition while a loud, large minority on the "liberal" side (for even greater want of a better term) demand that any opposition be banned altogether.

Who? Who's calling for these bannings!?

This thread has gone off the wall the last few pages.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Where is this coming from? Who exactly wants people with differing opinions banned? Can you point them out!?

I must be missing something here.

Ah stop am I seriously after misreading the entire situation and argue about something nobody else is talking about? Well this is awkward.

From what I took from some posts a few pages back was certain topics on boards that some posters would prefer if it was just one side and the other side should be shut down for being hateful?

I haven't seen (recently at least) boards shutting the "wrong" opinion down, I'm merely stating it wouldn't be much craic as a discussion board if the only discussion that was welcome was one sided.

I actually think the moderation is getting a hard time in this thread. I'm certainly a poster that probably needs more moderation than not, so I say that as someone who feels the wrath of moderation. I've been actioned plenty of times, and in most cases, it's been pretty fair.

I do apologise if I've missed the entire point of what was being discussed, I'm on lovely beautiful very strong medication so if I'm on the wrong page today, just ignore my last few posts. I've clearly been reading something different to everyone else

Legal Action

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Ah stop am I seriously after misreading the entire situation and argue about something nobody else is talking about? Well this is awkward.

From what I took from some posts a few pages back was certain topics on boards that some posters would prefer if it was just one side and the other side should be shut down for being hateful?

I haven't seen (recently at least) boards shutting the "wrong" opinion down, I'm merely stating it wouldn't be much craic as a discussion board if the only discussion that was welcome was one sided.

I actually think the moderation is getting a hard time in this thread. I'm certainly a poster that probably needs more moderation than not, so I say that as someone who feels the wrath of moderation. I've been actioned plenty of times, and in most cases, it's been pretty fair.

I do apologise if I've missed the entire point of what was being discussed, I'm on lovely beautiful very strong medication so if I'm on the wrong page today, just ignore my last few posts. I've clearly been reading something different to everyone else

No you've been completely on point. There are posters who want the opposing side shut down in the guise of 'fighting racism' or God knows what.

KERSPLAT!

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Ah stop am I seriously after misreading the entire situation and argue about something nobody else is talking about? Well this is awkward.

From what I took from some posts a few pages back was certain topics on boards that some posters would prefer if it was just one side and the other side should be shut down for being hateful?

I haven't seen (recently at least) boards shutting the "wrong" opinion down, I'm merely stating it wouldn't be much craic as a discussion board if the only discussion that was welcome was one sided.

I actually think the moderation is getting a hard time in this thread. I'm certainly a poster that probably needs more moderation than not, so I say that as someone who feels the wrath of moderation. I've been actioned plenty of times, and in most cases, it's been pretty fair.

I do apologise if I've missed the entire point of what was being discussed, I'm on lovely beautiful very strong medication so if I'm on the wrong page today, just ignore my last few posts. I've clearly been reading something different to everyone else

Hateful should be shut down. Different opinions should absolutely not. Boards wouldn't be here if we all agreed or if only one side was heard.

As I said, stay within the charter and there should* be no issues.

*I say should because sometimes mistakes are made, we're all human.

Lurkio

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Ah stop (.............)everyone else

I openly criticised moderation here once 7-8 years ago before recent events, for the record, though I did disagree with a few policy changes (before they were implemented) when a thread was run on them.

My views as regards the "other views"
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=99804277&postcount=881