Boards is becoming a Ghost Town

The Moldy Gowl

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

It's not strange that two different private forums would have two different rules of operation.

Where one can break site rules and one can't?

Weird huh. I wonder why that is.
Almost as if the US vs them has a shred of truth in it.

Taltos

Admin Note
That's the third call for Jesus today...

Simple ask everyone can we scale it back a bit, whole idea here is to get some good communication and exchanges of ideas as well as problems. Some of the above is making me uncomfortable. For example the constant cold/warm jibes, once might be a joke, but the repetition seems on the verge of making it personal.

So a simple ask - let's all step back a bit and come back to this with some calmer heads and with less personal comments. Opinions and ideas are welcome - encouraged in fact but there should be no need to go after one or two people because you disagree with them.

Cheers.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

Penn wrote: »

You do it over and over again with the same people ... and having to explain the same thing to them over and over again, and so you find ways to make it someway enjoyable, because no matter what you say, they're not going to change, and you're going to be right back in Prison with them a few days later.

:pac:

Tell me how

Taltos wrote:

Admin Note That's the third call for Jesus today...

Taltos wrote:

So a simple ask - let's all step back a bit and come back to this with some calmer heads and with less personal comments. Opinions and ideas are welcome - encouraged in fact but there should be no need to go after one or two people because you disagree with them.

I've been following this thread quite a while now and it's a lonnnngggg time since I've seen anything even suggested which I can see in any way useful to improving Boards.

It's like a messy divorce where both parties are busy antagonizing each other while the mediator (99% of users) is sitting with their head in their hands.

I've been wondering for the last day or so what is the point of the thread anymore.

Taltos

Nuggets, Tell me How. Nuggets.
Not the nice crispy chicken ones but the little nuggets that are gotcha moments. And yes even from messy divorces we can learn something, even if it's something as simple as showing how a few "funny" comments can snowball very quickly into a series of posts that negatively impact someone.

It's all too easy to forget that behind the keyboards are real people who can be seriously affected by throwaway comments. Not that I'm disagreeing with your comments re head in hands - I'm there too and if I hadn't shaved my noggin yesterday it'd be all patchy right now.

smash

Taltos wrote: »

That's the third call for Jesus today...

Well if this thread doesn't take him out of hiding then nothing will.

Taltos

smash wrote: »

Well if this thread doesn't take him out of hiding then nothing will.

Well if Sam and Dean Winchester can get to

meet god

nothing's impossible...

The Moldy Gowl

Tell me how wrote: »

I've been following this thread quite a while now and it's a lonnnngggg time since I've seen anything even suggested which I can see in any way useful to improving Boards.

It's like a messy divorce where both parties are busy antagonizing each other while the mediator (99% of users) is sitting with their head in their hands.

I've been wondering for the last day or so what is the point of the thread anymore.

At the moment, it's private forums.

Why does one allow nsfw links while the other is not allowed due to site rules, bearing in mind who is a contributing member in the nsfw forum.

The Moldy Gowl

The Moldy Gowl wrote: »

At the moment, it's private forums.

Why does one allow nsfw links while the other is not allowed due to site rules, bearing in mind who is a contributing member in the nsfw forum.

If there is something you wish to say Moldy just say it.

smash

The Moldy Gowl wrote: »

At the moment, it's private forums.

Why does one allow nsfw links while the other is not allowed due to site rules, bearing in mind who is a contributing member in the nsfw forum.

All this Chinese whispers crap is getting tedious.

HamsterFace

Tell me how wrote: »

I've been following this thread quite a while now and it's a lonnnngggg time since I've seen anything even suggested which I can see in any way useful to improving Boards.

It's like a messy divorce where both parties are busy antagonizing each other while the mediator (99% of users) is sitting with their head in their hands.

I've been wondering for the last day or so what is the point of the thread anymore.

Well I'm enjoying reading it! I was a super popular poster about 6 years ago and am now a re-reg, been meaning to give some feedback but only have a mobile.
I'll try over the weekend.
In a nut shell, cliques should be avoided and discouraged, that said they form naturally in all walks of life and it was they that fostered the huge traffic and humour that seems to be missing now.

I guess it's trying to find a balance which is key, forums where everyone seems to know each other but are still welcoming to new visitors.
Forums personalities, and the threads, should be allowed to develop organically with as little "stamping out" as possible. Within good reason of course.

Easier said than done :-)

andekwarhola

ibarelycare wrote: »

What's a benny?

Very little on the internet bothers me. I think using a private forum on boards to bitch about other users is nasty playground-type stuff. I'm not personally offended but I find it pathetic.

Apparently they use private messaging and mobile phones to talk about people too. Disgraceful.

Seriously though, surely as long as they're not doxxing or actively bullying people, it's a case of what you don't know doesn't harm you if it's just bitching

Lovely Bloke

The Moldy Gowl wrote: »

At the moment, it's private forums.

Why does one allow nsfw links while the other is not allowed due to site rules, bearing in mind who is a contributing member in the nsfw forum.

it has no bearing on anyone who does not have access to a private forum what goes on inside that private forum once it doesn't affect anything outside of that private forum.

Who cares if one bunch of people are allowed to post nsfw links and another bunch are not? The people on the outside, that's who. And it's none of their business. None at all.

If you want a private forum where you can do whatever you want (post nsfw, slag boardsies, talk about veganism), do what I did - get a bunch of people together and pay for hosting and some forum software and get your own forum - with tabbed browsing the experience is 99% the same.

I don't understand why it has to be hosted by Boards.ie, and frankly given that un-invited people have free-reign to read private forums to which they are not officially invited, I have no clue why anyone would put up with that situation.

Liam McPoyle

The Moldy Gowl wrote: »

At the moment, it's private forums.

Why does one allow nsfw links while the other is not allowed due to site rules, bearing in mind who is a contributing member in the nsfw forum.

Are you talking about Slydice (I don't even know if it still exists)?

If you are then when I was last in it, albeit it over 4 years ago, the stuff posted was very tame and about as nsfw as some of the stuff posted on the Irish Independent news site.

dexter647

This thread reminded me of this scene today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHOE4UfoimY

5starpool

If Schrodinger was alive today the cat in the box with the poison would be replaced by people talking in a private forum. They both are and aren't talking about a specific poster who doesn't have access, until such time as that person can actually look.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

*waves







*collapses

Faith

Tell me how wrote: »

It's like a messy divorce where both parties are busy antagonizing each other while the mediator (99% of users) is sitting with their head in their hands.

That's exactly what it reads like - or, like two people who should divorce, but are currently antagonising each other by pulling the duvet cover off the other person at night. A half dozen posters with vendettas they can't let go of, constantly rehashing the same old tired complaints about things that happened years ago.

Pity, because I think this thread started off really well and it had some great discussion about ways to improve the site.

polluxspiky

Faith wrote: »

A half dozen posters with vendettas they can't let go of

Whereas moderators who support trolling and abuse wouldn't have any vendettas I suppose.

Tell me how

polluxspiky wrote:

Whereas moderators who support trolling and abuse wouldn't have any vendettas I suppose.

And so it rolls on, and on, and on.

I feel that people who complain this much about something are like someone who goes to the same restaurant every night and complains about the quality of the food when there's plenty other restaurants they could try.

What are you hoping to achieve at this point?

FortySeven

Tell me how wrote: »

And so it rolls on, and on, and on.

I feel that people who complain this much about something are like someone who goes to the same restaurant every night and complains about the quality of the food when there's plenty other restaurants they could try.

What are you hoping to achieve at this point?

15 years in restaurants. Your analogy is poignant.

uck51js9zml2yt

Tell me how wrote: »

And so it rolls on, and on, and on.

I feel that people who complain this much about something are like someone who goes to the same restaurant every night and complains about the quality of the food when there's plenty other restaurants they could try.

What are you hoping to achieve at this point?

Its a bit like the definition of insanity.
Doing the same things again and again while hopeing to get a different result

K-9

Nearly all threads end this way after 1200 posts anyway. Unless somebody comes up with something really original it has all been said at this stage. Just a matter of picking out the constructive stuff and ignoring the noise.

Liam McPoyle

Tell me how wrote: »

And so it rolls on, and on, and on.

I feel that people who complain this much about something are like someone who goes to the same restaurant every night and complains about the quality of the food when there's plenty other restaurants they could try.

What are you hoping to achieve at this point?

The fact that the poster is completely misrepresenting what I said, despite the fact I qualified it, tells you everything that you need to know tbh.

FriendComputer

Well there ya go. If anyone ever again ponders why the site's on the way out, just point them at the last few pages.

I've been on Boards in one form or another since 2003. Not the longest, by any stretch, but still a long time in the forum's life at this stage. And just to get it out of the way - I've never been banned. I've amounted the grand total of three warnings and one infraction (across two or three forums) on one of my previous accounts but I never closed any to get away from that. I lost access to one or two others due to database hacks in the past, where in one case I'd lost access to the email I registered one under. One or two were closed in a fit of pique.

I've seen the site change an awful lot over the years, and not all of it for the better. It's true to say that back when I joined it was a lot quieter. AH had a "Know your nerds" thread where people posted up photos of themselves. Amazing to think such a thing happened, these days, isn't it? But that's just how different the site was. More importantly, it was the internet in general that was different. I'm sure I'm not alone in remembering the wasteland of Geocities (and others) webpages created by ordinary people that were devoid of any kind of design philosophy beyond, "this is amazing" because of course when you make something yourself it's so easy to think that. But the internet wasn't quite the giant it is today. It wasn't the preserve of nerds and geeks that it once was, it just occupied a sort of transitional state between that and what it is now.

My memory of Boards from that time isn't too great but I do remember endless in-jokes, even then. Spent so long wondering what "The Knights of Comeonbanus" was, then there was Amp and all the associated amusement with him. Magic the Gathering cards in Feedback, so on. The kinds of things people would roll their eyes at nowadays, just as they do at the "coke and hookers" and "hamster" jokes.

One thing I do remember was that the site, at least the parts I used, weren't as vitriolic, as bitter and cynical and utterly, utterly hateful as it can be now. I don't know what happened to make people so tetchy—maybe some are so attached to their accounts, their personas, what have you—but I often get the feeling of tension hanging in the air, like we're just one stray comment away from someone losing the run of themselves. Which is why I said to link anyone to the last few pages of this thread, it's the perfect example of what I'm talking about. But then again there's been passive-aggressiveness going on all through the thread, hasn't there?

Which isn't anything new, either. We had the "mods are friendless basement-dwellers" back when I joined, too, but it was generally laughed at as opposed to now where there's more and more people embracing that kind of sentiment. The kind of people who'll go on and on about how the mods are killing the site but really, they're not. The users are killing it, slowly but surely, they are.

Yeah, I've seen the comments about over-moderation, about how the site's apparently spoken of elsewhere but personally, I very seldom see the site spoken of at all. I think either some people are overstating what goes on or it's confined to some specific sites (which wouldn't surprise me). Just as surely, there's a group of posters who'll never be happy until moderation is lax enough that they can post any old ****e they like. That sort of ties into what's been happening on the internet over the last few years. Something that, I'm sad to see, Boards hasn't been isolated from.

Perhaps it's just confirmation bias on myself and others' part but it feels like the animosity and arguments between left- and right-leaning people politically has become a lot worse. Where for a long time, "PC gone mad" was the rallying cry here, I'm starting to see SJW being used. A sign that the wider conflict has arrived on Boards.

But to get the point I'd like to make, there tends to be a correlation (from what I've seen) between the type of person who speaks like that and the kind who complains about over-moderation, etc..

So, again personally, I don't believe over-moderation is the problem, but I also don't think you can point to one issue as to why the site's become quieter.

I've come to the point where I just check in on this thread because I couldn't be bothered elsewhere. It's true, AH is one of if not the largest forum on the site but I've no interest in going there - the place is nothing short of a battleground, for people to argue back and forth over and over again about their politics. And it's not even that insightful. That's why I can't be arsed: because eventually, after hearing "ah it's PC gone mad" or whatever variant is doing the rounds, I'm just left wondering what the point is. Because I'm dealing with people who clearly have no interest in anything approaching a conversation - where people listen to each other and respond to the things each says, rather than misrepresenting, insulting, ****posting, etc..

And I know, I do, I know, people tend to harp on about AH but that's really because it is such a visible forum. I'm sure others could speak to the rest of the site.

Other issues have been touched upon - the rise of competing sites like Reddit, changing demographics of internet users, etc.. These all play a part. Whether they're something Boards can do anything about isn't something I can speak to. I can only address my own issues with the site.

Which, if I'm to sum it up is this: there's no community any more. The site is too big for that kind of thing, I think. The constant arguing and the churn that creates only contributes to it. There's some posters I still recognise but many more that I don't.

I really didn't want to end on the note of criticising AH (yet again) but I'm not sure what else to say. For me, it epitomises what's going on in this thread. Bitter, bitter recriminations that are absolutely not the way to foster any kind of community.

Sorry for the pile of text, maybe someone can salvage some point from it all.

uck51js9zml2yt

Was someone supposed to read that ? ^^^^^^^^

Satriale

Royal Silly Ballet wrote: »

Was someone supposed to read that ? ^^^^^^^^

Might be an idea, he mentioned you!

Deank

Royal Silly Ballet wrote: »

Was someone supposed to read that ? ^^^^^^^^

A lot of effort and thought went into that post, and very valid points made.

Sure just belittle why don't you.

hullaballoo

It isn't that long a post if you actually read it because it makes good points.

_Tombstone_

hullaballoo wrote: »

It isn't that long a post if you actually read it because it makes good points.

Theirs still like 4 threads where people post pics of themselves, the sh1tty moderation on here breeds the "vitriol", along with the site entertaining the pretend easily offended cold bunch.

Demographics - Reddit is 21-29, I'd say here is 26-35.

I'm not sure what point is good tbh. I on phone forget the rest