Boards is becoming a Ghost Town

Esel

Godge wrote: »

If this is top of the "Latest" section then people are posting in it. If you shut it down, then less people are posting and the vicious circle continues.

Or maybe if the first thing a visitor sees is:

Boards is becoming a Ghost Town

and then even if they click into the thread and possibly read a bit - what do you think they will do next?

Cienciano

Skylinehead wrote: »

That was always the case. You can't just close an account and expect to start with a clean slate on a new one, or the persistent trolls would have a field day.

What if you become a paying member and post:

People changed, and I promise we will never make the same mistake.

That's what gearbest did

Tipperary Fairy

LoLth wrote: »

I'm offering to help and I'm trying to address the feedback that has been given. do you have actual feedback that you would like to give or do you just want to interpret my responses in a way that lets you continue to be outraged?

Yeah my point was it reads just about the whole way down, not our fault, we did nothing wrong etc.

And I have provided feedback, but don't let that stop you from getting defensive.

Esel

Pelvis Parsley wrote: »

... What should happen, is a concerted effort at dialogue, not from volunteers (commendable and hard working as some of them are), but from the people who actually get paid for it.

You can be sure that the vested interest people are talking - to each other, not us, about the bottom line and how to best count the (coffee) beans. The beings who pick the beans don't count, unless FairTrade - and that's just a sop.

Ever been in a command bunker? Well-protected, but still vulnerable. Hard-wired connections to the front (always liable to disconnection - send a runner...) and the rear (get me out of here). It's not a game - it's war. Just not as we know it, Jim.

There is no 'right to be forgotten' on the way back machine. There are millions of minions out there who will always click through.

Someday, we will look back on this and laugh - or shudder. One or the other. Keep a good hold of the rudder; big storm coming. Women and children first.

To paraphrase Spike: Stretch or repent.

Two Tone

People simply can't know what is going on in the background. I don't understand all the comments here saying as fact what is going on behind the scenes.

And as for, "Boards admonishes people for badmouthing companies on the Talk To forums"? That's a classic one! The Tesco Mobile thread about someone's "friend", the opening poster wasn't even the customer themselves (and companies cannot make reference to an individual customer's details because of data protection, not because they are being unhelpful for the craic) and everyone just leaping to take their word for it, with no actual evidence - I have never seen such spiteful, aggressive messenger-shooting, at people who didn't implement the policy and who clearly simply did not know what to say (not their fault)/were awaiting approval as to what to say from higher-ups, and were not receiving this guidance.

The way the reps were getting absolutely lambasted for pages and pages was awful to read - ever consider what it was like for them? And some doing the pillorying are folks I really thought would know better.

Sometimes there is simply no alternative to giving generic answers. Unless you work in such an area (the online face of a company that provides a service that has a lot of unseen stuff going on in the background) - and most people clearly don't but are "experts" still it seems - maybe try not to be constantly striving to think the worst, when the much higher likelihood is that people are struggling in the background to come to some sort of solution, if merely to shut up the mob.

Esel

Two Tone wrote: »

"friend"... "experts"...

Yeah, "you" nailed the problem there.

Skylinehead

Cienciano wrote: »

What if you become a paying member and post:

That's what gearbest did

You won't find me agreeing with that decision any time soon

KomradeBishop

How is Boards doing in terms of SEO rankings? I know that a dropoff in that, can help slowly kill a site - and Boards underwent some big changes behind the scenes due to the DDoS and CloudFlare, which maybe could have affected that.

Even things, such as the web searches throwing up the new (i.e. far less usable) site instead of the original one - though this is fixed now - may have affected this.


Also - if there's a 'close account' feature, there's no reason why there shouldn't be a 'reopen account' feature - that might be a good idea to add.

Beasty

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Also - if there's a 'close account' feature, there's no reason why there shouldn't be a 'reopen account' feature - that might be a good idea to add.

As i understand it the main purpose of the close account function is to remove personal info. That also removes the ability to reactivate

smash

Beasty wrote: »

As i understand it the main purpose of the close account function is to remove personal info. That also removes the ability to reactivate

Huh? Closing an account doesn't remove any info... does it?

intheclouds

smash wrote: »

Huh? Closing an account doesn't remove any info... does it?

It removes it behind the scenes - allegedly.

I am dubious though because if they can tell which accounts are reregs of closed accounts then they are holding onto some info.

Spear

smash wrote: »

Huh? Closing an account doesn't remove any info... does it?

It does. Accounts can't be re-opened with the basic details such as the email address gone.

smash

Spear wrote: »

It does. Accounts can't be re-opened with the basic details such as the email address gone.

I was under the impression that closing an account just removed the email address and reset the password to a load of random numbers/letters so that the forgot password feature couldn't be used. In which case, it's hardly removing personal information.

Spear

smash wrote: »

I was under the impression that closing an account just removed the email address and reset the password to a load of random numbers/letters so that the forgot password feature couldn't be used. In which case, it's hardly removing personal information.

Other elements, such as the about me stuff, location etc are also wiped. They'd constitute more personal and identifiable information, but they aren't the blockers to re-opening an account in the way the email address is.

Tipperary Fairy

I don't know boards can get away with not deleting email addresses... That's data that was obtained for a set purpose and once the account is closed, what's the need for holding onto it?

intheclouds

If closing an account removes the email address then how come I have seen posts where mods have said that some rereggers are silly enough to use the same email address to rereg - how do they know that if the email address is deleted?

Gordon

Mods can't see email addresses.

BMMachine

Gordon wrote: »

Mods can't see email addresses.

but can the admins see there needs to be changes in moderation?

Cienciano

Ideally closing your account would delete your username from every post you made but leave the content.

intheclouds

Cienciano wrote: »

Ideally closing your account would delete your username from every post you made but leave the content.

Youre a bit late to that party!

LuckyLloyd

Am personally of the opinion that viewpoints like the below need to be argued down and disproven rather than blanket banned:

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057609185/1/#post100018058

Amalgam

Tipperary Fairy wrote: »

I don't know boards can get away with not deleting email addresses... That's data that was obtained for a set purpose and once the account is closed, what's the need for holding onto it?

I have wondered about Private Messages. DeVore hinted that he had accessed them for various reasons in the past. What exactly is kept after closing an account?

That is one thing that bothers me if I wish to call it a day at some point. That's content that needs clarification on. My public facing content, fine.. but, if the site is sold off at some point, I'm not happy providing meta data/personal info to an unknown company at a later date.

EDIT: Are messages really deleted, or just hidden from view. Can I request the tally of Private Messages stored on your system, despite them having been deleted?

Lovely Bloke

bleedin putinbots invading the Soccer forum since it went "free access" for the euros.

Mods not doing a damn thing about it

Yes, posts have been reported.

511

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Am personally of the opinion that viewpoints like the below need to be argued down and disproven rather than blanket banned:

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057609185/1/#post100018058

It's well known fact inbreeding often does effect the level of intelligence of the incestuous couple's offspring, but liberals don't like to engage in debates about the genetics of non-whites because it's too much Adolf Hitler.

Another disgraceful decision from a message board that is hell-bent on pissing off its userbase and destroying itself.

Maireadio

Cienciano wrote: »

Ideally closing your account would delete your username from every post you made but leave the content.

That would be ideal but apparently it'd be low on the list of priorities as it's a lot of work for little return or benefit.

Edward Hopper

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

bleedin putinbots invading the Soccer forum since it went "free access" for the euros.

Mods not doing a damn thing about it

Yes, posts have been reported.

It's all a bit mad. I don't have access normally, but still enjoy reading the soccer forum threads, clucking away to myself at times, but all good stuff and exactly what you'd expect in the soccer forum

What's going on now is like nothing I've seen there before, bombardment on multiple threads of the same lines by the same posters.

Whatever validity their point surely had is gone by the wayside in favour of continual trolling. If they are to continue to post the same stuff, and mods seem happy with that, at least confine it to one thread.

I just hope the regular users who keep the forum alive are still interested after what is ridiculous trolling that's gone on for days.

I'm OK, I'll just go back to reading it when my access goes at the end of the Euros, but paraphrasing Mrs T. Lovejoy, "won't someone PLEASE think of the soccer forum regulars" or there's one of the real content generating forums under threat of people losing interest imo.

Ken.

A sub forum of soccer called something like 'soccer major tournaments' that's only opened for world cup,euro's, copa america and locked about a week after the end of a tournament would cut down on the main soccer forum being hijacked.

Two Tone

Edward Hopper wrote: »

It's all a bit mad. I don't have access normally, but still enjoy reading the soccer forum threads, clucking away to myself at times, but all good stuff and exactly what you'd expect in the soccer forum

What's going on now is like nothing I've seen there before, bombardment on multiple threads of the same lines by the same posters.

Whatever validity their point surely had is gone by the wayside in favour of continual trolling. If they are to continue to post the same stuff, and mods seem happy with that, at least confine it to one thread.

I just hope the regular users who keep the forum alive are still interested after what is ridiculous trolling that's gone on for days.

I'm OK, I'll just go back to reading it when my access goes at the end of the Euros, but paraphrasing Mrs T. Lovejoy, "won't someone PLEASE think of the soccer forum regulars" or there's one of the real content generating forums under threat of people losing interest imo.

+1. Wind-up merchants (and I do not mean people whose views I disagree with, I don't agree with people posting controversial views being banned if they do so in a constructive manner - I mean exactly what "wind-up merchants" means: people who are only trying to get a rise) spoiling certain threads (and no moderation other than "Everyone calm down") can be a problem here.

gandalf

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

bleedin putinbots invading the Soccer forum since it went "free access" for the euros.

Mods not doing a damn thing about it

Yes, posts have been reported.

Yep and the longer there is no action the more danger of the discussion degenerating into outright personal insults. It's obvious that there are a number of posters who are trying to change the narrative of any thread that says anything negative about Russia.

I was against opening Soccer for the previous Tournament and I am against the opening of it for this one.

I think ken has suggested an elegant fix in setting up an open temporary forum for the duration of the Euros. Opening up the existing forum really pisses all over the existing community there.

hullaballoo

ken wrote: »

A sub forum of soccer called something like 'soccer major tournaments' that's only opened for world cup,euro's, copa america and locked about a week after the end of a tournament would cut down on the main soccer forum being hijacked.

I know exactly where you're coming from and it would solve one particular problem but creating more forums on a site where there are already far too many forums is not going to be a solution here.