Why is Boards so quiet?

Books4you

Gavinz wrote: »

Tbh, I dont think it is just "the mods".

I used to think that, but if you actually take a wider Macro view of the place...yes, the moderation is needlessly excessive, yes, there are too many mods, yes, it can stifle discussion when there is no need, yes there are rules for the sake of rules...BUT



BUT, from reading the place since 2004 (my first job) I can also see that the users and attitudes themselves have changed.

Yeah, yeah great. "Boards used to be so fantastic"

It's not just the fcuking mods, it's the crepe-paper skinned generation who have ruined it.



Constant reporting and whinging. That's what killed Boards.ie.

I agree. You see it in everyday life. Not just online. Something, anything that happens in the country now is just full of negativity. Any good news story people just love to pick it apart. It really is sad to see.

The government could turn around in the morning and say we have a massive surplus of money and we are going to give everyone free healthcare and we have solved the waiting list problems and all you would see in that story from people is whinging! Guaranteed! Obviously I'm just picking a random example but my point is no one seems to see the good in anyone or anything anymore and the country in general is far worse for it.

This is then magnified 1000× online.

kneemos

Gavinz wrote: »

Tbh, I dont think it is just "the mods".

I used to think that, but if you actually take a wider Macro view of the place...yes, the moderation is needlessly excessive, yes, there are too many mods, yes, it can stifle discussion when there is no need, yes there are rules for the sake of rules...BUT



BUT, from reading the place since 2004 (my first job) I can also see that the users and attitudes themselves have changed.

Yeah, yeah great. "Boards used to be so fantastic"

It's not just the fcuking mods, it's the crepe-paper skinned generation who have ruined it.



Constant reporting and whinging. That's what killed Boards.ie.

The whingers get pandered to in fairness.
Every complaint seems to get actioned no matter how frivolous it is.

JCX BXC

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

What's with the need for validation? It's been said multiple times that the feedback is being listened to. Decisions for big changes won't happen in the course of this thread and smaller changes will be made in the forums. What response are you looking for from the admins?

The need for validation is the fact that nothings happened in the past, and it appears nothing will happen in the future. It's grand to say "it's being listened to", but it really means nothing whatsoever. I'd doubt the higher up are even reading the posts.

Why won't decisions for big changes happen in the course of this thread? Other than a complete lack of interest for this to happen at the top, nothing should stop it! It's clear there are many outstanding issues with the site, but these are being ignored, even at the lower levels.

Books4you

Well credit where credit is due. A thread has been opened about Enda stepping down in AH so look even if it's small steps it's a good sign. Nice to see the feedback taken on board. Thanks mods.

prinzeugen

Mods and the left wing view.

I got cards, warnings and bans because I had a different view to a Mod.

Trolling.. Mods way of shutting down a point of view.

Mods that have vested interests in other sites and pointing the discussions to suit.

A post in dispute resolution did nothing about a certain Mod but a quick Google of his username shows that many, many people have had the same problem in the past with them being bias.

I report abusive posts about me and nothing gets done. I post calling a person a nickname and get carded.

Weed out the self serving mods and the ones that think they are better/more educated than others and Boards will improve.

RDM_83 again

The moderation on boards always gets a lot of stick and I've been a fairly regular complainer myself but while I do have issues with moderation I am not sure its mods themselves that deserve the focus, some of the most dictatorial stuff, high handedness and user baiting has came from those with the ADMIN tag.

In terms of the site attracting new users I think at least for the way I originally signed up (to annoy a college friend) that ship has probably sailed with the advent of so much more social media.

I do think however there is a space for boards.ie and similar style sites, I have been using Reddit more and more myself for the last bit and its pretty terrible in a lot of ways and ironically seems to suffer most of the moderation and group think problems that boards get slapped down for. Boards should be marketing itself as a place with decent discussion and hopefully with and not a place ridden with easy upvote cliches like Reddit is while being anonymous (enough) that you can have the conversations you can't have on Facebook (I post a lot on stuff like gender politics, abortion and so on because doing so on Facebook seems to have all the potential to accidentally offend your real life acquaintances by taking theoretical positions etc with none of the finding common ground face to face conversations in the pub have)

Where I think reddit does succeed and boards could learn a lesson from is that they let various forums find there own way, politics cafe is the prime example of this, a busy sub-forum forms with lots of activity, its regarded as a negative because much of the content involved wasn't to The Powers That Be liking, if it didn't spill over to the rest of the site and wasn't actual hate speech it shouldn't be a big deal

A truly massive issue and all this arguing about moderation is a far smaller deal, the site is genuinely worse and worse to use, it needs a decent mobile friendly site or app, preferably one that allows a lot of content to be loaded up at once, one of my most common morning things to do is to load up a thread on my reddit app while walking to the subway and reading through it while off-line, I can't use the old m.boards.ie site and now my usage on mobile is chronically reduced.

I think Seamus mentioned that a ban should mean a ban no ifs no buts, I do understand the appeal of that in some ways but posters will be lost over it if that happens without moderation becoming a lot softer , I know I got a ban in AH I managed to get completely overturned last year AFAIK, if it hadn't been I would have just been completely done with the site.

RDM_83 again

Posting this as a separate post because the blatant political nature of it would detract from my other points, I think real world politics has changed and I think there is a generational effect at play, its more complex than the sites userbase getting more right-wing as they get older and a increased polarization society, these are definitely effects but looking at Europe a trend seems to be occuring where the younger generations are much more likely to hold right wing views, the generation that made Boards.ie who I am guessing are probably early 40's have a world view that is now less common in people in their 20's and early 30's.

iguot

Hi Sean


*waves

Steve

mane1 wrote: »

don't you have an aviation and aircraft forum to destroy?

Funny that, the forum is still there and thriving.

You'll eventually get bored of trying to troll me, they all do.

RDM_83 again

I know Ropedrinker and Steve are meant to be considered "normal" posters in the context of this thread but I think a genuinely normal poster on a thread like this would be told to hit report post and stop feeding the rereg trolls.
How are the more casual users meant to abide by the standards of behavior that boards would apparently like if two people deeply involved in the site for decades (?) can't

pjohnson

Amusing the inconsistencies aswell. A post against the church gets 10+ pages. A thread against islam wouldn't survive a second page or be cards left right and center.

dudara

JCX BXC wrote: »

And yet, the only thing the admins have addressed is these posts!

I'll be honest here. It's hard going reading Feedback at times. (And I do try to read every post and take it all in). I value the good feedback we're getting here, so I do get annoyed at "lazy" feedback, as it doesn't add anything other than noise. So pardon for me asking a poster to say something better than "sh1t".

If users have the respect to post constructive feedback, do admins or higher up not have the respect to respond to this?

There's no way to answer this question that will satisfy everyone There's no single magic bullet. A lot of attention is being paid to these threads, including the recent Politics Cafe thread. There are responses happening across different forums and hopefully some of you are seeing some impact. It's a work in progress

CPTM

It would be great to get a notification when someone quotes or thanks a comment you made. Quotes are more important, because there are so many breakaway conversations within the same thread sometimes it's hard to stay on top of the entire conversation, and it's easy to miss if someone has responded to something you've said. Especially when there's 100s of comments on a busy thread.

Cookie_Monster

dudara wrote: »

I'll be honest here. It's hard going reading Feedback at times.

you're right it is. The same feedback has been posted for 2 or 3 years at least now and nothing very little of actual substance has been done to address it. Do you not think users find that tedious in the extreme?

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Murrisk

CPTM wrote: »

It would be great to get a notification when someone quotes or thanks a comment you made. Quotes are more important, because there are so many breakaway conversations within the same thread sometimes it's hard to stay on top of the entire conversation, and it's easy to miss if someone has responded to something you've said. Especially when there's 100s of comments on a busy thread.

Just go to your profile to check who has quoted you. It''s really easy to do so.

riffmongous

Murrisk wrote: »

Just go to your profile to check who has quoted you. It''s really easy to do so.

It's a little buggy though, doesn't get every quote which is annoying

CPTM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Ah, thanks for that, I didn't see this before.

Yes, it's pity it's not on the phone app because I'm 80% app user as opposed to the website via the pc.

But it's a good tip for when I'm at my desktop.

Boards.ie: Mark

Hi everyone,

I'd like to thank people for their constructive feedback.

I may not be active in Feedback threads, but I read everything. Not looking for pats on the back, but we've tried to make some changes based on previous Feedback threads - we're more active in forums like Site Development; Help Desk; and even this forum at times, trying to be more proactive when there might be issues with service. We've also got the monthly newsletters to highlight things happening around the site, user accomplishments, and community activities, and the Announcements forum has been busier. If there are things that you'd like to hear about or would like to highlight, please let me know.

Tone was mentioned and I'll admit that I'm pretty straight-laced on the internet - I think I come across as corporate no matter what I'm talking about! You don't quite have the same nuance that you do in person and when something is read the wrong way it can either fall flat or rile people up. I don't have the keyboard wit of some of the legends of After Hours, so I know I'd fluff it! And, let's face it, sometimes it's safer to take a more neutral stance (it's certainly working for The Rock as he potentially establishes himself as a presidential candidate!).

Niamh covered the moderation side of things pretty well, as have some others within this thread. As she mentioned, if you have an issue with moderation, please discuss it with the mods or CMods. But please try to remember that it's an impossible task to please everyone.

Have we been slow to change things up? Yeah, I (personally) think so at times. I'm delighted to see that the pictures in After Hours experiment (along with lowering the restriction on being able to post them), as pointed out by Murrisk, has gone so swimmingly. The Online Dating forum is trucking along nicely, as is the refreshed Sex & Sexuality forum (though this also took some time to come about). With forums, there is a lot of work that goes into the creation of them; everyone involved wants to see the forum not only exist, but hopefully thrive for some time. The Admins did, as noted, take feedback on board and have made the process of requesting and creating a forum smoother and quicker.

Proactive and creative suggestions are definitely appreciated. I love the idea of notifications for quotes; it has come up before and I've added it to a wishlist. I hope you can be patient; the dev guys are typing their little fingers off, but are pretty busy! CPTM, if you want to get at the "Find all posts that quote..." function on mobile, you can go to the Legacy Site from the footer and browse that way. It's not ideal, but works in a pinch.

Suggestions aren't always implemented, and sometimes things can be slow to change, but it doesn't fall on deaf ears. The AH mods have opened an Enda Kenny thread on the back of this feedback, and in the last few weeks, the Politics Cafe opened a thread to rejig its charter with plenty of user input to make it the forum that people want.

While the internet and usage of it has changed, there is no doubt in my mind that there's still a place for Boards as a place of discussion, reasoned debate, information, and community. I see plenty of all of this across the site on a daily basis and I hope to for a long time to come. And, as Bot42 mentioned, there is still plenty of good done too and that's through the efforts of the community.

Boards.ie: Mark

And because I couldn't fit it in the wall of text above, RDM_83 again - the m.boards.ie site is still there. If you're being redirected, please clear your cache. If you still have issues, please post in Site Development or drop us an e-mail at hello@boards.ie.

Wibbs

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

The Online Dating forum is trucking along nicely, as is the refreshed Sex & Sexuality forum (though this also took some time to come about)

"Some time to come about"? It took seven bloody years Mark. And only came about at all because as the last solitary mod of the place I asked to step down because it was dead. I was even left hanging on that score waiting for promised updates on the behind the scenes discussion of the forum I modded for a decade, which after a fortnight never came, so I just walked at that point. Would you blame me? None of us were asked to mod the new forum either. Nice way to treat longstanding members who helped build and run your site. And a bit rich to now say "job well done" and claim "didn't we do well".

And then the forum was relaunched using the exact same setup that we the mods(with input from the community) had drawn up seven years previously. Nothing new was added beyond a category change. No doubt some will claim the "rejig" as something fresh. So years wasted when it could have been up and running. The mods gave up enquiring back then as we were completely ignored(I realise you weren't on board back then, so not down to you). How many other forums out there could be restarted? Oh and allowing pics on AH was requested by a lot of people for many years.

It's a good example of how too often things get done behind the scenes on this site, reactively, not proactively and usually taking place at the speed of continental drift, followed by PR to cover up the cracks. And some wonder why others think Boards has gone full corporate?

TherapyBoy

..as is the refreshed Sex & Sexuality forum (though this also took some time to come about)

Had a post typed out about this quote but you beat me to it Wibbs.

As far as I can tell, the only reason for the new rejigged S&S/Subscribers area was Wibbs forcing your hand Mark. It was nothing to do with the office.
Thank you Wibbs.

KERSPLAT!

TherapyBoy wrote: »

Had a post typed out about this quote but you beat me to it Wibbs.

As far as I can tell, the only reason for the new rejigged S&S/Subscribers area was Wibbs forcing your hand Mark. It was nothing to do with the office.
Thank you Wibbs.

I'm interested in this, how did Wibbs force their hand?

Boards.ie: Mark

I'm sorry if it seemed that I was saying it was down to the office; I was simply using the S&S relaunch as another example of an overdue change. Likewise, images being enabled in After Hours again was down to the AH mods.

Wibbs

I asked to step down as the forum was dead and I was the only mod left. I was told to hang on as there was discussion going on behind the scenes. I waited and nobody came back to me. So in frustration I asked again to be demodded. In the next couple of days the forum was up and running in the "new" format.

I didn't "force hands" K, but I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't requested the step down the forum would still be a dead corner of Boards. Like I say reactive.

TherapyBoy

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

I'm interested in this, how did Wibbs force their hand?

By leaving it without an assigned moderator. Also have a look at the 'S&S - how to proceed' thread in FCL

Wibbs

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

I'm sorry if it seemed that I was saying it was down to the office; I was simply using the S&S relaunch as another example of an overdue change. Likewise, images being enabled in After Hours again was down to the AH mods.

Both took an absolute age to change. That's the problem Mark. Where this culture is coming from is something else. IMH it's down to a lack of clear leadership, with reactive "management" being used as a very poor substitute. Not just with specifics in specific forums either. How long is the subs issue in play? The search function? How long did the "responsive" site wait for mod tools(if it has the full set now? I dunno, I never use it).

On all these kind of issues over the last few years the near given trajectory pans out as: "We/I'd like to thank people for their constructive feedback" and nothing changes, or if it does it takes an absolute age.

iguot

dudara wrote: »

I'll be honest here. It's hard going reading Feedback at times. (And I do try to read every post and take it all in). I value the good feedback we're getting here, so I do get annoyed at "lazy" feedback, as it doesn't add anything other than noise. So pardon for me asking a poster to say something better than "sh1t".



There's no way to answer this question that will satisfy everyone There's no single magic bullet. A lot of attention is being paid to these threads, including the recent Politics Cafe thread. There are responses happening across different forums and hopefully some of you are seeing some impact. It's a work in progress

This looks like a word for word post in the last feedback thread.

Lazy feedback is all that's left when you ignore all the good, it took a "sh1t" to ruffle your feathers into posting at all.

Pics in AH, years in the asking, the same tired lot are probably saying it won't work not realising it's back as no one is posting any cuz it was left to long.

It was dumb to remove in the first place, done by same guy that says moderation on the site isint a problem, Jesus wept.


The rest of the stuff done in marks post is years in the asking, even that what's on, I see someone tried starting a thread in AH awhile back trying to get it going that way since no forum was coming.


Your job is done for ye, all you have to do is give people what they're asking for but no.

pjohnson

Will the AH charter be reviewed like the politics charter to try and make the area fun?

The_Valeyard

Wibbs wrote: »

I asked to step down as the forum was dead and I was the only mod left. I was told to hang on as there was discussion going on behind the scenes. I waited and nobody came back to me. So in frustration I asked again to be demodded. In the next couple of days the forum was up and running in the "new" format.

I didn't "force hands" K, but I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't requested the step down the forum would still be a dead corner of Boards. Like I say reactive.

Force hands?


Jedi powers me thinks.......