Why is Boards so quiet?

Calhoun

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I think boards.ie has been targeted (among others no doubt) by the right, I'd be interested to know if the admins are checking IP addy's to see how many are Irish and how many are American. There is certainly an obvious rash of newbies all spouting the same ideology.

Really, why would they bother so much. Hard right policies don't really transfer to europe.

Saying all that new ideologies aren't necessarily bad if they do so within a civil manner. Sometimes if something is so bad bringing it to the light and letting it stand in front of everyone is all thats needed to shut it down. If you cannot rationally argue with someone and pick apart their view point something is wrong.

Its also not so bad to challenge the regulars who for the most part share the same ideology.

Harry Palmr

I dunno why beyond the obvious! Social media is a battle ground we know that and boards is an apparently somewhat quaint old school example.

I've been here one way or another since 2001, with the odd break and I've seen nothing remotely comparable to the post Trump election invasion of right wingers. Most of whom admittedly are little more than play ground level trolls spouting fatuous bullet points but they took the trouble to register and post. There must be a reason.

Jurgen Klopp

It says it all to be honest when the reasons being spouted are it's because they all went to Facebook, it's because of the new site or even the most paranoid, deluded thing I've ever heard about this site, that the alt right have infiltrated.

Time after time there have been numerously​ supported feedback threads about over the top moderation or frankly pure biased moderation and it's always circle the wagons.

Seriously, all over the net this place has an awful reputation for being a suffocating environment due to all the rules and restrictions.

The fact that After Hours was laughably described as an "Echo Chamber of Hate" simply for pointing out Sweden's uncontrolled immigration causing issues is borderline hysteria.

This place is like the bloody Guardian at this stage, demonising everyone that strays from the "correct" ways of thinking and wondering then why the custom base is dwindling​.

Next thing they'll be begging for donations like the Guardian is now.

It's a shame too, cause a balanced mod team would have sorted a lot cause this site is great for lots of topics with an Irish central approach to be honest.

Jurgen Klopp

bobby marley wrote: »

we are getting paid by the kremlin

The alt right have invaded! AKA there are more people who disagree with me and argue against my beliefs which I do not like. They must accept them or be made to accept them, so it must be a conspiracy when they aren't all banned

D0NNELLY

Erik Shin wrote: »

I've had upwards of a dozen myself....not precious about post count it anything, just like trying to think of witty names...the day I can't think of one is the day I leave for good

Erik Shin?

Erik Shin

D0NNELLY wrote: »

Erik Shin?

Think about it

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

AH has been absolutely choked of any life whatsoever by mods, I don't necciserily blame the mods for that but the people who instruct them.

Have an opinion that's not mainstream? You're not welcome...argue...get a ban.

upandcumming

The the android app is pathetic as well... No interest in developing it either.

jca

At least you didn't spell it quite...

looksee

Hunky Monster wrote: »

AH has been absolutely choked of any life whatsoever by mods, I don't necciserily blame the mods for that but the people who instruct them.

Have an opinion that's not mainstream? You're not welcome...argue...get a ban.

What did I miss?

KERSPLAT!

Hunky Monster wrote: »

AH has been absolutely choked of any life whatsoever by mods, I don't necciserily blame the mods for that but the people who instruct them.

Have an opinion that's not mainstream? You're not welcome...argue...get a ban.

And you have no part to play in it? Fire up your record there across your accounts and tell me the common denominator across the mod actions.

I'm not sure where these instructions are coming from but after modding AH for a few years I've yet to give, receive or see any.

Feedback is full of one side saying the far right are taking over, another saying the place is too PC and the far left have the place ruined. We can only mod what's in front of us and it's a mixture of both to be honest. Mods will never get everything right but I don't believe for a second they're the reason for the decline in boards. Other social media outlets, the downtime last year and the responsive site are where the blame lies in my opinion.

gandalf

Chorus_suck wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Tbh as you said I did that dance already in a number of threads as did many others with no acknowledgement or action from the management.

To be clear when I say management I don't mean the mods, the cat mods or the admins who volunteer their time on here. I used to be one of them so I am well aware of the resources they commit to a largely thankless task. I am talking about the owners who don't seem to have a clue what to do.

GT_TDI_150

Mmmh problem with boarda right now....

A lad drives a truck into a crowd of people in a european city shouting aluh akbar and people arent allowed to speculate to the nature of the attack...

An 'irish' man in prisonned in Egypt for being there with queationable motives, at a queationable time... be careful what you comment...

Dont say slippy in the football forum...

....

Books4you

An File wrote: »

Was it yourself who posted a thread about this exact same topic exactly one year ago?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=99590627

What's with the agenda?

Honestly I think it's this kind of attitude from mods that is killing Boards. They seem to knock anyone down who stand up to them any little bit. I'm not a big poster but i am here a lot but for me reddit is the place to be.

I understand it in some cases but other times (quite a lot of the time) it just seems to be certain mods on a power trip. I do respect the mods but from an outsider looking in a lot that's what i see. Just my opinion on it.

Also the responsive site had a big part to play in it!

D0NNELLY

Erik Shin wrote: »

Think about it

Ericsson is all i got

TherapyBoy

D0NNELLY wrote: »

Ericsson is all i got

Your GP can prescribe some little blue pills if you are having difficulties

Yourself isit

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I dunno why beyond the obvious! Social media is a battle ground we know that and boards is an apparently somewhat quaint old school example.

I've been here one way or another since 2001, with the odd break and I've seen nothing remotely comparable to the post Trump election invasion of right wingers. Most of whom admittedly are little more than play ground level trolls spouting fatuous bullet points but they took the trouble to register and post. There must be a reason.

What's different is probably the tendancy of posters to shout "alt right" at differing opinions. This place was never politically correct.

Most Europeans are in fact hostile to Islamic immigration. And the idea that this place is part of an American led takeover is laughable.

it is only on the Irish "left" where Americanised terms, including alt right prevail.

On the French election threads they are celebrating a defeat for the "alt right". The front nationale has its roots in the anti-Jacobin right, which lasted through vichy France til now. It's not alt anything. It's not new. Its roots are 200 years old.

Not that all immigration skeptics are "old right" either. Lots of people are.

Boggles

Yourself isit wrote: »

Most Europeans are in fact hostile to Islamic immigration..

Is that a fact?

IITYWYBMAD

gandalf wrote: »

Tbh as you said I did that dance already in a number of threads as did many others with no acknowledgement or action from the management.

Sure Gandalf weren't you thanked for your opinions and told that all feedback had been taken on-board and that the management would be back next week/month/year with a response. All while the thread would be locked and the messages disappeared into the ether...

I can trace the issues with his site back to the decision by the original owners deciding to relinquish control and sell out to Daft (Distilled).

The apologists can point all they like to SA, DIGG, etc... but this so called shift in behavior has not had the same effect on the likes of Reddit, Craigslist, ign, 4Chan, Quora, etc.. Why, i wonder?

Is it because all of the above offer a real place to chat, without the stifling over moderated behavior that we can see in almost every forum here? All of them offer an interactive, fully responsive mobile experience with native mobile apps?

To say that people are no longer interested in this style of discussion, does a huge disservice to the user-base here, and flies in the face of statistics where some discussion fora are being valued at between 100M to 500M, and growing.

Boards.ie (while I'll continue to use it for my own ends) missed the boat big style, and I know they know it. They had a captive audience that they could have exploited for the greater good of the users and owners, but frankly they f**ked it up many years ago, and are now facing the consequences.

seamus

The whole right/left thing is funny, people just make it up as they go along. 10/15 years ago, being anti-globalisation was firmly the domain of the hard left, the communists and socialists protesting about the spread of big corporates and Starbucks across the globe.

Now it's apparently the hard-right who are the anti-globalisation front, protesting against the erosion of national identities and migration of muslims out of the middle east.

Much like religion, people aren't shaped by the badges they apply, rather they wear the badges which best fit their pre-existing biases and prejudices. At the moment that's a media-driven fear of muslims. Coming largely from the US, it has to be said, which is why it seems so at odds with the general sentiment in Europe, thought that's not to say the fear hasn't increased here too. People are just less panicky in general in Europe than the US. Hence why opinions that would be at home on a US forum seem so bizarrely hysterical and OTT when posted here on boards.

In another decade when it turns out that muslims aren't plotting to make us all wear bags over our heads and the media have moved onto something else, there'll be another hot topic that people are getting themselves in a flap about. Probably automation, and it'll be the hard left losing their sh1t again.

Anyway, that's a bit off the topic. My point really is that it's not a weird racist element making boards "worse", as this has cropped up across the internet in te last 18 months.

It's also not OTT moderation because the usual suspects have been whinging about that for 15 years, well before, during and after boards' peak popularity. The people who continually come up against different moderators over a longer period of time, all share one thing in common; they're just dickheads.

Doctor DooM

You know, when I can't even read a feedback thread without people demanding how much I have to hate Muslims, it's a sign to tune out until that much gets sorted.

Doctor DooM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

I wasn't being literal, as you well know, and this is not the appropriate place for this discussion, which was my actual entire point, so I will not be drawn on that.

This is a thread about why boards is quiet, yet here we are, again, with a shoe horned discussion about how people actually don't want Muslims about.

Doctor DooM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Which is hugely ironic, seeing as the last 2 threads I've checked on feedback have devolved into it, including this one right here, and lately you can't look at AH without seeing criticism of some group of people or other, and for some reason the lefty atheist forum somehow seems perfectly able to do it.

It's weird how we heard exactly the same language being used about the Roma here, the travelling comunity, the africans, when Boards was hugely popular. Almost like it's an excuse.

If you really think that's the cause you are divorced from the real reasons it is quiet. In my opinion as a qualified digital marketer and social media professional the forum platform has simply fallen out of favour somewhat a places barriers to entry to the new user that was not important in the older days of the net. I have seen boards take moves to counteract this, even if other people haven't noticed: I hope it succeeds as frankly one of the nicest things about this place is the fact it irritates the extremes so much and lets actual discourse take place.

Phoebas

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

I don't think you can realistically compare these polls.
One was a question in the abstract; the other a question about an actual policy.

ancapailldorcha

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Perception does not necessarily equal fact.

In my experience, immigration threads tend to go one way and one way only. They've always ended up being riddled with negative comments at best about Muslims and often turn into echo chambers with the same posters making the same points over and over again.

The echo chamber is a very common phenomenon on sites like Facebook and Reddit with people (of all beliefs and ideologies) now taking single remarks as attempts of censorship and react hysterically as a result. This goes well beyond this site but this site will likely suffer as a result.

Calhoun

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Perception does not necessarily equal fact.

In my experience, immigration threads tend to go one way and one way only. They've always ended up being riddled with negative comments at best about Muslims and often turn into echo chambers with the same posters making the same points over and over again.

The echo chamber is a very common phenomenon on sites like Facebook and Reddit with people (of all beliefs and ideologies) now taking single remarks as attempts of censorship and react hysterically as a result. This goes well beyond this site but this site will likely suffer as a result.

Exactly and it happens on both sides, we have posters who are completely anti-immigration and anti-muslim, you also have posters who do not wish to discuss anything negative related to any of the minority groups.

So maybe we have echo-chambers all around, how do we meet in the middle and be able to discuss in a arational matter? i don't know.

Censorship however is not the way forward as all it does is help grow the non-established view point.

Calhoun

Doctor DooM wrote: »

If you really think that's the cause you are divorced from the real reasons it is quiet. In my opinion as a qualified digital marketer and social media professional the forum platform has simply fallen out of favour somewhat a places barriers to entry to the new user that was not important in the older days of the net. I have seen boards take moves to counteract this, even if other people haven't noticed: I hope it succeeds as frankly one of the nicest things about this place is the fact it irritates the extremes so much and lets actual discourse take place.

Is it a case however that at a macro level that the platform changes is having an impact but there are also micro level impacts that are also reducing the numbers?

Outlaw Pete

A while back there Boards (AH in particular) seemed to be picking up again and it felt as if there was a concerted effort to do whatever it took to keep discussions going, to moderate threads without bias and to not infract users for posts which might offend (heaven forbid) but I have to say that of late it seems to be slipping back again, particularly with regard to threads being needlessly locked.

The 'Hirsute Women - Yay or Nay?' thread is one example and the 'Madeleine McCann' thread another. Both of those threads should still be open. When a thread is no longer wanted by the userbase, it will fall off the front page naturally. Until such time, it has not run it's course. If users are attacking one another on a personal level on those threads and turning them into being about them rather than the topic (which I appreciate is an issue) then they should receive warnings to stay on topic, to attack the post and not the poster.... if they don't heed such directions, ban those users from posting on those threads.

What I don't think is being considered is how the other users (the ones who can take part in threads, stick to topic, and without getting personal with one another) feel when such threads get locked.

Boards should be going out of it's way to allow almost anything to be posted (as long as it is not libelous, extremely racist or personally abusive) so that it aptly sends the message that it will facilitate discussion on any topic which people have an appetite to discuss without there being an atmosphere that at any moment the discussion might get locked if it happens to go off topic or where users start bickering. It's a moderator's job to ensure those things are dealt with without resorting to closing threads.

Boards has a reputation for over zealous moderation and for stifling discussion, and tbh it's a deserved reputation... and if it wants thrive rather than merely survive, then it needs to do what has to be done to get rid of it.

Murrisk

I was a visitor to the IMDb messageboards for over ten years. Yes, it was troll-ridden but midst the dross were some great discussions. After every film I watched, I'd go there to discuss the film or just read other opinions on it. I miss it greatly now that the messageboard has been deactivated. I use social media and like it, but it is not a good medium to get into in-depth discussions on a particular subject. The messageboard format is one I really love.

So if boards.ie goes the way of the IMDb messageboard, I will be very sad. I will genuinely really miss it, I love linear messageboards!

ancapailldorcha

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

I think what you have to bear in mind, especially someone with beliefs as atypical of the average Irish person as yourself is that this site is mainly populated with younger-middle aged Irish people who'd be of a predominantly left-centrist persuasion so the opinions of your average American Conservative would be very much an anachronism.

On the subject of Trump threads, a lot of the discussion happened in the main Politics forum which was odd. Unsurprisingly, most of the posters were anti-Trump. We did have some pro-Trump posters and some of them caused issues. I'm not saying their counterparts on the other side didn't but those counterparts were much more vigilant when it came to calling out the other side by reporting posts.

I haven't noticed any cracks at Israelis here to be honest but I've not noticed too many threads on the subject. Then again, I tend to spend a lot of time in the main (?) Politics forum.

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

No worries. I know that. Feedback is feedback.

Calhoun wrote: »

So maybe we have echo-chambers all around, how do we meet in the middle and be able to discuss in a rational matter? i don't know.

I think sites like this where opinions aren't protected is the answer. I have no interest in protecting anyone or any group from criticism. The issues arise in the manner in which specific opinions are put across.