Why is Boards so quiet?

dfx-

Wibbs wrote: »

Some practical ideas?

Get rid of cards. They're stifling and too much of a "system" and in my experience cause more problems than they solve. "Oh look we have a record, Yay!". Nope. We're not, or shouldn't be moderation accountants, relying on rules rather than common bloody sense.

Leave threads open. Unless they're a rereg, an obvious troll and you can dial them out, by... mein Gott, moderating. Let people talk for god's sake. So what if it doesn't quite "fit the charter". Who the hell reads them, but the mods who wrote them, or those looking for "points of order" when the poo hits the fan. I've written and co written a few and I very rarely ever read them again after I hit "Submit Reply".

As far as AH/PC goes, I'd nuke the latter. Try and rejig the main politics forum for those who want to delve more deeply and leave the man in the pub "after hours" political stuff in well... AH. At the moment it's a coin toss whether an AH thread within the sphere of politics stays there and grows or is shunted to PC where it either dies on the vine, or goes to a head butting session between two users after the first page.

Moderate the moderation. Dial it right back. Let people talk. Lord knows I've had my moments not doing that. Hell, it was me who came up with the Mod Bold Text in the first place. For example, if someone makes a joke in a serious thread, unless it causes actual problems for other folks and not just report post thrillseekers, let them. If someone takes the conversation "off topic" and others get into that, let them. That's how humans converse.

Accept that AH will be one of the last forums standing if it comes to that. Stop treating it as the bastard child with the ginger hair. It's about the most popular forum on the site and is the gateway forum to the rest of the site for many. Treat and respect it accordingly. Use that. Don't stifle that. Trying to pump up minor forums by redirecting(if a redirect is even left) is a hiding to nothing. Never mind that since the "management" decided after focus groups and powerpoint pie charts that it was a good plan to reduce the entire record of the history of Boards.ie to a single dropdown, we're on a hiding to nothing there.

Christ, I'm a longwinded prick. Apologies to those on phones who now have whiplash injuries from scrolling that wall of shite.

Funnily enough, I don't see any issues relating to these solutions in forums I'm a poster in or reader in. I don't see over moderation in Cricket, Commuting and Transport, Television, Leaving Cert, any of the sports forums I visit or others.

As a mod, none of it applies to the Soccer Forum in my opinion. For instance, from reported posts and PMs, I know people know the Soccer Forum charter inside and out, it's quoted back to us. And cards definitely matter. And people want us to intervene on thread when people feel threads are derailed.

Or are we going to apply rules that suit AH or Political Cafe to everywhere? That's certainly one way of achieving your statement of AH being the last forum left. I don't even visit the Political Cafe, but this forum is becoming a subforum of moaning about it and it's getting tiring as a poster elsewhere.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Wibbs wrote: »

I don't think it's arrogance per se LL, but more what I was referring to when I said "middle management corporate creep". They're a necessary evil in big companies, but they're the very last people you approach to look for innovation, beyond how to shuffle more paper. The notion tends to break them out in hives.

This We have systems in place kinda thinking(and Boards has brought in many over the last ten years) builds up over time into a culture and that culture tends to only follow existing trends and will be far less likely to think out of the box, or bring in new blood that might. So for example as mods leave, their replacements are chosen along the company line, those that "fit in" and so on and so forth.

Think back ten years and look at some, if not many of the mods, many who were well known and regarded with affection and nearly always picked from the most prolific posters within their forum. Oh some could have their moments, but they were far less like mod machines and I'm sure we both could name a gansey load(actual unit of measure..) of those guys and gals who wouldn't get within an asses roar of even the smallest forum these days.

That's before we look at the dwindling of the sense of community, a two way community and not just in PR dribbled lip service. The rules mechanism made catechism has not impacted that too well. At all. There was also far more a sense of engagement with "management" and many of the founders of the community were regular posters and again there was the sense of a two way dialogue, even if it was to tell you to eff off. Today? The apparent CEO of the place has breezed in once or twice in a drive by and promptly disappeared, leaving a couple of the staff holding the can. Again typical corporate "thinking". With the admins - who are all just like the rest of us, volunteers and Boardsie's by choice BTW(I don't see them as the "Management" myself, they're in the poo too) - in the middle. Even there, out of the list of same there seem to be only a few holding the fort, at least publicly.

IMH, if this community is to reignite, it needs to look back and take the best of the past when it was a community and the place you came in Ireland to talk shite, or "serious business". And I think it is doable. I really do. But there may be some un-clenching of butt cheeks involved, nay required. On all sides.

Some practical ideas?

Get rid of cards. They're stifling and too much of a "system" and in my experience cause more problems than they solve. "Oh look we have a record, Yay!". Nope. We're not, or shouldn't be moderation accountants, relying on rules rather than common bloody sense.

Leave threads open. Unless they're a rereg, an obvious troll and you can dial them out, by... mein Gott, moderating. Let people talk for god's sake. So what if it doesn't quite "fit the charter". Who the hell reads them, but the mods who wrote them, or those looking for "points of order" when the poo hits the fan. I've written and co written a few and I very rarely ever read them again after I hit "Submit Reply".

As far as AH/PC goes, I'd nuke the latter. Try and rejig the main politics forum for those who want to delve more deeply and leave the man in the pub "after hours" political stuff in well... AH. At the moment it's a coin toss whether an AH thread within the sphere of politics stays there and grows or is shunted to PC where it either dies on the vine, or goes to a head butting session between two users after the first page.

Moderate the moderation. Dial it right back. Let people talk. Lord knows I've had my moments not doing that. Hell, it was me who came up with the Mod Bold Text in the first place. For example, if someone makes a joke in a serious thread, unless it causes actual problems for other folks and not just report post thrillseekers, let them. If someone takes the conversation "off topic" and others get into that, let them. That's how humans converse.

Accept that AH will be one of the last forums standing if it comes to that. Stop treating it as the bastard child with the ginger hair. It's about the most popular forum on the site and is the gateway forum to the rest of the site for many. Treat and respect it accordingly. Use that. Don't stifle that. Trying to pump up minor forums by redirecting(if a redirect is even left) is a hiding to nothing. Never mind that since the "management" decided after focus groups and powerpoint pie charts that it was a good plan to reduce the entire record of the history of Boards.ie to a single dropdown, we're on a hiding to nothing there.


Christ, I'm a longwinded prick. Apologies to those on phones who now have whiplash injuries from scrolling that wall of shite.

This is the best post I've read in any of the feedback threads ever. Spot on.

hullaballoo

It is a great post but did you have to quote the thing? :l

Wibbs

dfx- wrote: »

Funnily enough, I don't see any issues relating to these solutions in forums I'm a poster in or reader in. I don't see over moderation in Cricket, Commuting and Transport, Television, Leaving Cert, any of the sports forums I visit or others.

In the specialist forums this stuff is far less an issue, for fairly obvious nose on your face reasons.

As a mod, none of it applies to the Soccer Forum in my opinion. For instance, from reported posts and PMs, I know people know the Soccer Forum charter inside and out, it's quoted back to us. And cards definitely matter.

Cards mattering in the Soccer forum D? Well I never. Ditto for the charter. As I said; Who the hell reads them, but the mods who wrote them, or those looking for "points of order" when the poo hits the fan. Some forums require special case responses, the Soccer forum being one of the most obvious ones. But let us not make the all too easy mistake of thinking what works for there and me/you, works elsewhere. Another issue that can sometimes take hold on the site. I started out modding PI and it required a very "local" set of parameters, but I'd be one helluva fool, or more than usual for me, if I thought that required set of parameters in PI worked the same way in S&S, tLL, tGC, wherever.

And people want us to intervene on thread when people feel threads are derailed.

Aye, but how many people? How many people compared to the majority? I've seen and could likely name a pretty small subset of posters whose first response is to hit "report" and change a thread direction, far more than they could if they actually tried to make a decent response. And too many mods who would go all Moddy enabling that. As I said D it depends on the "local" community. One size does not fit all and that's the problem I have with the oft myopic generalist approach to all taken by too many. Though as an aside I feel for you guys D. The football arena is a bloody fraught one. :eek:

Or are we going to apply rules that suit AH or Political Cafe to everywhere?

Being less of a "MOD", being more human, being more a part of a community, rather than some trite overlord? Can't see that being a negative TBH. Across the Board(s).

That's certainly one way of achieving your statement of AH being the last forum left.

That's pretty much a done deal as things go, at present. It is the most popular forum on the site and the most conducive to general discourse. It's not an aim for achievement, merely a consideration of facts as they stand. And as they currently will likely play out.

I don't even visit the Political Cafe, but this forum is becoming a subforum of moaning about it and it's getting tiring as a poster elsewhere.

Why? You might take the advice oft meted out of not engaging and ignoring things that you don't like. I do, or try to anyway. Like I said one size does not fit all, but there is more of the trying to do that in play over the last few years and that's the culture I feel if borking the site more than it should.

Wibbs

hullaballoo wrote: »

It is a great post but did you have to quote the thing? :l

Don't me started H, I have HM on PayPal retainer to big me up on the regular, but the bugger is fleecing me on the word count points reward. The bastard. Ah well, baked beans for me for the foreseeable.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Wibbs wrote: »

Don't me started H, I have HM on PayPal retainer to big me up on the regular, but the bugger is fleecing me on the word count points reward. The bastard. Ah well, baked beans for me for the foreseeable.

It'll be kneecaps next.

dfx-

Wibbs, nowhere in your original post did I get the impression that these were solutions for only some forums. Your practical solutions read as a 'rip it all up and start again' policy in my opinion. In your second post you concede one size does not fit all numerous times, but your practical solutions call for exactly the opposite.

Why? You might take the advice oft meted out of not engaging and ignoring things that you don't like. I do, or try to anyway. Like I said one size does not fit all, but there is more of the trying to do that in play over the last few years and that's the culture I feel if borking the site more than it should.

I don't read the Political Cafe forum for the same reasons I don't visit any number of other forums that don't interest me. But by God do you hear never hear the end of it in here. You could go around whole huge acres of this site and not be prohibited to post unpopular opinions unimpeded when genuinely held/backed up.

The stricter moderation of one or two combustible forums are being projected onto the whole site when they really should not.

iguot

Guys, we've been down this road and 99.99% of the feedback was ignored/not even read. Their was considerable time put in by many posters to try and right this ship but the decision was to carry on regardless.

Wibbs, you'll put hours into this thread and it'll be for bought.

My 2c is just forget about it now.

Chorus_suck

This post has been deleted.

Cookie_Monster

dfx- wrote: »

Funnily enough, I don't see any issues relating to these solutions in forums I'm a poster in or reader in. I don't see over moderation in Cricket, Commuting and Transport, Television, Leaving Cert, any of the sports forums I visit or others.

On C&T I'd have to disagree, over moderation has killed it of late. A recent example; The most popular thread on the forum, The BE strike thread, was "locked for review recently" then over a week later locked permanently due to "lack of interest". I reported the post twice in that time to try and get it re-opened... go figure.

It's by no means the only forum to operate like that but a very stark recent example of the problem. There was no need to close it, deal with the problem posters, but let everyone continue to post of what was an extremely popular topic. IMO happens a lot, threads being closed needlessly across the site is on the rise.

Wibbs

dfx- wrote: »

Wibbs, nowhere in your original post did I get the impression that these were solutions for only some forums. Your practical solutions read as a 'rip it all up and start again' policy in my opinion.

Not rip it up D, but more get back to what made and grew Boards in the first place. I genuinely believe that if the Board's setup and culture of today was in place fifteen years ago it wouldn't have grown.

I don't read the Political Cafe forum for the same reasons I don't visit any number of other forums that don't interest me. But by God do you hear never hear the end of it in here. You could go around whole huge acres of this site and not be prohibited to post unpopular opinions unimpeded when genuinely held/backed up.

Sure D, but at the same time there are whole acres of this site that are essentially dead. The forums that cause the most hassle are usually the forums that are the more popular and where people feel more invested.

iguot wrote: »

Guys, we've been down this road and 99.99% of the feedback was ignored/not even read. Their was considerable time put in by many posters to try and right this ship but the decision was to carry on regardless.

Wibbs, you'll put hours into this thread and it'll be for bought.

My 2c is just forget about it now.

You may well have a point I.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Good afternoon folks, how are we?

I want to address a few points from the thread. To answer the OP I think the amazing sunny day in a lot of the country accounted for quiet traffic in Sunday morning just gone! It was lovely and (astonishingly) forecast so I'm guessing lots of people were out making the most of it. However, in general numbers of active users are lower than they were a few years ago due to several factors which have been mentioned by others already.

Let me reassure you all that there is no "lights out" scenario on the horizon, the site is not dying and we are doing well as far as keeping the lights on and the bills paid goes.

Also let me reassure those of you who love the legacy site - it's not going anywhere. You will not be forced to use the responsive site at any point. However the responsive site will remain alongside the legacy site. It is proving somewhat popular among mobile users at the moment.

Moderation is one of those things that come up again and again in Feedback. Some people like the fact the site is moderated and some people find it unnecessary. Boards has always been moderated and that is never likely to change. It is one of the things that are unique about the site. With hundreds of moderators however, it is very difficult to have a consistent moderator experience across the site; people and forums can moderate differently depending on the subject matter and the type of posts. It is on us to provide some more guidance and support to the mods, particularly new mods to give them assurance in their moderation and hopefully combat this in some way.
Overall the mods do an absoluotely fantastic job despite some of the stuff they have to deal with at times.
Accusations that moderation is biased or over the top have always been there, at least in my whole time here. If you genuinely see a case of this, please discuss things with the mod, their co-mods or a Category Mod. I think ancapailldorcha said it already but in general there is no problem with expressing differing opinions but how those opinions are expressed is what's important.

There are some good suggestions there regarding actioning the troublemakers and not the thread in it's entirety though it's not always possible when a thread goes nuts - and we've all seen it happen when you can barely keep up with the new posts - never mind the reported posts as well.

Close accounts - something to look into to see if we can do away with these or not, they certainly are more of a hindrance than a help a lot of the time.

Subscribing - as I already said in the mentioned thread, we will continue to do the manual updates until we have a new payment provider or the issues with Paypal are resolved however I resent the fact that anyone would imply we are stealing peoples money. We go through the Paypal account to match up any accounts to users that we can regularly as well as answering peoples posts when it doesn't go through automatically.

Folks, I'm afraid I have to leave it there for the moment as I have to head out but there is more to get back to and take into consideration here. Thanks

Beasty

Wibbs wrote: »

Not rip it up D, but more get back to what made and grew Boards in the first place. I genuinely believe that if the Board's setup and culture of today was in place fifteen years ago it wouldn't have grown.

The world, the internet and this place are vastly different to what they were 15 years ago. This site's traffic grew 12 fold between 2001 and 2006. Over the subsequent 10 years it doubled again. Yes it's dipped over the past couple of years, but as has already been mentioned there have been plenty of external factors influencing browsing behaviour.I can't think of a decent example of a business going back 15 years to recreate prior successes - not in this day and age anyway. The site has evolved and will in all likelihood continue to evolve. Hopefully the growth will return but in my view that will be by finding ways of attracting a new, younger audience, and not going back to a form that attracted the likes of you and me in what is now essentially a bygone era (yes, I'm saying we're probably relics around here:o:pac:)

Wibbs

Beasty wrote: »

The world, the internet and this place are vastly different to what they were 15 years ago.

It's really not that much different. For a start people are the same and are attracted or not by similar things.

This site's traffic grew 12 fold between 2001 and 2006. Over the subsequent 10 years it doubled again. Yes it's dipped over the past couple of years, but as has already been mentioned there have been plenty of external factors influencing browsing behaviour.I can't think of a decent example of a business going back 15 years to recreate prior successes - not in this day and age anyway.

It's a very different thing. We're not talking business models here. For me "going back" involves dialling back the corporate creep/time and motion/proceeeeedure stuff which has done the community no favours.

The site has evolved and will in all likelihood continue to evolve. Hopefully the growth will return but in my view that will be by finding ways of attracting a new, younger audience, and not going back to a form that attracted the likes of you and me in what is now essentially a bygone era (yes, I'm saying we're probably relics around here:o:pac:)

We are. The site has definitely become "middle aged" and all the bad and good that brings with it. The point is that "new, younger audience"? That was "us" back then and what attracted us then was not what we have today and I'd bet if we happened on the site as it is today then the growth would have been slower. You really think by applying middle aged middle management notion is going to attract such an audience? It won't.

Of course the other side of that coin is to keep/attract more of the old farts. They're a nice demographic for advertisers. Make it more comfortable for them. What will lose/lost a chunk of them was the site attempting to be relevant to the "youths" and too often looking like your uncle embarrass dancing at a wedding. QV the dropdown menu massacre and the "responsive" site.

TherapyBoy

Boards.ie: Niamh wrote: »

Subscribing - We go through the Paypal account to match up any accounts..

~Out of Office until May 22nd~

Has responsibility for this been passed on to someone while you are away?

KERSPLAT!

TherapyBoy wrote: »

Has responsibility for this been passed on to someone while you are away?

Mark does it too... not that I think that's good enough but anyway.

Conor Bourke

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Mark does it too... not that I think that's good enough but anyway.

It wasn't even thought of last summer and left a significant backlog.

genuinegenius

Yet another feedback thread chock-full of constructive suggestions by posters that genuinely care for the site's future.

Your efforts are admirable but you're wasting your time. You're swimming against the tide trying to save this dinosaur of a site. It's like discussing how to bring the Sega Mega Drive back to its hey-day while everyone else has moved onto the PlayStation 4. Why bother when there are already other functioning, more successful discussion sites out where the mod presence isn't so suffocating and you can say what you feel. Reasons the hangers-on say they're still here:

1. Boards has that unique Irish feel Not true anymore. Lots of international discussion sites have Irish sections, the most famous being Reddit. Not to mention the other Irish owned sites like PeoplesRepublicofCork, Politics.ie and politicalirish.

2. Insightful discussion Never understood this one. There was a time circa 10 years ago when Boards flirted with relevancy and you would see posts from the site quoted on the radio or Sunday papers. Political insiders, journalists and experts in their field would contribute to discussions but many of them were eventually repelled by the site's creeping authoritarian mod rule. Look how Prof. Brian Lucey of TCD was turfed out. Nowadays failed jokes, cringe-worthy puns and leftist virtue signalling are the order of the day. There are better specialist forums around the web where I can chat to people-in-the-know.

3 Apathy to change This is the big one I'd imagine. Middle aged and elderly people who are too lazy to register on another site or learn how Reddit's system works stick to Boards because it's what they're used to. Look at the outcry when the admins attmepted to update the site's layout. The luddites are utterly opposed to change as they connect to Boards on their dial-up modem using Windows 95.

ancapailldorcha

genuinegenius wrote: »

Yet another feedback thread chock-full of constructive suggestions by posters that genuinely care for the site's future.

Your efforts are admirable but you're wasting your time. You're swimming against the tide trying to save this dinosaur of a site. It's like discussing how to bring the Sega Mega Drive back to its hey-day while everyone else has moved onto the PlayStation 4. Why bother when there are already other functioning, more successful discussion sites out where the mod presence isn't so suffocating and you can say what you feel. Reasons the hangers-on say they're still here:

IME, these often vaunted other sites tend to have much narrower ranges of discussion to the point where they're basically echo chambers.

genuinegenius wrote: »

1. Boards has that unique Irish feel Not true anymore. Lots of international discussion sites have Irish sections, the most famous being Reddit. Not to mention the other Irish owned sites like PeoplesRepublicofCork, Politics.ie and politicalirish.

How do you quantify Irishness exactly?

genuinegenius wrote: »

2. Insightful discussion Never understood this one. There was a time circa 10 years ago when Boards flirted with relevancy and you would see posts from the site quoted on the radio or Sunday papers. Political insiders, journalists and experts in their field would contribute to discussions but many of them were eventually repelled by the site's creeping authoritarian mod rule. Look how Prof. Brian Lucey of TCD was turfed out. Nowadays failed jokes, cringe-worthy puns and leftist virtue signalling are the order of the day. There are better specialist forums around the web where I can chat to people-in-the-know.

3 Apathy to change This is the big one I'd imagine. Middle aged and elderly people who are too lazy to register on another site or learn how Reddit's system works stick to Boards because it's what they're used to. Look at the outcry when the admins attmepted to update the site's layout. The luddites are utterly opposed to change as they connect to Boards on their dial-up modem using Windows 95.

To be honest, your tone here and the fact that the first post from a brand new account suggests that you have issues with the place.

genuinegenius

IME, these often vaunted other sites tend to have much narrower ranges of discussion to the point where they're basically echo chambers.

As opposed to Boards where everyone must agree with mass immigration? Your experience is as valid as mine but I personally feel more free to express my opinions on other sites and enjoy the wider range of views on display.

How do you quantify Irishness exactly?

Fair question. I personally quantify Irishness by the percentage of Irish posters on the site or the number of topics that relate specifically to Ireland. This number has been diluted significantly on Boards over the years as forums for Islam have popped up and posters prefer to discuss the intricacies of Palestinian politics rather than day to day life in Ireland. This is fine if that's what the userbase wants but you can't claim it's an Irish site.

To be honest, your tone here and the fact that the first post from a brand new account suggests that you have issues with the place.

The automatic suspicion hanging over new posters is also very off-putting and could explain the drop in site activity.

ancapailldorcha

genuinegenius wrote: »

As opposed to Boards where everyone must agree with mass immigration?

Except this isn't remotely true. Look at any thread on the subject.

genuinegenius wrote: »

Fair question. I personally quantify Irishness by the percentage of Irish posters on the site or the number of topics that relate specifically to Ireland. This number has been diluted significantly on Boards over the years as forums for Islam have popped up and posters prefer to discuss the intricacies of Palestinian politics rather than day to day life in Ireland. This is fine if that's what the userbase wants but you can't claim it's an Irish site.

Again, this isn't true. Most threads on the Politics fora concern Irish issues.

genuinegenius wrote: »

The automatic suspicion hanging over new posters is also very off-putting and could explain the drop in site activity.

It isn't automatic. First post on the account is on Feedback trotting out the old "If I criticise mass immigration, they call me racist" victim claiming line.

begbysback

Hunky Monster wrote: »

This is the best post I've read in any of the feedback threads ever. Spot on.

Not quite, a gansey is actually a jumper

hullaballoo

begbysback wrote: »

Not quite, a gansey is actually a jumper

Yaaaaaaaaaaaassssssss!!!

begbysback

I don't get why people complain of over moderation - in the politics forum and others, people are blatantly racist and anti-Semitic - then try to dress it up as a "point of view" - some topics induce such and are usually prevented as everyone knows where they end

I've been here since the good old days of free sharing streams - imo most of the modding is just prevention of the inevitable or a form of libel protection, with a touch of power tripping which is humanly expected.

The idea that such a website can grow further is ludicrous, there is no further progress in such a life cycle - it can only maintain what it already has - if it were a business it would have been closed down quite some time ago - everyone seems to look for improvement but it works well for what it is, a place of moderated discussion and information of mostly Irish nature

I would hate to see it shut down, and don't believe it will - I'm sure this will offend many but hey this place could run on my Commodore 64, and if it comes to it the offer is there!!

Jurgen Klopp

hullaballoo wrote: »

Yaaaaaaaaaaaassssssss!!!

"Some **** has caused this wee site to go down the ****ter and we are nay leaving til we find out what **** did eh"

Wibbs

genuinegenius wrote: »

3 Apathy to change This is the big one I'd imagine. Middle aged and elderly people who are too lazy to register on another site or learn how Reddit's system works stick to Boards because it's what they're used to.

I was on Reddit for a good while GG and TBH I found it easy to navigate, just a bit different, though I have to admit I personally prefer the way bulletin boards work. It's far more like a conversation. Reddit and similar are very disjointed and do tend to follow the herd of whatever sub you're on(I know you can tweak the experience, but I still found them quite disjointed). Now that layout is fantastic in the more specialist and techie subs, where the (usually) good advice/info is right at the top(and of the threaded with similar), so you're not running through six pages of morons before you get to someone in the know, which can happen in BB style layouts. Facebook "discussions" I found to be pretty much useless and more about "look at me!" and trying to find previous discussions can be a right pain. Never mind many Arsebook page founders will delete willy nilly. In one area of interest for me there's the original old style BB forum, a subreddit and an Arsebook page. The BB is pretty dead as far as new post go, but it is the goto place for longstanding advice and other resources and is often linked in the sub and always linked in the FB page if techie stuff comes up(the FB page is largely sales stuff and social pics).

Look at the outcry when the admins attmepted to update the site's layout. The luddites are utterly opposed to change as they connect to Boards on their dial-up modem using Windows 95.

Not really. The objection there was and still is that it made things worse. Much worse. And it was all ages saying it. It reduced the entire span of the actual Boards forums to one dropdown menu, search was and is appallingly primitive and the "responsive" site wasn't. Even basic obvious to anyone stuff was missing. It was trying to "keep up with the kidz" and did so in a hamfisted fashion. If anything it made the BB experience look even more out of step. That was the issue(s) Oh and it wasn't the admins, they're volunteers and pretty much have to act according to the top down stuff, it was the office, the owners of the site, not any of the members.

As opposed to Boards where everyone must agree with mass immigration? Your experience is as valid as mine but I personally feel more free to express my opinions on other sites and enjoy the wider range of views on display.

Well I for one don't agree with mass immigration and think the policies and apparent procedures for dealing with the current crisis in Europe is beyond daft. And I've said that many times around here. I think it also beyond daft that this discussion is now apparently verboten on Boards. And I'm right behind you as far as expressing opinions, however if opinions end up along the lines of "No rag heads here", or news dumps from Fox with no actual discussion involved I see no value in those, beyond muppet spotting. I'd say similar of those Cum By Yah naive of thinking nothing to see here, diversity rocks types. Great for muppet spotting.

This number has been diluted significantly on Boards over the years as forums for Islam have popped up

And promptly died on the vine and has been closed(added to "world religions" IIRC). The only forum I ever got banned from. For asking a valid question no less. Then again religions and valid questions often look like heresy, especially to the old style religions that haven't been defanged by the Enlightenment and education.

The automatic suspicion hanging over new posters is also very off-putting

Sure, but much of that(beyond obvious troll types) has been IMH driven by another daft notion brought in, closed accounts. There have been a lot of them and many do return in different guises and that's grand. The "system" encourages it. Then we have a few that go and throw their e-toys outa the pram on the regular, so people are naturally going to be asking "oh right, which one is this. Again."

JCX BXC

Have just caught up with this thread, and I have to say it was enlightening, especially thanks to Wibbs. It was also nice to see the alternate opinions, which to be fair came across well and both were presented with little conflict.

I have to say I agree with many points and sentiments raised here. The closing threads is bizzare and quite frankly is moderators refusing to do what they signed up for, fair enough, people have lives, things must be done, situations do arise. If you can manage these and still allow time for boards, great! If not, in my opinion you shouldn't be a mod, as it will negatively effect the forum and to be honest I doubt you'll find boards any bit enjoyable either. I've made my opinions on over-modding clear in the past and don't think it would be of any benefit at the moment.

Please made note of this, to whoever the upper management is. These issues have been raised time and time again, and shoving them under the carpet have only made these issues multiply in severity. The time for action is now, not when the light bill can't be paid.

Jurgen Klopp

I feel sorry for actual balanced mods like Wibbs to be honest, I can only think of one or two smaller forum mods who would have the let everything go as long as you don't act the complete **** attitude. Unfortunately tho I think Wibbs you are wasting your time, as seen in the usual drive by "we're listening but everything is grand " post above

I say we start a GoFundMe for Wibbs to buy the site

#jesuiswibbs

:pac:

Surreptitious

Tom Mann Centuria

With posts that long? (though admittedly some lovely paragraphs) Wibbs is NOT the Messiah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plZRe1kPWZw