Future of boards.ie lack of young blood

Never Say Never Again

Why did boards close down the pretty busy politics cafe forum and replace it with the the tumbleweeds members only politics cafe 2.0? That just doesn't seem to make business sense

wakka12

Im 22. I think theres plenty of peopple in their 20's on here. I think the site is better without posters aged 15-18

gavindublin

Moderators are a huge problem.
Swap them consistently over different forums to moderate.

They think they own the topics they post in and you can't have an opinion or point out that they're wrong.
Failing that, blast them with piss.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Two to three to years ago an AH poll gave the age profile as;
18-24 28.27%
25-30 28.27%
31-36 17.30%
37-40 8.44%
41-50 13.08%
50+. 4.64%

The youngsters are a clear majority. They must just come across as grumpy, conservative, mundane old codgers.

Tom Mann Centuria

gavindublin wrote: »

Moderators are a huge problem.
Swap them consistently over different forums to moderate.

They think they own the topics they post in and you can't have an opinion or point out that they're wrong.
Failing that, blast them with piss.

I don't think mods are the problem but I sort of know what you mean, and some subjects are a bit frustrating to read sometimes but most mods mod because they like the subject they mod in, and I'm not sure disinterested mods would be of any benefit. (too many uses of word mod).

NollagShona

Be less rabidly hard right???

NollagShona

Never Say Never Again wrote: »

Why did boards close down the pretty busy politics cafe forum and replace it with the the tumbleweeds members only politics cafe 2.0? That just doesn't seem to make business sense

Litigation?

Kivaro

Never Say Never Again wrote: »

Why did boards close down the pretty busy politics cafe forum and replace it with the the tumbleweeds members only politics cafe 2.0? That just doesn't seem to make business sense

This factor could be the death knell for Boards.
A lot of people gave up on boards after they made it a mod/mod-approved-poster forum. Quelling the dissenting voice by making it a members only forum was a very bad idea.

And on that note: Merry Christmas!

punisher5112

They are all taking selfies....

monnies

Never Say Never Again wrote: »

Why did boards close down the pretty busy politics cafe forum and replace it with the the tumbleweeds members only politics cafe 2.0? That just doesn't seem to make business sense

politics is too divisive nowadays,
and i suspect most people who are posting here in the evenings are under the influence,
and as my granny used to say " don't mix beer with politics"

Mister Vain

Maybe a boards story feature or snazzy filter would attract the young un's.

monnies

the soccer forum is private, there are still a lot of young people following football, but they can't post in the soccer forum,
i could understand that when liverpool and man u were contending, but as they are just contending for top 4 nowadays maybe new people should be allowed post in the soccer forum

Gerrup Outta Dat!

wakka12 wrote: »

Im 22. I think theres plenty of peopple in their 20's on here. I think the site is better without posters aged 15-18

Why?

FossilFoe

I'd say there a fair amount of people posting in there 20s on boards to be fair.

wakka12

Gerrup Outta Dat! wrote: »

Why?

Because teeny boppers are annoying

Heres Johnny

Because it's anonymous. Alot of youngsters want their friends to like their posts for validation and want to know who thanked them. Not an anonymous poster on a message board.
Plus the moderation is going to kill boards
eventually.

punisher5112

FossilFoe wrote: »

I'd say there a fair amount of people posting in there 20s on boards to be fair.

I still feel 20 does that count....

Autochange

Anyone ever seen the movie : The Purge

We need a 24hr window where we can say anything we choose no matter how nasty or offensive. Have one open thread. Participate if you wish.

Then delete the thread afterwards.

An tUasal C

Boards just isn't something most young people give much thought to.

punisher5112

Autochange wrote: »

Anyone ever seen the movie : The Purge

We need a 24hr window where we can say anything we choose no matter how nasty or offensive. Have one open thread. Participate if you wish.

Then delete the thread afterwards.

The guberment wouldn't allow as it would show them up for who they really are....

TheAnalyst_

Stuff like closing politics cafe and the modding in general slowly turned people away. Great success guys!

riffmongous

Henry Short Graveyard wrote: »

Two to three to years ago an AH poll gave the age profile as;
18-24 28.27%
25-30 28.27%
31-36 17.30%
37-40 8.44%
41-50 13.08%
50+. 4.64%

The youngsters are a clear majority. They must just come across as grumpy, conservative, mundane old codgers.

In 2005....
13-24 63%
25-29 14%
30-34 12%
35-39 5%
40+ 2.7%
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=3549

tomwaterford

Tbf it do be boring reading every second post people posting about their kids

Zzzzzz.....feels like alot of posters at that stage of life....and from outside looking in...it's boring af

Harry Palmr

I suppose the question for boards or any "legacy" www Mk1 site is this - how will the kids find it now?. If I were 18-20 now would I have heard of it? Unlikely, as it's been an age since I saw it referenced anywhere else.

Mister Vain

We need to bring back the "Irish women are bitches" threads. They were all the rage back in the day.

freshpopcorn

Mister Vain wrote: »

We need to bring back the "Irish women are bitches" threads. They were all the rage back in the day.

Don't give him any ideas!

screamer

Boards is a bit like the news.... it's only as you get older it becomes of interest to you. Boards I think will always have an appeal to older people.....and so what? it still often descends into a playground!

Gerald P Sheep

I'm 21 I go on boards every evening usually split between here and the farming and forestry section just signed up there a few minutes ago 😅

leggo

Genuine suggestions:

The 'stay on topic' rule is dated in all forums except PI. If I was in a pub having a natural conversation, which can go all kinds of directions and that's what makes it fun, and someone told me to stick to the topic that started the conversation...they'd get at least a strong slagging if not outright told to "**** off." It's just not how people converse anywhere and doesn't fit in 2017.

Come up with a tagging system for posters to address particular posts. Multi-quite posts are the death of any decent conversation ever, they make for an impossible read and are literally only ever used when an argument has broken down and people are looking to points score with crap attempts at zingers than usually just come across as smarmy. If you can't make one coherent post without multi-quoting, you lose.

I don't hate the mods. They do this for free and mostly seem to get it right, and the odd one who gets too involved and are usually dealt with.

beauf

People de-rail topics deliberately if you allow posting off topic. So you can't discuss anything then. After hours is mainly gibberish as a result.

Multi Quoting seems to be the default on the mobile website. I'd love to know how to turn it off. The mobile website is a PITA to use.

The main design has dis-improved over the years. Navigation is harder. I don't both going to some forums now for that reason.

beauf

Never Say Never Again wrote: »

Boards.ie has a major Demographic problem, no young people aged 15/25 are joining the site anymore. This website faces the prospect of being as obsolete as vcrs and bank tellers. What can be done to address this problem ?

A boards vlog.

Boards is effectively a texting when a lot of popular media is image obsessed.

jimmycrackcorm

riffmongous wrote:

In 2005.... 13-24 63% 25-29 14% 30-34 12% 35-39 5% 40+ 2.7%

It's almost as if people just got older over the intervening years.

pilly

Teyla Emmagan wrote:

We'd probably have to make AH a "safe space" for them. You may as well turn off the lights.

And this **** is why they're not on Boards.

Arghus

Boards is just facing the same issues that all "old school" traditional message boards are facing. They've become superseded in popularity by the likes of Reddit and newer forms of social media. The issue of moderation is just a red herring.

The user base is getting older, doesn't spend as much time on-line as they used too and go elsewhere for what they used to get from Boards - theres not as much dynamisim around here as there once was. There might be still a fair few people on here in their early twenties, but there's less and less of them as time goes by. Long term the writing is on the wall.

I think it still does pretty well, for now, in the face of this, for an internet forum it still gets plenty of traffic, though once you get beyond the busier forums - After Hours or Soccer and the like - it has become gradually quieter and quieter over the last few years. Even a relatively busy forum like Films is noticably less alive as time goes on. And the entirety of the music section is absolutely nothing in traffic and activity terms compared to the past - I'd love to see some form of amalgamation of forums for that section, it might breathe a bit of messy life into it again - it certainly couldn't hurt. The Galway City forum used to be hopping but it's barely alive now. And most of these forums aren't that heavily moderated, so you can't blame that aspect of boards for everything, as many are wont to do.

leggo

beauf wrote: »

People de-rail topics deliberately if you allow posting off topic. So you can't discuss anything then. After hours is mainly gibberish as a result.

That happens in real conversation too, though. I've often a class story that's gonna knock people's socks off and then the chat magically switches and it gets awkward for me to be like "So Billy you mentioned bears going ice skating ten minutes ago, funny you should say that but..." (Though I still do obviously, who doesn't wanna hear about ice skating bears??)

It happens and yet we persevere.

beauf

Depends if the conversation is about something specific or just chat. Context is everything.

Classic example is Windows, and IOS and Linux users de-railing each others threads.

beauf

Arghus wrote: »

Boards is just facing the same issues that all "old school" traditional message boards are facing. They've become superseded in popularity by the likes of Reddit and newer forms of social media... .

Some of the other forums I use are pretty much unchanged and as popular as ever. But they are far more consistent in every area, and the design, moderation, navigation than boards has been across all areas.

I find boards very hard to use on the mobile. Tend to avoid using it mobile.

JupiterKid

Arghus wrote: »

Boards is just facing the same issues that all "old school" traditional message boards are facing. They've become superseded in popularity by the likes of Reddit and newer forms of social media. The issue of moderation is just a red herring.

The user base is getting older, doesn't spend as much time on-line as they used too and go elsewhere for what they used to get from Boards - theres not as much dynamisim around here as there once was. There might be still a fair few people on here in their early twenties, but there's less and less of them as time goes by. Long term the writing is on the wall.

I think it still does pretty well, for now, in the face of this, for an internet forum it still gets plenty of traffic, though once you get beyond the busier forums - After Hours or Soccer and the like - it has become gradually quieter and quieter over the last few years. Even a relatively busy forum like Films is noticably less alive as time goes on. And the entirety of the music section is absolutely nothing in traffic and activity terms compared to the past - I'd love to see some form of amalgamation of forums for that section, it might breathe a bit of messy life into it again - it certainly couldn't hurt. The Galway City forum used to be hopping but it's barely alive now. And most of these forums aren't that heavily moderated, so you can't blame that aspect of boards for everything, as many are wont to do.

I completely agree. Most internet message boards seem to be getting quieter and the user age profile getting older. I’m an admin on another Irish web forum and compared to a decade ago when it was hopping it barely gets 5 posts a day now.

server down

beauf wrote: »

Some of the other forums I use are pretty much unchanged and as popular as ever. But they are far more consistent in every area, and the design, moderation, navigation than boards has been across all areas.

I find boards very hard to use on the mobile. Tend to avoid using it mobile.

You you use the touch site? That’s easy an intuitive to me.

hatrickpatrick

Boards is a hugely oppressive environment and has been for years, compared to other forums this place is like junior infants in terms of authoritarianism and rules. But for whatever reason, that's something the administration have determined never to change even if the alternative is the site dying a slow death.

Eire Go Brach

Nothing, everything runs it’s course. The only question we need to ask is cremation or burial?

beauf

For me half the page is taken up by ads.
Every new page it goes to the bottom of the list, not the top.
The default on opening a thread (that your already subscribed to )is the first post not the last. So you always have to click to the last page. Everytime. Use to go to the last automatically.
It multi quotes people, rather just the post your replying to. So on a small screen you get a tonne of quotes that fill up the screen.
Editing an existing post, is sooooo slow. Its like its stopped working.
Did I mention Ads, so many ads.
I don't have any of these problems on other forums.

Many of us said these design choices and the moderation style would eventually effect the site. Seems like that is happening. Though perhaps its just the Irish people, especially the younger generations are so obsessed with media and social media and self image. That they aren't interested in a forum anymore.

Perhaps we are wrong. The unsung hero's of the site are the mods. they would have a better sense of whats happening.

Discodog

I still use Boards a lot but I don't have the same loyalty since a moderation dispute. I am long over it but it really changed my opinion. If certain people decide that they want you out then nothing will stop it, if they are part of the clique.

Lots of users are falling away & genuine criticism is being stifled. I can't get on with Reddit & I much prefer things here but it's not the same as it was.

The lack of young blood shouldn't be an issue as the population in general is getting older. The loss of established users is more of a concern

donegaLroad

It's a bit like BBC radio 2 present djs were on BBC radio 1, twenty years ago playing Oasis and Blur.

Discodog

beauf wrote: »

For me half the page is taken up by ads.
Every new page it goes to the bottom of the list, not the top.
The default on opening a thread (that your already subscribed to )is the first post not the last. So you always have to click to the last page. Everytime. Use to go to the last automatically.
It multi quotes people, rather just the post your replying to. So on a small screen you get a tonne of quotes that fill up the screen.
Editing an existing post, is sooooo slow. Its like its stopped working.
Did I mention Ads, so many ads.
I don't have any of these problems on other forums.

Many of us said these design choices and the moderation style would eventually effect the site. Seems like that is happening. Though perhaps its just the Irish people, especially the younger generations are so obsessed with media and social media and self image. That they aren't interested in a forum anymore.

Perhaps we are wrong. The unsung hero's of the site are the mods. they would have a better sense of whats happening.

Have you tried an add blocker ? Works for me

Discodog

donegaLroad wrote: »

It's a bit like BBC radio 2 present djs were on BBC radio 1, twenty years ago playing Oasis and Blur.

Smashy & Nicey - Boards Admins :pac:

Ralf and Florian

Donald Trump wrote: »

I volunteer my jizz to any fertile ladies willing to procreate in order to repopulate the site membership

Assuming you have no Cork blood in you. Kind of a "one drop rule" if you will.....if you have Cork blood you don't even get one drop of The Donald's batter

Are you Donald Trump from the Proc?

Arghus

beauf wrote: »

Some of the other forums I use are pretty much unchanged and as popular as ever. But they are far more consistent in every area, and the design, moderation, navigation than boards has been across all areas.

I find boards very hard to use on the mobile. Tend to avoid using it mobile.

I'm sure there's still a few out there that are going as strong as ever, but boards certainly isn't the only message board that's in decline. Most of the sites I would have turned to daily up until a few years ago are nowhere near as busy these days. Sites that are bucking this trend are exceptions to the rule, rather than the norm and I'll be willing to bet that even those places that are still bustling are also less busy today than they were back up until around 2010/11.

I work and socialise with people from 20-40 and in the last 3-4 years I've literally never heard anyone under the age of 25 in that group mention any message board - aside from Reddit, if that qualifies - let alone Boards. People use facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. The idea of a a place like this is increasingly quaint for people.

People like to blame the design, the moderation, who owns it etc, etc, but the bottom line is that the slightly older internet user generation that made up Boards user base is aging and doesn't have the free-time,interest and stamina to devote hours and hours to posting and reading the site every day. And the site is the users.

There used to be regular piss-ups for boards users across different forums - I went to a few for The Galway City forum, which wasn't one of the bigger forums, back in the day that got over twenty people at them: twenty! You wouldn't get twenty even going so far as posting on the thread about the beers meet up these days, but that was all a by-product of boards being a younger place, full of people with freer time and willing to go to a random beer session at the drop of a hat. Boards had a social aspect to it, but that was down to it being populated with people who were, by and large, of that extremely sociable age. It's a damn shame that all that is largely dead now.

But that It's natural: you've more real life commitments when you are 32 as opposed to 22. But there isn't the same numbers coming up from younger ages to make up that shortfall and that's because the whole concept of message boards is as foreign and removed to them as a 56k modem - so long term, while I can't see the site disappearing, it diminishes slightly month to month, year to year.

I might have a few quibbles with the way this place is laid out, but I'm amazed people find Boards hard to use and navigate: it's piss-easy compared to other huge message boards!

leggo

I'd say it'd be more dramatic than that: with tech, rather than dying a slow death, things tend to drop off a cliff overnight when something else that suits a majority comes along. Think how Bebo became a barren wasteland in just a few months once Facebook caught on. I'm not sure of boards' business requirements, I know a few years ago it was thriving, but assuming they need to generate user-based revenue, if that were to happen it could speed up any demise.

Don't get me wrong: I don't think it's dying as is and still remains one of Ireland's biggest websites, but the fact that it seems to be ageing is generally symptomatic that we're one decision that pisses a lot of people off plus one opportunistic IT whizz (who could be reading now and get the wheels spinning) creating a catch-all solution from having a major situation.

If I owned the site, I'd be looking at it as a great selling opportunity: it still gets serious traffic so you could sell high, but its value will diminish rapidly at an unforeseen time.

That said, I like this place so I'd love if an admin came along with some hard stats that showed this to absolutely not be the case.

LuckyLloyd

Think Arghus nails it: lack of young people. An influx of young people would shake up more than just discussion: it would filter into how the place is organised and run also. As it is, the people with influence over such are either older or employed by the business. Keep it ticking over; what you have you hold; minimise perceived negativity and drama. All vibrancy and sense of an engaged community is gone and probably will never return.

So it will gradually run down, providing business value for a while before we reach a tipping point where awkward questions will be asked about how to maintain it post profitability without pulling the plug. The only question is the timeline really.