The slow death of forums *see OP for Admin warning and update 28/02/18*

millie35

SnakePlissken wrote: »

You're a bigger man/woman than I.

Though my post was somewhat in jest, I now avoid any thread wherein certain posters are involved as it just becomes a cyclical head melt.

Anyone remember Nodin?

Fr_Dougal

Too many Closed Accounts? Fine, remove the ‘Closed Account’ tag.

Too much bad Feedback? Fine, restrict the be-Jesus out of the Feedback forum.

You honestly couldn’t make it up.

I miss the days when DeVore gave the place a steer.

Arghus

Beasty wrote: »

And it's posts like this that drag threads off topic due to what appears to be a personal distaste perhaps down to someone not thinking the site is run like it used to be when it counted it's annual posts in the hundreds of thousands

But don't let me get in the way of a good whinge gandalf

Reads like a very condescending reply on your behalf. The numbers don't lie: boards is in decline - but yet the important thing is to stick it to someone you don't agree with, for a few cheap points?

dav3

Unfortunately we're all stuck here on the only forum on the internet, where we have to put up with thin-skinned delicate little flowers constantly whinging about not being able to say and do whatever they want, while paying absolutely nothing to use it.

If only there we're other forums out there that people could use to talk sh*te in...

Necro

One part of Boards that is certainly not dying is Forum Games and the Werewolf sub-forum. A quick look at the recent games there, and even the current D & D threads and there's an example of a sub forum bucking the current trend.

As for the over moderation, I think people need to look at themselves more often than blame mods.

Way too much word vomit. Threads on the same things over and over again, and the same morons arguing ad infinitum the same points.

People mashing the keyboard with their heads and expecting a site to accept that as an opinion.

Agenda driven bile and racist nonsense.

The internet and places like Twitter, Facebook to a degree are increasingly becoming more and more horrible to read with nothing done to stem talk of a dangerous nature.
If Boards continues to clamp down on that absolute rubbish I for one salute them. Would be too easy to conform to the norms of the web these days and allow this to become as lawless as other popular sites.

And whoever made the politics.ie comment... Jesus H Christ please never let this place turn into that.

dxhound2005

Boards has been dying for a few years now. But it will never die completely. Because we will always have people who come along every now and again to tell us it is dying.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57312184

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=71460682

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=89333673

Arghus

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Boards has been dying for a few years now. But it will never die completely. Because we will always have people who come along every now and again to tell us it is dying.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57312184

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=71460682

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=89333673

It's true that boards' supposed death has been heralded a number of times before now and for a long, long time I would have said that a lot of that kind of talk was just that: talk - talk that wasn't actually borne out in the shape of what still seemed to be a very busy site. There's always been a sizable contingent of the userbase who whinge about everything and boards supposed death was for a long time just a manifestation of that.

But I think the decline that has set in over the last 18 months to 2 years or so is undeniable at this stage.

Jobs OXO

gandalf wrote: »

Oh dear people are offering feedback in the thread, watch the mods lock it and slap their fingers in their ears, along with the admins and so called community managers and sing "everything is awesome" at the tops of their voices

Indeed. It makes no sense. How come the other thread was locked and this isn't?

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057822803/22/#post105663817


This is de facto feedback. Why oh why was that forum gutted.

KyussB

It's a topic which has been done to death - and done so, because it's been a constant problem for years and years now - and management seems determined to do nothing about it, other than hide the 'negativity' of discussing it.

At its core, the problem is that the attitudes and views of those running the site - the admins/mods - are going to stay the same no matter how the rules and all are tweaked - the site needs a complete reboot, to discard the people running the site, discard the bureaucratic system of rules that can't be consistently enforced, and start over with the lightest-touch moderation possible.

Let the community lead the site, don't have a small cabal of moderators dictating the fucking flow of things - even if they mean well, scores of them are fucking things up all over the site.


I think the corporate management that is still left, just don't give a shit about Boards or the community anymore - they're just interested in leveraging the base functionality of the site, for commercial purposes, and don't give a toss about the community, or truly open discussion.

The_Captain

The place has had a reputation for heavy handed mods that kill debate for a long time. So if you want a serious discussion, you don't use boards.ie.

That has led it to just being a place for moaning and passive-aggressive soapboxing.

It's not just AH either. The sub forums can be very cliquey, anything disagreeing with the consensus is trolling, anyone asking a question is told to read the charter or do a search, anyone starting a new topic is told something similar already exists, anyone bumping an old thread is told not to bump zombie threads.

All in all, it's an extremely unwelcoming place

Zerbini Blewitt

Arghus wrote: »

If moderation is to blame for certain areas of boards avoiding becoming another cesspit of craziness along the lines of politics.ie, then long live moderation.

I don’t post on p.ie but I have 80 people on ignore – across only three forums :eek:– just in order to be able to read the threads I’m interested in.

Once I did that recently, it made p.ie readable; basically, the system is - you become your own moderator.

Much better once you get the hang of it. The big benefit is:- the site stays dynamic (by having low levels of entry for posting) and the moderation regime is less in your face than the infuriating, mythering, nannying that goes on here.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

dxhound2005

KyussB wrote: »

It's a topic which has been done to death - and done so, because it's been a constant problem for years and years now - and management seems determined to do nothing about it, other than hide the 'negativity' of discussing it.

At its core, the problem is that the attitudes and views of those running the site - the admins/mods - are going to stay the same no matter how the rules and all are tweaked - the site needs a complete reboot, to discard the people running the site, discard the bureaucratic system of rules that can't be consistently enforced, and start over with the lightest-touch moderation possible.

Let the community lead the site, don't have a small cabal of moderators dictating the fucking flow of things - even if they mean well, scores of them are fucking things up all over the site.


I think the corporate management that is still left, just don't give a shit about Boards or the community anymore - they're just interested in leveraging the base functionality of the site, for commercial purposes, and don't give a toss about the community, or truly open discussion.

You have three posts. How did any of this affect you?

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

KyussB wrote: »

It's a topic which has been done to death - and done so, because it's been a constant problem for years and years now - and management seems determined to do nothing about it, other than hide the 'negativity' of discussing it.

At its core, the problem is that the attitudes and views of those running the site - the admins/mods - are going to stay the same no matter how the rules and all are tweaked - the site needs a complete reboot, to discard the people running the site, discard the bureaucratic system of rules that can't be consistently enforced, and start over with the lightest-touch moderation possible.

Let the community lead the site, don't have a small cabal of moderators dictating the fucking flow of things - even if they mean well, scores of them are fucking things up all over the site.


I think the corporate management that is still left, just don't give a shit about Boards or the community anymore - they're just interested in leveraging the base functionality of the site, for commercial purposes, and don't give a toss about the community, or truly open discussion.

What you're talking about is effectively a different site then.

Also, a group of like minded free spirited users tried to build that utopia of light moderation and rigorous debate over on voat. Shítshow.

I don't think the site is run perfectly or anything and I'll air that opinion when it comes up but the actual obsession some people have with complaining about it and attacking it is fcuking weird. It's a bloody bulletin site.

JayRoc

Ah, the place can be a bit of craic now and then. But it's hardly a professional website/forum?

Sure I joined over a decade ago and the search function still doesn't work. I always assumed it was someone's hobby tbh

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

fits

Forums are better browsed on a desktop than a smartphone. And typing replies is a pita on the smartphone too. For me, that’s a lot of it.

tomwaterford

fits wrote: »

Forums are better browsed on a desktop than a smartphone. And typing replies is a pita on the smartphone too. For me, that’s a lot of it.

The touch site is good on the phone IMO....but has nowhere near as many functions as the full site

looksee

The really funny thing is that the small cabaal of people - the clique of complainers - who keep going on over and over about the sins and shortcomings of the site, for some reason stick around!

There is a whole internet out there, surely they could head off and start a site that works the way they want it to? This site was started by a few interested people so many years ago (in internet terms) with no funds, no organisation, just themselves. If they could do it surely those dissatisfied with this site could do the same? You will know what pitfalls to avoid, what the people want, it should be a doddle.

It was always the way, in any organisation, the biggest group of complainers, of people who criticised everything 'the committee' did, who carped and gossiped and did their best to break things up, were the people who never made any actual contribution to the organisation. Kinda sad really. Yes, the committee might get it wrong sometimes, might be a bit over authoritative at times, could not suit everyone all the time, but they were the ones who were actually putting in the time, discussing the options, trying to make the organisation the best it could be. While the 'experts' propped up the bar and whinged, then went home till next time.

Jobs OXO

looksee wrote: »

The really funny thing is that the small cabaal of people - the clique of complainers - who keep going on over and over about the sins and shortcomings of the site, for some reason stick around!

There is a whole internet out there, surely they could head off and start a site that works the way they want it to? This site was started by a few interested people so many years ago (in internet terms) with no funds, no organisation, just themselves. If they could do it surely those dissatisfied with this site could do the same? You will know what pitfalls to avoid, what the people want, it should be a doddle.

It was always the way, in any organisation, the biggest group of complainers, of people who criticised everything 'the committee' did, who carped and gossiped and did their best to break things up, were the people who never made any actual contribution to the organisation. Kinda sad really. Yes, the committee might get it wrong sometimes, might be a bit over authoritative at times, could not suit everyone all the time, but they were the ones who were actually putting in the time, discussing the options, trying to make the organisation the best it could be. While the 'experts' propped up the bar and whinged, then went home till next time.

And this condescending post from a
Mod just sums up everything wrong with the site.

Tzardine

dxhound2005 wrote: »

You have three posts. How did any of this affect you?

For me this kind of attitude is part of the problem. The unwelcoming nature of somebody with almost 10,000 posts towards somebody with 3 is one of the reasons people are turning away.

The poster with 3 posts could have been using the site for the past 10 years BTW.

tomwaterford

lying ad mins wrote: »

still no word from jonny civic from the other trend, i asked 2 admins, but sure what do they care, we arent mods of AH, BUT ye are admins, ye could find out

That is the biggest problem. ...it's always someone else's job to resolve any issue that's raised......who actually makes decision on anything

Just road block after road block and ask someone else until everyone gets frustrated and throws in towel (as at end of day,why bother?)..

This tread here,is going to be ignored as it's not in feedback forum....but you cant post in feedback unless they approve your posts

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Tom Mann Centuria

Jobs OXO wrote: »

And this condescending post from a
Mod just sums up everything wrong with the site.

She is just a poster here, offering an opinion. I could say lumping every "mod" in together is everything that's wrong with certain peoples criticism of the site. I have no interaction with mods on this forum any more than you do, and I'm pretty sure looksee doesn't either.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Jobs OXO wrote: »

And this condescending post from a
Mod just sums up everything wrong with the site.

I didn't find that in the least bit condescending; only factual. It's a free site for most. If people want a different style of forum then why can't they join another or even start their own with their own rules? Genuine question.
Whenever I was in a club or society where I had major issues with how it was run I left and joined another that had an ethos to my liking.

looksee

Jobs OXO wrote: »

And this condescending post from a
Mod just sums up everything wrong with the site.

Its sarcastic, yes. Its irritated, that's true. But I am not sure how it is condescending.

I am asking a question, if the site is so bad why do you continue to post? I am asking seriously, what appeals to you so much that you stay? There must be something.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

KyussB

Keira Thankful Target wrote: »

What you're talking about is effectively a different site then.

Also, a group of like minded free spirited users tried to build that utopia of light moderation and rigorous debate over on voat. Shítshow.

I don't think the site is run perfectly or anything and I'll air that opinion when it comes up but the actual obsession some people have with complaining about it and attacking it is fcuking weird. It's a bloody bulletin site.

The same site. Strip away the rules and moderation to their barest. Then build up the most minimal system of moderation that you need, for it to function - erring on the side of the less interference the better.

The problem is inherent in (as someone else said) the culture among Admins and Moderators here - and the system of rules and moderating practices they've built over time.

You're not going to fix those problems, without a massive cull - as it's inherent in the culture of the sites management.

Voat was likely 1 (or at most a handful of) mentally unwell poster(s), talking to themself through several different accounts. We're not talking about a different forum or Voat. We're talking about fixing here.

TallGlass

looksee wrote: »

Its sarcastic, yes. Its irritated, that's true. But I am not sure how it is condescending.

I am asking a question, if the site is so bad why do you continue to post? I am asking seriously, what appeals to you so much that you stay? There must be something.

You know something, like in retail, people will come back and if they keep finding the same issues, then you may just get your wish.

Why I stay? I do feel there is a good community at the heart of this site, it isn't some heartless entity like Facebook or that and for the most part it is good. But my contribution has just gone off the side of a cliff the last while. There is hardly any change or any new features.

paleoperson

It's not necessarily a bad thing. The way I see it younger and in some cases dumber people flock to Twitter and Facebook so you get a more mature crowd here. I think it makes boards and other forums like this better.

The only thing that's really bad about message boards is if moderators are out of control and cannot handle what little power they have in life so start abusing it. I've seen this on a few boards of this website, but the mods here are generally good.

KyussB

looksee wrote: »

The really funny thing is that the small cabaal of people - the clique of complainers - who keep going on over and over about the sins and shortcomings of the site, for some reason stick around!

There is a whole internet out there, surely they could head off and start a site that works the way they want it to? This site was started by a few interested people so many years ago (in internet terms) with no funds, no organisation, just themselves. If they could do it surely those dissatisfied with this site could do the same? You will know what pitfalls to avoid, what the people want, it should be a doddle.

It was always the way, in any organisation, the biggest group of complainers, of people who criticised everything 'the committee' did, who carped and gossiped and did their best to break things up, were the people who never made any actual contribution to the organisation. Kinda sad really. Yes, the committee might get it wrong sometimes, might be a bit over authoritative at times, could not suit everyone all the time, but they were the ones who were actually putting in the time, discussing the options, trying to make the organisation the best it could be. While the 'experts' propped up the bar and whinged, then went home till next time.

I hate to break it to you, but it's the community that makes up the site and makes it thrive/prosper, not this 'committee' - it's the 'committee', as you put it, that's getting in the fucking way of having a prosperous site - and the userbase has been screaming variations of this for years.

It's very clear that there are severe cultural problems within this 'committee', which are causing a complete blindness/deafness towards feedback - this kind of problem, is an extremely intractable kind of problem, because this kind of cultural issue tends to survive gradual changes to the 'committee' (same with most organizations of people) - the best bet is a complete stripping away of this committee, and a completely new hands-off approach to running the site, implemented by an entirely new committee.

looksee

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Look, I don't agree with absolutely everything on this site. I doubt, though I don't know, there is a single mod or admin who absolutely agrees with the way everything is done. But to trash the entire site for a few minor differences of opinion would be to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And in fact I do **** off some forums because I find the arguments tedious or whatever. Then everyone is happy, I am not annoying them and they are not annoying me. But the forums I do go on I try to make reasonable contributions and engage in discussion. Which is what, in my opinion anyway, it is all about.

Arghus

looksee wrote: »

Its sarcastic, yes. Its irritated, that's true. But I am not sure how it is condescending.

I am asking a question, if the site is so bad why do you continue to post? I am asking seriously, what appeals to you so much that you stay? There must be something.

I agree that there is a sizable minority of people on boards who are serial complainers about the way almost everything is done over here. I also think that 99% of the time moderators are generally fair and most do not over-step the mark: I think a lot, if not most, of the complaints about moderation, biases etc, etc come from people who have a set against the very idea that they can't simply have carte-blanche to say whatever they feel like and they are never going to be happy about it.

Moderators have a hard job, which is voluntary and largely thankless and without them I sincerely doubt there would be much of a degree of coherent conversation at all around here. Go to any other part of the internet where total freedom of speech reigns and it's usually quite depressing, nasty and stupid. So I'm glad that there's some semblance of order around here.

BUT

To just dismissively say that people should leave if they don't like it, reads an awful lot like an attempt to put boards above criticism. I love Boards and use it all the time and I would be very, very sad if it diminished to the point of total irrelevance, but its slow decline is quite evident to my eyes. I hope something can be done about it - I don't know the solution, save a time-machine. I'm not even sure I know the cause of the problem. I don't blame moderation, I think there's just a generational shift and places like boards are going to find it increasingly tough from now on. But those who have a bit of power to try to do something should try to listen to what the people are saying, rather than just saying, "yeah, well, leave then if you don't like it."

Because the sad fact is that a lot of people already have left, precisely because they didn't like it. Be careful what you wish for.

Necro

I'm amused by the 'clique' talks tbh. Don't see that as an issue at all.

I do see the same complainants thanking every post under the sun that is critical though....

More annoying for me, and in AH in particular, there's a typical trend.

Someone starts a topic on X, Y, Z.

General first/second response is a thanks whore.
Next response is another thanks whore disagreeing with the first thanks whore.

So on, so forth. Thread derailed, question/topic ignored. I have over 5,000 posts and I'd say maybe 50/100 of those would be in AH cos it's so mind-numbingly annoying to see this happen in nearly every thread.

looksee

KyussB wrote: »

and a completely new hands-off approach to running the site, implemented by an entirely new committee.

That is really hilarious, how is this hand over to be implemented, and who is going to be on this new committee? And why do you need a committee at all if its all going to be so hands off?

Is this the feedback proposal that is going to sort all the problems you see?

Aidric

KyussB wrote: »

I hate to break it to you, but it's the community that makes up the site and makes it thrive/prosper, not this 'committee' - it's the 'committee', as you put it, that's getting in the fucking way of having a prosperous site - and the userbase has been screaming variations of this for years.

It's very clear that there are severe cultural problems within this 'committee', which are causing a complete blindness/deafness towards feedback - this kind of problem, is an extremely intractable kind of problem, because this kind of cultural issue tends to survive gradual changes to the 'committee' (same with most organizations of people) - the best bet is a complete stripping away of this committee, and a completely new hands-off approach to running the site, implemented by an entirely new committee.

Very erudite for a new joiner with 5 posts.

Necro

KyussB wrote: »

I hate to break it to you, but it's the community that makes up the site and makes it thrive/prosper, not this 'committee' - it's the 'committee', as you put it, that's getting in the fucking way of having a prosperous site - and the userbase has been screaming variations of this for years.

It's very clear that there are severe cultural problems within this 'committee', which are causing a complete blindness/deafness towards feedback - this kind of problem, is an extremely intractable kind of problem, because this kind of cultural issue tends to survive gradual changes to the 'committee' (same with most organizations of people) - the best bet is a complete stripping away of this committee, and a completely new hands-off approach to running the site, implemented by an entirely new committee.

So what's your feedback or are you just going to rave about committees? How would YOU, KyussB change the site for the better?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

KyussB wrote: »

I hate to break it to you, but it's the community that makes up the site and makes it thrive/prosper, not this 'committee' - it's the 'committee', as you put it, that's getting in the fucking way of having a prosperous site - and the userbase has been screaming variations of this for years.

It's very clear that there are severe cultural problems within this 'committee', which are causing a complete blindness/deafness towards feedback - this kind of problem, is an extremely intractable kind of problem, because this kind of cultural issue tends to survive gradual changes to the 'committee' (same with most organizations of people) - the best bet is a complete stripping away of this committee, and a completely new hands-off approach to running the site, implemented by an entirely new committee.

Sounds like you want a free for all, anything goes, say what you wish type forum. Good luck with that. If litigation doesn't close it down, the loss of members will.

Joethefueler

New to this kind of thing but without doubt I can say that the big companies are controlling how we speak and what we say about them.

tomwaterford

Necrominus wrote: »

So what's your feedback or are you just going to rave about committees? How would YOU, KyussB change the site for the better?

Hide everyone's visible post count so people don't pile onto people with low post count and try discount their opioions as worthless??


Bring in some new features

>>side note.....Tbf yous are the one what brought committees into this...so can't see your critise someone for running with it

Tigger

tomwaterford wrote: »

Hide everyone's visible post count so people don't pile onto people with low post count and try discount their opioions as worthless??


Bring in some new features

>>side note.....Tbf yous are the one what brought committees into this...so can't see your critise someone for running with it

post count is not imporfant its hoin dagevthats important

Necro

tomwaterford wrote: »

Hide everyone's visible post count so people don't pile onto people with low post count and try discount their opioions as worthless??


Bring in some new features

>>side note.....Tbf yous are the one what brought committees into this...so can't see your critise someone for running with it

Em.... I never mentioned committee so not sure why I'm being piled in with this 'yous' comment. I made three posts before this on thread, none regarding committees.

In context to how the site is run and it's failings/misgivings though... the argument re: post count is imo fairly valid. Not sure why someone with 5 or so posts comes in raving about establishments etc.

Unless of course...there's an ulterior motive....;)

Edit: and just re: the post count idea, wouldn't bother me in the slightest if no one saw how many times I posted. There are new features brought in btw.

For example, we can now play in anonymous accounts for Werewolf games. A nifty feature in my personal opinion.

I've been online since 1997 and I don't have, and never have had, a Facebook/Myspace/Bebo/twitter or whatever account. (It seems absolutely short-sighted that people would leave information about themselves online for strangers to view but that's their problem). Excite was the first online discussion forum I joined in the summer of '97, and Virtual Irish Pub, IrishAbroad.com, Paddynet, mIRCchat and ICQ have all been used by me in those years. There was also a discussion forum called Browse Ireland around at that time. I only checked Reddit via links on this website and it seems like a really annoying maze of shíte - like a whole website of gmail conversations. Feck that.

Boards.ie is clearly structured, and I really appreciate that clarity. In my mind I even have the fora in different mental locations - e.g. Politics and music are on the right somewhere, history on the left, DIY around the middle.... Not sure if that's unusual!

Anyway, one thing which is a big loss is the lack of knowledgeable people contributing to specific fora. For instance, DIY, Construction and the Consumer fora, all of which I've been using a good bit during the past 6 months, have far fewer experienced tradesmen etc contributing than they had 10 years ago. You have to wait much longer now for responses, if you get them at all. A conspicuous number of erstwhile helpful posters have been banned, which is definitely Boards' loss as they made many really helpful contributions. For me, those sort of people are the real strength of this website, giving informed advice on practical issues (the Motors forum can also be good in this respect). Without that Boards' usefulness is considerably diminished and it becomes a place to let off steam/talk shíte.

Due to huge technological advances loads of advice on any localised forum is superfluous - directions, generic computer problems, etc. However, a forum with loads of localised Irish advice - e.g. cheapest tiles/broadband/electrical/blinds etc - would be very valuable. Without Boards, there is no such forum online. But currently the people aren't here to answer such Ireland-focused queries. Re-positioning the website as a sort of "All things useful and practical relating to Ireland" advice forum site could be the way to go. You need to think about attracting such helpful and constructive people.

Tigger

Necrominus wrote: »

Em.... I never mentioned committee so not sure why I'm being piled in with this 'yous' comment. I made three posts before this on thread, none regarding committees.

In context to how the site is run and it's failings/misgivings though... the argument re: post count is imo fairly valid. Not sure why someone with 5 or so posts comes in raving about establishments etc.

Unless of course...there's an ulterior motive....;)

Edit: and just re: the post count idea, wouldn't bother me in the slightest if no one saw how many times I posted. There are new features brought in btw.

For example, we can now play in anonymous accounts for Werewolf games. A nifty feature in my personal opinion.

werewolf warewolf werewulf its all youbever gonon about
i suppose theres a game startingbsoon

looksee

It was me that mentioned committees, just a casual aside, you know, one of those off topic comments that should be allowed but get censored. Just like that sweeping generalisation I just made.

tomwaterford

Necrominus wrote: »

Em.... I never mentioned committee so not sure why I'm being piled in with this 'yous' comment. I made three posts before this on thread, none regarding committees.

In context to how the site is run and it's failings/misgivings though... the argument re: post count is imo fairly valid. Not sure why someone with 5 or so posts comes in raving about establishments etc.

Unless of course...there's an ulterior motive....;)

I do apologise on the committee remark....Red it wrong


But I don't see why peoples opioion should be disregarded on basis of post count??.....like seriously...how lacking in substance is your point that you have to go look at someone's account and use the amount of posts they have as a means to dismiss them

Literally definition of playing the man not the ball/attack post not poster etc

Tigger

Deleted User wrote: »

I've been online since 1997 and I don't have, and never have had, a Facebook/Myspace/Bebo/twitter or whatever account. (It seems absolutely short-sighted that people would leave information about themselves online for strangers to view). Excite was the first online forum I joined in the summer of '97, and Virtual Irish Pub, Paddynet, mIRCchat and ICQ have all been used by me in those years. I only checked Reddit via links on this website and it seems like a really annoying maze of shíte - like a whole website of gmail conversations. Feck that.

Boards.ie is clearly structured, and I really appreciate that clarity. In my mind I even have the fora in different mental locations - e.g. Politics and music are on the right somewhere, history on the left, DIY around the middle. Not sure if that's unusual!

Anyway, one thing which is a big loss is the lack of knowledgeable people contributing to specific fora. For instance, DIY, Construction and the Consumer fora, all of which I've been using a good bit during the past 6 months, have far fewer experienced tradesmen etc contributing than they had 10 years ago. You have to wait much longer now for responses, if you get them at all. A conspicuous number of erstwhile helpful posters have been banned, which is definitely Boards' loss as they made many really helpful contributions. For me, those sort of people are the real strength of this website, giving informed advice on practical issues (the Motors forum can also be good in this respect). Without that Boards' usefulness is considerably diminished and it becomes a place to let off steam/talk shíte.

Due to huge technological advances loads of advice on any localised forum is superfluous - directions, generic computer problems, etc. However, a forum with loads of localised Irish advice - e.g. cheapest tiles/broadband/electrical/blinds etc - would be very valuable. Without Boards, there is no such forum online. But currently the people aren't here to answer such Ireland-focused queries. Re-positioning the website as a sort of "All things useful and practical relating to Ireland" advice forum site could be the way to go. You need to think about attracting such helpful and constructive people.

being serious now boards isna wealth of trade knowledge if people simplybsearch instead of askingbthe same questions thatvhave been asked a thousabdbtimes

Vronsky

It's not really fair to blame moderation for the fall away on number of users since other lightly moderated Irish forums have suffered falls in users. That said boards hasn't done itself any favours and one can look to a number of decisions/issues that probably wouldn't have prevented the decline but have certainly considerably hastened it:

*The hack of 2010
*Request for access for soccer/politics cafe. This has effectively killed politics cafe.
*The disaster with the poker forum.
*Changes to feedback forum alienated a lot of long time users
*The site redesign - the site is unusable outside of Ireland.
* The redesign of the site categories, which added clicks and complexity to getting where you wanted to be.
*More screen space given over to ads.

On a more wider scale, the now thirty something's that grew up with boards have now grown up, married with families and do not have time to arse about posting anymore. Boards format is is too restrictive and moderation too heavy vs the likes of Twitter and Reddit, which has kept younger users away.

I can echo the sentiment with having a post written and then not bothering to post it because often it's not worth it.

Tigger

Vronsky wrote: »

It's not really fair to blame moderation for the fall away on number of users since other lightly moderated Irish forums have suffered falls in users. That said boards hasn't done itself any favours and one can look to a number of decisions/issues that probably wouldn't have prevented the decline but have certainly considerably hastened it:

*The hack of 2010
*Request for access for soccer/politics cafe. This has effectively killed politics cafe.
*The disaster with the poker forum.
*Changes to feedback forum alienated a lot of long time users
*The site redesign - the site is unusable outside of Ireland.
* The redesign of the site categories, which added clicks and complexity to getting where you wanted to be.
*More screen space given over to ads.

On a more wider scale, the now thirty something's that grew up with boards have now grown up, married with families and do not have time to arse about posting anymore. Boards format is is too restrictive and moderation too heavy vs the likes of Twitter and Reddit, which has kept younger users away.

I can echo the sentiment with having a post written and then not bothering to post it because often it's not worth it.

heyvmr reregvwhat happened tobthe poker forum
i know tgey all wentvto irishpoker butvwhy

Don Kiddick

Tigger wrote: »

being serious now boards isna wealth of trade knowledge if people simplybsearch instead of askingbthe same questions thatvhave been asked a thousabdbtimes

"How can I get the space bar and the b key to work properly"??