Can we talk about AH?

dulpit

I've asked it before, and I'm going to ask it again now. How is this thread allowed to stay open, and how are the posters there allowed stay on boards? Every second post is sweeping stereotypical dog-whistling.

What do the mods have to say?

What do boards as a company have to say?

Boom_Bap

I can understand the Margaret Cash thread being open, she had a big story in the news, there have been more high profile stories about her and I'd imagine there will be more to come.


The unfortunate part is that it has become a bit of a dumping ground for discussion on travelers, which I suppose is somewhat relative and to be expected in a lull in the news.


I'd imagine that thread will run it's course and slip off the front page into zombie oblivion.


I don't think the thread is causing any trouble although I'm not reading every post.

dulpit

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I can understand the Margaret Cash thread being open, she had a big story in the news, there have been more high profile stories about her and I'd imagine there will be more to come.

In the meantime people are trawling her facebook to see what they can discuss. Currently people have called out the fact she's in England for a holiday. Creepy much?

Boom_Bap wrote: »

The unfortunate part is that it has become a bit of a dumping ground for discussion on travelers, which I suppose is somewhat relative and to be expected in a lull in the news.

A bit? And expected? Really??

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I'd imagine that thread will run it's course and slip off the front page into zombie oblivion.

A small number of posters seem to be actively looking for the latest thing they can post in there, so I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I don't think the thread is causing any trouble although I'm not reading every post.

Just pick any page and read some posts.

Omackeral

dulpit wrote: »

I've asked it before, and I'm going to ask it again now. How is this thread allowed to stay open, and how are the posters there allowed stay on boards?

Click ''unfollow''. It's that easy.

dulpit

Omackeral wrote: »

Click ''unfollow''. It's that easy.

Misses the point of the issues. I don't follow the thread, it's still popping to the top of the pile. And it is representative of the behaviour on AH as a whole, this thread being tolerated allows others with similar sorts of behaviour to continue.

And my questions are still outstanding: are boards management okay with these sorts of threads on their site? And are the mods of AH saying that they do not see any issues with that thread specifically that goes against the AH charter?

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

dulpit wrote: »

I've asked it before, and I'm going to ask it again now. How is this thread allowed to stay open, and how are the posters there allowed stay on boards?

The thread contains commentary on Margaret Cash, per the various media stories written about her over the past six months or so, but also contains a parallel discussion of the Traveller culture that lead to someone leaving school at 12, getting married at 15, and being a welfare-dependent mother of seven by 27. The thread explores conflicts between Traveller culture and the rest of modern Ireland, raising ethical questions about Traveller traditions of early school-leaving, the consanguineous marriage of children as young as 16, and many Travellers' consequent lifelong reliance on social welfare and social housing.

It's an interesting thread that provides an alternative perspective on Traveller life from the one promoted by RTE, the political establishment, Pavee Point, etc. Calling for the thread to be closed and the posters to be banned is completely OTT.

dulpit

Lawson Tinkling Fishhook wrote: »

The thread contains commentary on Margaret Cash, per the various media stories written about her over the past six months or so, but also contains a parallel discussion of the Traveller culture that lead to someone leaving school at 12, getting married at 15, and being a welfare-dependent mother of seven by 27. The thread explores conflicts between Traveller culture and the rest of modern Ireland, raising ethical questions about Traveller traditions of early school-leaving, the consanguineous marriage of children as young as 16, and many Travellers' consequent lifelong reliance on social welfare and social housing.

It's an interesting thread that provides an alternative perspective on Traveller life from the one promoted by RTE, the political establishment, Pavee Point, etc. Calling for the thread to be closed and the posters to be banned is completely OTT.

Yes, it contains reasoned debate and not racist and stereotypical nonsense, right? And I wouldn't be able to find anything not like this in the last few posts by, say, this very poster?

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=109549440&postcount=7255

Oh.

dulpit

dulpit wrote: »

Yes, it contains reasoned debate and not racist and stereotypical nonsense, right? And I wouldn't be able to find anything not like this in the last few posts by, say, this very poster?

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=109549440&postcount=7255

Oh.

What's the problem?

dulpit

Deleted User wrote: »

What's the problem?

The bolded part below.

Lawson Tinkling Fishhook wrote: »

I suspect that "it's against our religion" is just a socially acceptable cover story. The vast majority of Catholics do use birth control nowadays, regardless of what the Church says. For Travellers, the real purpose of all these kids is to boost social welfare payments rather than to abide by Church teachings.

Explain how this is a fair comment?

dulpit

dulpit wrote: »

Explain how this is a fair comment?

It's an opinion expressed as a fact. Hardly anything new.

People have the exact same opinion about other groups in society.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

dulpit wrote: »

Explain how this is a fair comment?

You think the thread should be locked and posters banned on the basis of that?

Kivaro

Lawson Tinkling Fishhook wrote: »

The thread contains commentary on Margaret Cash, per the various media stories written about her over the past six months or so, but also contains a parallel discussion of the Traveller culture that lead to someone leaving school at 12, getting married at 15, and being a welfare-dependent mother of seven by 27. The thread explores conflicts between Traveller culture and the rest of modern Ireland, raising ethical questions about Traveller traditions of early school-leaving, the consanguineous marriage of children as young as 16, and many Travellers' consequent lifelong reliance on social welfare and social housing.

It's an interesting thread that provides an alternative perspective on Traveller life from the one promoted by RTE, the political establishment, Pavee Point, etc. Calling for the thread to be closed and the posters to be banned is completely OTT.

Really good post.
It should be sticky-ed somewhere.

Gimme A Pound

Annoying the way the auld woman hating rears its head every so often. Mods don't seem to be arsed (and one seems to veer in that direction).

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Arely Dazzling Sidecar wrote: »

Annoying the way the auld woman hating rears its head every so often. Mods don't seem to be arsed (and one seems to veer in that direction).

I was surprised at how quickly the ‘Young Singletons’ thread focused on women. It was almost parody-like. But people aren’t really being that offensive in that thread. And the spacewalk thread is pretty mild too. I put some of the above down to boards membership skewing male. It used to be markedly that way and I assume it still is. I think it’s natural to view things from the POV of your own gender.

Gimme A Pound

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

I was surprised at how quickly the ‘Young Singletons’ thread focused on women.

I wasn't in the least!

It's not offensive per se, just needlessly hostile.

Arely Dazzling Sidecar

Arely Dazzling Sidecar wrote: »

Annoying the way the auld woman hating rears its head every so often. Mods don't seem to be arsed (and one seems to veer in that direction).

Definitely veers.

Annoying, but predictable and pretty much an unchecked hostile free for all.

batgoat

The New Zealand thread literally became an anti-Muslim rant even though there was an initial thread warning. Moderation seemed to disappear and I was moderating, I'm guessing plenty were reporting. I was anyway. It's a handful of the exact same users who are descending into some pretty hateful rant. Can't fathom how they haven't been banned yet.

AndrewJRenko

I don't mean to say "I told ya so", but I told ya so;

<snip>

Beasty

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I don't mean to say "I told ya so", but I told ya so;

<snip>

If you have a problem with a post, report it. Do not seek site-wide attention here

If you cannot be constructive, do not post here.

AndrewJRenko

OK, let me try to be more constructive.

We have have a poster on the Gemma thread who, after a brief supportive reference to Hitler, indicated that they were being paid to troll this site - paid by reply and paid to be banned and paid to reregister.

It is my considered opinion that this is symptomatic of the issue raised earlier in this thread about how boards is being abused by the far right.

Beasty

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

It is my considered opinion that this is symptomatic of the issue raised earlier in this thread about how boards is being abused by the far right.

Obviously views on what is considered "far right", or indeed "far left" is often influenced by where on the political spectrum the observer sits

We cannot "censor" simply on perception of where on that spectrum views sit. We can act if someone expresses their views in an unacceptable fashion, and indeed I suspect you would no longer find that reference to "Hitler" in that thread

Fr_Dougal

Arely Dazzling Sidecar wrote: »

Annoying the way the auld woman hating rears its head every so often. Mods don't seem to be arsed (and one seems to veer in that direction).

Typically by reregs who stoke up the more ‘simple’ posters. I can see that two posters have been sitebanned on that thread.

Of course the fact that they were reregs, and are now sitebanned will be forgotten, and AH will be labeled as a woman-hating, misogynist forum. It’s all about perception.

Boards.ie: Mark

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

OK, let me try to be more constructive.

We have have a poster on the Gemma thread who, after a brief supportive reference to Hitler, indicated that they were being paid to troll this site - paid by reply and paid to be banned and paid to reregister.

It is my considered opinion that this is symptomatic of the issue raised earlier in this thread about how boards is being abused by the far right.

On the best of days, I would say not to believe everything you read online. That applies doubly so if someone is coming out admitting that they are trolling. I would also question any business, organisation or group that will pay to register or be banned.

Don't feed the trolls; report posts, put them on ignore, or don't engage with them.

Overheal

Arely Dazzling Sidecar wrote: »

Annoying the way the auld woman hating rears its head every so often. Mods don't seem to be arsed (and one seems to veer in that direction).

I doubt it’s a case of mods not caring. Surely it’s a case of where do you draw a line; there comes a point where you’re exponentially increasing moderator activity because you’re trying to police everything that can offend someone.

There’s a line between being offended and being hurt or attacked. PC culture these days involves some people scouring the internet for reasons to be outraged. It’s been a problem in R&R before with conflicting viewpoints debating the need to police rants for not being PC enough. Back when yank bashing was all the rage (still kinda is) I used to feel I was being attacked too. But at some stage you have to realize people know that bigotry is logically fallible, that there are eg. Some genuinely awesome old ladies and yanks alike, but people also just like to have a bit of craic and laugh about funny stereotypes - like #floridaman; it’s currently a trend to google “Florida man [your birthday]” to see what bizarre news story pops up. It’s not an attack on Floridians.

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

I doubt it’s a case of mods not caring. Surely it’s a case of where do you draw a line; there comes a point where you’re exponentially increasing moderator activity because you’re trying to police everything that can offend someone.

There’s a line between being offended and being hurt or attacked. PC culture these days involves some people scouring the internet for reasons to be outraged. It’s been a problem in R&R before with conflicting viewpoints debating the need to police rants for not being PC enough. Back when yank bashing was all the rage (still kinda is) I used to feel I was being attacked too. But at some stage you have to realize people know that bigotry is logically fallible, that there are eg. Some genuinely awesome old ladies and yanks alike, but people also just like to have a bit of craic and laugh about funny stereotypes - like #floridaman; it’s currently a trend to google “Florida man [your birthday]” to see what bizarre news story pops up. It’s not an attack on Floridians.

Theres a point however, where threads around gender, Islam etc become a cesspit and the mods just give up I reckon.

Gimme A Pound

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Typically by reregs who stoke up the more ‘simple’ posters. I can see that two posters have been sitebanned on that thread.

Of course the fact that they were reregs, and are now sitebanned will be forgotten, and AH will be labeled as a woman-hating, misogynist forum. It’s all about perception.

It's not just the re-regs though. No AH isn't a misogynistic forum in general but whenever there is a gender relations type thread, the anti women sentiment rears its head.

Overheal, I couldn't care less about being pc and I certainly don't trawl the net for things to be offended by (I meant women hating by the way - in Ireland we sometimes stick "auld" in front of anything, e.g. "I'd love an auld cup of tea", makes no sense I know!) Jokes about women I couldn't care less about though, light-hearted stereotypes, differences between men and women, habits women are more likely to have which are annoying. All that is fine by me - and often a good laugh. And I'm certainly not a fan of how feminism has become.

What I'm talking about though is just blatant hostility.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Typically by reregs who stoke up the more ‘simple’ posters. I can see that two posters have been sitebanned on that thread.

Of course the fact that they were reregs, and are now sitebanned will be forgotten, and AH will be labeled as a woman-hating, misogynist forum. It’s all about perception.

Aaaah, that’s not quite what happened. I was surprised at how quickly that thread focused on women. We’re talking in ten posts or fewer, before the obvious re-regs showed up. When I first saw the thread pop up in AH, I was looking forward to forum members analysing the topic and seeing where both genders were going wrong. It could have been really interesting. But we didn’t even get halfway down the first page before the posts started focusing on women and their part in it all. The re-regs hadn’t shown up by that stage or even for a while after. From what I can see, many of the obvious re-reg troll posts have been removed and the bias is still there to see.

I’m not that bothered by it, as I said upthread. It’s likely something to do with boards membership skewing male. We all tend to see problems as they affect us personally and most men replying are likely straight. But saying that what’s been observed in that thread is just down to those re-reg trolls is a tad disingenuous.

The vast majority of active users on this site don't post in these divisive threads, yet the tiny minority of regular posters who do bother always vastly outnumbers the arseholes, who will always post in those threads.

Kivaro

Another thread was moved today from After Hours to Politics Cafe 2.0 to die a tumbleweed death.
It was the one about Sinn Fein holding the balance of power in these precarious times.

But here's the thing, I don't get this part:"Please bear with the mods as they review the thread and decide whether to repoen it or keep it closed, it may not be gotten to immediately as it's a busy forum."

Many of us chuckle when this repeated by AH mods who move threads to PC to die.
At the moment it's 2.34 pm in the day, and there has been only 1 post so far on that busy Politics Cafe forum all day. 1 post ........... for all threads .... in 1 day

Maybe it's time to stop insulting our intelligence and be honest about the movement of these threads.

Boom_Bap

Kivaro wrote: »

Another thread was moved today from After Hours to Politics Cafe 2.0 to die a tumbleweed death.
It was the one about Sinn Fein holding the balance of power in these precarious times.

But here's the thing, I don't get this part:"Please bear with the mods as they review the thread and decide whether to repoen it or keep it closed, it may not be gotten to immediately as it's a busy forum."

Many of us chuckle when this repeated by AH mods who move threads to PC to die.
At the moment it's 2.34 pm in the day, and there has been only 1 post so far on that busy Politics Cafe forum all day. 1 post ........... for all threads .... in 1 day

Maybe it's time to stop insulting our intelligence and be honest about the movement of these threads.

Jesus, shut down the forum, a blotch of standarised text needs to be changed.....something that could be done with a simple PM to any of the AH mods.