Why do some people stop using online forums?

An Ri rua

Ye're all some bunch of self entitled forumists aren't ye? Or whatever the outraged 'ism' label should be.
Discussing people who don't post on forums. On a forum! By people who do post! Where's the balance lads (and lassies) !?!?

It can be down to a number of reasons though. A Mod tells two to get a room, i.e. take it to PMs but, in the flurry of the battle, types PPs. Hence you have the whole sad 'penpal' phenomenon again. Still, it does away with droning, monotonous well-thought out positions, balanced arguments etc. There's no place for that here, certainly not in After Hours. Take that deep, considered argument stuff and stick it in an envelope. And wait. Let your thoughts ferment...

Dr Bolouswki

I use it for information requests mostly now, rather than opinion. The endless rise of the troll and the ease with which people take or make offence drove me away.

An Ri rua

An Ri rua wrote: »

Ye're all some bunch of self entitled forumists aren't ye? Or whatever the outraged 'ism' label should be.
Discussing people who don't post on forums. On a forum! By people who do post! Where's the balance lads (and lassies) !?!?

It can be down to a number of reasons though. A Mod tells two to get a room, i.e. take it to PMs but, in the flurry of the battle, types PPs. Hence you have the whole sad 'penpal' phenomenon again. Still, it does away with droning, monotonous well-thought out positions, balanced arguments etc. There's no place for that here, certainly not in After Hours. Take that deep, considered argument stuff and stick it in an envelope. And wait. Let your thoughts ferment...

What is the sad penpal phenomenon?

cj maxx

Mr.S wrote: »

Choice. When Boards first started, and through to like 2009ish there was little other popular mediums for Irish users to discuss topics, but then along comes Twitter, Reddit etc.

The setup here is arguably dated (I still like it!) and I think in 2021, people don't take too kindly to 'rules' and moderation - probably explains the drop in usage to some degree.

I like the boards setup, reddit just fries my head!

cj maxx

cj maxx wrote: »

I like the boards setup, reddit just fries my head!

The Reddit layout is absolutely awful. People love calling this style old and antiquated but chronological is the correct way.

ReginaldSmythV

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

The Reddit layout is absolutely awful. People love calling this style old and antiquated but chronological is the correct way.

yous can set reddit up, to sort from new to old.?



Its still hard to get used to,but like twitter,you.can set it up to just see what interests you etc,and filter out the poisionous elements.....both have a reputation for being toxic,but its easy filter it out

An Ri rua

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What is the sad penpal phenomenon?

Exactly that. People with time on their hands writing to one another.
No, communications need to be impulsive, poorly thought out and reactionary where possible.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

yous can set reddit up, to sort from new to old.?



Its still hard to get used to,but like twitter,you.can set it up to just see what interests you etc,and filter out the poisionous elements.....both have a reputation for being toxic,but its easy filter it out

Yeah but when it branches into multiple conversations it's a pain to follow.

An Ri rua

An Ri rua wrote: »

Exactly that. People with time on their hands writing to one another.
No, communications need to be impulsive, poorly thought out and reactionary where possible.

I think your last paragraph is sarcasm but I don't know. Isn't it nice to write to others?

Apoapsis Rex

They quickly realise threads are just research / surveys disguised as discussions.

Gloomtastic!

Apoapsis Rex wrote: »

They quickly realise threads are just research / surveys disguised as discussions.

Research/surveys for whom?

EmmetSpiceland

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Research/surveys for whom?

NPHET, RTÉ, Ryan Tubridy and Dr. Tony Holohan. All “conspiring” against the humble pint drinkers of Éire.

twowheelsonly

I think it's possibly the fact that it can get so repetitive at times with the same topics dressed slightly differently.
There's also a significant amount of SF and FG drumbeaters who hop on every relevant topic with obsessive fervour.
It becomes extremely tiresome.

My own personal peeves would be 'Council Houses All Bad..' 'Unemployed All Lazy Swindlers..' and currently literally any Covid thread. They've all developed into pretty much the same sounding board for people and their opinions. You could merge the lot of them at this stage and I don't think anyone would notice !!

Another peeve would be the righteous ones.. "Anybody know anyone around Donnybrook that could cut my mothers grass?" will inevitably lead to someone chiming in with "Make sure they are in compliance with By-Law GC1457-A and have Certificate FU23897C. Also ask to see their tax clearance cert, health and safety and public liability certs and see recommendations from 3 previous customers.. "

Having said all that, there's some sound people on here as well and it can be a great place to get advice at times.

The ‘OP is always wrong’ thing gets very tiresome in threads looking for advice too. I always hope that it’s only a thing here rather than what people are really like.

Bad Boyo

Bad Boyo wrote: »

How much of a boomer do you have to be to struggle with the Reddit layout?

Who’s struggling? It’s just wrong.

Wallet Inspector

In America you have to be born between 1946 and 1964 to be deemed a boomer to those who are into that stuff, but I don't struggle with the Reddit layout - the layout of Boards is just cleaner and less cluttered, which is surely a superior user experience.

I mean, filtering out comments, only viewing the most upvoted - that's a definition of an online echo chamber.

Arghus

Apoapsis Rex wrote: »

They quickly realise threads are just research / surveys disguised as discussions.

I think that the only conclusion that could be gleamed from that research would be that boards is home to a lot of oddballs.

Arghus

Arghus wrote:

I think that the only conclusion that could be gleamed from that research would be that boards is home to a lot of oddballs.

ZX7R

Facebook killed of a lot of online forums, definitely in the more niche areas, many motorcycle forms in the day have switched to Facebook groups ,you can see it happening on boards also plenty of niche forms locked up / closed up or moved to a general forum to lack of activity.

Necro

Mod:

The reasons threads like these cannot exist is because a certain cohort cannot resist having a pop at moderation outside the already available channels to do so.

A number of posts actioned and deleted. The topic can easily be discussed without having a go at moderation, if we can continue in that vein going forward it would be appreciated.

Any issues, PM me - do not respond to this on thread

:pac:

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

Bad Boyo

Bad Boyo wrote: »

How much of a boomer do you have to be to struggle with the Reddit layout?

Boomer... I haven't heard that in a while. How quaint.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote:

Boomer... I haven't heard that in a while. How quaint.

It's hard to keep up with all the labels nowadays. Most of them seem to emanate from the US.

Leg End Reject

Arghus wrote: »

I think that the only conclusion that could be gleamed from that research would be that boards is home to a lot of oddballs.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I like the layout of boards and I like the fact that it's Irish centric. Text can give a 2 dimensional aspect to a post and our perception of the poster, but it amuses me that I could be arguing with someone I know, and get on quite well with in real life, and be oblivious to that fact.

A few oddballs liven up discussions too.

tgdaly

A lot of the problem with online forums is if you're opinion doesn't suit the pc agenda and is controversial in any way then you'll have moderators censoring everything left right and center.

Obviously there's no place for things like outright racism, sexism, discrimination etc. But even if you present a fact, backed by factual evidence, that is non pc, you'll be shot down fairly quickly.

I think Covid has been good for Boards, probably revived it to an extent. But when things get back to normal I can foresee a fairly steep decline ahead.

Just too many over opinionated people out there

There is a light

There is a light wrote: »

It's hard to keep up with all the labels nowadays. Most of them seem to emanate from the US.

It's embarrassing to see Irish people talking like Americans.

EmmetSpiceland

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It's embarrassing to see Irish people talking like Americans.

Along with, avidly, “supporting” American political parties.

I’m fairly dubious about boards being very right wing. Politics is very pro Biden.

Nqp15hhu

There’s a lot of negative people online. I find people are more bold online as well.

EmmetSpiceland

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Along with, avidly, “supporting” American political parties.

While having zero knowledge of Irish politics.

I can't myself ever leaving Boards for good. I've been around for about 6 years now and for all it's flaws I'd miss the place. Still absolutely rubbish at spotting a re-reg! For one as inquisitive as I that is a great tragedy

Ish66

Maybe they just died ?

Wallet Inspector

If people's politics are very conservative they'll see Boards as really left-wing... and vice versa.

I think Boards is overall just left of centre. Used to be way more left-wing. Back when any conservative view was considered "far right". Now there's more of an understanding that not everyone who has conservative views is far right - and that people can have a mixture of conservative and liberal views.

Leg End Reject

Ish66 wrote: »

Maybe they just died ?

Cheery.

Wallet Inspector

If someone is a regular contributor and then gradually phases this out to the point of no longer posting, that's likely just due to having no time any more/losing interest.

But if someone is a regular poster and then just stops abruptly, account still open, last post in the middle of a conversation and never comes back... then I do wonder. Of course the reason for this might not be death but maybe it is sometimes.

There has been awareness created of Boards members dying over the years but obviously not all can be known.

purplefields

For me, I find it very addictive.

I waste a lot of time posting stuff that people will not read, or care about.
Mostly a pointless endeavor.

Then I close my account.


Then a couple of years later, I want to know the answer to something, and it all starts again once I open a new account. I'll have to close this account too. Soon.

dickdasr1234

Probably because of all the stupid fing questions!

AndrewJRenko

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I’m fairly dubious about boards being very right wing. Politics is very pro Biden.

I wouldn't say that Boards as a whole is very right wing, but it is the default online forum about Ireland for very right wing people, which explains why many people choose not to hang around.

AndrewJRenko

Celchick wrote: »

If people's politics are very conservative they'll see Boards as really left-wing... and vice versa.

I think Boards is overall just left of centre. Used to be way more left-wing. Back when any conservative view was considered "far right". Now there's more of an understanding that not everyone who has conservative views is far right - and that people can have a mixture of conservative and liberal views.

Here's my regular reminder (which really gets up the nose of right and far right posters) that far right candidate Peter Casey got double the vote on Boards than he did in the real Presidential election. So centre left?

o1s1n

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I wouldn't say that Boards as a whole is very right wing, but it is the default online forum about Ireland for very right wing people, which explains why many people choose not to hang around.

Boards has always been known as very left, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.

AndrewJRenko

o1s1n wrote: »

Boards has always been known as very left, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.

I'm not sure where you're getting "always known as very left" from.

o1s1n

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I'm not sure where you're getting "always known as very left" from.

From 20 years of using the forum.

AndrewJRenko

o1s1n wrote: »

From 20 years of using the forum.

I've only 19 years on the forum so maybe that explains the different perspective.

Would a "very left" forum give a far right candidate like Peter Casey more than 50% of the vote?

ILoveYourVibes

vitreouss wrote: »

Like boards or others? I know this forum has been controversial for some but I don't get why some posters with 5,000+ posts and having been here for over 5+ years just suddenly stop posting.

Is it death, boredom?

People pass away sadly. Or they forget their passwords. Or they are too busy.

Wibbs

tgdaly wrote: »

A lot of the problem with online forums is if you're opinion doesn't suit the pc agenda and is controversial in any way then you'll have moderators censoring everything left right and center.

Obviously there's no place for things like outright racism, sexism, discrimination etc. But even if you present a fact, backed by factual evidence, that is non pc, you'll be shot down fairly quickly.

Hardly. If you present any facts backed by evidence, hell, opinion backed by some sort of citation you won't get "shot down". Oh sure you may have some other posters having a whinge about it, but you won't be censured. I consider current feminism to be a church of victimhood and general whining and a politic which will never be happy. I consider the accepted truth that multiculturalism is the positive we're told it is is extremely debatable. Both hot topics for the "pc agenda" to clutch their pearls about and I've not been restricted in expressing those opinions, nor have those who think I'm talking bilge(other than those who go rogue when their arguments fail). So no, I don't buy that at all.

Graces7

Ish66 wrote: »

Maybe they just died ?

Sadly , realistic. At my advanced age I have left directives for after my death and notifying boards is not on that list...

BuboBubo

Graces7 wrote: »

Sadly , realistic. At my advanced age I have left directives for after my death and notifying boards is not on that list...

You mean you're not going to bequeath us boardsies with all your worldly goods?

I hope you live a long, happy and healthy life, stay safe Graces.

People move on from different internet stuff. The things I was into a decade ago seem a bit naff to me now tbh.

tgdaly

Wibbs wrote: »

Hardly. If you present any facts backed by evidence, hell, opinion backed by some sort of citation you won't get "shot down". Oh sure you may have some other posters having a whinge about it, but you won't be censured. I consider current feminism to be a church of victimhood and general whining and a politic which will never be happy. I consider the accepted truth that multiculturalism is the positive we're told it is is extremely debatable. Both hot topics for the "pc agenda" to clutch their pearls about and I've not been restricted in expressing those opinions, nor have those who think I'm talking bilge(other than those who go rogue when their arguments fail). So no, I don't buy that at all.

I've definitely seen it, so we'll have to agree to disagree

megaten

Time for forums is probably just past to be honest. Prefer them to more modern social media but even when I joined years ago I rarely posted. After Hours is definitely less craic though, a lot of the link dumping crank threads got siloed off now but the damage is probably done.

o1s1n

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I've only 19 years on the forum so maybe that explains the different perspective.

Would a "very left" forum give a far right candidate like Peter Casey more than 50% of the vote?

You clearly have a very short memory in that case. For years this forum has been derided as a leftist stronghold pushing PC agendas - everything from 3rd wave feminism to liberal immigration and economics. There was a period where everything even remotely right was immediate shut down.

Perhaps the userbase has now gotten a little older and some of the far leftie admins have moved on, but it's most definitely a very new turn and not how the website has been known historically.