As a 'normal person' what do you think of Current Affairs/IMHO

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119868194#Comment_119868194

I think you're helping to prove their point with this post to be honest.

I enjoy CA/IMHO. It's pretty much the only place I hangout nowadays since I'm banned from the Soccer forum and the Forum Games was canned in the changeover.

The thing that often bothered me about CA/IMHO was it wasn't moderated tightly enough.

I'm not talking about wanting people I disagree with sanctioned or banned or whatever but rather often threads go off on tangents and it goes on for paaaaaages. I can understand it in After Hours but I expect a higher standard from CA/IMHO.

One example off the top of the dome - During the 2020 US elections, there was several threads (Trump thread, Biden thread, election thread, etc) where the exact same conversation (more of an argument/bickering) was being had in each different thread and by the exact same people. I've always enjoyed CA/IMHO but it was intolerable at that time.

It doesn't seem as bad since the changeover and everyone left.

Paterson Jerins

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119868212#Comment_119868212

Very interesting that you say that.

Because when "emmetspiceland" says nothing but "yawn" in a post on a thread in after hours, it's okay because he is on a certain side of the aisle. He gets thanks by his "dudes"

But if someone you disagree with says "yawn" , then you ridicule.

Youve just proved my point.

Copying and pasting posts shows the hypocrisy on boards!!!!!

Be kind #bekind

His friend might be a current affairs regular.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119859652#Comment_119859652

The real issue is that there's a horde of posters who spout white supremacy and only stop to push their baseless victimhood narrative about not being allowed to do so. It gets a bit tiring.

Source?

Paterson Jerins

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119872755#Comment_119872755

Perhaps trying too hard, and about as funny as discovering your shed has been robbed!

Am I right doc?

Rothko

I always find it hilarious that the people that complain the most about the CA forum are quite often the most prolific posters over there.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119872755#Comment_119872755

..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875896#Comment_119875896

I genuinely haven’t a clue who this photo is of, or what it’s meant to represent. I’m not a boomer so the cultural reference is lost on me.

Tonesjones

Needs to be a change in moderators or add some more.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875277#Comment_119875277

Thinly disguised 'I only want the views I can tolerate allowed' thread.

osarusan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875277#Comment_119875277

I don't see anything unusual about that.

No more than the people who regularly go to football matches are the same people who are most likely to complain about the quality of facilities on offer.

It affects them more.

erlichbachman

The rules for a civil conversation are, no religion and no politics - if you permit these then learn to accept uncivil interactions

Backstreet Moyes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875963#Comment_119875963

CA is basically dead compared to what it used to be.

If you are on the left you can do what you want without any repercussions.

If someone makes a good point or calls them out the post gets removed.

If you post the same as they do you get warned and eventually threads are closed.

All the regular good posters who were regulars have mostly left over it.

Take a look in any thread and it's the same few posters insulting others while telling others to be kind.

Ush1

What to do with all these awful aggressive men on the internet....

El Gato De Negocios

For the most part it's fine. You have sections hand wringing and claiming ism's and phobias where ever there is a comment they don't agree with and by the same token there are obvious trolls that probably do hold some pretty unsavoury opinions in the other section.

But ya know what, its the fuckin Internet, and in the grand scheme of things a minute section of it. People just need to stop being little bitches.

AH used to be the red headed step child of Boards, CA has now taken that position.

🤷‍♂️

Tonesjones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876926#Comment_119876926

Like you said 2 posters on opposite sides of the argument could make the same comments but only 1 of them will be pulled up for it.

I don't know if it's because of a biased opinion of the topic or a grudge against an individual or individuals or whatever but its repeated across all of the threads.

Very frustrating

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876884#Comment_119876884

Jasus comes across the complete opposite to me. All of them are anti everything anti "woke" and even believing man made climate change is real makes you a crazy person.

Tell me how

OP, I probably fall in to the category of not being a 'normal person' wrt CA/IMHO at this point.

I am argumentative and quite forceful with my opinion. I don't like that this is the case, but it is a style of posting I felt I've had to adopt for various reasons. Allow me to explain.

I'm on Boards since 2014, I originally joined looking for a support network to help deal with what was quite debilitating depression. I found that and hung around. Thankfully I got through that period and continued to post on such threads and more and more started to dip my toe in to other threads and found topics and conversations that were interesting, intriguing and some that were flat out hilarious. I felt I was part of a community here and was on a DM and 'real life name level' of friendship with a number of people that I actually respected and appreciated a lot.

Around 2019 (for me anyway) I felt that the tone of the content on the site started to change. I felt there was more and more negativity on threads with many comments specifically being posted so as to demean or berate someone or something, originally at first this was aimed at global personalities but before long it became common to see it aimed at irish people who themselves, or friends and family could easily be on the site and I'm sure found it quite hurtful. It then got to the point that threads were being started with the intent of targeting or denigrating these people while ostensibly being about discussing a 'topic'. The first thread on Greta was where this hatred exploded in my view. On national level topics, this was most evident in threads about radio and TV shows, many of which seemed to be populated by the same posters every day/week saying the same thing about how much they hated the presenter or presenters or guests or whatever. That was when I started to push back against this persistent negativity.

In recent, years, unfortunately, I've found myself most frequently drawn in to discussions on topical events that I again feel have been introduced solely so as to be excessively negative about a particular topic or group or ideal (first on AH, and then on CA/IMHO). And I've seen the frequency of these threads grow, and the tone of them drop more and more as time has gone on with increasing numbers of new and long term posters clearly relishing having the opportunity to speak on the topic in a particular manner. And I've made a conscious decision to push back against this in a manner I've felt is appropriate.

And there's a couple of reasons why I do this. Firstly, I haven't liked how the platform has been hijacked in this way, secondly, I think a lot of the tone of these threads is especially hateful, harmful and dangerous to allow it to go unchallenged. And thirdly, we've all watched the national and international public discourse change over the last few years and how allowing hateful rhetoric spread ends up having real and negative consequences that are very hard to recover from (Trumpism and Brexit for example). I didn't wan to step back and allow such voices to grow here. This is evident right now today in the conversation on climate/environment activities and still as a society we refuse to recognize the impact of what we are doing to the planet.

I know my posts don't entertain anyone here anymore, I know I'm viewed in a particular light but I don't really care, this place (particularly CA/IMHO) went off the charts over the last while with insulting and intentionally hurtful content and it wasn't helped with the 'upgrade' that the site went through last year. The biggest impact of that was the current situation where modding is left to what seems a handful of people, (and only 2 names come to mind to me right now as being active mods) and the approach of one is ad hoc, inconsistent, entirely subjective and infuriating for all users of the site it seems. The approach of the other is to shut down threads as soon as there is an opportunity to do so, less threads = less modding of course. I stopped using the site about March of this year I think, largely for this reason, I've recently returned to being a more frequent poster but to be honest, I don't think I'll stay long term given how it is.

The site is caught in a very hard place right now in that in order to be a mod, you probably need to be around a particular forum quite a bit but because the only people hanging around forums in this way are typically active users on topics that continue to be excessively bitter and opinionated, then that in itself means that they are probably never going to be viewed as being an impartial judge. CA/IMHO could be an engaging and entertaining environment, I've no idea how to make that happen now though and there was close to zero effort to engage with the community when it was needed, and so, here we are.

I don't like writing this, I have spent some genuinely very enjoyable hours at a time on here reading through entire threads on interesting and hilarious topics and as I said, there was a time I felt like I was a member of a community here which allowed me to remain private and to still connect with people. I miss the old site.

TLDR. Do you have a time machine? If so, we might be able to do something.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119888409#Comment_119888409

I understand your position and agree with bits of it Tmh but I think it's possible that Boards can become bigger than it needs to be for some.

All of that negativity, the back and forth arguing, the reporting of posts and long threads in Feedback. Would it not do your head in caring about it all?

Boards used to mean something to me but it doesn't any more and there are a few reasons for that which I won't go in to here. Certainly though the platform move destroyed the place and that is one reason.

All of the contentious threads and disputes don't impact me whatsoever. I have enough to be tormented over so what's racist and what isn't doesn't bother me. I have my own belief system (and no I'm not actually in support of beastiality 😂 I mean come on) and am content with it.

So I dip in and out here and there and am happy enough with that.

xxxxxxl

I find it fascinating. People complaining about CA While inhabiting CA but now In AH complaining about CA. No offense meant. 🤔

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119890857#Comment_119890857

All of that negativity, the back and forth arguing, the reporting of posts and long threads in Feedback. Would it not do your head in caring about it all?

Yes, and no. Being involved in these discussions isn't rewarding or entertaining, but it doesn't occupy my mind too much outside of here. I believe that the world (and it least the parts of it I inhabit) has been significantly negatively impacted by the events around Trump in the US and Brexit in the UK. And I believe both of these experiences came about because of a growing tolerance of a particular brand of rhetoric.

I don't think Ireland is at risk of a similar brand of hatred emerging immediately or anything, but there are enough there who would like to see it happening. We saw it briefly around the last Presidential election when Peter Casey was what we needed in the country according to many on here. Boards is a small corner of the internet in a small island on the edge of Europe but it is a window into Irish conversations and a place where opinions are shared and formed and can grow. And I have no wish to just stand by and let that happen to the extent that we are then looking around saying 'how did so and so get in to power' or whatever.

And like I said, I saw a particular mindset grow significantly on here. Got to the point last year where there was at least 1 thread a week was being started solely to give people the opportunity to vent in a particular and consistently negative manner. And I am not saying those threads shouldn't have been allowed to be started, but I wasn't going to just leave them to their echo chamber. I don't post in them to change opinions, but so that others who read them will see an alternate view.

I'd sooner do that than just close my account and walk away, and at least, this way, I'm annoying the right people in my view. Maybe some day I'll be logging in just to take part in a best biscuit competition again or taking part in a discussion about our favourite song when going out years ago. We will see.