(Site is a graveyard - How can boards save itself?) Any update?

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489526#Comment_122489526

I'm advocating for it. Boards needs to re-establish it's identity. What is the point of boards.ie? What does boards.ie stand for nowadays?

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489537#Comment_122489537

All I said was that far right rhetoric isn't tolerated in this site, which is a statement of fact.

The tactics are to spam the thread and report my posts for being off topic or such nonsense and get me banned.

I'm not playing along any more.

These people are ruining this site and have been for years.

pjohnson

The refusal to engage has been hilariously shown up. Yet its everyone elses fault the site is suffering.

Even a return to the classic reports = warning fallacy.

RoyalCelt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489545#Comment_122489545

Actually that's a great point.

There's a poster here that did exactly that in a few threads I was in. Just pure bait, time waste and then report to try and get people thread banned. Now in the cases I seen the instigator actually got threadbanned and to Great applause so in a sense the mods here do tackle these issues. They've their hands full for sure.

Ahwell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489545#Comment_122489545

This is nonsense, can a mod please confirm that there hasn't been any mass reporting of nullzero's posts on this thread?

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489543#Comment_122489543

Everything you said in the above post was written in the lowest level of bad faith possible.

You want an echo chamber, we've had these feedback threads before. The message being "boards.ie doesn't cater to me and my opinions enough".

We had one last year where a poster demanded that boards ban all right of center opinions or they would close their account, throwing the toys out of the pram.

Boards isn't a place where hate speech is allowed or tolerated yet you and others feel the need to let on that it is in the hope that everyone you disagree with can finally be removed from the site so only your opinions will be aired.

The absolute hubris you're displaying here is mind boggling.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489562#Comment_122489562

This morning bag of chips already confirmed yet again that the amount of reports has absolutely no bearing on whether or not theres warnings given.

Its just a conspiracy.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489543#Comment_122489543

It's amazing to look at who contributed and engaged.

I hope boards admin start engaging themselves. The only way we'll get the community back is if they start to engage and let us know what the plans are.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489568#Comment_122489568

so you don’t want an echo chamber but if multiple users engage with your posts it’s piling on?

OscarMIlde

I'm not a fan of Nullzeros posts generally. I would think I tend to be on the opposite spectrum to him politically, but they are posting in good faith on this thread to give their feedback as a poster. Surely this is a thread on how to improve engagement and user experience rather than a which side is right contest?

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489579#Comment_122489579

I’d normally agree but looking at their “lowest level of bad faith” “you want an echo chamber” etc. arguments, it’s not clear that they’ve put forward anything constructive for how they want to improve user experience and improve engagement? As it is I’m curious to how they want to strike the balance between “echo chambers” and “getting piled on” and await that to be put forward as feedback.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489568#Comment_122489568

Give Boards a list of users that you want to take turns in responding to you. They might be able to set up a shift rota or something.

The last feedback thread I saw on here was literally a poster calling out the supposed left wing bias of the site. It was in the thread title.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489579#Comment_122489579

Boards has many issues.

Allowing people to spew hateful rhetoric is not one of them.

Seeing these posters talking about how they respect the moderation team and how the admins need to engage to let them know what the plans for the site are while in the same thread accusing the same people in being complicit in allowing people to spew hateful rhetoric is absolutely insane to behold.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489583#Comment_122489583

You're just being a dick towards me now.

YOU try responding to that level of posts and let me know how you get on with it.

Ahwell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489569#Comment_122489569

Yeah, I Know…but it's his claim that there is a conspiracy to get him banned right here and right now - that's what I'm questioning.

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489582#Comment_122489582

I'm not putting anything constructive forward.

I'm stating that boards is not a hot bed of far right rhetoric. That's all.

Flaneur OBrien

Some amount of persecution happening in here tonight.

Goodnight.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489595#Comment_122489595

I mean I agree with you it’s not a hot bed for such rhetoric such rhetoric is typically moderated off of the conversations, and you made good point in the last page or two that the one thread got locked summarily. But then there becomes inherent complaints that in doing so it becomes an “echo chamber” etc. and it seems that is flagged as a problem too. In the dangers of socialism etc you mentioned earlier the forum does have the “dangers from the left” thread so I wouldn’t agree there isn’t room to make those arguments in the same way you point out many users make a point to stand up to far right ideologies etc. (everything from the alt right to radical Islamic regimes (without extending into Islamophobia) etc)

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489603#Comment_122489603

My issue here is that this thread is descending into some posters wanting the site to facilitate their opinions exclusively and stop allowing anything they don't like from being expressed.

You and I do not get along, but I don't feel you should be silenced and I'd hope that runs both ways.

Boards definitely isn't in the business of allowing hate speech to flourish and the assertions being made that it is need to be called out.

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489601#Comment_122489601

All a bit of "Craic" Im sure.

suvigirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489595#Comment_122489595

I don't believe any poster suggested it is. it's the low level nuaced dog whistle posts that are allowed, which posters fear will allow more and more vicious and toxic posts.

I have no idea what left wing rhetoric is problematic, and here on a feedback thread, where you might expect posters to spell out what they see the issues to be, I still don't know, because no-one has explained.

The tone has changed on boards, I think that could be seen by exchanges here last night.

Saying that, if you manage to stay away from certain contentious issues, the place can still be inclusive, interesting and fun.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489432#Comment_122489432

New users should be banned from CA and politics until they accumulate a thousand posts. Would sort out most of the issues boards.ie is suffering from.

Backstreet Moyes

The worst I see on this site is people making sweeping statements about a thread.

This thread is full of racist or whatever buzzword.

Can you show me any posts that are racist, no you are reading the thread.

The only intent is to annoy people and it shouldn't be tolerated.

If you think that then report posts and not try start arguments on the thread which is the intent.

Backstreet Moyes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489734#Comment_122489734

What absolute nonsense, it took me around 5 years to get 1000 posts.

This would be great advice if you were looking to kill the site altogether.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489808#Comment_122489808

It would solve all the issues of waves of propegandists only joining to promote their agendas. This is what is really killing the site and this is a solution which would cut it dead. No dickhead is going to take the time to build a profile so they can launch their propaganda campaign 6months down the line.

If you need to discuss politics then there are plenty of outlets. Boards.ie is at its best when politics are not the subject of the thread.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489595#Comment_122489595

I don't know what your definition of 'hot bed' is and it doesn't really matter.

What I have said, and what I stand by is that the rise of far right rhetoric that we have seen in society over the last number of years has been reflected on Boards. You yourself were involved in recent threads that have been locked and/or deleted because of the messaging on them. You were given example last night of an active thread that has problematic posts on it right now. At least 1 post I might add that I reported and while it remains, the mod intervention on the thread was to call out something for 'targeting' the person who made that post.

This is not like arguing who is best, Utd or Liverpool (it's Liverpool) this has real and very significant life impacts. And these impacts haven't just happened in a vaccum. They are a natural consequence of more hateful and harmful rhetoric. And we have seen this rhetoric on Boards. We've seen it this week.

You were offended last night that people were challenging you in particular and you and a few more implied without evidence that it's concerted and a 'Pile on'. That's like Nigel Farage blaming the media for pointing the finger at him over recent riots.

Most people want to avoid this rhetoric, they come here to be entertained, to feel part of a community, to get some information etc etc, and to see the site being dominated by conversations of this sort (as this thread was last night) is offputting for them. I would like Boards to be dominated by conversations that attracts people rather than turns people away, I would also like if Twitter hadn't turned to the right as it has done under Musk, but this is the world we live in. He invited back people like Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson and the former is using the Hard R N word to respond to people and the latter has directly incited hateful behaviour in the UK.

And in the same way that I feel this rhetoric it should be challenged in society, I feel it should be challenged here. It has an impact that leads to harmful consequences. I'd much rather if we, as a society, had spent the 8 years since 2016 talking about meaningful climate action from a governance, societal, engineering perspective but instead, what's happened is we've moved in 180 degrees away from that conversation. Why should I, or anyone else, just accept that and not challenge this reality?

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489590#Comment_122489590

If the search function was working on this site, I'd tell you to go and enter my name on the Off the Ball thread so you could see the amount of posts directly naming me and suggesting I work on the show or am friends with the presenter, or in fact that I am one of the presenters because I tried to challenge the hate fest that that thread became.

When I did report one of those posts for 'targeting the poster' nothing was done about it and when I said this to the main site moderator in conversation about some ban I received from them I was told 'Not my problem'. So spare me the woe is me narrative.

Tell me how

I half expect to come in to this thread and to see a mod post locking it and saying it has just devolved in to the same stuff that happens on other threads and no one wants to read that.

Instead of them taking that step, I would ask them to take some time to read the last ten pages or so to actually get a pretty clear view of the thought process of a lot of active site users in what turn out to be key threads/forums and to please factor those thoughts in to hopefully coming up with a strategy to make the site more active, welcoming and entertaining.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489897#Comment_122489897

It's not really a mod decision IMO. I think someone at the executive level needs to decide on whether or not they either want to turn the site into Stormfront or just sit back and let it happen gradually. We have two members of staff, only one of whom ever bothers to speak to users. We have no info on the direction of the site because there isn't one. We downgraded the platform in 2021 to something objectively worse from a UI standpoint and that's the last time anyone has ever bothered to do anything with Boards.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122489921#Comment_122489921

Who owns boards nowadays? Are there shareholders?