Soccer Feedback Thread 2024

I'd like to go back to individual match threads instead of for example last night the Euro thread is page after page of "thats not a yellow" or "ref is crap there". If you arent logged in while the match is on you have to scroll through page after page of mid match discussion which is irrelevant after full time. I'm not saying people shouldn't be posting such things but I think a specific thread like we used to would make things neater.

Both feedback threads since the move to Vanilla noted how dead the forum is and highlighted the obvious problem that the forum is hidden and private. Nothing has ever been done to address this.

Will there ever be any intention to try and increase traffic? Is it wrong to believe that some people prefer that it just stay quiet?

Its literally been years, if nothing is ever going to be tried then I think Boards should just be upfront about that.

Is it possible to open the forum but limit to posters with an account date older than a month to avoid trolls?

I like this idea of opening up and any infractions in the first 3 months result in an instant ban. Then say if you pick up 2 infractions/ warnings within your first season 9 months, the average length of a season, it's a permanent ban. Something needs to be done because right now it's the same voices having the same arguments on a daily basis

It's football though. The appetite for conversation on it is unrivalled by other sports. I have no illusions that young people are going to come in and start posting on a forum, but any diversity and new faces would be good. We want people coming in around big matches and moments. Yes some of the extra chat will be nonsense or trolling, but certainly not all of it.

You are requesting evidence for a hypothetical that doesn't exist. There are no other sports forums that were made private, so I can't give you an example of a forum that flourished once it was put back to public.

What I can tell you is numbers are way down in here, cross fan interactions are way down, diversity and freshness of conversation is virtually non existent. It's an ever dwindling bunch of the same aging heads talking the same old talk back and forth.

Boards usership in general is way down and the demographic is getting greyer and greyer. In the mid 2000's when the forum was originally made private, we had teenagers and men in their early twenties coming in here to argue about football. The tone of that conversation was poor, and putting access restrictions in place made sense. There is no avalanche of teenagers coming this time. Instead, we would just be creating the possibility that the remaining user base, such as it is, can pop into chat about soccer while the big match is on. And that cannot be a net negative, at this stage.

Cross fan interactions are mainly down due to the match discussion being allowed take place in the super threads destroying the match threads for better or worse.

2 warnings over 2 years getting someone a ban also isn't conducive to keeping people around.

While im more a reader than poster these days due to time constraints and real life, I'm not sure I agree with your logic surrounding banned posters and opening the forum up, surely if they were previously forum banned for life/6 months with review etc, they continue to be banned even if it's opened up. It will obviously have a higher turnover of posts which in turn will need more moderation, but the likes of other forums with bigger numbers than the SF get by just fine. I have up most respect for the moderation team, which I was part of before but I do think this is just a cop out.

There absolutely is tribalism in the likes of After hours and current affairs even, you just have to read through it to see that people are very hard lined in their ways of thinking and it is what generates most of the discussions, much in the same way that tribalism in football is viewed.

Of course there is going to be trolls etc, but tribalism should not be viewed as a bad thing, the vast vast majority of posters will discuss amicably even if they totally disagree due to their affiliation.

I'm sure these forums have a way of banning posters from posting in each forum, maybe even the mods could discuss the way that happens with moderators of other high post forums

If letting trolls in is to be allowed they'd need to be dealt with harder than currently. As it theres a few wums who appear to be given free reign or just dance "technically" within the rules to return back as troll-ey as ever providing nothing.

The vast majority of site users are longer term users, with an ever rising average age. What we see on this forum is reflected in terms of the global user base.

In the mid 2000s the site was still growing, it had a much younger demographic and a higher percentage of the userbase were entirely unaware of how to behave. It was still a world where a bulk of people were figuring out how to interact online.

In that specific context, the soccer forum was absolutely a war zone. A constant influx of younger people with no self management of their behaviour out looking for an argument. The decision to restrict access was a good one. Further policies over the years to manage behaviour, etc worked really well. What we have left here is largely those who could stay within the lines.

But more generally, what we have left on the site as a whole is an older userbase who understand how to respect the rules. If we open up the site, add match threads, and make them visible we are opening it up to a sliver of the boards population who - post site migration - don't know this forum exists or forgot it once existed. They aren't going to have the energy or the motivations of the avalanche of weekly sign ups from the mid 2000's.

I think the mod team are looking to protect the forum and themselves from ghosts that no longer exist. So in the end, the question is whether you play it safe and just gradually watch this place bleed out over the next half decade with zero new users or new strands of conversation. Or do you take a small (imo) risk to suck up a small amount of new potential users from the declining general pool of the site and keep the forum as vibrant and as viable as it can be.

Right now we have a locked door that people are clearly not bothering to walk through, if they even know it exists. Moreover, this is a move you'll end up making eventually imo, as usership circles the drain. Might as well do it sooner rather than later.

Mainly post in the Arsenal thread.

I find the quality of discussion in there to be fairly good. Obviously it helps if you're all supporting the same team - but most people are civil and well informed about what is being discussed.

I dip in and out of other threads occasionally and it seems the same, by and large.

Obviously the site being slightly hidden away from sight doesn't do it many favours in terms of attracting new members and the way it's laid out: with everything but the top half a dozen threads disappearing from sight- doesn't really encourage much beyond the super threads to thrive.

It would be great if the forum was more easily discoverable and laid out better etc, but I don't know practically how that is done, or if it's possible.

I'm really not sure about opening the forum to all. I mainly posted in the AH Euros thread, which was open to all, but my enthusiasm waned as the tournament went on: there was a lot of stupid and witless posting, the general standard of debate was far lower than what you'd find here.

It's funny how, outside of the soccer forum, you'll sometimes see the soccer forum invoked as a bit of a lawless space on boards, when, in my experience, it's one of the most civil and knowledgeable places on the site.

And I have my doubts about how much life - opening it up - it could bring back. Let's be honest here: the site is dying on its arse. Even forums like AH are just about ticking over now. I suppose CA is still going, but I think a slowdown is happening there too now. And have you seen the absolute state of the threads and the "debate" in there? Jesus it's rough. Boards is an old school message board and, unfortunately, time and demographics is now catching up.

If you look at it through that lens - then I think the soccer forum is actually doing okay, relative to the rest of the site. It is "busy" - by the standard of 2024 boards.ie and there is solid enough - albeit small - group of posters.

If the soccer forum is in decline - I think the root causes go beyond the forum, even beyond the site itself and are just a reflection of how increasingly people don't use these type of sites anymore. The heyday of message boards was fifteen years ago. I hope that boards will keep going for as long as it can, but, I wouldn't be shocked if I try to log in one day soon and there's nothing there anymore.

It's a bit off topic I suppose, but, it is still somewhat relevant to the wider and deeper causes about dwindling traffic in the soccer forum:

Take your pick really in terms of where the traffic is going: twitter, reddit, tiktok, instagram, private whatsapp groups… etc, etc.

Message boards aren't typically used by younger people. They are old hat. And the userbase here is getting older, with less free time to spend online than when we were all young bucks. And no one is coming through to replace us.

If you look at the regional sub forums on boards: they're kinda dead. The same sub reddits aren't.

This isn't a slag against boards. I love boards. I think it does remarkably well considering that the migration made a pig's ear of the site, there's clearly no budget, man power or interest to do anything further with the site, and it's increasingly held together thanks to the efforts of a decreasing handful of unpaid volunteers.

Making the soccer forum public and/or putting threads on the front page might help a bit. I can understand why people think it's worth a shot. But I'd be sceptical if we're here in two/three/four years and we're in a situation where traffic has gone up, no matter what is done.

Look at AH: for so long the absolute mack daddy of all forums on the site. No problems with access or visibilty there. If you go in there now there's threads on the first page that haven't had a new post in three days. Still on page one, after three days. Says it all really. The direction of travel in terms of the site's future is pretty clear in my eyes - it's just a question of whether it'll be quick or slow.

I doubt it will last a half decade. Someone has to pay to keep the lights on and it long ago became a commercial interest with financial objectives. Eventually the numbers won’t add up and the obvious decision will be to pull the plug.

Which is to say, thinking that protection and conservatism is the right move here doesn’t stack up imo. Open up the doors, you’ll only end up doing so in X years as a desperate measure anyway.

But clearly mileage varies on that point.

Yeah, this is it for me… I'd be more open to an open forum if every high-use open section of boards wasn't so absolutely horrible to look through. There's some great communities and chats in smaller forums, but any high volume ones just make me sad to look through whenever i get curious or bored enough to ignore my own 'dont go in there' rule.

Would hate to see what is a genuinely decent place to chat football become something like CA.

in fairness to Laura, they will pounce on anything even remotely negative to a certain club, regardless of what thread it’s on.

Personally I like the forum as is. Not that they are remotely the same, but imagine having multiple Mitch’s and Toby’s to wade through. It’s not difficult to gain access to the forum.