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

As long as you don't wake up in the morning and get out on the Wrong side ?! ;)

I respectfully and wholeheartedly agree to disagree .

Goodnight .

What posts on there are problematic? I may not agree with them all but bar one poster who was abjectly trolling on Saturday people are either agreeing or disagreeing?

The zero tolerance thread is one of the few threads just angers me too much. I know it's not good for my mental health to see the hatred, fear and vitriol directed towards innocent people fleeing a desperate situation.

I tip my hat to those who stand up to the racists and xenophobes in that thread. You're far stronger than me. I'd be thread banned in a heartbeat.

Its racism and xenophobia that's often just on the cusp of the border of acceptability. I've seen it justified as acceptable because many people have that outlook. That's never an argument I'll agree with. Many people thought (and still think) homosexuality is against nature, that never made that right. Or that white people are the pinnacle of the human race. We all hopefully recognise how odious that belief is.

I'll keep it bringing it back to the rules. If they were clarified and cleared up, the site could be better and more welcoming.

specific accounts might not be, can’t say the users behind the keyboards have moved on.

Wha?

Go back to sleep you are raving ! 😂

I asked them to engage with the thread in a post on the other thread . Still there if you care to look ! Nothing about reporting , ffs

Don't know how or why you are asking me about the last half as I was / am not involved in that discussion ?

2+2 =75 ?

Now go back to sleep and make sure you don't wake up on the wrong side again!

Are we playing werewolf 😁 you are definitely a wolf

I didn't have to deal with anything, I chose to.

You've edited your post, I addressed Suvigirl in my post too, not just you.

Oh right I see now .

Yeah right . When was that ?

. So now answer my question ?

And I might accept your apology ..

So it wasn't . I am not going to produce the post for you but it was on the dangers or the Gript thread, no pms no requests for pile ons .

If I have something to say I come out and say it to your face . And if I report someone I can do it all by myself .

Now I am upset by this and request that you and JP Liz just go and play whatever games you want with someone else .

This is classic and why this site is becoming such a nightmare .

Why would someone decent behave like this to anyone unless they are trolling ?

It's unfair to accuse me of trolling, I've engaged openly on this thread.

I never suggested any posts in this thread. I thought this was a feedback thread about Boards?

Awake still ...thanks for that !

Bit of a funny one that " when I only asked you a question "too.

Nothing open engagement about out the blue accusing two posters of pm-ing and organising pile ups !

You say you did not mean it like that but that is what you said / how you wrote that .

So really you should acknowledge that and apologise or else I can take it that you don't accept my reply .

Either somebody got under your skin or is dripping poison in your ear because I can't understand how you thought any of that was ok and why you are somehow affronted when no apology appears to be forthcoming from you about this ?

We have never had cross words before and I certainly haven't been reporting you or anyone giving feedback here

I want to draw a line under this now before it ends up closing the thread ( is that the aim of this carryon? )

Btw Lz's interjection wasn't very helpful because it made it seem as if you two were in cahoots , of which I am sure you are well aware .

Edited two spelling mistakes only

I'm sure Mike will be very happy with all the "constructive" feedback provided here... 😒🙄

Deleted.

Ironically, offering nothing constructive myself.

If you want to have a pop at posters take it to pm and if you feel aggrieved then pm a mod.

New nomination for worst piece of advice on this thread.

Do not take any complaints about me to pm.

I will report you for unsolicited PM's, and possible abusive behaviour. Best out in the open where admin, mods and the community can see for themselves.

I interpreted your posts as possible collusion and asked for clarification. I did state that I may be wrong. Turns out I was and I've accepted the response from you and Suvigirl.

I'm not in collusion with anyone, I am capable of thinking and posting for myself.

We have crossed swords before on a Covid thread where you were adamant that employers would forevermore insist that employees stay at home if they have a cold or flu.

There was no malice on my part, I just wanted to understand your posts.

I'm not affronted, but I think it's clear I'm not a troll. I have repeatedly responded openly to others on this thread regardless of whether we agree or disagree.

I'm drawing a line under this now because it's ruining the thread and, no, it is not my intention to have it closed.

What do you mean by the 'same side of the debate as you are on'? What side am I on?

For the record, the only party I was ever a member of are the Greens and my vote would generally go to Green/ Labour/ like minded independents. I'm the very definition of left of centre and generally liberal views. That doesn't mean though that I am not greatly concerned about the rapid changes in Irish society nor am I going to swallow every woke agenda that pops up. And I speak up on these issues as a concerned citizen.

Someone of my ilk, a centrist should be able to debate points of view on an Irish site like boards, without having to continually think 'will this align with moderator xyz's views on the matter'? That's the issue with parts of this site, it's far too censorious. I wouldn't be a great fan of Musk but his broad instincts on these matters is correct. Let the people speak and if that means you or others or I have to read a few uncomfortable viewpoints, well you or I or others don't have to ascribe to them.

On the subject of moderation:

I had considered for a while to volunteer as a mod in the site. The fora that I follow are the less contagious ones: Films, gaming (both have very good mods in place) and music which I think it doesn't have active mods and it could worth a try as for the most part people behave well and genuinely share music. (I also follow soccer, which is a bit more difficult but also has good mods and people behave for the most part).

Two main reasons that make me reluctant to go ahead with it:

1.Written words are not always easy to interpret. Obviously there are clear cut cases where you could tell when a poster takes the piss. There are also posts that are more difficult to interpret and one can easily misunderstand what another person means, what's the context. We saw it earlier in this thread. That's a general observation, applies not just to boards but to most of the Internet.

2.Specific to Boards: it's not clear what's allowed and what's not. I think Flaneur's suggestion about a full review of the charters in the site is one of the few (if not the only) suggestions that can be actioned here and now. Not to say that there weren't other good suggestions, but the luck of resources would make them rather unrealistic. I can't say what the charter should look like - in broad terms I agree with many of the points that Flaneur made, but thankfully it's not for me to decide.

Two more general observations:

-I always find that these feedback threads are almost exclusively for Current Affairs. I'll admit that I'm not using CA almost at all: I might go in a thread if the title catches my attention and scan the first 4-5 posts for any link that may give me some info on the topic (I only follow the Enoch Burke thread, initially because the topic interested me, later because it became entertaining). Rather common that the bickering and digs start straight away. I'm sure moderation isn't perfect there. I can only express admiration and respect to the mods of CA. Because my opinion is: who in their right mind would want to mod CA.

-Posters argued about balanced debate and freedom of speech and that it's a community and these are all fair points. Posters also need to remember that this is aa privately owned company. And the owners can wake up one morning and decide "f**k this" and change the rule book completely on what's allowed and what's not. People will obviously disagree and bring the points in the beginning of this paragraph, bottom line though: their company, their rules. I think it would be good that we all remember that and decide if there is anything we can do in our daily interactions here.

I stopped posting on boards and funnily enough I don't get annoyed by posters responding to my posts anymore that way.

Might be helpful to those who feel "piled on" for other users responding to their public posts on a public forum.

It’s not bad advice I have to say. I’ve had issues with abusive posts last month - I think it’s sorted in the main now- but what I noticed were certain posters with some major degrees of paranoia - every poster nearly they saw as a potential “threat” to them - they were posting regularly in certain CA topic threads and collectively decided that certain views or posts were trolling- but instead of reporting, they attacked the poster.

It was extraordinary behaviour to watch - a collective group think approach. Taking a break from such threads even for just a few days certainly does bring down tension - so yeah, “get out more” is not bad advice at all- too much posting just leads to a bunch of “know it alls” who don’t tolerate any posting style or viewpoint other than their own

This. Thank you .

I didn't start this . And it would have been over straight away if the poster had withdrawn it last night . But no way do I want somebody fighting with me on pm in the middle of the night no matter how rational they think they are !

At the end of the day posters are allowed to defend themselves and other posters should have the decency to allow that especially given the thread that we are on .