Will this place take over from Boards?

[CelticRambler]

So it's not just me then ...

[kadman]

What with covid and the war being the main threads I get to a point where its more annoying to my sanity to visit just to look in there, when there is little going on with other threads. Its not good for the well being to be constantly immersed in a negative mindset, so i am going to make a conscious effort to avoid them in the current moment.

[GrowlerG]

I fear not as yet another user has quit today. Last time I checked some months ago I had contributed 7% or so of all posts here but today that is over 8% i.e in the wrong direction. We might as well chuck it in if we can't attract more 'posters' - if even 5% of our membership posted regularly it would be a giant leap forward....I don't get it, especially as some who initially came over from Boards have returned there despite it still being terminally damaged. Cheer me up somebody - please!!

Boards is still broken and almost unusable. They should have have started over with a stock build of a forum install.
Dumped the old posts, or park then on an archive site. But they won't listen to reason.

The forum software here works so well its dream to use.
But IMO Gubu has a different issue. Its very noticeable on Gubu there is not much diversity of opinion.
There a similar sort of dogma on all issues. No middle ground.
I pointed it out a way back, that if it wasn't reigned in, it would drive people away.

There is more balance on boards, but even there poor quality posting is creeping in, because the mods tools are broken, and they can't police it like they used to. Even there its gone very quiet. They say the numbers are increasing, but it doesn't feel like it.

I'm back here for the first time in a long time and there very little going on.

[765489]

Boards is still broken and almost unusable. They should have have started over with a stock build of a forum install.
Dumped the old posts, or park then on an archive site. But they won't listen to reason.

The forum software here works so well its dream to use.
But IMO Gubu has a different issue. Its very noticeable on Gubu there is not much diversity of opinion.
There a similar sort of dogma on all issues. No middle ground.
I pointed it out a way back, that if it wasn't reigned in, it would drive people away.

There is more balance on boards, but even there poor quality posting is creeping in, because the mods tools are broken, and they can't police it like they used to. Even there its gone very quiet. They say the numbers are increasing, but it doesn't feel like it.

I'm back here for the first time in a long time and there very little going on.

Boards in my opinion is a shithole of a site. Balanced moderation is a joke and non existent. At least on here posters are allowed to have differing opinions on things without the threat of being banned.

Problem Gubu has is not enough members posting and new members coming on board. It was always going to be an uphill battle but the site is still here and posts continue to be created on a daily basis.

[Love and theft]

Boards.ie has taken away viewing access to non members to the footie tread. This maybe an opportunity to create a tread that has good varying opinions, debate etc. This might drive traffic towards gubu.ie..footie is on all the time. Always current and new incidents to discuss.

[GrowlerG]

Boards in my opinion is a shithole of a site. Balanced moderation is a joke and non existent. At least on here posters are allowed to have differing opinions on things without the threat of being banned.

Problem Gubu has is not enough members posting and new members coming on board. It was always going to be an uphill battle but the site is still here and posts continue to be created on a daily basis.

Each to their own . But I would question the quality and balance of the "differing opinions".

[Guburnor]

Boards.ie has taken away viewing access to non members to the footie tread. This maybe an opportunity to create a tread that has good varying opinions, debate etc. This might drive traffic towards gubu.ie..footie is on all the time. Always current and new incidents to discuss.

Feel free to start the thread!

[Guburnor]

Each to their own . But I would question the quality and balance of the "differing opinions".

This might be a good time to chip in with my 2 cents.

The site was created primarily because of the rush to question the quality of differing opinions on other sites. Not so much by the mods, but by the most active posters, who by reporting posts and harassing posters whose opinions they thought low quality, can shut down the quality of the debate. Mods react to this and end up banning/warning posters who are branded troublemakers because their differing opinions are seen as the triggers for the trouble.

I wanted to create an environment to encourage quality and balance of debate, and for that you need a) differing opinions and b) a willingness to engage in quality debate, rather than snarky replies and asking mods to silence posters.

That's not to say anything goes, I have of course silenced/warned/banned posters for crossing a line - that goes with the turf. But my biggest disappointment has been that some of the most prolific and high quality posters have been more willing to call for bans than to debate a poster.

We have lost a few of the very highest quality posters because I refused to ban/sanction other posters they disagreed with.

I was sad to see them go, but this will never be a site that you can say "I don't like their opinion, either they go or I do."

If you don't like their opinion (and assuming they're not being a dick*) then engage with them, debate and discuss the matter at hand.

If you can't do that, ignore them.

And if you can't ignore them, then there are plenty of other sites out there that are probably a better fit for you.

*If you think they're being a dick, report the post and I will take action if they're clearly being a dick. But having a low quality opinion in your view does not necessarily equate them to being a dick.

[GrowlerG]

Banning is a different thing entirely. That's a last resort.

But I would argue if poor quality posting isn't controlled it spreads like weeds/spam. It drowns everything else out. You can see this on boards now. A handful of posters are just filling threads up with uncontrolled drivel. Really no point in engaging. No action is taken. Its getting unusable. Then again it's half broken anyway.

I'm mostly on UK forums. They have more traffic and working rules. I know people say forums are obsolete and reddit and similar have replaced them. I don't agree. I don't think reddit has depth of a forum. But that might be because the forums I use give access slowly and are on specific subjects.

[Boardsie Exile]

Boards has become collateral damage in the so called culture war. Tension had been slowly building since the beginning of the last decade but 2016 was when it over the cliff. No prizes for guessing what event brought said tension to a head.

Part of me wonders if the site is being slowly derailed in order to bring the whole sorry mess to an end - and it is a mess. It's hard to believe that last summer's revamp could have been so badly handled. Unless it was done on purpose.

[95438756]

Unless it was done on purpose.

Plausible. Still, remember the VIdeo Games Convention in 2015 in the Convention Centre by the Liffey? A lot of money was spent to well, bury it and airbrush it out of the history books, online and offline.

[Love and theft]

Feel free to start the thread!

A quick look at the sport category,if I'm reading it right, tells me the latest update for all sport is 4th Feb. The appetite just isn't here for sports chat which is a shame. I tried in the beginning for a liverpool tread but there wasn't much happening..

[Del.Monte]

A quick look at the sport category,if I'm reading it right, tells me the latest update for all sport is 4th Feb. The appetite just isn't here for sports chat which is a shame. I tried in the beginning for a liverpool tread but there wasn't much happening..

Just not enough people posting - rugby is my thing but I'm exhausted with all the other stuff that I post and can't do everything. More lurkers need to start posting ASAP.

[CelticRambler]

A quick look at the sport category,if I'm reading it right, tells me the latest update for all sport is 4th Feb. The appetite just isn't here for sports chat which is a shame.

Unfortunately, the appetite just isn't here for any kind of special interest, other than a bit of bird-watching and other things Nature. Or, to be more accurate, the variety of experience isn't here, so there's next-to-no chance of having a productive discussion on the finer points of such a special interest. That was one of the great strengths of the old Boards, and now that it's been destroyed, I don't think it can or will be replicated anywhere else.

I wanted to create an environment to encourage quality and balance of debate, and for that you need a) differing opinions and b) a willingness to engage in quality debate, rather than snarky replies and asking mods to silence posters.
...
If you don't like their opinion (and assuming they're not being a dick*) then engage with them, debate and discuss the matter at hand.

Hmmm, yeah ... but there's a wide spectrum between "being a dick" and "quality debate" with plenty of scope for all kinds of contributions that are just too poorly founded and/or argued to be worth the effort of engaging with. One doesn't have to be a ban-worthy troll to derail a serious discussion; but when this happens over and over again, there's no enjoyment in re-visiting that thread ... or the forum, judging by the number of experienced, quality debaters who came and contributed for a while, but didn't stay.

[Del.Monte]

I think some of those who came, and still pop in from time to time, are weary and just can't motivate themselves to start all over again. Two in particular that I'm thinking of hardly post on Boards.ie anymore either.

[mmercedes84]

Banning is a different thing entirely. That's a last resort.

But I would argue if poor quality posting isn't controlled it spreads like weeds/spam. It drowns everything else out. You can see this on boards now. A handful of posters are just filling threads up with uncontrolled drivel. Really no point in engaging. No action is taken. Its getting unusable. Then again it's half broken anyway.

I'm mostly on UK forums. They have more traffic and working rules. I know people say forums are obsolete and reddit and similar have replaced them. I don't agree. I don't think reddit has depth of a forum. But that might be because the forums I use give access slowly and are on specific subjects.

Agree- Reddit does my head in , it's unorganized mess with no logic might as well follow tweets.

[Del.Monte]

Facebook, which I use purely for information gathering and dispensing, is a horrible mess too. I just don't get why a lot of those posting on specialised FB group pages - railways, nature, antiques etc. don't join forums like this, or even the other place, and produce something worthwhile instead of reams of unconnected posts with lots of dopey GIF thank-yous' and abusive replies by trolls.

[mmercedes84]

Today's society is click bait combined with quick actions.
I do think smart phones have rewired us to this always on , always needing more info latest hit.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram , are all like that.
Forums are not popular as it involves taking the time to engage in a discussion and one where you won't get instant recognition of how fantastic u're post or picture was.

[BrianD3]

I think this was mentioned before - web forums are old hat, they can still be popular and useful for ongoing discussion if there is a critical mass of posters but the number will inevitably decline over time. Boards was slowly dying but the "upgrade" probably accelerated that process by at least 5 years. It's also extremely difficult for any new forums (i.e. this one) to gain traction.

I could see forums surviving for topics which are both trendy and technical e.g the boards renewable energy forum deems to be doing well.

Cannot stand facebook or twitter. I was thinking about this the other day when I was reading about digitising VHS recordings and using Time Base Correctors. I could find nothing on social media but a large amount of in depth material on web forums. If these forums were to go offline, will the info be lost - a backwards step in that case.

[CelticRambler]

I could see forums surviving for topics which are both trendy and technical e.g the boards renewable energy forum deems to be doing well.

Cannot stand facebook or twitter. I was thinking about this the other day when I was reading about digitising VHS recordings and using Time Base Correctors. I could find nothing on social media but a large amount of in depth material on web forums.

Since the Great Meltdown, I too have found that the most useful resource - for all manner of technical and non-trendy queries - has been some other forum. These would all be relatively specialist sites, though, and even if I'm quite happy to browse through half a dozen topics only vaguely related to my initial enquiry, I'm not going to sign up for any of them. The flip-side of this is that when I'm in the middle of some challenging project, I'm not going to spend time posting on a chat site (such as Gubu) - I'll be off reading threads on a dozen different forums and speed-watching YouTube videos.

[Del.Monte]

Agree with much of the last couple of posts but it doesn't really explain why those involved in specialist interests such as railways, nature etc. seem unwilling to contribute to forums as opposed to FB, Twitter etc. Irish Model Railways https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/ is one of the few exceptions. Try finding something similar for wildlife conservation, collecting etc.

[BrianD3]

I'd say it's because the lifeblood of forums are casual visitors who go on to develop a deeper interest thanks to the forum. They then become good contributors.

Now, the casuals go looking on twitter and fb instead.

Boards had some great advantages - a big forum in a small country, a mix of general and more specialist forums to draw in the casuals and then keep them. Mostly fcuked now.

[95438756]

^^^^ The operative above is "had"

[95438756]

Mostly fcuked now.

An parallel analogy can be drawn with the hobby shops here in Dublin: all to a greater or lesser extent: I'm one of these weirdos who use enamel paints for building models.
Due to Mr Fukking EU no further supplies can be imported.

The hobby shops position towards enamel customer in light of this measure ranges from "paddle your own canoe" - to " so, what the feck are you doing here anyway " -

boards is becoming more cliquey than ever, and new visitors can get a very lukewarm reception indeed in some forums

[GrowlerG]

A regular habit on that forum is someone new will post a question and someone (usually the same few) won't answer the question but flip it back on the person and attack them. Not entirely sure why that are allowed to keep doing that.

Anyway this is about GuBu. IMy UK forums are still same as they always were. So I thing there is an be audience for forums regardless of the competition from other social media.