Being a moderator on any forum can be difficult – it is a hard job, but what about one of the most popular sites on the internet in Ireland – boards.ie.
I do think boards is a wonderful site, one of the best in Ireland!
This poll is to find out user views on the moderators. Feel free to take part. You might ask why I am writing this? I noticed a few Twitter posts with a big opinion on this, and I would like to see what people really think.
I myself have a few issues with the way things are handled, but I do realise that these people give their free time to this, and the site is a vault of information! It must be difficult to manage so many users.
[This Poll has been closed]
This post is from an older version of my website. Comments are closed
Hi there John, interesting post. I’m Darragh and I’m a community manager on Boards.ie.
There are currently over 500 moderators on Boards.ie for the 1250+ forums that we have. They’re all volunteers. None of them are paid or hired to do what they do.
What does a moderator do on Boards.ie? They make sure the rules and guidelines of the site and of the forum that they moderate are followed, so that the best discussion possible can take place.
How are they chosen? They tend to be the members who come to the notice of other moderators as helpful, informative, constructive and contributive. Someone who knows the topic they’re discussing, be that broadband or bouncy castles or personal issues.
Boards.ie gets 1.7 million unique visitors a month. We have on average 1 million page impressions a day at the moment. That’s a lot of people.
Similarly we recently hit about 250,000 members with approximately 127,000 of them having logged in to the site or made a post in the last year. That’s, again, a lot of people.
The issue with many people is that they don’t read the Terms of Use, what they sign up to on the site. They don’t read the guidelines of the forum charter that is on top of every forum and that people are told to read to understand how the site operates.
People will come in to established forums (which are communities in their own right), assume they can troll, spam, shill, cause trouble or just not constructively contribute to the forum. They’ll also assume they have free speech – that Boards.ie will allow anything to be said. This isn’t true. We have a long list of topics we will not allow, including racist, sexist, libellous or defamatory and so on. It’s the moderators job to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Does that mean that our volunteers get it right all the time? No, of course not. But there is an appeals process for members who feel they might want their case looked at. There’s a link to the Contact Us page where you can contact Dav and I to ask us about questions relating to your account. As you say, it “must be difficult to manage so many users.” – it often is. But we are working on making it better.
And on that point – my last – we are constantly improving our training, our processes and our explanations for helping our moderators to do their jobs. We’re getting to a stage, with the help of the moderators themselves, where when a moderator makes a decision, there’ll be a clear explanation why it was made, how it was actioned and what the member can do about it if they wish.
The vast majority of members on our site recognise the mods do a great job. We could not provide the service we do without their help, support and guidance. I monitor what people are saying about us on Twitter (that’s how I found this post) and the vast majority is really positive stuff.
If there’s any other way I can help or information I can provide, please do drop me a line at hello@boards.ie
Really annoys me when I hear this line “they vounteer and are not paid for their time.”
This is not an excuse for poor inconsistent performance. I usually worry about peoples motivations when they work for free.
Darragh, great reply, many thanks for taking the time out to reply to this quick poll. I only hope more people vote to show their opinion.
I especially like that your team are working on clear explanation of decisions. But I also agree that people don’t read the rules at times.
As I said above, mods give their time to boards.ie which is wonderful thing in these times!
Cheers.
From what I see they really throw there weight around, for example if there view is different from that of someone else’s they get the last reply then lock the post.
There fair around 70% of the time,
Things like the following post annoy me on boards.ie, the guy was just asking for some help:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055661864
Wibbs has been pushing her weight around for far too long, I hope this post will prompt you Darragh to do something about it.
Thanks
Sharon
Hi Sharon,
Once again I’m just going to have to pint to the rules of each forum as to what is and isn’t allowed.
If you have a problem with any post on Boards.ie, there are a number of ways to let us know, as outlined above.
I doubt John would appreciate this post being taken over by me thrashing out the rules of Boards.ie, so if I can be of any help, please drop me a line at hello@boards.ie
Thanks
Darragh
bOATypical boards.ie thread"
The Polish Keep Eating Our Swans?
Has anyone else noticed thier are a lot fewer swans in Ireland the last few years? I blame the Polish, the other day I saw one eat a swans head while it was still alive.
Random poster 1. Yeah lol yore ma lol, I hate the polish, atari jaguar lol yore ma.
Random poster 2. At least thier not gypsies, lol yore ma's an atari jaguar.
Random Moderator 1. Thats it your both banned for using omproper punctuation. IM LOCKING THIS THREAD!!! THIS THREADS BANNED! IM BANNED TOO, EVERYONES BANNED, I'LL KILL YOU!! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! BANNED BANNED BANNED. (ohh god, I just want some non-internet friends).
Darragh, it really bothers me that you speak like you have a suit and tie on when you have moderators like Karl Hungus running around. Boards.ie is a bad forum run by bad people. Saying that people need to read the rules won’t change this – after all boards.ie has an insanely large market share of Irish forums. This is why it’s such an issue, there is a lack of choice here.
Nobody listens if you have a problem on boards.ie. If they did, something would have happened by now. There is a large consensus outside of boards.ie itself, as demonstrated by this poll, that the moderators are corrupt and trigger happy.
The appeals process is also rarely successful. Most of the time, posting in feedback/helpdesk forums causes the moderators to gang up against you.
“As I said above, mods give their time to boards.ie which is wonderful thing in these times!”
I don’t agree. A bad mod is worse than no mod.
The problem is that the majority of boards mods alternately either inept or corrupt, and tend to elect others like them.
It really is unfair how much of a monopoly boards.ie has on active Irish discussion.
Harmony Central is a forum roughly the size of Boards in terms of members etc., and while the head mod in of himself is a ban happy little eejit, it’s still nowhere near as bad as boards.
Please don’t listen to Darragh. It is true though that a majority of people are “Happy” with the boards mods, just like a majority of people voted Fianna Fail back in. Most people don’t see a lot of the shit that goes on, or don’t care. If they did, then they wouldn’t say they were doing such a good job.
Compared to the wider standard of internet forums, boards.ie performs poorly. Nowhere does Darragh deal with the fact that people constantly get random 2 weeks bans for stupid things like “acting the gowl” and these decisions are rarely reversed.
Sharon: ” Asking for present advice is not allowed in this forum. Closed. ”
That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Thaedydal is worse though, it came up in a thread recently that she and other mods have a crazy stance towards suicide threads – that the best thing to do is lock them and tell them to ring the samaritans. If you’re suicidal the last thing you want is more rejection! But the mods seem to agree otherwise, and have all these unbacked theories as to how best to deal with suicidal people.
Boards is the ONLY forum I’ve encountered that has this policy on a personal issues forum. Again, nowhere do the mods actually bother to deal with this either. While they “widely” hold one notion, the rest of the internet, for the most part, does not agree with them.
Again, Darragh, you have to realise that pointing to the rules is circular reasoning. You define those rules. You also, again, are host to the majority of Irish discussion. People miss out if they don’t accept your rules. It’s Hobson’s choice. It’s not just a case of people dedicating their free time like charity workers. They get back a lot from it, and often take away more than they give.
As far as I’m told the people you elect at mods are people who are on near constantly reading every thread anyway. All you’re doing is giving them lock and ban buttons. It’s not really extra work, just extra power.
Maybe if you elected some mods that actually disagreed with the majority once in a while, people wouldn’t keep calling bullshit on this.
Out of interest, to back up my point, I found this blog entry through searching for “Boards mods”. Nearly all the entries you can find talking about them are negative…
“The Fork”
Thank you for your long comment about Boards.ie. I suppose, though it would be easy to discount your anonymous posting in one regard, I thought I better reply to such comments, though I must ask if you are the person known variously to Boards.ie as “Catacombkittens” or as “Rozie” as highlighted in this thread? Forgive me if my assumption is incorrect, I base it merely on the similarity in your posting style.
You say:
Which, of course, when I’m commenting in my official capacity of Boards.ie Community Manager, I do. You also say that “Nobody listens if you have a problem on boards.ie.” – which is again untrue. I’m here, amn’t I? Tell all the people who post in the 1250+ community forums that we have that “no one listens” and I’m sure they’ll try correct you. I’m one. I’m listening.
I’m not sure how to respond to this except to ask you to elaborate on this please.
This really is a lot to reply to but if you go to a different website, not your own, you have to play by other rules. Same as going to another person’s house. To say it’s “unfair” that we have a “monopoly” on discussion is quite surprising – we are big because we obviously give the 1.6 million people who visit us a month something of what they want, and we try to do this as well as we can.
Yes, sometimes our volunteer moderators make mistakes. Yes, sometimes they could handle situations better. But I would safely say that 90% of the time, they deal with situations quickly, effectively and fairly. It’s just that this never gets celebrated, never gets highlighted, never gets talked about. It’s one of the less-great aspects of the job. Plenty of criticism, not much praise. And yet they do it still. They help Irish discussion survive.
The “consensus” outside of Boards.ie seems to be majorly informed by those who have been banned from Boards.ie for breaking the rules, something I suggest may have happened to you for you to be “searching for Boards.ie mods”? If you break the rules, shouldn’t you face the consequences? Isn’t that the most fair to everyone? Doesn’t it protect all Boards.ie users from the spammers, the trolls, the shills and the troublemakers? Doesn’t it keep the discussions – why people go to Boards.ie – on track?
I find it difficult to believe you can fairly make that statement, considering, as I say, you’d have to engage in over 1250 forums and with over 500 moderators to be honest about that. I’d actually challenge you to give me 10 moderators who you feel would fit this label and say why.
I’ve never heard of Harmony Central. DO you have a link, please?
I’ll have to point you towards the statistics in my first comment on this post and ask you to justify your “Boards.ie performs poorly”. Poorly how? We provide a service that people like, they engage with and they return to. Boards.ie doesn’t compare itself to any other forum – we welcome other forums and in fact I’m in touch with a number of other forum administrators, sharing advice, tips and ideas. You yourself admit that the “majority of people are happy”. Surely this is what we should be aiming for? To make the majority of 1,500,000 people happy? Who else is doing this?
You also talk about “the shit that goes on” that “most people don’t see”. What is this shit? Is there anything you can point me towards and explain why you think this is something we should be looking at improving? I’m genuinely very open to sorting this out.
Remember you said there was a lot going on that people didn’t see? Would it surprise you to learn that we have a very close relationship with The Samaritans and we advise our members to contact them if they have problems? You may see a locked thread and the advice, but you don’t know if there are private messages being sent, numbers being given, people being contacted behind the scenes, do you? We’ve received a lot of advice from the Samaritans and since they are the trained professionals, we feel it better to direct people, in a nice, helpful way, in their direction.
But please do point me towards other sites with personal issues forums that have different policies than advising suicidal people to contact people who can help them professionally? If there are sites we can learn from, I’d really appreciate the links you can provide, especially, as you say, to these policies.
What can I say here? Yes, we define the rules, with the help of our members (remember, the moderators are members too). It is the Boards.ie website, so yes, like Facebook, Bebo, Google, Yahoo, MSN and most of the entire internet, there are Terms and Conditions to agree to and rules to follow. Here’s the link again to both our guidelines and the advice we give to people on how to post on Boards.ie. Is there anything there you disagree with? Anything that us unfair, unjust or wrong?
I’m actually very proud that I’m working with a service like this. In your own words, people “get back a lot from it, and often take away more than they give.” Wow. What else can people say this about in Ireland? Or anywhere?
“The Fork”, if there are specific issues, greivances or questions I can help you with, please do raise them with me here or by contacting me at hello@boards.ie. I’m sorry you feel the way you do, I genuinely am, but if you actually sit to think about what Boards.ie has achieved for a small Irish company run mostly by volunteers, aren’t you in the least bit impressed?
We are constantly trying to improve so every bit of constructive feedback and advice helps. Just get in touch 🙂
(Thanks again John for allowing me on here. I appreciate taking up your space and your bandwidth!)
I have tried to remain neutral on this topic…
But my brother was just banned. Some idiot started a conversation on “Hate the muslims?” and in response to this my brother said the word “idiot” which is pretty fair, it is an idiot topic and only an idiot who would write this, and he was banned for a day.
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055704651
However a few minutes later the same idiot started another topic
“hate the jews?” someone responded with “Can we just all agree we hate you?”
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055704665
So if the reason my brother was banned was “Personal abuse” why was the the other resondent not banned also?
Very very silly to do things like this, and I love that the mod is allowed to have the title “Smug Bastard” in a forum which is supposed to be so perfect that someone cannot use the word idiot.
Also posts like this are just trolling yet there is a very long post in “hate the english” which is still up and running.
It seems what people are saying is true, mods are picking what they like to see and closing they don’t like, I agree the above posts were just “looking for a reaction” but really boards.ie why did you ban my brother for saying the word idiot to a a very very stupid post.
Yes I know you will go ahead and back up your mods (at least in public) because the minute you turn against each other publicly the walls start falling in, but as an organisation you need to do some serious consideration as to how you repesent yourself and how people perceive you.
John
Is there a point in even engaging on this with you? Your brother has been banned for 1 day for breaking Boards.ie rules. Instead of dropping me a line, of posting in our helpdesk or prison forums where all these queries go, you choose to post here, about a personal-to-you issue that has popped up.
Your brother posted a one word reply to a thread, which was an insult. Remember in my first long comment on this post I pointed you to the appeals process AND our Guidelines AND the forum charters. From that charter available at the front page of that forum:
So basically your brother broke the rules and has to “suffer” the consequences. Now, tell me what’s unfair about that? He didn’t even try and justify his response to the thread by posting about why the thread was idiotic. Just a direct insult.
Now, there’s a few things here. Firstly, as I’ve said before, our mods are volunteers. Not trained volunteers, but volunteers. They also are subject to the same rules as everyone else and are allowed to say what they like, within the guidelines.
Furthermoe, that particular moderator you describe – with the tagline “Smug bastard” is a subscriber, which means he pays money every month to Boards.ie to help keep it running. If he wants to have that tagline, it’s a reflection on him more than on Boards.ie.
Finally, this forum is After Hours. Talk to your brother and ask him what After Hours is. It’s basically a collection of the mad and the bad, the strange and the weird and the off the wall stuff and posters on Boards.ie. That’s no excuse but it’s the forum on Boards.ie that we leave to the moderators and all those who engage on it know beforehand what sort of place it is. As I say, talk to your brother.
John, I’ve tried to explain before – there are over 500 moderators, and over 1250 forums. You’re basing your comment on your brother’s experience with one moderator in one forum. A bit unrepresentative, don’t you think?
Also, why was your brother banned for a day? He broke the rules. Same way the person who posted the original question was banned.
I am not “backing up the mods” here John as much as I’m pointing toward the written rules and what people agree to when joining. From the box that everyone has to click before they become a member
So you agree to that when joining. You agree to the rules of a forum before posting. You are pointed towards them every step of the way and yet, when you break them, there’s a complaint?
Would it be better to have no rules? No moderators? Can you tell me how you think this should have been handled?
Best regards
Darragh
Thank you for your reply. You can engage on this with me if you wish, you have chosen to – so I’ll respond to you. I posted here because this is my website, I would like people to have a place outside your website to have an un-moderated opinion. That is why I approved all your responses. My topic is “Are Moderators fair”, so this is the best place to argue our parts.
You can equally use the “charter” to demonstrate where the moderators chose not to enforce it, MANY MANY times. You know this, and I know this.
If you or anyone else cannot see what is idiotic about writing ” Hate the muslims? They’re alright or are they? “Then I do not know what to say to you… What is fair about banning a member who regularly posts and contributes to the community without a friendly PM,a first time warning. Just writing in bold BANNED. Yes fair indeed. You say he broke the rules and yes it does look like from what you say that he did. Please apply this to all members in this instance. It is clear in other threads that others responded in this manner but were not banned.
Is he not a moderator? If so, does he not represent the community? He keeps boards running, so he can use bad language, “Smug bastard” appears on EVERY ONE of his posts. This is fine, because he gives us money…..Is smug bastard a representation on how he moderates the forum. The issue here is not him, but just an example of bad moderation.
Yes it must be hard to run, and you run boards.ie well for the most part. But every one of those 500 moderators represents YOUR site boards.ie. You “hired” them to be moderators so YOU are responsible for them, “you” being who ever runs the site.
Who said that, but rules should be applied to everyone, in this case rules were not applied to everyone. Let me ask you a question? If my brother was not banned for that comment and you saw the thread and he had not been banned would you have banned him, of course not. You are backing up your “staff”, as I would expect you do really…
At the end of the day I am writing my views on my website, which I am free to do. But I’ll be the first to admit they will change nothing. I do find the way some of the moderators handle themselves online at boards.ie questionable. Some even seem to take joy in banning. As I said it does look like he broek the rules, I do find it very upsetting the way the whole situtation was handled by a confirmed “smug bastard”, and not to other offenders.
This whole thing is going out of hand, and is going nowhere fast. (Edited 08/10/2009 – I originally quoted Darragh as saying this, he did not, this is a misquote – Regards John)
You have your rules for your site and I am going to do now what I note many of your moderators do. Get the last word in and lock this post. Childish I know, but there you are!
hi darragh, i haven’t been a member of boards.ie for very long, i think that it’s fair, now, you have put yourself up here in front of us and asked what do you think of boards.ie, and when people tell you what they think you dont like it, you dont seem to like certain questions asked in public view, you also seem to have a smartassed way about you in answearing peoples concerns and frustrations…the very people who have you where you are! and pretending that you thought stark was somebody else is just childish and immature, and then your insencere and patronising apology frankly i found hard to stomach,maby you were expecting everybody to throw flowers at you! if everybody at boards.ie are like you i dont think i’ll hang round for too long,the only good thing is now that you have posted here the powers that be can see that this job doesn’t bring out your best colour, regards kevin
“Yes I know you will go ahead and back up your mods (at least in public) because the minute you turn against each other publicly the walls start falling in, but as an organisation you need to do some serious consideration as to how you repesent yourself and how people perceive you”
True, they back each other and make boards.ie look like a little cult. if you disagree with them you are wrong. question one of egotistical idiots in the emergecy service forum and they gang up and make fun when they cannot answer a criticism. would not go near boards. liitle bit of power goes to their mods heads, god love em
Ridiculous.
I like the site, great topics entertains me when Ive nothing better to do etc.
I got banned for 2 days, after calling someone an idiot who posted a disturbing thread. No warning nothing just a straight ban, only then to be told by the mod in a pm that he agrees with me…….!
I spent most of my time on boards.ie helping others with IT certs, PC issues if you check my posts you will see this, and I do enjoy it.
Now not being able to view this forum for 2 days does not bother me in the slightest its the bloody actions of the mods.
Its in plain sight right across the forum Darragh, simple little things and its a straight ban, the mod has an issue with you for expression your opinion and that’s it your gone.
Its a real shame a good forum like boards.ie has the problem, I’m aware that boards have a lot of mods but they also need to be controlled.
I realise that you will see the need to stick up for your team, its all you can do, don’t feel the need to reply to my post, just try and do something about it.
-Barry
But Barry, you broke the rules. Do you think you didn’t? Are you asking for an exemption?
There we go with rules again. to the subject in hand. Are moderators fair . From this absolutely not. The events as outlined in thread below represent the lowest point ever in boards IMO. Boards was very slow unmasking this culprit who had been posing at me on a chat forum on another website. Before that Mods and posters went out of their way to say this that and the other while all the while the poster (Poster A) who had first brought this to boards knew who the poster at the centre of this posted was given that he posted on another website which Poster A was admin of and said he had posed as me.
It was only when I put pressure on one mod that the truth was revealed on Monday morning and still it took another poster to mask the culprits identity. Since then they have moved this thread so only users can see it now. Its an absolute shambles.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055938443
Illegal file sharing is OK though right:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055704744
Is that ser going to get banned, or is that not as serious as calling someone an idiot!
I’ve just checked that thread. I’m not 100% what you’re referring to there. As far as I can see, the moderator has taken any action that needs to be taken there by deleting all the content… Do you see something different?
He took the action because I informed him that the link had been posted he deleted 2/3 posts.
Excellent, thank you for doing so. Because the moderators are volunteers we can’t expect them to see every post that goes up and we do rely on members like you to alert us to the posts that don’t fit the rules, so thank you for that.
Also, that points out that you were only banned from After Hours (again, one of the 1250+ forums we have) and not the entire site for breaking the rules of that forum, something you haven’t either denied or said why that shouldn’t happen.
Thanks again to you both for bringing this to my attention. Again, if people need to get in touch, they can do so on our Contact page or by emailing hello@boards.ie.
Cheers
Darragh
Also not bothered reply to your exemption post, its wasting my time now.
Barry
But John, as I’ve pointed out, the Original Poster of that thread was banned too. Of course I think the entire thread was ridiculous. I don’t know what I can say to you other than pointing you back to that charter and the line that says
Could the moderator have handled that better? Yes, undoubtedly so. But was he right to do what he did? Well, according to the rules of the forum your brother was posting in, yes.
Is there anything I haven’t responded to? Please do let me know.
Yes he’s a moderator, but does he represent the community? I suppose in as much as a volunteer with any large organisation can represent it. Is “smug bastard” really bad language? Are you offended by how someone chooses to represent themselves? I never said “This is fine, because he gives us money…”. I said he has the right to put what he wants there because he is a subscriber and has paid to do so.
That’s a very good point and one, as I explained in my very first comment, that we are working on. Not there yet, but working on it.
John, objectively, if you were the moderator (I’m not a moderator so I don’t know what I’d do but if you were) and you saw the post and you knew it broke the rules, would *you* have banned him?
So do I.
Do I think the moderator acted rightly on this occasion? In one way (pointing to the rules) yes, and in another (the contribution your brother makes to Boards.ie) no. BUT. If Barry had contacted me and explained the situation, I could have looked at it and made my own call on this. The moderators are not just the last word. Yes they make mistakes but people like Dav and me, the Community Managers, as well as our team are here to guide them, to reverse decisions if necessary and to respond to feedback like this and take the appropriate action.
John, I really appreciate you starting this conversation at all, and what you’re trying to do, which will benefit Boards.ie and its members far more than it will benefit you. But there has to be some structure, as seemingly nonsensical as that is from time to time.
If you would like to close this discussion, please do so. I’m happy to respond here – I do see your point of view, but I ask you to look at where we’re coming from as well.
@Darragh One again that you for explaining the position pretty clearly on this site. This topic has the potential to go all over the place, but as you seem to be able to explain everything so well I will leave the topic open in order to allow you to respond to any comments.
Thanks once again
frada had the title “smug bastard” years before he became a mod. why should mods be treated differently to users? look lads, you’re on a sticky wicket here. if boards was as corrupt as you say, no-one would be using it. It’s the most popular discussion website in ireland. Anyone can start up their own forum, so it’s not like boards has the monopoly. it’s the most popular for a reason.
Hi jimbo,
Thanks for your comment and your opinion.I think we have disucssed all the issues above.
You are completly right boards.ie is very popular, one of the most popular in Ireland…
I never said boards.ie was corrupt , I am sorry you think that I do, because I don’t…
Thanks for your visit.
Speaking from someone who was banned a few days ago for libellous comments, I personally think that most of the mods on boards are very fair but there are also a few who, in my opinion, are a little trigger happy.
I was banned for libellous comments, yes I admit that what I done was against the rules I realize that, and I have read the the rules/charter, when I posted that comment to be quite honest I wasn’t thinking and it didn’t click in my head that what I was actually refering to was a company/business. Where I have the problem is that my history was not taken into account, I have never broken rules before and have always where possible given back good knowledgeable advice, I was given no first warning and just handed out a permanent ban. Maybe you think im wrong, and this would not be possible but, I think there should be a warning for first time offenders or a shorter ban length instead of a permanent one for first time offenders, after that then hand out the permanent bans for repeat offenders.
Also why is there a table of mods who have banned the most people, personally I think this just increases competition between mods to ban the most people?
Hi. I’ve been a moderator on boards for little over a year now, I have my own little forum that’s pretty quiet and I like to think I do a good job keeping it tidy and keeping discussion on track. I’ve made a few bans but it was just spammers.
To me mods are doing a very good job and seeing what some of the more well known mods have to put up with, it just strikes me that some of these guys must have the patience of saints. It always surprises me to see how much hatred people have for boards and the mods and how much they have to put up with. I saw someone on the prison forum making jokes about a moderator’s dead dad. I just can’t get my head around that, why someone would be that nasty to another person. I’m just amazed that some of the mods still carry on when people like that are coming to boards to get their kicks.
I do kind of see why some people get wound up when they get a ban though. I see it in my friends when we go out. I don’t drink but most of my friends do and quite a few times we’ll go out to a club and my friends will be nearly falling around the floor by this time. We get to the club and some of the guys are acting the micky in the q, messing around, pissed out of it. The bouncer will say sorry lads, not tonight. Then my friends act shocked. They’ll say he’s on a power trip, that he’s singling them out, they’ll be cursing the bouncer for days after for ruining their buzz. I’d tell them they were completely out of it, but none of them ever seem to cop on to the idea that they were acting like a bunch of tits. They refuse to believe it.
When you’re drunk, it’s always the bouncers fault. When you’re drunk, the bouncer is always on a power trip. When you’re drunk, it’s never your own fault.
And it’s the same thing some people say about mods on boards. The mod is on a power trip, the mod is a jerk, the mod is corrupt and all this and that. You see it on feedback and help desk all the time, it’s like people don’t want to admit to themselves that they did something to get banned and it’s not the mods fault. That oscarbravo is a bad mod because he banned me, even though I called that guy a dickhead. It’s always like that.
I don’t know what it is, maybe Irish people have a problem with authority or something, or they can’t accept when they do something out of the way.
I know that all I try to do is to keep the forum I’m looking after running smoothly, and that means banning the spammers and giving a few warnings to people who have broken rules. People say that mods get a thrill out of banning people, well I don’t. I’m very happy that I haven’t had to ban any regular user yet.
I haven’t been on boards as long as some and there’s still so many areas that I never even looked at and so many people on there that I don’t know, so I don’t know. Maybe there are some rotten eggs there. It’s a big place so I wouldn’t rule that out. But from my view, I don’t see it. I see people who do their best to keep their forums tidy and make sure people are happy. I don’t believe mods are trigger happy. I remember someone saying that they’re always disappointed when they have to ban someone. Don’t know who that was, but I could think it’s true for most mods on boards. There are a lot of them, but they are needed.
It always seems unfair to me to see people chew out the mods over the job they do. I always try to do my best for my forum and I think most mods just try to do their best for their forums. From where I’m looking it seems like a thankless job most of the time.
Ah I see, so we should all just respect the mods decisions and never question it.
Because posts like “I fucking hate the english” is OK!
You don’t get paid and you are a volunteer but guess what Boardsmod if you don’t like it then quit.
Boardsmod-”I know that all I try to do is to keep the forum I’m looking after running smoothly, and that means banning the spammers and giving a few warnings to people who have broken rules.”
Im on a few other forums aswel, and in my experience these are the type of people that make the best mods.
Yes by all means ban/warn somebody that is abusive or spamming, but iv seen so many good people who have always given good sound advice slip up once and then the book is thrown at them full force for one slip up.
I definately can think of more than one occasion where I was taken aback by the obstinately rigid approach some boards.ie mods take with regards to rule-enforcement. Some seem to endlessly read and reread posts in their respective forums… keyboard fingers itching, just looking for an excuse.
Overzealous moderation reflects poorly on the reputation of the community if readers feel that the rules are arbitrary and pointless… rules for rules-sake. I have lost count of the number of forums I stopped visiting because they got so bogged down by unnecessary beurocrasy.
The problem is further exaccerbated by mods who are compelled to rub it in by posting self-satisfying reasons as to why they unilaterally silenced someone elses conversation… naturally just right before they close the thread and prevent anyone involved from responding. Taking the ‘final say’ like this is a childish practice which should be discouraged by admins. If a thread is to be locked, just close it and resist the urge to let everyone know how great you are. If readers cant figure it out for themselves, then the thread probably didn’t need to be closed in the first place.
I think the fault lies mainly with the admins. Apart from taking care of the mind-numbing tasks their superiors couldn’t be arsed with, mods are primarily charged with the enforcement of rules laid down by the admin team. The actions of the mods generally reflect the opinion of those who provided them with their operating criteria and entrusted them with the ban button. Who do you blame, the toddler who smeared paint over the wallpaper or the adult that gave it to them and let them whack away?
Mods put in long hours performing mundane tasks with no financial or other tangible rewards other than the dopamine rush they get from wearing their mod badges. Most of us would get a kick out of the ban button too, it’s just human nature. It is the admins responsibility to moderate the mods, to ensure that they are not pushing potential members out the proverbial door by acting like twats. If regular unbiased reviews of the tenability of each individual mod position are not carried out, the admins are shooting themselves in the foot.
When I see this kind of thing on forums I sometimes get the impression that the mods actions are really a manifestation of admins power tripping on the success and popularity of their forum, drawing up ridiculous sets of rules with the attitude that if people disagree, the ban button is the catch-all solution. I’m not saying that this is the case with boards.ie, but you surely could forgive someone for making that mistake.
Few things are so irritating as being on the receiving end of a blatantly unjust punnishment, especially because of a pedantic interpretation of the rules by a mod who with every trivial decision is solely trying to impress the guy with the power to bump them up another level of the virtual social ladder.
It might be a seemingly small problem now, but it only takes a few eejits to paint all of the staff with the same fascist, authoritarian brush.
And just look at what happened to national socialism! 🙂
Mike
I absolutely wouldn’t even dream of closing a thread without giving a reason why. Can’t think of anything more discourteous and insulting to a user then a mod locking their thread anonymously, even a cowardly thing to do. I would always state a reason when locking a thread and most mods probably would do too.
Painting it as a mod getting in the last say or trying to rub something in is some slant.
I really can’t think of a worse way to mod a forum than locking threads anonymously and without reason given. It would cause a lot of fuss with people asking who closed the thread they were posting and why it was closed. Long term it would be awful because people would probably feel that whatever they post could be closed down without any reason. I couldn’t think of a worse way to go about modding a forum.
And that’s just it isn’t it? Some people see things completely differently. I’d see locking threads anonymously without reason as very bad modding, skulking and secrecy and a lack of transparency. You might see a mod giving a reason for locking a thread as getting the last word in, but if everything was done in the shadows it would piss off a hell of a lot more people. And they’d be right to be pissed off too. I’d be pissed off if a thread I started was locked without any reason given, and I had no idea who locked it so that I couldn’t even ask.
Boards moderators are, for the most part, grossly immature. Trolling is allowed by those ‘well in’ with the moderators, and when this eventually provokes a reaction – which is often – the user is banned. The troll then thanks the moderator, and the rest of the moderators click ‘thanks’ as well. It’s truly pathetic. Indeed moderators troll all the time themselves.
Darragh is misleading everyone by suggesting contacting Boards about problems. I have done so 3 times and never got a reply. They do have the Hall of Shame ( which they call ‘Helpdesk’ ) but this mostly serves to further ridicule users who have been banned ( usually for behaviour ignored when their friends engage in it )
Users are the lifeblood of boards.ie. Sadly they do not seem to by savvy enough to realize this, but when they find one day that no one is tuning in ( apart from their friends ) they might wake up and get sense.
Incidentally, they screen replies when you say something non – abusive but which cuts too close to the bone. The public are a nuisance to most boards moderators, but hey, remember how big Napster / Friendster and God knows how many other sites USED to be?
It seems impossible to terminate an account on boards. No wonder they have so many ‘users’! I wonder how many actually are ‘users’? It’s nice to see something Irish doing well, but at the present point – with the way it is ‘moderated’ – it is a dictatorial and bland effort mainly inhabited by those with the mentality of a 10 year old. A lot of the threads read familiar because the same ‘alright’ people are the only ones that haven’t turned their backs on them, and they just post the same stuff.
Running on ‘we are the greatest’ is a dangerous game on the web. Thousands of distant memories which were once ‘big’ back up that view. They need to get some sense, and act like professionals where having a reasonable opinion does not get you banned ( while a mate of a moderator can post the same thing and more with no consequences )
Apart from getting rid of moderators who live for an ego boost, they would do well to tidy up the language. It’s the only forum I know of where the ‘f’ word is allowed to be spelled out in threads. I’m not sure if this is seen as ‘cool’, but newsflash #2: it isn’t. It’s just vulgar, and has minority appeal.
“Boards moderators are, for the most part, grossly immature. Trolling is allowed by those ‘well in’ with the moderators, and when this eventually provokes a reaction – which is often – the user is banned. The troll then thanks the moderator, and the rest of the moderators click ‘thanks’ as well. It’s truly pathetic. Indeed moderators troll all the time themselves”
100% correct
I wouldn't mind a more professional site than Boards. I think debates need to be free and open. In Boards from what I can see the debates are only open to whatever the Mods opinion is?
Darragh: “Excellent, thank you for doing so. Because the moderators are volunteers we can’t expect them to see every post that goes up and we do rely on members like you to alert us to the posts that don’t fit the rules, so thank you for that.”
LOL … they seem to see all posts pretty quickly when their friend(s) are flaming / trolling. Great point Darragh. Maybe the moderators could use their time better … like maybe by leaving personal interests aside and acutally moderating.
Hi Tony
I don’t recall the name and without other details I can’t check your details but could you drop me a line to hello@boards.ie with your query with the subject line “John’s blog comment” and I can get back to you? What was your query about? Was it something I could have helped you with?
Not much I can add other than what I’ve already said here to your points, but on your question
The latest stats I have to hand are from October 20 2009:
We have 268,352 members (people who have registered with the site) and 134,714 of those have logged into their account within the last year.
Currently there are over 1250 public forums (others are private) and we get, on average, 14,000 posts and 1,700 individual posters a day.
Between 01 January 2009 and yesterday (October 29) we have had 13,054,457 unique visitors to the site, 237,609,910 page views and 24,926,086 visits from the Republic of Ireland, with the average amount of time being spent on site being 11 minutes, 8 seconds.
We do see our users/members/ readers/visitors as the most important thing about our site and we are working hard to provide them with a great service. We never say “we are the greatest”. We have a *long* way to go.
If I can help you with your query, please do get back to me.
Thanks
Darragh
Hi Darragh,
Thanks for the reply. I’m not having a go at you personally – you seem like a reasonable person – but to be honest I’ll be avoiding boards for a long while. My main interest is in cars and I frequent the motoring section.
I was discussing drink driving and a contributer kept making comments to the effect that I drink-drive, which I don’t. Eventually what happened was the forum version of diving in the penalty area.
Prior to his I had been given some nice advice from a moderator ( who had removed a post of mine recently for reasons somewhat flimsy ) which went like this “better not drink in order to preserve your few brain cells”.
I notice that the moderator ( not the same one ) who actually banned me ( today ) for what I would judge a totally reasonable reaction on my part to having my character misrepresented intentionally and on an ongoing basis by a troller, put on a post admitting to drinking 1/2 a bottle of wine before driving.
I have noticed more than once that some moderators in the motoring forums seem to condone road – racing and breaking speed limits as well. These are not isolated and far apart, so I am at a loss as to how such things could not be noticed.
I have been a member of a car club in the U.K. which has 35,000 members for 6 years. In that time, 1 post of mine has been removed out of about 4,000.
I have been on boards since 2004 and with less than 100 posts in total, 3 were removed in the past couple of months. I am great friends with the moderators on the U.K. site, but I don’t expect favours and don’t get any. I play by the rules because they are clear and liberally applied. Therein lies the problem.
It is clear to me that something needs to be done about the way boards is moderated in general. I see no point in dealing with individual issues within this framework. None whatsoever. I hope you continue to do well and I’m a fan of Eamon Fallon – he’s a clever guy – but the way things are going doesn’t bode well for the future.
Such comments ( in the ‘Helpdesk’ ) as “you’re welcome to come back, but we won’t beg” say it all. The public feel the same way about forums. How about “You’re welcome to come back”? Incidentally, this reference had to do with someone else. I personally requested that my 1 week ban be extended to 10 years.
At the end of the day, my whole life has been dedicated to cars and I love talking about cars. I also have the ability to be wrong and can accept same without following people around forums in order to gang up on them.
I don’t see it as a privilege to post on boards, nor do I see it as a privilege for boards that I post there. It’s clear that I don’t have any place on boards, because too many of the moderators go out of their way to create a situation whereby someone steps over the moving line and then gets banned, purely on personality differences.
Unfortunately the motoring forums end up as a personalities – based diatribe and little discussion about cars ends up taking place. I personally don’t feel the need to prove anything, my interest is simply in cars and car – related issues.
I do take grave offence to a forum member ( by his own admission “with over 2,500 posts” ) being allowed and indeed supported in continually knowingly suggesting that I drink – drive when I do not. Far from banning me for percieved over – reaction, he should have been banned himself. What do you call it when someone continually suggests something which is completely untrue about someone else?
Oops. It looks like Darragh has disappeared. Maybe this is like the time he left a cryptic comment on my blog under the blogger name ‘irishstu’ on the 22nd. of July 2009. I replied and sent him a message asking him to clarify, and heard no more.
Speaking of my blog, Darragh, this might help to jog your memory: http://oldpcworld.blogspot.com/
This related to my opinon of an idea which some people – obviously with a lot of time on their hands – decided to make an issue of in the wrong way. At least that’s what Facebook thought when they removed derogatory personal comments about me.
Yes, for a few weeks after, an attempt at an smear campaign got underway, but fizzled ( thanks for the extra traffic to my site though, lads! ). I hope that what they say about the company people keep isn’t true, Darragh.
You see I have no problem with people criticising my work or what I say. What I DO have a problem with is playing the man rather than the ball. That’s when things get ‘dirty’ and sometimes indeed illegal. Being mature has a lot to do with it.
You might also learn from the post that I put up today on my blog about what is happening on boards.ie.
*Update!*
I now see that the moderator who banned me has since been making fun of me on the threads in which I’ve posted, knowing that my right to reply can not be fulfilled.
Sorry Darragh, but your attempt to cast what happens on boards.ie as standalone incidents about which you’re concerned really doesn’t stand up.
To quote a comment on Alexa.com: “The moderators act like 10 year olds and are proud of it”. I agree. The poor moderation is clearly a cultural problem, not the odd mistake here and there as you try to portray it.
I’m sorry to have to say this, and I generally avoid personal references, but as personalities are the order of the day allow me to digress. Most of the moderators on the ‘Motors’ forum seem at best to be trying to impress everyone.
Very little conversation about cars seems to take place, when you actually strip away the banter. Don’t get me wrong, I like banter. It’s just that I also like to talk about cars, which is why I frequent Motoring forums.
During my short time on boards.ie your moderators ignored me, save for coming on here and there to disagree with everything I said.
Indeed the moderator who banned me did this too, and straight after banning me posted a complete contradiction to a previous comment which served to disagree with me.
I don’t think I know it all and I’m sorry if your moderators feel threatened by the fact that I can talk about cars with some knowledge. There’s also more to life than Top Gear.
Top Gear? – well yes, your moderators seem to be trying to develop a personality based on the trio of presenters on same. It’s a great programme, but it’s not meant to be taken THAT seriously!
Thanks for the offer of ‘helping’ me with ‘anything’ Darragh, but I’m afraid there’s nothing you can help me with. I like to discuss cars, so I’ll have to keep on looking.
Regarding my “reason” for being banned, as explained eventually I said to a troller that he was talking “verbal diahorrea”. He was, too. The moderators were watching at the time and should have dealt with it before it reached this point, instead of allowing him to troll.
I notice that I was banned for ‘trolling’ and ‘abusive language’. The trolling is an obvious joke. Regarding “verbal diahorrea” being so abusive, my mistake.
I forgot to use the more common boards.ie language: you don’t seem to mind people being called ‘p***k’ ‘c***’ ‘f****r’ ‘w****r’ ‘b*****d’ ‘p*** Artist’ or ‘kn***er’. You’ve even posted in some of the threads yourself, so I’m sure you’ve noticed.
Good lord.
Sorry Tony, but I don’t work weekends. I get to things as I can.
Have you emailed me like I asked you to? It still hasn’t hit mu inbox.
You sure that was me, Tony? You really sure? It couldn’t maybe have been Irishstu could it? Who has a blog at http://www.irishstu.com/stublog? Just a thought.
Now, back to the issues. You haven’t emailed me. You haven’t linked me directly to any posts. You haven’t contacted anyone in the office and yet you say we’re not trying to help you?
I’ve read both your blog posts Tony, and in fairness, I don’t think I can help you without you being willing to help yourself. Thanks for the feedback. It will be taken on board.
Kindest regards
Darragh
(hello@boards.ie will get me)
Hi Darragh,
I would be happy to keep the correspondence on here, with the continued goodwill of the host. Firstly I can say that I have indeed tried to contact you through boards.ie several times. I used this page to do so: http://boards.ie/contact/?
Regarding my comments about you / my blog, I was mistaken. The blogger in question – Stuart Curry if I recall correctly – appears to have no blog, but rather has linked into yours instead, which lead me to believe that it was your blog. Sorry about that, honest mistake.
To get down to the issue at hand, let me give you a very relevant example or two from the thread which I was banned from, both from a moderator who did a fair bit of trolling and the poster who then got me banned. It’s well worth the read. I will not quote it verbatim, as it is highly libellous.
( poster ) Drummerboy08: ” Remember, this is the same constituency that re-elected a convicted fraudster a few years ago (Mr *******, for those who dont remember).”
Did he get banned for this grave contravention of boards.ie? Hell no!
(moderator) Kbannon: “I don’t think that Mr. ********* was convicted of anything.”
( poster ) Drummerboy08: “Sorry. Post edited. But you know what I mean….”
He reposted the same thing with ‘convicted’ crossed out but ‘fraudster’ still visible. This is about a man who has been publicly vindicated of impropriety. People can draw from that as they wish, but it gives no one the right to call him ‘fraudster’ in public.
This post is still there in the full knowledge of the category moderator. It jumped right off the page to me, such is the libellous nature of it. The same moderator pulled a perfectly reasonable post of mine for fear of ‘libel law’!!!
The problem otherwise Darragh is that there is no point in reporting anything to the moderators when they are friends of some posters. I have absolutely no doubt that past issues ( my posts being deleted because of differences of opinon for example ) marked me out on the threads. Far from helping myself, I think I have in fact helped you a lot – more than is deserved, bearing in mind how I was treated.
In conclusion, it is impossible to correct posters who are good friends. It is also impossible to get people to accept the ‘rules’ when they are completely fluid, depending on who is posting.
Despite being registered since 2004 I only began using boards in the past month or two. In that time the moderators in my field of interest – cars – have removed several of my posts, attempted to humiliate me on threads, and apart from disagreeing with everything I said and then ignoring my responses, banned me!
That doesn’t make for a healthy forum really, does it? If people want to argue with me that’s fine – I love a good debate – but that’s not what happened at any point. In reality it’s more the case that I walked in on a private club and they were hostile. I do not see how I could ( if I wanted to ) help myself against that backdrop.
I don’t quite know what else to say Darragh. At the end of the day I’m not quite ‘gutted’, I’m in no hurry to return to forums which are mismanaged in this way. I would have to go back to what I’ve said before, and that is that my main interest is in discussing cars. As things stand, I’m not finding that opportunity on boards.ie – either banned or not banned. This is much greater than any percieved upset ( clearly on the part of the moderator(s) ) that banning me could cause.
Despite the obvious view ( actions speak louder than words as they say ) of many moderators, the public are not idiots with endless time to write posts that get deleted when in fact in the worst case scenario they may need minor editing. Removing posts is a last resort, and not a first resort as is the case on boards.ie ( to say nothing of banning people on a whim )
After all that, I don’t either. I invited you to email me on October 30. You still haven’t done so.
If your decision is to stay away from Boards.ie, then so be it. I wish you the very best.
Darragh
I think you need to talk to the moderators in question – if you had any basic interest in the matter other than giving lip service, you would.
A lot to learn.
Tony
See, I have spoken to the moderators in question. I have a record of all your posts, all the PMs you sent the moderators, all the discussions and all the issues around it.
You yourself have both behaved extremely negatively and blown a matter that could have been resolved simply and easily (as requested initially) right out of all proportion. You broke our rules a number of times, you were caught, treated accordingly but rather than accept or resolved it have tried to turn it to your advantage.
I’m really sorry you see the need for this constant rebuttal and apparent need for the last word. In your case I am more than happy to give that to you.
As I say, sorry things didn’t work out and best of luck in the future.
Best regards
Darragh
Hi Darragh,
Thanks for taking the time to reply at the weekend, in spite of your previous assertion that you do not work weekends.
I simply laid out the facts, I am sorry if you find that offensive. As for my ‘behaving extremely negatively’ that sounds reasonable – well, without the facts that is.
I am not going to state the facts again and again, while you decide to ignore them again and again. Please re-read my previous posts.
The problem is the moderators, quite clearly, and until the quality of moderation improves I’m happy to frequent more professionally run forums, where I have never had problems like this.
I note your misleading language about me ‘breaking the rules’ and ‘getting caught’. They are catch – phrases, not facts. For anyone reading this, please see previous posts for the facts.
I had to ask for a thread to be locked in the Limerick forum after what I would consider racist remarks posted.
“Why would I want to smell like a nagger?”
“Yeah I saw one hanging around up by the social welfare office yesterday.
If they don’t sell themselves within 3 months they should be sent back to where they came from imo. ”
infraction for racism
…. full ban for calling a racist an idiot, makes sense(Yes I hold a grudge)
Barry – did you appeal the decision at all? That certainly doesn’t sound like something I’d be happy about. Do drop me an email to hello@boards.ie with “John’s blog” in the subject line with details, I’ll look into it and see if we can sort this properly.
Shifty blogger from Mayo
Thanks very much for your feedback, albeit anonymous. Let me try answer you properly – though you should know that I don’t moderate Boards.ie.
There are things “wrong” on Boards.ie. It has stability issues, issues with members trolling and issues with moderators. Some behave, as you say, like assholes. They could be doing things a lot better and sometimes cause more trouble in conversations than the person who had posted it originally.
We are trying to solve this.
We have 550+ volunteers. How do we train them? What do we train them in? Are they open to being trained? Are they in it to help, to have power to act like an asshole or to be seen as an authority or what? Are they doing a good job? This is what we’re working on, one piece at a time.
I wish there was a better answer here that I could give you, but there’s not. We’re doing what we can to help people but there’s a lot of people to help. I can only, literally, do so much.
Boards.ie needs moderators to keep on going, to avoid it turning into a site just full of crap posts, advertising, libellous material and trouble. Say we get rid of a moderator. Who do we replace them with? Who will do that job for free? It’s a huge challenge for our business.
You say you’ve seen injustice on occasion. So have I. And it depresses and frustrates me every time. If it was an employee I’d know what to do. But they’re volunteers. They’re “trying their best” (we hope) so it’s a decision that needs to be made. There’s no easy win here.
I’m not once saying that there’s nothing wrong, but here I am, working on how to make it right. Is there more I could be doing?
Have you ever said this ON Boards.ie to the Admins, and pointed out where a moderator is acting like such? Ever dropped the office an email? Ever put YOUR hand up, used your real name and said “I see a problem here, I think you should solve it?”
How do you solve a propble, You said it yourself. “If something is wrong don’t be afraid to admit it, once it is out in the open then work can start on making it right.”
What if I don’t know that it’s wrong?
Eh? If someone said that to a moderator on boards they’d get a life ban and an afterlife ban lol
As it is some people seem to get banned for blowing their noses. That’s the problem. Most of the Moderators are unapproachable, and you know it ( or should )
I agree with the last post here.
Darragh, you know that there are certain Mods that are just arogant at best.
Of the ones that I know from my dealings over the years, there at least ten mods that disgusting and around a 40 that you SHOULD be paying as they are are class at what they do.
If you say that you don’t know the 10, then I don’t believe you, quite honestly.
Sorry to say that to you Darragh as you seem like a decent sort.
Boards.ie could be soooo much better.
Bring in more Adverts (not tons) if needs be to pay some Mods. Get your appeals process sorted.
At the moment it is ..
PM the Mod (the same one that may have BANNED you for the smallest thing after years of contributing with so much as an infraction.
So you PM the MOD. Then the CAT mod (has a CAT MOD ever overruled a MOD’s decision?).
Well, I have been speaking with Boards.ie users for years and not once have a heard of a CAT MOD tell a MOD they were out of line.
Same with Admin / Help Desk.
Anyone can read this and it is just a joke. Read the archives. Never, not once does Admin say that the MOD overeacted and your ban has been lifted.
What’s more.
Why is the Help Desk restricted? How come only Mod’s and the OP can post?
Of course the answer is obvious. It is because they don’t want another Boards user posting on the thread.
They would much rather slam the ‘complainer’ from both sides and make a fool of them.
Actually, there is one thread on the Help Desk where a bunch of Mods and seasoned After Hours posters make some obscene jokes regarding Madeline McCann.
If you say you don’t know about it then I don’t know what to say.
The best thing you can do for Boards is have different Levels of the complaints procedure.
If all sections know each other then they will inevitably back each other up.
Maybe have a system where when Admin get complaints in the MOD’s name is blocked out so they can deal with the problem by itself with the backslapping.
Thank God Terry is gone from After Hours. The guy was a jerk.
Get rid of the rudeness from Admin. The smartarse answers and replies that people get is a joke.
Also, and most importantly.
GET RID OF THE THANKS BUTTON!!!
People live for it. Post for it, Be cheeky for it. Unsult for It. Belittle for it etc etc.
Do some people do ‘good stuff’ for it? Yes.
Do some people make ‘funny comments’ for it? Sure.
However, these last two will happen anyway as niceness and genuine comedic people cannot surpress these parts of themselves and so they will carry one posting for themselves anyway, rather than the assholes who post for just ‘thanks’.
“Thanks Whores” ruine Boards.ie.
After Hours is the worst of course and ot would be a terrific place to start.
I am fan of Boards.ie and I feel it could be 100 times better. It has so much going for it but it badly needs a purge.
Darragh, can you imagine what Boards would be like without that intimidating element of the ones swinging the ban hammer?
What it would be like without MODs and Seasoned “Thanks Whores”?
Do you ever browse ‘After Hours’?
It’s by far your busiest Forum. It’s the front of house.
Either clean AH up or close it down.
Absolutley not. Boards.ie has evolved into a site that just strokes the egos of the various mods who, quite often, hijack threads that should otherwise be controlled by members. They regulary delete and alter posts ( which have not breached any rules) stating that they are just “clearing things up”. Really they are just making sure that only their opinions are tolerated. As for Darragh, he has one of the biggest egos of them all ( quite evident from the various poses he adopts in his pictures). Besides why do Mods need pictures of themselves??? I wasn’t banned from the site, but left becuase of the appalling behaviour of the “mods”. I asked for my account to be deleted but they flatly refused! You’ll enjoy boards if you like licking up to mods and you stroke their egos on a regular basis. If you have half a brain and independent thoughts just steer well clear!
I agree with the above poster. Boards.ie has developed into a site that is based around various mods who have tried to create a “cult of personality.” Like Darragh, they reply to anybody who disagrees with them with smug or sarcastic replies. They are free to gang up and abuse members however if a member dares to defend themself they are banned. I withnessed One Mod “Terry” actually use his “power” as a mod to give members permission to abuse a poster that he disagreed with!
If you have a problem with a mod you can report him to….. another mod. (Mods are appointed by other mods, they are chosen because they share their mentality). The chances of a complaint against a mod being taken seriously is …..NIL! So don’t bother, they’ll just invite you into a “help desk” forum where only you and a variety of other MODS can post. They just gang up on you. I suppose it makes them feel big,because I am sure their real lifes are pathetic.
Good evening Jazzy??
I’d love to be able to respond to these comments if there actually was something I could respond to.
But there isn’t. Feel free to contact me at hello@boards.ie if there actually is anything I can help you with.
Well I answer thoses questions so. Its seems Darragh you like the camara given your abundance of you tube clips. But typically any comments on those clips are subject to moderation. Once again Boards seeking to control the conversation.
The contact me hello@boards.ie is again evidence of you not wanting anything discussed in the open.
What you haven’t addressed in any great detail is just how Boards deals with the security of its members.
It was mentioned on news clip following the hacking of boards.ie in January that it was unprecedented attack on a website of that nature.
As such it means little if you one million visitors if you then compromise their details as what happened here.
Yes you sent out warning advising them to change their passwords but you didnt supply any user with their original passwords.
Again Boards is over regulated in all the wrong places. The cult of the ban is prevalent there now and I do not know of any other site that applies such stringent bans and yet allows some very dodgy material to stay on site as has been the case on a number of occassions this year.
Hello
I came across this by accident,i know i’m a bit late coming into this but i thought i would share my thoughts on this subject..i was a member of boards.ie for a brief time,i only joined while looking for fellow musicians to start a band as my own band had split at the time(happily were back on the road)..while i was there i found the admin/moderators to be arseholes and some of the posters not much better…condesending and not half as clever as they think they are as demonstrated by this guy Darraghs smart arsed comments here..i also agree with a lot of the above about trolls and moderators being cosy together and ganging up on people especially new posters…. and whats going to happen to boards eventually..?.. is it will close..why..? because as a previous poster wrote they don’t want to be bothered with or encourage new members…and if i thought that the majority of boards.ie is repesentive of the majority of irish thinking in the 20-40 age bracket then this country would really be fucked….and if i truly believed it was i would get the fuck out but reading other peoples experiences here has made me realise that THEY are the minority..
fair play for starting this as i thought i was the only person who thought that boards.ie was full of shit
Franzoni
Hi Franzoni
Would you care to point out which of my comments are, as you say “smart arsed”?
Darragh
Boards.ie eh?…..more like planks.ie.
I have never encountered such a concentrated bunch of arseholes in my entire life.
The moderators seem to have an opinion on everything, be that broadband or bouncy castles or personal issues Darragh!!!
Have a look at this> http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055661864What
Are you kidding me?
Why do you have so many moderators anyway? Why so many stupid rules? The site is very badly run. Everything is focused on the moderator and not the user.
All you seem to care about is advertising, visitor figures and giving the odd Narcissistical rant here and there.
Boards.ie does not deserve the business that it is getting at the moment, and time will tell.
Well Colm, all I can say is thanks for the feedback – we’re working hard to fix all of the problems you mention above.
Just so you know, we have over 1,300 forums – approximately 950 of those are active and 560 of the public ones have had a post/thread in the last 30 days.
With approximately 500 moderators (probably less) we’re averaging around 1 per forum.
The moderators are just users with moderator functionality – everyone seems to have an opinion on the site – me included!
I’m sorry that the site doesn’t suit everyone – I’m sorry that people have been offended by moderator actions, by things that have gone up there, by comments people have made and by things we haven’t done. I’m sorry that there have to be so many rules and I’m sorry that it comes across that all we care about is advertising, visitor numbers and even, as you say Colm “the odd Narcissistical rant here and there.”
All I can do though is work with the others here to continue making the site better for everyone – clearing up the legal implications of what people can post, improving the stability of the site, working with the moderators on if/when/how it’s appropriate to ban someone and then what that member can do to to sort out any issues they have through a cleaner process and better customer service.
We get through each day every post, every email, every member one at a time.
As always, we’re open to helping anyone and everyone who contacts us at hello@boards.ie
Cheers
Darragh
A common theme in your posts Darragh is that you seem to be wanting to divert the discussion here on to the help desk which you have mentioned quite a few times now.. Makes me a bit suspicious to be honest
Darragh,
You did not address my post.
Moderators on After Hours specifically, are walking on regulars. TheZohan is the only decent Mod there, aside from the new appointees.
Answer me this please.
When an issue goes to the Help Desk, why can other users not post?
They have a lot to add and can help resolve issues.
Why don’t you allow Polls in the forums when a new Mod is needed.
Surely the users make Boards.ie what it is and someone they trust and respect that they themselves have chosen to Moderate would be a far better system.
BR
I only heard of this forum the other day when i was looking at food reviews and saw a relevant thread in google from it and decided to join up and reply and then 10 mins later noticed mine and 2 other posts deleted and the thread closed and thought what the hell???
I know mods on forums can be touchy and a bit power mad but from what i gather reading other peoples posts and some of the comments left that one has to take the biscuit. I certainly won’t be visiting again anyway. If it is taking a lot of ad revenue they really should pay someone to mod it properly or do it themselves whichever.
How come it’s so popular in eire? It looks a mess and no direction of such as well as it looks so boring and dull with the default skin!
I am going to try and launch something similiar i think myself.
I appreciate that they are doing this for free and that a site like this certainly needs moderators. I however have a real problem with the standard of moderators particularly Bonkey who mods the conspiracy theory/Politics site. He has a style that provokes the posters on a particular thread like accusing them of being rude when they have not. I happened to be following posts by two guys which I found entertaining when Bonkey accused the poster of being rude. He wasn’t , so I defended the person in question and said that I didn’t think this guy was being rude at all. He immediately served me with an infraction and accused me of arguing with him for good measure. I protested this unreasonable penalty and was duly served with a weeks ban. When I appealed this ban which many members agreed was disgraceful through private messages, I found that all the other moderators and administrators stood by this moderator. it was a complete waste of time. My point is this – bad moderating takes the joy out of contributing to this site, it is moderators like Bonkey who should themselves be moderated.
Twillight – I completely agree with your above comment. I have private messaged many people on that site and most of them are leaving the site. I have too, the moderators upset me and ruined my experience on that site.
I have just requested that my account be deleted from this site. Boards.ie has the most appalling standard of moderating of any site I have been to. I feel much happier now.
The problem with boards is that is over populated and over regulated. It will throw the line we have 30,000 users on here and everyone is happy on a regular basis if so much as anyone complains.
It wants to be seen as this great community but fact of the matter is it simply does not have the mechanism in place to deal with any dissenters.
Some admins just dont like the hassle and as another poster stated will close a thread if they sense trouble is on the horizon.
Most of the forums are okay but where trouble occurs on one or two Boards just buries its head in the sand.
It is the worst discussion board out there all because of the really nasty moderators who seem to be on a power buzz of some sort. I have joined Politics.ie which has a far superior standard of moderating.Boards.ie is no fun – just makes you angry and upset. Life is too short. I will never be using that awful site again.
PIE I think is better moderated in that you know who you are dealing with. So many admins and mods on boards that it really throws you at times.
Anyway came across this the other day. LoLth made some good recommendations at end of thread but I think Irish Convert the mod in question got into a sticky situation here with some questionable comments which were then challenged by another poster.
Another mod from what i can see bailed Irish convert out by banning the poster but I think poster had right to call Irish convert on that.
Dont agree with the site ban that resulted. End of day, Mods should be able to live with the fact if they are challenged online . They pulled out the ban stick way too soon and I dont really think Irish Convert fully explained his comments here which as LoLth remarked in post 12 of that thread were slightly xenophobic. Overall ruling was unfair
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055941837
For the sake of balance will say that Darragh was good enough to answer my clarification thread so thank you for that.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055939394
Hopefully the outstanding issues will be resolved and thanks also to John for given us an audience here which isnt always available to us on boards.ie
here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=66562633&postcount=56 a guy claims that the SIMI never ever find for the customer. His evidence? that K bannon and others he knows have had that experoence. At post 70 we are told kbannon is a boards cmod. That is the reason for his being right, or rather wrong that SIMI never find for the customer. H e continues to argue that because he and few of his mates at boards have opinions of SIMI they are 100% right all they time. What idiots they are at boards
At end of the day its been proved beyond doubt that some of the mods on boards.ie aren’t fair and nine times out of ten admins will side with them. . They are above the law compared to other sites and are more concerned about how the outside world looks at them rather than acting in a fair and proper manner.
That they ban people who they conceive to a be a nuisance rather than rectifying the problem says it all really.
As an update Boards.ie is conducting is annual review on Soccer forum. What is peculiar is that three of its main contributors have picked up six month bans all in a very quick amount of time. All though I have my run ins with one of them, I thought one of the infractions was a bit harsh.
So question is now is not whether moderators are fair but inconsistent. From what I can see they have a set of rules which for most part they don't adhere to and then infract someone for something else.
And that is the problem. There is just no clarity and the infractions system is just too ambiguous.
Everyone knows what a troll is and who they are but it is open to interpretation due to the mechanism of the rules there which only the mods seems to be able to understand.
I recently was in a thread discussing something which i wont talk about here, but i knew the poster i was addressing in real life, and asked him to PM me regarding something. As it was of a sensitive nature, i used his real name, Declan.
I got an infraction from a mod, who said He "didnt want his name being broadcast in public, and he wasnt in the business of sharing information". Needless to say i was not addressing him, and it was pure coincidence. Thinking this was the actions of a sad fucking loser, i told him i was not addressing him, and he should keep his infractions to himself in the future the freak. Needless to say i was banned.
R.I.P Freedom of Expression.
P.S. Muffler, you're a sad act, and a pathetic virgin. I hope that boards brings you solace, without it you would most likely commit suicide
Muffler certainly isn't the worst on the Planning Forum, but that part of boards.ie is run by architectural technicians, who tend to have a very tightly focussed agenda in terms of the work they do in RL.
Unfortunately, this spills over into their moderation, which borders on the draconian, almost Hitlerian.
"Givens" on that board includes banning mentioning particular products where people are expressing their honest opinions, again, a hugely crippling piece if stupidity.
Someone. possibly Darragh, seems to have taken a view to avoid all potential for libel on boards.ie, but missed the whole point of a public forum.
Many people who have gotten poor service from a company cannot afford to take people to court, but they can certainly name and shame.
The last time I was banned because it was discovered I was me.
The time before that I told one of them to stop following me around and humping my leg.
After being hassled by these little Hitlers for weeks I eventually threatened to sue them for harassment and got an immediate boards-wide ban.
As if I'd waste my time or my money on them – such as it is.
You cannot question them, correct them, or inform them – they are a law unto themselves.
They do not see the damage this is doing to anyone eager to share real information on detailing, planning and design matters, or on rogue companies selling bad products or providing poor services.
How do they think the car industry was improved?
Consumer magazines criticizing uneconomical, poorly performing rust-buckets and the bike magazines performed the same service.
What does boards do?
Offers "sanitised" advice on a question or answer basis with discussion so restricted as to be meaningless.
Not a good result.
If you want to see how this gets done with relatively light touch regulation, call in to the Sites, Planning, Self-Builds and Extensions forum on Askaboutmoney.com.
I post there, along with several others and that is only one of the forums available.
Don't get me wrong, there are lines to be drawn, but someone needs to review the Monster That Is Boards.ie, particularly the Planning Forum and the Architectural Technicians Forum. They seem to have accreted the entire profession to themselves except matters of design, yet they cannot allow a discussion without "off topic" considerations being applied far too harshly.
Are they simply incapable of
– focussing on more than one subject at a time?
– seeing things in anything other than "fight or flee" mode?
– seeing the relationships between all parts fo the design process?
I gave up after a while, but not before posting several "concise" and "on topic" replies in Haiku, just to see if any one of them recognised a Haiku when it bit them on the ass.
I wrote in Haiku
On-topic concise answers
A waste of effort.
These creatures appear to be so sad – hiding behind their bans, seemingly unable to justify their actions or moderate appropriately – so much for the Planning Forum on boards.ie
Michael O'Neill.
did you take it to help desk. If you made an honest mistake surely that should have been it. Rule of thumb though do not argue with mods. I have found to my cost they dont like their authority being undermined
I didn't pursue it on the Help Desk – for several reasons.
There are apparently eight or so mods, overkill if ever I saw it.
For me, it wasn't just a particular instance of over-the-top moderation – it was the whole deal.
I didn't expect them to change their idea of heaven for one poster's views so I left them to their fiefdom.
I figured there was too much water under the bridge and too many cliquey mods would back him up in the help desk.
Anyone thinking of setting up an anti-boards.ie facebook group? Maybe a bit childish but I think it could help get the message across. When people aren't held accountable at all for their actions nothing but bad happens.
The worst Mod on Boards.ie has to be Walshb, he is a mod that goes trolling, in after hours he thinks he is untouchable, (but with being Boards.ie if your a mod other mods dont pull you up or tell you to pull your head in) if you said it rained today and he (walshb) said it did not (it did rain today, i know i got wet) you are in for a 2 day debate with a punch drunk idiot, he does not even come across as being that bright, you can see why he is the mod of the boxing forum
Can people link to threads they've been wronged in? It would help their case a lot more. There really is a lot of corruption, but unless you can show directly where it happens…
Boards.ie crowd are up their own arse basically. And the mods stand for absolutely nothing. All they want to do is be loved by their posters who will make no trouble for them. If you dont hassle them you will get on fine with them.
Boards to me seems to be taken over by Sinn Feiners at the moment. Iv followed a fair few threads and anyone who looks sideways at SF get mauled. The Mods seem to all add opinions in favour of SF to make it more obvious.
Can people link to threads they've been wronged in?
why bother who bwants to be judged by a bunch of power tripping muppets or feels they have to make a case to them? let them keep their crappy forum. net is full of forums
?????????? ?????? ??? ??? ?????, ???????? ? ??????????, ????? ??????? ? ???????? ?????????? ?? ??????, ????????? ??????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ? ? ??????, ???????????????? ?????? ??? ??????? ? ?? ???????? ? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ????????? ?????, ??????????? ? ??????????? ????? ? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????, ?????? ??? ???????? ?????? ?????? ? ??? ??? ???? ???????????????, ?????? ??????? ???????????? ??? ?????????? ? ?? ???????????, ?????? ???????????? ??????? ?????????? ?? ??????? ???????????? ?? ???????? ??????, ?????? ????? ??????? ??? (?????? ??????? ?????????- ?????????), ?????? ????????? ??? ???????? ?????? ???????? ? ?????? ?? ??????, ?????? ??? ??????? ???? ???????? ?? ??????? ? ?? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ??????, ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?????????? ? ??????? ??? ??????, ??? ???????? ??????????? ? ??????? ? ??????, ???? ??? ???????? ? ???????? ???????? ? ?????? ? ?????????? ???????? ????????????, ??? ???? ?? ???????? ? ?? ????????? ?? ??????, ???? ??? ???????? ?? ???? – ??? ???? ??????, ??? ???????? ??????? ??? ?????????? ? ???????? ??????????? ? ?????? ??? ???????, ??? ??????????? ???? ???? ??????????? ?? ???????? ? ???????? ?? ?????????????, ??? ??? ??????? ? ?? ?????? ???.
http://bratva.name/forum
http://bratva.name??????-??????
http://bratva.name????????-??????
http://bratva.name??????-??????
We are a company who not only used boards.ie but we also advertised on boards.ie
When information landed about our company on the forum and customers were getting sceptical I felt it was time to intervene and tell everyone who we were, after all we were a new company!
I was welcomed by the mod of the biz section jo rel:
“Thankyou for the reply, it’s good to see companies represent themselves on forums, and take the time to clarify any questions that people may have.”
People simply liked to express their opinions in the open regarding our website so I contiinued to answer their questions and contact boards to see what was the best call of action to gain trust in my potential customers visiting boards.ie
I was told banner ads were a great way to get this done so I paid up front and in full for banner ads.
In the mean time people were still asking questions and posting comments about our website so I continued to answer their question with no problem.
on 27 December I was taken back by the mod Jo Rel here is how the conversation went:
BOARDS.IE : In order to continue posting on Boards in a commercial manner, you must open a commercial interaction account. This can be done by first contacting hello@boards.ie
ME : Hey there, I have advertising with boards in the tech section we pay for banner ads. Can you tell me why I would require a commercial account?
I would simply like to answer the questions of my customers who comment on our website on boards.ie
It is for this reason we will monitor all interaction from the mods and public alike on boards.ie. We wish to be available to answer the questions and comments from the public where other websites host comments regarding our company
Kind Regards,
Joe
ACCOUNT BANNED BY BOARDS.IE
BOARDS.IE : Paying for advertising banners gets you exactly that, a banner. You get no more for it. If you wish to use this site to promote your business, or to interact with your customers, which this site gains no benefit from, only you gain, then you must pay for that too.
Paid advertising is not connected with your account, or how you use it.
You are free to monitor anything at all on Boards, as it is all publicly viewable, but if you wish to continue posting as a commercial entity, then you may pay for it.
This is not optional, and further posting that is out of line with the wishes of this sites owners may result in your account being restricted.
ME : I would nearly be tempted to put this comment up on my own website!
No need to be so aggressive! I have no interest in advertising any further other than the banner adverts. If a customer asks a question I will answer it. you welcomed me with open arms at the start of the thread to answer questions so that what im doing.
Thanks
Joe
BOARD.IE : Who is being aggressive? I am simply telling you the rules of this site.
Also, what would be so important that you would post on your website? Is it the fact that you can’t obey simple rules of another site? Can I go an promote my business on your site, costing you money? No, I don’t expect I would. So if you post anything in public about what has been exchanged between us in private, it will only reflect negatively upon you.
Since you have no intention of using this site in a way that adheres to the rules, you can consider your account no longer welcome in the category that I moderate.
We welcome all commercial interaction, but it comes at a cost. If you wish to use the resources of this site for your own personal and business gain, then you can’t expect Boards Ltd to bear the cost of that. If you can’t understand or accept that, then you don’t deserve to be in business at all.
ME : Jor el
Im totaly offended by your comments! Why would you act in such a manner?
I cannot believe you could act in this manner.
I can understand boards.ie needs to make money and I am a customer of boards.ie. I never intended to use the forum for commercial gain but only to monitor and reply to my customers.
I will take this further and I will be chatting to Darragh.
Regards
Joe
Boards.ie : How, or why, are you offended? All I’ve done is explain the rules of this site, and you immediately go on the attack, threatening me with some sort of vendetta on your site, and pulling your business from this site. If anyone should be offended here, it is me.
Do you not understand though, that this form of interaction between you and your customers is of commercial gain to you. That is why the commercial accounts are there, and why I asked you to contact hello@boards.ie in order to open one, but you refuse to, and you say you will continue to operate in defiance of the rules, which is why I must pre-empt this, and block your account.
Your PMs to me have already been highlighted to the Admin team, and they are now already aware of everything I have done, and the reasons behind it.
If you wish to open a commercial account, then please do. If you do not, as you have said twice now that you have no intention of doing so, then please do not continue to try to use this site for you own commercial gain.
Is this clear enough for you? I will not explain this again.
ME : No problem. is all the conversation we have had here going to remain here?
as i have shown it to my team and they cant believe how rude you have been.
Your attitude is out of line I’m not at fault here. I said I was not using the forum for commercial use or gain simply to answer the question from the public and this is how an existing customer is treated.
BOARDS.IE : I don’t understand what you mean. It has gone nowhere, except to be reported to the site Admins. You are the one sharing with all and sundry, not me.
In the middle of the night, between two bank holidays? I’m sorry, but I simply don’t believe that your team is there with you now.
You are completely at fault here, because your failure to follow one simple request, to contact hello@boards.ie, and your insistence upon continuing to use your account for commercial gain, is the only reason for all of this.
You have used this forum to support your business, and to advertise it and promote it. You have also used it to interact with existing and potential customers. If you cannot see the gain to your business in doing this, then I fail to see why you are even here. Surely this is a waste of your time, since you are getting absolutely no value from it?
If you truly believe that using this site to interact with your customers is of absolutely no gain to your business, then I really can’t help you, nor can anyone I fear.
IT ENDED HERE
Am I wrong? Il let you decide! thanks for your support!
link to the thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2…
I modded a popular forum on boards for about a year.
As a normal user, you don't see all the shit that the mods have to put up with in PMs with a small number of users. Weeks of to-ing and fro-ing with sociopathic idiots arguing the toss over stuff in the Charter, when they're basically just acting in bad faith.
Consequently, mods sometimes respond a little impatiently, and people get caught in the crossfire. Give them a break. There is a dispute resolution process anyway – a mod's decision is not final.
Most of the rules boil down to "Don't be a dick". It's really not that complicated – read the charter of the forum you're posting in and contribute positively.
Regarding the commercial stuff, that's just how boards operates. If you use it as free advertising or support forums your business, you can expect to fall foul of the mods. Set up a forum on your own site and direct people there. Most of the commercial people falling foul of the rules are cheap bastards.
The moderators just seem to take a dislike to you and/or posts and feel the need to intervene or what they perceive to intercede in situations/conversations that are literally nothing to do with them.There is a lot of ‘napoleonic complex’ material being flouted around by moderators & I,personally never had any hassle or disagreement with anyone on boards.ie until the moderators intruded and were convinced that my posts were too numerous & they limited me to one a day.Then I overstepped that by one & was banned.End of.What is THAT about? A discussion forum? That’s like saying Lucifer used to be an Angel.Wake up boards.ie because your ‘moderators’ are far from what their name suggests.
Typical Ireland i tiny group of middle class people control what the people of Ireland can say.”If you cant take the piss whats the point).”
The vast majority of moderators on Boards.ie are basically on a power trip (Not all, but many). I’ve had three posts deleted and I’ve been banned twice, what was I guilty of ? trying to inform the members on issues that are cleverly omitted from the Irish media. There are people in this country who would prefer the Irish people keep there heads buried in the sand, and the mods on this site do their part.
Any subject, should be up for discussion with out having the thread sabotaged by Boards secret army of Shills desperately trying to control what the Irish people say and READ.
Basically, if your selling a pram, a TV, or you just want to be a member of the most closed minded cronyistic forum site in Europe, this is the site for YOU.
Why was my post deleted ? Pathetic or what.
Who deleted it? It was placed in the moderation queue. You could have waited but decided to make the above comment….
Really?
That whoopsadaisywhatserface is a cunt of epic proportions. Her and her little feminist mates have a nice sad little gang of fello cunts that make boards unpleasant for most.
I rarely post on boards but like it as a useful/entertaining source of info. Having said that I do think some of the mods are the wrong type of people who act like strict teachers talking down to a child. It is not adult behaviour and you wouldn’t speak to an adult like that in real life. Also intelligent discussion can sometimes be diverted by people trying to “own” others either by a witty/insulting remark or by engaging in self-righteous criticism of another poster, all powered by the “Thanks” button. Overall a good site but does have some cultural issues with regards maturity to fine tune.
There is a circle of “untouchable” posters on Boards.ie. They have been members for years, have been allowed to re-register, have thousands of posts since they’re online 24/7, and can they flame topics with impunity. Namely Charles Rocher (formerly Chuck Stone), Legs Eleven, My_Name _is_URL, Femme Fatale (formerly Dudess and Madam_X) and the ringleader Nodin. You’ll notice they thanks each other’s posts and barge into a thread as a group to ridicule any opposing opinion. It’s like a competition to see who is the most progressive and liberal.
The owners of Boards.ie are very smug, but look at Bebo and Napster. They were once huge web sites but faded into obscurity. The same will happen to Boards eventually.
That mod Suave is a fucking cunt I’d love to see in real life. See how much of a cunt she would be in real life.
The politest thing that can be said about boards and its staff (paid or otherwise) is that it suffers to an incredible degree from ill-placed over-confidence in the infallibility of its own processes. Mods, Admins and Staff members will back each other up and never entertain the slightest possibility that one of their fellow mods may ever have even slightly erred.
I introduced a family member (with whom I sometimes share a PC) to boards and as a result got wrongly accused of “sockpuppetry” “trolling” and “ignoring moderator instructions” all at a time when I wasnt even online owing to being twenty miles away at my workplace. The mods (presumably on the basis of IP and cookie data) were adamant that we were one and the same person despite obvious differences in writing styles and that It would have been a bit strange to start engaging in such behaviour after ten years/7000 odd posts on boards besides if their wonderful system is so infallible how come I was able to set up another account in the first place.
Not only did my protests fall on deaf ears but all the mods (including mods of boards.ie forums Id never used who for reasons best known to themselves decided to stick their oar in) admins and boards.ie staff members (yes this went pretty much to the top) were extremely arrogant, smug abusive and condescending towards both of us maintaining in the face of all the evidence that we were one and the same person and publicly branding us liars.
In light of all this the only honourable course of action open to me was to close my boards account (plenty other places on the internet for me to waste my time on) but I have noticed of late that a lot of excellent longstanding contributes have done exactly the same while others are inexplicably (given their post history) showing as “banned”. But then again Im still showing as “banned” myself (rather than “closed account”) even though the original bans would have lapsed months ago.
Mistreating ones long term user base is not exactly the most sustainable business model especially when one is almost totally dependent on them to generate ones content. At the end of the day boards is a privately owned website, which is totally reliant on its users. Unless those in charge quickly come to understand this and realise what side their bread is buttered on its future looks shaky to say the least. It comes as little surprise that the company which owns boards is in debt to the tune of six figures. Pretty inevitable when one engages a team of moderators who appear to comprise mainly of former schoolyard bullies who decided to become website moderators in a desperate attempt to indulge their megalomania and revive their bruised egos following their unsuccessful attempts to pursue careers as television licence inspectors!
Sooner or later the mods are bound to run out of posters to ban (or alienate) at which point theyll probably turn on each other which should provide some amusing reading. While it would be a shame to see some of the better specialist forums disappear. “After Hours” has been pretty much dead in the water (same dozen topics rehashed almost daily some of which skirt on the edges of incitement to hatred) for some time now.
Did anyone ever create the anti boards site?
Yup they did….Youre on it lol.
Incidently not that theyre that difficult to circumvent (for those who can be bothered) but whats with the lifetime bans ? I mean even convicted murderers get out of jail eventually. Challenging mods misbehaviour must be a far more heinous crime for which the perpetrator is incable of reform ?
Does not seem to be much happening here though