Boards.ie could be "forced to shut down"

joe sod said:
What would be the biggest Irish chat forum or Internet blog now, Reddit and Facebook are international not Irish? It's probably still boards is it not?
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In the other thread I listed the forums which discussed Irish issues.

Can boards.ie be fixed?

Are all the forums infected? For example, are the various sports forums full of abuse and do they require moderation? The McGregor thread started off as place were only posts worshiping the ground he stood on could be made. I almost got banned by a mod for posting something else about him...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
joe sod said:
What would be the biggest Irish chat forum or Internet blog now, Reddit and Facebook are international not Irish? It's probably still boards is it not?
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While reddit is an international site there are loads of Irish-specific subreddits. While /r/ireland is the biggest and most general there are regional ones like /r/cork and ones about more specific topics like /r/irishpersonalfinance . Having a mix of global or general subs and local and specific ones all in one place is one of the reasons reddit has been taking users from other forums. The other main one is probably how useful upvote/downvote based crowd-sourced moderation is, and of course anyone can create a new subreddit if they're not happy with the existing ones.
 
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Looking at the most recent threads on boards theres still decent traffic to it and very active threads. If they downsized their ambition.

If they switched to a working forum software, trimmed all the dead threads, don't migrate all the ancient stuff, cut all the troublesome forums, it's survivable.

The moderation and vexatious posters or any legacy debts is a harder circle to close.
 
As a start, they need to get rid of the dreadful After Hours forum. It is is simply a load of nonsense that seems to be very difficult and time consuming to moderate and adds nothing.

Boards would be far better focusing on the multiplicity of very active, relatively niche fora that cater to specific audiences where information and help is willingly shared. If Boards became known as a source and repository for these types of discussion, they could jettison the bigger ones like the aforementioned After Hours, Politics and possibly soccer. Surely this would be more attractive to advertisers who would be clearer in knowing what audience is being reached.

The site has been dragged down by fools and their opinions for far too many years.
 
tallpaul said:
If Boards became known as a source and repository for these types of discussion, they could jettison the bigger ones like the aforementioned After Hours, Politics and possibly soccer.
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I take a passing interest in infrastructure which is almost completely ignored by the media unless there is an overspend.

There is genuine expertise in depth on boards.is on this topic and it’s a real resource for someone like me who takes an occasional interest. There is some contrarian opinion but, a bit like AAM, the majority view is generally the correct one.
 
tallpaul said:
Surely this would be more attractive to advertisers who would be clearer in knowing what audience is being reached.

The site has been dragged down by fools and their opinions for far too many years.
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They're using Adnxs/AppNexus, They already have the ability to charge more for better targeted ads.

Fools are often an advertiser's target audience!!
 
As a poster who doesn't always agree with your views, I must say that this level of transparency reflects very well on you, Brendan.

It is an excellent resource that you have created, and we do appreciate it.
 

I agree that some of the niche fora on boards - motoring, cycling and the like - work well, but also I think there a potential space on a website like boards for something like 'After Hours' , which is basically a section for people talking random nonsense and not to be taken seriously.

What I find more problematic about boards.ie is the complete lack of transparency as regards ownership, financing and, frankly, constantly re-registering posters with strange and questionable agendas. In their defence, they have (belatedly) made some attempts to ban long term trolls and openly racist/fascist and hateful posters, and have apparently recently introduced a subscription facility , but as far as I'm concerned they are, as the old phrase goes, "a day late and a dollar short". I wouldn't contribute, even if I had the funds, which currently I don't.
 
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