Forum Topics

[Rednready]

I logged on today and the first 5 topics were,

Old Timers

Shirts

Teignmouth Pubs

Crossbars Twice.

As Interesting as a bucket of wet laundry.

Fans ask , where are the old posters, where is the debate and intrigue.

They have left, the substance and content of OTIB has degenerated into a teen and twenties bitch session with little substance. We have less than a dozen posters of substance remaining. Mentally and financially the Otib Forum will die unless mental and financial initiative is evoked,sooner rather than later.

[Meh]

I've said similar many times, but, no in such wise ways.

This forum does need financial input no doubt, but, it will still die if rules are not re-established as they used to be.

Attack the poster not the poster

if you have a point about a current topic, don't start a new one instead etc.

[Guest SteveA]

Lack of debate at the moment is due to there being no game.

[Rednready]

Lack of debate at the moment is due to there being no game.

I am talking about the last 6 months to a year. No game this week ? well you prove my point.

[StapleHillPhil]

The decline of otib began when it moved from the old DC board with threaded view to the new Invision version.

In my opinion this board does very little to encourage debate and discussion compared to its predecessor. Bring back a board in the style of the old one and I believe the quality of posts and posters will improve.

[Stoke_Gifford_Red]

I logged on today and the first 5 topics were,

Old Timers

Shirts

Teignmouth Pubs

Crossbars Twice.

As Interesting as a bucket of wet laundry.

Fans ask , where are the old posters, where is the debate and intrigue.

They have left, the substance and content of OTIB has degenerated into a teen and twenties bitch session with little substance. We have less than a dozen posters of substance remaining. Mentally and financially the Otib Forum will die unless mental and financial initiative is evoked,sooner rather than later.

I definately feel this is the case, and was almost thinking about a similar thing the other day. There are still some very good posters left, sadly they seem to be decreasing in number all the time, which is detrimental to the forum. There was a time when I could spend an hour on the forum every day reading and replying to posts, however there are days more recently when I can just glance through the main page, only to find there may only be one decent post of note, and as a result spend maybe only 5 minutes. I have also posted less due to the forum quality decreasing (although most people would probably say the act of me not posting has resulted in the forum quality increasing) and feel that other people with similar attitudes has resulted in the number of posts by the 'old debaters' significantly falling.

[chubba]

Yup, enough of the regulars here. A combination of no games this weekend and it being summer holidays still so a lot of people taking time away.

Typical of us City fans, no football to moan about so we start moaning about the quality of the fourm.

<joke>

Under Danny Wilkson we had 250 more posts per week, but then again the server was not as powerful then so the forum was a bit slow and not as much fun to use.

Under Tinnion the forum was heavily used and we had some great debates.

Statistics show the forum is just not as good under Johnson, get him out - life is no fun with GJ as manager

How will we ever reach top flight football with a forum like this?

</joke>

Honestly, some people will moan about anything. It's the weekend, go get some fresh air and enjoy not listening to or watching another City defeat - go have fun! Forum will be back to normal next week I am sure.

[Guest SteveA]

I am talking about the last 6 months to a year. No game this week ? well you prove my point.

I was talking about the 5 or so subjects you said wasnt intresting

[Rocky]

Been in decline for years. Agree with Kings Norton.

[Brianred]

I logged on today and the first 5 topics were,

Old Timers

Shirts

Teignmouth Pubs

Crossbars Twice.

As Interesting as a bucket of wet laundry.

Fans ask , where are the old posters, where is the debate and intrigue.

They have left, the substance and content of OTIB has degenerated into a teen and twenties bitch session with little substance. We have less than a dozen posters of substance remaining. Mentally and financially the Otib Forum will die unless mental and financial initiative is evoked,sooner rather than later.

Rednready, i would have thought the old Timers topic would have suited you down to the ground. It is a topic which is important to a majority of City fans and those who don't give a toss. The atmosphere was the thing that attracted a lot people to the gate, they came back for more. The lack of atmosphere is helping to push fans away. The reason this "wet laundry" keeps coming back is because fans can see what can help the club and put more bums on seats.

People say this forum is not the same because of the lack of good posters, but the club are also suffering because the directors THINK they know best. I do agree with what you say about some of the topics, but a lot on the forum don't bother to post with what they would call an interesting topic just in case they get slagged down. I'm not sure if i should have posted this on the old timers slot.

[Sir Colby-Tit]

Well, not being an OTIB old-timer I can't comment on what it used to be like. I still love it, although it is only marginally less addictive than crack.

[Pickle Rick]

There is a lack of interesting posts here at the mo. Not many good topics etc...

Seems as if there is a fashion to post absolute one dimensional and pointless topics. I just can't get round the one recently where jack0312 said Noble isn't even good enough for a sunday league pub team. Thats a classic

Sometimes its more interesting to look on the Prediction League to see what everyone else has predicted!

[Taz]

Well I've just spent the past 4/5 weeks at my girlfriends in Fishponds and due to her not having internet access I haven't been able to check the forum as often as I usually do. Having said that though, I wasn't really that bothered about it, because unlike 12+ months ago theres usually little or nothing interesting to contribute to.

I've just saw a thread pinned to the top of the page about funding for the forum. As far as I'm concerned it's just waisted money if you do contribute because this forum is nothing like it used to be.

To be honest I really couldn't be fussed if it was closed down. I know people who may be reading this may think "well post something interesting then if you want debate", but to be frank what's the point when the only response you'll get is from kids who have nothing better to do with their time (no offence meant to any particular age group - this place has saw many youngsters come on and establish themselves as respected members) and people who just respond to wind people up and cause arguments?

Give me something worth contributing to and I'll contribute (financially and start being arsed to post regularly again).

[Robbored]

Good Grief! I can remember forum users complaining about the poor quality of the forum just a few months after it opened.Even I moaned about topics such as 'where do sit?'and so on.

The bottom line is that there some stimulating debates on here - its just a case of trawling through the dross to find them.The current one about Old Timers is a good example of quality debate.

That said I do miss posters like Richieb,Orj and Edson.

[andy g]

Oh, not again !

How many times have we heard this arguement ? "the forum isnt as good as it used to be because regular poster x or comic genius y isnt posting any more..."

Over the life of this forum we've seen people come and go and its always had an even mix of intelligent debate and mindless drivel.

My advice would be that if you don't think the posts on here are good enough, try writing something that is.

[Chappers]

Perhaps it reflects the lack of excitement on the pitch. And lets face it, GJ's signings have hardly go the adrenalin rushing!

Aaron Brown has just scored-

Cue the replies-

I don't care what ex-City players do - or - We should have signed him.

Yep, things are predictable.

[samo]

My advice would be that if you don't think the posts on here are good enough, try writing something that is.

well said. i'm pretty new here and think the summer combined with the poor form has had an influence on the nature of posting, but like in real life, you've got to make our own fun. i've been involved in a couple of interesting threads today concerning city, you just need to make the effort and ignore the idiots.

[Guest]

The decline of otib began when it moved from the old DC board with threaded view to the new Invision version.

In my opinion this board does very little to encourage debate and discussion compared to its predecessor. Bring back a board in the style of the old one and I believe the quality of posts and posters will improve.

Threaded boards are very much a rarity these days. If they still exsist - i.e. DC Forums + - then they don't have the ability to cope with the load. The DC Board served its purpose well at the time, but simply put it would fall flat on its arse with even a couple of hundred users online. Lets not forget how many times we lost data because it was hacked. Hell, it became more often than city fans moaning

Its bascially got to be proffesionally developed forum software to cope these days, with proffesional database driver options. Therefore its limited to a few boards, and IPB is one of only 2-3 that really do meet the requirements we need (namely: PHP, Secure & Proffesionally Developed, MSSQL options)

The real reason that the forum has gone the way it has, is simply put; The internet is more accesable to everyone. That brings in people from all natures of life. Sadly thats both good and bad. Back in the 'day' you had far less idiots onboard because they didn't know what the internet was!

[bh_red]

The real reason that the forum has gone the way it has, is simply put; The internet is more accesable to everyone. That brings in people from all natures of life. Sadly thats both good and bad. Back in the 'day' you had far less idiots onboard because they didn't know what the internet was!

spot on that man!............I miss the olden days with poxy dial up internet, Windows 98 and black and white monitors!

[B1ackbird]

I had an old poster, It was Jaws, the film poster with a bird swimming and a shark underneath!!!

Hope this helps!!!

[Chivs]

Threaded boards are very much a rarity these days. If they still exsist - i.e. DC Forums + - then they don't have the ability to cope with the load. The DC Board served its purpose well at the time, but simply put it would fall flat on its arse with even a couple of hundred users online. Lets not forget how many times we lost data because it was hacked. Hell, it became more often than city fans moaning

Its bascially got to be proffesionally developed forum software to cope these days, with proffesional database driver options. Therefore its limited to a few boards, and IPB is one of only 2-3 that really do meet the requirements we need (namely: PHP, Secure & Proffesionally Developed, MSSQL options)

The real reason that the forum has gone the way it has, is simply put; The internet is more accesable to everyone. That brings in people from all natures of life. Sadly thats both good and bad. Back in the 'day' you had far less idiots onboard because they didn't know what the internet was!

Tom,

With the greatest respect, you are talking like a techie geek. That is, complete and utter bollocks (trust me, I know, I'm a techie geek).

If the people who produce the professionally developed forum software can't come up with a threaded view then get them to pass the software on to me. Job done.

PS I recall you saying you were going to do this sometime ago...

[Nibor]

Tom,

With the greatest respect, you are talking like a techie geek. That is, complete and utter bollocks (trust me, I know, I'm a techie geek).

If the people who produce the professionally developed forum software can't come up with a threaded view then get them to pass the software on to me. Job done.

PS I recall you saying you were going to do this sometime ago...

There is no threaded view on invision nor is there a mod for threaded view for the latest version, and developing one is far from trivial.

None of the mainstream commercial forums has a threaded view out of the box (invision, vbulletin, jive, phpbb) though for some of them you can produce one using several mods.

The problem with mods is that it makes upgrading to a new version a complete arse of a job.

The problem with using one of the more obscure bits of forum software that does have a threaded view is that it won't cope with the load.

I don't understand why you think what Tom says is bollocks?

[Lordofthebling]

I'm confused why a threaded view would make the debate on here anymore interesting?

I think there should be two forums, one each for over and under 16's. Not because the younger fans don't know what they are talking about, but that way we can have some passion, swearing and venting of frustration after another City defeat.

[Godzilla]

The biggest problem? Too many users make statements without truely backing those statements up. (Maybe I've just done that myself?)

The forum is here to be used as a way of getting across an opinion, and doing just that is absolutely fine. However, quality debate will only come when people start explaining and reasoning.

Either people don't really understand what they're talking about enough to explain and go through their point thoroughly, or more often than not, people just can't be bothered to spend a bit of time to construct something well reasoned and balanced.

Most people are guilty of it, so there's no use complaining about it. Andy G is spot on; there's always been a mix of good stuff and not so good stuff. Perhaps it's got worse over the years, perhaps there's no real difference. That's just the way of otib!

[SimplyRed]

I don't think you can always blame the youngsters for filling up the forum with verbal fluff.

I've found that there are several 'well known' and 'respected' posters on this forum that are extremely intolerant of other people's views if they don't match their own.

It seems to me that, if you don't agree with something they say, or post something that they don't agree with, you get attacked personally by being called a 'moron' or accused of 'not knowing anything about football' or 'not being a true supporter' (whatever that is!) .

For those who, perhaps, are not quite so thick-skinned, it might be that it makes them fearful of posting anything.

It's the so-called 'know-it-alls' that belittle those that disagree that should take a look at themselves.

It comes down to the usual advice - 'reply to the post, not the poster', but I would add that you should offer reasoned counter argument and not just say that their opinion is 'stupid'.

Personally, I feel this is where the moderators of this forum are failing. Any post with abusive, non-constructive comments attacking the poster, rather than the post should be removed, with out question.

The moderators state that they are highly sensitive to libellous comments against club's reputation and staff and yet allow abusive - and possibly libellous - posts about individual posters to stand!

[Guest]

Tom,

With the greatest respect, you are talking like a techie geek. That is, complete and utter bollocks (trust me, I know, I'm a techie geek).

If the people who produce the professionally developed forum software can't come up with a threaded view then get them to pass the software on to me. Job done.

PS I recall you saying you were going to do this sometime ago...

It's not bollocks because (a) none of the companies actually develop it for a reason - that being its liked by about 5% of the potential users. Hence why we have the option to view in threaded on invision, but not as it was on DC Forums. There was an intresting debate about threaded view on one of the software sites, here:

http://www.onecommune.net/community/index.php?showtopic=425

The naviety of most of the replies shows you that its not even thought about these days.

Nibor hit the nail on the head, we can't do it as a mod, because updates are brought out probably once every month (sometimes less) and that would mean editing the files everytime, adapting if the source changes and so forth. I'm in the office sometime less than 2 days a week now. It's not even worth entertaining the thought - my boss gives me enough grief working on OTIB in its standard forum.

[Chivs]

I don't understand why you think what Tom says is bollocks?

It's not bollocks because (a) none of the companies actually develop it for a reason - that being its liked by about 5% of the potential users. Hence why we have the option to view in threaded on invision, but not as it was on DC Forums. There was an intresting debate about threaded view on one of the software sites, here:

http://www.onecommune.net/community/index.php?showtopic=425

The naviety of most of the replies shows you that its not even thought about these days.

Nibor hit the nail on the head, we can't do it as a mod, because updates are brought out probably once every month (sometimes less) and that would mean editing the files everytime, adapting if the source changes and so forth. I'm in the office sometime less than 2 days a week now. It's not even worth entertaining the thought - my boss gives me enough grief working on OTIB in its standard forum.

I apologise for the use of the word "bollocks". That was an alcohol fuelled comment but inexcusable anyway.

Nevertheless, I stick with the general thrust of my argument. Using techno-gabble (personally I prefer .NET to PHP,Oracle to SQL etc etc) to defend the poor user interface of the forum is the refuge of a geek.

You actually give the genuine reason why threaded views isn't in the COTS forum software. Apparently only 5% of us want it therefore the forum vendors have taken a commercial decision not to support it.

This is a shame because it seems that a lot of the 5% are here on OTIB. I much preferred the threaded view because I could scan through the threads started by people I usually read and ignore all the rest. With the linear view I have to look at every post before I get to the interesting ones.

[Nibor]

I apologise for the use of the word "bollocks". That was an alcohol fuelled comment but inexcusable anyway.

Nevertheless, I stick with the general thrust of my argument. Using techno-gabble (personally I prefer .NET to PHP,Oracle to SQL etc etc) to defend the poor user interface of the forum is the refuge of a geek.

You actually give the genuine reason why threaded views isn't in the COTS forum software. Apparently only 5% of us want it therefore the forum vendors have taken a commercial decision not to support it.

This is a shame because it seems that a lot of the 5% are here on OTIB. I much preferred the threaded view because I could scan through the threads started by people I usually read and ignore all the rest. With the linear view I have to look at every post before I get to the interesting ones.

Frankly you preferring .Net makes me very scared.

But that aside, none of the forum software vendors include a threaded view, because there's not enough demand, so what is the problem?

You can stilll ignore threads from people you donlt normally read just the same.

[Rednready]

Having started the topic, I would like to thank you all for responding so well. I was proving a point to the Right Honourable Member of somewhere near Lyneham.

We can all post with haste, anger, booze, or medication from time to time. I usually try and post in normal mode, but started this one on MnM's. In older generation terms, thats Mobic and Morphine, add some Zoloft for anger management and you will understand why some oldies sound wierd sometimes.

We are all team mates supporting the same team. Thankyou for your contribution, today and always.

Rednready.