MGoBlog 3.0: The Preview
So you’ve probably noticed the content has been a little slow this summer. Some of that’s because Hail to the Victors 2017 is taking up my life, but the other huge summer project is rebuilding this site from the ground up.
THE DEVELOPERS
We’ve been working with a local outfit named Human Element. You’ve probably passed by their Kerrytown office at the corner of Detroit and Beakes (and Division and Summit and Carey and High and… you know the junction) a thousand times. Unlike our previous attempts at redeveloping the site they’re established enough to have a team and a schedule they’ve actually managed to stick to.
We’ve insisted they go by “HUEL” for obvious reasons.
Despite all the curveballs we could come up with from a 10-year-old site on a no longer supported platform, this is happening, and on time. I can’t recommend these guys enough.
THE NEW LOOK
Since we’re deep into the design phase, we saw no reason to keep it to ourselves. So here’s a preview of what we’re sort of going to look like in a couple of months (click each to see a larger size):
Normal front page |
Front page when we have a major feature |
Inside an article |
---|---|---|
Let me say a few things about what you’re looking at:
- No that’s not the header. That’s something one of the HUEL guys whipped up in 30 seconds. We’ve engaged MonuMental to design the new official header. That’s still in the works but his initial thoughts are encouraging:
How about Harbaugh as Conan the Barbarian on a mountain of his enemies' skulls (helmets) with background landscape and Easter eggs inspired by the last few years (Florida palm trees, Rome skyline, stacks of milk bottles) and a snarling oversized Wolverine as his companion?
Open to suggestions about what he is wielding overhead. Maybe a football exploding with light and lightning?
- It’s going to be a lot wider, since screens have become so.
- The front page has two modes. Normally there will be some boxes on the top with the latest football article, the latest recruiting article, the latest podcast, and a t-shirt or HTTV something from our store or our top sponsor UGP—these boxes will change based on whatever’s going on at the moment. When we have a featured article (e.g. UFR) it goes to mode 2, with the feature dominating the top and the boxes taking a break.
- Diaries and the Board are staying put, but your login is moving to the upper-right.
- The comments will be threaded into boxes, but after a 5 boxes they’ll stop shrinking and just appear underneath. You’ll be able to minimize a box to hide a part of the conversation and focus on the one you’re having.
- Some users will have little icons next to their names. These will signify things like this person is the OP, or one of our staff, or a moderator, or trusted contributor. Still deciding on how many badges we need—might just be site personnel and hot users (people who recently got a lot of upvotes in that thread).
- Your MGoPoints should carry over to the new site. Apparently the 3rd party module for that hasn’t been upgraded to Drupal 8 so we may have to create our own, but if it’s possible it will happen.
- We’ll be moving to a new server that should be able to handle a much greater load, so this place won’t become a disaster during high traffic events.
- Apps will be brand new and better integrated.
Your feedback is most welcome—we’re building this for you.
apparently only 3
<stands up> Make that 4!
It is one of my favorite features as well, mainly because of all the snark in the comments.
This is why I have adblocker turned off for this site.
As long as this remains the one and only free website on the planet, we'll all be happy.
Who is the guy in the right window if the HUEL building?
I'll second that. Like some sort of inbox (like reddit has) notifying when someone has commented on your comment/post. I don't like having to check my recent posts one by one to see if I need to keep arguing with anyone.
I think it would create a lot more conversation. Notifcation of a new reply will encourage quicker responses instead of when I get back around to checking my old comments.
What will be the item that controls the order in which threads appear? Most recent posting date/time or thread creation date/time. I find that certain threads die a premature death because they disappear from view.
I'm for using the posting date in lieu of creation date as the criteria for placing threads in order as interest in a topic and not the order in which a thread is generated governs what we see. This might also help avoid dupes during busy times.
I'd also like to see something where you could click on an MgoBoard link and get a listing that is longer than what we currently have posted on the main page.
Is it possible to also sort the parent level comments by score instead of the default by time? On big threads, it would be nice to cut through a lot of the noise and see the posts that have important info.
But in all seriousness, this looks great!
I'd rate these changes a 10.2/10.
Since this site is free: 11/10. It looks great.
I was afraid at first, but the functionality has all been retained. Doesn't seem cluttered, which was my main fear. Simple is always better.
I'm actually pretty ambivalent to it all except for the last 2 points:
- We’ll be moving to a new server that should be able to handle a much greater load, so this place won’t become a disaster during high traffic events.
- Apps will be brand new and better integrated.
Obviously it's nice that the site will work. The mgoblog android app isn't bad, but there are some features that don't work at all or work so horribly it'd just be better if they didn't work at all.
I prefer a quote feature for comments, which would eliminate the indented reply boxes (and it would eliminate the person who loves to reply to the first reply when not even directly replying to the first reply, just so people see his or her comment almost right away). The problem with the quote feature is that many people don't know how to properly use it. Some folks will use the quote button, but not delete the text they're not replying to, which causes very long threads. The 247 forums use a quote feature. It's nice when people know how to use it the correct way.
Ugh, I'd prefer the exact opposite. Frankly, I'd prefer the reddit model, where the posts with the most upvotes rise to the top with time factored in.
Until now, I never knew that you could get to the second page of MGoBoard by clicking the link in the top menu. I just thought it was irredeemably broken.
Now that that's fixed, I'm pretty cool with the current site. /s
I like the site and I'm sure it will just get better, but I wish the forum view could get better much like sites that are simply forums and not news outlets. Does this make sense?
I agree. Go over to Reddit, copy and paste relevant CSS/JS for formatting posts, and then figure out their ranking algorithm and copy that as well.
one of the icons should be for OG profiles, people who joined in Summer 2008!
Posting just to see if I did that or not.
Edit: Oh good, I did. Bonus points to me for never having changed my name, too.
I better jump in before the circle-jerk kicks off. Don't want to lose my seat.
Endorsed
Pfft. Look at all these slackers who waited all the way until July to sign up and want a sticker for it.
and still have no avatar!
Agreed
I was right before labor day so I'm counting myself amongst that honored few that joined in the summer of 2008.
Can I get an "OG" badge like Boutros? Huh? Huh? Can I?
What? Nope. November is too late. Ahhh man!
/shuffles away slowly.
I'm disappointed (slightly) that they hired a professional firm to come up with the banner .... I really enjoyed when they opened it up to competition that one year as the submissions were fantastic.
Other than that, I would hope that spell check is added so I don't constantly have to check if I've made an mistakes for fear of the grammar police.
Why should Brian pay for a spell check feature when we have tons of people on this site who do it for free?!
Just remember to feed it regularly and provide lots of clean water to swim in.
I do love that it seems to be looking at the camera as if to say, "Yes, of course I am going to bite the hand right off of this dumb ass."
It is a Capybara...the largest rodent in the world.
It's even bigger than Coach K, huh?
/couldn't resist
an ROUS.
I don't believe they exist.
Will comments still be sorted by time or will they be by popularity?
I'm with everyone else that would prefer the board to be listed above the diaries.
I would be super on board with a feature that let you know that you've been replied to.
Sounds great. Looking forward to it.
Feedback:
- I don't care about points carrying over or not.
- Boards that actually function would be my #1 priority.
- Sub-boards for non-revenue sports, Xs and Os, etc. would be my #2 priority.
- If there are pop-ups, autoplay, etc. I will never return. Don't think you're considering that but I thought I'd put it out there.
You'll care once you learn that those points will one day convert to cash.
Maybe so! What's the exchange rate? :)
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