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State Of The Site Comment Count

Brian

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Hey, so you may have noticed that things are slightly busted around here. The site's been in more or less the same state since I cobbled it together some seven years ago, with tweaks here and there and an ever-increasing amount of metal on the back end. This was fine; it's gotten increasingly less fine as time goes on. Let's bring in bolded alter-ego.

Why does your site look like Geocities still?

cumong man

Pets.com?

this was a bad idea

Does Marissa Meyer run this place or what?

Finding good developers turns out to be hard. Twice I've engaged professionals to do a thing, and neither time have the professionals actually managed to do the thing. A revamp of the comment section simply did not work; a planned site overhaul set to launch last summer obviously did not.

image

I think this is about to change. A few weeks ago I met with a gentleman from Human Element, a local outfit. They're taking over the stalled site revamp. HUEL* has several things going for it. They are local, so keeping in contact is easy. They have 30 people, so they have become good enough at what they do to grow significantly. They're big enough that they've got experience in whatever CMS you would throw at them. Their wifi password is reassuringly nerdy.

For the first time in a while I'm optimistic this will get done and before football season.

*[Referring to them as HE was weirdly religious and quickly discarded. HUEL had much to recommend it.

Internally they go by HEI but you will agree that HUEL is superior morally and ethically.]

But I hate change.

Indeed you do. There will be some changes. The most obvious will be a magazine-style front page. This will require some extra clicking but with the amount of #content on the site, especially during football season, we feel it is required. Not that much else will change, at least at first. The site revamp is a necessary first step before moving forward.

But we can look forward to some new features?

The new design is responsive, which means it'll look good on tablets and phones. It'll be professionally designed, so you'll know that the navigation menu above has useful things that drop down. (Do you know that?) You'll be able to get to the second page of the board without clicking on the mgoboard link above. Points will be exchangeable for Venezuelan bolivars. The site should be much faster and less prone to going down when traffic spikes.

Going forward a continued relationship with HUEL should allow us to implement some larger changes, but let's eat one apple at a time.

What about the app(s)?

Those will also be revamped when the site re-launches. They have to get massively updated anyway since the APIs they ping will change so it'll be a refresh for both. Apologies for the situation with the MGoBlog HD app; I am an Android person and did not know that the standard app had so many problems. Unfortunately the HD app was never authorized and when we were looking for performance improvements before Signing Day it stood out as a big drag.

Please bear with us. That should be fixed when the site re-launches. Your patience will be rewarded. With bolivars, but rewarded all the same.

Comments

FreddieMercuryHayes

February 21st, 2017 at 1:17 PM ^

Man, I'm bummed.  The site has been basically unchanged since I started cruising it's periodic updates and short posts during my undergrad years.  I personally like the design.  I also hate change.  But whatever I suppose.  As long as the message board remains relatively unchanged.  It gives me the most recent posts easily and I don't have to wade through endless 'bumps' in threads that are mostly useless that I encounter on other boards.

Joined: 12/29/2010

MGoPoints: 40856

ypsituckyboy

February 21st, 2017 at 1:18 PM ^

Please please please don't make us click through to get to articles like 247 though. Big fan of Lorenz and Isaiah over there, but every freaking message board article that they post takes you to a link of the article that you have to click on again to get to the actual article. Super obnoxious for a paysite.

Joined: 06/22/2009

MGoPoints: 30512

BornInA2

February 21st, 2017 at 1:21 PM ^

1. Thank you.

2. GeoCites? Naw, that's harsh man. MySpace, though...

3. We don't eat apples around here. Around here it's all about lemons. Please make a note.

 

Joined: 02/15/2014

MGoPoints: 12802

BlueMan80

February 21st, 2017 at 1:21 PM ^

I look forward to an updated site with new apps.

Having spent a good chunk of my career in the IT world, I feel your pain.  Nothing is as easy as it looks, communicating requirements can feel like talking into a black hole, and if you want something done right, you better be able to reach out and touch the people doing the work at all times.

Here's to the new and improved MGoBlog kicking ass 21st century style. 

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 13097

mrkid

February 21st, 2017 at 1:27 PM ^

Did we confirm that every team member at HUEL is a Michigan fan? We can't have the enemy infiltrating our home with easter eggs of floating penis and the like.

Joined: 09/12/2011

MGoPoints: 9444

bronxblue

February 21st, 2017 at 1:30 PM ^

But what will people have to complain about now?!?!

But seriously, glad the site is getting an overhaul.  This might be a needlessly nerdy question, but are you sticking with Drupal or going with another framework?

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171035

BlueMars24

February 21st, 2017 at 1:39 PM ^

I am just guessing, but I assume they will be migrating user & post data so they don't lose all the history. I'm sure that's a significant portion of the effort of making the new site. Maybe that will come in chunks once the new site is released. 

Joined: 03/28/2011

MGoPoints: 753

Formerwalkon

February 21st, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^

At Least It's Someting To Be Upset About.... Nope not all.  The quality of the content on this site so far surpasses any slight or small inconvenience that I've experienced with the operations.  Thanks again Brian (Ace, Seth, etc..) for your efforts.

Joined: 09/02/2012

MGoPoints: 248

bronxblue

February 21st, 2017 at 1:39 PM ^

For the record, I like the current layout.  If I wanted SB Nation-style article bukakki, I can find it elsewhere.  

I'm sure I'm in the minority on this, but there's something nice about a site that has you scroll through articles in a simple way.  It encourages me, at least, to read the other posts.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171035

spicy tuna

February 21st, 2017 at 1:42 PM ^

Worth putting up a link for new site donations? Guessing we could crowdsource the cost, based on the number of people that said they'd chip in. I'd certainly throw a few dollars at it. Maybe a new beveled guilt button until the costs are covered? 

Joined: 07/07/2008

MGoPoints: 196

I Like Burgers

February 21st, 2017 at 1:42 PM ^

I've done more than my fair share of bitching about the site lately, so A) thank you for giving a revamp a third go, and B) thank you for addressing the coming changes.  Very much appreciated.

Joined: 10/06/2012

MGoPoints: 30574

severs28

February 21st, 2017 at 1:43 PM ^

I never had an issue with the site layout.  Looking at it on a computer screen is not bad at all.  I was never a huge fan of the Android App mainly because videos and links rarely pulled in properly for me.  

Joined: 04/21/2010

MGoPoints: 405

UM Fan from Sydney

February 21st, 2017 at 1:51 PM ^

I'm hoping for a change to the format of the comments, simply so people cannot reply to the first reply just so others will see their post right away.

Joined: 09/17/2015

MGoPoints: 58076

Naked Bootlegger

February 21st, 2017 at 1:52 PM ^

This news coincides with Braylon Edwards returning for his degree.  Ergo, I can conclude that Braylon Edwards is responsible for the site upgrade as a semester-long directed studies project.

Joined: 01/28/2011

MGoPoints: 34636