Unverified Voracity Tinkers (Read: Breaks) Stuff Comment Count

Brian

Correction. I misattributed the source of the coaching clinic notes posted last week. Their origin is Go Blue Michigan Wolverine (the blog, not the Scout site). Apologies to ERoc & co.

Fixes. Your blog fixes/all-natural-enhancements for the week:

7/9/2008:

  • Added "Hot" tab for message board.
  • Fixed IE6 bug where content would end up pushed down the page.
  • leaderboard ad centered.
  • Killed the "ad takeover bug" by removing the code that delayed ad loading until end of page.
  • Added "MGoElsewhere" block with useful links to the Fanhouse, Facebook, and MGo.licio.us, as some had requested their return.
  • Deleted all accounts that had never been logged in and disabled email validation temporarily.

If you had problems registering and never logged in, you can take another shot at it, as I've cleared out all the old usernames and temporarily shut down the email registration that didn't tell you it was coming and sometimes never showed up. You should be able to pick a password.

The ad takeover bug got way worse yesterday morning when I committed a change that was working on my local install of Drupal, saw it had severely broken the site, and immediately lost internet connectivity until around 11 AM the next day. Which was awesome. I've pulled the clever change I made that had the ads load last and then moved them into their correct locations, and that's probably not coming back... it's just impossible to debug when I don't know what elements the javascript will provide me, and the cost of not debugging -- whitescreens with only ads on them -- is incredibly steep.

Another note: the "popular" and "hot" tabs for both diaries and message board only display posts from the last week.

My next task is figuring out why anonymous comments aren't displaying. As always, check the "crude bug tracking" page if you've got an issue, and comment there or email.

I got a lot of suggestions for the "Diaries" rename but none of them seemed very usable. Still looking.

Where will I get $5 shirts that say "Michigen" now? If thought selling six t-shirts for ten dollars was not a particularly good business model, congratulations! You're now the proud owner of a Notre Dame MBA. Also, Steve and Barry's is about to die:

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Steve & Barry's is considering closing more than 100 stores across the country and has fallen behind in payments to builders, suppliers and advertisers. The chain is seeking $40 million in private financing to avoid filing for bankruptcy. ...

Aside from its bankruptcy troubles, the retailer took a hit when the University chose not to renew its licensing contract with 4004 Inc., the apparel company that supplies Steve & Barry's. Kristen Ablauf, the University's director of licensing, said the decision was made because of "concerns with their ability to fulfill their requirements of their license agreements."

IE: they ain't gonna pay us. Or, apparently, the Daily, which is owed over twenty grand by Steve & Barry's.

This story reads like this to me: blah blah blah. blah. World's most ridiculous liquidation sale! What are they going to offer? Ten shirts for ten dollars? All "leather" jackets come with a free barrel of oil? Buy a hat and get Steve or Barry's first-born free?

(Via MSC, and a preemptive update: Steve and Barry's is screwed.)

Over Wisconsin. WolverineHistorian has compiled the 1998 Wisconsin game:

You write about sports for a living. You've obviously made some serious mistakes in life. Varsity Blue is prompted to reflect on what Kevin Grady's punishment will be for blowing Ken-yon Rambo's GPA (oh ten-year-old irrelevant-diss snap!) by yet another cranky sports guy calling for a beheading:

The proposals range from doing nothing (as Ohio State fans think will happen, for some reason), to kicking Grady off the team. Jeff Chaney, a columnist for the Grand Rapids Press, said today on the radio that he thinks the latter is the most appropriate and likely outcome. Naturally, I disagree.




The logic Chaney followed was this: Grady is a third-teamer, and therefore must serve as an example to the rest of the team.

Attention, sports columnists of Michigan: there are options between doing nothing and kicking a guy off the team. If you were judged so harshly for the times in your life you did something incredibly stupid, parts of your anatomy would be speeding past Mars at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

There will no doubt be similar caterwauling from men of Chaney's ilk when Grady is not booted, but wouldn't Michigan be better off with an open scholarship than a disappointing running back who'll probably be third-string at best this fall? Michigan has five other running backs, all of whom have either shown better on the field or fit better in the offense. Grady is unlikely to contribute at all; keeping on the team is an act of mercy.

Shades of gray exist, people!

Look, see? Chengelis provides some shades of gray in her piece.

Etc.: Got $5 million burning a hole in your pocket? Want a tower? In the diaries, GSimmons says Michigan will be impervious to weather and Dex explores the wonders of Kevin Grady's Big Adventure. Worth it just for the special guest star's fake name. Also: do you have a widescreen monitor? Embiggen your MGoExperience here.

Comments

jason

July 10th, 2008 at 4:31 PM ^

Ten-year-old irrelevant-diss snaps only work when they tab the correct Buckeye honor student. Rambo was no scholar, but it was Germany that was booted from that team for grades.

JeremyB

July 10th, 2008 at 4:36 PM ^

What is the difference between "popular" and "hot?" When I was 14 they meant similar things but it appears they're mutually exclusive now.

hat

July 10th, 2008 at 4:42 PM ^

'98 Wisconsin is an underrated big win. That was UW's only loss of the year. We turned in a great all-around performance that day. The clip of Shea blocking three players at once never gets old. We even made what looked like a 50-yard FG.

jrbulls

July 10th, 2008 at 5:50 PM ^

I say to-may-to, to-mah-to... Any OSU player fits... And yes, I STILL hate Katzenmoyer... Bust---hahahahahaha!!!!! The big cat was a big flop....

Jim Harbaugh S…

July 10th, 2008 at 5:55 PM ^

Reggie Germany had a 0.00 GPA Rambo's was also shit. Rambo was a very solid reciever back in the day, in Madden he was like a 62 but was awesome at kick returns. Rambo is probably the only Buckeye I've ever rooted for.

The Barking Sp…

July 10th, 2008 at 6:03 PM ^

Guys, I have it on good information (my own inside soures) that the optimism meter regarding Craig Roh is spiking. By inside sources, I mean Scout.

mooseman

July 10th, 2008 at 6:07 PM ^

Thanks Brian. I don't know if it was a bug or that I am a computard (or is it internetard?), but I was finally able to log on. Re: Wisco game. Thomas looked to have better wheels than I remember. Not electron, just better than I remember.

The Barking Sp…

July 10th, 2008 at 6:17 PM ^

Now that we are waxing nostalgic, 1998 and 1999 are two more seasons that Ol Llody screwed the pooch. Alot, and I mean A-LOT of talent there, and well, I guess an Orange Bowl victory to show for it all. Blah.

hat

July 10th, 2008 at 6:31 PM ^

Ah, the good ol' '98 team. I'll never forget that scintillating four-game stretch in the middle of the season when we scored 12, 12, 21 and 15 points against four unranked opponents. But we won 'em all! Good times.

Huss

July 10th, 2008 at 9:29 PM ^

Has posted a response to the "Farmer Cut" post below, referring to Brian as a 'coward' and a 'liar' It is chalk-full of excellently bad writing. Give it a looksie.

Ninja Football

July 11th, 2008 at 1:02 AM ^

Oh.My.God. I have found my new favorite word, and it is "Dreadmullet". That's what one of the commenters over at rollbamaroll called Brian, and I for one think it's amazing. Go ahead, say it with me........Dreadmullet......DreeaaaaadMULLET. Awesome. Nice to see the mental gymnastics those guys are doing to justify the loss of yet another player.

The Barking Sp…

July 11th, 2008 at 10:45 AM ^

I gotta believe that right about now RR is wondering "What the hell ever happened to the Honeymoon?". It's apparent that the petulant, hypocrittical SE Michigan media has no intention of working with any wiggle room here as far as the new coach is concerned. It probably seems pretty friggin' weird to him. He hasn't been sequestered in Michigan for thirteen years (most notable the last seven), so his head isn't buried in the sand regarding the absolute shit that has been Michigan football for awhile now. He's probably been watching what has happened and tought, man times, "Oh Gourd, don't let that happen to my teams. If it did, I'd be run out of town, or maybe I'd quit because my pride would keep me from wanting to be an embarrassment to a university that I love, and an entire state" So he takes the job because he sees the potential for a hall of fame career, and he is quickly relegated Antichrist status in WVU. Gets to Michigan, and it's FUCKING WORSE!!! Seriously, the guy should be treated as someone who can deliver the promise that this program has held for forty years (if only because he has had great success and hasn't blundered repeatedly here yet). I mean, he's watched Lloyd treat the media like scum for years on national television, now these wretches treat Lloyd like a saint and act as if Rodriguez has been the one insulting them all these years. As for "playing the modern game" of coaching choices and recruits, someone please tell the Michigan media that RR stayed at WVU for seven years, built them up from scratch, and since his departure, WVU has been shown to be a school of liars, rumor mongereres, and a place where the bullshit starts at the top (fake degrees anyone?) and moves down. Maybe, just maybe, Rodriguez sensed not just a non committment to football and athletics, but also an aura of corrosive cronyism and corruption.

 And regarding the "types" of kids he goes after: The most recent stat I can find comparing graduation rates had Rodriguez graduating 65% of his players compared to Lloyd's 63%. Take THAT!

 Oh but for a chance to position themselves on the high horse of moral hypocrisy does the Detroit Media turn its attention away from the flailing backwater politics and power hungry weight tossing at WVU toward inventing all sorts of reasons to take a stance that is neither defensible, nor attackable. They have positioned themselves right square at the epicenter of that vague area between "I told you so" and "I remain unconvinced that I was wrong at first" no matter how this turns out.

BlueTimesTwo

July 11th, 2008 at 11:18 AM ^

Thanks TBS. That is a spot-on description of the situation. I really don't understand all of the hatred towards RR, other than that people in Michigan seem to hate him because he is a guy from WV coaching at Michigan (not a "Michigan Man"), and the WV people hate him because he is a WV guy that is not coaching in WV ("un of them thar traytors")

I guess that will teach him.  The nerve of the guy - trying to try to reach the pinnacle of his chosen profession. I think people just like to see high profile failures because it justifies their refusal to try to achieve anything in their own lives. I hope he grinds the competition into the dirt for doubting him and doubting the team.