Board improvment suggestions
Thought this could be a pretty good thread. I would like to see a column added to the board that always shows who the op is as well as the most recent poster. My only other suggestion would be to add a mgboard button on the bottom of threads so that you don't have to scroll all the way to the top to return to an updated board. Any other ideas?
December 4th, 2009 at 10:42 AM ^
This is actually frowned upon in the web dev community. I really hate it when sites take control of my browser, and I vow never to write a site that does so.
You have your right-click, that's what it's there for. Even better, you can set up firefox to open a link in a new tab on middle click. I think internet exploder 7 & 8 do the same thing.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:56 AM ^
That should help improve the quality of posts! :P
December 4th, 2009 at 8:05 AM ^
a voucher for a free lap dance at a local gentlemens club?
December 4th, 2009 at 7:00 AM ^
I would like to know when someone rreplies to a comment of mine, like maybe the thread link in a different color or something. Just sayin'.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:03 AM ^
I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but it is how I get around it. Click on "My account" in the bar on the left. Then click track. That will show you all of the threads you have commented on. There will be a link with "x replies" that you can click that will take you to the newest comment in the thread. It won't necessarily show you who commented on your posts, but it will show you who commented in a thread you commented on, and you can go from there.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:50 AM ^
how will he know you gave him this advice?!
December 4th, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^
Luck?
December 4th, 2009 at 10:55 AM ^
Yeah, that works too, but I just go through the posts that I've commented on to check. thanks though.
December 4th, 2009 at 8:00 AM ^
just for reference, my favorite forum is at http://www.archinect.com/forum/ because it has a clean & simple design. admittedly, it's for architects & designers so it's probably not a surprised that it is well-designed visually.
the problems that i see here mostly a result of visual clutter. i'm not a fan of avatars. i also find some of the advertisement pictures to be especially unpleasant (e.g., shirtless men adertising muscle supplements).
as a general rule of thumb, i feel that pictures, colors, animations, etc should be limited on a forum because of the text heavy nature of the communication. also, for those of use who might be discretely logging on from the office, the pictures are more of an obvious giveaways to any bosses or clients that might be wandering past. keep the appearance text heavy and then someone would actually have to read it to deduce that your writing about last week's game instead of the CHAPS report that you're supposed to be working on.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:30 AM ^
A UM blog obviously needs a maize and blue theme, and that is done here. The ads aren't usually obtrusive to me, though one or two have been in the past. However, Brian puts in a lot of work here, and deserves to monetize his blog as he sees fit.
Back to those ads, didn't someone write once that the ads are sometimes different from user to user based on their cookies, account information, etc? Anyway, my screen is only showing three ads right now; that is not the least bit obtrusive to me.
December 4th, 2009 at 8:53 AM ^
I suggest updating the tracking. Sometimes I want to find an old post, but when I click on my posts, it doesn't show anything.
December 4th, 2009 at 8:58 AM ^
I love the range of ideas on M Go Blog, but I hate wasting time on posts that are self indulgent crap......embedded videos of action figure video games, dancing cats.....if it doesnt relate to Michigan sports, at least tangentially, I dont want to see it here.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:23 AM ^
..when there are more points than total characters
December 4th, 2009 at 1:21 PM ^
....I'd never have anything to post.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:24 AM ^
Especially if the poster puts "OT" in the title.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:35 AM ^
Only suggestion would have been to not allow a certain new member to start threads, but I see that has basically been taken care of.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:09 AM ^
As you get into long comment trees, it can be hard to figure out who a comment is replying to. It would be nice to have lines that you can follow to go back the the comment that was being responded to. Right now, I have to put my cursor on the left side of the comment, then scroll up until I hit the comment I was looking for.
That and/or collapsible comment trees so that we can get to comments at the bottom quicker.
Look here to see what I mean:
http://www.dailytech.com/Champion+Gran+Turismo+Gamer+Becomes+Realworld+…
December 4th, 2009 at 10:16 AM ^
less kittens. I now equate kittens with bad news
December 4th, 2009 at 10:18 AM ^
How about a mobile site? This site is impossible to get on while I'm in class.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:31 AM ^
I wonder how many people view this site on mobile devices. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but I would really like a version tweaked for mobile browsing.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:32 AM ^
...too often I see comments getting negged simply for having a differing opinion. I'd like to see that stop. Some of the newer members are taking things waaaay to personal and overlooking one of the key reasons we blog: opinions - different or no.
There are also a lot of power hungry people who take mgopoints as if they are Chucky Cheese tickets and if they get 1000 they can trade them in for a goddamn slinky, so they post simply to gain points with disregard to the quality of the post.
While there isn't a perfect way I would suggest this:
A. Don't give a point for merely posting a comment. This will cut back on the senseless chatter from posters who are just posting to build up their mgopoints or to get out of the negative.
B. Award 5 points (rather than two) for a plus vote on a comment. This will encourage "good, intuitive, thoughtful and humorous" comments and cut back on the waste. If you're in the negative and looking to get out - simply make good comments or threads. You'll be out in no time.
C. Make it cost one point to neg someone, but it will take 2 points off total. This is the only proposal I'm hesitant to suggest but I believe it will cut back on people who neg others for simply having a different opinion, which IMO is frustrating. How many have you have looked at a post and thought "Why was that negged?" The worst trolls will be neg-banged to oblivion anyways, that's the way it should be.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?
December 4th, 2009 at 11:02 AM ^
You've got some really good points here, so naturally someone is gonna ding you for them.
However, I will mention that (c) is something I've seen Brian allude to here in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if it were a football offseason addition to the MGoBoard.
My suggestions: Bring back TomHagan and King of Belch. Their absurdity always brightened my day. Of course, it may be that one of those two is the current poster currently going position by position trying to determine depth charts for 2010. You know, the one who has lost over 1200 points in the last 12 hours.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:23 PM ^
I agree with you on all of your points. Although KOB and TomHagan could be annoying, it is always good to have a different opinion. The problem comes when the Mgoridicule gets to the point where they have a melt down and all goes to hell.
The one point from above I have a problem with is taking away the point for posting. I think that would make sense once someone got above the 20 point threshold. I think the current system sets the bar low enough that it is easy to get new posters. If we had a system that made it more difficult for new posters to become a "trusted poster" I think it would lead to a situation where it would be difficult to expand the community. Although I may be in the minority, I think making the mgoboard more inclusive would lead to more opinions and better discourse.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:30 PM ^
Twenty is too low. While we don't want to discourage new members who have something legitimate to say from creating threads and diaries, if k06em01 wished to make a return with a new name it would take him all of a few hours to amass a sizable amount of mgopoints. I don't necessarily think we need to create a trusted poster tag, because those of us who have been around for a few years know who is trustworthy, and I think all of us can distinguish the cream from the trolls. I think increasing the point threshold, or perhaps coming up with an arbitrary length of time which one has to be a member before given the ability to create content would be good ideas.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:42 AM ^
These are good suggestions. I really like A and C, I think getting a point just for a comment rewards, well, just commenting. Not much else. Also, if someone really dislikes something enough to negbang it, he should be willing to donate a point to do so. I have commented before (whilst getting negbanged) that people are too promiscuous about neg and posbanging.
But I dont get B. It seems that awarding 5 points per posbang will foster a lot of clutter, undoing some of A's good work. People will post more pictures, animation, and videos just to get the easy points. Plus, points will go through the roof and become less meaningful. It means a lot now if someone goes into the red, and it should. It is a good communication device. We know that person has been up to no good. Getting 5 pts per posbang will make an overall neg status too difficult to achieve, making bad habits more, um, habitual. What am I missing in B?
December 4th, 2009 at 1:15 PM ^
...that 5 points for a posbang will make up for the lack of points for a single comment. The majority of posters have insightful comments, but there is some excess that is the result of simply commenting for the sake of building points as discussed earlier.
I still think that you should get mgopoints for commenting, it will just have to be, well, good. Points will be rewarded for being "good" - points that don't contribute won't. Simple as that.
Basically, it will dissuade purposeless comments and reward good comments. Is 5 too much? Maybe, but if there are no points for simply commenting, the good ones have to have a way to be made up in points since they aren't getting one for merely posting.
Then again, its just an idea.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:50 PM ^
I really don't think that solution would solve the problem you think it would. I think most of the "excess" comments are just people having fun, being obnoxious, relieving boredom or just posting to essentially hear their own voice. I don't think many people are posting just to increase their mgopoints once they get above 100. Maybe I'm wrong. I just think once you get above a level where you feel safe the points don't really matter unless you are getting hardcore neg-bombed.
That being said, maybe I'm really off on this point. I feel like the only way to cut down on the excess comments would be to enforce strict adherence to the exact topic at hand. I'm pretty sure the mod's wouldn't want that and the majority of the board probably wouldn't either.
Things aren't exactly perfect, but I think they are pretty good by internet message board standards. The only real problem is that there are too many neg-bangs for simply stating an unpopular opinion. I would advocate having negative votes costing the voter a point.
December 4th, 2009 at 2:02 PM ^
Just upvote those posts when you see them, it happens to everyone all the time.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:20 PM ^
How about breaking the board up by content? Basketball Section/ Hockey/ All things not M etc.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:26 PM ^
An embedded Alanis Morissette playlist and unicorn mouse pointer trails.