Can we get an actual moderator for this board?
Someone who is on the board a couple times a day to clean up the opposing fan garbage, where there’s a Discord channel to hang out in so if the moderator needs to be notified of something they can be contacted / receive a push notification because this its almost the year two thousand and twenty and it’s not that hard to do this?
December 29th, 2019 at 8:15 AM ^
Insert "shut up you don't actually pay for this shit forum!"
Seriously though, are you running streams for any bowl games besides Michigan's?
December 29th, 2019 at 8:16 AM ^
If you use Twitter you can tweet at LSA or seth.
They also do pay attention to the mod action sticky.
December 29th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
It seems like 2 people moderating is not nearly enough.
December 31st, 2019 at 2:05 AM ^
Depends of the people.
Those two ones are killers. Bro. Killers.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:20 AM ^
The guys who are running this blog have a lot going on in their personal lives. The blog is what it is now and I don’t think a significant upgrade in performance/moderation of the blog is forthcoming. Peak MGoBlog was about 2009-2016. We still get solid, if uninspiring front page content and a place to chat. It is what it is. I think it will either be sold in the next few years or significantly modified to more of a podcast dominant format.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:49 AM ^
Concise and accurate summary of where this Blog is at and where it’s heading. The podcasts are pretty terrible and it’s hard to see how they can be improved enough to be the foundation for a sustainable business. Sad.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:21 AM ^
I love the podcasts but that last Teams one was a mess. The start of the interview with Messner was all over the place and it seemed like Seth and Sap hadn’t planned what they were going to talk about at all. Plus the audio was bad. These are things I think could be cleaned up though.
December 29th, 2019 at 10:17 AM ^
Part of the issue is that more and more interest is trending toward basketball and the podcasts really highlight how little they know about basketball. Appreciate the effort but their assessments of all things basketball are so frequently very wrong that it is impossible to take seriously. That, and Brian’s nihilism toward football has turned the football podcast into “yeah that happened but who really cares.”
December 29th, 2019 at 8:51 AM ^
You can't just sell the blog without the bloggers. Then it's just a domain name. Isn't Brian only in his early 40's? I mean, he could quit, and get an office job probably. It's not like he's going to make a few million selling this site.
I agree on the rest though. Although as much as people complain, name one other site that does anything like a UFR. We complain about not getting an OSU UFR, but if Brian leaves, it's highly unlikely anyone will be doing any UFRs. I don't frequent other football blogs, but probably not even that many do something as good as Neck Sharpies.
I don't have too many complaints about the blog. If Brian doesn't feel as passionate about things as he used to, I can't fault him for that. I just get annoyed by mgoboard stuff that seems easy to fix. But Seth has chimed in repeatedly that the front page content gets way more clicks (and some people refuse to believe it). They obviously just don't care much about the board working well or things would have been fixed a long time ago.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:08 AM ^
I tend to agree with your future assessment. Unfortunately, the whole ‘personal lives’ thing shouldn’t hold much water because this is the primary means of income for Brian and a few others. Sure, it might not actually be that, but I’ve seen nothing otherwise.
However, they’ve said several times that the message board gets a small fraction of the overall board traffic. So don’t expect any emphasis towards improving it.
Honestly, my belief is that Brian would prefer it to be better, but HUEL straight on fucked it up. To the point where it’s just too expensive to fix (which would essentially be a do-over).
December 29th, 2019 at 11:18 AM ^
HUEL built the basic structure and saved all of the behind the scenes stuff Brian needs to do UFRs and what not. They also put together a server that survives the traffic spikes this place gets. Aside from them absolutely screwing up the points, I'd say they've actually done what they were supposed to do. Yeah, the site is ugly, and was outdated the day it went live, but I'd imagine design decisions are on Brian.
The stuff that doesn't work, like notifications of new comments, page jumps not working right, and number of posts per page not saving weren't in their job description. I was reliably informed that Brian said he'd do all of it, but it required him to learn how to write the code for it. That hasn't happened, for whatever reason. At this point, I don't expect it to ever happen.
December 29th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
I just don’t get the infatuation with points. I think this is a large reason the board is complete shit. It’s impossibly bad on mobile, you see 2 comments on the entire screen, you have no chance of finding your post to see if anyone even responded, and yet once again, points are a complaint.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:40 AM ^
Yep. You can tell the guys in charge really don't care about the forum. It's just the place where their viewership can go and yell about things. They seem to be increasingly into the podcasts. The front page content is still somewhat the same as it's always been.
I wish they would let some of the older / more trust worthy users have some mod abilities, but I think Brian & Co. truly do not care enough about the board to lift their finger to put something like that in place
December 29th, 2019 at 10:22 AM ^
I agree with the podcast prediction. It’s way easier to just turn on a mic and talk then actually writing and editing thousands of words articles....just ask Bill Simmons.
December 29th, 2019 at 10:49 AM ^
Peak MGoBlog was 2006-2009. Then Rich Rod’s ultimate demise and all the negativity killed it.
December 29th, 2019 at 3:14 PM ^
I think we're all oversimplifying, but there's something to this. RichRod's fall was brutal for the writers of this blog, and having to get on board with Hoke exhausted them. When they did and he went 11-2, Brian wrote "Rows of Teeth" and away we were supposed to go. When it then fell apart exactly as he thought it would from the beginning, the combination of understanding that and knowing he had jumped on the bandwagon was a backbreaker.
Then 2016 Columbus happened. I mean 2006 to 2016... I think all of us had to put some walls up.
December 29th, 2019 at 1:34 PM ^
It seems like so many sport blogs are moving to podcast-focused organization, which I find unfortunate. I cannot speak for others, but podcasts have zero interest for me - as well as little practical importance. I've been coming to this site for almost 10 years now (almost 5 as a registered user) simply because if I have 5-10min to kill here and there I can read the FP content or check for interesting threads. I don't have time to listen to 30-60 minutes of discussion, which may only have 5 minutes of useful/interesting info.
December 30th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Please see the website bursar for a full refund.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:23 AM ^
Mlive’s Forum’s demise led to this.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:46 AM ^
^Exhibit A that no one gives a damn about trolls on here.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:55 AM ^
Your airing of grievances was pathetic.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:01 AM ^
Dude,
You're a troll
Even if you are a Michigan fan
December 29th, 2019 at 9:50 AM ^
Probably true. I loved the mlive forums back in the day. Very compact format to post and read. I only started posting here when mlive was shut down although I used to read the content here
December 29th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
I remember your username on mlive . It was quite entertaining and I liked the format. Favorite moment was when somehow posters got a hold of that Sparty troll, azfootballfan, work number and he was furious when everyone was calling it. eGrandma was a legend there
December 29th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
They ruined mlive too in 2014 when they got rid of the newsgroup format and replaced it with some form of this shitty one here.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:24 AM ^
Lack of moderation on the mgoboard may be the reason we have Jim Harbaugh.
If you consider the sequence of events that followed WD's post about his friend's aunt's cousin's dog's groomer's boyfriend's aunt who emailed with Dave Brandon and was told to find another team to support, it very well could be the case.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:47 AM ^
Did anyone see Wolverine Devotee’s friend's aunt's cousin's dog's groomer's boyfriend's aunt pass out last night at 31 Flavors? I guess it’s pretty serious.
December 29th, 2019 at 4:52 PM ^
A butterfly flapped its wings in one night in Macom...the rest is history.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:43 AM ^
The problem is that opposing fan garbage is often indistinguishable from Michigan “fan” garbage.
It’s a tough job, and I’m glad I don’t have it.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:49 AM ^
Are you saying you don't want the buckeye's to suck it 4X?
December 29th, 2019 at 8:56 AM ^
It’s a tough job? Yeah, give me a less stressful job than moderating a chat board. I think collecting welfare would be that “job”.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:32 AM ^
Are you also one of those people who complain constantly about ads and would balk at having to pay for site content? Because if so then I'm not sure there's much of a "paid" job in moderating a board largely infested with trolls and assholes.
December 29th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
Id gladly pay for mgoblog of 2012-2016. Now? Heck naw.
December 29th, 2019 at 2:43 PM ^
People complained endlessly about that version of the site as well. Nobody is ever happy around here.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:41 PM ^
I could give two shits about the ads on the site. But the site is a clown show.
December 29th, 2019 at 10:37 AM ^
Well, it is tough in one rather important regard, and it is largely why I only do the moderating thing sporadically now, and that is because it is psychologically draining and sometimes makes it, well, less than fun to cheer for Michigan athletics, especially when you know what a loss looks like on a message board. It's a lot to go through when you aren't paid to do it - I'll put it that way.
December 29th, 2019 at 2:02 PM ^
LSA, you have my sincere sympathy, and the fact that I can only offer you my useless MGoPoints in reward for your long service is likely of no solace.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:56 AM ^
Sadly accurate.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:59 AM ^
Sadly yes. We have too many delusional fans here who love 3G/Valenti style hawt takes over Mike O’Hara style reasoned analysis.
Hell, over Christmas I spoke with some of my alum in laws who were bemoaning how we weren’t dominant like “in the old days”.
The problem is I knew them in “the old days” and they weren’t happy then either. “bo can’t win the big one!...”
December 29th, 2019 at 9:02 AM ^
Extreme BPONErs are almost just as annoying.
December 29th, 2019 at 12:05 PM ^
I’m no huge Valenti fan but comparing him to Henson is not accurate.
Valenti is a cynical bastard, but he usually has solid reasons to support his takes.
Henson is just a fucking asshole, which is why he’s gotten fired from approximately 400 radio gigs over the past 15 years.
December 29th, 2019 at 8:51 AM ^
Yes, this place is seriously in need of several new moderators, as it's obvious that the ones we have are part-time volunteers and are only on the board sporadically. Maybe it would be better moderated if they hired a full-time moderator to watch the peak daytime and game time activities and to coordinate coverage with the volunteer mods, but I doubt it ever happens.
Honestly, does Brian really care all that much about what goes on minute-to-minute on the board? He's much more concerned with giving us great front-page content, and rightfully so.
Someday when I retire I may volunteer to be a mod, but definitely not until I retire. Too much of a time commitment to try to keep up properly when sometimes (like the last few weeks) I'm only on the board minimally.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:27 AM ^
I nominate robf!
December 29th, 2019 at 9:38 AM ^
I know Brian has mentioned numerous times that the board traffic is a small part of the site overall, and he largely doesn't care about what goes on there because it's the same couple of people arguing the same couple of points.
The one feature that would help a good deal would be one that sends notifications to mods if a particular comment or article got negged into oblivion. That would let the community have some power to police itself while also helping to focus mod resources. Because some of the worst offenders aren't the original posts but some guy deep in a thread who just starts throwing out threats and racist rants and it isn't immediately obvious where to find them.
December 29th, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
It’s actually one guy arguing with himself over multiple burner accounts. None of us really exist.
December 29th, 2019 at 9:45 AM ^
I don't think you need an actual paid employee. If you gave 5-10 reasonably trustworthy users some modding ability, most stuff would get ironed out quickly even with a volunteer crew
Stuff like the ability to delete posts, mute users for a period, ban users? Wouldn't need much
December 29th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
This.
December 29th, 2019 at 10:21 PM ^
I’d be more than happy to see guys like xtramelanin, space coyote, dr mantis toboggan, magnus, and stephanjrking with a post delete button or even a banhammer. There are more but I think those three off the top of my head could do wonders. (Sorry to throw you All under the bus).