This website is really bad now. A post like this would have gotten 50 comments in 5 minutes 6 months ago. The traffic on here is about 10% of what it used to be. Go back to old format.
Absolutely agree. This site is going down and Brian is too stubborn to give a damn.
No one is stopping you from creating your own site to fix the failures of 3.0
The banner and the terrible layout of this site means the owner just doesn't care. IMO - it's crap. I mean who wants to write a blog for more than 10 years? It's an excuse. Low traffic leads to shutting down. Brian is probably done with this. I would be.
The men's soccer program in the USA is crap - always has been - why all the articles?
Where is the John B interview after the extension? Any football news except commits for 2 years from now?
So he invested a good $30,000, at least, in a new website so that he could intentionally depress website traffic, which would give him an excuse to retire from blogging and go on to live his life? Not to mention costing the jobs and livelihood of several staff members, at least one of whom has a family and a mortgage? Makes sense.
I've been involved with multiple single-owner companies that imploded from hubris.
Bad advise looks good in a tower.
Even you (et vos), Brutus, have to admit the traffic is way down.
I used to love this site, and now a barely visit.
I stopped visiting for a while there, but that was mainly due to cfbrisk. Now I'm back and annoyed, but back.
Somehow I suspect Brian cares very much. I’m sure he’s trying to work out a plan to make the user base happy. He doesn’t have an bottomless well of financial resources and doing quality software development takes time. I’m amazed he managed to get all the years of content and links working correctly. Give the team some time to work through the issues.
Agree, but would it kill him to post a front page, “state of the blog,” post explaining what the f*ck is going on? Maybe that’s going on in the sticky, but a front page Meta post would reach more readers.
yeah. lots of goodwill to brian but he's losing it like a car whose engine quit but is still coasting. one explanatory post on the front page, lay out some time tables, and many of us would probably help him push the car into the gas station. not my blog. not my business for which i need to make the decisions.
I've mentioned this a few times, but people tend to forget a couple things.
1. Brian loves his blog, works hard at it, and I generally think he writes some pretty damn good articles (mostly).
2. The amount of traffic on the message boards is a drop in the bucket when it comes to overall site traffic. It doesn't matter that you come her 20 times a day (or never let the tab close) or post 100 board posts a day. it is insignificant.
3. Brian doesn't give a shit about the message boards, or individual blog readers. He tolerates the boards, but is often annoyed and/or embarrassed by posts/posters, and likely consideres the message boards to be relatively unnecessary.
You can consider him an arrogant jerk because of it, or a a focused entrepreneur because of it. Your choice.
I tend to fall somewhere in between depending on my mood.
4. MGo3.0 isn't quite ready for prime time yet, and should be fixed asap. Based on the above points, i can only surmise that overall site traffic hasn't been negatively affected as of yet.
If you have any sort of emotional investment in this blog (and it's easy to do considering the passion we all have for Michigan sports) you are at risk of being labeled a "concern troll". I am unsure how or why constructive criticism has been labeled as such, bu there it is.
I rarely visit or post anymore due to family commitments(75%), my less than full throated enthusiasm for Harbaugh being considered "hating"(20%) , and the blog being difficult to use (5%)
Completely agree with you. Personally I think the reason nothing has been said about the issues we board posters are having is because the design of the new site is working perfectly. I believe this was a conscience decision designed to greatly reduce if not outright eliminate the side board.
Regarding point #3: I've suspected this, in fact I'm quite sure that he has a lot of resentment for the board, and I always assumed the only reason he's kept it going is for the traffic. I do wonder if it's worth their trouble though. He mentioned on a podcast that a national chain offered to buy the blog and he stated how disgusted he was that their primary interest was in how active the board was. I found that to be quite funny, actually. But honestly I think there is some good stuff to come about here, and that's why I continue to frequent it. It's a nice escape from the daily grind and generally gets me a lot of info I don't see elsewhere.
Totally agree - a state of the website would be appreciated. Generally people are understanding if they know what's happening.
One would think there are five alarms going off in MGoBlogville these days. I'm sure they're working like mad trying to resolve the bugs, but it does seem incredible that the overall appearance of the site survived the approval process and lived to see the light of day given the near-universal dislike of it. Didn't they even have users do beta testing? I love the blog and I'm sure traffic will pick up when the season starts but one would think its more important to Brian and staff than it is to us because this is their livelihood. I wish them good luck.
I don’t mind the new site overall, but the banner is indeed bad. Brian is a great, weird dude. I get and like that, so the current banner makes sense, but I feel it should be something more.....mature. I suppose that is the word I’m looking for.
For someone who is done with the site, you sure post a lot about it.
Posts like this didn't generate a ton of traffic before either.
You can’t polish a turd
Just eat some Life cereal. Mikey likes it.
You can polish a turd. You just have to bronze it first.
How/where are you watching it?
Canadian football is great as long as you’re not expecting regular football and those fans can drink and tailgate on par with anyone. I work a bit in the sports biz world and have thus ended up at a few CFL games and it’s always been a blast.
ESPN2
I don't mind Canadian foosball. If you can stomach MACtion or Sunbelt foosball, Canadian foosball will be just as entertaining if not moreso because of the wide open offenses.
I don’t stomach MACtion I bleed MACtion!
Thanks for the channel heads up, I just learned every CFL game is on an ESPN or ESPN+ this year. We should Draftaggeddon it.
The Fugitive wroteESPN 2You sure it's not ESPN8 ?
The Ocho
ESPN's summer programming isn't as good as The Ocho.
I'd watch Dodgeball over poker, video game competitions, cornhole, Spikeball, etc.
I’ve resorted to reading other blogs/sites. I’m tired of the bullshit.
which ones?
To be fair, it's really either Montreal / Calgary or "The Phantom Menace" on TNT - you're probably better off just going with the CFL and not getting upset with Jar Jar Binks all over again.
That's Sith Lord Jar Jar Binks.
Ps, how about the end of Solo?
Watch both with your second TV.
I've tried to find stats on Denard with the Roughriders. Why hasn't he played?
They acquired his rights but I don’t know if he actually signed with them. Denard was doing his youth camp in FL about a week ago.
I understand. Thank you! Good thing, I didn't buy tickets for their game on the 28th.
Canadian football is like Polish intercourse.
You mean as in "intercourse is almost always better than no intercourse"?
That’s a hole is half filled argument.
Worked for my Polish grandpa 8 times.
How does Croatian intercourse feel, Russia?
How many Pollochs does it take to screw a chick?
I'll show myself out.
I have no idea what "Polish Sex" refers to.
On the earlier game the score was something like 24-1. I’m not sure what the hell was going on.
I think you get a point if you punt the ball into the endzone and the receiving team isn't able to bring it out. Not sure if you get a safety for tackling the attempt to bring it out or 1 point, or if the one point is awarded when the receiving team chooses to take a knee to down it.
Canada has a Queen and for that I can never respect them
Canada does not have a Queen.
But they so celebrate birthdays of dead monarchs of other countries, or something like that.
Technically not, but Queen Elizabeth is considered to be somewhat of a figurehead there. Not that she holds any authority whatsoever
Umm. Check the currency.
Queen Elizabeth is definitely the Monarch of Canada.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/53036/10-things-queen-england-still-does-canada
Queen Elizabeth is not the “Queen of Canada”. The old vestiges of colonial rule are almost entirely symbolic.