Goodbye: umbig11
For those of you that missed it in the "Weekend" Michigan Family thread, umbig11 will be leaving the board to work for Rivals. Congrats on the new position, your inside knowledge and willingness to interact with the board will be missed.
January 23rd, 2017 at 9:53 AM ^
January 23rd, 2017 at 9:55 AM ^
I think we need a kickstarter for site upgrades.
January 23rd, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^
to commence in 3....2....1....
(not that I disagree with you, WD...just fully expecting a bunch of "this site is free, what do you expect?" and offers to help you find the Beveled Guilt button.)
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
Kickstarter won't help. Money isn't the problem. There are hobby sites running on spare change with better functionality and design than this site.
Brian doesn't want to change the site. I'm sure he has his reasons, though I can't think of any good ones. He is leaving himself wide open to competition.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:11 AM ^
like the plight of us Lions fans.
#StopBuyingTicketsYouSycophants
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^
Based on your name, you would understand.
January 23rd, 2017 at 1:46 PM ^
potatoes.
January 23rd, 2017 at 1:51 PM ^
It's not your wife's fault that she looks like that.
January 23rd, 2017 at 4:21 PM ^
Only in Ann Arbor would fans bitch about site design on the most imformative free single team-oriented site in college football.
The info here is free and it's the best deal any college football fan in the country has. Bitching about the navigation or format really comes off as quite immature.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
What competition? Is there a site out there with better writing and coverage? You would leave this site because of a few site failures when things gets busy?
What functionality are you talking about? You want this set up like Reddit? RCMB? 11 Warriors? What kind of functionality and layout issues are people complaining about? The only complaint I have is not always getting on when big news breaks.
I'm asking seriously, not trying to sound like a douche.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^
There is that thing where you can't get to the 2nd page of posts. It's difficult to bump a thread unless you personally posted in it and have it in your history. Replies to posts fall somewhere in the middle of a 300 post thread. New posts and replies are not consecutive. Breaking news ends up being posted as a new thread instead of being posted in the existing thread.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:36 AM ^
That would be nice to have fixed. I'm here a lot during the day though so I don't usually miss stuff falling off the front page.
As far as layout goes, though. I think this is set up pretty nice. Real easy to get where you're going. I just don't see the crashes and the glitch on the second page of the board as reasons to "find another place" or think competition will win out. I hate the Reddit and RCMB set ups. I'm sure once I got used to it it'd be fine but I love the layout of this site just as it is.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
The content is great. We've been around long enough to navigate just fine. And, unlike WD (who seems pretty big for his britches these days), if a thread gets buried to a depth I can no longer get to it, I really don't need the last word badly enough to get upset about it.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^
Even halfway down the board bar those topics are old enough where there's not much action going on in them anyway. It is very rare I ever have to go to the second page of the board. Once a board post hits 2 - 3 hours old it's pretty much a dead thread.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
Some threads don't deserve a quick death, and we have no means to keep threads on page 1. What tends to happen is multiple threads on the same topic and then a lot of snark.
Over the last year or so, and the lack of a solid upgrade, I've wondered if Brian is planning to stay here long term. I for one would miss his content.
January 23rd, 2017 at 3:04 PM ^
Is that the case, though? Every thread about Frey from Friday fell off the front page by Sunday. That does not mean that it isn't still a topic worthy of discussion or interesting to those who missed the initial burst of news... it just happened to be buried by recruiting and basketball/hockey stuff. Do we need a new Tom Brady thread every week in the playoffs? No, we could just have one and let people bump it as needed. It's unseemly .
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^
Right click on the arrows and open in a new tab. It will work, even if it is an annoyance.
January 23rd, 2017 at 1:32 PM ^
It's definitely an annoyance, especially when looking for a thread that's a few days old. I'll never leave this site because of the writing/analysis and community, but that's something that should be fixed.
January 23rd, 2017 at 3:10 PM ^
I mean, let's be honest here... even the community has kind of suffered over the years. A lot of high quality posters have been gone since the RichRod days and while a few have filled the gap there is also a lot of stuff that used to be well below MGoBlog's standards. The frontpage stuff has waxed and waned, but this is less Brian Cook's blog than it has ever been and for a lot of us old timers that was the appeal of the place.
I keep coming back because Michigan sports is a passion and the alternatives all suck, but I haven't been in love with MGoBlog (coaching search aside) as a resource, a community or a website in about 5 years.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:47 PM ^
The entire message board needs a major overall. Not being able to go back to the second page and beyond has been an issue for years, and the commenting structure is woefully outdated. Even the message board on the app is better because (as I accidentally discovered recently) it allows you to collapse threads.
Its impossible to read a thread sometimes when replies to a single comment turn into an inside joke derails the entire thing. If you could collapse that one comment, it would be a huge improvement.
But alas, we're stuck with an old ass message board. Its far and away the thing that drives the most income for Brian, and its far and away the worst part about the site.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
There is no better free site for content. Even Rivals and 247 don't have actual stories that are better than here. There are a few free sites that have soild free "inside information" though.
I guess the point is that a good unemployes Michigan fan writer could start a competitor to MGo tomorrow and start taking away views & clicks.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:38 AM ^
Let's add a layer here... depending on your personal taste, this site has the best 2 or 3 writers who regularly deal with M football. One might argue for Wojo for the rare occasion he sets aside Silly Wojo for Smarter Wojo, a persona who's genuinely perceptive and interesting. There may be a little free content out there that doesn't exist here, but not a lot and not for long. UMBIG11 is a loss (congrats sir!) and Sam's landing place is consequential. In the end though, unless Jon Chait or Frank Deford want to do a piece on M football, this is the best there
The content makes this better than the pay sites. A new free site with much better architecture could easily spring up. Replacing the culture here would be harder. Replacing the content would be much harder.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^
frank deford is up there with mitch albom and rick reilly in terms of guys so in love with their own writing that it is unreadable. frank hasn't been good in years. sanctimonious tripe is all he is good for these days.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^
Has earned his incredible ego. Albom was once a good sports writer, Reilly has never been more than a sanctimonious(sorry for taking your word) troll. Cheers and Go Blue.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
Jon Chait is a total asshole. Way to aggrandize him.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
Most of the better "coverage" hangs out for a month or so to build a following, then bolts for the nearest pay site. TomVH, UmBig, Aquaman and a few others all did it and you can't blame them really, it's better to be paid after all. Some folks come for the mathematical breakdown, some come for insider info and some come for both. A good insider type would do the site good
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:45 AM ^
I don't think anyone would argue there's better content anywhere, and most people aren't even asking for any new functionality.
Fixing obvious bugs seems like a fair request (site crashing at any moderate spike in traffic, arrow/page buttons not working, etc.).
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:14 AM ^
What is the major complaint about the site? I know during times of high traffic, the site crashes, but this would be a server issue right? The other issue I've heard of is adding a video or picture in a board OP. Is there other things I'm missing?
It may be I just don't like change, but the site seems nicely layed out and I can find things easily. Just wondering what the major complaints are about upgrades. Thanks.
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
What is the major complaint about the site? I know during times of high traffic, the site crashes, but this would be a server issue right?
1) The crashes
2) Inability to get switching pages to work correctly in sidebar
3) Board interface is horribly klunky
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
I understand now. Issues are what I've seen and the main complaints are about how the site works and not changes to the layout etc. I agree, I have issues when I try to hit the next page for the board and the links change to the diaries. I'd like that fixed.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
Honestly. the issues with the site are not that big of a deal to me. The occassional crashes, and message board issues are not a huge problem. The positives here far outweigh the negative stuff.
January 23rd, 2017 at 3:09 PM ^
too. My issues have been small. Only the issue with not being able to get to the second page of the board has really bothered me, and that's just because there are days (gasp) where I can't get on, so I miss some of the things that happen here.
The site with the 502 errors (or whatever they are) when there is too much traffic for some big issue are probably more of a blessing than anything, asI imagine throusands of people trying to get on to make their snowflake post. I can imagine Brian using it as its own filter. Yeah he loses some clicks, but he is probably avoiding huge headaches in moderation.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
the site comes up occasionally when i try to access via iphone 6S. mostly no.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
January 23rd, 2017 at 2:05 PM ^
and particularly in product development (which is most relevant here), is the exact opposite: "perfect is the enemy of good." or as I like to qualify "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough." Because you should strive for better but only when the benefits outweigh the costs.
Would it be nice to have these improvements? Absolutely. Does the blog budget support upgrades/changes? Dunno. Would a change cause confusion and a decline in usership? Dunno. These are things for Brian to answer, but the value here is the content, particularly Brian's prose. If he's spending too much to make the site perfect and doesn't leave himself with enough to support providing content, there is no site. In which case, perfect would be the enemy of the good. Trust that he's making the right decisions for the blog.
EDIT: But, any good product developer/manager needs input from users to know what changes to consider and to weigh the costs and benefits so I'm sure he does appreciate the complaints/feedback on some level.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:09 AM ^
You all saw what happened when people demanded change at the end of the Lloyd Carr era. 40 years of winning and then what? Change is bad.
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^
Moron.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
January 23rd, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
Brian's reason is simple and obvious: He's a highly arrogant individual.
January 23rd, 2017 at 5:11 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 23rd, 2017 at 6:17 PM ^
53 up.
O down.
Bigly unanimous.
January 23rd, 2017 at 6:19 PM ^
What are you trying to say?
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 23rd, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^
The advertisers are paying for my eyeballs.
January 23rd, 2017 at 11:52 AM ^
I find this idea that "I'm a valuable customer" because there are a few ads on the site is a little heavy handed. There are no click throughs or any annoying methods of making me look. It's about the least obtrusive free content on the webz.
January 23rd, 2017 at 3:24 PM ^
barely 50% of the front page (or this board page I'm reading) actually has any content.
The rest are a top banner ad, a top center mini banner ad, 2 big sidebar ads, and wasted blank space because the site is so archaically designed.
There's a lot of ad crap that the advertisers are paying for & that I'm wading though.
I'ts hardly a hardship, but with laughingly predictable crashes it's an obvious symptom of technical neglect.
I'd tell you about how much I enjoy this site, it's authored content, it's users, and that I'd hate to see people leave for greener pastures, the site fail, etc. But whenever people do that we just get called "concern trolls".