META: Add "Latest Posts" Widget at Bottom of Left Column
Many blogs have a "Latest Posts" widget in one of the sidebars. All it does is show the last "X" number of posts (often 5) on the front page, with titles only. Often I get lost in the weeds in the MGoBoard area of the site and dont realize new front page material has been posted.
Would it be possible to add this widget to the left sidebar, even if at the very bottom below "Links of Note"? This way when I am buried in various MGoBoard content or Diaries we can quickly see with a glance on the sidebar that new content has been posted to the front page.
It would also make for quicker navigation - currently if I am in a MGoBoard or Diary page I have to click back to the home page to see the list of new front page stories and then click on the actual headline to read the full post. By having this widget I could navigate directly to the newly posted front page content.
January 7th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
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January 7th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 7th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
...but I wouldn't lose the simplicity. Just a face lift with a few needed features.
Points should also mean something. I'd love to see posts minimized if the post gets -10 and automatically deleted if it gets -25 or worse.
Also have to figure out a better way to organize the MGoBoard.
Regardless, it's still the best M-related site out there.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
I am usually out of the loop on these discussions, but there are some long-promised upgrades supposedly still in the works, at least at last report. Not sure specifically what the delay is, but I believe they were meant to address some of the organizational issues that people have been pointing out.
As for alum96's point, it would be nice to have the "Recent" or "Hot" tabs include the front page discussions, but the content categories are distinctly different, I believe. I am by no means the expert, but I wonder if the tab can be reprogrammed to include listings from multiple content categories.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:20 PM ^
Yes the most recent tab could incude all 3 major parts of the site (Mgoboard, diaries, and front page) but the other 2 parts (Mgoboard and diaires) have an "open tree" so I can see the titles always on every part of the site. The front page content is invisible. Hence why I mentioned using the widged that shows the most recent posts for front page.
A widget that included all 3 would be fine too but most sites are centered around the front page content and easily seeing when it is refreshed. It's a 10 second "upgrade" - this widget is a standard thing on most blogs and a quick copy and paste coding job if it's just front page content.
January 7th, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^
Does MGOBLOG use a web dev company? If not, do you know who does these "upgrades"?
I'd love to see Brian open up a development budget plan and let us determine if a donation we make goes to that or the general fund. I see a lot of people complain about the servers plus other features, like the point system, etc. It'd be cool to have a transparent budget just for the site updates.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
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January 7th, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^
January 7th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
that made the engineer run away screaming.
January 7th, 2015 at 6:58 PM ^
I actually did have to make sure she did not see anything that I would get in trouble for. This was a while ago, and it seems the Blog was tamer in terms of NSFW stuff.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:26 PM ^
Politely disagree. The problem IMO is that the downvotes don't "count" on created threads and therefore have no real meaning to the poster. If they counted then a negbang post say from whatever the latest screen name is for poopboy would truly penalize him. As it is now people can post ridiculous threads and as long as they stay away from commenting inside it - they're safe.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^
Agree 100% with this. The mindset sometimes feels like -
SIAP: but here's this link to a tweet which was posted 2 hours ago but I'm too lazy to look it up
OT: here's my snowflake wall of text about something that has been discussed to death
If this were a few weeks ago I would have included -
CC: what impact will Harbaugh have on recruiting since I missed the other 500 threads in the last 3 weeks
CC: I'm watching this football game and this team did something semi-good so I have checked Wikipedia for their head coach and would like to present him to the board
I would love to be able to downvote each one of these as many times as I want. Seriously. Would anyone else have the desire to neg the above posters three or four hundred times?
January 7th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
The MGoBlog HD app has an option to get push notifications to your phone when there's a new front page post if that helps.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:18 PM ^
it and it is most awesome
January 7th, 2015 at 12:52 PM ^
Android user, so...last I heard no HD version for us folk. I actually stopped using the MGoBlog app on my phone because it wouldn't let me post anything.
If I tried to post it would shut down the app. I took it personally for a while, but then heard other people were experiencing the same problem.
January 7th, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^
You mean like the "Recent Posts" link near the top of the left sidebar?
January 7th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^
Nope, because that is not an "open tree" - not sure how to word it. It needs to be something where you dont have to click on something to display the new stories.
If i have to click on something to get to a NEW page that shows me the new stories I can just go click on the banner and go to the home page.
A widget shows the titles of the latest 5 stories so you can directly click on it from any spot on the website and it takes you to the content. The recent posts link is another link you have to click thru to see content displayed. If I am in another part of the site I can't tell when something new has been posted via the "recent posts" hyperlink, it is a constant, not dynamic like a widge would be.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ^
Leave it alone. Yes, it looks outdated, but it works well for the most part.
Don't be a Dave Brandon and break what isn't already broken.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^
January 7th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^
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January 7th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
that would just lead to more tit-for-tat. There are few things I hate more on a thread than a endless two-person argument. If you care that much about what someone says about your post, there are already ways to do this. I hope we don't make it even easier.
January 7th, 2015 at 1:38 PM ^
So am I tit or am I tat?
January 7th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
obviously
January 7th, 2015 at 8:16 PM ^
I guess you missed the NSFW avatar rants yesterday... apparently there are some in here who object to tits during working hours.
/s
January 7th, 2015 at 12:26 PM ^
if I understand the complaint, it is too inconvenient for us to navigate back to the front page to see if there is new front page material--because we are elsewhere engaged on the site. I say this somewhat teasingly, but also a bit seriously---doesn't this complaint suggest some here might be spending a little too much time on the site? I come here often enough, but have never felt I needed a "breaking news" bar on each and every page.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:30 PM ^
All you have to do is scroll all the way to the top and click the MGOBLOG banner and it will take you to the front page.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:34 PM ^
MOAR UPGRADZ!!!
January 7th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
I actually like the layout a bit - it's like a really nice Geocities site, with fewer gifs and midi files.
But yeah, a bit of an upgrade would be nice, but not too much. You go to a bunch of sites and they are almost unusable esp. with comments *glares at Gawker*
January 7th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
Isn't this the widget we already have on the middle right column?
January 7th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
SEARCHBITS JUST POPPED UP ON MY HD APP GOT TO RUN!!!
HAHAHA I DON'T NEED NO STINKING WIDGETS!!!
January 7th, 2015 at 2:07 PM ^
January 7th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^
What I want is a new post tie in to the severe weather warning system in my area. That way, even if I am not near a computer or phone, I will know that something great has been added to the board and I can immediately go read it.
January 7th, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^
then everyone knows and can spread the word that a new searchbits was posted.
January 7th, 2015 at 7:22 PM ^
January 7th, 2015 at 8:14 PM ^
I'm not sure what the problem is. Are you saying an extra mouse click of the banner is inconvenient? This site "works" because it is simple. This site works because it is fast, because it is simple. By way of comparison, Facebook used to be that way back in the day when you had to have a *.edu email to join. Now FB is just a jumbled-up collection of schizophrenic formats, widgets, timelines, feeds, and other shit to pollute the get-on-and-get-off-and-continue-with-life experience.
January 7th, 2015 at 10:53 PM ^