Meta: Changes with mgoblog as we head into season?

Submitted by StephenRKass on

At first, I was going to put this in the OT thread, but my interest is meta, not ot. I have two questions:

  1. What changes are coming to the board with the beginning of the season?
  2. What changes would you like to see come to the board going forward?

I'm wondering if there will be any server tweaks to accomodate increased traffic. Is there any redesign of the banner and the board layout planned? Will speed increase? Will the feature to page down the mgoboard finally come back? (I know there are ways around this, but it still doesn't work right.) What should we expect from Brian, Seth, Ace, and others in terms of content? I like some of what Seth writes (about understanding formations, etc.), and would love to hear more from coaching types about what is going on (Magnus, Space Coyote, Steve Sharik come to mind. It is possible that Sten Carlson and Brown Bear might know something about football?)

Those questions have to do with what plans Brian et al are ready to put in place. Of less importance but still interesting would be to know how much traffic the board gets, how the business plan is working, etc.

Mgoblog continues to be my favorite blog, period. I don't post or comment as often as I used to, and am glad to see younger and newer members (I'm thinking of you, WD) post often.

As for changes going forward, well, I'm actually pretty happy. Adding in the ability to upvote and downvote was a plus, simply to allow the commentariat the ability to help in moderating posts that are out of line. I suppose I would like an Android App for my Samsung, but that's about it. It is hard work to maintain a website like this, and I think that Brian and crew are doing a great job with it.

Wisconsin Wolverine

August 19th, 2014 at 12:14 PM ^

If possible (on top of, oh, everything else you guys already do), it might be neat to have some more crossover/perspective from other Big Ten blogs, a la the relationship we have with 11 warriors.  I know mgoblog is a Michigan blog first & foremost, but I get a kick out of the conference comeraderie & the idea of mgoblog as a go-to source in broader sports media.  I know, I know, I'm being Dave Branding - er, Dave Brandon.  Really though, everything is great as-is.

wile_e8

August 19th, 2014 at 11:35 AM ^

Hasn't Brian been promising an upgrade to a newer version of Drupal for like forever? One that has a mobile website module with it? Seems like it's getting kinda late in the offseason for an upgrade like that.

Space Coyote

August 19th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^

Less talk about Al Borges, more talk about Michigan football. Though I fear the whirlwind will just transfer to Funk and we'll be in many ways back where we began.

Wolverine In Exile

August 19th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^

I'm hoping Brian returns to more of the substantive content on Michigan football and hockey in his personal recaps instead of the extended Smiths album prologues we've seen in recent years. I miss having the analysis not bogged down in personal tales of woe. I've got Grantland for that :(

Wolverine In Exile

August 19th, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^

It's the game write-ups that tended to start falling into self parody of "why does this team suck at the things I think they should do, also my hot dog was less than stellar sitting next to a pottery consultant from Cheboygan who shouldn't be at the games". Overall I'm happy, just would like, let's say, 17% less self-loathing.

Alton

August 19th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^

This site's authors do a good job of producing both "news" and "opinion" pieces, and of keeping a good balance between the two.  I would find it much harder to enjoy an analysis-only site, or an opinion-only site.

A huge part of having a sports team to root for is the actual experience of rooting for that team, going to the games, and having emotional reactions to those games.  I enjoy reading Mr. Cook's emotional experience of the games and comparing it with my own, just as I enjoy reading his analysis of the games themselves, and comparing that with my own.

Adam Schnepp

August 19th, 2014 at 8:55 PM ^

BiSB is right. My name may not be MGoBlueline anymore but I still plan on writing about hockey. This year it'll have to wait until football season's over, but the content will be there eventually.

aiglick

August 19th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^

There's a guy that has a bug move around in his avatar photo. I don't remember his name unfortunately but if you're out there maybe you could help Don out?

mGrowOld

August 19th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^

I would like to see the links to other blogs updated.  Bucknuts & RCMP for example. two of the biggest sites for our rivals are not represented and I think one of the Notre Dame sites doesnt even exist anymore and the other hasnt updated content in almost a year.  I love visiting the other sites when things are going wrong for them (like last Friday and then today for example) and it would be nice to have access to the bigger ones directly.

I agree with Magnus that the site has been MUCH better since voting returned.

I agree with Timmmay that losing BB wasnt' much of a loss.

I agree (somewhat) with Space about the whole Borges/Funk issue although I will say if the blocking starts the season horrible and ends the same way you've got to somewhat expect the fallout.

biakabutuka ex…

August 19th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^

I would love to see this site move to Drupal 7, as the interface has kind of run its course. Or, it would be really neat to see Brian leverage his stature in the blogging scene to start an open source sports blog project based on Reddit's open source codebase or something. I mention it in part because he once singled that out as a commenting system he likes. I imagine that a lot of coders that wouldn't necessarily donate their money would donate their time to making this the best sports site on the Internet if this site went open source.

On the other hand, this is already a great site, so rocking the boat is a gamble.

umfan323

August 19th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^

On game day I hope to be able to get in and comment, who moderates those things ?? Seems like I never get allowed in