MGoBlue.com unusable on mobile
I went to mgoblue.com on my phone to look at the current basketball roster (because I like to be sad), and I can't find it. Like I literally cannot figure out how to navigate from the homepage to the roster. The homepage presents me with a logo page interstitial that I have to tap on to get past, which is an annoying way to start because I thought we got rid of that crap once we decided that Flash restaurant sites were bad in 2005. Then it dumps me into mgoblue.com/watch and puts up an interstitial video with no obvious way to dismiss the video (you have to tap the background of the interstitial shaded overlay, which is nonsensical). Filtering for basketball shows videos about basketball but no actual information.
I ended up going to my desktop where I easily found the basketball roster at mgoblue.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster. If I try going directly to that URL on my phone, the site redirects me to a page with podcasts. That is Wrong and Bad.
Why, why, why? I don't want any of this. I'm a fan who wants to use the site to find information about one of the teams I'm a fan of. I hope this is a temporary snafu or oversight because if this is the intended experience for mobile users it's impossibly broken. I mean, could there possibly be a situation in which fans of a sports team were somewhere away from their desktop computers and still want to find information about the team they're a fan of? Let me think... hmm...
(P.S. I know that I can get team roster information elsewhere. This post is a complaint about the brokenness of the official website for the college sports teams I'm a fan of.)
October 13th, 2023 at 1:04 PM ^
MENU > Basketball > More > Roster
October 13th, 2023 at 1:09 PM ^
You left out "Sports" between Menu and Basketball.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:55 PM ^
Interesting, I got to the roster in less than 6 seconds on my Iphone. That’s less time than it took to read the first sentence of the OP’s complaint.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:56 PM ^
Double post
October 13th, 2023 at 2:29 PM ^
The double post irony when defending the website is kinda hilarious. Well done my friend!
October 13th, 2023 at 3:05 PM ^
MGoBlue != MGoBlog
October 13th, 2023 at 3:27 PM ^
True, it took me a lot longer to post the response than it took to find the roster. I also had to page back to copy the mgoblue link (to make my response complete according to MGo posting standard) which led to the double.
October 13th, 2023 at 3:39 PM ^
I do it all the time.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:11 PM ^
Not present on mgoblue.com/watch, which is where the site sends me everytime I go to mgoblue.com.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:15 PM ^
Interesting - click the 'M in the upper left corner and it should work.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
There is no M in the upper left corner.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:35 PM ^
There is when I look on my phone.
I also am not having trouble on FSU's site which apparently you are, as well as a bunch of other people.
I'm just going to guess this is an Android vs. iPhone issue at this point until proven otherwise.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
It seems like it's possible you've previously been on mgoblue.com/watch and your browser is autofilling that URL out and sending you there. Make sure you actually only have mgoblue.com in your browser when you hit Go (or whatever button you have).
If you're really getting redirected to mgoblue.com/watch, then I dunno. Sounds like their site is not playing nice with your browser. No issues on Safari.
October 13th, 2023 at 2:35 PM ^
This seems like the issue. I had no trouble getting to the roster on Android.
October 13th, 2023 at 2:57 PM ^
Well I'm on iPhone. So it's not that.
October 13th, 2023 at 4:42 PM ^
I'm using an iPhone 14 with the most recent OS. My browser cache is cleared. There are no cookies set. I'm explicitly typing http://mgoblue.com into the Safari nav bar. I can see it begin to load the site correctly and then it redirects to http://mgoblue.com/watch, from which there is no escape. Once I'm in /watch, anything I try to do to get to the homepage boomerangs me right back to /watch.
October 13th, 2023 at 4:46 PM ^
That is weird. I'm out of troubleshooting ideas. Sounds like it's not just you though so hopefully it will get fixed.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:10 PM ^
I have found the app to be solid and a great way to navigate the information I am looking for.
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/michigan-athletics/id1564967717
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sidearmsports.umichigan&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
October 13th, 2023 at 1:12 PM ^
Thank you for the suggestion. We value your input. We'll take this into consideration as we work to improve the blog's user experience.
Narrator: "They would never take it into consideration"
October 13th, 2023 at 1:13 PM ^
Sir, this a Wendy's.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
"Interstitial"--new word for me. Someone must have sold lots of college sports homes a deal and substantial cost savings, because the same has happened to FSU's home page, and people are griping like mad. Including me. I never understand why more of these entities don't want to build good will.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^
I looked at FSU's site, and it's the same company that's doing Michigan's. It sucks, but at least you can navigate to the individual sports from the homepage, which gives me hope that Michigan's site is temporarily screwed up.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:49 PM ^
Speaking of good will, I think we can all just agree that we will never buy any products from Tru Stage. If you place an ad somewhere on the screen, it can be mildly annoying, but I get that the site needs revenue. If your ad takes over the entire screen, then I am seriously annoyed and don't want anything you have to sell.
October 14th, 2023 at 12:12 AM ^
I've been boycotting Macaroni since 2014 for this reason.
October 13th, 2023 at 1:30 PM ^
Mgoblue is not good online, wish there was a better way for me to check where the hockey games are televised. Speaking of websites that run terrible on mobile….
October 13th, 2023 at 1:35 PM ^
I clicked thinking this would be more complaining about TruStage
October 13th, 2023 at 1:41 PM ^
Use google chrome on mobile. It works!
October 13th, 2023 at 2:07 PM ^
you think if I go to the MGoBlue website and complain in the comments about the ads on this site that will get shit done?
October 13th, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
Quick question: do you know that this is mgoblog not mgoblue
October 13th, 2023 at 4:34 PM ^
Yes, I do.
October 13th, 2023 at 3:57 PM ^
FYI - https://mgoblue.com won't even load on a PC if you're using Firefox with a cookie tracker/blocker.
October 13th, 2023 at 5:04 PM ^
Not necessarily. I use uBlock Origin & uMatrix. Seems to work after I figure out what things to allow in uMatrix.
October 13th, 2023 at 5:15 PM ^
You're undoubtedly correct for your specific setup. I was just pointing out that it's a website that is not vanilla enough to access without having to work at tweaking various permissions, etc.
October 13th, 2023 at 6:17 PM ^
Download the app, choose your favorite teams, tap on the "more" (with the 3 dots) and your favorite teams should be at the top tap on the sport, and it should be there.