Twitter Game Thread Option
I was reading the comments on using the twitter option for game threads and thought of a solution.
Brian, how about picking a nationally televized NFL preseason game during the 3rd week because they are usually the most meaningful and testing the twitter game thread functionality to see how it plays out.
This would be before the College Season starts and gives you a chance to tweak the twitter idea if need be.
What does everybody think about this idea?
like change. I'd still prefer CIL, although the cost may be prohibitive. While Twitter may work as a temporary solution, a moderated chat system similar to CIL seems to be a necessity. Open threads don't work for games either. I suppose a test run might change my mind, but I'm not sure. It's worth a shot though.
August 4th, 2012 at 10:15 AM ^
HALOSCAN FTW.
August 4th, 2012 at 10:04 AM ^
Looked into it... Haloscan is no more :'(
is that it's going to move so quick that anyone will not be able to read it because they can't screen any comments.
August 4th, 2012 at 10:51 AM ^
August 4th, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^
There are hundreds of comments submitted per minute -- if there was no moderation, a speed reader couldn't even follow it.
1) Youtube comments
2) ESPN comments
3) MLive comments
4) News site comments
I could go on.
Embrace the suck as Mealer said. I hate Twitter but I'll do what I have to do since I'm stuck in Shanghai for the season and doing some form of chat with like-minded maniacs is entertaining.
I did see two other Michigan shirts today in Shanghai as I was sporting my UTL jersey so that was a good feeling.
August 4th, 2012 at 10:02 AM ^
Except said donations should still be made and would be better spent on other projects, Brian's food and rent, Ace's video games, and Heiko's .... who cares he's gonna be rich.
August 4th, 2012 at 10:02 AM ^
August 4th, 2012 at 10:05 AM ^
I still think having sponsors pay for the live blog would be a better idea...
August 4th, 2012 at 10:14 AM ^
Alright, you go find 4 sponsors who are willing to pay $200 per month, and then I'm sure Brian will take you up on it.
August 4th, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^
But if there's a WordPress plugin that will do this (and do it easily enough to set up in the next 2 weeks), then we should be able to make it work.
Short term, install WordPress in a sub directory of this site, put the live blog on it, and do a jQuery.load() function (or an Iframe, but boo Iframes) to display that content on the main page.
Long term, obviously, port that plugin to Drupal. They're not too dissimilar of platforms, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
August 4th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^
sorry
twitter is for broader comments, not specific play by play of um games. my followers wouldn't appreciate it.
I'm in favor of teh Twitters.
I hated the CIL liveblogs, so whatever isn't that is at least potentially better than that.
A Twitter chat will keep people from complaining about bubble screens, right?
I have actually helped moderate some of the Tremendous recruiting hours via CIL, and I will say that the biggest drawback on that side - and the mods here may disagree - is that comments will fly by, some are verbose, and it is difficult to give all of them a fair review. All the tools, as they are laid out in the interface, also don't leave much room to actually do the reading in the first place. That's been my experience there anyway.
The one thing I like about the Twitter idea is that it does put some pressure on people to be creative, insighful and / or witty in a limited space, and it is actually a little easier to review blocks of tweets, I would imagine, for purposes of retweeting / moderating. Another dimension this ads, as Brian mentioned in the original article, is basically the ability to get some "as it happens" reporting from the MGoFaithful. I see some benefit to that as well.
I would think a test of this might be in order - it is the cheapest option to implement, so if the test goes south, the risk is mitigated by the fact that it is, well, Twitter.
August 5th, 2012 at 12:15 PM ^
This is what I'm thinking. The only thing about this that could take a lot of time is attempting to style the WordPress site so it fits in with the rest of MGoBlog.
However, if we don't even worry about that, and just embed the chat content directly on the main site, that should take a couple days tops.
Why not try a free alternative to CIL? Cbox?
Cbox probably is not sufficiently scaleable to handle the task. It claims to be able to handle "up to hundreds of concurrent visitors". I believe gameday chats tally users in the thousands.
There is something from Wordfaire that might be an alternative, but it is still a beta product and details are sketchy. Might be worth looking into.
I would think that if the Wordpress plugin is a viable option, setting up a subdomain and setting up the chat should be less than a day's work. I'm sure Brian could find some hapless volunteer to do the gruntwork if that is the best solution.