September 18th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
It's not just you. The site redesign was a Brady Hoke level disaster.
September 18th, 2020 at 12:55 PM ^
yes, let's use the eternal suckitude of online advertising as a starting point to trot out the tired "this site design waaah" bitching.
you missed the opportunity to bitch about al borges or our record against ohio state, though, so no bonus points for you.
September 18th, 2020 at 12:56 PM ^
It would be one thing if it was just cosmetic. The features of the site become nearly unusable in some situations. I'm sorry your Friday/whole life isn't going well to the point that you escalate online interactions for no reason. Hope things turn around for you.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:12 PM ^
Found the HUEL developer.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:45 PM ^
Is he your brother's friend???
September 18th, 2020 at 2:07 PM ^
Coming from someone that shakes his head at that ad read every single time; this post is underrated.
September 18th, 2020 at 2:13 PM ^
Let me scroll down so I can see what I am typing as it covered up with an ad. Ok that is better. "Did your brother's friend's nephew build your website?" Oh the irony...
September 18th, 2020 at 2:59 PM ^
Ads are fine. Ads that pop up and cover content, bounce around randomly, placed in the middle of posts, are simply shit design.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:04 PM ^
But nobody's clapping.........
September 18th, 2020 at 1:55 PM ^
Obviously the devs weren't wearing headsets.
September 18th, 2020 at 2:18 PM ^
OP, this post should clearly be META.
/Sighs and sadly closes out smoldering message board that used to about football and not politics
September 18th, 2020 at 2:23 PM ^
I propose redefining the expression as Kevin Warren level disaster
September 18th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
Ahh, This board must miss a good debate about which was a bigger disaster.
Personal Brand:
RichRod: Spread Offense Innovator
Hoke: Physicality
Leadership Style:
RR: Degrade and abuse (ref: Wikipedia)
Hoke: Delegate
Record at UM:
RichRod: 15-20
Hoke: 31-22
Current Job:
Rich Rod: Unemployed - Laid off by Lane Kiffin
Hoke: Head coach at San Diego State - Season Cancelled
Known for:
RR: Setting records including: First NCAA rule violations, worst single season record, and worst bowl loss all in UM history
Hoke: Not turning things around and going down hill after year one, concussion-gate, headset-gate, and memories of Fred Flintstone.
Fortunately, I think all the RichRod apologists have since been banned
September 18th, 2020 at 5:06 PM ^
RR is also known for a sex scandal. I think that shut up the last of the RR apologists.
September 18th, 2020 at 4:01 PM ^
App is coming soo.........
September 18th, 2020 at 12:47 PM ^
Ads everywhere
September 18th, 2020 at 1:25 PM ^
You forgot the improper apostrophe.
September 18th, 2020 at 7:42 PM ^
Yep. The only thing worse than the ads is the improper use of apostrophes. Seriously. What the hell is so hard about a damn apostrophe?
September 18th, 2020 at 12:48 PM ^
You get premium content from well-connected journalists, 5 days a week, for free. Deal with it.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:00 PM ^
You forgot the “/s”
September 18th, 2020 at 1:02 PM ^
I'll bite I guess.
Why can't the blog roll out a low fee, ad free experience for those of us that want it? Add in HTTV as a premium upgrade, so we don't have to deal with Kickstarter nonsense.
The prior poster was just expressing an opinion that there were too many ads. 'Deal with it' is a strange response to customer feedback, and hopefully blog management will do better (not that I am holding my breath for site improvements).
September 18th, 2020 at 1:11 PM ^
I don't work for MGoBlog and so nothing I say or do should be considered blog management or any form of customer feedback. But this is the reality we all have to deal with. The pandemic has certainly harmed small businesses like this one, which probably make a disproportionate amount of their annual revenue during football season. Without getting too weedsy, subscription models can be problematic because voluntarily cutting back your site's ad reach generally brings down CPMs to an extent that even a large number of subscriptions sold would not make up for. Therefore, all-or-nothing is probably the only option for such an offering.
This is the home of the highest quality UM writing on the internet, and something only a small number of other fanbases have. I too have noticed the increase in ads, and it's a small price to pay to maintain Brian and team's ability to provide this service. It could all go away very quickly in this day and age.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:40 PM ^
Yes this is true. I used to read a Tiger baseball blog called Tiger Snark, and I was very bummed out when it went away. Priorities change
September 18th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
The site is ostensibly trying to maximize overall revenue. Charging for an ad free experience is accretive to revenue if it is priced correctly.
Is $5 a month worth more than my clicks, I don't know, but if it is MGoblog would be losing money by not giving me that option. The question on bringing down CPMs is really a question of break even pricing. When is it worth it to take lower ad revenue for higher subscription revenue?
An ad-free option also give the blog cover to start going after ad-blocker users. They aren't earning any revenue from whatever % of people are running those.
I took your "Deal with it" to mean that this is an all or nothing discussion. It is not. There are solutions that line up more with individual users preference and economic reality better than the current model
September 18th, 2020 at 1:12 PM ^
interesting
September 18th, 2020 at 1:21 PM ^
Seth I'm sure you've heard of Patreon before but if you haven't that is the perfect way to set something up that has tiered subscription levels.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
Yes Patreon or an OnlyFans account
/s
September 18th, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^
I’m sure there’s a devoted audience of people who want to watch Seth shave his facial hair.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:38 PM ^
[Full disclosure -- I used to work at Stripe] I've seen quite a few blogs use Stripe Billing for recurring subscriptions. I believe the fees on each charge are way lower than what you'd see on Patreon, though it requires a lot more engineering work to get it set up correctly if you want to do things like tiers, etc.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
Seth, I don't know if that was a sincere or snarky "interesting" but in the past couple weeks the ads have taken over to i can't see what's in this reply window as I type (on mobile).
On laptop an entirely different but similarly invasive type of pop-ups occur.
We certainly get that you need to sell ads, but they've now gotten to where they impact the sites utility & enjoyability!
Maybe you mean "interesting" in that the pop-ups are doing things above & beyond what they've paid you for, but I find it difficult to believe you & Brian aren't regularly accessing Mgoblog from both your mobile devices & laptops to see it for yourselves!?
September 18th, 2020 at 2:06 PM ^
On my laptop, I periodically get some political ad for a judge but the letters are so large I can't read the last name. Nick something or other. If someone is paying for this, they aren't getting their money's worth, at least on my Macbook Pro.
September 18th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
This is what my screen looks like as I read your comment...
September 18th, 2020 at 3:43 PM ^
I find it absurdly amusing the unintended messaging in those ads.
-Request a ballot for Trump!
- Fee Better?
- Request a ballot for Biden!
September 18th, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
In general I'm fine with a site with ads on it, but this new thing where the big add is right in the middle of the actual post like this is really annoying. The site also seems to load slower, which might be my computer or internet connection, and the content jumps around as all of the ads load. Ultimately though I'm not the type of fan who will pay for content though so I just deal with it.
September 18th, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
Yeah I kinda knew this thread was coming from someone
Good luck with the fix.
September 18th, 2020 at 2:46 PM ^
Also, can I pay you for an ad-free podcast subscription? Those are good enough to pay for.
Not sure how much you make on ads there, but I just punch my 30 second skip for any ads that don't involved hummus made from cats.
September 18th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
Thought I heard you guys reference a possible future Patreon on the pod an episode or two ago. Or was I dreaming?
September 18th, 2020 at 2:01 PM ^
"'Deal with it' is a strange response to customer feedback..."
This is indicative of the general response to customer feedback throughout.
September 18th, 2020 at 2:31 PM ^
Nobody is saying the site shouldn't be able to get paid for their work. We're saying that we love this site and its content and hate that you can't interact with someone or read an article without having to close 2-3 pop-ups per page load. I would gladly pay for the site if it were subscription based, by the way. I do so at UMHoops, which runs a far superior product from a website standpoint.
September 18th, 2020 at 12:49 PM ^
It's really gotten out of hand lately.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:47 PM ^
I thought it was just me. Figured I'd had a bad malware hack. Who the fuck is Infolink? I hate them.
It's definitely cut down my time on this blog. I get tired of putting out the fires and bail a lot sooner than I normally would.
September 18th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
No add issues over here. Using Microsoft Edge
September 18th, 2020 at 2:04 PM ^
Maybe THAT'S who's causing this then! A clever business plan to f up everyone's websites until people switch to Edge!
September 18th, 2020 at 3:02 PM ^
I use Edge and the ads popup at the same rate Mosquitos land on you on a hot humid night by any Michigan lake.
September 18th, 2020 at 9:29 PM ^
Perfect analogy... I live in swampass Tampa Fl. Mosquitos and noseeums. I’ve had ad blocker for many years but always allowed mgoblog a pass on that. It is getting ridiculous though.
September 18th, 2020 at 12:59 PM ^
Sorry Brian. I know people have to make a living and people get your content for free. I would gladly pay a few bucks a month and do without all the ads. While I am writing this I have seen ads pop up for Vitamix, Israel Bonds, Showtime, Smoky the Bear (no kidding!) and Golling Buick GMC.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:12 PM ^
I'm getting vape pens now! Also Priceline, Peacock, Verizon, Chevrolet, GMC, Method Men (what is that?), and weird furniture. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't popping up all over the place. Even after getting rid of them they pop back up after a few minutes. The ads at the bottom and bottom left corner are the worst. Also the videos that start playing while I'm reading are a little obnoxious. I think Brian could move to a paysite or Patreon at this point. He has enough of a following to do that.
September 18th, 2020 at 1:23 PM ^
what are those israel bonds yielding? asking for a friend
September 18th, 2020 at 2:03 PM ^
Advise your friend...10 year Maccabee Bonds yield 2.03%