META: Does MGoBlog have too much content for its format?
Hey all, I was just curious to see what your take on this was. I really like a lot of the content on the site, but I don't necessarily read ALL of it.
Today, there have been 6 posts, and I flat-out missed the Borges presser - which is one of the things I really like to read. Sure, this can be solved by scrolling down, but if I normally just peek at the page on a break, it's harder to see what's there. For example, there were 3 articles posted between my visits today, and I just didn't realize it.
The site's gotten to a point that there's a ton of great content coming in from a number of different sources. This is a good thing, but I feel like the format is not giving readers the time to digest the pieces before another one comes along.
I love the site, and I want to see it continue to diversify and expand, but this is just a concern I had.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:32 PM ^
They (Brian and Seth) said they were doing a site overhaul before football season, but I think they had issues figuring out how to do that and they were just too busy to devote a lot of time to it. I wouldn't have mind if they took like a week or two off from posting in July to do that, but that's just me.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:18 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
simple solution to your problem. get an RSS reader like feedly.
helps me read the articles i want to read without missing articles or hitting refresh all the time on the websites i go to.
bonus: sometimes they post an article too early, quickly take it down, and then re-post later that day. i think the staff is trying to spread the content out throughout the day. the internet never forgets, and neither does an RSS reader.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^
or he can hire an intern to read it for him and summarize. Or MGOBLOG Cliff Notes (do they still have those? I'm very old...don't know)
September 11th, 2013 at 4:32 PM ^
Maybe something on the sidebar that has a direct link to all the posts would help.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
Moar content.
I suggest you use a reader like Feedly, and it will create a new "article" in an MGoBlog "channel" every time a post is added to the main page. You won't miss anything.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:34 PM ^
Here's a shortcut:
CTRL-F "Bryan Mac"
September 11th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
Sweet. Once I'm done with that, how do I get to the content I WANT?
You set yourself up for that.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
He set that up for me, not you, dammit.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
At the NYC Kick-Off Event in New York, Brian mentioned they would be switching to a "magazine format", much like ESPN.com, sometime in the off-season.. This will probably make it much easier to find new articles posted on a given day.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
I would appreciate utilizing more of the wide screens we probably all use. Text from this site fills about 20% of my monitor at work, then there's just big blue panels on the sides. That might help shorten the articles vertically.
September 11th, 2013 at 6:12 PM ^
20% is not an exaggeration. 40% of my scene is just empty blue side bar with no content whatsoever (no links, adds, no nothing).
September 11th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^
Time to make the website look cleaner and more elegant. I suggest to change the font as well.
September 11th, 2013 at 8:35 PM ^
A bit wider, maybe, but not full-width. Widescreen monitors aren't intended for lines of text to span the damn things.
I prefer it exactly as is, forever.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
I use this link:
The first two pages typically cover an entire day when I get home from work.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:37 PM ^
I like the idea of a "front page box" for the current days stories. But its not that big of a deal for me. I am typically on the site over ten times per day, just to see if there is anything new. If I dont get to the site for an extended period of time, i just scroll through all the posts until i get to where i left off.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:41 PM ^
Logged in just to vote YES!
Honestly, the easiest fix is anything Seth posts should be in the diary section.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:41 PM ^
One simply needs to check the blog every half hour to consume all its content without missing any. Restructure your life around the power of the blog.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
This is my strategy. Clearly you're just not checking the site often enough.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:42 PM ^
'more' button for the board on the front page. That thing hasn't worked in at least four years. The content is not greatly accessible.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:34 PM ^
The secret to the more button:
Don't use it unless you first switch to the "Recent" tab. That seems to always work for me.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:42 PM ^
yes - this has bugged me for a while.
they could use some edward tufte info density on the front page.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
What if we moved non Brian, Ace, Heiko and Coach Brown's posts to diaries until the off-season?
September 11th, 2013 at 6:14 PM ^
Sounds good. I find myself skipping those anyway (except you, Mathelete).
September 11th, 2013 at 11:47 PM ^
September 12th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
me too Bryan...me too...
September 11th, 2013 at 4:45 PM ^
A format like the old ABC News page would be good. Gives you access to 30 some odd stories both in a chronological format (left column) and categorized (right two columns). Would be much easier to pick through.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:47 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:48 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
You misunderstand. I don't want less stuff. I want it arranged in a way that lets me better enjoy all of the free stuff, and provide for the possibility of more awesome free stuff in the future.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^
The site's layout is fine for me, with one exception: it's really hard to look through older posts on the Board. I'm using the newest version of Firefox, but the "1 of 11" scroll arrows don't work properly for me. Maybe there should be a link where you can view the MGoBoard as an entire page rather than as a sidebar column?
September 11th, 2013 at 5:00 PM ^
Edit: I suck...Beaten
September 11th, 2013 at 4:54 PM ^
is simple. Instead of starting from the top, I scroll down until I find the last thing I read. Then I read the stories each on my way back to the top.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:55 PM ^
The varied, frequent and diverse content is what makes this blog successful.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^
Absolutely. Again - I don't want less content. I am discussing a change being made to the site structure (be it small or large, I don't know) that enables readers of the frequent, varied, diverse content to view it more conveniently.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:03 PM ^
This is the problem with technology...We're never satisfied and we become more indolent and less industrious as the days go by.
I get the notion the OP is getting at but you answer your own question; just take the time to scroll down and search a few seconds more a day. The time some of this effort takes isn't going to cut into the rest of your life by any means. Yes maybe a tab for Front Page content could be useful/beneficial but it's still a resolution to a problem that doesn't exist.
All in my humble opinion.
Edit: And that all probaly comes off as high and mighty, of which I do not think I am. Again, more stating my opinion that an "issue" doesn't really exist.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^
but so is a more discerning eye toward what you are reading. there was a time when i slavishly read every single line of every post, but these days, i generally skip things that don't interest me that much. i lean much more toward picture pages and fee-fi-fos than mathlete posts or press conferences. i suppose i like previews and opinions more than data and transcripts, but i am sure there are those people on the other side of the coin.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^
which helps me catch things that I sometimes miss when I just peruse the front page of mgoblog. I know that's not really a solution, but feedlys an awesome tool in case you want to get started. Helps you catch things you'd miss otherwise
September 11th, 2013 at 5:05 PM ^
If you want my ideal mgoblog, I would like a magazine/feedly style layout mentioned above. Maybe something like digg only with a column or a few boxes dedicated to the content that is currently in the sidebars. But I would also make it responsive. Something like Mashable which changes the layout for different screen sizes. I haven't used the apps much but there seem to be some limitations so I'd prefer a well designed responsive site.
Maybe we should have a contest for the best Mgoblog layout design since the last banner contest never crossed the finish line. (But I'm sure Brian has or knows people that are way better at this kind of stuff than the average mgblogger.)
September 11th, 2013 at 5:08 PM ^
You should demand your money back...
September 11th, 2013 at 5:17 PM ^
Or I could, as a loyal reader of the site, address the issue politely and reasonably in the public forum available to me, and open up a discussion for possible solutions.
I like my option better.
September 11th, 2013 at 6:22 PM ^
I prefer my sarcasm better...your suggestions are just fine but sometimes, just sometimes, the snark flows freely. Nothing personal, just a friendly little jab.
September 11th, 2013 at 6:32 PM ^
I hear ya. I just had gotten through a bunch of posts of people saying I wanted less content, so I wasn't too keen on snark at the time. Your friendliness is duly noted.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:08 PM ^