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 4:22 PM ^
MGoNewspaper?
September 11th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:48 PM ^
37 Awkward Interactions Between Borges and Heiko
September 11th, 2013 at 5:36 PM ^
...I'd read that.
September 11th, 2013 at 8:58 PM ^
It would just be a bunch of animated GIFs; no need to slow people down with words.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:00 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
I agree that "the jump" for each article could come sooner, to make more articles visible. It takes a lot of scrolling to view all the articles and sometimes when I start reading one I forget that there are more underneath.
Nitpicking of course.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 5:35 PM ^
Definitely. The stock photos just aren't that important.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
Every meeting we have; literally EVERY meeting, we all agree to put jumps earlier. I can only police it so much.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:00 PM ^
You guys have meetings? I somehow envisioned all of the MGoBusiness occuring via chat, email, Twitter, text etc.
Do you sit around a big conference table? Brian's family room, with empty beer cans and pizza boxes strewn about?
Inquiring/enquiring minds want to know...
September 11th, 2013 at 5:16 PM ^
September 12th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 5:46 PM ^
We have been having irregular meetings ever since Brian got a corporate MGoBlog credit card and we discovered it could be used to purchase beer. When it's everybody it's usually Frazer's. When it's just me and Brian we meet at Benny's for lunch and try to put names to the faces of all the athletes who come in.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 5:17 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 5:43 PM ^
There's something in the works that will answer your question.
September 11th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^
More please!
September 11th, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^
I dislike podcasts, and audio/video of people talking, because I'm too impatient. I can read so much faster than people talk. I know there are no podcast transcripts, but I'm still just too lazy to sit and listen to talking. The press conferences the coaches give, I always wait for the trascript because I can read it in about 1/4 of the time it takes for the actual conference, and it's easier to skip ahead as well.
September 12th, 2013 at 1:08 AM ^
I assume they can at least tell how many people download it. I sure hope it doesn't go away. It's true that a lot of it is the same as the game column, but not all of it is and certainly not what Ace says or talk of the Big Ten with Jamie Mac is in the game column. Keep it! You guys must probably would have almost the same conversations with each other anyway.
September 12th, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
I too never used to listen to the podcast, but I have a commute now, and it's been a bright spot for me each week. It's fun to hear members of the MGoCrew interact in real(ish) time, and while there sometimes is some repetition from columns, it doesn't take anything away. Keep the podcast going for us commuters! Unfortunately, the next couple weeks may not give us a ton of new revelations about the team, but the podcast is like reading MGoBlog on the road for me except i'm not veering between lanes and endangering the lives of fellow Wolverines.
September 11th, 2013 at 8:45 PM ^
You guys could consider a layout similar to Winging it in Motown. The do a good job of showcasing a lot of content on the front page in an asthetically pleasing way. http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/
September 12th, 2013 at 1:10 AM ^
don't make a website anything like SB Nation. Whatever HTML/JAVA/Flash programming they use just makes it impossible to read on my phone browser (where i catch up on a lot of surfing, esp. college football). And I'm sure I'm not the only one who reads the blog on the phone.
BUT, their layout is cool. And effective. So there's that.
September 12th, 2013 at 6:21 PM ^
if you have an iphone you need to download Puffin. It will solve all of your page loading problems.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:27 PM ^
If they had something on top that linked to all the articles on the front page, and then kept the layout essentially the same underneath that. Or even if they had their own box like the Diaries section above and on the right.
FWIW, I think people are chopping your question short and answer "Does MGoBlog have too much content?" Obviously, that answer is no, but there could be some format adjustments to make the amount of content it is producing more visable.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^
Why not a "Front Page" sidebar just above the "Diaries" side bar?
September 11th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
That's definitely what I would recommend.
Might even be good to go past the first page, and do the first few pages, on the chance that it's a busy day or two and something gets pushed off to the next page.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^
It would be nice to be able to quickly check to see what's been posted in a given day.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:43 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:57 PM ^
Check it out.
September 11th, 2013 at 5:08 PM ^
What about the ads?? Dave Brandon does not approve of this!
September 11th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
September 12th, 2013 at 9:07 AM ^
...comment. I use an RSS feed and Twitter and I rarely miss anything I might be interested in. Follow @mgofeed and you get a tweet everytime something is posted to the front page, diaries, MGoBoard and mgo.licio.us with an appropriate hashtag indicating what section was updated. Of course, follow @mgoblog, @aceanbender, @misopogon, @Heiko25, @Bry_Mac and @CoachBrown3 and you'll increase your awareness of when front page content is posted.
September 12th, 2013 at 10:14 AM ^
but you're not following @eupchurchphoto? :)
September 12th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
...following @MGoShoe
September 11th, 2013 at 4:28 PM ^
You take it back right now!! too much content??! You can't handle it! CHICKEN!!! (actual use of word "chicken" not directed at Boston Wolverine)
September 11th, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^
Nope. The other options are SBNation or ESPN-style headlines that require you to click through for content. No thanks. I like the "Jump" style, and I like getting a couple paragraphs before having to jump as well.
I will say that the content could be more evenly spread out during the day -- how about a post early in the morning and late at evening/night rather than 4 articles in between noon and 4? (These can be scheduled to appear, I know Brian and Ace like to sleep until 11am.)
September 11th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
I don't think those are the only options. If you include a "Today's posts" box like Space Coyote said, and put jump links (rather than click-through links) that take you right to the article, that could alleviate the problem without resorting to click-through.
If they really wanted to be fancy, they could try something like a favoriting system where users can tag their favorite content pieces and get alerts in a box off to the side when new posts come in.
September 11th, 2013 at 9:27 PM ^
PLEASE DO NOT GO THE ESPN ROUTE.
It's a fragmented mess. You have to click (and wait) all over the place just to get anywhere, and then of course click back. There is no flow, no narrative. Just a hodge-podge of links, all equally important or unimportant as each other.
I would much rather have a predominately scroll format like MGoBlog.
September 11th, 2013 at 10:21 PM ^
Since MGoBlog is largely a collection of regular features, I think an SB Nation-ish format might work well. -ish, not exactly like it. Or something that looks a little like Windows 8. Have a section for UVs, a section for game previews, a section for press conference recaps, a section for podcasts, a section for recruiting, and so on. The latest one could appear on the front page, with a more traditional blog-like page of UVs once you clicked on the UV window. This is a concept I could definitely get behind.
(Side note of no import whatsoever: Literally every time I tried to type UV, except just now because I'm thinking about it, my finger automatically typed an A afterwards. Muscle memory thanks to the thousands of times I've typed UVA. Weird.)
September 11th, 2013 at 10:46 PM ^
Please don't mimic the SB format. Perhaps MBWahoo isn't talking about this feature anyway, but I despise the big photos with titles that have to be clicked on. Stick with the presumption that the readership of this blog is literate and would rather read text than look at photographs that may be only marginally related to the story and click through before being able to read the text.
September 11th, 2013 at 11:24 PM ^
Most if not all of the articles have jumps in them these days, so you gotta click through anyway. The thing I don't like about SB Nation's format is that it's sort of a hybrid of a tablet-intended top of the page and then a more traditional blog line when you scroll down. I do think the huge photos are a waste of space. Admittedly, doing it the way I envision would allow even less of the post to fit on the front page, but it'd be awfully handy for seeing things like the latest recruiting post without having to check if it's on page 2 or if it's already been bumped to page 3.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
We sure didnt from the end of basketball season until a couple of weeks ago that's for damn sure. We could go an entire day and be lucky to get something new on the front page.
But I like Space Coyote's idea of a page to store all of the day's current links before they disapear.
September 11th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
September 11th, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^
Eh, hasn't really been a problem for me. I understand what you're saying, but I solve it a couple different ways:
- At work, I have an RSS feed tied to my email, so whenever a front-page post is published, I see it in my email. I generally read the front-page posts there (it also makes it easier to disguise my time wasting, since, as long as no pictures are in view, it just looks like I'm reading an email).
- At home, I typically use the mobile app on my tablet, where post titles are displayed in a list and you tap on the post you want to read to expand it. With this setup, you see a lot more than just one at a time.
All in all, I see where you're coming from, but I don't think it's a problem at all.