New or Old Mgoblog

Submitted by chad on

I prefer the old Mgoblog website. Not as much clutter and probably because im getting old just what I'm used to and less change the better. 

 

Curious how others think?

Old or new?

WGoNerd

June 13th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^

All fair points, but to my understanding they are working on fixing most of what you said.  I guess my point is that it's too new, and not fully functional to make a valid decision either way.  It's one of those things that they were never going to be able to get it 100% completely perfect without pushing the button and finding out what needs to be fixed. It's an ongoing situation right now and making a choice on an incomplete picture isn't fair to anyone.

All that in addition to the people that seem to think they can just snap their fingers and go back to the old site if they complain enough is grating.

mGrowOld

June 13th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

I get that.  This is our world now, like it or not, and I agree - some of the things I listed are probably bug/fixes but due to the almost complete lack of communication I dont know if they are or not.  Here is my "best guess" (and I'm adding to my list user preferences not being saved)

1. Too much white space - design

2. Diaries improperly placed - design

3. Far too much scrolling required to read comments -design

4. Banner is too large - design

5. Cannot edit posts - bug/fix

6. Cannot up or down vote original posts - bug/fix

7. Cannot identify who created threads - bug/fix

8. Only 7 board thread identified on main page as opposed to 14 in old layout - design

9. Posting GIFs requires downloading to computer instead of cut/paste - design

10. Posting video also requires additional step of downloading first instead of imbedding code - design

11. After posting comment you are taken back to the original post and have to scroll back down to find place of comment instead of being placed back at where you started - bug/fix

12. No phone ap - design

13. No ability to create a subject line unique to the post - design

14. Spellcheck not enabled - bug fix

15. User preferences not saved - bug fix

My issue is only 6 of the issues I've raised can legitimately be claimed as bug/fixes.  The other nine were by DESIGN so highly, highly unlikely they will be changed in the near future if at all.  

KC Wolve

June 13th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^

Old, only because I am almost an exclusive mobile user and used the app. I hate using the mobile browser. I never thought I would say that I miss the old App, but here we are. 

I have viewed the site on desktop a couple of times since the transition and it seems fine, but I do not like the mobile version. 

Rick Sanchez

June 13th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^

New for the pc, old for mobile devices.  Also, I still can’t figure out how to edit my account preferences. If they published quick tutorials once a week it would be helpful.

MGoBlue24

June 13th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^

Old for now.

+ If the back end had to be changed, it had to be changed.

+ Still free.

- Lot of scrolling required.

- Lot of white (background) space - I already look at white sheets of paper at work!

- Lot of white space devoted to things that could be collapsed/compressed:  MGoPoints, when joined, post points, reply, vote. 

Steweiler

June 13th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^

Old.  New site doesn't show upvotes/downvotes, and the white background is headache-inducing.  I'll still wait and see how it shapes up, but, if the powers-that-be are reading this, they already know what needs to be worked on.

1VaBlue1

June 13th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^

I'm not in love with the new, but it's fine.  There are a host of things that could make it better - of which we've all complained about ad-nauseam.  But honestly, the bitching is a little contradictory!  On one hand, people complain that there's too much white space; and two posts down say the whole board is too cluttered.  Make up your mind!!  The punch list should be publicized so we can see it.  I get that this is Brian's site, and he can run it how he wants - but if he wants a happy user group...  It would immediately stop the bitching and incessant whining, and everyone involved will feel better about the entire thing.  And this is all about the feels.

That said, I think HUEL was in over its head with this one.  No idea how much money there was to spend, but I think HUEL bit off too much regardless of the price.  I base on this on feels alone - Brian wants his brainchild to work; HUEL wants business.  And HUEL should have been leading the charge on how to best implement things, which includes preparing the customer base.  That simply did not happen, regardless of who was in charge.  Lack of communication does in most of everything that goes down.

BeatOSU52

June 13th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^

Old.  This reminds me of the early 2010s when espn message boards launched their “robust message boards” which were good for the “real time postings”. But the layout was awful and they forgot key features .  They never recovered and the boards were all disbanded a couple years later 

beangoblue

June 13th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^

Just like anything else, you'll get used to the changes. Mobile experience could be improved a bit. Definitely a bit of a let down overall, IMO. With such a long wait and build up, there are like zero new features and some old ones not working properly yet. Not sure what I expected but I guess it's basically the same as the old site just with an updated skin. Could be worse.

blueblueblue

June 13th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^

I dont really care, old or new. I just dont understand all the work on the new site, to then have something that is only marginally better that the old, if at all. And site is still far inferior to the 11 Warriors site. Why all the work for such little gain? And to still be far behind?

Blue Mind and Heart

June 13th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

OLD!

The new site will probably work eventually but past history of site developments/improvements has me worried.

Clean up the view when one first  arrives to site.  It's a mess!  Terrible banner with creepy low rent robot players!!??  Have to scroll down too far to get to information. Just a jarring unpleasant view each time you visit. 

Needs an app

KennyHiggins

June 13th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

Hopefully, this is just like "new" Coke, and will be shown the door.  Egregious amount of white space, and poor spacing generally.

We are all here for the content - keep it tight and easy to use

VintageBlue

June 13th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

Leaning 'old' for primarily two reasons:

1) In lengthy threads there's entirely too much whitespace.  The thin border lines don't provide enough structure to my eyes when reading comments. 

2) On a desktop, the top stories take up way too much space. When Couch decommitted, it was latest story but you had to scroll down quite a ways just to reveal the headline.  Could they bump the diaries down and arrange the stories vertically?  Or at least make them smaller?  Also lightening the images of the top stories on cursor hover would be a nice touch.

I appreciate the effort overall and will continue to enjoy free stuff.

 

O S Who

June 13th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

i like new better, but i think the banner is way too big. especially on the front page. by time you scroll past the huge banner and then the "must-see" content on the top, it has already been a full page of scrolling.

antonio_sass

June 13th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^

A lot of people are trying to hedge their distaste for 3.0 with the idea that maybe they're not used to it.

I don't think that's it  

The redesign is pretty next-level bad in almost every respect. The fonts, the color scheme, the layout. It looks like an amateur 2010 website for UFO hobbyists. The amount of white is unforgivable. Its not even charmingly bad, it's just an eyesore. And that's not even getting into all of the functionality issues  

Obviously the site is free, but so are 99% of websites on the internet. Brian makes money / it isn't a charity. So does Ace. I worry that they're going to lose readership at a level that hurts the content. I'm sure their numbers are already down. I'd recccomend going again with a different vendor who knows what they're doing -- as painful as that sounds for them. 

Ive seen bigger sites crater because of re-designs that were less terrible than this.

 

justthinking

June 14th, 2018 at 12:29 AM ^

I know they are losing ad revenue as I would check the board twice an hour just to see what was new, or in a good thread any new comments. Today was the first time in a week that I could even log in to comment! 

This seems like a cruel joke and something worse than a middle school attempt at a board. It is pretty surreal actually as I have zero creative tech knowledge, but the user experience could not be worse if you set out to destroy the best sports board in the country. The comments on this board are second to none in any thread, and this “upgrade” has absolutely killed it. 

I’ll check back to see if things get fixed, but this is too brutal to even scroll through. 

And to think they kept Drupal because of wanting to keep the “history” of all of the old posts - forget keeping the history because you aren’t going to have a future if it stays this way. 

Sad day for the site I religiously spent the most time on, bar none. 

Get ‘r fixed boys. The football season will be here before you know it. The only saving grace is they waited until after the Basketball run, because pitchforks and torches would have came out if they would have ruined that experience for the masses. 

MHWolverine

June 13th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^

Preferring the old Mblog as of now but the new Mblog is getting better. Hopefully by football season it'll be a well oiled machine like our Wolverines will be this year!!

Go Blue!! 

Craptain Crunch

June 13th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^

Change isn't bad when it's an upgrade. The upgrade is under the hood so the admins can easily control the site. I get it. As for design etc, it's not an upgrade. It's a step back, imo. But at the end of the day, it's not a life or death issue so I'll just suck it up and keep saying to myself, "Those who stay at MGOBLOG will be ...uh...will be...oh...i got it....rewarded with upvotes!

 

 

DMill2782

June 13th, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^

I view the upgrade pretty much the same as you. Great for the admins, I'm sure. For the user, I fail to see any upgrade. 

Aesthetically the new site is pretty bad as well. As many have pointed out, there's way too much white space. The overall look feels like an outdated website to me. Feels cheap, but it's a free site so it is what it is. 

mlGOBLUE

June 13th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^

Also love the site and appreciate that it is free, but I prefer the old, and not just because I dislike change.  I view 90% of the time on my iPhone, and it is just plain cumbersome to use now.  With the app, I could just tap the main page or board tab, and instantly see if there was new content or postings that I would want to read.  I can see my daily views decreasing already (not all bad for productivity), and would be sorry to see this be a bigger trend for this rare and excellent blog site.

cweerapp

June 13th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^

As others have pointed out everything new takes time to get used to. I think I'll eventually like the new website even more than the old one, but viewing the page on the mobile device needs work. My go to is to check the front page, then scroll and quickly scan the board. 

Not nearly as easy as it should be on the new site just yet but assuming that will change. 

 

OMG Shirtless

June 13th, 2018 at 12:45 PM ^

New Version.

Watching people complain has been very entertaining.   Some of you are on the verge of complete meltdowns and I'm just happy to have a front row seat to the show.

JBDaddy

June 13th, 2018 at 12:45 PM ^

I like that New is on a better platform.  I like the idea of the redesign, but I think the execution is flawed, and I've customized CSS & JS to try and deal with the things that bother me most (the huge header, the huge 4-article block, the confined width of content, copious whitespace, and not seeing authors on message board posts in the sidebar)

I hope some of my redesign ideas get incorporated down the road, but that's "graphical" and I can adjust (or customize locally)

I'm bummed that there's no reply notifications.  No flagging new content in the message board (the last post column is static, not current to help with caching/speed/server load), no way to contact board users privately.  In short, during this migration and adjustment, I'm getting way too wistful for Reddit-like behavior for such a similar crowd-based platform.

If you're using Chrome and you're really unhappy with how the site looks, you could try customizing it.  I've got a post on a thread from a few days ago that tells how:

https://mgoblog.com/comment/242977132#comment-242977132

Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything for mobile, where I still can't log in, and it doesn't get my thumbs up/down stuff working (I don't see the icons and supposedly should).

 

Kevin13

June 13th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^

The new one seems kind of clunky and posts are not well formatted. I prefer the old one. Hopefully they can improve this site and work out the kinks.

ScottyP

June 13th, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^

I would say old site, should definitely be getting a refund for my monthly subscription until the new one is fixed.

MGoKalamazoo

June 13th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^

I wish the app still worked but that’s because I don’t use a computer and rarely use safari or google on my phone. I visit the site maybe twice a week now. Used to be five visits a day minimum.

BoFan

June 13th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^

I’m 99% on mobile (like most people) and the app experience is far better than the new responsive experience for mobile. That is true despite the limitations of the old app.  And Mgoblog HD was a far better app. 

On the desktop I do like the new design much better.  This is clearly where the team put their effort.  Unfortunately, most designers and startups these days take a mobile first approach to web experience design.  Just go back to a 5 year old Mary Meeker state of the internet to see why.