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?

Blue_2008

June 13th, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^

Still having a hard time getting used to the new site, but trying to give it a chance. I'm hopeful Brian and co. will eventually address the primary issues already raised by many.

I do find the site to be especially hard to navigate on mobile with weird formatting issues as well. I find myself visiting the site less the last couple weeks just because it requires more effort. But I am also a lazy creature of habit that struggles with change, so take that for what it's worth.

Section42

June 13th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^

As a designer by day, white space is my friend. 

As an MGoBlog reader by morning and night (and let's be honest also by day), the amount of white space on the board is a drag. Most comments (such as this one) are honestly not interesting or valuable enough to merit the time it takes to scroll past them, and that nano-second break between posts makes it harder to read the flow of the conversation.

I propose that only umbig11 gets white space, and the rest of our posts are packed in like sardines.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

June 13th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^

I basically like the new site, but I wish there were a little more distinction between posts.  Probably too much design emphasis on the ancillary parts of a post like join date and points, and not enough on the actual post.  And I want 300 posts on one page back - and for the choice of 100 posts to at least stick.

Otherwise, I'm basically good with the design, and I really like how the front page lets you see the most recent posts all at once instead of scrolling down to see if you missed anything.

Wave83

June 13th, 2018 at 1:16 PM ^

I prefer the old.

As with so much recent web design, the new site has too much white space and large photos, and not enough compact text to view on a single screen.  I would rather scroll around less trying to figure out what is available.

bronxblue

June 13th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^

I've been a loud proponent of the old site for a long time.  This page needs to be cleaned up somewhat (especially the copious amount of wasted space), but it's here to stay so might as well get used to it.

poseidon7902

June 13th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^

Neither.  Wish it was a better overall interface.  Drupal may work well for large scale blogs and forums, but it looks like absolutely shit in relation to modern website design.  I always feel coming here like I've taken a step back in time 10 to 20 years.  

Aspyr

June 13th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^

New with some changes. Namely:

Move posts above diaries.

Remove the article (static carousel) boxes - not necessary and a waste of space - at least make them smaller with some outline.

Create some sort of left side design element with the posts - as is it just bleeds into white nothingness.

I can't see the upvote/down vote so not sure how they are being handled.

Since the header image collapses it's not a big deal but that could be at least vertically smaller.

Good job getting SSL up and running!

 

blue_israel

June 13th, 2018 at 1:33 PM ^

Old obviously. But hoping that this is a sort of '2 steps back so we can make 10 steps forward' type deal. The old one sounded like it was at the end of the road with the ability to make improvements. Supposedly 3.0 has lots of abilities for improvements. Hopefully they happen.

And yeah - it would be really nice if there was some kind of communication to the effect - "Hey, we're aware of the giant pile of suckiness that is being complained about. X and Y and Z are going to be fixed. A, B and C aren't changing - get used to it". But...free site and all that - so not getting too worked up about it.

Bando Calrissian

June 13th, 2018 at 1:36 PM ^

All I know is all of this blank space, large fonts, 50ppp (which I can't seem to permanently change no matter what I do with the pulldown list), and limited display of threads on the sidebar is going to crumble with the amount and speed of content on a football Saturday.

The old design, for whatever "old internet is worse" faults it may have had, could at least display a lot of information, quickly and easily accessed, when things got busy.

poseidon7902

June 13th, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^

Yes, but the scope wasn't that great in comparison to the day to day functionality of the board.  I was on it and it was a fresh new start.  Didn't have the breadth of content.  The number of testers was low too which resulted in low volume threads.  This isn't a fault of Brian or anyone else, but the scope of the beta test was strictly to make sure the interface was fluid.  

MaizeNBlue_Kzoo

June 13th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^

I used the app 99% of the time, and find that to be much superior to old MGoBlog, and still a bit superior to new MGoBlog.  The app interface was much cleaner (to me), easier to see and navigate  new posts and MgoBoard entries.   OTOH, I didn't post much, and didn't care about upvotes, downvotes, avatars, etc. 

Erik_in_Dayton

June 13th, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^

I prefer the old one by a mile.  I'm generally more interested in the board than anything else, and the board is harder to use for reasons that have already been listed by others.  The occasional crashes of the old site were preferable to the constant (as of yet) inhospitality of the new board.

S.G. Rice

June 13th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^

I'm trying to take the long view, that the new version will ultimately be better.  Right now, I can't really come up with anything that I do like better.  Liked the old layout better.  Think the story pictures look amateurish.  Miss the app.  Can't say it's super stable since I've gotten a number of errors.

UofM626

June 13th, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^

Old - they just need a iPhone app and this would be all set. I still can’t even find out where to start a thread on this site. 

rjc

June 13th, 2018 at 2:09 PM ^

Old.  This may be one genius marketing scheme...  I'd happily pay for a subscription to "MGoBlog Classic."  Current content thru a more stable version of the 2.0 interface with a good app.  $$$

 

 

Late Bluemer

June 13th, 2018 at 2:14 PM ^

The new has a brighter look that is easier on the eyes.  I'm not used to the layout yet but I'll get used to it soon enough.  I'm keeping a positive outlook in the meantime -- "All for the best in the best of all possible worlds" and all that.

Still cannot get the old app to work on the phone.  I'm sure I missed some sort of informative post on this along the way.

carolina blue

June 13th, 2018 at 2:18 PM ^

The mobile version of the site is terrible compared to 2.0. You shouldn’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to the diary/board posts. Also, the site header takes up 80% of the screen, so I have to scroll down just to see the headline of the too front page post. Like many, I find there is waaaaaayyyyyyyyy too much white space. 

Ill wait for bugs to be worked out before I render final judgement, but so far not so good. 

ColsBlue

June 13th, 2018 at 2:35 PM ^

Old.  100%.  Site was easier to navigate with better layout.  App made site more accessible.  Used to check in multiple times per day, now maybe once every couple of days.  Hard to complain too much, as I contribute nothing.  But, in the interest of constructive feedback... 

emozilla

June 13th, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^

It takes three clicks to get to the board on mobile, and you can see about two comments per page before you have to scroll. I just can't, can't understand why everyone's vision of beautiful design is a 95-5 empty-space-to-content ratio. For example, just the OP takes up the entire page on a 1920x1080 screen. You cannot see even a single response.

Blue4LifeNC

June 13th, 2018 at 3:08 PM ^

Certainly miss the old, more compact site, and the Android app, while not pretty, was functional and compact.

Too much whitespace and scrolling in the new design for the site.

JFW

June 13th, 2018 at 3:10 PM ^

What I like: It's nicer looking. The images are nicer. I love that I don't have to use an app. I like having a more traditional forum option. 

What I don't like: It's a little to Jony Ive for me. I miss having the blog in the middle, and the links on the left and the diaries/board on the right. That was convenient. I am not as much of a fan of the comments section. 

The login issues were a PITA. 

ThWard

June 13th, 2018 at 3:27 PM ^

I'm going to give it some time. As of now, I liked the old a lot better. But I imagine I'll get used to this soon enough (and hopefully there will be some de-bugging).

One thing that is a little old man yelling at cloud of me, but I hate the white background for everything below the banner. I find the layout more cluttered without some color contrast between the main text area and the margins.

Ghost of Fritz…

June 13th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^

Old version was better.  Old version was easier to read.  The layout on version 3.0 is...not good at all.

I do admit that the old version did look very outdated and that an update was needed.   But that is no excuse for fumbling the update.

On the upside, I am going to choose to be a believer on the promise that the new version will not crash in high traffic moments...

Blue Ninja

June 13th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^

For the most part I prefer the new. Mostly just need a few cosmetic interface changes. Irregardless at this point there is no return to the old. 

uncle leo

June 13th, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^

I think some of my dear friends on here are forgetting how horrific the crashes were.

It wasn't an occasional 15-30 second break. The site would shut down for hours at a time. During a football game, the page wouldn't even load. It was inoperable for very, very long stretches at a time.

This is the same thing that happens with every transition, no matter what board. I can remember when ESPN had their boards in the late 90s and moved to another model, people were PISSED. But ESPN (not their normal thing I know), listened to complaints and made it better.

There's a lot of potential here. The old site buckled too often under the weight of use. They'll figure out how to make this better as it goes along.

Jacoby

June 13th, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^

I appreciate the time and effort that our MGoBlog leaders have put into this. That said, here are my beefs:

  1. Most people presumably read MGoBlog on their iPhones, and it is frustrating that the best app was removed awhile back, and now the original app is not functioning either. We really just need a good iPhone app that we can stick with and is helpful. The current blog is NOT reader-friendly for iPhone users compared to the old iPhone apps.
  2. I hate that I cannot see the MGoBoard posts in the order of most recent uploaded (not comments, rather the actual post). Allowing users to review by post date allows us to quickly scan the entries to until we see posts from the last time we were logged in. Makes for efficient reading when the list is sorted that way. The problem now is that all the newest comments push a post to the top of the list, so I don't know what posts I have and haven't read. Seems like there should be a column with the post date that makes the list sortable.
  3. As a long-time lurker, reading this blog daily for many years, I take pride in the fact that I do not post a bunch of unhelpful crap. Too many people need to learn the concept of an unexpressed thought. Along those lines, I wish MGoBlog would allow me to earmark my favorite commenters so that instead of seeing 200 crappy comments, I see only the ten or so comments from my preferred list of commenters (e.g., UMBig11, Seth, Ace, MGrowOld, etc.). It would really improve the site if we had more control in order to weed out the riff-raff from our reading experiences.
  4. Also, I don't like the non-sequential style of the home page. It's a bunch of articles rather than a sequential list that I can quickly scroll to see what has happened since the last time I logged in. Frankly, it looks a bit Dave Brandon-ized, with branding and giant photos rather than substance. And the top articles do not appear to be in the blog entries (e.g., All Ancient History Team)
  5. I also hate that clicking "read more" takes me to a new page rather than just unlocks the missing content below. And even if you are going to get clicks by making us go to a new page, at least make it scroll automatically to middle of the article where we left off when clicking "read more". 
  6. Why is it so damn hard to post photos on this damn site. It is 2018 yet I can't just click the photo icon and upload a photo. 

I don't see what improvements this new site adds. It has removed app functionality, made it more cumbersome to read in several ways, made it harder to review what I missed since I last checked in, forces unnecessary page clicks, and retains the same problem with difficulty posting.

 

ish

June 13th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^

everyone is change averse and i can't think of any web re-design that was initially well received.  they take time to get used to. 

but IMO, this new site takes barely any getting used to.  i wish the app still worked, but beyond that the new site is unquestionably better.  the real test will be the fall.  if there are no 404 errors the change will have been well worth it.

nowayman

June 13th, 2018 at 5:27 PM ^

I might have an onion tied to my belt, but I'm fairly certain that cloud needs to be yelled at.

 

I prefer the old board, but see above.