MGOBLOG 3.0 sticky for bugs

Submitted by Seth on

We are using this thread to collect all the (fixable) feedback for the new site in one spot, and if you're seeing it on the main page it means I've updated the OP content.

If you've noticed any bugs in the site post them here and if you have constructive criticism we very much appreciate it. The developers are also going to be in this thread. Even if we can't always respond, you're being heard.

UPDATE 8/23/2018:

We met at HUEL HQ today and worked through a lot of things.

THINGS THAT GOT FIXED

1. You are now able to edit your account info (and your avatar) by clicking on your account name while logged in. Eventually your history and more (see below) will be tabbed from a single user page but this was the quick fix for now.

2. The points issue is still the top priority that they're working on. We're one step further and testing a possible fix in a test environment right now.

3. Next week or so we'll have the ability to vote on Diaries and Board posts (the OPs) themselves. Could have launched today but we wanted to move it from where they were appearing but it works on the dev environment.

THINGS WE ARE FIXING

Please note that while this is a priority tree it's not necessarily the order things will get fixed. We have multiple developers who have their different skills and as each comes free from a project they grab the next highest one they can handle.

1. Points problems

The issue seems to be in the module we wrote for counting points:

Voting module.PNG

Now that they've narrowed it down we have high hopes of getting to the root of the situation.

Lastly IF YOUR POINTS WERE RESET TO ZERO please post in here and let us know 1) A little bit about your points history, 2) When you lost them (was it during the transition), and anything else that can help us track down whatever behavior is creating this. We can't fix this because we don't know why or to what class it's happening to.

(new) 2. User permission issues.

So right now at 100 points you should be able to vote and post new threads, and at 500 points you should be able to post diaries and edit wikis.

THIS IS NOT WORKING because of an issue with the core module. We are trying a fix that might make everything work right away.

It's a permissions issue. What's supposed to happen is once you hit a points threshold you are automatically bumped up to the next user level. It's not doing the bumping because of the "Actions" module, which comes with Drupal. Now that we've identified where the problem is we're working on a patch.

2. Embedding youtubes and tweets automatically by posting a link

So because of site security we have to use Oembeds. There is a module for Drupal 8 for this but it's a paid service, which with our volume is cost-prohibitive (like they want tens of thousands of dollars per month so screw those guys).

So we're going to develop something. We would prefer to have a system that automatically turns a link you post into an image or youtube or twitter embed. That's a better long-term solution and putting something in place in the meantime would cost us time and resources we'd rather put toward more permanent changes. It's a high priority so we just ask for patience now to be paid off with a better final product than the old site had.

For now you can still post these with regular html tags and most sites will give you the source code if you can't remember how to write <img> tags in html language. We had the option to change the post-a-picture box in the comment editor with the ability to post a link instead of upload an image to our site, but we didn't want to lose that ability to post to our site since it's a feature we really wanted for the new site.

3. Side rail becoming unglued. 

I've seen it and several users have as well but we haven't had a developer get into it yet because it doesn't happen too often.

4. "Continue Reading" links on front page will jump to the break tag, not the top of the article.

Another thing on the list for a dev to get to.

5. Comments bubble should link to comments

Right now it goes to the top of the article in article view.

6. Voting shows totals not aggregate

We have to rewrite the module ourselves.

7. (new) Latest post timestamp behavior

Haven't looked into it yet but it's a known issue that the latest post says there's something from a few minutes ago and there isn't. It may be bots causing this behavior.

8. (new) Clicking on a comment in a readers' post history should take you to that post.

Moderators need this.

9. (new) Some content is breaking containers

Design issue. When designer gets back from maternity leave we'll get an estimate.

10. (new) We are developing a "User Page" that will be tabbed thusly:

  • Change your user info (name, email, avatar, password)
  • See your recent post history
  • See replies to your posts
  • Your points history

Most excited about the second-to-last one, which is one of many new properties we plan to add that the old site missed.

Things Over the Horizon

1. Showing New comments in a thread as "New"

We got an estimate of big money to rent a specialist in order to build out this module. This is the next big project after we get the points figured out. Personally I wanted to address it sooner but more people complained about points so that got moved ahead. Be mad at the people who complained about points because it's all their fault.

2. Changing Scroll Behavior

We had a specialist look at this and what's happening is a problem with the order things are loaded. When you post a new comment the page DOES take you to your just-posted comment, but then it loads other comments and that pushes your screen down. If you use the up or down arrows it should take you right back to your comment. This is a problem buried deep and got another big expensive estimate to fix. So we have to wait.

(updated) 3. Apps

The process has begun. We might have a couple of light ones first then more developed ones later. FYI the problem with the old apps is they were not built to play nice with the site. If they worked great on your phone that was because they were downloading the whole site before you went to read it, and that was placing a huge drain on our resources and causing the site crashes. We will have apps and I hope to have a timeline in a few weeks. The latest is there's a drupal module we're going to try. Maybe it'll work the first time with no kinks.

(updated) 4. Saving User Preferences

We want comment settings to stick permanently for each user. Right now it resets when you post a comment. This is a BIG fix so it comes after we get other things done.

 

Also they're working on a bunch of functions we need internally, like the process for creating breaks, windows live writer issues, and lightbox for UFRs.

blueblueblue

June 12th, 2018 at 2:54 PM ^

I just dont understand the mindset to leave up a hideous banner just because you are saving up to launch a better one. If you have to stick with a bad one to launch a better one later, something aint right. Have two good banners. Have two decent banners. One bad one now and one good one later doens't average out for everyone who doesnt have the decent one to look at. For all of us looking at the bad banner in the now, there is no later. 

DelhiWolverine

June 12th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^

To be blunt - the Banner is cosmetic as far as I'm concerned - the real stuff that matters are things that impact the ease and frequency of use. I couldn't care less if the current banner stays up forever as long as the site gets easier to use and bugs are eliminated.

mGrowOld

June 11th, 2018 at 11:14 PM ^

Have you considered reaching out to local AA posters to have a meeting to get their feedback?.  I think you'd find it surprising.  Companies like mine have to pay a shit-ton of money to assemble a decent focus group but I'll bet you can pull one together in no time and with no cost.

I have to be honest, and this is going to sound harsher than I mean it to, but it  really seems like you guys have no idea what the end-user interface is like right now.  If somebody on the team hasnt done so already I would strongly suggest they create a user profile like one of us and see what it's like on this side.  It's pretty rough - especially when compared to how smoothly the old site worked (traffic surge outages notwithstanding) for us common folk.

 

KO Stradivarius

June 11th, 2018 at 10:41 PM ^

Please fix the cause of the page position resetting to the top when either (a) posting, or (b) changing the post order from oldest to newest and number of posts per page.  

It would also be nice if your last page viewing preference was saved as default, like the old site did, so you don’t need to change it every...single... time....

Call it a bug or bad coding, but it results in totally losing your place on the page and then you gotta find it again. Or not, and you just curse and give up.

Ghost of Fritz…

June 11th, 2018 at 11:12 PM ^

Not sure if this counts as a bug, but the board threads are much harder to follow/read. 

The layout rendering (spacing, lines, colorway, relative font sizes, relative size of reply button, etc.) makes the actual content of the comments sort of get lost on the screen. 

The eye is drawn everywhere but the actual comment of a post to the lines, large up/down/reply buttons, italicized and blue colored date/time line.  The all white background may have something to do with this also. 

The threads render better and are somewhat easier to read on a phone than on the laptop version, but even there it is still not great. 

One issue with the mobile version is that one has to scroll way down to get the the board. 

 

1VaBlue1

June 12th, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^

I spend most time here from my laptop (and/or desk at work), rather than a phone.  That said, I prefer an app for the phone.  I'd rather click an app icon and see what's new.  With the website, I have to open Safari (or whatever), click around to find the icon/url, then scroll all over the place to find things.  God-forbid I have to login in again before doing any of that!

Hard to navigate a website when your checking the phone while stopped in traffic...  Besides, anyone that says 'phone-responsive websites' are all the rage is someone not paying attention.  Apps are still the much preferred method of doing things on phones.

DelhiWolverine

June 14th, 2018 at 9:09 PM ^

This is really good to hear. And I think practically speaking, having a good app will increase site traffic and multiple page views like nothing else. If I have an app that I can just click to immediately check the site for updates and check the message board when I have a minute of downtime, I will do it 20 times a day. If I have to click a bunch of times and wrestle with a clunky mobile website, I find that I don’t want to bother because it will take too much time.

1VaBlue1

June 12th, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^

A few things for me...

1) Allow the page default to be changed by the user

2) After replying to a post, the page should revert back to where you were in the comments.  As it is, it dumps you back somewhere else and you need to go find the place you were at

3) Fix the logon/logout/IP issue (persisting login across various browsers and IP addresses would be nice, not all of us do things from one location all the time, but I do understand the difficulty with that)

4) COMMUNICATE!!!!!  JUB made the point very clear about how Bill Martin implemented PSL's and got the stadium rebuilt - he talked to his constituents.  MGoBlog has not done that, save for a few grudging posts aimed specifically at complaints.  Well, the result is a shitload of complaints because nobody had any idea what was coming.  Talk to us - tell us what's going on (what works and what doesn't), when/if we can expect changes, and respond to feedback.  This one stickied post is all we have - and only Seth has responded (and only to say 'we know').  Like it, or not, Brian - we are part of this site, too!  We want it to work as much as you do.  Let us help you - we can't do that if you don't talk to us...

5) Bring back an app when you get a chance to do (or let someone develop one - I'm sure someone here would be happy to do so).  It's so much easier than hitting a website when you stopped at a traffic light...

Seth

June 13th, 2018 at 10:25 PM ^

  1. I think that was a Drupal 6 module. If there's a way to do that in 8 we'll add it back of course. A lot of things ahead of that on the list right now.

     
  2. I noticed that too and it's on the list as something I want fixed quickly (because it doesn't seem like it should be too hard). That wasn't happening before launch by the way: it was setting you at your comment or if you were nested, in the comment you just replied to.

     
  3. That's Priority 1. We've been at that one hard and it's not an easy fix apparently.

     
  4. Brian is necessary for all that back-end stuff I don't know how to do, and he has other functions that really need to get taken care of. I'm trying to relay what I can because I'm on every call and at every meeting, because if we pulled Brian off to respond as often as we responses we wouldn't be getting things fixed (e.g. point #3)

     
  5. Apps are not that easy--we had them developed by users before and the problem was the developers cared about making their apps work great but not about how that was messing with the site. Remember when the site was going offline all the time and we had to add cloudflare to curttail it, and it was slow as balls? That turned out to be the damn apps. We are leaning toward developing those in-house now. We almost certainly will not be relinquishing control again.

HenneGivenSunday

August 21st, 2018 at 9:46 PM ^

Seth, I appreciate you being the one responding to all of us.  I also appreciate you being the good soldier for the blog with us crazy users.  That being said, Pt #4 is probably one of the biggest issues on the site.  The staff is what drew us all here (and Brian brought all of that together).  It seems like we largely get him only to comment on B1G scandals and throw veiled insults at the football program now.  (Sidenote:  if he’s seeing something bad going on that we aren’t privy to, he hasn’t been afraid to openly call it out, has something changed?)

I’ve admittedly been passive aggressive about this point, but I’m honestly at a loss and I get the feeling I’m not alone.  

chatster

June 12th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^

With each passing day, working mainly from a PC desktop and using the Chrome browser, my experience with MGoBlog 3.0 has been . . . 

not great bob.jpg 

Lately, the only reason I check MGoBlog is to learn whether the bugs have been eliminated.  But that forces me to keep requesting a new log-in permission because MGoBlog 3.0 claims that there have been too many failed attempts to log in from my IP address.

If you're prioritizing fixes, then you might want to make the log-in bug your top priority. 

JBDaddy

June 12th, 2018 at 1:24 PM ^

The MGOBoard topic list isn't realtime.  It only updates a row that has received replies recently, otherwise the Last Post age shown is not updated when you refresh the page, so it's not possible to identify "hot" topics getting recent replies - only posts with a high number of replies (but might be a day old)

Example:

2018-06-12 13_23_20-MGoBoard Forum _ mgoblog.png

Says "Last Post" was 29 seconds ago.  Actual last post was 2 days ago.

 

The Granddaddy

June 12th, 2018 at 2:13 PM ^

Can create content / Cannot vote.

Backup account with way more points cannot create content nor vote.

Something just isn't syncing-up with everything there yet.

blueblueblue

June 12th, 2018 at 2:36 PM ^

My 2 cents. This is pretty disappointing. This might be a good upgrade, if we were living in 2010. The site feels scattered, incoherent, disjointed. Perhaps the suckiest thing about it is that the 11 Warriors site continues to be vastly superior. Must we be second-rate to that team in everything?  As UM fans, is it time to migrate to another UM fan site, one that can better represent?

username

June 12th, 2018 at 3:16 PM ^

Desktop version?

When I go to MGoBlog.com on my desktop, I am getting the throwback format/background with the May 31st Hello Zach Carpenter post. The only site links are to Podcasts, Mgostore, MyFace (sic?), and Contact. I can’t find a way to access the boards on the desktop. 

I was able to successfully follow the instructions for the mobile app, so have been using that, but would like to solve this desktop issue. 

Any advice?  Thanks

Ron Utah

June 12th, 2018 at 7:07 PM ^

The MgoBoard dropdown is superfluous. The only items are the board itself amd the stickies that are already at the top of the board. Please save us all a click and have a board link on the homepage. 

Seth

June 13th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^

Hold control when your mouse is over "MGoBoard"

This was a concession to mobile, where clicking on a header can't be both a link and a menu option. But I hotlinked them all anyway because I like having those quick links. Just hold control.