META - Recent Post Thumbnails
When the first description for the new site came out, I was under the impression that the scrolling down to get to stories was going to come to an end. It was described as a magazine layout. But instead we've landed on some odd hybrid of the previous system and the magazine layout.
My question is, does anyone ever click on those thumbnails on purpose? Even if you've been disconnected for a week or so, wouldn't it still make more sense to just scroll down and read the posts in order?
Maybe now that HTTV is done and just waiting to ship the guys in charge will start answering questions again and making changes.
Also, whatever happened to the guys from Human Element that were supposed to be interacting on the board?
FWIW I just checked my Galaxy 8 to see what was displayed.
Tile #1 is "Friday recruiting changes the deal". Posted Friday, July 13th at 3:41pm. Picture only.
Once I scroll down past that nice picture then I see there is a new post up " USA 2022: Attackers" but unless I scrolled down past the Friday post I'd never know it was there. This is now displaying the full text so I needed to scroll way to the "read more" button but when I click through I'm shown the full article again (not just the unread portion) and am placed at the top of the article I presumably just read 8 paragraphs of.
Then under that is a tile again on "Maximizing Jon Teske's offense" with most of the article displayed.
If somebody can explain why a three day old post is shown in the #1 position and not the post created less than an hour ago I'd love to hear the rationale. Cause until you posted this thread I had no idea something new was up on the front page of the site.
The "#1 position," as you call it, is a place for featured articles. It's essentially pinning a post to the top so it doesn't get buried with new content. The mobile site does seem to be a bit broken, though. The most recent feature is the Jon Teske piece from today.
A self-centered take:
The revision of the site makes me wonder whether I'm officially not young anymore. It confuses me. I find it hard to use. I dislike the way it looks.
But then again, I don't use words like "lit" or "swag" or "hype" (or at least, with respect to the latter, not as an adjective). Perhaps the new site is meant for a younger generation, a generation that longs to pay attention to everything and nothing at once. Maybe my dislike of the new site is irrelevant.
I'm in college and I find it hard to use. I aesthetically think it looks better and it's easier to access older board posts, but overall the site is less user friendly and harder to use for the most part. Maybe all of the bugs adding up are making it worse than it actually is and once everything is fixed I will like it better, but Idk
Other end of the age spectrum but share your hopeful optimism. What's more than a bit concerning, though, is communication, at least regarding the bug-fixes, has stopped. Go look at the sticky page on the subject and you'll see that there is nothing new posted on the following:
1. Unable to edit
2. Cant up or down vote thread creators
3. Cant post video or gifs without uploading to computer
4. Preferences not saved
5. Not returned to position in thread when making comment - instead deposited at end of thread and have to work way back to where you were
6. Front page "continue reading" puts user back at beginning of article and not where post ended
7. Points may or may not be working anymore
8. Some users still cant vote for reasons unknown
To me though the bigger issue is the layout itself - WAY too much white space in post and way too much real estate given to the top banner which makes it really hard to have a discussion cause you cant see the post above or below what you are typing and that's not going to get fixed - that was done by design.
It's my understanding the white space is going away next. I saw a post from Seth, I think, that they figured out how to do it.
But that poses a much bigger question. How is that a web development company has to "figure out" how to change the background color?
It really is a bit concerning that all of these requests and bug fixes are soooo long. Like it took a a few months for MGoPoints to update again, they worked for a day or two, and now don't work anymore
That's very good news that I had not heard before now. But yes, a bit odd they not only have to "figure out" how to change the background color and even odder, to me anyways, that nobody thought the cavernous amount of white space was a problem prior to release.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure someone said the plan wasn't to launch with all the white space. I think it was one of those last minute things that didn't work when they were getting ready to go live that had been working.
If you go and look at different websites - SI.com, USA Today, etc. - they all mostly look like this format. Banner with drop down menus, tiles to click for content, and ads splattered throughout. This site is different because they don't offer one minute thirty second videos spewing the content of the articles. I prefer this. The function of the website is a bit concerning, but the visually appealing part of it is least concerning.
I remember for a time we lost the ability to upvote or downvote in 2.0. It was addressed eventually, but the site didn't die because of it. If I had to guess based on years past, we are about to be bombed with more content than we know what to do with. We are about 6 weeks away from the start of the season and if I have to read content with a white background, cannot edit my posts to the board, and don't get points for my random internet comments, then so be it. I don't come here for those things. I think given time the functionality of the site will improve.
I laugh a little every time I see this ad from Human Element on the board. Sorry, I meant to post it, but the only option I see for including an image is to upload it using the Imce file manager. That's another nice feature. It only takes me to a mysterious empty folder.
the new site is a foolish goat rodeo. if i was representing brian the 'dialogue' with HUEL (blog killers!!) would be quite stern. unless brian paid them in green stamps, family video and blockbuster coupons, or mgopoints, how could a company so badly miss the target?
A foolish goat rodeo should be the new tagline.
Official attire of MGoBlog 3.0 web developers....
Hopefully Brian is getting a refund.
I went through this list today with HUEL and put most of them into our to-do list (or edited them because they were already there.)
- Unable to edit: Again, a security issue. That's not an easy fix.
- Cant up or down vote thread creators. Added as a "if it's easy" thing
- Cant post video or gifs without uploading to computer. Been on the list.
- Preferences not saved. On the list as "if it's easy"
- Not returned to position in thread when making comment I had this higher and it was bumped down. I explained today what we wanted with this and it's back up to a "1"
- Front page "continue reading" puts user back at beginning of article and not where post ended. Been on the list.
- Points may or may not be working anymore. Please explain?
- Some users still cant vote for reasons unknown? Please explain?
Re: 7 & 8, I thought this was fixed. I've tried it on accounts at every level that should have voting and they work in real time. Please let me know if you see otherwise.
Can we bring back the link that would go straight to the newest comment?
Howdy, Seth. Points don't update and voting still not working on my account. I wonder if the two issues are somehow connected, so if one doesn't work the other doesn't. Have you tried it with actual user accounts that are having problems? Feel free to log in as me if that helps.
Cheers.
Us OCDers who thrive on like an organized, systematically posted blog are tearing our hair out. More aesthetically pleasing to the eye but unforeseen issues to resolve. Multiple navigational capabilities in the form of redundant links make it work okay but not efficiently.
Maybe one day we will log in and all will be well. One lesson I learned quite some time ago is the biggest way to piss people off is for them to have issues and for the powers that be to remain silent. Airlines have largely figured this out...people can deal with issues as long as they know what is going in.
I hope Brian et al. at some point will take five minutes an give us an occasional update. It would have been nice for our leadership to build a spreadsheet with all the problems Mgoblog users have identified and keep us updated as to fixes.
A tradition unlike any other...
Bitching about the site.
I really wasn't trying to bitch. I was just hoping someone would have a theory or explanation for how the site was intended to look and work. I'd rather talk about this than hop on twitter today. I am so sorry to have offended you. Please, can you ever forgive me?
Jesus, smart ass.
Ever try doing something to help? You're just complaining with zero solutions. Typical.
I don't think anyone is "bitching." After the update, this website has been seriously flawed with a whole bunch of bugs. The community has identified and notified the mods of these bugs, but the reaction time and communication in regards to our recommendations and issues has been poor. We are all passionate about this community and want it to be the best it can be, but without communication from the mods and developers it can get a bit frustrating
I never complained about the website before 3.0. I might not have complained about this one either if not for the attitude of Brian and company concerning the launch.
Maybe Brian - knowing this thing was broken, but tired of managing the crashes and viruses (viri?) on the old site - was like ah fuck it, launch this bitch warts and all, and then drank even more and came up with his sarcastic launch premier strategy
This site isn't that bad, but it has a lot of annoying and unexpected flaws. The launch, on the other hand, was an ill conceived and self indulgent disaster. Seth was telling people who complained about only be able to reach the joke site for days afterwards to clear the cache from their browser I was in that boat. Maybe others just gave up. Their comments around the time of the launch belied any apprehension of the new site's flaws and there was no communication about known issues.
SkyPanther has to be a HUEL guy, right? Joined just before the re-launch and was all of the sudden posting a bunch of quality content with images embedded correctly, etc.
But I don't think there have been many recent posts from that account... now looking at the profile looks like some weird interactions and then cessation of posts for the last 10 days.
I think SkyPanther stopped posting once people found out that SkyPanther and It's Always Marcia are most likely the same person. Compare their posts regarding the Moderators and posts regarding "Sports Content."
https://mgoblog.com/users/skypanther
https://mgoblog.com/users/it%27s-always-marcia
IIRC that account was also incessantly posting a bunch of meaningless or outdated video without doing the legwork of summarizing or bulletin interesting points.
I don't mind anyone who wants to engage on Michigan football so wouldn't normally think twice about it, but that has a scent of lazy attempts to create engagement/boost site metrics.
No I never click on them. IMO they just occupy space. Personally I don't like complaining much about a free site but these are valid questions. I've had websites "developed" for my own business and have become pretty jaded with the process. Web development, again IMO, is a vastly oversold skill these days. A lot of people know just enough to be dangerous.
Seems like thumbnail "cards" at the top would fit pretty naturally in the left hand whitespace if they want to highlight articles. They could even be stickied so they're always visible as you scroll down reading articles. Smaller screens they could shrink down and disappear entirely on mobile.
That is a great idea. There is a ton of unused space on when I view it on my computer. I'm guessing there is a mobile-related reason for not using all of that space, but you would think they could figure out something to take it up.
And I don't know if it's related, but every time a post runs past where the board ends I tend to not finish it. The harsh contrast and the unattractive view lead me to just skipping to the comments to see if I missed anything.
Just as long as it all gets straightened out in time for Draftamageddon!
If only I could upvote this.
HUEL is unavailable, indefinitely.
Your hackers made sure of that, huh?
On the phone with HUEL right now going through this thread.