Burnout, Direction, And So On Comment Count

Brian

Okay: we are in MGoBlog's annual season-over-I'm-burned-out period. Posting slows and for the next few weeks you're not going to get many 5000 word exegeses; I will get the OSU UFR done sometime before Christmas.

At that point I'll look towards the summer and various improvements that can be made to the blog. Last year's project was the move off blogspot to the current digs. This year's projects are still up in the air.

A list of things under consideration:

  • The addition of a rating system for diaries and posters in general that will bubble high-rated things up to more prominent positions and bury low-rated ones.
  • More prominent access to diaries and the like; a better page for each user.
  • Creating a full-fledged recruiting wiki.
  • Similar to the above, adding in player pages and so forth.
  • A revamp of the comment system.
  • Improving the interface for posting diaries and comments.
  • Fixing the stupid bug that never sends emails to some people who register.

A couple things I'm committed do doing:

  • Restoring tags to all the posts moved over from blogger and all the posts from this season I was too lazy to tag because Drupal made it a pain to do so from Windows Live Writer.
  • Creating a local streaming video solution so I can host UFR clips without someone shutting an account down.

I know there were a number of complaints when the site first launched but I figured a good portion of them were just the natural tendency to hate change; anything that's still bothering you is an issue. If you've got something you're wishing for, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll add it somewhere on the list.

Oh, yeah: how is the performance of the site? It seems slow to me but has gotten better of late. Is it a problem for people?

Comments

MaizeandBlue14

December 5th, 2008 at 12:18 AM ^

I would like the banner changed from time to time. Similar to what google does for holidays and such. We could just have something to get us excited for each we like a brown jug before we play minnesota or a redneck before we play tOSU

Joined: 11/09/2008

MGoPoints: 620

BigBum

December 5th, 2008 at 12:40 AM ^

I do not wish to suck ass here but I seriously love the site. I check in multiple times daily for the content and the artistic impression...not the gadgets. I think ultimately that is why your site is so popular is because you put an entertaining spin on a few subjects that are so dear to our hearts. I just wish you would read this and I wish I had better access to you. I got shit to say that has nothing to do with the public! I can help! UMFB11NTS BigBum B Hutzel Grimes, IA FB Coach 14 Years

Joined: 09/14/2008

MGoPoints: 97

MGoMike

December 5th, 2008 at 6:23 AM ^

1. It bugs the hell out of me that Michigan blogs that have died months, even years ago are still listed in the other Michigan blog section (Autumn Thunder grumble grumble). I am also annoyed that some of the ones that have not been updated in months are not differentiated from the ones that have been. This may be a little hard, but maybe the list could be sorted according the most recently updated blogs, or possibly have a mini rss feed for each blog suckerfish style. In my opinion, it does quality blogs like Michigan Sports Center a disservice when you simply lump them in there next to dead and dieing blogs.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 83

baleedat

December 5th, 2008 at 8:03 AM ^

I still can't see the links at the top of the screen on my work comoputer (donate, email, mgoboard, etc.). Also, I have to scroll down past mgo.licio.us on the main page to see your posts.

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 272

imafreak1

December 5th, 2008 at 10:45 AM ^

Love the site. I have 2 suggestions. This is point 1. 1. TomVH’s last name has to a’s in a row. This confuses me. Please change it. For example, the author of this site claims his name is Brian Cook. This is such a preposterously generic, American name that it is clearly a nom de plume. I suspect Cook’s real name is either Uther Pendragon or Ellsworth Toohey. Look, this is America. I’m a white, Protestant male between the ages of 25 and 60 and we run this joint. Unusual names are clearly out. What? Not after January 20th? The President elect’s name is what? I knew I shouldn’t have skipped those meetings of the Knights Templar. Point 2 is below. 2. Rather than rating diary entries we should take a cue from the ancient Athenians. They had a practice where any member of community could be ‘ostracized’ by majority vote. When ostracized the loser had to leave Athens for 10 years. This practice worked very well for the Athenians (I make this statement in the complete absence of factual support because that appears to be how things are done in sports journalism i.e. Charlie Weis is a good coach and RR ran off Mallett.) For instance, in 442 BC Thucydides was ostracized because he refused to author a Cliff Notes version of his absurdly long “History of the Peloponnesian War.” Coincidentally, those ostracized may have ended up in Sparta. 10 years is clearly too long. Instead. I suggest those ostracized be forced to move to an MSU blog of their choice for 1 month.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 2844

jdfogel

December 5th, 2008 at 10:51 AM ^

a mobile version that doesn't take 5 minutes to load on my Treo would be great. IE6 (work laptop, IT won't update) still loads everything shifted down. Not a huge deal, but since you asked. By the way, should be said that you could probably publish this blog etched in dog poo and a lot of us would still read it. Best Umich blog ever. Thank you for doing what you do so well.

Joined: 09/04/2008

MGoPoints: 26

Anonymosity

December 5th, 2008 at 11:54 AM ^

The blog is top-notch as is. Great job, Brian. I only have minor suggestions: First, diary and regular post comments are reverse-time-ordered; board threads are time-ordered. It's a small quibble, but I think uniformity would be nice. Also, how about brief user profiles? (Is that what you mean by "a better page for each user"?) Finally, and most importantly- more shirtless women, less shirtless men. Even just less shirtless men would do.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2482

Anonymosity

December 5th, 2008 at 12:54 PM ^

Well... I mean... there have to be SOME exceptions, right? I don't see any reason to do away with Naked Man. In fact, maybe I should have suggested Naked Man be the permanent banner. Not because it would match my desktop or anything. No, just for sh**s and giggles. Yeah.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2482

bigkegs

December 7th, 2008 at 4:41 PM ^

I think the current version of the site runs great. I honestly don't know how much effort it would take to do so, but it would be nice if there was a mobile version of this site available for people using Blackberry's, PDAs, smartphones, etc. Maybe just like a stripped down version with just the primary posts and content available would be cool I would think.

Joined: 11/17/2008

MGoPoints: 15