Does anyone actually use the little thingies on each post?

Submitted by Brian on
So I've got these little icons on the bottom of each post that go to Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Yardbarker, Ballhype, etc. Does anyone actually use any of these friggin' things? I put them there in the vague hope Monday Recruitin' would hit the front page of Digg: no dice. They appear to be useless pixels I could hack out for something more usable. I think I'm going to hack out all of them except the Facebook, YB, and Ballhype ones. Anyone care?
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jpl

July 22nd, 2008 at 4:17 AM ^

I haven't submitted/dugg any posts yet, but if something big/interesting breaks, e.g. Carr's retirement, you'll want to have the gadgets there. Is there an advantage to removing them other than aesthetics?

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 6

Blue Durham

July 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 AM ^

I didn't even know what those things were until this post and decided to start punching them to see what they do. Found out that they don't really do anything if you don't have an account with digg, facebook, etc., which of course I don't. So I guess that keeping these would be depend on (1) how many people have accounts with these various services and (2) of those how many would be willing to "hype" a posting on said service in order to increase traffic to MGoBlog (which we are all in favor of)?

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 6082

Ninja Football

July 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 PM ^

I don't have a Digg account but that could be fixed if you're looking for ppl to push Monday Recruiting or something.   Sounds like a lot of people don't even know what they do, so with a little interweb education we might be able to fix that.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 342

Blue Durham

July 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 PM ^

Agreed.  If someone can explain:

  • what these services are (like to dummies like me) and their differences
  • how the services work or what they provide the user
  • and how, by us using these buttons, they could help Brian

I think Brian may have mis-overestimated our computer-interweb-literiteness.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 6082

Brian

July 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 AM ^

The point of the buttons is this: it makes it easier for readers to post/vote for stuff on "social media" sites. Social media sites basically display links to suff based on how much people have voted for them. If you get on the front page of Digg it's thousands and thousands of hits.

The catch: Digg's mostly an inter-nerd site and I don't think they'd ever go for MGoBlog content, which is way niche 99% of the time. I'd leave the Facebook one up because you can just post MGoBlog stuff to your facebook account, which your friends might click on, since at least some of your friends are probably interested in M football. Also there are a coupe sport-specific ones. 

Why I'd get rid of them: they do make the site a tiny bit slower, but more importantly they're sort of useless clutter. MGoBlog is now a large, complicated site and I'd like to cut down on clutter as much as possible.

Joined: 05/26/2008

MGoPoints: 118859

Ninja Football

July 23rd, 2008 at 5:05 AM ^

Brian,

From an entrepreneurial standpoint it's really a no-brainer.

Your two reasons for losing them:

  1. a tiny bit of speed is lost.
  2. they're useless cluttter- and very minor clutter at that.

 

Reason to keep them:

The potential for tons and tons of hits, which benefits everyone. While good for you on a hits basis, it'd also be good for the community. More people would know that you're here and be able to add this to their daily reading like some of us and/or become MGoAddicts like many of us.

With the implementation of reader based content the chances have increased that you'll catch lightning in a bottle, catapulting you to the front page of Digg and benefiting the site as a whole. While the two reasons you mentioned for removing them are valid, I suspect they're also things only you have noticed.

Lastly, while a lot of people didn't know what they were for, 200+ have viewed the thread and will learn. I'd say it's more a matter of people not knowing how than refusing to do so. Perhaps it's time for another MGo-Ninja Tutorial to get everyone on board???

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 342