Old site was better
I just came back here a week ago and really miss the old site
It red flagged "new posts" in a thread so you could just read the new stuff only
It didn't kick you to the end of a thread when you made a post
There were more threads listed on the front page
MGo points changed (is this my imagination or are all the points frozen like that Twillight Zone episode with the guy and the stopwatch?)
I am sure these complaints have been made before here but maybe if concerns are repeated and enough people join in then changes are more likely to be made
BTW- Was there automatic spell check on the old site? I can't remember, but it is a common feature on many message boards and one I miss here
September 5th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^
It’s supposed to be fun, right? The way a lot of our fan base reacts to things is the exact opposite of FUN. You hit it right in the head with your comment about “win one for the Michigan Family.” What family? We eat our young around here on a routine basis.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
I like the new site. Happy to have it.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:45 AM ^
Biggest issue for me is the lack of "new posts" being flagged. It makes it nearly impossible to track threads once they get a certain number of replies, so you tend to post and never return, rather than having good back-and-forth discussion.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:49 AM ^
This is why I love reddit, because you get notifications when someone replies to you.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:45 AM ^
Reddit-style commenting and voting would be fantastic here.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:40 AM ^
Eh, Reddit has major issues with downvoting of dissenting views to bury them with no constructive dialogue. What they *need* to fix on here is having to go to a new page when you reply to a comment. Having to scroll back through everything to find where you were is kinda absurd in big threads.
edit: don't let my Reddit skepticism fool you, it's an infinitely better system than whatever the hell is happening here.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:55 AM ^
YES. I don't know why this wouldn't be a priority for someone creating a message board these days, especially one that is counted on for a ton of site traffic.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Yep, I don’t reply near as much because I can never find my post again on mobile to see if someone responded.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^
I noticed that if I click your username, your post history comes up just like the old site. Can it really be that difficult to make that feature work for accounts you're logged on to?
I bail on most discussions because they're impossible to follow now, especially on mobile. And I never used the app on 2.0
September 5th, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
Damn, I thought you really saved me some time. Clicking my name just takes me to the lists of post I made. When you click on the post it just takes you to the top of the thread again. Still have to sift through posts and white space to find replies.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:51 AM ^
Ha, sorry. I've thought about keeping a separate window open with my account logged out.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
The "New post" flags were also very useful when modding. For example, when a topic would pile up a lot of new posts rather quickly, 9 times out of 10 it was / still is because someone said something "unfortunate". I was able to find those fairly quickly then, but now I am reading every topic that I can remember to read and I am sure I am missing things at this point.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^
I feel like the new banner was made just for you, MonkeyMan
September 5th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^
Back to these shitty threads, I see.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:53 AM ^
Great post, thanks for coming back to share these insights.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
Meh. I'd rather see bitching about the site than more bitching about Harbaugh.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Why cant we bitch about both? Is there some sort pitch count on bitching?
September 5th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^
True, hadn't considered that...
September 5th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
Nothing said or will be said is new but it still blows my mind that they thought the mobile setup would be fine this way. The worst part is prior to launch I would have paid whatever for an app or proper mobile setup, I probably still would, but owner apathy, board trolls, and overall shit board posts would make me think about it. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Agree. I also miss the smart phone app. I don't check mgoblog as much since the new site update.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^
Yes it was but we are slaves to the corporate masters of these sites.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
The move to the new site mirrored the football team in many ways. While we waited to see the results, there was a whole lot of bluster about how great this feature/player is, or how that design/position group was greatly improved, blah blah blah.
Then we finally got to see it in action and collectively made the same wtf face that Harbaugh is making on the banner right now.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
I still have the old banner and I don't know what people are talking about with the new banner.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
I love how people think that when something is developed and launched, all features are a go right away. That's not how development works
September 5th, 2018 at 11:56 AM ^
The problem is that the new site is somehow less functional than the old, which is impressive.
Bottom line is Brian doesn’t care about fixing any of the new or old bugs.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:16 AM ^
Meh, I don't think it's that bad now that I understand the differences from the old site. Almost everything you listed as complaints is trivial; the feature to flag new posts would be nice.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:37 AM ^
Yeah, that's the only feature I really noticed was different that I wished was still around.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
All this I've made clear in the sticky thread, but I've been beating that drum but we had so many users complaining about points that against our better judgment we switched the main developer onto getting points working. The "New" tags are a big job, and next. Not switching streams now.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
Yep, I saw that in the bugs sticky, should have mentioned that. Thanks for keeping that up to date.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:16 AM ^
I also thought the old site was better. But I've come to view 3.0 the same way I view my waistline from 20 years ago:
It might have looked better, but it ain't ever coming back.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
Beat Notre Dame!!
September 5th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
What? The site is changed?
September 5th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
The elephant in the room. I'm just happy to have a site to discuss Michigan football...
September 5th, 2018 at 10:36 AM ^
And yet, if you were to read old threads from back then, everyone complained about the old site and all it's quirks.
I am not a huge fan of the new redesign, but it serves its purpose and, frankly, the site seems more stable as a result.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^
yeah, but the old site lacked the constant threads with complaints about the new site.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
Auto correct is the enema.......
Enemy, Damnit!
September 5th, 2018 at 10:51 AM ^
New Mgoblog = Pop Evil, In the Big House
Old Mgoblog = Hail To The Victors, Michigan Band
Brian Cook = Dave Brandon who refuses to go back to what was good.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
I'm sure this was brought up by others, but I'll take a shot with my understanding.
They (they being Brian) wanted all of the old functionality, but they wanted the site converted to something that is current supported, rather than the version of Drupal that was being used. They had priorities
- All of the old posts going back to 2008 and even before had to be converted. I'm guessing this dictated that the new site was going on the current Drupal platform. This was the top priority.
- Get the switch over prior to the football season - the 2017 football season. That failed, so they were not going to fail to get it out prior to the 2018 football season.
- Any functionality that is lacking will be likely be added after the 2018 football season as they are too buys during this time to deal with changes.
Yes, the new site is less functional but is more stable and can handle the times of high traffic better. The various bells and whistles that made the old site really good will hopefully be added in the winter/spring of 2019.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
Are you a mod now? Just noticed the star next to your user name...
September 5th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^
The old site repeatedly froze during times of heavy traffic. I'm not nostalgic for that.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
no need to be nostalgic, i got some pretty sweet '502 gateway' messages saturday night. just like old times...
seriously, they've made a bunch of fixes for the better and i'm sure they'll get the rest done after football. and if the season takes a nosedive maybe they'll do it during football.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
Same. I was getting a lot of 502 Saturday night.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
You're right. Blog wouldn't load several times throughout Saturday's game.
September 5th, 2018 at 10:59 AM ^
This site is so bad for mobile users
September 5th, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
At least it's not crashing anymore. I won't address the rest of this because it's all been addressed ad nauseum in the sticky thread. Hope bagging on us made you feel good though.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
Also, can't posbang or negbang the actual OP.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^
Yes, it was.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^
Underrated shitty aspect of the new site: for those who enjoy reading old articles it used to be super easy as a new link would be created for each page you went back to (So you could just type page 500 or whatever in the URL and you'd go straight to 2011), whereas now you can still go backwards, but it's all on the same URL so it's pretty much impossible to go back any decent amount of time.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^
Call me old fashioned, but I liked it better when it was made of wood and chicken wire.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^
I don't love the redesign. That said, think that a lot of these issues can be fixed by a decent app, since that was how I accessed MGoBlog 75+% of the time. The old app was bare bones, but it worked well.
I think that the larger problem - and one that is far more difficult to control - is the level of discussion around here. As the blog's readership has grown, the board has become a lot more like MLive or any other generic discussion board. The comments are almost entirely predictable and VERY repetitive. For example: a post about our offensive struggles will contain 50 comments saying "we have no tackles," another 50 saying "why didn't harbaugh bring in more tackles," and another 50 along the lines of "fire Pep, fire XYZ and bring back Jedd." I used to scroll through the comments regularly, as there was often decent info, analysis and discussion. Now I pass through them quickly, if at all, and usually just look to see if some of the more reliable, long-timers have added their $.02. Like I said, however, there isn't much that can be done to address this.