Meta: Site Redesign?

Submitted by StephenRKass on

Back in summer months, there were several front page articles and posts about site redesign. A local firm, whose name I forget, was actually going to do things the right way. (I tried the site search, to see if my questions were actually answered, but get back a 404 error message.) Then, apparently soon before the season actually began, we were told that it was going to be harder and take longer than expected. And that we shouldn't expect anything until after the season was over. Well, the season is over, so I'm curious what's going to happen.

I am not posting to complain:

  • Mgoblog is free, so why complain
  • Complaints and whining causes downvotes and sometimes outright bans
  • And complaining doesn't really seem to work at changing anything.

Still, I'd like to know what's happening. I assume some changes have happened.

  • I haven't seen the whole system crash this Fall, so either the server is better, or the software, or I just haven't been around to witness the crashes
  • I see you can page down the forum, at least today. Which should make it easier to avoid starting new posts when the same topic was posted yesterday

Here are several questions and suggestions:

  • Explain what is happening with the server or servers or handling of traffic
  • Explain the software changes
  • Lay out the current projected timeline for things to happen (now? Feb. 29? Never?)
  • Show us what features and capability will be added
  • Tell us what in the current site will be abandoned / killed
  • Tell us about general site design, navigation.

I still am addicted to mgoblog. I'm thankful, as this is my personal retreat from reality. While I'd like to see things "new and improved," I continue to (mostly) be happy with the site.

Blue Mike

December 11th, 2017 at 11:57 AM ^

Speaking of the redesign and nuking posts, will there be a feature to leave some sort of remnant of the nuked post so that we are aware when it happens? Not keeping the original content or anything, but at least some placeholder so we know a post was nuked and poor OP doesn't think he's getting attacked for an innocent post.

StephenRKass

December 11th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^

Yep, I concur. Eleven Warriors has a feature where a severely negged comment goes almost blank. If you really want, you can struggle to read it, but it serves as a placeholder, and identifies a knucklehead. That would be preferable to just having a comment caved. Sometime in the past, they changed the avatar to a pretty unicorn. Something like that would be workable. Change the avatar to:

cozy200

December 11th, 2017 at 1:53 PM ^

That's some super fast mod, hammer o death moves man.  Good work to Nukem

 

"You haven't dismantled your MX stockpile!  That's it buster, no more military aid!"

 

LSAClassOf2000

December 11th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^

I almost never post from the app, but I do use it when someone is trying to call out someone for posts like this and I can't immediately find them or the thread linked in the Sticky doesn't make sense or whatever. 

Sadly, there is no moderation in terms of deleting offensive posts possible on the app, but you can ban app users from, well, the laptop in my case. 

SoDak Blues

December 11th, 2017 at 11:36 AM ^

I am just going to skip over that first idiotic comment as that asshole will be banned post haste. I too would like to know if this is still in the works. The site has been relatively stable through most of the season with fewer errors. Looking forward to seeing the new layout. 

andrew_

December 11th, 2017 at 11:37 AM ^

I'll echo the sentiment. I even reached out the admins directly, well over a year ago, to offer my services gratis. I'm presently using the Stylish Chrome Extension and a stylesheet (that was no easy task to write, given the rather outdated html structure on the site) for that extension that completely changes the layout, colors, and fonts for the site to make it more readable and mobile-friendly. 

StephenRKass

December 11th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^

I did a simple google search on "HUEL," and all that comes up is a nutrionally complete bad tasting powdered food.

But yeah, Seth comments on this sometimes, but doesn't make promises. Brian usually is either hunkered down in his batcave thinking deep thoughts for future articles, or working on glitches, or hanging with his kid or his GOAT SO, or doing a podcast.

My OP is a bit long:  you could boil it down to "what's going on with the site?" I just think that the preeminent University of Michigan fan website could use some upgrades and better functionality.

JBDaddy

December 11th, 2017 at 11:58 AM ^

Human Element is the firm's actual name, but I gotta say HUEL is catchier.

It's not like they've folded - I saw recent position openings listed for them, so I imagine it's just a case of "your site is so funky that transitioning from old awesome to new awesome is harder than it looked and you have a high-use season coming up and it might be better to postpone than muck up your revenue stream just now."

[Edit, damn I'm slow.]