TCR: No Good Will Come of This

Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 2:45pm

UPDATE 2: Bah, issues...will have to wait a couple of days on the archives.

UPDATE: I'm going to try and start importing our archives from the all-baseball.com and MVN days tonight. It may crash everything.

I'm not gonna be able to muster anything coherent about the Cubs this week. The organizational meetings start October 19th and I'm sure we'll start hearing some rumors around then about what the Cubs offseason plan might be. I think we can all pretty much guess it now anyway, left-handed bats, Dempster or another starting pitcher and filling out the bullpen.

That all being said, I'll probably be spending a good portion of the offseason working on improving the site and while I'm never at a loss for ideas, I would love to hear what things you guys would like to see. Just throw as much spaghetti as you can at the walls and we'll see what sticks. There's no such thing as a bad idea...except the really stupid ones. Now this sort of thing has a tendency to just lead to a bitchfest about everything that we don't currently offer or what sucks, but try to keep it positive and offer ideas on additions and improvements if you can.

And to help your brain get going, some topics to think about:

  • Content - what more would you like to see of? What less would you like to see of? Ideas for regular features? Anything you'd like to come back that seems to have disappeared.
  • Site Layout - Fuck that logo is big, make it smaller! Needs more advertising, etc.
  • Site Functionality - Pop-up comments, Searches, etc...
  • Community - Rate comments, posts, more chat oppurtunities, ban one commenter per week?
  • Merchandising - Is there an 8x10 photo of Arizona Phil you want for your desk? Let us know..

And whatever else you'd like out of your Cubs site of choice....

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#1 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Chad on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 3:19pm.

"And whatever else you'd like out of your Cubs site of choice...."

Why do you care what we propose to BCB?

ZING!!!!

I've said it before and i'll say it again:

FAN POST ABILITY!!!!!!

Like SB Nation has.

#2 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by jacos on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 3:22pm.

Avatars or piture logos (same thing?)
Comment boxes moving to the right on replies-no likey.

Less Chad, more Trans. :-)

Everything else is great.

#3 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by big_lowitzki on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 3:24pm.

Comment boxes moving to the right? You mean threaded comments?

If so, you can turn that off.

#4 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 3:26pm.

how else would you know if it's a reply?

but as dave mentioned, you can view comments in a flat view if you wish, there's drop-down menus at the top of the comments.

#5 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by jacos on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 3:39pm.

Okay, I'm sorry asked.

If you ask for opinions don't bite people's heads off when they offer.

:-)

#16 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Mister Whipple on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 7:20pm.

He was looking for upgrades, not requests for moving the site back a decade. How about you just surf the web with Lynx and you'll get exactly what you want from every site.

I keed.

#6 Vin Scully-Vindicative SOB

Submitted by jacos on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 3:46pm.

On serious note, can anyone find Scully's call of Dodgers winning game 3.

I heard it on WSCR today and all he does is rips Cubs after final out.

Weird.

#20 Re: Vin Scully-Vindicative SOB

Submitted by Mitterwald on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 9:13pm.

I agree on Scully. That was really weird. I'm paraphrasing, but he says, "The Cubs are dead," right after strike three to Soriano and then he says that "everybody in the state of Illinois" thought the Cubs were going to go all the way.

I'm sure some South Siders and some Cardinals fans around Belleville or so might disagree.

#7 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Charlie on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 4:42pm.

I'm assuming that over the winter we'll get a little more AZ Phil, which is always good. Reports on things most of us can't watch are always nice, which is a big part of why I like AZ Phil's Reports and Mike Wellman's occasional AAA contributions. Good stuff.

#8 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Little Nate Lewis on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 4:45pm.

The only thing I miss from MVN is the pop-up comments.

#9 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by crunch on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 4:54pm.

more animated flaming skull gif's.

#10 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by The Joe on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 5:13pm.

Boobs watermarked in the background.

#11 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by John Beasley on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 5:25pm.

A different layout - more like a multi-section news site, less like a blog.

Different sections for all the regularly updated content - game threads and recaps, analysis, AZ Phil, Weliman, etc.

AZ Phil threads at the least deserve to be separated from the rest of the content - a different column or something. It throws off the pace at which the rest of the site moves, and the information is of a more timeless nature - better for reference.

Edit: I also thought merchandising was a good idea. I need my TCR boxers - or at the least a TCR knife scabbard.

#17 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Doug Dascenzo on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 8:21pm.

I'd love it if TCR could become a one-stop shop for all things Cubs.

- Game recaps/box scores (maybe not as in-depth as Trans' writeups, but enough so I don't have to go to ESPN or chicagosports.com to find out what happened in the game).

- Various Sections (e.g. Cubs news, reports from the farm, opinion pieces, trade rumors, stats, links to relevant articles on other blogs/sites, etc)

- How about Hot Cubs Fan of the Week. Once a week, someone scours Facebook to find the hottest chick in Cubs gear (shouldn't be hard), and posts her on here. Hey, chicks drive clicks.

Basically I don't want to have to visit any other site to read about the Cubs. Maybe this is too time-consuming, or just too much scope for a site focused on one team, but that's what brainstorming is for.

#23 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by John Beasley on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 9:39pm.

"Basically I don't want to have to visit any other site to read about the Cubs."

#31 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Chad on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 12:35am.

http://cubscuties.blogspot.com/

http://www.girlsofwrigleyfield.com/

#12 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by The Joe on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 5:44pm.

I read the site, scroll down to the bottom and read what I missed. If I hit reload, it doesn't show me new comments it just leaves me at the bottom. So I have to scroll to the top, click the TCR button, then click 'new comments' each time I want to refresh. It makes my life very difficult. I'd like a 'new comments' button at the bottom of the page...just above the "post a new comment' place.

Plus, I'd like breasts watermarked in the background.

#13 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 5:54pm.

Pick your Bobos...

#14 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by The Joe on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 6:20pm.

Bobos number 2. But it was a close race.

More appropriate:
http://www.collegehumor.com/picture:1831772

#15 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Chad on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 6:23pm.

the girl linked to 'bobos'!

holy mother of God!

#28 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by 10man on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:33pm.

Or at the very least the button at the bottom of the comments links to the (refreshed) home page of TCR where we can see if there are new comments or not.

#62 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by The Joe on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 2:55pm.

That's good too. How about a two links at the bottom..."Main" and "New Comments"? That would be neato.

#18 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Jim Hickmans Bat on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 8:44pm.

Definitely agree about a separate section for AZ Phil's posts, he is teh bomb.

Some general site rules would also be cool. Namely, I've seen at least one Cubs fan site I used to frequent lose it's hipness over politics, we don't want that here. Let's agree that it's all baseball/Cubs, all the time, and keep the other stuff to more appropriate blogs.

There has to be a better visual way of doing the comments, isn't there? It seems hard to follow various trains of thought in the longer threads, maybe that's because of a lack of quoting function in the comment box?

Just say no to avatars, that serves no useful purpose.

Perhaps a section on fantasy baseball tips, especially in the spring as roster selection time nears?

#24 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by JoePepitone on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 9:53pm.

"Some general site rules would also be cool. Namely, I've seen at least one Cubs fan site I used to frequent lose it's hipness over politics, we don't want that here. Let's agree that it's all baseball/Cubs, all the time, and keep the other stuff to more appropriate blogs."

I like it without the hard and fast rules. It seems there is already an implied "don't be a dick" rule in place that Rob enforces when things (rarely) start to get out of hand. It allows a little bit of off-topic goofiness from time-to-time and still gets rid of people like the infamous Towel guy who constantly abused the loose standards of Web congeniality.

#25 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by crunch on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 10:24pm.

agreed.

TCR seems to self-regulate pretty well and judging by parachat, there's definitely people represented from the extreme right and the extreme left that frequent this board.

#29 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by 10man on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:37pm.

are you viewing the comments FLAT? If you switch to the THREADED option, you don't need to quote since your reply would be stuck to the original comment.

Unless of course, you're AZPHIL and you still prefer to quote the original comment instead of using the REPLY button. That works fine too.

#19 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by 433 on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 9:13pm.

I liked popup comments too, but it's not a huge thing.

If we could make the poster's name stand out a little more it would be helpful when skimming. Maybe set it off at the very top of the post by itself.

How about setting up a way to "rate" a poster or a post? So that especially enlightening or interesting posts could have 17 stars or thumbs ups or something? If that were in place I would probably skim a 150 post thread that I missed rather than skipping it altogether.

Also, how about more recaps of playoff victories? You guys haven't done one of those in years.

#21 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Charlie on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 9:35pm.

Any way that we could rate the comments in the threads?

#26 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by O.Julius on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 10:34pm.

+1

#43 Re: Brainstorm Session: Site Improvements

Submitted by Mister Whipple on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 8:42am.

That would be awesome. The content management platform does provide a module for comment rating. Rob, would it be really hard to implement this? The only downside is that some of the users would never be heard from again (Navigator).

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