Looking for your straight forward feedback

[Umpire in Chief]

I've created a list of things I want to get done over the next few months before the 2012 season starts. I've got nearly 2 dozen things on my list, but I want to know from you:

• What are your favorite things about the site?
• What are your least favorite things about the site?
• What are your favorite features?
• What are your least favorite features?
• What would you like to see?
• Any other constructive criticisms you may have?

While I cant promise you I can make each and every suggestion happen, I will take a look at everything you have to say.

Thanks!

[mstaylor]

I know many enjoy it but my least favorite is the news feed. The rest is very good.

[JaxRolo]

I am with Mike. I don't like the news feed.

Also I don't like the Stickies! They take up to much space on the top of the page.

It be nice to have more space for pictures.

Everything else is great.

[Umpire in Chief]

Please, others chime in on your opinion of the news feed...

Should it stay or should it go? With enough feedback I may put it up to a vote.

[sdix00]

I don't like the news feed at all.

Perhaps there is a way to keep it off the "View New Content" link?

At least, this is the link I use primarily.

[sdix00]

I suggest improving the way U-E uses facebook and other sites.

I know you have a fb page, but I rarely see anything in my fb feed. Perhaps post links to the more lively discussions. That will help boost participation among the more passive users who don't live on U-E all day. (Those folks are sick)

Certainly post anytime you add an article or an interview.

More activity on the U-E fb page will grow fb fans as well.

_______

This is a little more technical, BUT check in to adding fb plugins on the U-E site. This will allow fb friends on U-E to see each other's status updates on U-E. It will also place activity in the fb feeds like "Warren posted a new thread 'Green ball bags are awesome'".

Then Warren's umpire friends will see it (with permission) and click over to U-E.

_______

Also, EBay and Craigslist both have APIs which allow their listings to appear on other sites. Include this feed (like the Umpire news feed) in the Equipment Area for more automatically generated (and useful) content.

[sdix00]

One issue I noticed is that the content easily disappears from the "New Content" Page. I think it might be showing new stuff from the last 24 hours or the last visit.

If I skip a couple of days and come back, I don't think some threads show up on the "new content" page.

[Umpire in Chief]

I've played with some fb intigration in the past, not quite successful an implimentation as I hoped allowing people to log in using their fb account info.

Put I like the idea of more use of the fb page and their resources.

One reason I havent implimented more fb integration is because I want to protect people's privacy. For example I know less than 10% of our users real names, and that's fine, but all the sudden you see Warren Workman likes... but I'll definately look further into that.

The I like the idea behind the craigslist & ebay intigration, but for some specific reasons this won't be possible.

The new content issue is interesting because it sounds like you surf the site the same way I do going straight to the new content, but don't have that issue. Will send a private message about that.

[Umpire in Chief]

Keep the suggestions and comments coming...

Even if it is an I wish _____

I'm taking all the feedback along with some of my ideas and creating a survey monkey poll I want to get out soon to all the members as I put things together for improving the site.

[mstaylor]

All the boards I go to, and it is about nine daily, I go to the forum page where all the post show. Here it will show any sub forum section with unread topics/threads. From there I decide what to read first. Many times I will read ejections before off topic, or professional before youth, whatever hits me that day. I never liked the new content button. For example I rarely read the equipment section but I do go back and catch up. Using my method it always shows sections that have unread threads.

[KLAH316]

Get rid of the News from around the web.... Unless it can be filtered to only show Umpire Specific News.....

I don't really care if the Blue jays beat the Royals in 10 innings.... :yippie:

[bigblue89]

could you put a reviews section in?

[Umpire in Chief]

could you put a reviews section in?

http://umpire-empire.com/reviews/

[bigblue89]

sorry UIC i never noticed it before :bang:

[Umpire in Chief]

sorry UIC i never noticed it before

Not a problem, but still extremely useful feedback.

[yawetag]

As one of the moderators of the news section, I can explain how it works.

Warren has set up literally hundreds of news feeds, each using a specific search. Most of these are placed in a queue that must be moderatored. These queued posts aren't seen until they've been approved. For an example, for every 100 or so posts, I may only approve one or two.

However, not every feed is set to go to the queue, but to be immediately posted to the group. We're working through finding them, but it's difficult to pin-point sometimes. There are feeds for every MLB umpire, different key words, and even something as simple as "umpire." If a game wrap-up story has a list of all the umpires, you're looking at 4 posts right there. Therefore, when a post is made directly to the group, it's hard for us to find the feed it's associated to.

That said: It may be counter-productive to my major role on the site, but I do agree the news feed is a bit cumbersome. The quality-to-quantity ratio is horrible. There are days that I filter through 100 news stories -- none of which are "good enough" to make a post in the feed.

However, I find it an enjoyable forum when good stories are posted. I don't think a majority of the stories that get posted would have been found by other members. The idea of the forum is to find relevant news stories, in the hopes it sparks conversation. It doesn't, though.

[Umpire in Chief]

Andrew has it spot on.

Here's my next idea is to kill the RSS feeds for news and rely on members finding and contributing links to articles they find.

[JaxRolo]

Andrew has it spot on.

Here's my next idea is to kill the RSS feeds for news and rely on members finding and contributing links to articles they find.

I like it!

[yawetag]

Here's my next idea is to kill the RSS feeds for news and rely on members finding and contributing links to articles they find.

Sounds good to me. In fact, I'll take a bit of the work and post as many as I can find. If it's possible for me to get your list of feeds, I'll set up my own and filter it away from here, then post only the ones that are applicable.

Of course, this also means others can post all they want.

[mstaylor]

Here's my next idea is to kill the RSS feeds for news and rely on members finding and contributing links to articles they find.

Sounds good to me. In fact, I'll take a bit of the work and post as many as I can find. If it's possible for me to get your list of feeds, I'll set up my own and filter it away from here, then post only the ones that are applicable.

Of course, this also means others can post all they want.

So you would leave the section, just 86 the RSS feeds. I would read it then.

[yawetag]

Sounds good to me. In fact, I'll take a bit of the work and post as many as I can find. If it's possible for me to get your list of feeds, I'll set up my own and filter it away from here, then post only the ones that are applicable.

Of course, this also means others can post all they want.

So you would leave the section, just 86 the RSS feeds. I would read it then.

That's my idea. It would drop the number of crap stories, but still put in relevant articles.

The other solution is to go through all the current feeds and make sure they're set up to go to the queue first. However, this still adds work to the moderators to filter through the queue. By making it an open forum, where any member can post a story they find, the quality would improve and the work to do it diminishes.

[ukce1861]

If the news feeds are a lot of work, I'd say drop them. While I do usually look at the forum, the value provided is pretty low given the work it takes to provide it. I like the idea of keeping the forum for users to post links in.

Warren, as to your original question, I think the forum's great. I really appreciate the effort you put in to this and I can't imagine how much work it takes.

• What are your least favorite things about the site?
• I don't like the adds on the right-hand side. They push everything down really far and make the page long. Is there a way to minimize the Premium Membership ad in particular. I''ve already signed up for the Premium Membership and if others haven't, I doubt seeing it every day is going to change that.
• What are your favorite features?
• I like that if I haven't read a topic it stays bold, even if I leave the site and come back.
• What are your least favorite features?
• Sometimes, even when I read a topic, it still stays bold. Not really a big deal, but a minor annoyance.
• The reviews and articles don't seem to be well integrated with the rest of the forum. Oftentimes a new review or article will be posted and I don't realize it for quite a while. I realize they're posted on the far right but I guess I just don't notice them. Is there a way to create a separate forum for them so they show up better?
• Any other constructive criticisms you may have?
• Keep up the good work!

[sdix00]

• The reviews and articles don't seem to be well integrated with the rest of the forum. Oftentimes a new review or article will be posted and I don't realize it for quite a while. I realize they're posted on the far right but I guess I just don't notice them. Is there a way to create a separate forum for them so they show up better?

Agree

[mstaylor]

What are your favorite features?<li>I like that if I haven't read a topic it stays bold, even if I leave the site and come back.

I very much agree. I have been on boards that if you didn't all the new stuff in a section, switched to another section, on that site, it would drop the bolding in the first section.

[Thunderheads]

I would like to see 2 features .........

1)

I'd like to see text from a response in a thread I'm subscribed to when I get an email alert. This way, if I don't have time, or dont' want to pull the entire site (thread) up, I can quickly read what someone responded. If I'd like to respond, THEN I can click and go to it, but...if it's for an FYI purpose,...boom, I can just read and move on. It's a nice feature. It happens when you get a personal message, but not when someone replies ...it used to be that way.

2)

I'd like to be able to UN-SUBSCRIBE from a post without going to the site and going into my SETTINGS, etc, etc, etc..... You used to be able to un-subscribe from the email sent to you that someone responded ....click, ...it's gone ...and your'e unsubscribed. Very convenient