A few things
Hey, folks. It's been a while, but I'm back from a few weeks of relaxation, and things have certainly changed a bit. Outside of UCLA, the blog underwent an overhaul and I'd like some opinions. Do you like it? What would you change? What features would you like to have added?
As you ponder those things, expect UCLA to at least check in on the status of Arizona signee Emmanuel Negedu, who is asking for his release from his national letter of intent. I was told by sources that UCLA will check in on any high-level player that becomes available, and Negedu certainly fits that description.
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About Inside UCLA
This is Brian Dohn's fifth season covering UCLA after spending 4 1/2 years covering the Dodgers for the Daily News and other Los Angeles Newspaper Group papers. He graduated from Rutgers, where the first college football game was played in 1869. Sure, the Scarlet Knights suffered for a long time, but now RU is doing what Jerseyans always thought was possible. Winning at Rutgers also proves winning is possible everywhere else in the nation, so underachieving coaches better be careful. Now, if only men's hoops can turn it around.
Welcome back! Jill and Ramona have been great but it's good to see your name in the byline again.
The blog seems to be fine, the bright red border takes a bit away from the UCLA motif but it is most likely a Daily News thing so I won't give you too much grief over it. Your mug shot in the corner is a nice touch as well, that I think we all will give you much grief about.
Welcome Back!
I like the look of the blog a lot. Seems cleaner and leaving comments works better. Here are changes I'd make...
1. I liked the solid bar between days. It's nice to be able to differentiate one day from another.
2. Allow us to leave comments more frequently, especially on different posts. I seldom post on your comments but wanted to post on two different ones and was told it was too soon to post on the second one. It didn't tell me how long to wait, it just scolded me. Made me a little gun shy.
Welcome Back!
One thing i loved about the last blog design was the ability to manuver rapidly from one blog post to the next (at the top of the old page). Would be nice if that was brought back
Welcome back, Brian. Perhaps a scoreboard applet, or something with standings and/or schedules would be nice. Oh, and the Bear graphic is creepy. Really creepy.
UCLA84,
The bear graphic appears to just be a photograph of the bear outside Ackerman Union.
I also would like to see the day separator bar to come back. It really helps to distinguish between days, especially when there are frequent posts.
It's a 100% improvement...not only in the way the blog looks, but the previous blog had far too many bugs when trying to post.
I forgot my username and password, so I'll post anonymously for now.
One feature I'd like is to be able to vote on specific posts. For example, if someone who is posting non-sense just to try to get a rise out of everyone, I'd like to be able to vote him down. And if there was some filter to hide all posts with a negative rating, for example. Digg and other blogs have this feature and it seems to work great to cut down on all the trolls.
And I also second the suggestion to bring back the easy navigation links at the top of each post.
Welcome back BD
The blog is pretty good, no complaints. I'm just happy we'll finally get some Bruin related news now. Hopefully we'll get Negedu. I want us to just stack up the talent.
What are our chances with Alex Stephenson
The cardinal red stripe on top blows. It would be nice to add a photo or some other type of visual aid now and again as well.
Welcome back? Where did you go?
Same as "Jigs" above.
If you enter the blog from one of the blog titles in "Blog Central" (right corner of the web page), you have to back out to get to the next or previous blog. There is no shortcut to either of those like there used to be with the previous version. Otherwise, things seem pretty good to me.
Unlike some others, I like the "creepy" bear.
Go Bruins!
those of you wanting to go to the next blog entry directly from the comments (Bruintx and Jigs)...you can still do it, but it's on the left side under "about this entry".
you may want to think about the next step of audio and video -- best would be your own "exclusive" material.
Or have selected embedded outside video/audio, but I imagine most of this blog's audience has their outlets for UCLA sports covered pretty well.
Welcome back, Brian.
How'd they convince you to post your photo? I thought that was an on-going mystery around here...
Regarding the banner, could we do a banner contest? Would the Daily News go for that?
And for those who don't like the red banner (or any "banner") - it's pretty easy to install an adverting blocker plugin. I just told Firefox that it was an ad and it never shows up now.
Let me also echo the comment about putting the previous entry - home - next entry links at the top of the page. I realize it's in the left column, but that doesn't feel real intuitive to me. I'd also like it at the end of the comments section, so after I've read all the comments, I can move to the next post.
The banner is fine - the bear is a little odd, but since it's a photo, I can live with it. I think you need to update your bio - it seems like it's been the same for an awfully long time.
This switch went pretty well, much better than last time! (So after I wrote this, I find out that the blog is Under Maintenance. Oh well!)
Finally, although it would mean signing in all the time, the idea of being able to vote up or down on comments is intriguing - if I could set my account to only allow positive vote totals, that might filter out the losers. Plus, it would give us all a chance to self regulate and might save you some time.
The old blog had a much larger typeface. Every time I visit the new blog, I have to increase the type size on my computer. The type on other web pages is not as tiny as yours, making the adjustment for your blog necessary.
Also, I'd recommend putting the following links at the end of a post instead of the beginning because it's more logical and intuitive: | Permalink | Comments (0) | ShareThis.
Otherwise, the blog looks good. Welcome back!
Hey BruinGuy - I love the real bear, but this shot just looks a little bizarre. The picture doesn't capture the enormity or feel of the real thing - it looks more like he's having an unfortunate medical experience that shall go unnamed.
I'd think some shots of our athletes would do the blog more justice.
Don't like the idea of mob censorship. Some folks don't "get me," and thus have a knee-jerk reaction of throwing me off the blog. I would rather leave that option up to Jill and/or Brian. It is after all their blog, and does not belong to the bloggers.
I'm also in favor of having some sort of user-controlled moderation for comments to keep the usc trolls away (e.g. ONLYTHETRUTH)
I would also like the day separators to make viewing new posts a quicker process
I have registered several times with variations on my user name (out of necesity,) using this email only to be told that a password conifmation would be sent that never comes. I would like to be able to sign in and participate in this great blog.
1. I agree with the requests made for a separator bar between days on the main blog page
2. I would also like to see a separator between user comments, as there used to be. The format now looks VERY busy, and is hard to follow. If I get at all distracted, I have to search around to find my place to resume reading
3. The red bar does look bad
4. I couldn't care less what other readers ratings are of posts. If they have a response, they should type a comment in response. Every time I see a site with star ratings (of individual posts) by users, I roll my eyes and ignore them; if I don't like what the person is saying, I move on. What a waste of code that would be to implement that. Ugh
5. Why are you allowing anonymous posting once again? If you'll recall, the sign-in requirement was instituted awhile back because of trolls and jerks whose sole goal in life, it seemed, was to disrupt this blog. I'd strongly recommend that the anonymous posting be eliminated NOW, rather than see things deteriorate again, causing it to HAVE to be re-implemented.