Wish-List Time! / new Brewerfan.net site discussion

[Brian the Automator]

Ok, so I'm working feverishly on re-writing the "main site", because it's really fallen into a state of disrepair. I'm sure many people here probably bookmark the forums and only go over to the main site when we indicate there's something new there (an article, a new power 50, etc). I'm re-writing the website in a newer technology that will allow me to add new features and functionality at a much quicker rate than I could in the past.

 

So, is there any feature that you'd like to see at brewerfan.net (and we're talking about all things that are non-forum-based, as I don't have control over that code) that we don't have? We have the flexibility here to do things that sites like brewers.com can't (such as, integrating with eBay, twitter, facebook, etc etc etc), since we're not tied down contractually to anything or anyone.

 

Think big... I'd really like to get you all involved with making this site even better (adding player videos, your photos, games, contests, etc).

[adamb100]

Obviously I think a photo gallery for visitors to post pictures of games would be good.

A place to vote/submit on polls.

Incorporate AJAX into the site.

A mobile version of the site.

For news articles add an RSS feed.

Roster list with the ability to comment on players.

 

HMmm thats all I can think of for now. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[twobrewers]

The player index has really fallen apart.

 

I'd love to be able to see up-to-date stats for all of the Brewers (including farm hands) without having to head to other sites.

 

For example, the last season posted for Escobar was 2006. I check his stats nightly.

 

If the stats are not up-to-date, you might as well just scrap the player index entirely.

[Brian the Automator]

The player index has really fallen apart.

 

I'd love to be able to see up-to-date stats for all of the Brewers (including farm hands) without having to head to other sites.

 

For example, the last season posted for Escobar was 2006. I check his stats nightly.

 

If the stats are not up-to-date, you might as well just scrap the player index entirely.

The stats will be making a return to the site for sure.

[berniebrewer4life]

I second the mobile version of the site. I have this listed on my favorites on my phone, even tho i can't really use this site much from it.

[1992casey]

Handheld capability is probably the top request from members of this site. Brian should be able to do a lot to address this on the main site. For the boards, we're at Yuku's mercy. Yuku staff has expressed a desire to make the boards work better on handheld devices, however, they have yet to put their money where their collective mouths are.

[Bikeage77]

This may be more about trading forum, and I've tried to ride BHF about this, but if someone wanted to do a bobblehead site that is kept up to date, that would be great. BHF's initial one was great. It hasn't been updated in 2 years. A full discography of giveaway stuff would probably be extremely complicated, but probably not opposed to, even for non collectors.

 

Agreed on the stats, glad to see that is coming back.

[TheCrew07]

One of the first things that initially drew me to the site was the interviews with the prospects. I know BCB has sort of taken on that as regular feature with Battlekow being an interview machine so I'm not sure how it would fly to bring that sort of thing back. However regular feature articles might make the home page as relevant as the forums again, I know personally that I've gotten to the point where I jump directly to the forums instead of taking the extra time to click the forum link on the homepage. It would matter if it was a feature based on sabermetrics, scouting, baseball humor, etc... there are so many people on this site, all with varied interests, and some are extremely talented writers and communicators that might be willing to make weekly or bi weekly contributions... If there was enough interest it might even be possible to get new content for the homepage on a daily basis.

 

With the advent of MiLB.com minor league stats aren't necessary any longer, a simple link to baseballreference, baseballcube, milb, whatever site you'd want the hits to go to would suffice. What might be nice is if the scouting reports from various sources that get posted in the draft threads would eventually be included in the player profile section. That way it would sort of a one stop view of the prospects... Stats, what the scouts had to say, what pitches they throw, etc... now that I'm thinking about it, if the "adopt a prospect" idea is gaining steam again, instead of a thread on minor league forum for each prospect (which would add clutter), maybe it could be done through the site profile. There would be a link to media coverage of that that prospect, and you could do the same for the teams, adding the team coverage for each season. I'm not sure the type of storage that would be necessary to facilitate it or if it's even possible, but some consolidation would provide a one stop shop for information regarding the prospects and players.

 

For example, I don't expect everyone on the site to share my enthusiasm for the minor league system, therefore they aren't going to have an educated opinion on a prospect beyond what national publications and some more prominent posters on the site have to say about the prospect. However if they could go and read the hometown articles, or features like the article about Escobar or Cain (just 2 examples of extremely interesting pieces from last season) before they were drafted by the Brewers it might help add some perspective regarding the player's career path. If people aren't reading the link reports, listening to the pregame audios (boohiss Milb.com), they are simply missing out on a vast amount of information on the players and aren't as educated as they otherwise could be. This could be a way for them to catch up, for lack of a better phrase.

[jaybird2001wi]

Brian, I have offered my services to contribute to a old feature. I would be more than happy to contribute to the Historical Section by creating blurbs or briefs of each year the Brewers have been in existence. I can do like a 3-4 paragraph summary of each season from 1969 (Pilots) to last season. I love research and if my services are accepted in this area, I could also think of other ideas to make this section fresh and easy to navigate.

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

I'm not sure how workable this is, but going along with the requests for minor league info-

 

How about a brewerfan wiki? Since some follow the minors more closely, they would have the ability to edit those pages.

 

A Marquette fansite has one, and frankly it's pretty outstanding. http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php

 

Just an idea!

[John Brew]

I'll second the bobblehead / SGA section. I'd certainly be willing to help out with that somehow. If not here I have some personal webspace where I could take a stab at it.

 

Also, every year around many road series threads pop up looking for recommendations about attending games in other cities, where to stay, where to sit, etc. A section for most every opponent would be a great resource, even if it's just organizing the various threads in one place. In tandem with that, some sort of definitive Miller Park guide would be cool.

[brwrsfan]

I second the section for information regarding road trips - hotels, restuarants, things to do, things to see/eat at the stadium. That would be really sweet. I have myself posted or started 3-4 of these in the last couple of years. That would be cool to get together. I'm sure with all the people on this site, we could probably get really good recommendations for just about every city (I can do 6-7 by myself and would be happy to write up what I thought about each of the cities I've seen baseball games in - Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Baltimore).

 

One other thing that I would really like to see, and this could be difficult but current stats listed next to the players on the top 50. I realize this is only updated monthly or so, but to update the stats would be nice. I follow the top 10 guys are so pretty religiously but for some of the non-regulars, to see an update today that showed Gamel hitting .500 would be kinda cool. For me, when I get past the top 15 or so, I don't know as much about those players and am way too lazy to look up each one's stats. If the current year stats were listed with the employee's other data, that would really make the Power 50 that much nicer.

[Playing Catch]

- I would like to start by simply saying "thank you".

- [of course] accurate player profiles

- not to put pressure on Colbyjack or the others with scouting experience, but I echo the desires of "TheCrew07". A little blurb on each prospect would be great (e.g. Evan Anundsen's semi-current velocity, or a comparison to a major leaguer).

- blogs from relevant insiders

- Whatever you can do to make this my first-stop Brewers site each day; admittedly, (and perhaps ashamedly), I still look at TH's blog multiple times per day.

- I would like to end by simply saying "thank you".

[1e Corbeau]

A wiki would seem to be good for collecting info on visiting other stadiums, Major or Minor, etc., IMO. In theory, that type of system could also serve as "homepages" or "clubhouses" for affiliates. I'm envisioning this as a way of moving things like the transactions threads off Yuku. It seems having a more condensed list of transactions could be useful for members. The thread format does allow commenting on transactions, but, again, having a single list of player movement rather than a list over multiple posts/pages could be useful.

 

Perhaps adding a member blogging feature would be a good way to get folks to the main site and to generate more content. I'm not sure what kind of platform you're looking at, but something like drupal could make this easy, especially if you can carry over Yuku accounts. (I can't remember if everyone still had a BF.net account, too...) I think forum discussion and blogging+comments are different enough not to be duplicitous.

 

Photo sharing/posting would be great (and video, too). Some RSS feeds from other sports sites, making BF.net homepage more of a "one-stop shop" for Brewer info.

 

Perhaps an events/calendar, where members can say they're attending a game, to facilitate some in-person social capital formation. :-)

 

I really like the year-by-year history idea, too...

 

Keep up the great work, Brian and everyone else that puts their love and sweat and time into keeping BF great.

[ewizabeff]

I like the idea about gathering information about other clubs/cities for Brewers-related road trips. I have to admit though, that I very very rarely read the main page unless I have insomnia. I've always gone straight to the forums to find what I need. I'm just a run-of-the-mill fan though - not a stat head or overly interested in the minor leagues.

[SenatorShriv]

I've always thought that an Insiders Guide to Spring Training would be a good feature. It seems that every year there are a whole series of posts for people looking for information about autographs, restaurants, etc...

 

Being able to access Brewerfan from my Blackberry in a more coherent fashion would be awesome!

[sgtcluels]

Crap! Had a nice long post, but apparently closed the tab on accident. GRRRR!

 

So here we go...

 

1 - I like the idea on Clubs/Cities idea. Add in that, a Visiting The Brewers guide. (Include Tailgate guide and safety information for those who drink to much while tailgating [route 10, cab lines, bar shuttles etc]

 

2 - I admit I do not go to the front page, nor look to BF.net for most breaking news. I go to my favorite Brewers news aggregate, BCB. They have some of the best Brewers writers and news aggregates out there, my 9:30 - 10:30am is spent waiting for the twitter notification that BCBs Frosty Mug is available. If you want to be known as a all encompassing Brewers site, follow suit.

 

3 - Leverage your relationship with the Brewers. Right now BF.net offers great ticket deals, but that shouldn't be the only win. With thousands of users, you should look to engage the Brewers to expand the relationship. Perhaps things like engaging Brewers Enterprises for game used items/fan experiences for Charity Auctions. Use your fan base of thousands to attempt to open up relationships with the PR, and try to get unique interviews. Does Bill Hall even know about the Can Bill Hall pitch thread? Build on this, and get unique insider information, but keep some distance to avoid being only known as a "Company Shrill". Aka.. Tom H http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

4 - Mobile site. My crackberry and iPhone doesn't like the site to much. Mobile mobile mobile, same with RSS feeds.

 

5 - Yuku.. ugh. I'm not sure on what the charges are, but I've never been horribly impressed with Yuku. Has a move been evaluated to a new board? I know the expensive part of bandwidth, but if a cheap host is available, I'm sure BF.net could raise the money for an awefully good server some place. Having access to the raw user tables could mean you could have a single login, and create things like alerts on the front page / comment sections etc.

 

I know you guys work hard, and it's a hard thing to do on your spare time. I appreciate your efforts, and if there is anything I can do... let me know.

[1992casey]

The biggest advantage to going with a third party for the message board is security. The old LambeauLeap board was hit by spambots constantly. You can ask Peavey about it; he was the one who got to clean up the messes. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Brian has mentioned his desire to create his own board structure. He'd have to address both security and functionality; it'd be a big undertaking. One thing Yuku does offer is a pretty good set of features. A major bummer, however, is that Yuku isn't very good at fixing bugs, especially since the company was purchased by KickApps a little more than a year ago.

 

Migrating isn't necessarily an easy talk. For instance, Yuku puts little things in its code here and there to discourage exporting. However, if the Brewerfan/LambeauLeap boards were to ever move off of Yuku, it'd be very inexpensive to maintain the current boards in archive form.

[Brian the Automator]

The biggest advantage to going with a third party for the message board is security. The old LambeauLeap board was hit by spambots constantly. You can ask Peavey about it; he was the one who got to clean up the messes. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Brian has mentioned his desire to create his own board structure. He'd have to address both security and functionality; it'd be a big undertaking. One thing Yuku does offer is a pretty good set of features. A major bummer, however, is that Yuku isn't very good at fixing bugs, especially since the company was purchased by KickApps a little more than a year ago.

 

Migrating isn't necessarily an easy talk. For instance, Yuku puts little things in its code here and there to discourage exporting. However, if the Brewerfan/LambeauLeap boards were to ever move off of Yuku, it'd be very inexpensive to maintain the current boards in archive form.

The other thing I like about Yuku is that it's an entirely managed application, and I'm not responsible for it if something "breaks". Making a message board that can handle the load that Yuku can isn't a task that I'd want to undertake lightly. And as Casey said, many of the open-source message board softwares (phpBB, etc) are open to a lot of spammers and attacks. Ideally, I'd like to make my own sports-centric message board software, but for now, I'm going to stick with Yuku.

[sgtcluels]

Got'cha. I'm curious to see what load averages are on the site during intense games. Can Yuku offer a user database export? I see the fact that people have to maintain two userids and passwords as a very limiting factor in trying to create a web application that's seemless to the user. Are you getting new graphics? When can we see a beta? Apparently I'm full of questions today.

[1992casey]

Yuku has been able to import from ezBoard and MSN, but it hasn't offered any way to export at the member or board level. The only things we can export and import are our skins, posticons, and (I think) emoticons. These items are only comnpatible with other Yuku boards, however.

 

Brian can speak more to this, but the concept that was put in place a while ago kept the main Miller Park graphic. Graphics were reduced elsewhere in favor of CSS.

[Brian the Automator]

Got'cha. I'm curious to see what load averages are on the site during intense games. Can Yuku offer a user database export? I see the fact that people have to maintain two userids and passwords as a very limiting factor in trying to create a web application that's seemless to the user. Are you getting new graphics? When can we see a beta? Apparently I'm full of questions today.

The graphics will be similar, but much more streamlined. Not sure when I'll get a beta up for public viewing, but a private beta will probably be up in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll put up a couple of screenshots online when things are a little more solid. Think baseball-reference.com, but not ugly.

 

As far as single sign-on goes, the only other way to do it would be to have Yuku expose their authentication mechanism externally, so we could track the same username/password combinations, but I doubt that's on their radar.

[Brian the Automator]

Here's a screenshot of the current working beta version's home page:

 

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/phearinc/screenshot1.png

 

Omitted for now are things like advertisements, and some of the navigations options you see will be removed and other will be added, but this the general idea for the new layout of the site. The site will now expand to fill the entire window instead of being a fixed width (I think it's 800px right now or so) to take advantage of wide screen monitors. We will also be adding more content to the home page, such as perhaps news feeds from other Brewers sites, and perhaps exclusive brewerfan blogs (I'll start a separate thread on the recruiting process for that at some point).

 

The idea we're going for, here, is simplicity and usability... Fewer graphics to speed up loading times (although, we will be doing more with photos and videos on pages where it makes sense to do so)... a search box at the top right of all pages to search for things like players, teams, brewer history items, FAQs, stats, etc.

 

Comments/critiques of course, are welcome. I want the construction of the new site to be something that all of you have a lot of input on.

 

EDIT: also, the word "Home" will be removed from the home page in the final version... that's just a debugging thing for me right now.

[TheCrew07]

Tough to comment really until you have a beta version up, I like the new layout though.

[1992casey]

The site will now expand to fill the entire window instead of being a fixed width (I think it's 800px right now or so) to take advantage of wide screen monitors.

 

That will also help those who have smaller monitors, especially on tiny handheld devices. And it'll also help people like me who use a wide screen monitor, but don't normally browse with a full screen. I like to reserve about half the space for other things.

 

Fewer graphics to speed up loading times (although, we will be doing more with photos and videos on pages where it makes sense to do so)...

 

That organization is perfect. People shouldn't have to deal with long page loads when they're unnecessary. When they open a photo gallery, they know what they're getting into.

 

It's amazing how many pages load poorly, even on high speed connections (MLB.com, I mean you). Plus, there's still a subset of people who still use dialup. DSL didn't make it to my house until last October (http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/mad.gif)--and I hear it's very atypical for people in a location as rural as mine to have it. Also, for handheld use, 3G coverage isn't everywhere. That would affect all handheld users at one point or another.