Could we please get somebody to update the home page?

[The stache]

I know this is more site related than MLB related per se, but the thread I discovered on the "issues and events" board didn't seem to catch the eye of anybody in a site developmental position (though it appears a mod did respond). So, I figured I'd try here.

 

Hey guys, the brewerfan.net homepage features an interview with 20th round draft pick Shea Vucinich from June of 2010. Could we please get somebody to update that home page? I bet we'd get a lot more Brewer fans in here if they didn't think the site was inactive. And the surest way to dissuade somebody from exploring a website is to have material on the homepage that is nearly three years old.

 

I absolutely love this website. This is the best place I've ever found to discuss the team I love, and the sport I am so passionate about. I want other Brewer fans out there to know that it exists, and that it is thriving. The members here are extraordinarily knowledgeable, intelligent, and friendly. Also, I very much appreciate that this forum is moderated. The childish antics that are so prevalent on other sites are nipped in the bud here, and it allows members to relax and focus on the game.

 

I am in the midst of developing my own site, and will be blogging pretty much every day on the Brewers and MLB once the season starts. Because of issues with my back, I have a lot of free time. I've got MLB.tv Premium now on my Roku, a Baseball America subscription, an ever growing baseball card collection (both modern and vintage), and I have been a student of the game I love for well over three decades. So if it's a lack of people willing to step forward and provide content, I would gladly volunteer my time to write articles for the site. If it's a matter of needing somebody with the technical skills to maintain the site, I am proficient in HTML, CSS, learning PHP and have been using Photoshop for over 7 years. I will do anything I can to help Brewerfan.net out.

 

But please, let's at least blow the dust off the homepage, and crack the doors open, so to speak.

 

Thank you!!

 

William

[Invader3K]

I agree with 'stache. I've had people tell me, "I checked out that site you sent me a link to, but I thought it was a dead page from three years ago." If nothing else, it could just be updated to a generic frontpage with a big direct link to the forum, or something.

[Outlander]

Thanks for bringing this up Stache and also volunteering your time. I agree it would be nice to have somewhat current content even if it is just links to the previous days Brewers game once the season begins or something of that nature.

[RobDeer 45]

Ya I totally agree. That could really take the site to another level. I wish I knew even just a little bit about web design, but I do not. This is such a great site, just needs a new front door with some bells and whistles.

[Bombers]

Another idea is to put a link from the Power 50 to the minor league thread that listed the bf.net power 50. I used to always look forward to those (and no shame in letting the users put their vote in and it semi running it self.)

 

Great idea stache!

[Bombers]

Here are the Power 50's I was referring to:

 

August 2012 - viewtopic.php?f=64&t=28753

January 2013 - viewtopic.php?f=64&t=29327

 

Maybe just place these lines near the last updated sentence. Have something along "For a recent update on prospect rankings see these links which are found in the minor league forum."

[pogokat]

Unless i'm totally wrong, the only one with the power to update the front page is Brian Kapellusch, who more or less stepped away from the site in December 2012

 

Mass hass used to have some limited ability (as well as myself) but those seem to be gone now...

 

as for what to do, I don't know, but that's the reason the frontpage never changes

 

The best course of action would be to see if Brian is willing to give control over to someone who has the time and energy to work the site

 

the truth is, when this site came online, the majority of the people working behind the scene's were in college or fresh out...now, a decade on, and we are all old, grizzled men with a bunch of kids and an inability to under stand the yibber-jammer coming out of this generation about the internetz..

 

in other words, bf.net needs fresh people who don't have full time jobs and don't need to sleep

[Mass Haas]

When you refer someone to this site, always refer them directly to the forum page:

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/

 

pogokat is pretty much correct regarding the home page. The 12-year-old coding served its purpose in 2001, but is now tired and certain site functions that I've tried to keep up-to-date are now corrupt or obsolete.

 

Fortunately, I can still maintain most of the Player Index, although the column sorting ability within it has gone a bit haywire.

 

Basically, what's needed, and I'll see if Brian will be able to get this on-line, is some creatively worded prominent home page banner that says in so many words:

 

"Brewerfan.net, in its 2013 and future form, really exists solely as an outstanding, well-moderated forum discussing all things Brewers by some of the most dedicated and knowledgeable fans around. We'd love for you to join in the conversation, and here's how you can do so." - .etc,. etc, .etc.

 

There are so many other Brewer web sites that are providing blogger content that is top-notch. Most of you diehards know several. I believe at some point, perhaps even soon, Brian my look to partner with another established site that has the content but not the forum ability. This would benefit both parties to take advantage of their best attributes.

 

Should that happen, the Brewerfan home page and associated links would dry up to some extent, or would disappear all together. It's not ever going to be more than it is right now. Ideally, you'll see another Brewer website link/point here to our forums to provide a nice double-helping of Brewer yumminess.

 

Hey, at least Shea Vucinich is still in the organization. His family loves us .

 

Will try to keep you posted...

[1992casey]

I wish I knew even just a little bit about web design, but I do not.

 

"Design" isn't an issue per se. The back end functionality of the main site is what's tough to work with. It makes changing content much tougher than just pasting in some code.

 

On the board end, we have a lot more flexibility, and we don't have to handle things with anywhere as much care.

[owbc]

Casey, Mass Hass, and hawing among others deserve tremendous credit for keeping the message board active and for the wonderfully orchestrated escape from Yuku. The continued success of this board would not be possible without them. As we have all seen, many of the other forums out there are terrible, primarily because of poor usability and a lack of moderation.

 

Going forward, my personal opinion is to support decisions that preserve the board while improving visibility so that we can attract dedicated, knowledgeable Brewers fans to contribute.

[Yeti73]

Sorry to bump this, but any way to get the homepage to go straight to the forum?

[Invader3K]

Sorry to bump this, but any way to get the homepage to go straight to the forum?

 

Probably, but I think Brian would have to do it and he's not really around here anymore.

[hawing]

In the absence of a miracle effort from Brian, you can always bookmark forum.brewerfan.net.

[1992casey]

I'll see if there's something I can do after the weekend.

 

The issue is that our setup is pretty complicated. Part of it is that we're on three hosts:

 

[list-sp]

• MMAWEB hosts the main Brewerfan.net site.
  
• Dotster hosts Brewerfan.net e-mail.
  
• DreamHost hosts the LambuauLeap.net main site, LambeauLeap.net e-mail, and both message boards.

[/list-sp]

I have access to pretty much everything on DreamHost, and we have an "outside" guru that helps us considerably with that. (He's posted under the name "support" on our boards.) I don't have any direct access to our MMAWEB and Dotster hosting, although I've been able to get tech support from them.

 

The real complication is on MMAWEB and the main Brewerfan site. The way things are set up can be described as "fragile," meaning that it's really touchy to try to do anything that might affect it. That has to do with the 2004 technology that runs the site rather than MMAWEB.

 

MMAWEB and DreamHost have been good providers for us. Dotster is so-so; we had some recent problems with them that we've managed to iron out for the time being. The major existing issue with Dotster is that some of the e-mails sent from staff Brewerfan.net accounts get bounced as spam by various hosts; they say they can't fix that. It'd be nice to move Brewerfan.net mail to a service where that doesn't happen (probably DreamHost). The trick would be to do it when a day or so of downtime doesn't affect us too much.

 

So yeah, there are obviously things we have to deal with.

[Invader3K]

Anything new with this? I'm just curious.

[Mass Haas]

Anything new with this? I'm just curious.

 

No, and none is planned. Just act as though the forum is our home page, and when you send your friends links or mention us to them, it's "forum.brewerfan.net".

[logan82]

I have had the forums bookmarked for several years. At first it was because of problems with the Brewerfan.net homepage. There were times when you could only access the forums if you had a bookmark that skipped the homepage. Now it;s because nothing is ever updated outside of the forums. It would be great to see new stuff on the homepage but at this point I think Brewerfan.net is a forum only.

[Mass Haas]

It has now been coordinated that brewerfan.net now automatically redirects to forum.brewerfan.net.

 

Here's Google as an example.

 

If for some reason, you want to reach the old home page, you just need to click on the Brewerfan banner at the top of any forum page.

 

So you can now tell your friends and family you're a big Brewerfan.net guy (or gal), send them the traditional brewerfan.net link, and they won't see the Shea Vucinich article first thing (nothing personal, Shea).