Tag: site news

Site News: What do you want on the new site?

UPDATE: This is bumped from its original post date of March 14. Thanks to the funds many of you have sent my way (Paypal is on the left sidebar if you’re interested in helping), I have gathered enough to start the website redesign. I have a meeting with the developer this coming week, and I will continue to look for additional feedback from you, the reader. What requests do you have for the new site?

Thank you!
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Good morning, trusted TTB readers! I know I’ve been promising a new site for a while, and I actually have had a domain name and a new platform for an embarrassingly long time without doing anything about it. Unfortunately, while trolling around WordPress, I realized that I have become pretty proficient at using Blogger . . . and not at all proficient at actually building a website from scratch. It’s like your first girlfriend – you like her because you don’t know any better.

But it’s time to be a grown-up and ask other people for help, so I am hiring a professional web developer to create my new site. We had a meeting the other day and should be getting rolling soon, even though it will surely take a bit of time to code and launch the new site.

Here are a few of the features planned:

• Drop-down menus to clear some of the clutter up top
• Individual logins for commenters
• A message board for readers to post threads/comments

Here’s what I would like from you:

• What other features would you like to see?
• What features do you like about the current site that might translate well to the new site?
• What advice do you have regarding the look of the site, the implementation of the message board, etc.?

Site News: Help me redesign the website!

As I mentioned over the weekend, I have started the ball rolling on redesigning the website. I have explored a few avenues, met with a web developer, and chosen a path. Based on the developer’s references, I am confident that the new site will be something of which I can be proud and we can all enjoy.

With that goal in mind, I have placed a Paypal button on the left sidebar in case you would like to contribute to my push for the redesigned website. My goal is to raise $3,000, which covers most (but not all) of the proposed funds required for everything I aim to include. I know this goal might seem ambitious, but I want to grow the website for us all to have a better experience. Some aspects of Blogger have begun or continue to frustrate me. I want to assure you that I will be pocketing $0 of any donations up to the above number, because every single penny – and more –  of that would go toward the redesign. Anything and everything would help, and your contributions are greatly appreciated. You can track the progress of the goal with the thermometer on the right sidebar, which I plan to update on a daily basis (or whenever donations come in).

As always, thanks for reading and for discussing Michigan football with me. Go Blue!

Site News: All-Time Recruit Rankings

Jabrill Peppers

I have added an “All-Time Recruit Rankings” (LINK) page to the top. As you might guess, it’s a database of every Michigan recruit listed in order of class recruiting ranking. I used 247 Sports’ Composite rankings to do the list. It shows, for example, that Jabrill Peppers is Michigan’s top overall recruit since 2006, while Justin Feagin is the lowest ranked recruit, though there are several unranked players who are behind Feagin. If you ever have a question about how Michigan’s recruiting efforts stack up against historical classes, this should be a helpful resource.

Keep in mind that the page is under construction, but if you have any comments, corrections, suggestions, etc., please leave them in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Site news: Movin’ on up?

If you’re a regular visitor, you may have noticed a lack of in-depth posts in the past few days. Despite football season being months away, I found myself somewhat abruptly inundated with things to consume my time. Some of them are personal (time-consuming but nothing serious), while others are good news related to the blog.

Meta: Building a new website

I mentioned this last night on Twitter, but I am in the process of building a new website, which will convert my Blogger site to a WordPress blog. The problem is that I have no clue what I’m doing. I am decently intelligent when it comes to technology, but not enough to code HTML. Furthermore, the free themes at WordPress are pretty terrible, and the premium ones aren’t much better. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments, via Twitter, or through e-mail. Thanks, and Go Blue!