Tag: meta

State of the Site: August 2016

As of last Thursday, the new version of Touch the Banner is one year old. On August 11, 2015, I posted a link on www.touchthebanner.blogspot.com to announce that the site was on the move. The new site was supposed to be completed a couple months earlier, but technological glitches, summer vacations, and the like postponed the launch. It would have taken longer – or maybe it wouldn’t have happened at all – if readers and contributors hadn’t donated nearly $4,000 to the cause. I am a man of many mediocre talents, but web design isn’t one of them, so those contributions remain much appreciated.

Below are some of the milestones, features, and tweaks achieved over the past twelve months.

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Poll results: What is your favorite Michigan blog?

(image via, yes, MGoBlog)

A couple weeks ago, I posted this question as a poll: Which Michigan football blog is your favorite?

I admit that the results might be a wee bit skewed, since I posted this poll on my very own blog. After all, anyone visiting this site must at least be willing to give me a little bit of traffic, if not spend a considerable amount of time here. But since no neutral site is going to post such a niche poll, here was as good as anywhere. Hit the jump for the results.

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Site news: I’m a baller

(image via SB Nation)

A Crystal Baller, that is. This has been in the works for a bit, but yesterday I was given access to my own 247 Sports Crystal Ball account. Thanks are in order for Steve Lorenz, who vouched for me at 247; Chad, who gave me the account on the technical end at 247; and user Frito Bandito, who told me on Twitter that he sent messages to Lorenz on my behalf to get the ball rolling.

My first Crystal Ball prediction was for St. Joseph (MI) St. Joseph weakside end Corey Malone-Hatcher to Michigan. You can see all my predictions here (LINK). You can also follower me on Twitter (LINK), where my predictions will be posted in real time.

Meta: Upvotes, downvotes, comment counts, whee!

Good morning, TTB readers! A few changes have made their way to this here website just this morning after a couple weeks of thought, coding, testing, etc.

Comment counts: When you make a comment at the site, your total number of comments displays itself underneath your avatar. Naturally, frequent commenters will have more comments, whereas infrequent commenters or new additions to the site will start with zero (or one, since it won’t show up until you comment at least once). I’m at 641. The prize for being #1 is glorious, let me tell you. Glorious.

Signup dates: Also displayed underneath your avatar is the date you signed up for the site. This is self-explanatory. I hope. If you want your own fancy avatar rather than a site-generated one, here’s a post to explain how to get one (LINK).

Upvotes and downvotes: Two buttons have been added to the bottom of comments. You may upvote each post or downvote each post. An upvote will turn the arrow green for you once you have voted, and a downvote will make it red. There is also a count next to each arrow for viewers to see the total number of upvotes or downvotes. Right now a small window pops up next to the arrow when you click, but I should be able to turn that off in the near future when another tweak or two occurs behind the scenes. These votes will not affect your comment totals, so posbanging and negbanging will be confined to affecting each individual post.

Please let me know your thoughts and feelings on the tweaks in the comments section.

Meta: Upvotes, downvotes, comment counts, whee!

Good morning, TTB readers! A few changes have made their way to this here website just this morning after a couple weeks of thought, coding, testing, etc.

Comment counts: When you make a comment at the site, your total number of comments displays itself underneath your avatar. Naturally, frequent commenters will have more comments, whereas infrequent commenters or new additions to the site will start with zero (or one, since it won’t show up until you comment at least once). I’m at 641. The prize for being #1 is glorious, let me tell you. Glorious.

Signup dates: Also displayed underneath your avatar is the date you signed up for the site. This is self-explanatory. I hope. If you want your own fancy avatar rather than a site-generated one, here’s a post to explain how to get one (LINK).

Upvotes and downvotes: Two buttons have been added to the bottom of comments. You may upvote each post or downvote each post. An upvote will turn the arrow green for you once you have voted, and a downvote will make it red. There is also a count next to each arrow for viewers to see the total number of upvotes or downvotes. Right now a small window pops up next to the arrow when you click, but I should be able to turn that off in the near future when another tweak or two occurs behind the scenes. These votes will not affect your comment totals, so posbanging and negbanging will be confined to affecting each individual post.

Please let me know your thoughts and feelings on the tweaks in the comments section.