We are planning to redesign the entire Recliner GM blog for the first time since we moved here from our old location.
We’ve come a long way from the days when our moms and girlfriends were the only readers on the blog. That means we have a greater responsibility to continue to produce quality content and provide an open and aesthetically pleasing forum for you to talk Philly sports.
Pete and I have our own ideas, but at the end of the day what we want only matters if it’s also what you guys want.
With that in mind we want to know what you think and want as we move forward and grow this site. I’ll break it down into four major areas…
Content
At the end of the day this is the most important part of the site. If the content and writing sucks, it doesn’t matter how “pretty” the site is.
- What do you like and dislike what we cover and how we cover it now?
- More – less – about the same statistical analysis?
- More coverage for a particular team or sport? Less?
- Add other local sports teams to the mix? Who?
- Do you like that we cover multiple sports teams on one site?
- Not that this is in the plan at all, but would you prefer to have separate Sixers, Phillies etc. blogs?
- Would you be interested in reading and/or writing guest posts?
- More featured and timeless stuff like this and this?
- More regularly updated analysis/stats like this and this?
- More polls?
Anything else you want us to write about?
Design
- What do you like and dislike about the current design?
- Do you like the banner?
- Is the content easy to read? Layout, colors, font sizes etc.
- Is all the content easy to navigate to? How can we do better for you?
- More images?
- What added design elements would you like to see?
- Is there something from another site you like that we can adapt here?
Leave no detail uncovered.
Features
- Ability to preview your comment before you post it and/or edit your comment for a short period of time after you post
- Do you like how comments are handled now (newest comments at the bottom)? Do you prefer something else?
- Do you want threaded comments? Meaning you can reply directly to a previous comment and it posts directly under it?
- Do you use the popular post links in the sidebar?
- Do you use the recent comment links in sidebar?
- Do you like and use all the other sites in the sidebar? Would you mind if it was a drop down menu instead of a long list to save space?
- Is the site too slow?
- Any other features you want added that you think will enhance your experience on the site?
Random
- How often to you visit the site?
- How often do you comment?
- Do you use our RSS feed, e-mail updates, reclinergm twitter? How do you know when we post something new?
- Do you tell people about the blog or post links elsewhere to this site? How can we make that easier, more advantageous for you to do?
Nothing is too harsh either, we can take it. And no idea is dumb or impossible either so spit it out.
Please leave all your feedback in the comments. This will be an ongoing thing for a while so if you think of something at any time leave it here.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
i like the site the way it is.
i thnik it has a cozy feel to it which is nice.
also you need more eagles posts. one a week just isnt enough.
the more you bring the eagles into the mix the better.
Dannie and Pete, happy the way it is and though I don!t comment on everything you guys write, I do read all topics. I just like talking hoops more.
i visit everyday and comment occasionally. i would like more eagles posts and maybe cover some temple sports as well.
I don’t comment all the time but i use your rss feed and read everything. I would say a little more eagles coverage. As far as design, simple is better. people come here to read your content, not surf through 30 tabs to get what you want.
Threaded comments always make for interesting debate. Overall I love the site and will continue to look forward to your posts.
This may not jive with what you guys are trying to do, but enabling readers/participants to create original posts would prevent (example) writing something about the Phils that really isn’t topical to the latest Phillies post.
I’m sure you hav considered that, and probably have also considered the idea of a live chat room. Once the Phils got to the Series, there must have been at least 10 people following the game together and a chat room might have made it easier to follow.
Overall, this is a terrific site, and those are not glaring shortcomings, and probably not original.
I check in every day and think the site and content are great. I come here for 76ers and Phillies info. The Eagles stuff you do is fine but do not need more. Eagles will tend to take over if they become a major player on the site. There is more than enough available elsewhere about the Eagles, Andy and Donavan.
I’d like the “Recent Comments” section divided up into “Recent Phillies Comments” and “Recent Sixers Comments”.
What do you like and dislike what we cover and how we cover it now? NO ISSUES
More – less – about the same statistical analysis? NO ISSUES
More coverage for a particular team or sport? Less? NO ISSUES
Add other local sports teams to the mix? Who? NO ISSUES
Do you like that we cover multiple sports teams on one site? YES, I LIKE THIS SITE’S FLEXIBILITY
Not that this is in the plan at all, but would you prefer to have separate Sixers, Phillies etc. blogs? NO, BUT SEE COMMENT ABOVE
Would you be interested in reading and/or writing guest posts? I THINK IT’S FINE WITHOUT THE GUEST POSTS, THE LENGTHY COMMENTS ARE LIKE REALLY GOOD GUEST POSTS
More featured and timeless stuff like this and this? NO COMMENT
More regularly updated analysis/stats like this and this? NO COMMENT
More polls? IF IT’S EASY TO SET UP, THEN YEAH, THOSE ARE FUN; IF POSSIBLE BASE SOME OF THEM OFF THE DISCUSSION, LIKE “SHOULD THAD BE A PART OF THIS FRANCHISE’S FUTURE?” OR “HOW MUCH SHOULD THAD’S FUTURE SALARY BE?”
Zack – We do have an idea for something along the lines of your first suggestion about breaking up the different team comments.
Doing that with the comments might be a little more technically tricky but I will look into it. Our thought was to delineate posts by team so you can clearly see the latest posts for each team on the homepage.
Ken – We thought about the live chat before actually when we were doing the live blogs. There are software to do that and they all are kind of clunky and visual awkward.
We decided to go with the live blog and using the normal commenting function because it keeps a record of the whole experience on the site for history and you can go back and comment on past chats. If that makes sense. But it’s something we will continue to look at.
The fan post idea is something we will have to see if we can execute technically with the blogging software we use.
change is a good thing, progressive.
i got one request: SPELL CHECK!!
Let approved registered users post links. I often want to link to a quote or data to support an argument but your site blocks links (spam filter.)
I’d like to see some point/counterpoint posts discussing a big picture issue with a guest blogger. Maybe Dannie and Brian discussing a Sixer issue once a month or something similar.
What do you like and dislike about the current design? NO ISSUES
Do you like the banner? IT’S A LITTLE CHEESY AND A LITTLE TACKY BUT IT WORKS, MUCH LIKE HOW THE VET AND THE SPECTRUM WERE
Is the content easy to read? Layout, colors, font sizes etc. I THINK YOU GUYS HAVE COME CLOSE TO PERFECTION HERE
Is all the content easy to navigate to? How can we do better for you? I LIKED THE RECENT POSTS SECTION, BUT THE BANNER LINKING TO THE MAIN PAGE SERVES A SIMILAR FUNCTION, JUST GOTTA GET USED TO IT
More images? NO COMMENT
What added design elements would you like to see? NO ISSUES
Is there something from another site you like that we can adapt here? THIS SHOULD BE IN CONTENT BUT WHATEVER – THIS MAY NOT BE EASY TO DO, BUT ESPN’S KEVIN ARNOVITZ, WHO RUNS CLIPPERBLOG, OFTEN BREAKS DOWN GAME VIDEO, BOTH GOOD AND BAD, AND I LEARN A LOT FROM IT, AND BECAUSE OF HIM I HAVE THE CLIPPERS AS MY SECOND TEAM ON LEAGUE PASS CHOICE; DANNIE, PETE AN ASSUMPTION MADE WITH THIS BLOG IS THAT EVERYTHING’S AN OPINION, BUT MAYBE SOMETIMES YOU GUYS CAN TEACH (AS LONG AS YOU GUYS GENUINELY KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT).
maybe it’s just me but whenever I make a comment and want to go back to the home page to see other posts, I always have an issue, the back arrow button is ok, but doesn’t always work. There should be a more seemless way to move from comments to other posts.
Oh and more Eagles stuff. Ideally you get a three headed monster situation going where Danny = Sixers, Pete = Phillies, and X = Eagles.
Mike – Do you mean just getting back to the homepage? You can click on the “home” button in the nav bar or the banner.
Besides that do you mean some sort of additional navigation to different posts? Recent posts? Post by team?
We are thinking through more Eagles coverage.
Zack – I’ve thought about video analysis a lot. I would do it, hard part is getting good video to analyze. Will keep looking into that.
Will work in some easier ways to navigate to different areas of the site and posts.
TK76 – You can post links now it’s just set at a limit (3) before it starts to suspect spam.
I will look into a log in feature that will give registered users more flexibility.
Thx, I thought it blocked all links.
BTW, not quite sure how the html formatting here works in terms of inserting quotes.
TK76 – I believe there are two ways to accomplish the blockquote styling.
The way I do it is to click on the little “HTML” button in the comment editor nav bar above. Then I type in this:
Does that make sense?
jkay – I hear ya buddy.
We do not at all claim to be proficient writer by any stretch of the imagination. Just two dudes with a blog.
And the grammar is probably much worse than the spelling errors to be honest.
We post so frequently and on the fly (trying to get news out) it’s hard to have someone read it before we let it fly. I have someone read and edit most of our stuff but a lot of the time it’s after the fact.
Will do a better job of getting posts proofed prior to posting.
I am surprised that we do not have a Flyers Forum. If there is someone who could bring a little orange and black here that would be cool as ice!
Is it possible to have an IM on this site?
Thanks. The quote feature is simple, just not what it says below.
BTW, an edit post feature would be nice if possible
Real Rob – Flyers = never gonna happen. I personally have zero interest in hockey and wouldn’t want to dedicate any space to it. Pete is probably not as against hockey as I am but still isn’t his thing either.
TK76 – Yeah I am not sure why the theme displays the “blockquote cite” way of doing it below, will see if I can change that. That way does work also just not as clear or simple.
Preview/edit post feature is part of the plan. Just need to find an adequate plugin.
I do like how you bounce from sport to sport. I think sites that compartmentalize their sports (eg having a Sixers only board or section) miss out on involving more readers. Its nice to draw a casual Sixers fan into the conversation, even if they are mostly here for Eagles stories.
I guess after the comment section there should be a home button so you can quickly return to the lineup.
Blog roll idea (Philly sports section) should be ranked either by number of clicks, or by which you guys feel is best.
Another right hand section idea. Links to articles you guys believe are must – reads. Maybe 5 links total that would either expire or be replaced as you add new ones. Call it “Must read of the Day” or something
More tabs, right now you have 6, leaving half the bar emtpy. You could easily add a few. Clicking on a Phillies tab would then only show Phillies posts, a POLL tab would show recent and past polls ( I didn’t even see the A.I. poll till you mentioned it ) Must read of the day tab,
Posted Monday Phillie girl of the week tab – hmmm… this could either be a picture, ok but meh. Ideally would be a local cheerleader from any of the local teams, or how about posting a picture of 1 cheerleader from all 4 teams and readers vote on their favorite and that becomes the Philly girl of the week for the following week. Shoot email to winner and ask for comment / guest write in.
Posted Tuesday Tab for guest column of the week. Get submissions from readers and post best one maybe once a week.
Posted Wednesday – girlfriend comment / quote alternate weeks between Dannie, Pete and any good write ins
Posted Thurs, PBP ad
Posted Fri doh, your picks of course
hmmm about all these not sure but a new thing per day is interesting
attn Dannie: re: spell check – i was not talking about your posts. i was talking about the comment toolbar. i always drop comments quickly, try not to think too much and dont re-read them so the spell check tool would be a remedy for the grammatical eyesore that is my commentary.
i think #1 rule of blogging should be opinion first, then grammar if you got time.