Case in point is your diary. It is almost impossible to find. You have to scroll 90% down from the site homepage to see any of the diaries. Just a truly horrible interface. Whoever designed this website should be shot.

I’m not bailing on this site yet, as I love Johns work. I will say though that the new site has really taken away alot of the fun though.

I have noticed the drop-offs in posts though but, who cares. New people will come so no big deal to me.

Besides, On my version I scroll down about 2 inches and see the diaries so i dont understand. i also think the whole site is bolder, brighter, clearer and I enjoy the color as well.

I think it is an improvement but thats just me.

Posting comments is actually more user friendly that it was before in my opinion…

Most sites have been seeing a significant increase of comments after the change, so I think there would have to be something else in play.

I agree with you 100%.

I also appreciate that you discussed this issue in a sincere and respectful manner.

I actually enjoy the new format more. I think its more user-friendly and easier to read. I really like that a lot of the idiots who were spamming the page are gone. Ideally, there would be more activity, but I still check this page a few times each day.

... where is SLURVE with our effing lists?

...i guess its just not happening? or has he sold them to kevin goldstein? (thus i will never see them)

Oiling up his glove and getting ready to try out for SS over Bocock???

Personally, I think the rumors of this blog’s death are greatly exaggerated, but we certainly appreciate constructive feedback.

As strange as it is for a site’s layout to discourage people from coming by or having discussions on here, I think it’s happened.

How do you think that the new layout has discouraged people from coming by or having discussions compared to the old site? It would help us if you could be more specific.

The first, and probably most important problem, was I lost my sig, and felt like I’d lost the history I’d built over about 3 years on the old site. I had over a thousand posts, but now I feel like I’m starting over.

I think, as someone else mentioned, people walked when they had to register. That’s just going to happen. I almost didn’t sign up when I couldn’t get the sig I’d used for so long, and I suspect some people just left as opposed to creating a new sig, and feeling like they were starting over in the community.

Not only that, but not only did I lose my identity, but we were moving from a known community, with known sigs, to a new, unknown community, which made me more reluctant to post. It could be many of the same people, but I wouldn’t know.

Also, unfortunately, the slowing of diary posts just feeds on itself. I don’t post because the board traffic is so slow, and so I figure what’s the use. At the old site, it wouldn’t be a day before 25-50 new posts were made. There were regular 200+ post threads there also. Just don’t see that activity here.

The interface does bother me, it’s too busy as compared to the other site, that’s just a personal preference. I like very simple, quick loading sites, if I check them often. I don’t care for the account pics, just more files to download as I open the site, which makes it slower. I use Firefox and there’s large gaps on either side of the page, making the text narrow and more scrolling/searching for what I want. The top of the page brings the SBNation hub together, and pushes everything else down in the process. Also, it seems that I have to log in each time I visit or it may be each time I run firefox, which wasn’t true for the other site, and just is another hurdle I have to take to be involved.

Any one of those problems, and I wouldn’t care, but the disruption was enough to make me less interested in checking or posting. And I think that feeds on itself, as people may feel the same way.

However, the site isn’t dead, it’s just less alive than it was, but I think it’d gotten too popular for it’s own good with griefers and whatnot that required a change. It may take some time to build back up also.

Is how slow the sites load compared to the old versions. I don’t know if this is just a product of the switch, and will be fixed soon, or if the sites just have too much shiny stuff to load. And when threads get large, loading them is brutal. I used to come to the sites, see anywhere from 5-10 threads I wanted to read, open them all up in tabs in a few seconds and be reading. Now, it can take up to half a minute to load a single game thread and I have a fast computer and internet connection.

Anyways, this isn’t discouraging me from coming to any of the sites, but it is frustrating.

The Joba/LaGoofy crap.

I like the feel of this site much better than the old one. Not even close.

BUT, there was probably a pretty significant dropoff BEFORE the site layout changed over. Between ragging on people for duplicative threads, flame wars, sock puppets, and flaming fantasy discussions, a lot of casual readers seem to have disappeared, not to mention that John himself appears to have been spending less time on content lately.

Yes, some of the dropoff can probably be attributed to the new layout turning people off, but a lot of it can also be attributed to the posters turning people off. John’s not entirely in the clear here either, although I can’t really fault him for it with a non-subscription blog, where he probably makes more income off of the book and/or appearance fees.

I, too am struggling with the new format. It’s too busy for my taste, but then again I’m the one who desinged the book covers to resemble ‘Always Save’ packaging. I will adapt.

My only request involving the usability of the site is that I prefer the newest comments to be at the top, and I can’t find where to set that up.

However, creating posts is much easier, at least to me, and that makes a lot of other lessor sins forgivable.

JERI

John’s Wife and E-Mail Secretary

I like the new interface a lot better. My biggest complain with the old one was nested comments got really skinny, resulting in more scrolling and some really hard reading. Also, it lacked features that have become standard for blogs: Avatars, graphics, recommendations, tags, etc. This is a huge upgrade. And I don’t think the volume of posts has gone down. Some of the childish inside jokes and flaming has gone away, which is all for the good, imo.

I for one really dislike the new page, there’s no doubt I come here a lot less now. It used to be my first stop in the morning, and my last site at night. Now, it’s never both and often neither.

One positive of the switchover, is that I do check a lot of the team-specific sites on SB a lot more now than I ever did, although it’s a pain to get there (and extra click to get to SB’s home page and then to the team-specific site).

For myself, what i find most annoying is not being able to key in on new comments. I posted the Carlos Gomez diary and saw it had lots of comments but I could never find the new ones once it got to big.

In the old format, I could find them easily and it made coming back to keep update on a discussion much easier.

Well we are all joining in…
IMO the problem is the loss of a lot of quality posters. Guys who were very active on the old site – like Wily Mo, Jpahk, Dr.B, Artie, Metty, Slurve, IndiansFan, and Pedrophile – have been pretty much MIA on the new site. I’m not calling those guys out – and I’m pretty sure I have seen a few posts from some of them – but I definitely notice the lacking of their presence.

I’m not sure if these guys have been busy, or lost their screen name and moved on, or what…but I miss the content they provided as much as anything…

when there is/was a new comment made in a diary, then that post would shoot to the top of the diary list

kinda like a message board

I think the new format is an improvement over the last one. I have noticed the decline in activity but I figure that it’s cyclical. There have been downspells in the past and there will probably be more in the future. If there was a single thing I would change about the community, I’d say that this site absolutely begs for a forum. However, I’d be content if I were able to figure out how to edit my posts.

Otherwise, I think this site is still pretty great and if anything, this thread has led to the uptick in activity the site needs. Hopefully, we can build on it.

of since opening day most fans have been following the big clubs more. its hard follow 6 games a day or check the internet to see how someone did in double a. between work and school i rarely get to see a full rangers game, so as much as i love… believe me i looooove it… minor league baseball and following stud prospects, they have to take a back seat to the big clubs.

and surely as june and july rolls around and people begin to reasilze that once again there beloved mlb team is not even in the hunt for october they will fall back off the wagon and get even deeper in the minors and prospects.

because prospects and minor league baseball is awesome because they have yet to prove… or more importantly disapoint

Lot of comments LOL

The layout seems cold, corporate and busy, and I dislike words such as fanshots and fanposts. And I hate the generic image of the fan next to the fanposts. He reminds me of the kind of bozo, knee-jerk reaction fans I try to avoid.

The mini-version of the old logo also looks out of place in the upper-left corner. I’d rather see it gone altogether than diminished.

Last night for about six hours at least, the site was down for maintenance and then “technical problems” and I was told to “grab a hot dog.” Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t recall ever running into this issue with the old site. Maybe scheduling maintenance when there’s no baseball being played would make a bit more sense. Just my opinion.

I certainly do appreciate the new changes, such as the widescreen. And in just a moment, I’ll be able to say whether or not the ability to edit previous comments has been added. This is my only major desire for the site, aside from reducing load times (which is increasingly becoming a problem).

Having compared the current site to the last one, the biggest difference is really how busy the new site is compared to the old one. This is purely superficial and seems to have been ameliorated. The current placement of the diaries is perfectly acceptable, and fairly easy to use. As for the color scheme? I could scarcely care less. I’d rather good discussion. BBTF is plain as can be, but somehow I keep returning to them (albeit as a lurker).

I still wish that there could be a forum for our discussion, but the current format (essentially) has worked for quite some time. It’s a work in progress, and I appreciate the effort. I just hope to be able to edit this.

The fanposts are all on the right side about the same place they were in the old format. The main articles are in the middle section again. There wasnt even a search function on the main page on the old format you had to go to a few different pages to get to an option to search.

Are there any particular users who are no longer posting. That were posting all the time. I am sure they track site traffic over here, has it changed or markedly dropped since the change over?

There is nothing wrong with suggestions for improvement, but people tend to always see any change as negative, and tend to overreact.

First, I was never a huge poster. I liked reading John’s content and some of the diaries if they caught my eye. I haven’t posted on this new layout b/c I’m just not a fan of it. I tried changing some of the personal settings, but it only helped a little. For the record, I like to give new things a chance before completely writing them off. I also used to do something out of the ordinary for me – I’d click the banners on the old layout b/c I knew that would help the site. Now, I’m just not feeling inclined to do the same. Below are the things that I would change, if I were the developer of the site. Again, just my opinion.

- The headings and banner tops. Why is 40% (or so it seems) taken up by headers and banners? Why do I need a single banner full of dead space that has my name, a drop-down for my posts and a button to log off? Couldn’t this be combined with the section that allows me to select HOME / FANPOSTS / FANSHOTS / ARCHIVES? It would eliminate some of that dead space.

- Instead of the basic three-column approach that many sites use these days, why not make it two colums? One that has the MiLB hulking batter logo, followed by the fanposts, then the links, etc? Scrolling down under the links you see nothing but more dead space.

- The above change would also allow you to expand the column for John’s content. For me, that’s one of the main downfalls of the current layout – it’s very difficult to read his content.

Again, these are just my opinions. Beyond how slowly the site loads, the layout change is the biggest reason I don’t visit the site often anymore.

Not sure how much this has impacted others but for me there are two issues that have lessened my interest in the site.

First, the whole LaGoofy BS REALLY bothered me. Maybe it wasn’t so much the fact it happened but more so the lack of response to it. I understand how and why it happened, with a site like this it is easy to register multiple screen names but it is also just as easy to fix, at least in my opinion. Why not become a pay site, charge $1.00 via credit card a year to be a member. This wouldn’t be that detrimental to those who would want to register multiple screen names but it WOULD give the moderator the tools to ban that individual.

Second, and I know I’ll get a lot of backlash on this one, but the overwhelming majority of fanposts are saturated with posters who place more emphasis on “Fantasy Value”. I’m not talking about the obvious “rank my team” or “would you do this trade”, they’re in everything including the community rankings. It even bleeds into postings where someone wants information on a low minors prospect.

Just before the layout change took place I started using Google Reader to pull in John’s articles. Every now and then I do come back by either to search for something specific or to check in on some of the diaries, but my visits are far less frequent.

Hope this helps.