It's the beginning of January; that time of year when I share traffic and usage stats with everyone and deliver a State of TKP. Traffic wise, The Key Play had an excellent 2014, at least when compared to 2013. Thekeyplay.com served up over 10 million pageviews in 2014. It almost doubled the 5.9 million mark set in 2013. As a reminder, the first full year TKP was online was 2011, and it delivered just 856,892 pages.
An editorial goal last year was to make sure there was something fresh to read on the website each day. There were probably a handful of days when there wasn't, but The Key Play columnists and reporters published 515 front-page articles in 2014. That's an average of 1.4 articles a day. French, Brian, Mason, Alex, Mark, BilldozerVT, Pierson, TheFifthFuller, Beyer and Joel busted their butts to make that happen. Mark Umansky and Michael Shroyer did an excellent job snapping game photos to accompany posts.
The Key Play community started 2,771 (7.6 / day) new forum topics in 2014 and posted 130,746 comments (358 / day!). Members cast 439,133 votes and just 10,029 were down votes (2.2%). coldblood4vt handed out 11,748 up votes and Blue Collar Hokie upvoted 10,509 times. I won't share the down vote devotees (and I hope this doesn't turn into a conversation about voting). 880 new people registered for an account on the website.
Quantcast provides some very interesting metrics on visitor frequency. Quantcast defines an addict as a user that visits a website (in this case Thekeyplay.com) 30 or more times a month, a regular as someone who visits between 2 and 29 times in a given month and a passer-by as someone who visits just once in a month.
In any given month Quantcast reports 50,000 - 60,000 unique people visit TKP. That means about 2,000 - 2,400 of you (addicts) account for 54% of visits to Thekeyplay.com. That number correlates strongly to the number of active registered members, but there are still some hardcore lurkers. Meanwhile, 22,000 - 26,000 (regulars) account for 44% of visits. Passer-bys don't interest me much because TKP was never built to be a content firehose. I didn't want people to visit, hang out for a few seconds and leave because they saw something buzzworthy on Facebook. I wanted to build a community centered around intelligent users and in-depth, analytical and sometimes humorous content. I believe what we publish is second-to-none, and an average visit lasts 05:28. You all are either engaged by the articles written or the top-notch community. Either way, it's a good thing.
I don't know how to quantify how punny or memey threads got last year, but they are out of control in the best, most brilliant, I-sincerely-appreciate-all-the-laughs-every-day way.
Over the last few months I gave serious thought to transitioning TKP into a premium / subscription based website. I am not the type of person who does something half-hearted. (Editing and managing TKP has become a full-time job, which makes balancing the full-time job that keeps me wearing gym shorts in my warm house during winter and my family a challenge at times). The goal was always for The Key Play to be the best Virginia Tech Hokies football and athletics community online. Money helps make that happen. More money, more reporters, more columnists, more articles, more content and a better served readership. However, I overlooked how going premium or freemium might change the culture of the community, possibly / probably for the worse. A lot of the feedback I received hit on that idea, especially how any sort of paywall might make TKP innaccessable to new members including students.
This is part of a response from HorseOnATreadmill (who forked over $100 last February and signed up for a recurring $10 / month with PayPal) to me when I pointed out only a small percentage of users financially supported TKP in one way or another, and I didn't think it was fair to the folks already giving to pick up the slack.
I wanted to comment on this because I think both you and GuitarMan alluded to it. Personally, when I donate, I don't think of this at all. The way I see it, the internet is better with TheKeyPlay being both on it and free. When I donate, I don't think of the other hardcore members that will benefit at all, it's that the landscape of college football is better when teams have an active community centered around journalistic coverage. Since I think what you produce is as good as any team-oriented site in the country, keeping it free for the random internet passerby is what will build popularity. I used to go to scout.com for college football content, but every time I clicked on an article that sounded remotely interesting I would get hit by a paywall. Same with Rivals, to an extent. Guess which sites I rarely visit now?
There were similar sentiments in that thread. I don't want that to change. I love the culture here, and don't want to mess with it. Culture is king. I also want TKP to be the first website that a class of 2019 Hokie visits before walking across the drillfield to class. (Or really the one (s)he reads instead of paying attention in class.) With all that said, everything will remain as is for 2015. TKP will remain free.
My plan for The Key Play in 2015 is to: 1) grow non-revenue sports coverage; 2) expand existing football, basketball and high school recruiting coverage; 3) find a couple of new voices to add to TKP's already diverse offering (if you're interested); 4) update TKP's technology stack (beginning with an improved search experience); and 5) be TKP's best year yet.
I need your help to keep The Key Play online and, more importantly, growing. Any contribution, whatever you're generous enough to give, will help make TKP a community that can better serve you.
1. Click the PayPal button below to financially support TKP. (Ignore this if you've donated within the last calendar year, and thank you.) If you really want to be an All-American, make it a recurring donation. If all 50,000 - 60,000 readers donated $1 a month, TKP would have the resources to tell you what Whit had for breakfast each morning and what dance moves Frank's been practicing at night (the coverage would be that in-depth). If you're a registered user, you'll get a gold star next to your user name. If you're a lurker, you'll get a sincere thank you email.
2. If you own or represent a business that wants to reach an affluent, educated, engaged audience that loves college football, and is crazy about the Hokies, check out TKP's sponsorship and advertising options.
3. Organic growth has been a key to TKP's success. A good deal of Hokie Nation knows about the website, but many folks do not. I need your help to reach those people who don't have Twitter or Facebook, who have never seen one of French's film reviews, or who are stepping foot on campus for the first time. Would you tell a friend or friends about the website the next time you're discussing the Hokies?
4. Buy a t-shirt or pint glass from TKP's online store.
5. Please take our 2015 reader survey below.
If you have any feedback, suggestions or comments, by all means please leave them below. 2015 will be The Key Play's best year yet.
Comments
Donation sent.
That's 5 hours and 28 seconds, right? - or is that just me that never closes the tab?
I never close the tab either. If I'm at work, its a safe bet one of my browser tabs is on TKP.
Agreed. TKP gets me through boring days at work (and sometimes gets in the way of busy days...)
Same. TKP is my homepage so it loads first thing every morning and I never close the tab until I shut down at COB.
I use to keep Rival's up at work but that changed after I found TKP. I love reading the articles and following the chats among real Tech fans without running into the paywalls. I too keep the site up while at work. TKP deserves my support. I gave what I could for now and will do so again in the future if you keep this site as great as it is and free going forward.
It is minutes and seconds. That statistic came from Google Analytics. I am sure Google does some fancy stuff like track mouse, keyboard, swipe, etc... events to detect (in)activity so leaving a tab open forever doesn't skew things.
Yeah, that would be me too - except i probably have 3-4 tabs open on both my laptop and on my phone
I really want to get some TKP swag when the wallet allows it. Almost 3 years out and I've only been questioning why I ever left...
Done and done. Thanks Joe. There is probably at least one statistic that is erratic on the metrics you get back since my VPN tunnels through the Great Firewall in many various locations around the world. But safe to say you can add one more on the addict statistic.
Right there with you hombre
Aye, I do most of my snooping through work and it bounces IPs constantly. I usually check TKP 30 times a day probably at work looking for new comments.
"Not worth my money" is kinda a rough way to put it haha.
Although technically a good choice if you think really hard about it and hold your head sideways, seeing as it is worth far more.
(disclaimer: don't select "not worth my money" just because I said it sort of makes sense. I don't think it works that way.)
Yea I agree. Some just may not be able to justify spending money on an internet site with the boss lady..lol.
If only we could mail Joe gift cards to bed bath and beyond...
...or which-wich punch cards.
I put in a small donation. The PayPal confirmation goes to her email address, so I am sure I will get some sort of "feedback" at the dinner table today. Man up.....it's all part of of the cost of supporting TKP.
Or the boss man. He loves VT football, but for some reason, thought I was nuts for buying a HOAT shirt. On the other hand, my Pilates instructor, a man with absolutely no interest in football, loves it. Go figure. (Yes, HOAT does Pilates. I'm sorry.)
I'm more of a yoga type, but I can handle pilates. Gotta keep the leg muscles working
HOAT has spoken: TKP yoga pants for all!
Ha! TKP-branded yoga pants! Match them up with some orange or maroon TKP-branded Uggs and you'd see it all over Blacksburg. Call it the TKP Pumpkin Spice Collection. Can't lose.
*Sees hot girl I've never met covered in TKP swag including TKP yoga pants*
*proposes on the spot*
FTFY
*Sees
hotgirl I've never met covered in TKP swag including TKP yoga pants**proposes on the spot*
As an "older" guy going back to college especially one with daughters I have mixed feelings about yoga pants as everyday wear. It's like a battle between my younger side and my older side.
I've never been able to find a pair that seemed to fit correctly.
Exactly what about this site and Joe makes you think TKP would have anything to do with promoting any sort of product involving PANTS?
Lol no doubt. I selected "not worth my money" because it's actually worth more to me free (as pointed out in the article) - so, that's why I bought a T-shirt and made a donation.
I thought it said "I'm not worth my money", which would be a cruel thing to make someone choose
Definitely in the addict status, even if there are days I just come to click the read alls when I get too far behind on certain threads. I know I look for certain things during games now that I didn't before because of the articles on this site.
Any chance you are going to have some of the larger sizes for TKP logo shirts? I was going to get one or two as christmas gifts but they were all sold out.
I don't have plans to print more of those. I am hoping to sell out of the last 19 I had printed. The biggest problem with tee shirts is you have to sell and print in high volume to make the time investment worthwhile. Those didn't sell as well as I thought they would. If you are doing small volume, you need to guess right on sizes too. I always do a presale or ask everyone who is interested in buying one what size(s) they need--so there are enough in-stock.
Hey Joe, have you ever considered going with a third party print on demand company? You upload the graphic you design, specify what stock you want it printed on, then people can order it and the manufacturer drop ships it to the customer. You specify what your commission is off each sale, and then the manufacturer takes care of the rest. There are some good companies out there and you won't have to ever handle stock unless you want to order your own supply at cost that you could resale at events like tailgates.
I investigated that option with two different companies, but the shirt quality is garbage. They do what's called direct to garment printing. Essentially they put a chemical on a shirt which allows them to print a design with a glorified laser printer. It allows for an infinite amount of colors at no additional cost, but the quality isn't as good as screen printing and there are issues with printing to certain color shirts (like maroon and orange). I didn't want to sell grey or white t-shirts, so I went with screen printing instead.
If you decide to give it a second glance, check out spreadshirt.com. They do the inkjet printing thing that fades but they also do a vinyl print called flex (think numbers on a jersey) and a softer texture of the same technique called flock that are guaranteed to outlast the shirt they're printed on. You have to upload your graphic as a vector image but the TKP logo should be pretty easy to save as a vector.
Also, tangent. How do I make my donation recurring? I'm on moble and didn't see an option for recurring.
It might be different on a mobile browser, but on a desktop there's a checkbox to the right of the "Donation amount" input box that says "Make This Recurring (Monthly)".
Yes, that option was there on desktop but wasn't there on mobile. Set up with monthly recurring now. Go buy yourself something...
REAL NICE
If you are interested in working with a different screen printer, I know the lead graphic designer at a screen printing company in Lynchburg. I can maybe try and get you two in contact if that is of interest.
I really appreciate you using a good company for TKP shirts Joe!! I got my HOAT shirt last week and it's great quality, not a cheap thin one where you worry about it starting to deteriorate after washing it a couple times. No kidding, Large fits me perfectly and being 6'3" they sometimes are way too short. Great shirt and definitely worth the money.
This is my favorite site by far, I spend way too much time here. I will make a donation to thank you for your hard work in making this the best site for a Hokie fan!
I know I definitely fall into the addict statistic during football season/ spring practice and game then I fit more inline with frequent user status during the off season and rarely comment on anything between May-July ( NBA Playoffs They will get after ya. ) But this year I'm going to try and stay more engaged with the community during the off season. Great State Of The Key Play address Joe and reading it inspired me to donate.... again not even a week later lol. Thanks for all hard work you and the staff put in everyday and may TKP continue to grow in 2015 as the online leader of the Hokie Nation.
A benefit of the larger community (as compared to 2011-12) is you might find a bunch of people to discuss the NBA playoffs with when that time rolls around. I don't think we'll ever publish an NBA article, unless Malcolm Delaney guides the Wiz to a game 7 finals win, but that shouldn't discourage you from starting an off topic thread about a non-VT topic. As long as it's not politics, religion, etc... it could fly. A lot of the larger online communities most involved threads are off topic. I hope this happens more in the offseason.
Uh yeah. I uh, I've done some off topic stuff.
Um yeah, I think a little. I uh, I think it's generally along the lines of things that are of interest to uh, us sporting types. Yeah, that's it.
It has nothing to do with obsession with other things. Um, no it's uh, just to help keep you guys informed. That's it that's what I mean.
Ok, here we go.
Ahem. I can back him up, Joe likes civil talk about things that might interest people that are also interested in VT and VT sports.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Definitely an addict. I definitely am on here 30 times per
daymonth...You are in 25k leg territory, pretty sure this is the gif you meant to use.
...25k? Wow, when the hell did that happen?
Is that Kyle?
That is definitely one of my favorite GIFs ever.
It's not just one of my favorite GIFs. It's one of my all-time favorite things that's ever happened on a football field.
According to Joe, I may have had something to do with those 25K legs.
cc:BCH
Of course I gave this a leg.
Team Biochemistry, unite!
I thought there was some therapeutic rule that states one must let the addict admit they are an addict not straight call me,, I mean them, out!
30 times a day is pretty accurate. Good thing Joe can't see how many of us log on multiple times a day...
Donation sent
It's too bad there is not a way to know who you are in order to thank you for your donation.
Thanks Brad.
This cracked me up! I love the sense of humor on this board!
I thought of these after submitting the survey: I think it'd be awesome see more reporting/highlights of all Hokies in the NFL/NBA/MLB. Along with that, having a "Hokies of History" series of articles would be awesome, especially for us younger Hokies here.
Leg for the "Hokies of History" series idea.
And Iron Man. I have an Iron Man bobblehead at my desk at work.
I'm not addicted!
I can quit anytime I like!
My wife thinks I take a break from football/TKP during the offseason. After the season ended I started planning and mixing audio for the 2015 trailer. My wife caught me and asked me if I was seriously starting on that now
Heard this song a while back, and thought it would be good in a trailer. Thought I share it with you and maybe you could see the potential
Skrillex - Recess with Kill the Noise, Fatman... by hothotfreshvideos
I quit breathing between each and every breath, but then I always start again.
When it comes to "How much I would pay a month" would you have a yearly option? Say $30-$50 a year?
I included that question in the survey to get an idea of what people thought the website was worth to them.
well hell......if i had known that i would selected a much larger number....i was just thinking in terms of paysite type amounts....im just not much on internet subscription sites so i put a low number.
this site is worth much more an any dollar amount.....its a place for hokie fans to gather on the interwebs...and as i have said before....its great because all fans, regardless of their ability to pay....can gather and discuss all things hokies (and anything else they want really). just ask and all of us that can donate and we will to keep TKP rolling along!!!
Yeah see I'm a bit of a weirdo (like you guys didn't already know) I don't like subscriptions. Doesn't mean I wouldn't pay but, I like the one time fee thing. If I have to do it again in another yeah, so be it but, I hate the recurring auto pay thing.
Gotch, I did the survey just didn't think to include that in that particular answer block.
boom 5 dollars a month for the rest of my life! hope this helps! should have done it along time ago being that im an addict and all! thanks for all you do TPK family!
Donation sent from an infrequent poster, but no doubt an addict. I'm hoping to learn Whit has a sensible breakfast most mornings, but pancakes on game days in honor of Wyatt Teller.
pancakes aren't a sensible breakfast?
Thanks, Joe! My donation will be coming when my bank account isn't so dry due to Christmas, birthday, and anniversary shopping.
I'm definitely in the addict category.
Take my damn money. You guys are seriously the best. This is the best coverage, let alone, FREE coverage in all of sports, not even kidding. Fantastic work and I love this community.
ted koppel is struggling.
You're welcome everybody. If you can make either the breath come out of my nose a little faster than normal with a funny, or make me make the 'not bad' face with a point you're making than I'm giving legs.
Oh and thank you to the columnists, photogs, mods, the community itself, and of course Joe MF Lanza. I think addict is sort of a strong term though lol.
you are a very generous Hokie, and as such I shall be reciprocating that and paying it forward in terms of legs to others. thanks for blazing the trail
Leg Leg Leg Leg for being at the top of most prodigious leg givers
Geeze egbert, the hell kind of 31st century drugs did you take that morning??
Seemed appropriate.
Probably my favorite episode.
Yes, the moment when PJF consumes that 100th cup and transcends time is probably my favorite moment in the whole show.
You know what that coffee hangover felt like?
TKP is the best! This seems like a good time to repost one of my better works.
I finally figured out there was a hi-res version of this available. So I will definitely be making a print and putting it on my fridge. I can say in advance, MRSTKP is going to love that.
I can send you the the original .png if you want it.
Has anyone ever photoshopped the face of Leonidas of Blacksburg onto this picture?
Just put my donation in, thanks Joe for running a good site!
Survey completed and donation sent. Thanks homie!
I will say Joe, I would much much much rather pay one flat rate per year than pay a monthly subscription, if the site ever went that route.
i will say joe i would much rather make a donation than be forced to pay! when i donate to a cause i know its worth it! makes me feel like im helping out and making a possitive difference. when you tell me i have to pay for something sometimes even if its good i just cant justify it when i look at my bank account. when donating some of us will give our last dollar for a good cause but would not spend our last dollar even on the best return investment. glad you guys are doing it the way you are. i would love to see the end #s! maybe set a goal of where you would like to reach and update it as it gets closer and closer! if we are getting close im sure alot of us would ante up a couple more bucks even if we have already donated once to try and meet that goal! anything we can do to find out what whit eats for breakfast is well worth it to me!
Agreed. I put less than $5 on the survey, but you can see I give more than that in real life. It just feels different. I'd much rather overpay for a free site than a small mandatory fee, if that makes sense. I just hope enough of us "over"paying can keep the site "free" for all.
As a graduate student, I hope that my small monthly donation helps. This website helps me stay sane! Go Hokies.
Done and done.
Boom, done
Big fan of this place, appreciate all the time that Joe and all the contributors put in.
My only suggestion (and I put it in the survey) would be to evaluate the vBulletin format.
For those of you who aren't familiar, you can check out ExtremeSkins.com (which is Redskins message board and not a porn site I promise).
It doesn't happen frequently, but when enough people reply to a comment the boxes get so small they're sometimes unreadable. vBulletin has the quotes in a different format and doesn't change the size of the reply box which eliminates this issue.
Just my personal preference, and I have no idea what it costs so it may not even be feasible.
I don't think I will ever switch to vBulletin. The nice part of TKP's CMS is everything is integrated and it's one piece of software (Drupal). When TSL switched to vBulletin they tried to cobble together it, Wordpress (publishing articles), their old board software and their recruiting database together and failed. Something as simple as logging in became a nightmare because they tried to glue multiple CMSes together that weren't designed to work with each other.
I like TKP's threaded format, but realize the indentation issue needs a solution, although I am not sure what that is yet. I added this to my TODO list.
Given the number of devices & software that access the Internet machine these days, this is an amazingly clean site to navigate across multiple platforms. I haven't tried it on my Wii yet, but...
I used to frequent Grantland a lot, but stopped b/c of how convoluted that site became; both in content and format. Ya'll do a lot of little things extremely well. There's nothing wrong with that.
A section with pie recipes... That is all.
Yes pie recipes!!!!
Got it. TSL's switch was indeed a disaster and the software aspect is well over my head, so wasn't sure if it was possible.
Joe FWIW it is possible to use wordpress & vBulletin together. Check out tidefans.com for an example of (IMO) a very well-run site that uses them together.
wow, I have never liked tidefans.com format. Comments always seem disconnected to me and I lose interest in following the conversation. There is something stream of conscious-ish about how TKP reads that makes it easy to digest 20 articles with 50 - 200 comments each everyday.
I never said it was impossible, but it's neither ideal or intelligent.
tidefans.com is duct taping the two CMSes together. Click on an article and look at the commenting system, it's Facebook. Now look at the football forum, it's vBulletin's commenting system. The articles each have a different design, commenting system, etc... Both Wordpress and vBulletin implement their own user management, user permissions, publishing options, rendering engines and so on. That's double the work to maintain and the two were not designed to work together. They very well may be running on the same domain \ server, and perhaps they are sharing a minimal amount of information, but it's not a hand-in-hand operation.
Every page on TKP is powered by the same CMS. For example, your turkey leg count transitions seamlessly from article to forum comments, voting options are available across the board, it's one seamless user interface.
Fair enough, and either way, thanks for all you do to make TKP great!
Thanks to the entire staff for all that you do. This is truly a special place, and I really enjoy each and every one of you here. Not only is it an amazing source for all Hokies info, but it's a support group, a fraternity, a community, even a place where you can network. I've met dozens of awesome people from TKP, and would even consider being seen in public with most of you again.
If you're debating whether or not to donate, pro tip: it will trickle back down to you with French buying a million fireball shots at First Down!
I would like it notes for the record that I had no idea I was buying those shots (shakes fist at Susiecue)
quit being modest, French, I know you loved buying $100 worth of cinnamon flavored antifreeze and getting to drink none of it!
Modest? Remember, I am the guy who gets asked a question, answers by saying how great I am for 30 minutes, then ask if you have another question.
10,000,000+ views? WHOA! But easy to believe when this is the best sports community out there, GO HOKIES!
TKP is by far the most chillest (and illest - any young people w/ me here?) Tech site on the net. TSL, 247, and all them other ones are just a bit too hard core for my liking.
TKP is the imgur to the TSL/247 reddit; nice folks who like a topic and who are nice to each other.
Good analogy
I am Hokies semper liberi, and I am an addict.
Glad you got over the first step. We're all here for you buddy.
Filled out and submitted. Once I get a job and a weekly/bi-weekly paycheck I can climb aboard the ca$h/money contribution train.
I had a sads when I had to choose the 35-44 age category...
Haha, I'm 33 and when I first saw the age brackets I was wondering which one I'd be in. Needless to say when I saw mine I was all like
I did the exact same thing. I thought I was going to be old Rex...
It hurt more than a little bit to choose the 26-34.
It won't when you're at the higher end of that spectrum..then it's.."Yes! i'm in the under 35 category!"
yep. I was thinking, "man, this will be my last year in the 20-30 category...nice I can pretend to be younger for 4 more years!!"
Wait until you have to choose the 55-64 age category.... ouch! When did I get that old?
Wait until you get to the over 64 group, you puppy.
Proud member of #DonationNation
New class #OneDonationNation15
Wish I could donate regularly, but I'm ballin on a serious budget. Once my startup sells I'll give half of my bank to TKP (important: hyperbole)
Joe two things I forgot in the survey. 1) is there someplace I can send a check for a donation first it would save you the PayPal fees second it would save me from setting up a paypal account 2) my wife wanted to thank you for having the best "customer" service when it comes to buying TKP items she says you respond fast to emails and are very courteous.
1. The office address is:
Orange and Maroon Media, LLC
3057 Nutley Street
Suite 633
Fairfax, VA 22031
2. I try my best. I always try to handle customer service emails within 24 hours, or immediately if I can. I know people work hard for their money, and it drives me up a wall when I receive crappy customer service myself. Tell her thank you for shopping with us. I could go on a long rant about how crappy Pottery Barn is, but I won't.
Glad you put the address out, Joe. This is the way I will be paying, you may disregard an email I sent you.
**Signs Orange and Maroon Media address up for Pottery Barn News Letters so Joe can buy a $400 blanket or some $50 candles or something**
I for one would like to see an "OT:Pottery Barn Sucks Big Time" Forum that details your rage. I'd also like to purchase a published copy that I can give to my wife for her Birthday or Valentines day.
For the record, if your Orange and Maroon Media address starts getting Pottery Barn News Letters, it wasn't me. So don't ban me.
Time to sign up the TKP office for the Jelly of the Month club!
But, in all seriousness, I'll definitely be sending y'all something as soon as I recoup my losses from the holidays/paying rent without being able to work because the university is closed.
So, off the wall, other than monetary donations, are there things that your office needs, or something for writers/contributors that can be sent to said address in lieu of money?
For instance, does Orange and Maroon Media accept pies/cakes/cookies/ice cream/other less mentioned desserts, strip-o-grams, undocumented workers, etc?
*kidding about the strip-o-grams and undocumented workers *wink wink*
Out of curiosity - what is that location? I did a google earth and it looked like a strip mall. Does TKP have an actual office in that location?
strong. I laugh every time I see this gif ^^^
It's a sports bar. What do you think?
His office is in the back, just in front of the white ceramic tank.
Monthly donations set up! From my bank direct to you. Not a Paypal user. Hope that's okay.
Joe I have sent a check over a week ago, it has not been caused yet. Is there an issue? Have you received it? If not I will cancel it and resend.
Thought of something once I submitted the survey: it would be lovely if you could collapse a string of comments starting at a certain point. Like, for example, if you can tell that everything below a certain post is going to devolve into an argument you're not interested in reading, you could hide all the comments below and continue through the thread without having to scroll through the whole brouhaha. Or in reverse, if there have been a lot of posts in a sub-thread and you aren't sure what the original post someone was replying to was, if you could collapse back to the post they're replying to... if that makes sense? It's early and I'm not sure I'm describing it well. Just that popular topics get rather unwieldy...
Or when everything collapses down to a letter per line...I find it extremely humorous but it might seem a tad unwieldy to some
YES THIS
If it were possible to collapse all the comments I've already read and promote the new comments in some sort of sub-sort within the comment hierarchy, I'd love it. Also, if there were a 'sort' on each hierarchical level of responses based on leg count, I'd love that, too.
So, ex: EP's comment gets 5 responses. The first three have zero turkey legs, the fourth has 2 turkey legs, and the fifth has 12 turkey legs. Fifth comment, with the most legs, gets listed as the first response, followed by the comment with 2 turkey legs, followed by the rest.
Comments that are a direct response to the topic are sorted similarly. Get the most popular stuff up top, but only sort and sub-sort in the same branch of the thread.
If I'm reading you correctly Horse, you want to see the memes, gifs, and smart
asshorse comments first and then the real responses. I think the higher voted responses a lot of the time are the more humorous ones and not necessarily the most direct answer.You know, I think you're right.
I thought of it more along the lines of if there are a lot of people that thought there was a "good" answer to a parent item, it would bubble to the top. Someone on here compared TKP to imgur, which does this. You can look at an image and directly below it is the most upvoted response. Sometimes I browse that site and find that I read the picture, then burst out laughing at the first comment. I've paid more attention to the first few comments on there more recently because they always add a little something extra to the OP.
But you're right, I think, the result would be whoever told the funniest joke would be on top, occasionally being replaced by thoughtful commentary.
I
likelove this, but what you are describing is a feature of TKP 3.0, basically when I rewrite my own CMS from scratch. It's a fundamental change to how the guts of the current CMS work.But keep them together or sortable? I don't want this to turn into the google/youtube comment system, where you can't even find the older or less popular comments.
That's a good call. It's a substantial thing to code, but I added it to my TODO list.
I seem to recall this being mentioned before, but to bring it up again since you're talking about doing some overhauling - can something be added to sub-threads so it's easier to see which post is acting as a reply to which? Sometimes when there are a bunch of replies in a sub-thread, it's impossible to see who's replying to whom. Some have suggested a little dotted line as a tracker or even just an "in reply to" note with the name of the poster of the comment to which the reply is made.
I personally hate the dotted line deal. "In reply to" might work better, but I will add it to the TODO list.
I like "in reply to" better, too.
In response to the dotted line idea, on a computer I usually line up the left edge of a post with the TKP logo and note which part of the logo it lines up with or just put the cursor at the edge of the post and then scroll up to see what the post is in reply to.
An "in reply to" note could also link back to the parent comment.
Completed the survey and donation is inbound. I crossed the thousand leg mark this past year, which I never actually thought I'd do after joining in 2012. I'm also a posting member of a few SBNation sites here and there (under a different name), and every time I come here after being there I'm reminded just how much better and less stressed the mood is at TKP, even when the Hokies aren't doing well. Y'all are the true bee's knees. *insert GT chopblock o'clock joke here*
So here's my thing, and I think many on here would agree with this idea...
It is about 10-100x easier for me to say "Hey honey, I want to buy a t-shirt from this website for $X (regardless of dollar amount)" than for me to say "Hey, there's about 2000-2500 other crazy Hokie football fans that I want to interact with daily and pay $3/month to make the site better".
To that end, how much of each t-shirt, pint glass, etc proceeds go towards the site? I have 0 problem buying merchandise (and maybe adding a $5-$10 donation on top of the price of the merchandise), but was just wondering if that's a feasible way for me to do a yearly/bi-yearly (twice a year) thing instead of a direct paypal donation?
I want to say several other guys (and maybe gals) on TKP would say the same. Just an idea.
I put the upfront time and effort into printing the shirts and manufacturing the pint glasses. TKP gets 100% of the profit. Buying those definitely helps. If you want to do a straight donation, PayPal is the best way though.
I guess I assumed that TKP gets 100% of the profit. I was wondering what % of the revenue is profit.
It's your business and if you feel disinclined to acquiesce to the request for your profit margin info on sales, that is MORE than understandable.
I have some insider info that he actually makes it rain with every purchase
Being in a business that also deals in things like T-shirts, hats and glasses. I can say that it's not large. Even before factoring his labor, it's not large.
donated.....twice. #addict
30 times a month is addict status? Quantcast needs some new demarcations. Honestly I'm on here probably 30 times, daily, just from my phone. Add in my laptop, iPad, and desktop and things escalate pretty quickly.
definitely an addict (more like 30 times a day) and a lurker at the same time (as I don't post much)......don't even have enough legs to vote but love the site....so please take my money
I'm not much for internet subscription sites and love that this site is free for all. I think it really adds to the community that anyone can comment and contribute to any conversation. I fear that this would end the second there is a paywall. I know its probably a big pain to try to run TKP this way.....but whenever money is tight....just ask and you shall receive!!!!
Joe for President 2016!!!
Donated $15. Keep up the good work gentlemen.
Done and done. Keep up the good work!
so I totally froze when it came to coming up with site improvements when I was doing the survey and now a couple ideas have come to mind:
1) show original post date in the tracker, not just most recent post. How many times has someone commented on an old thread with a shocking headline and you've clicked on it, thinking it's breaking news?
2) when commenting on a comment (of a comment of a comment, etc etc etc), it would be nice if you could still see all the other comments of that chain, rather than only being able to see the specific comment you are replying to.
I second those and I just had one as well.
3) (if I may piggyback) Collapsible comments/threads. It helps to keep from scrolling down long walls of text to get to where you want and helps alleviate some of the mobile issues.
Edit: Case in point, I lost my place in these threads only to realize that my suggestion had already been made 3 hours ago by a different poster and much more articulately.
1. Good call, I will try to add that in, at least on desktop display.
2. Agree, but it's more of a major change to the CMS.
also, can you add a column on the TL leaderboard that TL/(unit of time) so
people like myselfthose weird competitive people can see how their TL/day score stacks up against other users regardless of actual totalsReal life1 example: "sure this guy's got a ton of turkey legs, but he's been on here since 2011 and I've only been here three months. How many more days has he been here than me? How many TL does he earn per day compared to me? Screw it, the math is too hard. I'm gonna go read ESPN for my hokie football news.."
1: not even remotely
on a related note: holy crap, Alum07
Only suggestion I would have that isn't listed here.... wish there was a 'n'-like feature for people on mobile devices that don't have a keyboard. I HATE having to scroll scroll scroll through long threads on my phone or tablet.
Not sure its possible, but I want it.
find in page: 'new #' (with the space) works well in the Chrome mobile browser
I want to say welcome to all of the new folks who came out of the woodwork on this thread to show support. There are a lot of accounts with <50 TLs in this thread and that is pretty cool.
Barney has very bright and perky nips. Maybe its just the contrast, but damn those stood out to me.
Kind of sucks that you don't have any traffic data from 10 wins seasons. I'm very curious how traffic varies between good seasons and so-so seasons. Looks like the OSU game was huge for the site.
EDIT: how do you strike through text? I only see Bold, Italicize and Underline options, but have seen users use strikethrough many times?
Use the "strike" HTML tag.
will give you
strike thisyou beat me. Probably because I was trying to figure out how to show an example without just activating the tags accidentally
I like your example better, though.
The easiest way to avoid activating tags is by changing the text format from Filtered HTML to Plain Text in the drop down box beneath the text box.
see below where it says "allowed HTML tags?" You can use those tags to format your text as well as embed animations, pictures, and movies (and probably some other stuff I don't know how to do)
to you those, you put the tag in front of your text and after your text. For the second tag, put a / after the <, but before the actual tag text
How do the videos work? Is it simply 'embed'? How about stuff from ESPN?
It's pretty straight forward.
For some reason I can't fully explain, I am awestruck by this illustration. It's like, you couldn't misunderstand this if you tried to.
I get that, I've embedded YouTube before, but when I did it from ESPN.com specifically, it didn't even show up. Was wondering if they provided different code or something.
<strike> Like This </strike>
Edit: I guess I need to start refreshing the page before replying after catching up
donation sent! Thanks for the great site!
Now here's a guy that can't suck, He's brewin' in the Promised Land.
..and if I had more turkey legs I would upvote your comment! but alas, back to the beverage...
Well here is one for you to help and one for Egbert for (from) you.
While this is great I think The Key Play site can do a lot better monetizing the site.
Example?
More direct sponsorships within articles itself. Videos with short ads to view. It doesn't have to kill the product.
I respectively disagree, while another small ad placed on the page would not, having ads within the articles themselves or video ads I think would GREATLY distract from the product placed on here. I find using many mainstream news agencies now is more about scrolling over ads than getting any real news. I DO NOT want that experience here.
Given that the vast majority of videos on the site are short clips in film reviews, I would hate video ads in these.
Plus I don't actually own the rights to the videos I edit so attempting to monetize the clips and trailers could potentially get the youtube account banned.
I will fully admit that I have struggled to monetize TKP. My background is in engineering, not marketing. Based on how large and highly targeted the audience I thought it would be easy enough to find sponsorships from local Blacksburg businesses, or advertisers looking to hit key demographics. That hasn't been the case though. If you have a marketing background and have suggestions, I am all ears.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/sites/default/files/Advertising-and-Media-Kit.pdf
Have you given much thought into trying to get sponsorships from NOVA businesses? From what I've seen most of your targeting has been in Blacksburg. I know you have done some with Wilson Tavern/First Down, just figured that more NOVA stuff would be an additional potential revenue stream, and you have the added bonus of being able to meet face-to-face with sponsors pretty much any time.
Done, done and done! Though I forgot to add my username when I donated. Maybe a good thing though, as my computer went shut down for some reason shorty after, so at least everything got through.
you need to update your avatar. how about this?
Proper Dolemite references will always get a leg.
Survey completed & donation sent. Thanks for the work that makes this site so informative & enjoyable!
Any chance of you getting the horse on a treadmill shirts for the larger gentleman back in stock? (3xl) People might throw up in their mouth if they saw me in a medium.
As of right now, I am not. Apologies.
Said I was going to send a check in the survey, but just made an on-line contribution. I figure that my husband won't see that credit card charge like he would a check entry. He gives me grief for reading TKP all the time, so you see, it's not just the guys who are addicted!
By the way, I used to spend $36 year on ESPN--The Magazine. This is way, way better so I made sure to donate that plus some. Thank you, TKP!!!
Pish on your husband, you are not the only lady addict to all things Hokie football!
I would love if my Wife read TKP so at dinner she could be like 'oh man, that was a sick ass reference you made in the comments today.'
Funny enough though my Mom and Dad check the site every now and then and they will send me a text like 'Loved the giftory! XOXO'
That can work both ways Bill. I get "I read TKP today. You were a real know it all asshole in (INSERT THREAD.) Tone it down a bit, ok."
FWIW I rather enjoy you being a "real know it all asshole". I just get the look and the slow head shake when caught reading TKP.
Can we switch your tag from COLUMNIST to KNOW IT ALL ASSHOLE?
It's POSSIBLE...
I mean, they ARE scientists
LOVE IT
yeah, my wife lurks every so often, we've had similar conversations at dinner. she does most of her hokiewebbing through twitter though. marshawn williams followed her so she's got that going for her.
Took the Test!!!
did i pass?
No.
Done. I can't make a donation at this time (just started my first job, first paycheck went towards rent/moving costs), but I have every intention of making a donation when I get paycheck #2. Thanks.
Some of those expired coupons would probably work.
I hear Joe likes Pottery Barn.
...but probably not as much as Horse...
Isn't there some extra bagman money you have lying around?
Will donate soon. I figure if I can afford a Netflix account, then TKP can get their fair share of my web traffic money (I probably spend more time here than watching Netflix). I just bought a house, so I'm double dipping on rent and mortgage for a couple of months. And my mortgage company has my escrow property taxes way too high at the moment. So once all of that is straightened out and The Man gets out of my pockets, expect to see some cash your way.
..Your sites awesome bro. It's gonna be a good 2015!
Jimi will never not get a leg.
Not sure what took me so long, but this thread inspired me to email every hokie I know to make sure they are familiar with the best damn VT site on the web. Thanks! $$ on the way
Another improvement I'd like to see: polls. A lot of times people make a forum post that's essentially asking for responses, but not requiring commentary. The result is a lot of short, unfunny/uninteresting comments clogging up the replies
Why not be able to take a poll and let people comment on top of that if they desire?
Although, this is kind of like how you used a survey to streamline improvement suggestions but we're all clogging the comments anyway...
This was one of my only requests as well. I like to quickly see the opinions of others using percentages of the population. Then you can allow the people to discuss the results afterwards.
Outstanding content and some really funny off the wall people. Donation is on the way, thanks for keeping this site going.
I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned it, but it would be kind of cool to have a 'Like' feature in the 'COMMENTS' section
is that sarcasm? You can always give a TL (upvote) if you "like" something
I like this
actually, what I'm referring to is in the 'COMMENTS' tab. At the top between 'TRACKER' and 'FORUM'
when you go in there you can read the most recent comments and you can click to reply to them but you can't (at least not to my knowledge) give (or take? I guess) Turkey Legs without going to the actual thread.
Now I understand and I concur.
Joe,
Is there anyway I can get my username changed?
Thanks in advance!
Joe is the man! Thank ya sir!!
Joe,
I'm not sure if this has been suggested or not but I was thinking about it last night. I'ts pretty apparent from this thread that the community is very willing to give in effort to keep TKP free (insert irony.gif here). I would be willing to bet that the community would be more likely to give if certain things were tied to a goal (much like previous discussions on here about fundraising for athletics). If there were some sort of tracker somewhere showing how much is needed for certain projects (I'm thinking more fixed costs like technology upgrades) I feel like it would lead more people to give or to give more. Personally speaking if I saw that you were say $50 away from having the funds to upgrade the servers I'd be willing to throw in that last $50 as I'm sure many others on here would be as well.
Not sure if it's been thought about or not, but I reckoned I should bring it up. Thanks for creating/hosting/running the best day place on the internet.
if "modern" gaming has shown us anything, it's that people are motivated by goals and keeping them appraised of the progress towards said goals encourages greater participation.
Very true. We are also a society that LOVES recognition. Employee motivation 101, make sure to recognize people's accomplishments. That can easily be translated to fundraising as well. Hell I already liked what BCH brought to this community but after seeing he was a top leg giver I love what he brings and have a higher level of internet respect for him.
I'm still waiting for Joe to tell me how many turkey legs I need to get to cash in for that sweet eraser I saw at the prize counter.
sorry buddy, we're talking about virtual, pretend prizes. Nothing nearly as significant/tangible as an eraser
so if a double post is a DRINK! What's a double gif post?
Finish your drink.
Bonus: double video post = finish the bottle.
Totally agree. This was exactly what I said in the survey. get people more engaged and connected to the money.
It's a good idea, but one I haven't had time to really think about. The ultimate near-term goal would be to hire someone full time (our own beat reporter). Realistically that's a minimum $30,000. I am not going to ask y'all for that. However, perhaps by this time next year we won't need much more to get over the hump.
I guess my point is more around you don't have to ask so much as you just need to share. Quite honestly by you just saying that you have a goal of hiring a beat reporter and that cost is a minimum $30k, I have no doubt that that simple statement will motivate people to give.
I haven't done a ton of fundraising but have done a ton of sales and I've found that the more transparent and disclosed the goals are the more likely they are to be achieved. Just my $0.02.
Just to add to this, I have done a lot of fund raising, into the millions in fact. The key aspect to raising money is connecting the people giving money to it's results. TKP is already doing that now. The mere fact that I am writing this post freely on the greatest website on the interwebs proves that point.
However if the goal is to raise money for additional things beyond simply hosting and maintaining a website then letting people know how much is needed, and what it 'buys" is essential to being successful. Setting monetary targets associated with time is also key to invigorate those investing in the product you are raising for.
If for example your target is 30k for a beat writer. Is that 30k on top of donations you already receive or just 30k? because if it is on top then your target is, for example, 50k. If crowd funding teaches anything it's that people will invest in practically anything one dollar at a time if given a sensible reason to do so. Potato salad anyone?
As I wrote in my survey, having a fund raising meter or ticker on the sidebar would do wonders. Linking that to a page that explains what the money pays for and why it's important even better. Throw in some random giveaways, like TKP merchandise when you hit a milestone to a random donating TKPer, and you are giving incentives to your donor pool. For example we have been throwing around the idea of a TKP key chain with bottle opener designed in it. You could have a tiered set of those that would correspond to the amount given, bronze, silver and gold for example.
these are all very rudimentary examples though. Once you get into it there are many things to do to boost donations. The key though is always to connect those giving to the money.
Maybe it would be easiest to adopt the NPR approach and dedicate a full week to fundraising, where all of the articles are focused on soliciting donations. The faster people donate, the faster the content reverts back to your regularly-scheduled programming. Donate above a certain limit and receive a TKP logo tote!
/sarcastica/
In all seriousness, I think these are all great points.
I really have no idea how much he makes and it's probably more (or should be) but... * cough * Andy Bitter * cough *
If TKP could hire Andy Bitter the level of awesomeness would grow to a point that only Sam Rogers himself could control.
Instead of one full-time. What about a couple journalism students part time?
See if one grows into it?
Hi, My name is Philthyvt. I am an addict. I have been for 3 years and 3 weeks. I have no plans of stopping my addiction. I am a stalker/lurker. I have accepted my role in the TKP community. I am OK with that.
Seriously, I really appreciate the quality sight with great videos, an overall fun community, and excellent film review.
My weekly donation isn't a ton, but I would agree with most that donating is much easier for me on a principal level than being required to pay.
Thanks again!! love the site and my fellow hokies!!
How do you set up a recurring donation and is it doable on PayPal's mobile site? I wanna be in monthly but when I did my donation on my phone I didn't see any option to make it recurring. Is that an option on the full PayPal site?
I haven't used their mobile site but it was definitely an option on the full site when I was there.
Aight. To the desktop!
Sent a baby donation, but truly I hope anything and everything helps!
I already knew that I was a TKP addict. I had no idea I was also addicted to giving out turkey legs.
High five bro!
Whenever you two are on everyone's going to be like:
yuuuup, and i'm gonna be all
and no one will suspect a thing
up vote for Taylor Swift. I'm not proud... but I'm also not ashamed.
Logged on to say how much I appreciate all the work you put into this website, as well as to thank the community for all the commentary to fill the doldrums of "work". I read it daily and lurk reading most of everyone's comments.
I haven't signed on in months, so I guess I qualify as a Lurker but this site is the only thing that gets me through the day at work, and the only thing that keeps me close to being fired. Long live the gifs! Long live the Hokies! Heres to another great year, Amirite?
I have to say that I requested HOAT Tees and TKP Pint glasses on my Christmas list and got neither. However, my birthday is coming up in two weeks. If no results by then, I'm not holding out any longer and finally getting them for myself.
knew I was a little addicted, but didn't think it was this bad: internet was down at work all morning and I kept opening my browser to thekeyplay.com before remembering...but I can quit any time I want
Don't the owners of this site get ad revenues just when people visit the site?
There is only one fearless leader.
Haha you're right. I guess i was referring to all the writers of TKP.
But he's more concerned with capturing Moose and Squirrel.
my guess is that ad revenue is a trickle, even with increased page views.
That is why I am pursuing the heck out of sponsorships with local businesses in Blacksburg.
If there were an official bourbon and beer of thekeyplay.com it would be in my pantry/fridge as we speak.
I reached out to Marker's Mark and Wild Turkey last year and both of them told me the same thing: they loved the website, its demographics, but could not advertise with a website that exclusively covered college sports because of the underage audience.
Man that's awesome though! Just expand and have minimum coverage of another sport ie (NFL, NASCAR, Baseball etc) that way you arent "Exclusively covering" a college sport.
What a bummer. I wonder what the average age of addicts on here is. I assume its much higher than 21, thanks to ProudHokie (just kidding)
It's da law.
That wasn't nice. True, but not nice. :-)
I just made a small donation...all I can do for the time being. I want to thank Joe, the contributors, and the TKP community for the best Hokie site out there. Living up on Cape Cod, I am far removed from any regular VT sports news. This is the site I check first thing in the morning, and several times throughout the day. So, yep, I'm an addict, too...
Here is something small everyone can do to support the site, regardless of their ability to donate:
Do you use an adblocker?
Make sure TKP is whitelisted!
My donation is coming as soon as post-holiday financials stabilize and my grad TA salary starts flowing again.
this, x100000000. I forgot to whitelist TKP for the longest time. Takes like 15 seconds and will make a difference.
I'd had it whitelisted, but I had to turn adblocker back on. Those re-direct ads were getting too annoying, sorry Joe. When I hear that it's removed I'll be sure to turn ad block back off.
What ads are you talking about? I've never seen a redirect on the site.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/january/2/while-navigating-around...
It's a problem with Google AdSense; something nefarious has infiltrated it and is affecting a lot of sites. Google says that it should have been resolved. Clearing cache/cookies might help for anyone still seeing it. I haven't gotten it in over a week after I flushed browsing data from the affected time period.
yeah i'll just delete my browser history to get rid of . . . those popups.
I just gotta say I love The Key Play and I love you guys. This website is the freaking best. Such amazing and in depth analysis, there are great recruit posts and game threads, and we also have some tough yet reasonable discussion about sensitive topics. I love that fact that while we are serious, this place is a ton of fun and some of these comments are down right hilarious. I think I check the tracker 20+ times a day and always keep a tab open. I will absolutely support TKP and I hope things here never change. Cheers to being awesome. GO HOKIES!
Joe, a question on ad payments. do they pay by views or clickthroughs?
also, an idea - Amazon partner link? Where if we click through to Amazon from TKP and place an order, a small percentage of the order will go back to you.
I buy a fair bit off of Amazon and would have no problem sending some of that TKP's way
I made this comment a while back:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/comment/219350#comment-219350
But never got an answer about how Amazon ads worked. The relevant portion:
If anyone knows how ad revenue works, I'm all ears.
I have an Amazon affiliate ID all set up. Basically if you visit Amazon through TKP's affiliate URL and buy stuff, TKP gets a potion of the purchase price.
Had I known this prior to ordering EVERYTHING for my new kitchen through Amazon, your wallet would be fatter today.
Does it operate on a portion of everything I buy during that Amazon session or does it only apply to the advertised item?
Everything you purchase in that session.
Beautiful. This is probably the easiest way for me to make money for the sites I support, by doing something I was going to do anyway.
I added it back in the right-hand sidebar. It was there for a while, but no one used it, so I killed it. More importantly, let's see a picture of the new kitchen. What'd you go with?
Went with stuff. Not quite done. Picture later.
Thanks for the link
Will use this link. I have been using the VT alumni association for the smiles.amazon.com. I'd rather support this site.
Apologies if I missed this somewhere...but can we get URL? Got some shopping to do...
I put it back in the top-right sidebar. Thank you!
Nice, I will only buy at amazon through that link. And I will send in a donation to this fantastic website soon. Thanks Joe for all you do.
I am now a contributing member, ...I mean, its not much, but hey...this is, by far, my favorite website on all the interwebz.
This post has inspired me to stop lurking and finally make an account. You guys do an incredible job running this site and the content and community are both some of the best around.
And French, your film breakdowns are head and shoulders above everything else I've seen. I've played and watched for years and thought I knew plenty about the sport, but I learn more about the game and the team from every one of your posts. It's gotten to a point that I disregard almost all other football commentary because I know their analysis doesn't have the depth that I am used to.
I appreciate it. And, based on your screen name, it is good to see that there is another person who knows that you should never feed Mark Berman after midnight!
Lol, I thought it was a "Last of the Mohicans" reference.
you have to watch out for those tricky Hurons
Yeah, turns out Magua is dangerous too.
Just wait until he gets wet...
Donated because TKP taught me that there are some places where it's safe to read the comments.
Thanks for everything that all of you do.
Where?
Joe,
Do you only get a star and $ next to your name if you sign-up for monthly donations or do you get one for any donation? Also, how long does it usually take for a PayPal donation to process and end up in your hands? Asking for a friend.
Also, could we remove the amount of money that's been donated from the tooltip on the dollar sign? Replace it with something like, "Donated!" or something? This might just be my preference. Anyone else want to weigh in on it?
We could even have some fun with this. There's a vanilla approach:
(one-time donators) "Financial backer since [date]"
(repeat donators) "Continual financial backer since [date]"
Or something a bit more TKP-specific:
(one-time donators) "Number of donations > fans at UVA's spring game"
(repeat donators) "Number of donations > fans at UVA's spring games all time"
My check is in the mail to TKP headquarters.
Maybe this has already been thought of already... but how about some TKP key chains?
If we can engineer the loudest keychains of all time, then, yes, I'd buy an excessively loud TheKeyChain.
how about a set of keychains that can be assembled into some sort of illegal noisemaker (bugle?) and then disassembled and is dispersed to various owners when the event staff close in,
concept art:
anyone else feel like staying on top of new comments is like playing whack-a-mole? As soon as you've finished reading all the new ones, 5 more pop up. Heaven forbid you stay offline for a couple days. You'll never catch up without quitting your job and staying on here 24/7
Joe how about a count of how many gifs were posted?
Speaking of gifs, I find that I have a hard time loading pages when we're loaded up with gifs. On some site somewhere, I've seen an implentation of late-loading gifs that just show the initial image with a circle on it that says 'gif', and when you mouse over it, it loads the rest of the animation. I'd love to see that here if it isn't proprietary.
If not, it's probably some simple javascript. It's a great idea, especially on mobile.
Don't know where else to post this, so I'll just reply here:
So I know there have been a lot of questions and suggestions on how to get more money for this site to Joe. Stumbled upon this at TSL, and if you're looking to potentially make some revenue off Google advertising, then updates will need to be made to the site (and its very likely TSL is in danger of going belly-up soon).
http://chat.virginiatech.sportswar.com/message_board/vtlounge/2015/February/2/6038062.php
Essentially, ANY instance on the site that asks people to visit sponsor pages is a reason for Google to cut you off without warning. Boneyard Banter, the ECU sister site of TSL, has already been cut off, and very likely will die off soon. Techsideline, as an affiliate, is very likely next.
Donation sent. 2 thoughts.
1. If this site had solid recruiting stuff I would move my subscription here in a heartbeat
2. Does it make sense to make your pitch for donations (definitely worthy) during football season? I would think traffic would be substantially higher then
I've never spent my money paying for recruiting news on other sites, but the interviews and evaluations here are top notch. I don't know if maybe you're wanting insider knowledge or something. If that's the case, you might be asking for something that's outside of the vision of the site. It seems Joe has mentioned before that his goal here is not to be a place where they break stories or pander recruits information, but I could be mistaken.
1. I think our recruiting coverage is rather tight. We can definitely improve, but Alex has done a great job writing features on prospects and has conducted interviews with recruits, their families and coaches. French's x's and o's analysis of incoming signees is unparalleled.
2. Yes. The next time you'll hear from me is right before the football season.