Football season is right around the corner. As such, many folks have returned to hanging out on TKP more frequently. I've noticed an increase in the noise to signal ratio. If you comment, vote or start new topics on TKP, take a minute and refamiliarize yourself with the community guidelines: http://www.thekeyplay.com/community-guidelines. Please use the tracker to check for an existing topic before starting a new thread. If you're sharing a link remember this.
The topic body has to be something more than "Nm". That is to say, your title shouldn't be the entirety of your post. This isn't TSL. You don't have to be an essayist, but a few well-thought sentences generally makes for a much better discussion to follow. If you're referencing a Tweet, article or YouTube video, link or embed it. Provide a source. Explain why someone should click on link. Facilitate a conversation with your initial post, then lead the discussion.
Duplicate topics and noisy comments are deleted without warning or explanation. As a community, TKP's level of wit and discourse has always been top-notch, and I want it to remain that way.
My goal is to make sure 2015 is TKP's best season yet, and we have a lot of great articles, features and x's and o's breakdowns planned for y'all. Thank you!
Comments
"This isn't TSL". You got that right, that may be the most hateful place I have ever been on. :-)
You obviously haven't been on the 247 or Rivals boards...
You are correct, I don't pay for anything except TKP.
HokieHaven is brutal. Too many posters that bitch and complain a lot plus a lot of trolls and delusionals, VT fan or not.
True on all counts! They hate anyone who doesn't step in line with their views.
saw some stuff on TSL stating beamer had a stroke over the summer and is holding on for dear life..
My response
I saw that thread and... wow
the man had throat surgery in the winter and had to go to a speech therapist to re-learn how to speak. He's slurring some words. BFD. Saw him in person a couple months ago and he seem to be in better spirits with more energy than any of the times I've seen him in recent years.
I saw him in person on May 22nd walking into the Merryman Center.
TSL... basically Virginia Tech's version of an old man's reddit forum.
*shudder*
Which is even more appropriate when you consider they spun off the United We Stand forum, which quickly devolved into the stank crotchrot of the VT fanbase.
The message board at least. You can't deny that Will Stewart's articles are pretty great, though.
Posting and Commenting Guidelines
FTFY. Feel free to delete this comment when you've fixed it.
I laughed.
What is up with the Germans, anyway?
(No, seriously, I don't get the joke. Can someone help me out?)
Quote from Animal House.
Wow you are young and uncultured, Animal House man! ;)
Here you go - (NSFW: Language)
In the spirit of this, is it possible to eventually (lower priority) tweak the site search to specify whether we're searching for titles or body text, forums or articles? Obviously if it's a new/hot topic, a cursory glance at the tracker will tell you if you're late to the party. For more general forum conversation like "Official Pizza Thread" or "Official Beer Thread" or whatever, sometimes it's hard to filter through search results manually to see if there's already a thread like the one you want to create.
I'd like to add to this, it would be ideal if we had the ability to order the search by date too. Last week I was searching for ~1 month old thread (don't remember exactly what), but the first three hits were from 2013. A drop down allowing a user to search by Best Match, most recent, least recent, # of comments, etc would be ideal. Obviously this low priority since we rarely try to track down old comments/threads.
Would it be possible to add "**official** to some of the titles and maybe in the first sentence? Might make the search easier and provide better results up front...
can't gif at work, but...giggity
Your friendly neighborhood moderator is on vacation this week, so all you assholes better stay on topic or there will be some swift justice handed out when I'm paying full attention!
just to clarify. Does this mean we have a week where we'll be un-moderated or that this week you'll have nothing better to do than lurk here and hand out deca-downvotes immediately? Just trying to get the lay of the land...
*evil grin*
Everyone get your NSFW gifs and pictures ready.
P-A-R-T-Y? Because I GOTTA!!!
I know I'm not a big member of the TKP community, so my request might not carry as much weight, but I have a suggestion that is kind of relevant to this post. Is there any way that we can disable GIFs from being visible in comments? I look at this site almost exclusively when I'm on my lunch break and I'd rather they not be visible when coworkers and stuff walk by. It also detracts from the content of the comments section. I'm scrolling down here looking for long comments with actual insight, not silly images.
Just my two cents. I have to imagine that a good number of people on here feel the same way.
I know some people have used adblock to create image free pages for that exact reason. Maybe it works to filter by ".gif" so you don't block ads or relevant images?
oh and, I pretty much have to do this. I think it's in the guidelines somewhere.
I have to disagree. It may or may not have to do with the fact that without cheap pops, I might only have about 3 turkey legs.
"Right here, in beautiful Falls Church VA."
I see what your're saying, and I respect your opinion. But I have to be honest, most of my hoard of legs came from nonsense. So heres a picture of a grumble of pugs
I'm not trying to start trouble, but I think you guys are completely missing the point of this website. The goal of the site is to provide sports content to VT fans and to act as a platform for like-minded people to talk sports. Some people on here know a lot, most people don't . I have no problems with people who like GIFs, but personally I don't have time for them.
In no way is the goal of the site to see how many turkey legs you can accumulate. I think Joe would agree that legs are a two headed sword; in one way they encourage people to post top notch content, but most people on here make posts that are fishing for legs. Again, if that's your thing, good for you. But I think it would be a nice upgrade to allow people to basically filter through this to get to the meat.
I don't post fishing for legs, I created a username that does it for me.
Which is impressive consider you have hooves
I don't think anyone really "fishes for turkey legs." If they wanted to do that, they would shamelessly post Emma Watson gifs for no reason.
That being said...
you can really see her accent in that GIF...
Hah. That reminds me of something my most lecherous friend will drop on occasion when seeing a chick in really tight pants.
"Well, you can tell she's Catholic."
Which means absolutely nothing, but it sounds dirty as hell.
So legs are bad? I'm so confused.
I can't speak for anyone else, but my point in being here is to talk sports and enjoy a community where I can discuss lots of things and share experiences. Getting a laugh every now and then is a good value add.
Exactly, We have it all, the best of everything. Plus, I don't want to be anywhere that takes itself too seriously.
And that's why I haven't been there in a loooooong time.
I like funny posts too, but let's be honest, pretty much the same GIFs are reposted in every single thread. The posts that actually generate laughs are generally the short, witty ones, which I enjoy.
Again, I feel like it shouldn't be that hard or divisive to create a preference in a user's account that doesn't load images. I could be completely wrong; I don't know. What I do know, is that there are plenty of people like myself that find the GIFs to be a bit obnoxious. Of course everyone "contributing" to this discussion are your classic TKP users and thus love them, but believe me, a lot of potential users are put off by them.
I'm probably at the top of your list as the worst offender, but I definitely see your point. For my part, I honestly try my best to to find originals. Seeing the same ones all the time is definitely a bit tedious, but if they are getting the legs, they are going to keep being posted.
All that said, I am probably going to celebrate a big commitment with a shot of tequila and a posting of the Mexican hat dance every damn time. It's like "mondays are cool happy occasions" with me - it just feels like my own little tradition and spurs continued good luck. And some, like the Sabre guy falling off the horse... well, I ask you...when is that not appropriate?
I suppose an effort could be made to "retire" gifs, but in the end, the legs control all the behavior. When people are tired of it, they will stop upvoting it, and it will go away.
I love the gifs, but I hope there is a way to let you screen them out and enjoy TKP as much as the rest of us.
You are completely wrong.
Do you have any data to back this up?
GIF blocking mods do exist for a reason *shrug*
Personally, I've always felt if you don't like 'em, that's your issue, so you block them.
I don't code so thanks, now I know.
And don't be immature Joe. I'm friends with plenty of people who use to go on this site or lurk and most of them don't come here anymore. Are GIFs the reason? Who knows. But the culture on here, which seems childish at times with the GIFs, can be a put off to existing and potential users. There is a reason that stuff like that is mostly banned from reddit.
It's your site so obviously you can do what you want. I'm just trying to give you another perspective that you probably don't get too often on here.
Wait reddit banned something? I could look at nudes but Gifs were just too much for them?
Don't know how that came off as immature, wasn't my intent, but OK.
As far as the development, it's quite a bit of work that would service very few people. Therefore it's not worth my time or energy.
Also, I was being quite serious when I asked for the data points. Almost all of the changes I make around here are a result of user feedback, that's why I do so many surveys and communicate with the community with these type of threads. I'm a proponent of The Lean Startup methodology, which outlines data driven business strategies.
Until today, I can't recall receiving feedback that the GIFs were overwhelming.
I appreciate the feedback, but that's as good as #sources.
All good man. I just figured i would toss it out there to see.
Have you structured user surveys to specifically query re: gifs adding to or detracting from gif value? If not, you just got your primary indicator that it might be an issue.
I know for a fact that I've given not-so-positive feedback about the GIF usage in the surveys as well, but I'm probably in the minority.
FIFY. Maybe your friends don't come here because of the grammar police? I find that very immature and annoying.
touche, Fud
Hey man, all in good fun from my end. Leg (even though you probably don't want it).
I don't see how Joe is being immature here...he answered your question and posed a reasonable question of his own. I don't have any issues with you or what you're saying. I can understand where you're coming from but I would caution against getting too high up on your horse...I think it's probably fair to say that everyone comes here for a variety of reasons and I would also argue that this site is intended to be more of a community for VT sports fans than strictly just a football-talk site.
Immature was the wrong word. More like snarky. Of course i don't have data to prove that some people choose not to sign up because of the GIFs. At the end of the day, it is what it is. I would prefer there to be less GIFs and more insight, but that's my preference. Also, I have absolutely no problem with OT stuff. It's just, again, you open up any thread and half the responses are GIFs that we've all seen a million times.
Personal opinion, but in general, the meat of the football discussion occurs inside the body of an article, especially those on the front page of TKP. It's fairly easy to see ahead of time which threads will become full of gifs, humor, and OT posts just based upon the body or title of the original post. If it's going to be a bother though, follow rule #1 of the Internet and don't look at the comments. Most people commenting there are the regular posters as you mentioned, but they are commenting because this is a site around a community and most people enjoy humor. But as has been stated, if it bothers you, look into some of the ad-blockers and other mods for your browser to disable anything ending in ".gif." They exist so that people like Joe don't have to do countless hours of work to appease a minority among the group.
I'll also add, it's the offseason, so there is not enough substantial football content to generate serious discussion. The forums kind of overrun the place from January-August, and understandably so. Things will lock back on target come next month with fall workouts begin, and the last two weeks of August will probably be more tension-filled than a John Woo movie.
For the most part its a sentiment that carries over from Reddit. Their two biggest complaints against TKP are homerism and overuse of gifs.
...Concerning the homerism... well, its a Virginia Tech fan website, of course there's going to be homers...and there should be, this is a site for us. To counter that though...I feel we do have some of the most knowledgeable and grounded fans.
As far as the gifs thing goes, lol...well, yeah... we're a bit gif heavy at times. Doesn't bother me any, because I'm on mobile or at work on a govt computer and the gifs don't work like 94% of the time anyway.
edit - to clarify, I love both r/cfb and TKP.
My completely unscientific survey shows that there are 4 people that back this opinion.
Fear not VTCEE -- we are mostly harmless.
muahahahahaaa.......
What part of pictures and gifs "turn you off" may I ask? I can tell you I rarely visit othe text only sites think reddit or other message boards. The articles written by the contributors is top of the line so I'm not sure what content you might be missing?
Really it's their existence. Some of them are funny, obviously. If I'm on here during lunch, though, I would just prefer there not to be weird images floating across my screen. Like reddit, a lot of good content can be found in the comments and I feel like that is lost when you're sifting through GIF after GIF.
I think turkey legs are the meat of the conversation.
I'm the oppisite. I wish there was a way to block the long boring insightful comments.
HAHA! My thoughts exactly. I'm here for the gifs, obviously, but out of respect, and for what may be the first time, I will make a post without one.
That and...
No tangent on this GIF!
Not the most useful superhero.
If you use Firefox, there's an add on called Web Developer that will let you disable images. I don't have it on the computer I'm using at the moment, but the menu path is something like Tools>Web Developer>Images>Disable Images>All Images
Here's a brief overview/tutorial I found on it.
ok, here's my suggestion (probably completely unfeasible due to effort/result ratio):
Like I said, probably not worth doing, but, in theory, this could make everyone happy.
I feel I speak for Joe when I say "holy hell that would be a pain in the ass." Actually, your first and second points are probably fairly straightforward considering Joe has already done the work to create a rating system and can add colors to posts based on that rating. To add in an additional rating and check it for coloring posts, that should be simple enough. The logic is there, it just needs a few additional features. The 4th point falls in line as well since GuitarMan can already do that with Turkey legs. The third request is where it gets tricky. You go from having a universal rule to a rule on an individual user basis. Which means the servers have to monitor all 3,000 or so members and their preferences to provide a different page based upon their preferences. That's the big leagues and while TKP is awesome, I wouldn't want to touch something like that if I were Joe. Just my $0.02 from a coder POV
I don't know the nuts and bolts of it, but the tracker is already tailored. It shows me what comments have been posted since the last time I looked at the post. Could it be as simple as just changing the criteria for highlighting and listing new comments (instead of just new, it would be new AND X+ guru points)? Also, he's already made it so that when I collapse threads, they stay collapsed across devices so that would seem to be tailored to the user as well.
I agree that this is probably not worth doing and I'm not even lobbying for it, just throwing ideas out there for discussion. Who knows, maybe in all the back and forth, Joe might get an idea that actually is easy to implement and can make another demographic happy, thus bringing more users to the site.
Fair enough. I didn't realize that comments stay collapsed across devices. I don't really use it, so I figured it was a one time thing that was available on the current instance of the window you were using. The fact that it's saved probably makes that a whole lot more feasible then. In all fairness, this level of web design is far above my head so I picture this from a very low level. Surely Joe utilizes a lot of resources and libraries and then adapts them to make the site run the way it does rather than being built from the ground up. But regardless, I think it's worth mentioning that if people want features or anything different than what's already being done, it's important to support your requests and appreciation with donations.
If you don't like gif's, get a Chrome or FireFox extension that blocks .gif files. They really aren't that hard to find, and I have embedded the links to these extensions, if you want them.
If you're using Internet Explorer, you can disable as follows:
FTFY
God I hate IE. What kills me is the fact that the govt refuses to upgrade anything ever and there are so many pages that only support the IE web browser...I want to strangle someone whenever I get the "this browser isnt supported, please download the latest version of IE" message.
The funny thing is, Chrome is getting to be pretty bad as well. Yes, its still fast, but it absolutely starts to kill your RAM after a while if you don't close it out and restart it. And even FireFox isn't that fast. And from what I've experienced, IE11 is actually a pretty quick and surprisingly competent system.
That said, I still run Chrome exclusively except for sites that need IE.
IE is much better than it once was. I'll be interested to see how Microsoft's new Edge browser works out for them.
Microsoft is claiming Edge is faster than Chrome, and an independent test I read backs up most of the claims.
As far as the browser being a memory hog, that could be due to a bad extension or two. Some of it is intentional though. Requesting (allocating) memory is one of the most expensive (in terms of clock cycles) operations an application can make. It's a good practice to over request memory and manage your own pool, rather than allocating and deallocating it to the OS time and time again.
I thoroughly enjoy our fun with GIFs, except for when they make me laugh at work and people around me ask what's so funny.
That being said, particularly long and GIF-heavy threads will lock up my phone for several minutes while everything loads, so I wouldn't be adverse to an option to block/hide/disable them in those instances.
Well I for one agree with VTCEE. We really need to get back and talk about the Hokies. And I'm gonna do that right NOW
For some reason I just get this feeling that there needs to be a senior correspondent for VT women's athletics here on TKP. And if that job pays enough for a shitty apartment, beer money and a press pass with expenses for away game travel I feel like I could do that job and be happy. Go lady hokies.
As a wireless communications systems engineer this is humorous. Well played.
The BER under these conditions would be huge, link would be lost.
i found it humorous and I'm not a wireless communications systems engineer. I have trouble hooking up my modem at home
You need a new job? Tangent!
Oh man, I can't start a discussion based on Flightpath? I have a feeling that Kevin Sumlin is coming after more of our coaches. Last year I thought it was Foster but ended up being Moorehead. I'll try to be more conscious before I start a Post.
It was Foster, too!
Have a good time Joe.
I know we will.
Can someone with more musical/lyical talent than I set the community guidelines to this song before Basketball season starts?
Y'all is nuts. All y'all.
I just went though this thread and saw nothing like..."scroll through the gifs to something that has meat to it.". Your coworkers will never see you watching some hot chick twerk on the monitor.
As I scroll down and see the "meet local singles" ad...
But seriously, the meat, the superior content that is advertised, is at the top of the page; if you don't want the .gifs, don't read the comments! At any rate, these beat reading offensive YouTube comments.
YouTube comments are quite possibly the worst legal thing on the internet
It's where you find the dregs of humanity. Whenever you want to lose hope in the human race, just take a peek at them.
I thought so too, until Ellen Pao got the axe and the discussion heated up of Reddit clamping down on extreme offensive content. Some of those subreddits...wow.
I will don the mantle of TKP apologist if allowed for a moment:
This site is not for everybody.
If someone feels that TKP is sophomoric, redundant, or circumforaneous, then by all means, go.
Go visit the other VT-involved sites and enjoy a more sterile and dessicated presentation of content.
Otherwise, chill brah and enjoy the sounds that commence.
Put your boat in the flow and paddle along and contribute as you can. You will find this community is highly receptive and respectful of oldies and newbies alike.
But please don' t try and dam it up.
Gifs and silliness interspersed between top-notch information and unapproachable technical analysis are distinctly what separates this site from the others.
I'd invite all members to contribute $$ before the first game against tOSU as a token of appreciation to this site's creators and as a gift of spiritual mana to the upcoming season.
VT is gonna be good, people.
I am excited about the upcoming season and would like to say thanks to the community for creating/providing a safe haven from life and the rest of the internet.
Stay sweet, don't change a thang.
In conclusion:
Go Hokies!
Every leg I can give here. As someone who joined 2 weeks ago, and someone who doesn't have the tenure to speak for the community, this is everything that I wanted to say in a nutshell.
Actually, wait,
The fact that neither Austin Powers nor Mythbusters are on Netflix is nothing short of criminal.
That's why we don't have Netflix...we can watch as much as we like, except what we like isn't there.
I just want to point out that if you're complaining that there's no enough "long, insightful comments" and there's too much OT stuff or funny GIFs, it IS the offseason.
I don't know about everyone on here, but I'm sure tired of "long, insightful comments" that consist of how our recruiting is terrible, Beamer needs to go, and not giving credit for videos. We can all be as insightful as we like when there's something to actually discuss.
EDIT: Whoops, forgot about conference realignment.
It does seem like the same conversations are had recurrently on here. But that's just an issue of several posters having their own strongly formed opinion and voicing that opinion in regards to whatever the topic of conversation is. I have no issue with that, so long as nobody pulls a Bengal and goes from discourse to full thermonuclear meltdown without provocation.
Threads like this show that some people will just never be happy.
We have a site that doesn't take itself too seriously. It provides really good information, and provides breaking news about a variety of issues, and yet somehow hasn't devolved into an overly racist and sexist cesspool that other places with a fair deal of autonomy has become. We police ourselves, and do it really well.
Can I just say how goddamn thankful I am that the level of sexism around here is really low? Cause I get more than enough of it at my job... (engineer)
And it pleases me to no end that I actually get legs when calling it out. Y'all are the best :D
You're welcome. Just going to leave this here...
wait, you're a woman? [downvotes post automatically]
Oh, damn. Then I guess we need to make each upvote worth 77% of a leg?
Ok so I'm not totally sure why, but this thread reminds me of this gem from Aqua Teen Hunger Force (NSFW!!!!):
...so is telling Matt Ryan to go fuck himself still cool?
Yeah.
No women involved, therefore, no sexism. And so far as I can tell, nobody around who doesn't agree with the sentiment. Definitely still cool.
Okay, intro time. I AM THE ORIGINAL TKP LURKER. I mean I lurked the shit out of this place...since I believe month 1, but no later than month 3. This is not my first post, and since I couldn't find the Intro's Topic, this Meta will have to do. I finally joined in back in December, but have only contributed a few comments laced with sarcasm since. Interesting non-Hokie related fact: I once charged a horse (not with a crime, and no, he was not a on a treadmill). He was charging me.
Let's Go!
I'm with the horse on this one. I think you probably deserved it.
Joe - is it cool to link to photos with The Key Play watermark on other sites (like 11w)? If so, would I link to smugmug, or re-upload it to a hosting site (such as imgur)?
Go for it. Whether you link from SmugMug or upload to Imgur is up to you.
WARNING: UNINVITED SITE SUGGESTION FROM A NON-COMPUTER GUY
Joe, any way we could make the default setting for non-new comments collapsed? Just trying to think of ways to make the mobile viewing experience better for the site. I usually read every comment, but I rarely read comments that aren't highlighted yellow unless I'm checking them for context on a yellow comment. If the grey comments were collapsed, I'd have the option to expand them if I wanted. This would make scrolling through the comments a heck of a lot faster, not to mention it wouldn't load all the gifs you'd already seen (or would it?). As it is, i usually ignore threads with lots of comments til I can make it to a computer and use your nifty 'N' functionality.
As always feel free to ignore the suggestion. For all I know, it's more trouble than it's worth.
If that makes it look like the 11W site then I say NO. That site is so poor compared to TKP.
well my thinking is that collapsed comment threads are already personalized. If I collapse one, it's still collapsed next time I view the page, but obviously not for anyone else. So, the first time I see a thread, nothing is collapsed (just like right now the first time I see a thread everything is yellow). When I've read comments once, 99% of the time I don't need to see them again.
In 11w's method, all 3rd replies and beyond start out collapsed before you've read anything, so you have to click "show all" every time, or click the arrow on every single thread you're interested in - even for the new stuff. So not the same as what hokie07 is requesting.
I like this idea.
What I do NOT like is pre-collapsed comments (11w just got collapsible threads, but the first time you load it the third comment down and beyond is auto-collapsed, new or not, so you only see the original and one reply). It is annoying to have to click "show all comments" when you haven't even read them the first time yet.
(of course, at 11w, there is also no way to reset fat-finger votes, and you still get helmet stickers just for posting a comment - which is why I think some of their forum topics get hundreds of useless replies - guys fishing for automatic upvotes; thanks for the beneficial changes here, Joe!)
I don't like on 11w you can't tell what's new since you were last there. Comments are straight up and down and you can't jump to comments from a comments board. I think TKP has by far the best user interface.
I agree and I'm not suggesting losing any of the current functionality, but adding something that could make it easier to browse new comments in a thread if you're on a mobile device where you can't hit "N" to jump between them
On my mobile device there's this nice little empty space to the right of the header, I wonder if you couldn't just put a button that works as the "n" button right there for when you're browsing threads on mobile. May be simpler to implement.
Its a little more work than having a ready button on the screen to do the work for you, but if you use the Find in Page feature of your mobile browser (may have a different name in browsers other than Chrome) to search for "new #" you can accomplish the same thing as the n button on a computer keyboard. That's what I typically do if I'm browsing on my phone and have new comments scattered throughout a long thread.
ooooo. i like it. Thanks for the work around. Works quite nicely on safari