On comments, bugs and other stuff

Okay, a few things need to be addressed, or will be, so:

  1. Regarding comments: some of you have come over from Kukla’s Korner. Some of you will be new, and some of you will have met somewhere along the way. I don’t want to preface anything with, “Well, this comments section is going to be different” from x or y because one never really knows how an audience shapes itself…

But have no doubt that it’s a benevolent dictatorship here. I don’t want to see abuse of others and if you’re just here to slag stuff…we’re not going to get along very well. I can’t block people from seeing my website outright like Paul can, but I can ban people from commenting, and if I have to use it, I’m not afraid to use it.

My next-door neighbor’s dad always said, “Play nice!” I say, “Play nice, or I will have to be nice for you!”

2. This is where I need a hand. I’m finding that on the mobile version of the site, or if you’re running ad or script-blockers, there is a tendency for the website to default load to a Pavel Datsyuk post from two years ago. If you are having this problem, please let me know! I want to get this sorted out with WordPress, and having more than, “Um, it’s me that’s having the problem” as evidence would be of great assistance.

3. It’s been suggested that I might want to add a “Patreon button” to the banner page. That’s a great suggestion, but, erm…Je nais parlez-vous WordPress HTML? If there’s somebody who might know how to do this, it’s a really good idea…

But to be honest, I bought the platform I am using because it’s reliable and dependable, not because it’s easy to program. I will pay for HTML work done, too.

Now, back to your usual hockey-related content…

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

37 thoughts on “On comments, bugs and other stuff”

    1. You’ve more or less figured it out. I have to approve your first couple of comments, and then you’re good to go.

  2. I know it’s not your favorite topic, but a couple things on copyright …

    1. You should really change the name of your blog.
    2. You should DEFINITELY delete/change the banner or get Paul’s permission, in writing and notarized, that you may use that material as is, in perpetuity, in all media now in existence or to later be invented without referencing or giving credit to Paul’s site. That banner is absolutely proprietary and you could be (and should be) sued for using it.
    If I was him, and you took a portion of my audience, then used my color scheme, fonts, banner, etc. to promote your new site, I’d be PO’d. It is absolutely dirty pool and certainly copyright infringement that could get this place shut down quickly.

  4. Yeah get rid of the banner. I’d try to add a “refresh” button somewhere or a home button. Because once you are on one article it’s not intuitive whether to hit back or search for the next comment or post.

  6. I do like the threading (indents) in comments, which makes debate of specific posters/comments easier, than a single log of comments.

  7. I am excited for you George! You are the best Red Wing observer that can be found online, and now you have given yourself plenty of room to grow and learn a complete game. I will enjoy your being a player in your “process” now too. Though my D coverage needs some work. Im more of a rover. Full speed ahead!

    1. MtMatt, I hope that I do “learn a complete game here. I’m honestly quite scared about going out on my own, but I’ve made the jump, and now I will learn.

      1. You have been doing this too long, and should be just a calculated amount of scared. Its honest and natural, and good motivation to go with the your all-star superskills.

  9. What about RSS feed, George? I’m using it for years, but it shows only 10 posts. How about growing it to 20-25 posts? It would be very helpful.

  11. GM, after a day or so now, I got feedback for you, very much meant to help, not criticize…

    I am having a hard time adjusting to the formatting on my computer screen haven’t used mobile. There’s just too much white space on this site, wide margins between the Nav bar and the actual content, the content itself is at best ½ of the screen, not enough. My monitor has a “wide stance” but it’s not like this with other sites.

    The font is huge, KK was like what 8, this is 13, I’m old and its big for me, I feel like I’m using my grandma’s computer with her zoom on 200x. On top of that lots of double spacing between paragraphs and entries. It just makes for too much scrolling, and I find myself whipping through content and posts. I bet this post alone will take up ½ the screen.

    Along the lines of content scrolling, unsure you need to have “related” under the article considering this is Wings focused blog, everything is related, and the Nav bar has them, its overkill.

    Having your story under every entry is probably overkill too. I think those that find TMR know who you are, and for those that don’t maybe an About in the Nav bar would be a better way to go. Moreso though, not enough About in my opinion. Be more expansive, and include some pics of you at camps and stuff, and what you bring to the table that like an MLive or google searches don’t. Sell yourself brother, you’re not just a normal fan blogger who watches FSN, and bitches like Pat Caputo, it wouldn’t be worthwhile if so. You attending camps, getting deep into the prospect ranks, scouring for wings media daily, that resonates. About should be your commercial.

    You should probably look into profile pics for us, there’s certain people who bring more to the table for certain people, i.e. misery finds company, as does positivity, as does practicality, and a picture made it easier to hone in to read comments I wanted to read, skip others. Moreso though, even though most are cartoons and stuff, I think it also adds to the community aspect of the place, probably important in what your trying to accomplish economically.

    Almost all other info forums I check out all have a like or thumbs or down for comments. I am personally not a fan or advocate for that but it must have some economic benefit like click counting or something, because TMR is the outlier. Extremely happy that this is not a facebook or some other social media required site.

    Lastly, I already mentioned it but that ignore feature, but to emphasize, that literally kept me as a TMR reader. I reached a point this past offseason where I was done with your site and community, I couldn’t just mentally black out posts, and it was more frustrating to be part of the community than enjoyable, and I just stopped stopping by. Unsure what news of the day caused me to return, and in that, someone reminded me of the ignore feature and it made all the difference. I am already getting annoyed with here, just being on honest, because I appreciate your coverage.

    1. No offense taken. I really tried to get the blog running to get it running, and now I need to refine it…

      Regarding the comments section, I’m going to see what I can do. WordPress is a lot more basic in terms of what one can do with commenters, and…we’ve got some issues to iron out there.

    3. Profile pics engaged!

      I also have downloaded a recommended user-blocking feature. Will look around for more of them.

      1. Wonky would be nice!, LOL How do I get my account set up? Not going to use WordPress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      2. Wonky would be nice!, LOL How do I get my account set up? Not going to use WordPress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      3. Wonky would be nice!, LOL How do I get my account set up? Not going to use WordPress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Should be WingedRider leave out the F, thx

    1. ok seems to be ok now… not sure what happened, maybe was only loading an old cache or something…

      keep up the great work, much appreciated

      1. I’ve been checking in the last week but there weren’t any new posts. Then I realized they just weren’t showing up when I loaded the site. When I used a different browser the newest posts populated. Not sure what that’s all about but I’m guessing it’s a cache issue on my end.

        1. That happens to several people, and it happened to me early on. For whatever reason, it’s less of a problem now than it was during the first week. It will be addressed during the redesign for sure.

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