Future Changes (Suggestions Welcome) 2022-23 Edition

Mike

Six-man master
Administrator
I started one of these topics about this time last year, primarily to catch a lot of you before you disappear for the off-season. It did get a few good suggestions, so I thought we'd do another one this year too. It also helps me to keep track of the bigger changes I'm wanting to make to the site, and so you all will know some things to look forward to for next year.

Once again, a list of things I'm hoping to change/add for next year, in no particular order:

  • Add a district standings page. This is, by far, one of the most suggested features. I, honestly, can't even come up with a good reason for why this doesn't exist other than I'm old and keep forgetting. In any case, it's on the list and it'll be added for next year. ✅
  • Bring back the player of the week. I actually get quite a few coaches who text/email me their top player stats each week so next year I'd like to do something with all that. I'll probably try to reach out to a few folks who I think would be good at helping me choose from the entries but, even if it's just me, I think this is something we should do again.
  • Add a broadcasts page. I really wanted to get this done for this season but I just never got around to it. Next year, though, we'll have a page specifically for broadcasts and, hopefully, a simple way for folks to submit their broadcast links. ✅
  • I'm still wanting to do something different for live score updates but, just like last year, I'm just still not sure what that is. I'll try to come up with something, if there's time. If not, text messages it is again! ✅
  • Add weekly fan polls, similar to what @Pdevitt13 did this season. ✅
  • Add private schools to the playoff pick 'em. May need a filter here so that folks can participate in either or both and see the results from either or both.
  • Separate rankings for playoff teams only.
  • Rebuild the archives to allow for more information about the games to be displayed (dates, time, district, etc). ✅

If there is anything else you'd like to see done differently for next year, please let me know. I won't guarantee it'll make the list, but I do guarantee I'll at least consider it.
 
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Is there any way to automate a weekly fan rankings based on submissions? I know @Pdevitt13 did many of them (thank you!), but I'm sure it is a ton of work on his end. Maybe with the long offseason, something could be written to compile submissions for the week? Those would be fun to compare to the official rankings here.
 
Is there any way to automate a weekly fan rankings based on submissions? I know @Pdevitt13 did many of them (thank you!), but I'm sure it is a ton of work on his end. Maybe with the long offseason, something could be written to compile submissions for the week? Those would be fun to compare to the official rankings here.

Yes, thanks for the reminder. I'd mentioned to @Pdevitt13 that we'd get together this off-season and find a way to code it directly into the site.
 
Would like the option to delete a post or thread unless it is already an option

This is something that's been brought up on just about every forum I've ever owned, moderated or frequented. There are a few reasons why most forums don't allow this, and why I tend to agree.

  • If a member gets upset about something, they could go around deleting all of their posts and/or threads.
  • Deleted posts within a topic can cause the entire topic to lose context, especially when the "quote" function isn't used in replies, which is very often the case when you're replying directly below a message. Imagine reading a thread where two members are discussing a specific topic, but you can only read the replies from one of those members.
  • It's not uncommon for folks to find this site from a Google search. You never know what someone might search for and if one of the threads on this site, even if it's an older thread, has the info they're looking for, when no other site does, Google will lead them here. That can't happen if the post/thread no longer exists.
  • Especially with threads that contain a lot of historical data, we wouldn't want that data wiped away. Not only for the sake of Google, and other search engines, but also for members who may be searching for information from things that happened in the past. Members have searched data on this site 30,705 times. I'm not sure when that number was last reset, but let's assume it was when I converted the site to the new software. That would've been 13 months ago now. That's over 2,300 searches a month. That's a lot of people looking for something that's posted on this site, and I'd guess that a lot of those are folks looking for old info. Keep in mind that's only searches performed directly on this site. No telling how many thousands of Google searches are performed a month.
  • A lot of folks (maybe not necessarily on this forum, but definitely on others) care about their stats (post count, likes received, etc). If a member deletes a thread, every person who posted in that thread will have their post count decreased. Also, if they received any likes on their posts in those threads, those numbers will be decreased too.

I will say that there are some forums where I think an argument for deleting could be made, such as the open dates, coaching vacancies, trading post, etc. But most of the other threads, I think the reasons not to delete them far outweigh most reasons to delete them.
 
This is something that's been brought up on just about every forum I've ever owned, moderated or frequented. There are a few reasons why most forums don't allow this, and why I tend to agree.

  • If a member gets upset about something, they could go around deleting all of their posts and/or threads.
  • Deleted posts within a topic can cause the entire topic to lose context, especially when the "quote" function isn't used in replies, which is very often the case when you're replying directly below a message. Imagine reading a thread where two members are discussing a specific topic, but you can only read the replies from one of those members.
  • It's not uncommon for folks to find this site from a Google search. You never know what someone might search for and if one of the threads on this site, even if it's an older thread, has the info they're looking for, when no other site does, Google will lead them here. That can't happen if the post/thread no longer exists.
  • Especially with threads that contain a lot of historical data, we wouldn't want that data wiped away. Not only for the sake of Google, and other search engines, but also for members who may be searching for information from things that happened in the past. Members have searched data on this site 30,705 times. I'm not sure when that number was last reset, but let's assume it was when I converted the site to the new software. That would've been 13 months ago now. That's over 2,300 searches a month. That's a lot of people looking for something that's posted on this site, and I'd guess that a lot of those are folks looking for old info. Keep in mind that's only searches performed directly on this site. No telling how many thousands of Google searches are performed a month.
  • A lot of folks (maybe not necessarily on this forum, but definitely on others) care about their stats (post count, likes received, etc). If a member deletes a thread, every person who posted in that thread will have their post count decreased. Also, if they received any likes on their posts in those threads, those numbers will be decreased too.

I will say that there are some forums where I think an argument for deleting could be made, such as the open dates, coaching vacancies, trading post, etc. But most of the other threads, I think the reasons not to delete them far outweigh most reasons to delete them.
Just the option to delete something that is duplicated. On scores, I have posted scores only to realize that someone else had already posted it.
I started a thread and realize that someone else has already started it. If no has replied to it I would like the option to delete it but if someone has replied then you can't.
 
Just the option to delete somehthing that is duplicated. On scores, I have posted score only to realize that someone else had alredy posted it.
I started a thread and realize that someone else has already started it. If no has replied to it I would like the option to delete it but if someone has replied then you can't.

Good point here. I'll look at some options to make this doable. I'm thinking maybe making it so that posts/threads can be deleted within X minutes of being posted.
 
On the archive section, is it possible to label which games were non-district, district, and playoffs?

On games starting last year I can probably do that, assuming the data in the schedules was correct, but I don't think that data exists for games prior to last year. I'll have another look through the data, after this season, just to be sure. Assuming the data isn't there, what I can do at some point, is open it up so that folks can recommend those changes to be made and, eventually, we can get it all up to date. I'm guessing it'd take quite some time, but I do think it's doable, and I'd definitely be all for getting the info back into the database. The more data that's there, the better, in my opinion.
 
I would like to see teams that do not play a team ranked higher than they are fade in rankings. For example: #5 at the start of the season and only play teams that are in the #30+ all season, you should not be ranked #5 for going 9-0.
 
I started one of these topics about this time last year, primarily to catch a lot of you before you disappear for the off-season. It did get a few good suggestions, so I thought we'd do another one this year too. It also helps me to keep track of the bigger changes I'm wanting to make to the site, and so you all will know some things to look forward to for next year.

Once again, a list of things I'm hoping to change/add for next year, in no particular order:

  • Add a district standings page. This is, by far, one of the most suggested features. I, honestly, can't even come up with a good reason for why this doesn't exist other than I'm old and keep forgetting. In any case, it's on the list and it'll be added for next year.
  • Bring back the player of the week. I actually get quite a few coaches who text/email me their top player stats each week so next year I'd like to do something with all that. I'll probably try to reach out to a few folks who I think would be good at helping me choose from the entries but, even if it's just me, I think this is something we should do again.
  • Add a broadcasts page. I really wanted to get this done for this season but I just never got around to it. Next year, though, we'll have a page specifically for broadcasts and, hopefully, a simple way for folks to submit their broadcast links.
  • I'm still wanting to do something different for live score updates but, just like last year, I'm just still not sure what that is. I'll try to come up with something, if there's time. If not, text messages it is again!
  • Add weekly fan polls, similar to what @Pdevitt13 did this season.
  • Add private schools to the playoff pick 'em. May need a filter here so that folks can participate in either or both and see the results from either or both.

If there is anything else you'd like to see done differently for next year, please let me know. I won't guarantee it'll make the list, but I do guarantee I'll at least consider it.
For the 2023 season can you do a ranking with only the 32 teams that are in the playoffs?
 
Any way to fix the rankings this year? Only asking cause it's very confusing to have a team that lost in the first round be ranked #3 ahead of teams that are still in the playoffs...........

This has been brought to my attention a few times already today and, without running a lot of tests, I can't explain why they're where they are. The only thing that makes sense to me is it's because they beat Westbrook, and are the only team to do so. Until I can get in and start dissecting the code, though, that's just my best guess. I definitely agree that The Toy is wrong there, but that's been the case with some examples since I joined the site 15 years ago. It's not perfect...it never will be...there will always be things that don't make sense...I do guarantee that it'll be looked at, toyed with, and tweaked where necessary every year to keep it as accurate as possible. That's the best I can do.

I definitely wouldn't want to change anything at this point in the season, though.
 
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