VEB new and improved

by lboros on Apr 3, 2007 8:29 AM EDT

SB Nation is embarking on a round of site upgrades, and VEB is right near the front of the line. some time very soon, possibly at the end of this week, we'll become the second baseball site to get upgraded, following the flagship site, Athletics Nation. a couple of the college sites (Corn Nation and Burnt Orange Nation) also have received the changes.

what will be different? here's what i've been promised:

an auto-refresh feature: during game threads, the comments will automatically update at intervals; no need to constantly re-load the whole page.

ajax commenting: you'll be able to choose how the comment threads display, expanding / collapsing them as per your preference.

a new editing screen: much smoother, more user-friendly interface for writing comments and diaries.

tags: to help you file / organize VEB content. every post that discusses, say, david eckstein substantively (more than a mere mention) will have an "eckstein" tag; you just click on the tags and there's a complete VEB dossier on the player.

there will be some minor cosmetic changes as well, but nothing too major. the changes in functionality are the main thing --- they're all pretty straightforward, and they should make the site much easier to use. the response has been very favorable from the handful of communities that have already made this conversion.

if you want, you can head on over to Athletics Nation or one of the two college sites, create an account, and test things out. try not to disturb them if youu do; i don't think tyler would appreciate a wave of comments and diaries at AN that say the moral equivalant of "testing 1, 2, 3. . . " but maybe you can hop in on one of their discussions that has cardinal-related subject matter (danny haren took the loss in oakland's opener yesterday; only todd walker stands between daric barton and the a's everyday 1st-base job). for that matter, you can simply preview your comments / diaries but not post them; one upgrade allows you to file drafts of diaries, so you can always save stuff in there if you want.

whatever you do, just remember: after we're done, the 28 other SBN baseball sites will be making the same switch, and many of those bloggers will be sending their communities over to VEB to test out the new functions. neither you nor i will be digging 200 "testing 1, 2, 3" posts a day from those people gumming up our discussions; the same will hold true over at AN. so please be good guests.

when i can pinpoint the exact day our site will change, i'll let you know .please hold questions / comments until after the changes roll out; once that happens, i'll put up a thread and share all the feedback (good + bad) with the network bosses.

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As long

as it's nice and shiny (hopefully with some bells and whistles!) I'll be happy!

Cheers

by Alxfritz on Apr 3, 2007 11:24 AM EDT reply actions

Auto Refresh

does this mean if I leave VEB up, and walk away for awhile then return, I won't be able to see which comments are "new" since I last looked? Seems the auto-refresh would kill that function. When threads get to be 300 posts, that's a pretty nice function.

by RedbirdRay on Apr 3, 2007 11:58 AM EDT reply actions

it doesn't mean that

you'll still be able to tell what you've read from what you haven't read. won't go into a detailed explanation here, but as i understand it that function is preserved

by lboros on Apr 3, 2007 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions

I'll second this

It'd be good to be able to turn it off or pick the refresh rate like on ESPN scoreboards and live boxscores. I can't imagine how the browser could tell what you have and haven't read except by comparing between the states of the page now and at the last refresh.

by liam on Apr 3, 2007 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Auto-Refresh

The auto-refresh in the site upgrade doesn't work by invoking the browser refresh; the comments are refreshed dynamically. As I understand it, the state of the browser isn't changed so new comments will still be marked as such through multiple "refreshes". In other words, if you went away from the computer and the thread "refreshed" a dozen times, the page would indicate all new comments since the last time you forced a browser refresh yourself.

Hope this helps.

Amazin' Avenue :: Mets Geek

by Eric Simon @ Viva El Birdos on Apr 4, 2007 1:15 AM EDT up reply actions

thank you eric

by lboros on Apr 4, 2007 9:29 AM EDT up reply actions

On another note

What does that tell you about Daric Barton that the A's signed Todd Walker off the scrap heap to play 1B? It's important to remember that most people who say now that they hated that trade hated it b/c the Cards gave up Barton, not b/c of Haren.

by chuckb on Apr 3, 2007 12:19 PM EDT reply actions

Actually..

Nick Swisher is going to play 1st. They called up their other top prospect Travis Buck to replace him in the outfield. Barton had a hell of a spring and I actually saw him over the weekend. He's gonna be a big leaguer sooner rather than later. Oakland wants him to play some outfield.

by El Hombre on Apr 4, 2007 12:44 AM EDT up reply actions

And just as a warning

Burnt Orange report is also a left-wing political blog covering Texas politics. So be aware before you go down there.

by Valatan on Apr 3, 2007 12:22 PM EDT reply actions

I think you've combined two separate sites Valatan

Burnt Orange Nation (the one linked to) is pretty much strictly a Texas Longhorns sports blog. I check it out from time to time and I've never seen anything non-sports related there.

Luck O' The Redbirds

by stlnd on Apr 3, 2007 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions