Welcome to the New Twins Daily

[John Bonnes]

Aaaanndd, welcome back!

Twins Daily looks a little different today. Our upgraded software platform understands mobile phones and social media exist in the world. For the most part, it works the same, but now is a good time to remind us all that Twins Daily is more than just daily news about the Twins. It’s a community built on three pillars: read, react and write. You need not participate in all three, but they’re available, and if you’re willing to reach out, you’ll find a far richer experience. So let’s talk about them.

Read
Obviously, there are the stories. The site was founded by four bloggers, all of whom understood the value of providing unique coverage of the Twins. Non-traditional voices - whether they are sabermetric, prospect news, mechanical break analysis, cynical, hopeful, satirical, whimsical – are the core of what we are. We want to be a place where coverage of baseball is expanded in new ways. And we try to foster that organically, by encouraging our readers to….

React
At the end of every story, you’ll find a comment area where you can react to our stories, provided you register. But we want you to be in the driver’s see, too, so we also have our forums, where you can ask your own questions, post your own opinions, and explore your own topics. The rules are pretty simple: don’t be an a-hole. Our moderators work hard to keep it civil and our community works hard to keep them welcoming. We want you to find your voice, because we want some of you to…

Write
Our blog area provides a place for those called to write to further develop their writing style. Any member can start their own blogs and post when and how they want. It’s a little like playing in the minors – the crowds are smaller, but that also means it’s a good place to make mistakes or try a writing style that might be out of your comfort zone. The comments are generally encouraging, and when we think you’re ready, you’ll be invited to contribute regularly to the front page, where we pay for your work.

Twins Daily goes beyond the traditional publish-only model that corporate media embraces because we’re trying to do something a little different. We’re trying to develop a community that can gather, share and ultimately support itself. You, just be reading this, are already part of that community. We hope you’ll continue exploring and reaching out to other Minnesota baseball fans. We’re glad you’ve joined us.

For even more about what the new site can do, we encourage you to stop by our new help page.

 

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[BobAzar]

Looks great John (and rest of TD team). 

[Dodecahedron]

Hello,

First time caller, long time listener.

Looks good.  Nice bold style.  I admit it will take some time to get used to.

Techies are moving toward a preference for "dark mode."  Will the site ever support user-choosable color palates?  Is "palate" the right spelling for this context? 

I was going to ask if the new site has an "ignore user" function.  I see it does.  Thank you.  I have no immediate plans to use it, but this will help us block Fox & Friends divisive conversationalists.  Our new meme can be, "Don't block me, bro."

I see in the source code that OpenGraph tagging is supported.  Don't be afraid to go crazy with that, the more OG tags you put in, the more Google will love the content.  Anything pulled from the database can and should have a tag around it.  Usernames (authors), message titles, message content, response dates and times, etc.  

What font is this?  Kudos on making the font large for us "middle aged" guys who have blurry vision on some days.

 

[AceWrigley]

Woah, where am I?

[Aerodeliria]

Spiffy and ?!

[John Kelsey]

Pretty sharp, nice work team. 

[jimbo92107]

Signing in was a bit of a hassle because extending my username to be my email address meant that I had to reset my password. After that, it said "Something went wrong" again, but I noticed I was logged in, so I clicked the good old logo and wheeee, a populated website!

Perfect choice for the font. This is an easy read variety with an explicit curl on the end of the lower case l. Helps us bad spellers differentiate our 1, capital I, and small l. Definitely easier on the eyes, thank you.

The color scheme and spacing seems more upbeat, a bit cheerier. We may need that desperately, along with convenient links to puppies, kitties, cheerleaders, cannabis dispensaries and psychotherapists before this season is done. If the Twins get buried by Detroit again...quick, show me that kooky squirrel!

The new site looks good. May it serve you well. 

[Cap'n Piranha]

My one suggestion--pin the top banner so that it's always there on any page you're on.  It made it very easy to navigate back to the homepage.  What I've noticed is that without that, you have to scroll all the way back up to navigate to another page, which is mildly frustrating on pages with lost of comments.  Otherwise, looks great!

[Brock Beauchamp]

24 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

My one suggestion--pin the top banner so that it's always there on any page you're on.  It made it very easy to navigate back to the homepage.  What I've noticed is that without that, you have to scroll all the way back up to navigate to another page, which is mildly frustrating on pages with lost of comments.  Otherwise, looks great!

If you scroll down 800-ish pixels on any page, this red circle will appear on the bottom left of your screen:

I added that to the site explicitly for that reason. It's a scroll to top button that takes you back to the top of the page without scrolling.

[jkcarew]

 Could this be what turns the club around? As an old guy that can’t accept any type of change whatsoever...it’s worth a try. Appreciate it!

[Mike Sixel]

Big fan of the ability to set it so that clicking on the thread name takes me to the first post I haven't read, instead of the thread beginning!

Hoping for dark mode....

[jkcarew]

Btw...the new tags indicate that I must ‘love’ a post rather ‘like’ it. That seems an unnecessarily high bar, doesn’t it?

As a properly reserved and ‘seasoned’ Minnesota Scandinavian, I’m not sure I’m comfortable displaying this type of raw emotion, and particularly not something as unabashedly agreeable as “love”.

 Community members, you may notice me not tagging your posts as frequently as in the past. But, know that I still LIKE you.

[Vanimal46]

Looking good Twins Daily... Have you been working out? Losing weight? 

[Brock Beauchamp]

18 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Big fan of the ability to set it so that clicking on the thread name takes me to the first post I haven't read, instead of the thread beginning!

Hoping for dark mode....

A dark mode is on the table but it's going to be awhile. I need to check options available; if there's an option that doesn't involve me writing an entirely separate theme and maintaining it, that option will be available much sooner than if I have to maintain two sets of code.

[Dodecahedron]

44 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

If you scroll down 800-ish pixels on any page, this red circle will appear on the bottom left of your screen:

Red Circle:  Sponsored by Target.

[Brock Beauchamp]

By the way, for those of you that haven't read the tutorials, two cool new things available.

@Mike Sixel Hi, I tagged you!

And hit the GIF button in the top of the text editor, you have an immediately searchable GIPHY library!

[Platoon]

Hopefully with the changeover to the new format, the predictions made this spring by some foolish, optimistic, and naive Twins fans have gotten misplaced in the netherworld? Z??

[Mike Sixel]

34 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

A dark mode is on the table but it's going to be awhile. I need to check options available; if there's an option that doesn't involve me writing an entirely separate theme and maintaining it, that option will be available much sooner than if I have to maintain two sets of code.

If you have to create a new theme....ugh. I'd move that down your list for sure if it is that much work. Anyway, like the nice clean look and font. Great work.

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

If you scroll down 800-ish pixels on any page, this red circle will appear on the bottom left of your screen:

I added that to the site explicitly for that reason. It's a scroll to top button that takes you back to the top of the page without scrolling.

Well ... not just that ... the red scroll button is available wherever you are, but if you are at the bottom of a topic you have all the options available ... 'Go to topic listing' takes you back to that forum; or click on one of the things in the gray ... takes you to back as far as you want to go, without having to scroll up at all.

[h2oface]

I have been having all kinds of trouble with the new login. Written at least 3 messages to admin in contacts about the problems. Please read and get back to me........  I am currently in, but if I logout, it makes me start all over again from scratch. So bizarre.

So.....? black and white emojis (oh.... I found the old emoticons at the bottom now), friends are gone in profile, no text size adjustments.... no text color. I will miss that.......

And for some reason, I am really not a fan of "orange" anymore, at all, and those banners.....

...... and that reason for edit requirement is going to get real old......

But thanks for the changes and I hope, for all the time it took, and the advantages you see, as creator, you like it. We will all adapt, as there is no choice, eh? 

 

[Game7-91]

Thanks TD team, so far really liking the layout and accessibility. Unlike our hometown hero's TD can make adjustments on the fly and still win....good job fellas!?

[Cap'n Piranha]

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

If you scroll down 800-ish pixels on any page, this red circle will appear on the bottom left of your screen:

I added that to the site explicitly for that reason. It's a scroll to top button that takes you back to the top of the page without scrolling.

 

Just saw this, and love it!  One minor thing (as those who know me on this board can I attest--I MUST get crazily specific)--it would appear that ads can pop up over the red circle, as that happened to me just as I was about to take the maiden red circle voyage.  A small thing to be sure, and if it's complex to fix, certainly not worth it, but as a minor fix, that would be great!

 

Thanks Brock!

[Brock Beauchamp]

Just now, Cap'n Piranha said:

 

Just saw this, and love it!  One minor thing (as those who know me on this board can I attest--I MUST get crazily specific)--it would appear that ads can pop up over the red circle, as that happened to me just as I was about to take the maiden red circle voyage.  A small thing to be sure, and if it's complex to fix, certainly not worth it, but as a minor fix, that would be great!

 

Thanks Brock!

If this happens, screenshot it and send it to brock.beauchamp@twinsdaily.com. I know that aspect is still a little buggy but everyone experiences ads a little differently and I can only fix what I see.

[Brock Beauchamp]

21 minutes ago, h2oface said:

I have been having all kinds of trouble with the new login. Written at least 3 messages to admin in contacts about the problems. Please read and get back to me........  I am currently in, but if I logout, it makes me start all over again from scratch. So bizarre.

So.....? black and white emojis (oh.... I found the old emoticons at the bottom now), friends are gone in profile, no text size adjustments.... no text color. I will miss that.......

And for some reason, I am really not a fan of "orange" anymore, at all, and those banners.....

...... and that reason for edit requirement is going to get real old......

But thanks for the changes and I hope, for all the time it took, and the advantages you see, as creator, you like it. We will all adapt, as there is not choice, eh? 

 

Well, you just alerted me that I'm not receiving notifications from our ticketing system correctly. For the time being, PM me a detailed description of your issue and I'll look at it while I troubleshoot the ticketing system.

[h2oface]

3 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

Signing in was a bit of a hassle because extending my username to be my email address meant that I had to reset my password. After that, it said "Something went wrong" again, but I noticed I was logged in, so I clicked the good old logo and wheeee, a populated website!

It seems that the new settings can't differentiate the difference between the user name and the email if it is the same with the @xxxxx.com added on. It makes me start all over and go through lock out and give me a change password email to get in. If I log out, I have to do it all over again. 

[h2oface]

20 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Well, you just alerted me that I'm not receiving notifications from our ticketing system correctly. For the time being, PM me a detailed description of your issue and I'll look at it while I troubleshoot the ticketing system.

Argh........... That already took forever in those admin messages from contact............

Sent.....

[jimbo92107]

20 minutes ago, h2oface said:

It seems that the new settings can't differentiate the difference between the user name and the email if it is the same with the @xxxxx.com added on. It makes me start all over and go through lock out and give me a change password email to get in. If I log out, I have to do it all over again. 

I've noticed that the new site also lags significantly during processing time, like after you hit Save on a comment. It's gonna take a while, possible a couple months before they get it mostly smoothed out. For an initial release, this is working very well. 

[h2oface]

10 minutes ago, jimbo92107 said:

I've noticed that the new site also lags significantly during processing time, like after you hit Save on a comment. It's gonna take a while, possible a couple months before they get it mostly smoothed out. For an initial release, this is working very well. 

.... and now, in this new world..... we aren't "friends" anymore 

[theBOMisthebomb]

3 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Big fan of the ability to set it so that clicking on the thread name takes me to the first post I haven't read, instead of the thread beginning!

Hoping for dark mode....

Yes, how do we get to the first unread post. Also, how can we tell if there are any unread comments on a post before we click. 

[D. Hocking]

This might be the most exciting upgrade since the arrival of the mouse -- congrats on the update.