Last week we conducted a survey asking readers to suggest ways to improve MLB Trade Rumors. After sifting through hundreds of interesting submissions, here are a few thoughts:
- MLBTR does not have links open in new windows automatically. Currently I prefer to let the user decide – just right-click and open in a new tab or window if you please.
- Auto-linking full player names to a stat website like Baseball-Reference would be helpful. We're working on it.
- A possible iPhone application – I've gathered ideas on what it would do, and will probably start having this built.
- RSS feeds by team – this wasn't possible when I looked into it a year or so ago, but I will see what can be done.
- Email and/or text message alerts – I like the idea, and will look into both.
- The commenting system – last week we switched over to TypePad Connect after noticing it allows threaded comments, editing, and deleting. However, it loads more slowly and we lost the numbered pages. If possible we may install something like Disqus.
- We now have comment moderators in place, so you should see some improvement. Disqus allows readers to report and rate comments, which is appealing.
- I will try to get back on track with weekly live chats.
- All Twitter links will be identified, either by us saying "Ken Rosenthal tweeted" or adding a "via Twitter" at the end of the sentence. I should also note that whenever possible, I go back and replace Twitter links with article links by the same journalist.
- Certain posts become frequently-updated behemoths and are difficult to read if you're coming to them for the first time. We are still going to add updates at the top of posts because that is where you look first. But once a signing or trade becomes official, we'll rewrite the post as seen here.
