Help us improve Inside the Hall

by Staff in Commentary | January 15th, 2008

ITH-ers. Let us be clear, Larry Craig-style: We love you. And we love that you come to the site every day, and read, and comment, and make fun of Purdue trollers. We started this site a few months ago mostly to provide ourselves a place to discuss IU hoops; without you, that discussion would be pretty limited.

With that in mind, we’re always trying to improve the site. We’ve done a few minor tweaks here and there, but we’re looking to make a couple of big additions to the site based on your suggestions/approval. The first is something that has been suggested to us by a couple of e-mailers: a donation function. The site will be always be free, but the e-mailers have brought up the desire to send us money for our trouble, and really, who are we to stop them? So, if you enjoy this site and think it’s worth a slight bit of change, would you be willing to donate via Paypal if we added such a function? Let us know in the comments.

The second part of this is just an open forum. What would you like to see us improve about ITH? What functions would you like to add? What about us don’t you like? (Besides too-long paragraphs and Lance Stemler bashing, of course.) Leave a comment with anything you think would make the site better, and we’ll review the suggestions and go from there.

So, to review:

A. Would you donate to the site?
B. What else can we improve at Inside the Hall?

And again, thanks.

Tags: Improve ITH, Larry Craig

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Tsell

More Lance Stemler bashing...just kidding. I really like the post-game and morning after commentary, and I think that you ought to add some larger perspective commentary. Take a look at what MGoBlog has done in terms of talking about Michigan football as a whole. I think so far I have loved the close-ups, but you guys need some great wide-angle establishing shots for your commentary. In-depth discussions of recruiting, overall coaching strategies, and state of Big Te"leve"n basketball would be examples. Also, do you get any cash from the banners? I am not interested in donating to the site directly, but I would go for some click throughs for you all.

David

I really enjoy your analysis of IU basketball. I think it brings about some great discussions - the Stemler issue, weak pre-conference schedule, IU's offense, lack of defensive effort, etc.

Also, bring back (or continue) the podcasts. Sure they weren't perfect and you guys tended to ramble, said "Um..." way too much and your musical taste was (in some cases) questionable but it did provide good insight and brought up important issues regarding IU basketball.

Timmy

A. Would you donate to the site? Hell NO. With all the ads on this site, y'all are probably dot com millionaires by now. If I ever see any of you at Kirkwood on Sheffield and you're willing to be my wingman and take one for the team (you know what i'm talkin' about)I'll buy you a beer.
B. What else can we improve at Inside the Hall?
More multimedia stuff. And more initiatives to create an ITH user community.

Big A

For the record, that's me in the middle...

Just kidding.

Timmy,

What do you mean by a user community? Care to elaborate?

kelin

I think you guys do a great job...I would not be inclinded to donate to the site but I would be interested in advertising on it.

What I would like to see.....
Player interviews
Staff interviews
Recruit interviews
Live Chats......

Timmy

Web 2.0, dude! You have the ability to collect our user names and email addresses, so if user names were assigned you could have a section of the site with info/alerts for the ITH community - *dates tix go on sale at different venues (@northwestern, chicago invit, maui, etc)
*group outings (joes on weed in chicago had an awesome and FREE IU booze bus to the chicago invit)
*ITH meet ups either at bars to watch games or road games (70% of the crowd at the northwestern game is IU).
Build the ITH Army! We're lonely and need friends.

Zac

A universal message board. A lot of times we get to talkin and all of a sudden you guys put up another article and all the responses go to the new article and no one looks at the old conversation on the previous article post. (does that make sense?)
So maybe instead of commenting below the articles you put up two times a day, have a message room link right after your post and then we can go talk about the new article and the old one.

Timmy

oh, also a message board or guest writers for when your topics blow.

PostmanR

Timmy:

I talked to the owner of Joe's via e-mail last week and we're definitely looking to set something up at Joe's.

If anyone wants to throw down a good game for all of us to go meet up there, let us know.

Kelin and more --

Remember that we are an independent entity and don't have access to players like the mainstream media.(And in some respects, we sort of like it that way.) Recruits are fair game b/c they don't operate behind a sports media director.

As far as a message board is concerned, I know we've kicked that around before, but I don't know if that really goes with the ethos of this site. We're certainly open to it, though.

T

You guys do an excellent job of throwing tags and showing links of various things.

Some of the most interesting things i've read off this site have come from the bloggers of the other Big Ten schools. (You may have already done this, and if so I apologize) But have you ever tried to get in touch with other guys from Big Ten schools and have a podcast with them? The dude from Michigan State maybe?

Other than that keep up the good work.

Hoosier Hound

I think you guys do a fine job. My only comment is, DON'T do this:

http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/

Stephen

I definitely think it'd be cool to arrange something where we get together before a game somewhere...make a trip to Assembly Hall for a game and go Nicks or Yogis...etc.

I agree with Zac on the message post situation. Something should be done about that.

This is a great site, though, and I love the potential it has.

James

I like the idea of having a universal message board myself. That way we can post about an IU hoop topic we want, not within the confines of the posted article. Maybe having a shoutbox for during the games for those of us unfortunate enough to not get to see them as much as we would like. That would be pretty cool.

OPS

I think you guys do a fine job. My only comment is, DON’T do this:

HEY! So we're liars, big deal!

Tom

i would love to see an occasional "where are they now?" feature of past iu players.

Mike

Will I be able to direct my donation specifically so Big A will get a haircut?

....oh...he's NOT the got in the middle.

Travis

The site is great, love reading it. My only suggestion is more content. I know you guys can't make up stories, but one entry a day leaves me wanting more. I like the idea of "where are they now" segments or even "this day in IU hoops history", but I check back here at work several times a day and get's depressing looking at the same article all day. Maybe I just need to work harder. Oh well, good job guys.

PostmanE

Travis:

We feel your pain. We're all pretty busy peeps, but we're working on getting more content up when possible.

One of the recurring themes on here seems to be the ability to post on whatever you want. I'll add that until we address this, feel free to comment on whatever you want under whatever thread. This goes especially for the end of the day when things have basically been discussed to their logical conclusion. So long as your announce your attentions, and are keeping things relatively within reason, I don't see why posting a threadjack here and there for the sake of conversation is a problem.

Brian

I like the "where are they now" idea. I would donate I think its a good idea, definitely wouldn't hurt. I'd like to see some links for IU merchandise. Sucks trying to find stuff since the Varsity shop on the IU site is gone. They the candystripe section and some good stuff. Universal Forum would be good also. If you do the get together thing would be cool if you could come to Jeffersonville or Clarksville also .

PB

A. No, I would not donate to the site, but only because I have no money.

B. I think it would be cool to have a "Shoutbox" on the homepage of the site, where frequent visitors (or anyone else) can voice any quick opinion or idea that is on their mind.

For an example, check out the notre dame football blog " irishroundtable.com ." On the top right of the home screen anyone has the ability to stop by and voice an opinion without having to comment inside a specific article.

(Anything offensive or off-base can be deleted by you guys, of course. I think it might be a nice edition.)

Go to irishroundtable.com for the example. I am not plugging that site, I have no clue who runs it.

Jerry

All the suggestions so far seem worthy of consideration. For me however I donot live anywhere close to Indiana and would love to see you offer a "Netflix" type service so I could get the game video , even late, that were not broadcast.

Also I think largely missing is real analysis of in game play with perhaps a coach to explain for instance 1) lack of picks, 2) off the bounce strategy 3) defensive strategy, 4) guard post up etc. This makes us all smarter , better fans and gives us more to BS about

HS

I agree. Don't do this:

http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com.

That would be plagiarism, and plagiarism is bad.

Sincerely,

Black Heart Gold Pants

Matt Nover

I like a lot: the message boards, recruiting news, occasional eye candy, tons of effort and resources. Improve: we are all IU fans sure, but more legitimate, fair, balanced criticism of IU like the Lance Stemler boooing issue is welcome.

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