What features would you like LGC to have?

[Caniac]

I've been toying around with some new additions to the site lately, none of which are active yet, obviously, and I thought I would ask what kind of things do you think should be added to or changed on this board?

What would make this site more useful to Canes fans? What do you wish was here, that's hockey related that you go elsewhere for?

Thanks in advance...

[raleighcanesfan]

Power Rankings. Love to read someone else's thoughts on where they would put the 30 teams...with sarcastic comments of course! (-:

[Alicia]

Conference standings.

[caveman]

Ok. This is a bit crazy, but:

Southeast division table with "points remaining", "points taken", and "points given" matrix for each team.

Ficticious example:


TEAM GAMES REMAIN TAKEN GIVEN TOTAL
ATL 8 16-24 0 0 16-24
FLA 5 10-15 5 4 19-24
TAM 4 8-12 7 3 15-22
WAS 3 6-9 8 3 17-20
TOTAL 20 40-60 20 10 70-90


It gets more hairy because each game can have either 2 or 3 points awarded. The point is to see how many games we have remaining against each division team, and to see how many points we've given each team all season, and how many we've taken from games against them.

To start the season, we have 8 games scheduled against each division team, meaning 16 to 24 points to be awarded in Hurricanes games involving each team, meaning 64 to 96 points to be awarded in Hurricanes games within the division. Obviously we'd like to take 64 points and give away 0. So far we're doing all right there. We've given 2 points to the Lightning, but taken 4 points from and given none to the Capitals.

I'd ideally like to see it for all Eastern Conference teams. For example, we've given a point to the Penguins and Boston (although in each game we took 2 points!) and 2 points to the Islanders and Maple Leafs (from whom we also took a point).

In the above (ficticious example) table, we can see at a glance that there are 40 to 60 points left to be decided in Hurricanes division games.

Barring this insane complexity, a simple win/loss/ot table against division teams is probably just fine. ;]

[puck_it]

more cowbell.

a page with hockey news put in... with rss feeds it should be simple enough... something like google news, but hockey related, obviously.

[AbNormal27]

more cowbell..

I second that!

I was wondering if it was possible for us to have our own lgc email accounts (eg: abnormal27@letsgocanes.com).

Aaryn

[Turbulence]

I really like the idea of updated standings located somewhere, possibly broken down into league, conference, division, and maybe 'the playoffs if the season ended today' or something like that.
Custom news content is too much to ask for, as small a community as this is, but I think some sort of NHL news links would be good. Like puck_it said, an rss feed for hockey would work.

[Guyute]

we used to have a front page with all kinds of news feeds, etc...
I thought it was removed because it wasn't used by many. /shrug.

for me, the Links bar in IE/Mozilla/etc is half full of hockey links... it's not that hard to click a button to get what I want.

Merge has been on my wishlist for a while, that's really all I need. :)

[StormChaserBH]

I really like the idea of updated standings located somewhere, possibly broken down into league, conference, division, and maybe 'the playoffs if the season ended today' or something like that.
Custom news content is too much to ask for, as small a community as this is, but I think some sort of NHL news links would be good. Like puck_it said, an rss feed for hockey would work.

For the standings, all you need is a link to http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/standings -- it has all of those options, and it updates the standings after each game ends, not just daily updates like on nhl.com.

[corylav]

on one other board I go on, there's a quick reply message entry box at the bottom of the page ... very cool.

[Guyute]

aye, I've always been a fan of the quick reply box.

not sure that phpbb has a mod for it... I haven't looked. I know vBulletin does, which is a more robust package... but it's also fee-based, opposed to phpbb.

anything to save loading extra pages is cool by me :)

[corylav]

aye, I've always been a fan of the quick reply box.

not sure that phpbb has a mod for it... I haven't looked. I know vBulletin does, which is a more robust package... but it's also fee-based, opposed to phpbb.

anything to save loading extra pages is cool by me :)

it's ProBoards ... *shrug*

[Caniac]

Power Rankings. Love to read someone else's thoughts on where they would put the 30 teams...with sarcastic comments of course! (-:

I can look into that... Sounds like a good idea.

Conference standings.

That sounds good too, should be easy to do.

Caveman, I'll look into your suggestion, I dunno how hard/easy that would be to do, but it is interesting.

more cowbell.

You got it, more cowbell coming your way. I will also add some RSS feeds. :)

I was wondering if it was possible for us to have our own lgc email accounts (eg: abnormal27@letsgocanes.com).

Aaryn, yes I can do that. :) I think I have about 50 or so I can dole out, before having to pay for more. I'll check interest on it. :)

Merge has been on my wishlist for a while, that's really all I need.

Mere days away, my man. :)

on one other board I go on, there's a quick reply message entry box at the bottom of the page ... very cool.

I'll look into that. Perhaps there is a mod for it. I'd rather not try to alter the code for that myself, though. ;)


Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep them coming!

[AbNormal27]

I was wondering if it was possible for us to have our own lgc email accounts (eg: abnormal27@letsgocanes.com).

Aaryn, yes I can do that. :) I think I have about 50 or so I can dole out, before having to pay for more. I'll check interest on it. :)

Well, mark me down for one.

Aaryn

[Turbulence]

I got dibs on guyute@letsgocanes.com

Just kidding. :D

[puck_it]

sweet! lgc email!

[Alicia]

As much time as I spend here, my email address ought to reflect that fact. :beatup:

[SouthernHockeyChick]

I'd probably check my e-mail more often if it came here. :beatup:

[puck_it]

I'd probably check my e-mail more often if it came here. :beatup:

im an emailaholic... i have to check mine at least every hour.... :sad:

[Guyute]

I got dibs on guyute@letsgocanes.com

Just kidding. :D

lol :p

[tommy]

I'd probably check my e-mail more often if it came here. :beatup:

im an emailaholic... i have to check mine at least every hour.... :sad:

that makes two of us...

[AbNormal27]

As much time as I spend here, my email address ought to reflect that fact. :beatup:

My thoughts exactly.

Aaryn

[Stormbringer]

Can we hook up the address to Outlook, IncrediMail, and similar clients? If so, sign me up for an address (stormbringer@letsgocanes.com).

[Caniac]

You sure can. :)

In fact, there is a webmail client, but I'd rather people use Outlook or something similar just to keep storage space free...

[Guyute]

you have squirrelmail with your host? we do with tridead. it's crappy. lol. I'd fully recommend importing mail to a real client.

[Stormbringer]

you have squirrelmail with your host? we do with tridead. it's crappy. lol. I'd fully recommend importing mail to a real client.

Recently (as in just a couple of days ago), I tried switching from IncrediMail to Outlook. Because, of all things, I found a GREAT notifier sound from Aqua Teen Hunger Force I wanted to use (Master Shake singing "Mail call!!") for new mail. And I found out that IncrediMail, bless their hearts, doesn't have an option to use your own sounds and graphics...you can *only* use their notifier goodies, which you have to pay for.

So I switched to Outlook...and everything was going semi-ok, until I tried replying to a friend's message. Outlook wouldn't send my reply. And I said "semi-ok" because I never could get to where I can close the Outlook window, but have the program still running in my taskbar like I did with IncrediMail. Thanks to all of that, I had no choice but to switch back to IncrediMail.

I'm planning to seek another client, be it today or sometime in the next few days (due to a little something called company coming over to the new house for the weekend)...one that can send and receive e-mail AND use whichever sounds and graphics for notifiers FOR FREE.

[CanesFan]

Caniac, I have worked with these phpbb's before and know some of the mods you could add to spice up the site.

My first suggestion is use the ezPortal mod to add a single forum home page that is linked directly to the forum.

This will allow for linking to a forum for news items that you post and will show up on the front page. You will also be able to add RSS feeds to this front page and a host of other things.

Follow this link to take a look at one of these "portal" home pages that I am talking about:

http://www.starwarsunited.com/forum/portal.php

You can find that portal mod and many other mods for phpbb including the quick reply here:

http://smartor.is-root.com/viewforum.php?f=7

Hope that helps.

[Guyute]

I didn't know smartor had a site with all his stuff... I usually just use phpbbhacks.com. good to know though, thanks.

I've tried a couple of portals out.. some are fairly decent. can't remember if ezportal was the one I used to have on our site or not. /shrug. very customizeable though. pretty handy if you want lots of stuff framed out on your front page.

[Caniac]

Ehh a portal isn't really what I'm going for, but thanks anyway.

[AbNormal27]

Caniac,

I like the addition of the SE standings. We're right on top! VEEEEEEEEEERY NICE.

Aaryn

[puck_it]

SWEET!

[Caniac]

:)

Auto-updates, too. This is one of several new things that will be showing up over the next several days.

[ONeillsNo1Fan]

Nice! Thanks, boss!

[AbNormal27]

:) This is one of several new things that will be showing up over the next several days.

You've got me marked down for lgc.com email addy, right?

Aaryn

[Caniac]

Yep, everybody who wants one can have one. I'll send details out via PM shortly.

[Jay]

That scoreboard is ugly, and takes up screen real estate I'd rather be able to read the forum with. It's uber-annoyance.

My $0.02.

[puck_it]

it looks awkward, but im assuming the rest of the column will be filled in.

further more, its not on any page that theres any substatial ammount of text. its jsut on the main page, and the thread titles.

i like it, and i appreciate it. my two cents.

[Caniac]

The rest of the column will be filled in. :)

[puck_it]

woo hoo news links!

[ONeillsNo1Fan]

It's like Christmas. Every time you show up you get something new. :D

[SouthernHockeyChick]

Yeah, I really like it....and I didn't even know I wanted this stuff. ;) Nice additions!

[Shell]

I like it too! even on the laptop with the small screen, it doesn't take up too much space.

[Caniac]

:) Thanks everyone.

I've thoroughly tested these on multiple platforms, web browsers and screen resolutions to make sure nothing would be too obtrusive.

There's still more to come, but I'm done for tonight! :cool:

[puck_it]

There's still more to come, but I'm done for tonight! :cool:

such a tease

[Turbulence]

Wow, that looks fantastic. Thanks! :spin:

[Canesluver]

On my screen you can't read everything in the 2 new boxes. No matter how big I make the window, those 2 new additional boxes stay the same size. The box with what I assume are standings is cut off at mid-way into the "n", for example, and I only see 1/2 the column that has what must be the "L" counts, but the numbers are cut off. If there's an "OTL" column, I can't see it at all. It's like the information is in a font that's bigger than the size of the box-- so I can't read everything in the box.

[Caniac]

What browser are you using, what OS and screen resolution?

Oh there is no OTL column in there. I pulled it to save space...

[puck_it]

its like christmas everymorning... what has caniac added now!

[Mona]

Southeast Standings
GP W L Pts
Carolina 11 8 2 17


OMG!! Is that not a thing of beauty??? :hearts:

[ONeillsNo1Fan]

I really like the last/next 5. :)

[Caniac]

Thanks! :)

The standings and last/next 5 all auto-update. There was an RSS for the news, but none for the those 2 things. Had to write scripts to do that myself.

It's been a learning experience. ;)

[puck_it]

THAT IS FRICKEN COOL YO

[CanesFan]

Very nice additions, I really like them.

[Caniac]

Well it didn't take long for yahoo to block all those requests... ;)

I'll go about it a different way soon. :cool:

[puck_it]

i was gonna say its gone now!

ahhh damn :beatup:

[Caniac]

It's working again now... I'll keep an eye on it. ;)

[Guyute]

nice work! http://www.tridead.net/canes/images/smilies/thumb.gif

[VandyCane]

I really like the "Next 5 games". That's really useful. Thanks Caniac :D :D

[Caniac]

Oh I don't know if anyone noticed, but in the last/next 5, the team names are links to team pages on sports.yahoo.com and the score is a link to the game recap on yahoo...

Also the games in red are home games.

[Turbulence]

That adds so much to the site...very nice!

[puck_it]

they be busted!


Warning: file_get_contents(http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/car): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 999 Unable to process request at this time -- error 999 in /home/virtual/site74/fst/var/www/html/forum/sched.php on line 4

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/virtual/site74/fst/var/www/html/forum/sched.php on line 5
Warning: fopen(http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/standings): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 999 Unable to process request at this time -- error 999 in /home/virtual/site74/fst/var/www/html/forum/sestandings.php on line 3

Warning: file_get_contents(http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/standings): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed!

[Caniac]

Yeah it's doing that from time to time... Right now it seems ok...

I think if it's trying to hit that site too many times at once it chokes. I'm going to see if I can cache the data and only retrieve it once a day or something. But it'll probably be a few days before I tackle that.

[Jay]

Why not get a php RSS aggregreator and find a good NHL rss feed to get some news from?

[Caniac]

Ok, in this thread I posted that the NHL News section IS an RSS feed, and it works properly.

If you can find an RSS feed for NHL standings and schedules, I'd be more than happy to use it.

But as I already said, apparently there are NO RSS feeds for that information.

[Guyute]

http://www.letsgocanes.com/forum/templates/subSilver/images/cowbell.jpg

lol, very nice :)

[ONeillsNo1Fan]

:laugh: Sweeeeeeeeeeeet! With that extra cowbell, this place has improved at least a million percent!!!

[AbNormal27]

Doesn't everything just get better when you add more cowbell?

Aaryn

[Caniac]

:D

[Stormbringer]

I didn't know Bruce Dickinson, yes, THE Bruce Dickinson, was a Caniac too... :lol: :D

[Turbulence]

Oh that could not be any funnier.

I had a feva...and the only prescription was more cowbell. Thanks to Dr Caniac :D

[Caniac]

So the issue with the standings and the schedule is that yahoo is bandwidth throttling. When we go over a set amount of hits to yahoo's server's they start denying the connections for a while, error 999. It says any period from 2 hours to 24 hours.

I will definitely see about caching the data once a day rather than have us hit their site each time a page is refreshed... ;)

[tommy]

http://www.letsgocanes.com/forum/templates/subSilver/images/cowbell.jpg

lol, very nice :)

My friend charlie dresse up as will ferrell from that skit last night... with a cowbell and all... it was AWESOME...

[puck_it]

http://www.letsgocanes.com/forum/templates/subSilver/images/cowbell.jpg

YESSS HE DELIVERED!

that made my day. :laugh:

[Caniac]

I fixed the issue with the schedules and standings now. Everyday at 8 am that info gets cached once and then the site pulls the data locally.

Yesterday we hit sports.yahoo.com about 3500 times. LOL :lol:

[Shell]

not sure if this is an easy request or not, but can we hit em up twice? would be cool if it updated at 10 at night too so we can see where the early games left things (since most of our games are early)

[Caniac]

Sure. I'll set it to go twice a day then. :)

[Shell]

awesome!!!

[SouthernHockeyChick]

I like the new font and colors on the last/next five thingie. Much more readable. Looks good!

[Caniac]

Yeah I liked that too, but that was an image I created when the schedule deal wasn't working quite right...

I'd like to have it both ways, to have it look like the image but have the links to game recaps and teams like the way it does now has.

I'll play around with the HTML to make the way it is now more readable.

[Caniac]

I added the OTL column to the standings. Looks better now.

I'm still playing around with everything to make that look better.

[Shell]

I really love the Stormy holiday picture!!!

[Stormbringer]

I really love the Stormy holiday picture!!!

Me too. :)

[Caniac]

:)

[puck_it]

yay, an olympic hockey section

[agentpreppie]

For the standing section, would it be possible to keep the SE Division up but also add the Eastern Conference standings? At the moment, those seem more relevant. :D

[agentpreppie]

For the standing section, would it be possible to keep the SE Division up but also add the Eastern Conference standings? At the moment, those seem more relevant. :D

[Caniac]

Yeah that's actually on the list. :)

[Caniac]

Yeah that's actually on the list. :)