Come look at all the new changes to TRL: Now with easier one-click GIFs!

We don’t sleep.

As promised, this site is a continual work in progress, and we’re always looking for (and are actively working on) bug fixes, quality of life enhancements, and ways to make this a better, easier to interface and more interactive community. And buddy have we put in the work over the last several days.

Here’s what we’ve changed and added for you and what’s upcoming.

Easier profile management

First, we’ve added a plug-in to make your profile easier to remember and to link and share with others (or us, if you are posting something you want considered for the front page). I’ve decided to pick on Troll Bama Troll to use an example for these.

Your profile username is now: TRLFootball.com/author/YOURNAMEHERE. Easy to remember, right?

SECOND. In a related vein, we’ve also made your profile searchable, so anyone can find your most recent comment if they lost a thread, and hop back in and respond. Just hit the search magnifying glass on any page and type in a user name. (You obviously can search for other things as well)

Completely Rebuilt Comment Section…with native GIFs

Now this, this is the big one. As you noticed, the comment section was really wonky. There was not a native way to embed gifs, the workaround to embed other media required extensive tinkering, new comments and replies funneled you to the bottom of the page, there was not easy way to even reach them.

All of that has been changed…complete with native gifs right in the comment box. Let’s go over them.

First, on each and every article, you’ll see a paragraph icon floating to the right side with a plus sign on it. Clicking on it, invites you to comment, and clicking on the + sign or text instantly takes you to the comment section below. You’ve seen this on a thousand websites; we’re no different now.

Here it is live on the Meltdown thread.

Native gif embeds. Turns out Tenor was getting out of the business of hosting Gifs, and there was not an acceptable workaround — besides, that’s putting too much work on you. So now when you are in your comment box, you will notice two small icons in the bottom corner.

The one to the right allows you to one-click upload a photo, and the colorful one on the left is a native gif search function that lets you easily search the Giphy archive and upload them to your comment! I’ve highlighted both the GIF icon and the Giphy Search box that pops up for you. It’s the exact same interface and search function you will find on their website, the app, or an add-on keyboard on your smartphone.

Simple. One click.

Other Comment QOL features:

• We have added an upvote feature for you guys. Just hit the + sign on a comment to recommend it.
• Your profile avatar now does (or should) have a notification on it that lets you know when someone has replied directly to one of your comments, so you can issue a witty riposte (or drunken suggestions that the poster’s mother the mother enjoys intimate congress with livestock). Just another way to encourage interactivity.
• We have also added a feature that allows you to share your comments on here with your linked social media account, if you so choose. Here is mine below, linking my comment to Twitter, if I want to share. Just hit the weird fork icon to be taken to the social media site you’ve linked.

Up Next:

There are two somewhat major projects we’re working on now.

The first is a simple email sign-up that will alert you when a front page post has gone live. We had this over at Medium and it was very successful. We won’t be harvesting or scraping or storing and especially not selling any data: this is literally just to let you know, like an RSS reader, that new content is up.

The second feature is an interactive front page option, where you can post your own commentary or posts. You can currently do that now and post it to your profile. But we have no way of knowing offhand who’s published recently — you have to tell us. That just won’t work, and it won’t get you seen. This will. But, as I said, it’s a bit of a major rework and is going to take some time and probably buying an after-market solution. Be patient: we’ve heard your feedback and are working on it:

In the distant future, we’re looking to also a liveblog function to the front page for events, as well as real-time updating on the comment section, as a few other sites do. And I’m certain that is going to require a highly technical solution, as well as this site finally getting in the black: we’re running on donations, my credit card, and a lot of DIY at the moment. But once the site grows enough to justify it, and we can afford/find a solution, we’ll get that out for you as well.

Well, that’s what we’re working on, what we have been working on, and what’s in store for the future. As always, we invited feedback, suggestions and the like. You can leave it in a comment below or email it to me at: erikevans.trl@gmail.com

We hope you enjoy it. TRL is a labor of love, but first and foremost, you are in mind. Take care,

Roll Tide!