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About this blog

A blog to discuss site issues and ideas as well as some occasional rambling, reflecting and repeating old USF stories.

Entries in this blog

Second Box Opening Tonight!

Yep, it's back here in my man cave, er Bulls cave, getting ready for the season and opening up boxes of memorabilia and merchandise that I always thought I would have in my man cave.  But my travels over the years, due to work, have landed me in multiple towns and houses.  It seems now I am finally in a "forever" home (until I move to Florida in the very near future).  Either way, I'm going through the stuff in storage and determining what is going to be in the short term cave here at site headq

Brad

Brad in Memorabilia

Hey Bulls fans, what to you want to know about Bulls Football?

Hey Members and Bulls fans,  I have been in touch with some of the folks in the media that follow and report on our USF Bulls.  Looks like we'll have a handful with interest in being introduced here and getting to know us while we get to know them (better).   For the group, it's looking like the range of questions can cover a lot of ground.  I have asked for collaboration with a broad range from beat writers to USF Administrators.  Instead of asking you to provide questions to specific

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Improving TheBullsPen.com

Since we are still in the slow months and there is time to get ready for the season, I'd like to get some things done around here.  We've been on this board software for about three years now.  There is a lot of flexibility and functionality, but I'd say we don't use a majority of it.  I've been out of commission with a bad back the last few days and have been looking over some possibilities.  Being immobile left me staring at my screen longer than usual. Regarding board applicati

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Smilies on the chopping block

With the continued evolution of the code that supports this site, it can now support smilies from your phones and tablets.  With the upcoming upgrade, the board will expand to a greater number of smilies that are released with the upgrade.  In order to avoid having 17,000 smilies I deleted the non TBP and Bulls related smilies for the time being.  After the upgrade, we'lll decide if we need those sets back. Brad    

Brad

Brad

Invite system

I am very pleased to announce that I have purchased a member invite system that is now integrated into the board.  You will see the changes if you look in the upper right section of the screen.  You'll see something that looks like a ticket.  If you click that, you can enter into the app and invite people you know to TheBullsPen.com.  You simply enter email addresses and the system sends out an invite (pictured below, looks better live) that allows the receiver to click to go to TBP and aut

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Visit #1 to the 24 hour secured, climate controlled USF Bulls memorabilia cache

Well, over the weekend, I was thinking about the other blog I post to and decided to go to the storage center where I have most of my by non-essential belongings after we downgraded to a small ranch near the town's restaurant/bar district. I was looking for some of my hard drives, they're probably destroyed by now.  The family doesn't enter the storage unit with the diligence and carefulness that I do.  It's more like their trapped in a fun house and just sort of create a way in and out.   

Brad

Brad in Memorabilia

2001 Article - USF Official Site Problems

In a recent discussion about local coverage of the USF Bulls football program (What’s with Knight and the McNeese State references?) I mentioned some of the involvement of former beat writers Brett McMurphy, Greg Auman and Jeff Odom having interaction with TheBullsPen.com.  In fact, I recalled how the relationship benefited both parties as TBP promoted McMurphy and Auman in the days of USF's rise to national awareness.  Both McMurphy and Auman frequented the board and from it gathered story idea

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Using the Calendar Reminder

The calendar function has been around since The Bulls Pen was a forum on SouthFloridaBulls.com. It doesn't quite get the community use it could, so I'll invite you to visit and see if it can help manage yours and our Bulls life. First of all, there are two calendars that combine as one: Bulls scheduled games Bulls events Only the Admin can add scheduled games, but we can all add events - such as BULLRALLY I added a week or so ago.  Events can have RSVPs attached so me

Brad

Brad

Points and the Member Shop

We had a couple threads on the new "Points" economy, this being the initial one: The points collecting has been in place for about a month, there is plenty of experimenting to do, but the possibilities are pretty entertaining.  I don't think it's a good thing to identify what adds points to your count (you'll figure it out), but I can tell you one key source of points is being online everyday, multiple days in a row at the least.  Starting quality topics is rewarding as well. Points w

Brad

Brad

New Members To-Do List

I've noticed quite a few members that have joined recently (and some members that have been so for longer periods) have not personalized their profile picture.  Using the default profile image is okay: Those are some nice horns, but take a little time and you can break from the herd with your own image.  If you look in the upper right corner you'll see your screen name.  Click on the arrow next to it and select Profile, under Content. On your profile page, you'll see an icon

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

The early years...

This screen grab of the site about 15 years ago has some memorable meaning for me.  It was around 2002 and the site was beginning to take off a little.  A fan from another site of one of the early pay sites decided to insult the old SouthFloridaBulls.com site - the original host of "TheBullsPen".  So being a smart ass, I went ahead and gave the guy his own front page story.  We were going to seek venture capital to update the site to proper 2002 standards. The other memorable part was direc

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Around the site...

I know a lot of people bookmark the Main Page and reach it directly, often on mobile, but there is more that the site has to offer to our USF Bulls online community.  Of course the message boards are heating up with talk of the new season, but there are other pages and links I think you'd enjoy, including:   Gallery set up for season Media Guides, wallpapers and other digital downloads Consolidated video collection of past games Twitter feeds from top beat reporters New RSS board gatherin

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

TBP Gallery and the 2016-17 Football Season

In the past, I've struggled to get the gallery function working as I would like it to.  I think I have it figured out, and I'd like Bulls fans to help out.  We had permissions issues before, but I think it's ready to work. I have already set up the primary events for the 2016-17 season. As a member, if you'll look in the top menu bar, select Browse, you'll see a submenu for the Gallery.  Click on that and you will see the first box is titled 2016-17 USF Football.  Click on that and you

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

Member Leaderboard functionality

If you look across the top of the site (desktop mode) in the main title bar, you'll see tabs for "Browse", "Activity", "New & Info" and so through "More".  Some of these have sub-menus with other content or links.  Under "Members" is "Leaderboard" and "Member Map".   For mobile version, click on the three bars in upper right corner to see the menus. Leaderboard lists the "top rated members" by content for the day, week month or custom period.  If you look at last week, I Bleed Awesomene

Brad

Brad in Site Archives

While in between upgrades...

I know some members tend to bookmark the one page they like to visit on TheBullsPen.com.  If they start on the main page, they always start on the main page and have an opportunity  to see any changes along the way to the thread they wish to read.  Others start on the Topic index page or perhaps even a particular thread. I'm always throwing different things out there to see if people like it enough to comment on the main board or via PM. Recently, I put a real slick looking enhancement

Brad

Brad

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