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    2001 Article - USF Official Site Problems

    By Brad

    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
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Brad's TBP Blog

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

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Brad's TBP Blog

Our Fundraising Effort

We are in the final three weeks of our $23 for 23 Crowdfunding effort.  I must admit, I thought raising $10,000 for USF Football would have been much easier among the fan base of The Bulls Pen.  Right now, between the Crowdfunding App and straight donating to the effort we are beyond $5,000.  The raffles are helping, by adding more than $500 more. With board activity beginning to increase and the anticipation for Bulls football mounting, I still think we will get there.  I will send a note
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Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Time for a TBP Survey

It's the offseason, so maybe not the best time to be asking for feedback, but it provides us time to analyze and evaluate feedback before the 2019-20 USF Athletic seasons.  So, whether you are a new member, or a founding member, please share your insights with us in the site survey.  You can find it and other discussion on this thread:  
Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Why not - the TBP Points Lottery

Just to have something else fun to do with your member points, now you can play the lottery.  Initially, it will be a weekly lottery with pots of various sizes.  You can see this week's lottery (just started today) here: https://www.thebullspen.com/lottery/ It will end tonight, as it is mostly a test run.  But if you like games of chance like lotteries, feel free to play weekly.  You can buy as many tickets as your points will afford. You should already be aware of the Member Shop
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Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Social Integrations

It is easier than ever to join the conversation at The Bulls Pen.  And the giveaways, quizzes, galleries, downloads, Member Shop, etc., too. I have recently completed a revisit of the social integrations functionality after finding some had been broken by our software as well as that of Facebook and Twitter. The integrations are important for a number of reasons, but I'll stick with the top two. New members - Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, Google, Linked In or Windows account c
Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

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

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Brad's TBP Blog

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
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Brad's TBP Blog

Things to do in the offseason, Part I

Hey, part of our community has been the fun of prediction contests and other things....most recently, raffle style giveaways and bracket contests.  In order to make it a more easily manageable situation for your humble host, I am asking that you complete the Name and Address profile fields added to your Profile.  This will make it much easier for me to get winnings out on time.  It's all private, but saves me from having to ask and then being delayed because I do not want to make mult
Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

Menu Change

As you can see above, the menu operation has changed.  Instead of clicking on the main topic like Clubs, Browse, Activity and being presented with a secondary row of options, I've opted for the traditional drop down.  I'm interested in your thoughts, if it works better for you.  I think there was confusion with the old menu, hopefully this makes more sense.
Brad

Brad

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Brad's TBP Blog

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

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Brad's TBP Blog

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
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Brad's TBP Blog

Time to fire this up again

It's a rebuilding season for The Bulls Pen.  Each year, when possible, I look at the upcoming changes, enhancements and apps that can be added to the board.  I  am looking for the right mix of cost vs. impact and try to find things that make you want to hang out here more.  More hanging out = more talking about the Bulls.  Yes it helps pay the bills, but also attracts more Bulls fans. As some are aware, as this boldly posted topic indicated, we are going to have our own "economy" wher
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Brad's TBP Blog

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
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Brad's TBP Blog

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
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Brad's TBP Blog

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

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