Site Stuff: Hanging with the elite (commenting platform)! taken at PNC Park (Weekly Features)

PHENOMENON POST

They'll preach in the business world that it's always to build from strengths rather than shortcomings. And as I see it, our strengths from the very beginning have been:

• Our written content
• Our thoroughness
• Our community

We aren't great at everything, and I'll never claim otherwise. But I'd like to think we strive for being great at the first two up there, and I've got zero doubts about that third one up there. There's no match anywhere for the global Pittsburgh sports community we've been blessed to see grow into what it is today, with regular readership now in all 50 states, nearly 150 countries and, of course, in every corner of our own city and region.

And that, my excellent friends, is what's next for this company: Turn that strength into a towering strength.

We have an OK commenting platform. With a couple exceptions, there's currently nothing wrong with it. But my new No. 1 goal for this company will be to launch this part of the platform into the next stratosphere. To make it truly elite. Comparable to the very best platform anywhere.

This is only conceptual, but ... You'll be able to share links, headlines, pics, videos, GIFs, polls and more. You'll be able to express more reactions than a simple up-cup or down-cup (though those would never go anywhere). You'll be notified when another member of the community replies to you. You'll be notified a different way when a staffer replies to you. You'll be able to communicate with each other. You'll be identified with maybe how long you've been with us, maybe in some other way. You'll be able to add a location. You'll have a much, much, much easier time changing your avatar. And above all, you'll also be able to ignore all of this should you choose to keep it as basic as it's always been.

I've had some spirited talks over the past week with our BoomPress developers, and they're as stoked as I am over this, as they'd already begun working on something similar. There'll be meetings in the coming week. This isn't speculative. This isn't pie-in-the-sky. It's already happening, and we'll all do everything in our power to accelerate it.

Between the overwhelming success of the new live team feeds and upgraded commenting, our goal is to have the app become indispensable in your fandom, not just a check-it-once-a-day device. We'll be upgrading our own boxscores, stats, standings. We'll be looking at fantasy content. We'll be weighing everything in sight.

Which is where you come in: If you see commenting platforms and/or other experiences you like, share them. Let us know where we can find them to check them out ourselves. Even if it's just a single specific feature that might have some appeal.

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