Welcome to the NEW Steel Curtain Network website

It has been a long time waiting, but the new SCN website is finally here!

Since we launched here at Fans First Sports Network, we’ve heard all about the look, feel, and overall functionality of the site and how it could be better. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we finally have a new-look website.

Same great content, but with a new look and new functionality! Better late than never, right?

First, if you’re reading this on the old site, which we are working on having any traffic there being re-routed to the new site, simply click HERE to go to the new page.

With the pleasantries out of the way, let me show you around a bit!

As you can see below, here is a look at the main part of the HOME page. The Top 5 articles will rotate through with author bylines and comment numbers there for you to check! Also, if you want to see a specific author’s articles, just click there name and it will take you to their catalog of articles. Lastly, at the top of the page the SCN logo will always take you back to this front page, articles will take you to an inventory of all articles, the podcast will show you our player, and FFSN will take you to the FFSN home page.


Below the “Top 5” is our podcast player, still a huge part of our content, and below that you’ll see the following list of articles which will slowly move down the page as new stories are published. So, if you miss something, you can always check out the past content here, along with author byline and comment counts visible from the main page.


Now let’s talk about the comment section.

Disqus is going to stay at the old page as we move into this new platform. This will ask you to sign in, and that should be a one-time log in with just your email address to allow you to start commenting on articles.

If I’m being completely honest, I don’t know much about this system, but am excited to move off of Disqus as it never worked consistently for me. And I know I wasn’t alone in this regard.

The only negative will be the fact any comments on the old page won’t show on the new page. So old threads will not transfer with the articles to the new page. Below is a look at the comment section below articles.


Other than the overall look and feel of the site, we wanted to make sure it was an enjoyable experience just to use the site on a day-to-day basis. That meant eliminating the black background and giving you a much richer black text on a white background. This should make reading articles a much easier task compared to some who didn’t like the black background of the old page.


Other than that, the site functions will resemble a more traditional website and hopefully have fans coming back more often to see what we have cooking here at SCN. I stand by the content we are putting out here, and feel this new upgrade will only make our site even more appealing to the Pittsburgh Steelers fan you may know.

Ultimately, understand the growth of SCN is absolutely organic, and some might call it a grass roots movement. What does that mean? It just means it would be fantastic if you could share the website on social media, tell family/friends about it, and share with any Steelers fans you may encounter. Without you, we are nothing, and for that we are thankful!

I hope you enjoy the new site, and I’m sure there will be kinks which need ironed out. Know I’ll be active in the comment section, on the new site, in case you have any questions! So, if you haven’t bookmarked the new site and headed over there, do that now! HERE WE GO!

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Big Bro Scho
Big Bro Scho
1 day ago

Loving the new look……much easier to read.

James Mechalke
James Mechalke
1 day ago

This site is LEGIT!!!! Congrats on continuing to grow this great network!

Dave Schofield
Dave Schofield
1 day ago

Bring on the new comments!

Dave Schofield
Admin
Dave Schofield
1 day ago
Reply to  Dave Schofield

Looking to see how the replies look.

UmpRay
UmpRay
1 day ago
Reply to  Dave Schofield

Much easier to use than Discus.

skyfire322
skyfire322
1 day ago

I absolutely love the new layout! Listening to feedback and making it great.

Dave Schofield
Admin
Dave Schofield
1 day ago
Reply to  skyfire322

Can you share how you ended up getting signed up with your picture and everything? Someone is asking on the old site and it was different for me because I was automatically put in the system as an author. Just trying to answer the question over there.

SteelYinzer
SteelYinzer
1 day ago
Reply to  Dave Schofield

Yeah, I thought I had moved beyond being just “someone” — but do tell skyfire as inquiring minds want to know! Hahaha

JoeBwankenobi
JoeBwankenobi
1 day ago

Glad the black, and Disqus is gone! I just want to take a moment to thank the SCN staff for the work you put in to give us this site, and content. Looking forward to continued excellence!

UmpRay
UmpRay
1 day ago

Have not fully explored but first impression is a home run (or I say deep TD pass).

Looks much better and more functional.

trukk
trukk
1 day ago

Let the games begin (again!)

trukk
trukk
1 day ago
Reply to  trukk

A few things:

1) How do we get to user settings? I want a site-wide setting for my account. Specifically I’d like to:

  • Set my comments to always show newest first
  • Change my avatard

2) I LOVE that the articles are white background. I’m sure others would prefer a “dark” option. Is that possible in the settings somewhere
3) How do I upvote (and downvote!) a comment?
4) Is it possible to have the comments section with a white background as well?
5) On the main page, I am not seeing the number of comments on an article, until I click into the article.

LOVE THIS CHANGE!

Dave
Dave
1 day ago
Reply to  trukk

Yes! I 2nd all these questions and points! Thank you Trukk!!

Dave
Dave
1 day ago
Reply to  Jeff Hartman

It’s looking great Jeff! Thank you. I’ve just got to figure out how to change my display name to the proper “SteelYinzer”. Working on it but I “think” that is a setting on Gravatar which I’m trying to sort through…

puhartman@hotmail.com
puhartman@hotmail.com
1 day ago

The new site looks great! Congratulations!

John S
John S
1 day ago

Ride or die!

Jon Lochlin
Jon Lochlin
1 day ago

Congrats on the new site. While I had, generally, gotten used to the old site, Disqus sure was clunky and I am looking forward to it being in the rearview mirror. Good stuff.

Andrew Wilbar
Andrew Wilbar
1 day ago

Looking forward to the new site!!!

Dave
Dave
1 day ago

I’ve finally got it figured out Jeff, Dave etc. At least so far as making an account AND making it your own (avatar, etc). On the main page of the site, click the “register” link in the top right. Once you do so, it will log you in for comments. What I then found is that you are now (apparently) using a WordPress type site so that utilizes Gravatar (“Globally Recognized Avatar” connected to an email address). Having long ago created a Gravatar account for this email, I was able to login link at the bottom of the main page and edit my Gravatar avatar itself — which now shows up here. Simple right? Hahaha 🙂

Dave
Dave
1 day ago
Reply to  Jeff Hartman

Of course, it now shows up with my real name instead of my “SteelYinzer” moniker, but I’ll see if I can work that out. I also can’t upvote anything yet. Thanks Jeff.

JoeBwankenobi
JoeBwankenobi
1 day ago
Reply to  Dave

So, I changed my “name” to my screen name and it worked.

Also I was trying to upvote your other comment, and somehow downvoted it?? That was not my intention! I’m a slow learner, but I’m trying to catch up, please bear with me.

Dave
Dave
1 day ago
Reply to  JoeBwankenobi

No worries. I think I’ve downvoted Jeff a couple times trying to see if the voting system worked. Oops. Even though I think that’s so, I still “see” no option to upvote (or downvote). LOL

Dave
Dave
1 day ago
Reply to  Dave

Still trying to figure out this Dave v SteelYinzer display name…

Dave
Dave
1 day ago
Reply to  JoeBwankenobi

So, you changed your “name” where? Here on site or in your Gravatar settings?

Nate B
Nate B
1 day ago

Congratulations! This is so exciting!!!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
1 day ago

Glad it let’s you log in using your e-mail. I’d hate to have to remember how many e’s there are.

Last edited 1 day ago by eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Dave
Dave
1 day ago

Now THAT is funny! LOLOL

Toronto Steeler Fan
Toronto Steeler Fan
1 day ago

Looks like the upvote/downvote thing is flaky. I seem to have downvoted Dave’s reply here but I don’t even see the downvote button. And now it won’t let me reply to Dave, saying I already voted for his comment. Hmmm. Maybe the black background is hiding the buttons.

Dave Schofield
Admin
Dave Schofield
1 day ago

I think you are correct! I see if I hover right or left of the “0” that there is something to click. I’ll add it to the list.

Toronto Steeler Fan
Toronto Steeler Fan
1 day ago

Great work, Jeff & co. The layout is awesome.

Some things to still iron out:

  1. Rec’ing comments – can’t find the rec buttons anywhere
  2. Sarcasm font 🙂
  3. Implementing read/unread comments and navigating through the unread comments only using the “z” key (or something like that). This is really what makes one return to catch up on comment threads and continue the conversation. You’ll get a lot more conversation traffic once you get this implemented. And make sure you’re doing it on the server side so that you get the same read/unread comments on all your devices.
Franco American Ham
Franco American Ham
1 day ago

This redesign sure is purdy. Good job, gents!

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