Ballhype, the sports news, discussion and game picks Web site, one of my personal favorites, upgraded their look and feel late tonight, giving a fresh "2.0" like appearance to the site which continues to grow by leaps and bounds in terms of traffic, users and story submissions.
With the advent of the NBA season and college basketball on top of college football, the NFL, NHL and Major League Soccer, it's no wonder the activity at the site is at all time highs. And while a simple Web site upgrade isn't exactly breaking news, it signifies to me another stage in the community's growing up. We've been happy visitors and participants of Ballhype for about eight months now, and have had the good fortune of meeting the site's husband and wife co-founders, who have the enviable position of doing what they love and starting a business at the same time.
The new look draws the site in line with its sister entertainment-focused community, Showhype, which debuted just last month. The new, more professional, look highlights the concept of "Hyping Up" a story, and with stadium lights in the background, reminds us it's all about the games and the athletes.
Of course, that doesn't mean everyone's happy. One occasionally irascible user immediately pounced on the changes, complaining, "....I can't stand it. Maybe make it an option for people to use the old theme?" But as the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time, and as a site grows, in order to gain new members, sometimes you have to leave the originals behind.
More detail around the relaunch can be seen on the official Ballhype blog.