Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

In after Baud. Damn.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Site Issues

Site Issues

by | 608 Comments

This post is in: 

A number of you have emailed to tell me the site looks funky, and I have no idea why it would. Please explain what the problem is, what browser you are using, and what OS, and if you can put up a screen cap on an image hosting service, that would be appreciated.

If any of you know what has caused this and have a workaround, please fill me in.

Reader Interactions

608Comments

  2. 2.

    01jack

    The css is not being applied. Someone in another thread said (I think) that if you leave a comment, that drops a cookie and then the css is used. I’ll see if that’s true in a second.

  5. 5.

    Alan

    All you have to do is log off the site and clear your browser cookies and you’ll see what the problem is…

    Unless you at least comment and gain a comment cookie your browser will be served a valid CSS file. Otherwise you’re out of luck.

  6. 6.

    Dave

    Hi John

    Looks funky here. Looks like the css isn’t loading properly. Viewing on mac Firefox 3.0.12.
    I’d blame Obama.

  8. 8.

    Halteclere

    Mozilla browser with XP Pro OS here.

    I haven’t noticed anything funky about the site, but the comment formatting buttons are gone and only the text examples of the HTML formats is visible.

    I.e.

    XHTML: You can use these tags:

  11. 11.

    Halteclere

    Editing comments is now not possible either. If it was I would have cleaned up the block quote I just posted (it wasn’t supposed to be a nested block quote).

  13. 13.

    clussman

    Hmm. Looks fine in the latest version of FF but I’m getting the “Plain Screen of Just Text” on my iPhone. As noted above, the difference is probably that one of them is getting cached files (stylesheets, etc.) and the other one isn’t.

  15. 15.

    Darcy

    Only wonky here at work (IE, ancient edition). Blogroll and ads are gone, everything is stripped down. Works just fine on latest Firefox and Safari at home.

  17. 17.

    Terry

    It looks to me like the style sheet isn’t being loaded. When I examine https://balloon-juice.com/w…../style.css, it’s is a copy of the main HTML page from a couple of days ago. That’s about when the problem started. I think the style sheet file got overwritten by the main Balloon Juice page.

  19. 19.

    dancinfool

    Site is all white, no ads, no columns, and the balloon image is on the far left of the page. Commenting to see if it corrects when I post.

  21. 21.

    Alan

    For those of you that see the site just fine. Clear the cookies on your browser and then look. You’ll see the site displayed without a CSS file. Make a comment and everything will be go back to normal.

  23. 23.

    Frank

    Indeed, adding a comment fixed the problem. is your server is applying some restrictions to certain files on users with no cookies?

  24. 24.

    gex

    Don’t mind me. Just fixing my CSS by leaving a comment after clearing cookies nuked the CSS.

  28. 28.

    area man

    I’m using Firefox as well and it does look funky. Testing to see if posting fixes display problem. If that doesn’t help, I blame the tiny Hollywood starlets. Also!

  30. 30.

    Ash Can

    I’m using Internet Explorer and have no problems. (Like other commenters, I don’t see the formatting shortcut buttons or any preview, but it’s been like that for days now.)

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    Just as a reference point, the site has worked fine for me the last few days under both Opera 9.64 and Internet Explorer 8. My OS is Windows XP Service Pack 3.

    It appears that (some) people are needing to get a CSS file refreshed.

  38. 38.

    L Boom

    Having the same problem using Firefox 3.0.11 and leaving a comment to see if that fixes it.

  40. 40.

    forkbeard

    Good to know about the “post a comment” fix. It’s been looking odd for awhile on my computer.

  41. 41.

    Ajay

    I use FF and it happens to me from time to time. All I see is text and no frames etc. Refreshing it couple of times fixes it. Very rarely has it lasted more than few refreshing attempts.

  43. 43.

    Violet

    @Ash Can:

    I’m using Internet Explorer and have no problems. (Like other commenters, I don’t see the formatting shortcut buttons or any preview, but it’s been like that for days now.)

    Same here.

  46. 46.

    RedKitten

    The only funky-looking thing about the site, IMHO, is the sad lack of Lily and Tunch photos. We’re still hoping for the shot of the two of them snorgling, in order for our sad little lives to be made complete.

  47. 47.

    Aqualad08

    Yes, there does not seem to be pictures of beautiful women making out on this site. Please fix that.

  48. 48.

    misstwitch

    Looks funky on both Firefox and Flock… I may have to leave another comment to fix my home computer if this works…

  53. 53.

    nwithers

    Firefox 3.5.1 on both my work (Windows Vista) and home (Windows XP) computer. on both computers the website looks very spare without the regular formatting or side bar information

  56. 56.

    Rheinhard

    I am currently in the office where the default browser is of course Windows Internet Explorer, where at the moment this site seems to look OK (however it has been borked in the recent past). However I have also taken the liberty of installing Apple’s Safari, and in Safari I still get the borkedness, as seen in this screencap.

    OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
    Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
    Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.13

    Safari v 4.0.2 (530.19.1)

  61. 61.

    williamc

    The site’s been f-ed up for the last couple days, nothing I could find was working, so I just decided that the Porkulus has failed and you weren’t getting paid Obamabucks to maintain it anymore…

    /snark

  66. 66.

    Treefrogjohn

    Leaving a comment to see if it brings back the formatting. I’m seeing a white screen with no ads, etc. Using Firefox on a Vista PC. Saw the same thing at home running Safari on a MacPro.

  68. 68.

    Treefrogjohn

    Yep, it worked fine for me as well. I may have to repeat this on my home computer tonight.

  69. 69.

    Spiffy McBang

    Ok, I’m using Firefox 3.0.12 on XP Pro, and clearing cookies/leaving a comment isn’t fixing it.

  73. 73.

    Ash Can

    As I type this now, I’m viewing the site on Firefox, and the format of the site is indeed whack. Let’s see if posting this fixes the formatting on Firefox for me…

  86. 86.

    Alan

    @Alan: I commented and then refreshed which, evidently, loaded the style sheet. So again, the comment fixed it.

  87. 87.

    KDP

    Comment to clear funky display.

    FF 3.0.12 – WinXP SP3 – display no good for past 2 days

  89. 89.

    Ben

    Having problems with Firefox 3.0.12 on OS X 10.5.6. Will post again if commenting doesn’t clear it up.

  91. 91.

    Tim F.

    OSX Leopard, Firefox 3.0.12 . The site looked primitive (e.g., no graphics and super-basic layout) for the last 48 hours. It looks fine now. The management part of the site never had a problem.

  92. 92.

    SadieSue

    It’s completely screwed-up on my computer as well & has been for a few days. I did wonder why you didn’t mention any problems as I assumed (yeah, I know) that everyone was seeing it the way I was. =D

    I see it exactly the way #9 Aaron, #39 Tinity, & #48 Rheinhard do (they posted screenshots) & I first noticed the day (or so) after all the loading issues happened.

    I’m viewing it on Firefox 3.5.1 using a Mac Mini (Intel) OS 10.5.7 & if what I’m reading above is true, my commenting should fix this though since I have my preferences set to automatically delete all cookies after I close Firefox, this fix will only be for today. Hope this helps.

  93. 93.

    The Moar You Know

    Opera 9.63/Vista SP1, listening to Rush’s Vapor Trails, not too many rightards commenting today, everything seems fine save for a paucity of Tunch and Lily pics.

  97. 97.

    4tehlulz

    Same stylesheet issue as everyone else:

    Firefox 3.5.1 on XP SP3 (work) and Windows 7 RC (home).

  99. 99.

    General Winfield Stuck

    the css is whacked until you comment and get a cookie.

    That’s pretty much it for me. I use CC cleaner to clear cache and cookies, so now I went into CC cookies section and added bj cookie to leave alone and keep when cleaning group.

  100. 100.

    4tehlulz

    Huh. Posting a comment didn’t fix it for me — before and after clearing cache.

  102. 102.

    iwantcssfile

    same formatting program since sunday across my firefox, opera, and safari browsers (not browser specific). delurking to comment yesterday fixed the problem.

  105. 105.

    Drew Thaler

    Two things:
    (1) For some reason, accesses to pages that don’t exist are returning a copy of the homepage.
    (2) The site’s CSS file is treated as if it does not exist (until you get a cookie?)… so the browser gets HTML where it was expecting CSS, and correctly ignores it.

    This link should yield a 404 error, since it refers to a page that couldn’t possibly exist. But instead it gives you a copy of the homepage: https://balloon-juice.com/THE-BIRTHERS-ARE-RIGHT.html

    Similarly, if you load up the CSS file directly you get the same thing — suggesting that it also doesn’t exist somehow: https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/themes/balloon-juice/style.css

  106. 106.

    iwantcssfile

    …same formatting *problem* (edit function disabled, wasn’t during moderation yesterday)

  107. 107.

    4tehlulz

    This gets weirder. I just turned off accepting third-party cookies and now it’s almost fixed (don’t have style buttons, though).

  108. 108.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    Google chrome looks the like screenshots you’ve gotten. Firefox 3.0.12 looks fine, but unable to edit a post. IE 7-ish (at home) looked fine last night and I could edit. And that’s all the browsers I have at my disposal (and I’m really just posting this to see if it clears it up, liked noted above).

  113. 113.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    In Chrome, like other browser’s mentioned above, when you comment, clears up the visual aspect, but edit feature is still disabled, as in FF.

  118. 118.

    Sean

    I have the problem on both a Windows machine using Firefox and connecting with the iPhone. And while commenting…it wouldn’t hurt to have a mobile device friendly page as well!

  119. 119.

    Skepticat

    Wonky here (Firefox 3.0.12 on Mac OS 10.5.7); hope a comment will jar it loose. I fear that otherwise we won’t be able to see Tunch and
    Lily.

  129. 129.

    Screamin' Demon

    @Trinity:

    I’m using Firefox 3.0.12

    So am I, on Mac Leopard. Looks the same as always. No problems at all.

  131. 131.

    Drew Thaler

    And I can confirm that once you’ve commented and got the cookie, the CSS file is again CSS and not a copy of the homepage.

    This is almost certainly something that has gone wrong in the Apache config. I can’t guess without actually seeing the conf file, so you’ll need one of the techs to sort it out.

  137. 137.

    marcopolo

    Using Mac Leopard and I get the white screen with text. Hope adding a comment clears things up.

  142. 142.

    Tiparillo

    Well, I use Opera 10.0 Beta, and it looks weird—it’s all white, just text. Here’s a photo:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/5…..766370504/

    This is what it looked like for me yesterday until I commented. Running IE 7.0.6 @ work

  147. 147.

    Tony Dismukes

    Chrome on XP Pro, getting the same stylesheet problem as everyone else. Leaving a comment to see if that fixes things …

  160. 160.

    dorkboy

    I’m putting in a comment here to see if it fixes things as suggested by others.

  167. 167.

    gogol's wife

    Shatner’s greatest performance since Alyosha Karamazov. Just commenting to be able to read BJ.

  172. 172.

    ricky

    [blockquote] “I miss my wife asking why the hell I am reading about finding a Thai girlfriend. “[/blockquote]

    Mine keeps asking why Coulter charges some guys and for others gives it away for free.

  175. 175.

    ricky

    Well, offering a comment and trying previously suggested tricks did nothing for me. And I cannot edit either or I would have erased my previous try.

  176. 176.

    schrodinger's cat

    I made you a cookie, but I eated it.
    OT: I am getting a new ice-cream maker, does anyone have recipes they particularly like? First ice-cream I make will be mango ice-cream.

  179. 179.

    Vlad

    This probably isn’t what you’re talking about, but the mobile site is horrible. Could you please offer an option to disable loading it?

  189. 189.

    geg6

    I haven’t had any problems either here at work or on my CrackBerry.

    Other than the html shortcuts being gone. I refuse to use those old ones where I actually have to type something. I’m too old to remember the last time I did that. I think it might have been grad school. And no way can I blockquote without the shortcut button.

    We can haz shortcutz back?

  191. 191.

    slippytoad

    John, the site looks funky because you’ve got Bootsy on bass. If you turn him down it will be far less funky.

  197. 197.

    Punchy

    Everytime I open and try and read the posts, the posts are littered with grammar fuckups and spelling debacles. Clearly something is wrong wi…..wait, come to think of it…..nevermind.

    I’ll just blame this on your server.

  200. 200.

    Arlene

    I’m using Firefox, not sure which edition. But the site for the past two days has looked funky. I’ll try some of the above remedies. I would like it to get back to normal so I can see your lovely pictures of Tunch & Lily.

  202. 202.

    Cameron

    Having read the previous comments I am about to attempt to post and see if that fixes the CSS. Hold on to your butts.

  207. 207.

    Mojotron

    looks fine on my XP PC running firefox, looks funky on my Mac running firefox. Attempting commenting fix……now.

  209. 209.

    Arlene

    I just came back to the site and it’s back to normal – yea! Now, some more pictures of Tunch and Lily too, please.

  210. 210.

    jaydenver

    Ray Arnold: [trying to bring the system back on-line] Access main program. Access main security. Access main program grid.
    [the computer denies him finally saying, “You didn’t say the magic word!”]
    Dennis Nedry: [on computer] Uh uh uh! You didn’t say the magic word! Uh uh uh!
    Ray Arnold: Please! God damn it! I hate this hacker crap!

    and, the commenting worked…site back to normal..until the next time

  215. 215.

    Nate

    I’m having the same issues on firefox…trying the comment fix now…I’m sure it works in Alaska though.

  217. 217.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    SeaMonkey v1.1.17,not storing a cookie unless I post (I have set cookies to flush every two days).

    OT: We are hitting the road today and heading to Madras, Oregon. About 400 miles on the bike (the wife is driving the car w/ the kids, I get all the fun ;) ) and inland temps are supposed to be around 100 (65 here on the south Oregon coast).

    If all goes well I will hop online when we get to the hotel. Time for our annual pilgrimage to Spokane to see the rest of the clan, plus see a fan-based game convention (plus a visit to company HQ) there just for fun.

    Later kiddies! ;)

  224. 224.

    Fulcanelli

    FF 3.0.12, Win XP, commenting cookie digested. All is well.

    Possibly style sheet or style sheet link in page header corrupted, or more likely user commenting permissions corruption/problem in WP.

    Perhaps different BJ users getting different display results due to different web browser cookie acceptance/handling policy?

    Wait… I should have seen this coming! Cole is using this as an excuse to harvest user e-mails to send Sarah Palin PAC/BFF Fan Club spam. Devious!

  227. 227.

    sidereal

    The problem is that this URL:
    https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/themes/balloon-juice/style.css

    which is your stylesheet, resolves to a copy of the frontpage.

    And I’m guessing it’s because the bottom of that page says this:

    Your cache plugin is sending everyone without a commenter cookie to a static copy of the frontpage. Which is great for performance, except it’s doing it to the stylesheet URL, which is really bad.

  228. 228.

    sidereal

    Whoops. I meant that it says this:
    <!– Cached page generated by WP-Super-Cache on 2009-07-26 09:58:32 –>
    <!– super cache –>

  229. 229.

    sidereal

    Garbage. Why must you eat my tags!
    Okay, this:
    !– Cached page generated by WP-Super-Cache on 2009-07-26 09:58:32 —
    !– super cache —

  230. 230.

    jl

    looks fine to me. But teh edit iz gon!
    THE EDIT IS GONE! OMIGO IM GONNA DIE THE EDIT IS GONE!

  231. 231.

    Chinn Romney

    nothing to say, just testing to see if i get the css back after adding a comment.

  233. 233.

    Acorvid

    …but when I reboot, and reopen, there’s the design I have come to know and look forward to. Whew!

  234. 234.

    vacuumslayer

    On iPhone the font is different, much smaller and does not allow you to magnify the text. On my computer it’s fine. I do miss the automatic tag buttons….

  236. 236.

    ricky

    Masturbation and thumbsucking did not do anything to improve the site. They helped my disposition, however.

  238. 238.

    Toyon Toots

    I am using Firefox, and there is only type, no separation lines, no columns, just the blog posts. I tried clearing my cache to see if that worked … nope. It’s been like that for the past 4 or so hours.

  239. 239.

    ricky

    If the edit function had been restored I could have added as an update that the subsequent hair growth atop the hand hinders pure enjoyment of the thumb juiciness.

  241. 241.

    beltane

    The site looks funky to me on firefox, safari & IE. I was going to say something yesterday but figured it was something wrong on my end.

  249. 249.

    The Saff

    Site looks fine on my screen using Internet Explorer v7 and have no problems. I don’t see the formatting shortcut buttons or any preview either like several folks above.

    The snark and comments continue to be as good as ever.

    Thxluvyabye

  250. 250.

    tess

    Hm. I ran into this problem on Firefox (3.0.12) and Safari (4.0.2) using OS X (10.5.7)

    Guess I’ll have to comment in both browsers.

  253. 253.

    malta

    I think this is John’s way of making everyone leave a comment or you get punished by not seeing the site properly.

    Worked for me! 1st time I’ve commented, long time reader. I love this site, best mix of topics + commenters I’ve ever read. It’s my first stop every day, thank you all.

  255. 255.

    Kimene

    How many calories?(I’m keeping a food log and already had 100-cal. bag of P.F. Chessmen cookies today)

  258. 258.

    Lurker Revealed

    IE version 6.0.2900.2180 on Windows XP Pro version 5.1

    I’m just hoping things will return to normal if I get in on the cookie fest.

  260. 260.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Nazgul 35

    Talk to the paw

    I didn’t know that John Cole was a kitteh, or has Tunch taken over Balloon Juice? Hmmm, that would explain a lot.

  267. 267.

    currants

    @shrodinger’s cat:
    OT: I am getting a new ice-cream maker, does anyone have recipes they particularly like? First ice-cream I make will be mango ice-cream.

    YES! Salted Caramel Ice Cream. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/04/salted_butter_c.html

    He’s got a book of ice cream recipes too, but I discovered this one first (and it’s the only one I’ve made so far). It’s unbelievable. And fabulous with tarte tatin, but that’s almost too much–the ice cream alone is….ooooh.

  271. 271.

    American in Exile

    Just checking whether things really go back to normal after one comments . . . fingers crossed!

  283. 283.

    pcbedamned

    And I thought it was just me…
    Nice to know the new meds aren’t playing with the brain in a funky way after all.

  285. 285.

    The Eccentric

    Giving the old “post a comment, get a cookie, see not-so-funky-looking-site” trick and see if it works.

  286. 286.

    null pointer exception

    There’s an issue with the css. But I guess people must have already pointed that out seeing as this post has already got 218 comments.

  287. 287.

    JenJen

    Huh. And all this time, I thought it looked weird because I just bought a new laptop yesterday, and I wasn’t doin’ it right.

    Hooray! Looks fine now. Google Chrome, btw. And I guess I won’t be returning the laptop. :-)

  293. 293.

    George

    cookie worked.

    This issue started 3 days ago same time that you were being reported for Trojans by avast.

    Maybe when you fixed the trojan issue something got out of whack?

    How do you like that for tech talk? heh…

  295. 295.

    null pointer exception

    Things did not get back to normal for me after commenting.

    The site CSS is at https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/themes/balloon-juice/style.css. But when I try to access the css, I get the site home page instead. Clearly there’s a problem. When I try to access the css directory at https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/themes/balloon-juice/, I get the following error:

    Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_header() in /home/jcole010/domains/golive.balloon-juice.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/balloon-juice/index.php on line 1

  297. 297.

    null pointer exception

    Strange. Now the CSS is being applied just fine and things are back to normal.

  301. 301.

    Anne Laurie

    Site loaded fine for me on IE7 (oh, shut up), but I had to post a comment before the link on my last post would look right. (It was showing the line of code rather than just the highlight-text.) Just so people know you don’t have favorites. Also, FYWP!

  302. 302.

    Ukko

    I occasionally get the iPhone version of the site on both my iPhone and my mac. But only one in a blue moon. I would like it if I could keep the iPhone version on the iPhone myself, since it is easier to read.

    Just more useless anecdotal data…

  303. 303.

    Lizzy L

    Leaving a comment in hopes that the site will revert to normal. All this white space is giving me a headache.

  307. 307.

    LD50

    A number of you have emailed to tell me the site looks funky

    And not in a good, James Brown way.

  310. 310.

    Anonymous37

    Leaving comment to see if it fixes issue.

    Worked for me — using most recent version of Firefox on Windows XP.

  314. 314.

    Delia

    Actually not quite all right. The edit function isn’t there.

    IE doesn’t have any formatting.

  316. 316.

    Joshua Norton

    I’m using an Osborne 286 and everything looks orange. Please fix it.

    okthanxbye.

  318. 318.

    marjo

    I am on IE 7 at work. One wide column across, white text only screen, with all the ads etc. at the bottom. I am commenting to see if that fixes it.

  324. 324.

    Calouste

    IE8 on Win7 RC. Works fine. (Although it switches automatically to compatibility mode, but it has always done that.)

  326. 326.

    misstwitch

    Hoping this will sort out my issues at home…will check back if it doesn’t change in Flock.

  328. 328.

    Comrade marry, Would-Be Minion of the Cookie Monster

    Looks like naked CSS-less crap on IE 6. Will comment to see it it fixes itself.

    I have eaten
    the cookie
    that was in
    the hard drive

    and which
    you were probably
    saving
    for analysis.

    Forgive me
    it was delicious
    so sweet
    and so chewy.

  329. 329.

    Comrade Mary

    Hmm. It looked like crap on IE, but when I tried to post a comment, I got this error message:

    Error 403
    We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /?p=24657&cpage=6#comment-1312895 on this server.

    You do not have permission to access this server.

    Your technical support key is: 4c0a-a2bc-dfd9-b1ad

    You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

    If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact jgriffincole at gmail.com and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.

    When I used that code and clicked the link, I got this:

    Technical Support
    Your request was intercepted by Bad Behavior, security software which protects the Web site you visited from malicious activity, such as hackers, spam and viruses. We apologize for the inconvenience, but your request matched a profile of suspicious activity. This problem is usually quite easy to fix.

    Your request was blocked because of malicious automated requests received from your computer’s IP address.

    This problem may be caused by viruses or spyware on your computer, or by malicious software that pretends to be anti-virus or anti-spyware software. Ensure that you have REAL anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer, that they are kept up-to-date, and that you have run a full system scan using each tool. Once your system is cleaned of viruses and spyware, please try your request again.

    The free Google Pack provides trustworthy anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

    If you have just submitted data to the Web site you were visiting before you were blocked, this may be a bug in your Web browser. Click the Back button three times to continue browsing. Then consider replacing your Web browser with a standard Web browser.

    If the above suggestions fail to resolve the problem, click Back and contact the e-mail address you were given for further assistance.

    So why can I read and comment via Firefox but get blocked with IE?

  332. 332.

    Comrade Mary

    (Posting from IE 6): Hitting the back button in IE shows my comment #254 (from Firefox) and shows good formatting as usual.

    One more time from here:

    I have eaten
    the cookie
    that was in
    the hard drive

    and which
    you were probably
    saving
    for analysis.

    Forgive me
    it was delicious
    so sweet
    and so chewy.

  334. 334.

    Comrade Mary

    That comment of mine above? From IE, which gave the same damn error message, but on hitting Back, I could see the comment got through this time.

    Oy.

  335. 335.

    Platosearwax

    Just commenting to get the cookie. Will probably have to do this with my laptop as well.

  346. 346.

    Cat Lady

    Commenting isn’t getting the edit commands back on Vista/Explorer laptop, but as far as the way the site looks, I’m starting to long for Pammy’s skeevy third arm in place of Skank Coulter.

  347. 347.

    malta

    gads – rebooted after windows update and now my cookie’s gone. commenting to get my chocolate chips!

  352. 352.

    Tax Analyst

    @Ash Can:

    I’m using Internet Explorer and have no problems. (Like other commenters, I don’t see the formatting shortcut buttons or any preview, but it’s been like that for days now.)

    Same here.

    same for me as well

  353. 353.

    John

    Just testing to see if leaving a comment fixes it; I’m on IE 7, Windows XP SP2, and css is not being applied.

  356. 356.

    cfaller96

    Late to the party, but yes, I’m having site issues, I figured it’s because I’m running FireFox 3.5.1. The side columns are not placed to surround the text/posts. Instead, it’s a plain list of posts on white background, and then at the very end are all the ads and stuff. It just looks weird, but I’m still able to read everything.

    I blame Al Gore.

  358. 358.

    PDXChris

    Using Google Chrome on Win XP Professional, but also shows up as the “plain white screen w/ text” on my iPhone. Also posting this to see if cookies can help.

    I think this is all a ploy to force me to de-lurk.

  359. 359.

    Anne Laurie

    The ‘edit’ function has disappeared for me, so I can’t fix the block-quotes in my comment in the last post. But mostly, I wanted to go on the record that I have gotten the Error 403 page Comrade Mary #253 spells out every single time I posted here, since forever. I always assumed it was something funky in IE-7, but since the ‘fix’ is as simple as hitting the Back button, I never worried about it (till now).

  362. 362.

    tripletee (formerly tBone)

    I kind of like the no CSS look, personally. It eliminates the “Tranny Surprise – Free!” ad at the top of the page.

  363. 363.

    Comrade Luke

    I recently cleared my cookies, so maybe that’s why I’m seeing it in a funky state…

  365. 365.

    d. b. cooper

    It looks like a very bad site redesign over here, so i’m commenting in hopes the good design will come back.

  366. 366.

    tripletee (formerly tBone)

    BTW, to everyone who mentioned the lack of the edit bar for comments, I believe that plugin was removed during the Great Spyware Debacle a couple of weeks ago – ie, not related to the current issue. Sack up and learn some basic HTML if you want to get fancy in your comments, you ninnies.

  369. 369.

    harlana pepper

    no problems for me altho i have never mastered the editing magic, i always fuck up the block quotes and such

  372. 372.

    A Ghost To Most

    comment to set cookie; it is the same for me on Chrome, IE8, and Firefox 3.5.1

  388. 388.

    MikeJ

    For those of you who need html help:
    1) use firefox
    2) install this plugin
    3) buy me an ice cream, it’s hot here.

  391. 391.

    Beej

    Im using Safari for Windows Vista, and Im getting a plain white screen with no ads… It was annoying at first but doesn’t hinder reading the site.

  397. 397.

    jl

    Still no edit.
    On serious side, the site has also loaded in a compressed, text only format for me also several times. Refreshing, with shift key or not, does not change it. I just close the browser and relaunch, and that has always fixed it.

  408. 408.

    Kristine

    Hi, I’m a long-time lurker, first-time commenter trying to see if this will fix my funky view on Firefox 3.0.12. Cookie for me, please!

  413. 413.

    Tax Analyst

    harlana pepper said (with regards to the HTML link)
    @Ash Can: “Thank you, I’ve bookmarked it”

    Me too…maybe I’ll even be able to figure out what they’re talking about after a couple of reads.

    Thanks!

  417. 417.

    Molly

    I propose an open thread, complete with Lily and Tunch pictures. That way, we can have Cookies and Cole Critters in one fell swoop.

  419. 419.

    Cat Lady

    @Ash Can:

    It looks like even I might be able to learn to drive this thing. Thanks.

    BTW, John – I hope you figure out what you need to get everything ship shape again, and also, what a great ploy to flush out the lurkers. Just like at the office – all you have to do is offer cookies.

  421. 421.

    OldDave

    Just posting to (hopefully) regain formatting. Fingers are crossed (which makes typing a bear).

  425. 425.

    GusThePrimate

    I looked at the CSS. (Yes, you can do that.) The headers tag it as “text/css’, which is correct.

    The site is fine in my Safari, which is loaded with cookies. CSS is not applied in Firefox here, which doesn’t accept cookies. Go bash on your web monkeys.

    Or, try the usual WordPress remedy: Disable new or newly updated plugins one by one until it works right.

    But, in the real world…..

    I’m ticked off at Yahoo for running biased opinion pieces from Fortune in their own news section with headlines like “Health Reform’s Downside” and “Freedoms You May Lose Under Health-Care Reform (http://www.yahoo.com/s/1106827)

  426. 426.

    GusThePrimate

    I looked at the CSS. (Yes, you can do that.) The headers tag it as “text/css’, which is correct.

    The site is fine in my Safari, which is loaded with cookies. CSS is not applied in Firefox here, which doesn’t accept cookies. Go bash on your web monkeys.

    Or, try the usual WordPress remedy: Disable new or newly updated plugins one by one until it works right.

    But, in the real world…..

    I’m ticked off at Yahoo for running biased opinion pieces from Fortune in their own news section with headlines like “Health Reform’s Downside” and “Freedoms You May Lose Under Health-Care Reform (http://www.yahoo.com/s/1106827)

  427. 427.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Twisted_Colour:

    I’m touching myself again.

    Whenever I hear someone say this, the Divinyls music video from the 80’s replays in my head. I reckon it’ll stop when I’m dead, but I hope not.

  440. 440.

    Jeff

    I’m just glad Ms Anderson is gone.

    Sounds like when your host cleaned up the site they screwed the mime types.

    You can’t have a post about ANYTHING without someone turning it into an orgy! But at least it was a quiet one.

  453. 453.

    Aaron

    Commenting seemed to clear things up at work, let’s see if it helped here at home.

  457. 457.

    Ravi J

    style sheet is fucked up. It appears someone renamed it to something and brought a default html and named it style.css.

  458. 458.

    Maude

    Have had no problems at all. The text doesn’t appear below the submit button.
    I have XP pro, newest firefox, no service packs because the laptop has a serious conflict with sp1.

  464. 464.

    AaronWA

    Hmm yeah, I’m getting the funky lack of style too, lets see if leaving this comment fixes it.

  468. 468.

    IP

    @IP: Won’t read the whole thread to see if someone’s said it already but this worked. That’s lame. From a coding perspective. Also.

  475. 475.

    Sandy LA 90034

    Now that I’ve posted, the problem has been corrected. (I’m using Firefox 3.0.12).

  476. 476.

    DebsEugene

    I’m commenting for the first time here to see if this will correct the formatting! Love the site, by the way.

  489. 489.

    db11

    Safari 4.02 on Mac OSX 10.5.7

    not loading properly (for the past 3-4 days)
    cleared cookies and cache
    will see if comment reset works…

  499. 499.

    Ripley

    Doing the ‘comment for a cookie’ experiment. I always clear cookies (Firefox 3.5.1, Vista Home Premium) at the end of a session, though, and never had this come up before, so I’m thinking people are right to suggest there’s more to the problem. Anyways, here goes….

  501. 501.

    Gordon, The Big Express Engine

    I’ll tell y’all one thing that is not broken on this site. The ads!

    I ordered that guide to meeting Thai women. It works!!! Forget fixing how the site looks and the formatting works.

    It’s been incredible, really…

  505. 505.

    Kayla Rudbek

    delurking to get the style sheet to work again. Running Firefox 3.5, Mac 10.5.

  513. 513.

    trace

    Using Safari 4.0.2 on Mac OSX, as well as Safari on the iPhone. On both platforms I get the main page content across the entire width of the browser window, and all sidebar stuff is rendered separately waaaaaaaay at the bottom.

  514. 514.

    trace

    …adding that having posted a comment, now the page draws correctly, as others had suggested.

  516. 516.

    Bob In Pacifica

    I get a formatting compatibility warning. Sometimes the page doesn’t load and I have to hit the refresh button. And all the neat little thingies where you press them to make stuff in bold or underlined or links aren’t there in the automatic mode.

  526. 526.

    treefrogjohn

    Adding a comment to hopefully get my other computer to display this site properly

  539. 539.

    Ed Ryan

    Using Firefox 3.5.1. Been seeing the broken formatting for a few days on a few systems, including my iPhone. Hoping adding the comment fixes it for now, but good luck sorting this one out!

  540. 540.

    Ed Ryan

    FYI… I had to add the above comment and then also delete just one of my cookies for balloon-juice.com (the one that showed a Cookie Name of “style”).

    That fixed it right up.

  545. 545.

    Nathan R

    I, like everyone else in this very long thread, just want BJ to show up as it should. Thanks!

  548. 548.

    General Winfield Stuck

    This thread has set the Guinness world blog record for using the word “cookie”. Congrats!!!

  549. 549.

    eco2geek

    Wow, 545 comments and counting. This may be the first time I’ve ever gone out of my way to get a cookie!

  550. 550.

    ghost poet

    getting this error in ie8/win7:

    Webpage error details

    User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS-RTC LM 8)
    Timestamp: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:40:20 UTC

    Message: ‘pageTracker’ is undefined
    Line: 184
    Char: 6
    Code: 0
    URI: http://static.zootoo.com/content_widget_iframe.php?widgetslug=tall

  563. 563.

    alephnaughtpix

    Looks like it’s missing a stylesheet when I run it in Google Chrome, but I’ll see what happens when I post a comment…

Comments are closed.