Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

White supremacy is terrorism.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Second rate reporter says what?

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Giving up is unforgivable.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

Site Issue

by | 123 Comments

This post is in: 

No idea what the problem is- we have honestly not changed the site in weeks, but some of you are having a problem reaching the front page using:

https://balloon-juice.com

However, I have been informed that if you use the following in the short term, it works:

https://balloon-juice.com/index.html

I will have the minions look into it.

Alternately, try clearing your cache.

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  5. 5.

    r€nato

    this ought to be a simple issue for your webmonkey(s). Maybe they were monkeying with the web server configuration file? This is where you set the default page if none is specified.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    Safari 4 on my mac works fine. I can replicate the problem others are using if I try to get to BJ using Firefox 3. Clearing cache in Firefox did not help. Are all the folks who are having problems using Firefox?

  11. 11.

    inkadu

    Firefox 3.6, Windows XP SP2, and a cache that hasn’t been cleared since the last time you cleaned under the refrigerator. No problems here.

  12. 12.

    beltane

    The worst thing about Sarah Palin’s teabagger speech is that it has rekindled Andrew Sullivan’s desire to uncover every last detail of Trig’s birth. He just can’t let this one go.

  13. 13.

    Eric U.

    @beltane: really doesn’t take much to get Sullivan worked up about the mystery surrounding Prop’s birth. This probably just moved the story forward from Valentines day.

  14. 14.

    burnspbesq

    Even the loathsome IE 8 seems to be working OK.

    Any Tar Heels out there?

    Enjoy tonight’s game? That’s the warmup act. Wednesday night, we are drinking your milkshakes and dancing with your girlfriends. And there is exactly nothing you can do about it.

  15. 15.

    khead

    Yeah, I’m having problems. I just assumed the issue was a combination of my shitty Comcast cable and too many +++’s. Thanks for bringing me back to reality.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    No issues at work so far. Dunno the version of IE here, just know that it’s slow as snail snot.

  19. 19.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Minions? Must be nice to have minions. What happens when you become an A-list blogger? You get serfs with that?

    I just have cats.

  20. 20.

    parksideq

    Chrome beta on Mac 10.6 is go. Can I get some minion munchies for my selfless dedication and constant site refreshing?

    ETA: there’s quite a few Mac users here, or at least commenting. Anyone have a preferred browser (or at least, know a trick or two to make Safari not blow so many goats)? I use Chrome for now, but it’s so crash-happy that sometimes it’s not even worth it.

  23. 23.

    wag

    No problems at all with Safari 4 and this or any other site. The iPhone version of safari works OK on this site,but I would love to see an app or a php version of the site like TMP uses. The php version is fast.

  25. 25.

    General Winfield Stuck

    The Progressive Tantrum

    Never heard of this guy, but he sounds Obama Cultist.

    My point here is not to champion Republicans. It is not to champion democracy. My point is that the ones throwing the temper tantrum right now are the Progressives. They think that the 2008 election gave them the right to operate like China’s autocracy, and they are lashing out hysterically at those they perceive as preventing them from doing so On the one hand, the villains are a small minority in the Senate. Or maybe the villains are the incoherent majority of the people.

    Git out your pitchforks progs, there’s another obot blogger on the loose.

  29. 29.

    Donald G

    John: On the Windows XP machine SP3 using Firefox 3.5.7, I get nothing when I try to get in but a white screen. If I pull up Page Info: I get “Render Mode: Quirks mode.” I’ve cleared my cache many times, and the problem remains.

    Whatever version of IE I’m using on this machine also gives me a blank white screen when I try to call up http://www.balloon-juice.com.

    On the Mac 15 feet away, using Safari, I have no problems with Balloon Juice.

    This afternoon and evening, I’ve been sneaking in by googling the page, and then accessing the cached version. From there, links to comments and the like are fine.

  30. 30.

    AnotherBruce

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Never heard of this guy, but he sounds Obama Cultist.

    No, he sounds to me like your typical shithead global warming denialist libertarian free market fairy tale teller.

    You know, the question “Does the Government know how to create jobs?” Should have been your first clue, unless you don’t consider infrastructure, education, police and fire protection to be jobs.

    Why don’t you try reading what you link to? The only alternative to this is that you did read it and really believe this crap.

  32. 32.

    Rathskeller

    It fails consistently with Safari on an iPhone, OS 3.1.2. The index.html workaround does bring up the site correctly. Clearing the cache does not correct the problem with the domain-only URL.

    FYWP?

  38. 38.

    AnotherBruce

    @Kobie:

    Arrgh, I see you’re right, damn, when did I become all sensitive. Sorry Stuck. Neverthefuckingless, I would like to ram a pitchfork into Mister FreeMarket’s ass.

  39. 39.

    Yutsano

    @AnotherBruce:

    Neverthefuckingless, I would like to ram a pitchfork into Mister FreeMarket’s ass.

    Why in the world would you do something that would give great pleasure to that fucktard? Just askin’.

  40. 40.

    asiangrrlMN

    I got no problems on Chrome for a PC. Bitchez.

    I am, however, suffering from lack of Tunchitude, so I am submitting a formal request for a picture of Tunch.

    @Yutsano: Hi, hon. How you be?

    @AnotherBruce: May I interest you in a rusty pitchfork? It’s hand-rusted.

  43. 43.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: You’d best be bringing on the mass of cat if you know what’s good for you JC. Consider yourself warned.

    I haz promotion job interview on Wednesday. Not quite sure how I feel about it yet but pretty sure I’d do a damn good job minding things while the big bosses are out.

  44. 44.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Oooooh, promotion! Then, you can keep me in the manner to which I’ve become accustomed. And, I think you would be a great manager. You have that way about you.

    As for Cole and teh kitteh, eh. I am not holding my breath. Cole never puts up a picture of Tunch when I request it. It’s almost as if he (Cole) enjoys taunting me.

  45. 45.

    Martin

    @Yutsano: If you need a recommendation, give them my name. I’ll vouch for the fact that you spend all day on the interons, and therefore must be very powerful and know-stuffy.

  47. 47.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @AnotherBruce: Well, the dude is interesting to me. And I’m not exactly sure where he is coming from and I did read what he wrote several times. That is why I posted it with snark attached. He kinda sounds like an Obot and also like a libertarian asshole free marketeer global warming denier. Maybe, or is just spoofing people who profess certainty in their belief. I would have to read more of what he writes to find out which for sure.

    And for the record, I have always been a deficit hawk and have doubts about the government doing much to stop recessions with stimulus bills. Though government spending can maybe lessen the pain to a degree before the economy goes through whatever adjustments it does to recover. And I do have a serious streak of libertarian, though not the glibertarian kind.

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I’d blame the broken wing but we did get romping Lily pics so we know for certain he’s not THAT incapacitated. Maybe Tunch is in a poutrage over lack of tuna and refuses to pose. We really should never question the ways of His Tunchiness.

    I’ve been a manager before and a pretty decent one, so I’m not all that worried about my ability to do the tasks and all that. It’s more how they feel I’m going to fit in with all the office politics etc. I’ll see how it all turns out. And since I pretty much said I’m job hunting if I don’t get a bump up I’ll be fine no matter what happens.

    @Martin: Heh. I already get shit for hanging out on Balloon Juice at work as it is. Of course the fact that I’m spending time reading news from various sources and spreading my opinions over various subjects may or may not look good. We’ll see.

  49. 49.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Martin: Man, you cracked me up.

    Yut, hon, I will give a reference, too. I will tell them that as your fake-wifey, I am very satisfied in all (well, almost all) areas of our fake-marriage. That will be sure to impress them.

    @Martin: Ha! Cracked me up again. Yeah, that’s true.

    @Yutsano: Hey, yeah! We saw Lily! Harumph. Cole is just teasing me. And, I think you will make the right career move, whatever it is. I have faith in you.

  54. 54.

    Ty Lookwell

    I’ve been having this problem all day, both with Firefox and IE. Messed with my settings for adblock and noscript and my firewall… finally decided that the site was down until Atrios posted a link to a specific post and I was able to connect that way, and go from post to post without having to access the main page.

    … huh, that’s funny. I can access the main page now, problem solved. Weird.

  56. 56.

    Martin

    @Yutsano: There aren’t many names left with better connotations than ‘Comcast’. ‘Incest’, ‘Sphincter’, ‘Pigfucker’ were too confusing in focus testing, though they dialed higher than Comcast. Xfinity worked, though.

    You take what you can get.

  57. 57.

    parksideq

    @Martin @WaterGirl: Sorry for being MIA; it’s not that Safari’s necessarily bad, I just find that it’s kinda slow and takes up a lotta RAM, especially if I have more than like 7 tabs open at a time.

    I just don’t know if maybe I’m doing too much work with it at once, or what. This is Safari 4 by the way.

  59. 59.

    Martin

    @parksideq: Ah, yeah, Safari trades RAM for speed on the desktop. If you have less than 2GB, it’ll drag a bit, and it’s not that hard to push it at 2GB. I’ve got about 80 tabs open between two copies of Safari (coding and testing) and it’s pretty snappy with 4GB RAM.

    Something that helps a lot is installing ClickToFlash. All of those flash ads and such really crater Safari performance.

  60. 60.

    Richard

    I’m on Chrome and the front page didn’t work for me, cleared cache, still didn’t work. /index.html got me to the front page.

  63. 63.

    parksideq

    @Martin: Thanks for the heads-up; I think I’m going to flip between Safari and Chrome though for the time being. ClicktoFlash is really slick though, wish I had discovered it years ago.

  65. 65.

    Ty Lookwell

    Anyone catch Jenny Sanford on the Daily Show tonight? I’m curious what others thought of her…

  68. 68.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @gnomedad:

    Go ahead and take it! We have hidden an exploding blue meanie virus package in it that will expose you for who you are.

    Then we will mock and point ’cause that’s what we do here.

    Site has been working fine all yesterday and this am on old and new SeaMonkey (1.1.12 & 2.0.2 on two different systems w/ WinXPproSP3) at this end.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ty Lookwell #65: I watched a few minutes of it, but got bored, turned it off, and went to bed.

    Not sure whether that says more about Jenny Sanders or me.

  72. 72.

    Sly

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    “Did we Mirandize Nazi prisoners of war?”

    I was immediately going to get all huffy about Scarborough having a three hour platform upon which he can make such stunningly ignorant and superficial arguments.

    Then I remember that he was a member of congress.

  73. 73.

    Rob

    FWIW I’m still not seeing the home page even after clearing cache – here’s the response I’m getting instead of the usual HTML:

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:24:13 GMT
    Server: Apache
    X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.12
    Vary: Accept-Encoding,Cookie
    Cache-Control: max-age=300, must-revalidate
    WP-Cache: Served supercache file from PHP
    Content-Length: 0
    Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
    Connection: Keep-Alive
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Sly #72: That was actually Ailuridae, not me, but I fully concur. Scarborough combines ignorance with bombast in the finest tradition of the U. S. Congress. I haven’t watched MJ for several weeks now and don’t miss it one little bit.

  75. 75.

    WereBear

    Thank goodness MJ got to be too much even for a Snarker like my partner, and I’ve been “missing” it for weeks now.

    Thing about Morning Joke is that he’ll say some things you agree with, and just when you are wondering if he’s come to his senses, he’ll make sure you know… he hasn’t.

  76. 76.

    racrecir

    @r€nato:

    Still having problems. Like others, could get in via Google cache to view individual posts. Appending index.html or text.html to the url works, so I think r€nato is on to something regarding server scripts and default pages.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WereBear #75: What’s that they say about a broken clock and being right and twice a day . . . ? That would be Joe trying to make you think he’s come to his senses.

    Plus, why all the *SHOUTING* so early in the morning? I think that’s what finally soured me once and for all, totally apart from content. Joe’s bellowing and Mika’s milquetoasting and Pat’s whining. Life is better without all that.

  79. 79.

    FiveInchTaint

    Still having trouble this morning. I’m using Firefox 3.5.7 on OpenSUSE 11.1. Even after clearing the cache, I still get a blank page when going to balloon-juice.com. If I add the /index.html, it works fine.

    Edit–It seems to work fine now that I’ve commented. Is this the cookie problem we had a few months back?

  80. 80.

    Ethan's Mom

    Still having the problem this morning with IE 7. Cleared cache but still just kept getting the blank page. The index.html addition works.

    Edit–Yep, once I commented it started working normally again. I think John just wants to be the only cookie in our browsers. Sorry, you’re my favorite but you can’t be my only!

  81. 81.

    CJ

    I’ve been seeing some sort of Explorer function that purports to adapt itself to older versions of HTML or to websites that are optimized for different and older versions of a browser.
    I don’t like the newest version of Explorer or the Google toolbar as they have far too many “helpful” functions that are a serious PITA.

    They should figure out how to reliably close the search field “list” and get rid of the sidewiki bologna. The right-click menu is also becoming unwieldy.

    CJ

  83. 83.

    Donald G

    Hmmm. The problem seems to be back this morning. I had to come in using the index.html extension. I’ll see if using Ethan’s Mom’s method of leaving a comment works.

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack

    No problems in my regular browser (Opera 10.01, WinXP), but the site pages were often slow to load yesterday.

    However, several times over the last week or so I have been unable to load the site on my cell phone (LG dumb phone), which had never happened before. Got some sort of “entity too big” message, which I took to mean that because of the increasing rate of posts maybe the front page is a lot longer than it used to be.

  85. 85.

    Scout211

    Had problems all day yesterday and this morning.

    Using both Firefox and Safari (Mac 10.6 on one computer and 10.5 on another). Just a blank, white screen.

    Cleared cache, cookies, history . . . nothing worked.

    Tried linking via google yesterday to archives . . . the links went to the dreaded white screen.

    Today, the link ended here. An actual Balloon Juice page.

    But directly to balloon-juice.com–still the white screen.

    Back to lurking . . .

  89. 89.

    pcbedamned

    @Ethan’s Mom:

    I think John just wants to be the only cookie in our browsers.

    Balloon Juice = New World Order
    John Cole = Overlord Extraordinaire (All Your News (and/or opinion) Comes From ME!!!)

  90. 90.

    de stijl

    I think John just wants to be the only cookie in our browsers.

    Speaking of which, I block all cookies with Firefox. I’ll try allowing cookies on BJ, clear cache and try again.

    If that fails, I’ll comment again and see if that works.

  91. 91.

    asiangrrlMN

    @pcbedamned: Cole wants to drink all our milkshakes! And, you’re a Canadian, so of course you know the ridiculousness of Scar’s statement. Y’all know more about our history than we do ourselves.

    PC Chrome. No problems at all.

  93. 93.

    de stijl

    That worked.

    Now I’ll delete the BJ cookie, clear history and cache and see if I get the blank page again.

  94. 94.

    licensed to kill time

    @Chad N Freude:

    If you ever see this comment, look for the name of popular sleeping pill in your last word at comment 51 ;-)

    FF 3.6 and WinXP working fine para mi!

  95. 95.

    de stijl

    Confirmed (at least for me – Win XP Pro 2002 w/ sp3, FF 3.5.7 w/blocked cookies). I’ve blocked cookies for ever and never had a problem with BJ until yesterday and today where I just saw the blank white page.

    I was only able to get it to load with the index.html addition.

    I was able to get https://balloon-juice.com to load properly today after I allowed cookies on BJ and then commented.

    I deleted the cookie, tried https://balloon-juice.com, and got the blank page.

    I also have my FF settings to delete all history, cache and cookies when I close FF.

    PS – John, I block *all* cookies, not just Balloon Juice cookies just to let you know it’s not personal ; – )

  96. 96.

    CalD

    Check your .htaccess file. Also make sure your web host hasn’t gone and disabled mod-rewrite. If you’re using fastCGI on your PHP interpreter, disabling it might help if you can do that at the user level. I’ve actually seen that cause some odd problems and I’ve also seen bigger scripts run faster on modern hardware without it.

  97. 97.

    Al

    Emptied cookies and cache, still can’t access except using the index word. Safari 4.0.4. What good is a computer without ballon juice?

  98. 98.

    DRSpalding

    The site is still not loading for me (IE8/XPHome) via the default page but explicitly using index.html, it works fine.

  99. 99.

    Ted K

    I’m getting a blank page at http://www.balloon-juice.com, using Firefox 3.0.4 on Vista Business. Cleared the cache, and that was no help. Index.html works fine.

    Edit: And now that I’ve posted, it works. I’ve never commented from this machine before, if that’s relevant.

  102. 102.

    Debra Nelson

    I could not enter your website for two days. The only thing I did was hit the esc key to keep the jumping alligator from making me want to vomit.

  103. 103.

    tofubo

    @ work, to reset your logon password, ya need to go to a web page and reset it there

    but how do you get on the web to reset a locked computer…

    sorry, off topic

    sir, your “However, I have been informed that if you use the following in the short term, it works…” for some reason, really didn’t help too much at the time

  106. 106.

    Make7

    I am going to throw my two cents in here because my experience is slightly different.

    My laptop has XP Pro SP3 and all of my browsers (Opera 10.10, FireFox 3.5.x, Safari 4.0.x, and IE 8) all come up with a blank page using the http://www.balloon-juice.com address.

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/index.html did not work. (Address not found in Opera, blank page in others.)

    However, http://www.balloon-juice.com/index.htm seems to work fine in all browsers. So if someone is still not having any luck, try the address with /index.htm added.

  108. 108.

    Mr Sketchy

    Crap, it hasn’t been working for me! I’ve tried on two computers (both mac) in safari and firefox. I tried clearing my cache and the extended link in the post and niether worked.

    However, Make7’s link with the ‘page1’ in the address will take me to the front page. (Thanks Make7)

  110. 110.

    LC

    I was able to access the site briefly yesterday using index, but again cannot today either on firefox or safari. I miss reading you. Please get this fixed asap so I can enjoy my early morning read.

  113. 113.

    W

    XP, Fox 3.5.7
    Home computer fixed itself.
    Office computer no work.
    Cleared cookies and cache.
    Adding index.html no work.
    Adding index.htm works.
    Adding index works.

  114. 114.

    Donald G

    For me, index.html is now no longer working to access the page.

    index.htm takes me to Feb 9 “Can Terrorists be Manly”.

    text.html takes me to Feb. 8 “Site Issues”.

    I’m now gonna try Make7’s way to get in.

  116. 116.

    fallenbuddha

    Still just seeing a blank white screen. Neither clearing cache nor adding index.html worked. Interestingly, the problem exists on on my 64 bit Win 7 machine regardless of browser (Firefox 3.6, Chrome 4.0.249.78, IE 8.0.7600.16385).

    Update: posting a comment made everything work.

  117. 117.

    Charity

    I’ve tried accessing the main site on two computers using the new IE. Cannot get it. Just a white screen of nothingness. Tried https://balloon-juice.com/index.html and it does not work either. Got error message that site could not be displayed.

    I’ve cleared my cache and still no balloon-juice main page.

  118. 118.

    Brian

    Same issues here – can’t get to home page or index page using AOL, IE, or Mozilla. Had to back-door it by going to a specific entry and backtracking. Nothing else has worked.

  119. 119.

    over it

    Count me as one of the ‘blank screen’ viewers.
    Cleared cache….did not work.
    The …/index.html link does not work.
    Got to this entry/comment thread via Google.
    I am going thru Balloon Juice withdrawal.

  121. 121.

    Make7

    The following link seems to be the best temporary fix for people getting a blank page from the main address:

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=0

    The << Older Entries and Newer Entries >> links at the bottom of the main pages work correctly with that address. My previous “fix” would not work when trying to go back to page one.

    Thank Marshwiggle for this solution. It was posted in an open thread here.

    I add this for people reaching the comments here through a Google search and might not see the other thread.

  122. 122.

    K2000

    Once I left a comment, the home page was viewable again (same problem as you’ve had before, I think).

    Does Tunch have your password?

Comments are closed.