Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

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

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The willow is too close to the house.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Ok, Now You Can Comment

Ok, Now You Can Comment

by | 355 Comments

This post is in: ,

Here is a thread for comments, suggestions, criticisms. Most of the big stuff is done, but there will still be some minor changes.

Now look, I’m asking you for a favor. There are multiple threads, and an NFL thread will be going up shortly. ONLY use this thread for issues dealing with the rebuild and things you want or that have been overlooked. I don’t want to waste my time listening to your random babble about shit. You can put that in one of the other 30,000 posts.

Reader Interactions

355Comments

  2. 2.

    JGabriel

    Font too small. Kick it up a point or two.

    Add a line of white-space between the bottom of each post and the divider line. They look cramped at the bottom.

    .

  3. 3.

    matoko_chan

    This is great.
    watever email you use in your comment puts up the avatar associated with that email.
    you can look back on old threads and see who people RELLY are.
    i liek the zero warning protocol.
    freelancer has Jesus for an avatar.
    ‘splains a lot.
    does the site use facebook first? or gravatar?
    this is my old blog avatar.

  4. 4.

    greennotGreen

    Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all get along…at least in font size? Now the font is really tiny. Of course, I can change it, but then when I go to Pandagon the font will be giant. My + and – keys are going to wear out.

  7. 7.

    sherifffruitfly

    Dude. Not everyone is 80 years old and blind. Lighten up on the post title font size.

    And like someone else said, lack of vert spacing in comments blows too.

  9. 9.

    Dennis SGMM

    Could we please have links open in a new window/tab? I’d very much like to be able to read linked content and then come back and make an inane comment about it without having to reload BJ.

  10. 10.

    Luthe

    I am getting ads on every single front page post between the post content and the comments. I can live with ads *between* posts, but multiple ads in the posts themselves is a little much.

  11. 11.

    gnomedad

    I know we can click on the tag line for “home”, but not being able to click on the logo for same is just perverse.

  13. 13.

    Laura W.

    1) Need Previous Post and Next Post navigation up top (although adding to the bottom is great.)

    2) STORE NEEDS A NEW WIDGET!

    3) I miss the time stamp on the FP posts. Where did it go?

  14. 14.

    Peter

    Needs more indentation. Everything including titles is left-justified and it looks really awkward.

  15. 15.

    sherifffruitfly

    @Luthe:

    That’s what adblock and flashblock are for. Never depend on site owners to treat you decently – that strategy will end in tears every time.

  19. 19.

    JGabriel

    Outside of the size issues, I like the font. Is that real Helvetica, instead of one of the cheap imitations?

    .

  20. 20.

    Peter

    Also, where is the blog software drawing its avatar information from? I set this monopoly man as avatar on some blog I can’t even remember an age ago, and it keeps popping up randomly.

  22. 22.

    Amir_Khalid

    And please to bring back

    1) time stamps on comments

    2) links to previous/next comment threads

    Thx.

  23. 23.

    Citizen_X

    Jeez, Cole, pretty cranky for a guy whose team just won the right to be Patriot fodder not 24 hours ago.

    Anyway, can we possibly get links to previous and following threads from each thread, like we used to? Because that was pretty convenient.

    Back to stressing over my avatar choice…

    Edit: Are people still seeing fonts that are too small? Because they’re pretty easy-reading big to me (viewing in Safari).

  24. 24.

    beltane

    It looks like the font just got larger. Looks good. The people complaining about not having an avatar are just going to have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and harness the power of the free market to get their own avatars.

  25. 25.

    Judas Escargot

    @Dennis SGMM:

    I’ll second this request (links open in a new tab), as middle-click doesn’t seem to work anymore (chrome on linux, at the moment).

    Also, the permalinks seem to be gone.

    Now for some random tests:

    Does the italics tag work?

    “Blockquotes are very important” said J.D. Teabagger “they were established by the Founding Fathers”.

    The editor buttons above the edit field are nice.

    Going to check from my iPad in a few mins.

  26. 26.

    eemom

    hey John — why don’t you FP the link to Gravatar so the question of how to get an avatar doesn’t have to be asked and answered in the comments of every thread 900 times? Jussayinzall.

  28. 28.

    Luthe

    @sherifffruitfly: BJ is one of the few sites I *don’t* have ad-blocked, because I like it enough to be willing to give it money via the occasional ad click. I can deal with the ads, but in moderation (like many a comment on these parts. /snark).

  29. 29.

    Scott Supak

    Need padding under every paragraph, especially after the post, after the facebook like, and after the date. Everything is too close together. I’m using Chrome.

    UPDATE: That was fast. Much better.

  31. 31.

    BruceFromOhio

    Suggestion: Top of post in comment-thread format has links to previous and next post in comment-thread format.

    I see the “previous post” and “next post” tags at the bottom of post, top of post link uses the post title for the label.

    May have been mentioned elsewhere, apologies for repeating.

    ETA: New style/design is sweet, making good even better, thanks for everything to all.

  32. 32.

    Peter

    @arguingwithsignposts: Aha! I think I’ll leave it – I like old Uncle Moneybags – but it’s good to know.

    Also it looks really weird how people without avatars just have a big white space beside their name.

  33. 33.

    asiangrrlMN

    Oh, fuck. What will this do to the pie filters? I will have to see.

    ETA: It is kinda cool to see the different avatars, though. However, I don’t like the front page.

    ETAII: cleek and MikeJ! We need upgrades on the pie filter, STAT!

  36. 36.

    DougJarvus Green-Ellis

    The paragraphs are fucked up in the new build already.

    Looks like we have to use the paragraph tags to get paragraphs at all. That sucks.

  43. 43.

    licensed to kill time

    Hmm…the header at the top seems a bit undersized.
    You have to go to the bottom of the page to get “next post”.
    Avatars are a bit creepy :)
    The type font in the comment box looks odd.

    I guess I’ll get used to it. Still exploring.

    ETA: My Balloon Juice tab (in FF) has the subheader in it…says Obama Akbar! at the moment. Strange…

  45. 45.

    scav

    random chatter added. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

    voluptate velit

    esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. And a Random Link to end the testing. Mine’s an antigravitar.

    ETA: test para

    ETA: Test br. no issues real issues here, there’s a lot of white space but that’s minor and will no doubt be adapted to.

  46. 46.

    matoko_chan

    @asiangrrlMN: Cleek say pie filters no workee.
    nice avatar.
    you can go back and see who people relly are in the comments.
    freelancer has Lamb-holding Jesus for his.
    splains a lot.

  47. 47.

    Svensker

    More vertical space. Something for folks who don’t have avatars because otherwise the name is just randomly in mid-air. Also maybe a larger font or bold or something for commenter name, since you can’t tell what’s comment and what’s name.

  49. 49.

    Chris Grrr

    Oh, this is horrible! Unusable! It’s the end of the world ! ! ! ! ! 1 !

    Heh.

    Seriously, the font size looks good here (Win 7 / FF 4.0 b9) but I would ask for another blink line between FP posts. My exclamation points (above) were suppressed. FYWP?

  50. 50.

    Laura W.

    @eemom:

    hey John—why don’t you FP the link to Gravatar so the question of how to get an avatar doesn’t have to be asked and answered in the comments of every thread 900 times? Jussayinzall.

    You are still on fire!

  51. 51.

    Judas Escargot

    On the iPad now. SIte actually looks better than it did on my desktop. Funky.

    “What kind of douchebag uses a bluetooth keyboard with the iPad?” said Steve Jobs. “If I wanted you monkeys to actually create content, I’d have put your names on iTunes!”

    What is the “code” tag for?

  52. 52.

    licensed to kill time

    Ok, now the next post titles are up top. I guess I should shut up and figure things out before I spout off, but hey! This is Balloon Juice!

    Also, can I say sociaIism now?

    eta: NO. still have to edit the L for capital i.
    frackin’ moderation

  55. 55.

    Li

    Needs padding between posts, it’s very cramped at the moment. A little border around the posts would be nice too.

  57. 57.

    MonkeyBoy

    @greennotGreen:

    Now the font is really tiny. Of course, I can change it, but then when I go to Pandagon the font will be giant. My + and – keys are going to wear out.

    For those complaining about font size, in Firefox install the No Squint extension.

    It remembers magnification settings on a per-site basis. I’ve used it for years and swear by it. So for me it doesn’t matter what font size BJ uses.

  59. 59.

    MikeJ

    Too much headroom on comments where people refuse to give out their real email addresses to you and some web company.

    No way to get the url for a single comment without using the reply button. Boo.

    Sans fonts suck. Also too, everything is huge.

  60. 60.

    p mac

    Good: works in IE 8 without going blank on an error.

    Bad: Facebook link uses up a whole line if you aren’t logged in. (Keep it to a simple link, and put it in the footer.)

  62. 62.

    Quarks

    Aesthetic issue: in Chrome, on the front page, the rotating tags are bleeding into the image of the guy with the balloon, making it difficult to read the rotating tags. You may not care.

    Echoing everyone’s request for a return of the time stamps on comments.

  63. 63.

    sherifffruitfly

    Overall, I’m just curious: what was your motivation for fucking ruining the site?

    lols

  66. 66.

    soonergrunt

    You broke the pie filters.
    The layout sucks on Firefox 3.6.13. Now the sidebar on the front page is way down at the bottom, and there is no alignment that I can determine. Apparently you only have one sidebar, on the left-hand side of the window, and it doesn’t start until after the bottom of the center column entries. Here in the thread, IE9 looks better than Firefox 3.6.
    In some respects, the site actually looks better (or is less broken) in IE 9. At least the sidebars are lined up with the center column. The annoying ‘text runs through the right-hand sidebar and off into oblivion’ is still present in IE 9.

  68. 68.

    Stillwater

    How bout putting the avatars on the right hand side of the page? Then the commenter name isn’t so cluttered up? (I wanna flame away without having to slow down to think, ya know?)

  71. 71.

    scarshapedstar

    Very screwy when loaded in Chrome, at least for me. Font sizes are… off (yes I have them rather large but even if I shrink them the headlines seem disproportionately large) and all the sidebars have been dumped to the bottom of the page.

    screenshot:

    http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3189/bjredesign.png

    EDIT:

    Actually, I just reloaded the site and now it looks great.

    Must have been some cache problem.

    @soonergrunt:

    Try ctrl-f5.

  77. 77.

    Stillwater

    @JGabriel: Is that real Helvetica, instead of one of the cheap imitations?

    Nothing pisses me off more than trying to pass off fake Helvetica for the real thing!!

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    Thanks for returning our time stamps, but we’re not all in the same time zone. It would be nice if the time stamps either:

    1) Auto adjusted to the viewer’s system time, or
    2) At least showed the time zone the time zone they’re assuming we’re in.

  82. 82.

    MonkeyBoy

    The FYWP double underscore multi-paragraph blockquote hack, ©MonkeyBoy 2009, is still needed.

    Blockquoting multiple paragraphs with a blank line between gives:

    1. The reign in Spain

    2. goes mainly down the drain.

    With a double underscore line instead of a blank gives

    1. The drain in Spain
    __
    2. Is plain.

    Ta Da!

  84. 84.

    John Cole

    Thanks for returning our time stamps, but we’re not all in the same time zone.

    Just fucking shoot me. You want it to tie your shoes, too? Everything is EST.

  86. 86.

    Michael Bersin

    i’m just posting a comment to see what the hell my avatar looks like, if there even is one…

    Uh, oh.

    “…Oh, this is the biggest one I ever had. You hear that Elizabeth? I’m coming to join you honey…”

  87. 87.

    Joshua C.

    Move the Facebook “like” link to the right, or at least put a space above it. Where it is, it’s just distracting.

  88. 88.

    mem from somerville

    Avatar test here too. Hoping for the blue one…

    and edit claims to have worked. FF 3.6.13 on PC.

  91. 91.

    Tony J

    New font looks weird, but I’ll get used to it.

    Avatars are amusing. Gravatar.com is getting a visit.

    Text still scrolls off stage-right on the front page, but not, strangely, on the thread-page.

  93. 93.

    SIA

    I mostly read this site on my Blackberry. Upgraded to a BB Bold last week, finally figured out how to read the site on it. BUT NOW if I enlarge the font or zoom in enough to be able to read the words, the margins are too wide and it’s almost impossible to scan side to side without losing my place. Reading on a phone only seems to work if the column width matches the BB screen width. Any Blackberry reader thoughts ?

    Avatars – meh. One of the things I liked about this site was the clean, uncluttered appearance. Avatars seem unnecessary but I don’t see those going away.

    But PLEASE any thoughts on the mobile reading issues would be appreciated.

    /wanders away muttering

  94. 94.

    JGabriel

    @Roger Moore:

    Thanks for returning our time stamps, but we’re not all in the same time zone.

    Damn, I thought I was picky. Seriously, though, it’s better to stick with the server time than to code for time zone adjustments. Just from a trouble-shooting point of view, it’s easier to find a post if everyone is using the same time frame. Also, it’s one less thing that can get fucked up.

    .

  95. 95.

    matoko_chan

    @asiangrrlMN: your ancestors would spit on you, coward.
    deconstruct my arguments……if you can.
    methinks you run and hide.
    raises bellguard of epee to lips.
    touche!

  97. 97.

    Stacy

    @Roger Moore: That is a function of the crap plugin, that thusfar is the only usable option to allow you all to use quicktags to HTML format your posts. As I have mentioned to John, I will look for an alternative when I’ve finished every other thing that needs doing.

  102. 102.

    Allan

    Um, this particular post, at least in Windows 7/IE 8 exhibits the same “no right hand margin” problem we’ve been having for years.

  103. 103.

    scav

    @nitpicker: I will be avatared and I will have my shoes tied. But I won’t enjoy it: insert playground voice you can’t make me. pout I seem to be a headless chicken. Nah, a winged pea with clown buttons.

  104. 104.

    South of I-10

    Are we going to get the “respond” button back? It makes it easier to jump to the end of the thread on my iPad, without having to scroll forever. Unless someone can tell me an easy way to do this.

  105. 105.

    dmsilev

    Browser: Safari 5 on Mac.

    The comments thread is rendering nicely, but a bit more visual separation between comments (e.g. a thin black line) might be nice.

    However, all of the ancillary stuff (blog roll, front-pager emails, a whole bunch of ads) are appearing below the end of the comments, instead of the right sidebar where I presume they belong.

    Edit: nevermind; after posting this comment and reloading the page, the layout is correct. Odd.

    And that randomly-chosen avatar is so not me.

    dms

  106. 106.

    Eric U.

    I’m nearly blind and the font is too big. When you reduce the font size, the line widths are too long. Unless I adjust my browser size.
    I really would like to get rid of the avatars, they take up too much space

  109. 109.

    Roger Moore

    @John Cole:

    You want it to tie your shoes, too?

    That would be nice.

    Everything is EST.

    Typical East Coast Media Bias. Always assume everything is on the East Coast and only notice the country has more than one time zone when somebody points it out to you. How fucking hard is it to put a little “EST” next to the time on the post?

  110. 110.

    soonergrunt

    @scarshapedstar: The page is broken whether I used Compatibility View or not.
    I’ve never seen a site on the net that is so fucked up in IE. It’s the only site I visit, including other FYWP sites that breaks in IE, and I visit a lot of sites to clear them as part of my job.

  115. 115.

    RSA

    @gnomedad:

    I know we can click on the tag line for “home”, but not being able to click on the logo for same is just perverse.

    Second this.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @Stillwater: Second the idea of moving the avatars to the right side of the comment. Near the right margin.

    Edit: I have never signed up for an avatar. So why did one suddenly appear for me?

  117. 117.

    soonergrunt

    @CJ: speaking of which, a LOT of right-click functionality in Firefox 3.6 is now disabled, like the ‘open link in new tab’.

  119. 119.

    MikeJ

    External links are broken. They appear to be surrounded by useless javascript that fucks up the way I want my browser to work.

    If I want a new window I’ll open one goddamn it.

  121. 121.

    Roger Moore

    @JGabriel:

    Seriously, though, it’s better to stick with the server time than to code for time zone adjustments.

    I’d expect there’s some relatively simple way of doing it with Javascript. The page as sent would have the time in Zulu and the Javascript would look at the user’s locale and adjust it to Lima. Barring that, as I mentioned as option #2, you could at least stick a little “EST” next to the quoted time.

  123. 123.

    LiberalTarian

    What’s the pie filter? I’m only semi-semi-regular.

    And, while I am cool with lipstick, I’d rather be a nice brahma with lipstick, so I guess I’ll have to work on my avatar.

  124. 124.

    matoko_chan

    @LiberalTarian: the pie filter is how the cudlips protect their info-cocoon from contamination with ACTUAL FACTS, SCIENCE, AND EMPIRICAL DATA.

    and btw…. since the advent of EDK liberaltarian is a dirty word around here.

  126. 126.

    SIA

    Why does everything look funny?
    __
    {{ sobs }}
    __
    I can’t handle any more change in my long-standing, most trusted institutions.

    __
    Exactly! I am rapidly regressing to an infantile state! WWWAAAAHHHHH!

  127. 127.

    gogol's wife

    This really sucks. It’s unreadable, and I do not want an avatar. There’s some blue bull-like monster next to my name. I guess I’m done with this blog. (This coincides with my being forced by my employer to get a new e-mail system that I learned this morning doesn’t work 1/millionth as well as the old one. I wish all computers would disappear off the face of the earth.)

  128. 128.

    soonergrunt

    @matoko_chan: Considering that you haven’t provided anything even remotely like facts and science and empirical data yet, I’m not really missing it from you.
    Now, if you complain that I’m not getting your disjointed fantastic ramblings symptomatic of acute Narcissistic Personality Disorder with elements of Munchhausen’s Syndrome any more, than you’re right on that score.

  129. 129.

    PurpleGirl

    Gravatar test. 1, 2, 3, Let’s see if this works now.

    ETA: Noooooooooooooo, that’s not my gravatar. Ack.

  130. 130.

    JGabriel

    @Roger Moore:

    … you could at least stick a little “EST” next to the quoted time.

    I couldn’t, I don’t work here. More importantly, every time I see EST, it reminds me of my dead cat, Ernestine Simplicia Transmeta. (Sobs uncontrollably.)

    How insensitive of you!

    Edited to Add: Huh. My randomly generated avatar kind of looks like me.

    .

  131. 131.

    SIA

    Just had an image of John Cole pounding his head on his desk, with Lily looking on anxiously. Honestly, I’m cool with change. I just need to be able to read on by BB, in order to have little sanity breaks throughout the day.

    But sorry for the whiny tone John.

  133. 133.

    gogol's wife

    All the things that should be on the side margins (“Feed,” the other blog links) are at the bottom. It’s impossible to read the comments. I don’t want an avatar. Why am I forced to have an avatar? Please return it to the way it was.

  134. 134.

    scav

    @matoko_chan: Please adjust your vertical and horizontal hold on reality. a hard-reboot to your consciousness might work, but there may be nothing for it but a solid del c:star.star

  135. 135.

    Cain

    Need some css changes I think. But think the site is loading faster now. So that’s great stuff. Also.. yo momma!

    cain

  136. 136.

    MikeJ

    @LiberalTarian: Cleek wrote a greasemonkey script that allows you to specify people whose comments will then be replaced by a paragraph or two on how much they like pie. I translated to chrome and added a UI.

    There exist things that let you run greasemonkey scripts on ie, but I don’t know anyone who ever actually tried it. In theory there should be something similar for safari.

  139. 139.

    MonkeyBoy

    I hate the wrapping of links in comments with JavaScript,

    e.g. javascript:window.open('http://...');%20void(0);

    When they are real links using the ‘a’ tag, in Firefox at least you can do 4 things with them.
    1. open in new tab
    2. open in new window
    3. open replacing current tab.
    4. copy link location.

    Wrapping them in JavaScript makes that function give only 1 out of the 4 options.

  141. 141.

    jnfr

    I think it looks really good, but then I like san serif fonts. And I enjoy blog posts that let me push them to FB (Twitter would be even better), so I can get some attention for them from my various friends.

    I like the little alien default gravatars. Where did you find them, John?

  143. 143.

    Cain

    Damn people, you’re supposed to be progressives and be able to handle change for chrissakes!

    Check me out, I’m a one eyed flying green people eater!

    cain

  145. 145.

    TaMara (BHF)

    So far everything I was concerned about has gone away. But what I would like is for the commenter’s names to be bolded so I can pick them out of the thread better. Right now they are a pale green. Bolder or a bit bigger font would make it easier. Other than that, comment font and size is great, comment boxes are easy to read. I kinda like the avatars, though i expect it to bring great controversy to BJ the likes of which we haven’t seen since health care and Obama vs. McCain Hillary. (yes I was testing the edit features.)

    EDIT: This feature works, too. yay

  146. 146.

    eemom

    this is freakin hilarious. Talk about herding cats…

    And I want a FB group page, also too. Fuckin FDL has had one since 2007, and they, as we all know, SUCK.

  147. 147.

    WyldPirate

    OK, this appears to be a minor bug.

    I went to gravatar.com to sign up and start doing the cool icon thingy. It requires an email addy, so I gave it one instead of the made up one I had.

    The problem? When I changed to the new email addy so gravatar could recognize it, it throws my post into moderation automatically. I switch back to old made-up addy, no problem.

  149. 149.

    soonergrunt

    @LiberalTarian:
    @Anya: The Pie Filter is a scripting method created by commenter Cleek that replaces the ramblings of the stupid and mentally ill with musings about the various qualities of pie.
    For example, until the site redesign broke the filter, any time matoko_dipshit had posted anything then regardless of whatever insane ramblings the rest of you saw, then she only appeared to talk about pie, and how good it is, and whether or not pie could solve the world’s problems and so on. It made her, and the others in the filter, sound more intelligent, more internally consistent, and less assinine.

  151. 151.

    matoko_chan

    @soonergrunt: wallah… Munchausens?
    i think u better look that up again.
    well….if im so easy to refute, dooo eeeet big guy.
    you are a coward too.
    im threatening your whole murrican exceptionalism godncountry jeebushumping democracy belief structure.
    run away you dumbass chickenshit cannonfodder cudlip.
    stand back!

    IM ABOUT TO DO SCIENCE!
    like this

  153. 153.

    Brachiator

    @South of I-10:

    Are we going to get the “respond” button back? It makes it easier to jump to the end of the thread on my iPad, without having to scroll forever. Unless someone can tell me an easy way to do this.

    On the iPad, pressing on “Link” activates the “Reply” button, which then moves you to the bottom of the page. Don’t know if this is how it’s supposed to work, or how it looks in other environments.

  155. 155.

    Bmaccnm

    I want an avatar, too. But I don’t want to acquire a whole new set of skills to comment on fookin’ Balloon Juice. Tagz and block quotes and filters and piescripts and Firefox and NoSquint and Javascripts. Don’t you people have jobs? I have two jobs- you could do wonna mine. Jeez.

    But seriously, how do I get an avatar without having to work for it?

  157. 157.

    SIA

    @soonergrunt: How does one obtain this Pie Filter of which you speak?

    ETA: and I will have to get an avatar since I don’t want to be a purple blob. BTW no problems on a laptop, it’s just the BlackBerry issues that are plaguing me. Edit feature now working.

  158. 158.

    quaint irene

    So, website upgrade? That’s why the site was taking a half hour to load the past two days.

  161. 161.

    licensed to kill time

    I’m experimenting with changing my avatar image because it was hard to see the old one. (It was a yoga bear) Now I’m going for fractal hippie.

    eta: well, maybe it’ll show up later?
    etaeta: oh, I know..I think I have to clear my cache and wave some burning sage sticks around the keyboard.

  162. 162.

    Wrye

    Well, interesting so far…the comments feel a little squished together but I suspect that’ll come in time.

    (edit) oh, it changed while I was typing this. Okay, then. editing feature seems to work okay…

  163. 163.

    Violet

    Do not like avatars. Can we have a ‘no avatar’ option? Or would we have to sign up with the evil gravatar to do that?

  164. 164.

    LiberalTarian

    @MikeJ: Oh neat.

    And, I’m not going to change my nickname. I’d say why, but Cole asked us to only comment re the site stuff and I while I like pie, I don’t want to only ever eat pie.

  165. 165.

    gogol's wife

    @Cain:

    I’ve read this comment five times and it makes me laugh every time.

    The blog looks slightly better if I use Safari rather than Firefox. But it still sucks.

  167. 167.

    cleek

    pie filter’s been updated.

    here.

    doesn’t support front page blocking (yet). hope to get to that tomorrow.

    if you have any problems, comment over on my site. i’ll probably miss it, if you report problems here.

  168. 168.

    PurpleGirl

    I have an avatar at gravatar.com but it isn’t being brought over. I’ve checked at gravatar and it’s the right one. It loaded at Mahablog correctly. (frowning)

  169. 169.

    sneezy

    Well, these comments are limited in use by the fact that I use Firefox and do not allow web sites to override my font preferences, but for me, at least, the new look is just fine.

    I’m not particularly thrilled that you’ve chosen to represent me with some goofy cartoonish icon, though. If I wanted a goofy “avatar,” I would have one already. I don’t have one because I don’t want one.

  170. 170.

    matoko_chan

    what the pie filter represents is a buffer between the aging bovines contentedly chewing their balloonjuice cud and the harsh realities of the Age of Information and the 21st century and the impending NLS collapse of the powerless hyperpower.

    its their panic room.

  174. 174.

    Catsy

    Main page looks pretty clean on Firefox, Windows 7. I could do without the wafer-thin borders between each table; they look bad. Like most of the rest so far.

    WRT the pie filters, this is inevitable–they key off of specific pieces of HTML in the comments and the moment you change any of that code they will stop working. Just need to wait for the updates, which in turn has to wait until they no longer need to tweak the code.

    Yes, I too am looking forward to hearing nothing from matoko_chan other than her uncharacteristically literate opinions about pie.

    ETA: Wow, massive WTF on the avatar. It’s a dead certainty I never set that anywhere.

  175. 175.

    Quarks

    I have to say I love the little alien avatars. Awesome.

    [Edit, just to see if this works] Bonus points for the random assignment of a little alien in the same irked mood as me.

  176. 176.

    LiberalTarian

    @Alan: Bummer. I have been using a seriously fake email for the last … when did Bush/Cheney out Valerie Plame? That’s about the time I first posted here. Shit. 2003??? Became a regular reader/lurker a year or so later. OMFG. When I went to use my real email it had to go through this approval thing, then I stopped using that email anyway. Oh well, I guess all things must change.

  180. 180.

    WaterGirl

    Pressing CTRL while I click on a link no longer allows me to open a link in a new tab. (Safari 5.x)

  181. 181.

    Violet

    @sneezy:

    I’m not particularly thrilled that you’ve chosen to represent me with some goofy cartoonish icon, though. If I wanted a goofy “avatar,” I would have one already. I don’t have one because I don’t want one.

    Ditto. I don’t want an avatar. Why do I have to have one?

  182. 182.

    The Dangerman

    Dude, what’s my Avatar?

    How’s that blog happy changey thing working for ya?

    Edit: What the FUCK is that image? I don’t have 2 Johnsons (although I could name one Rod and the other Johnson).

  183. 183.

    MikeJ

    @LiberalTarian: I don’t think I’ve used a real email address except on actual email in over ten years. I see no reason to start now.

    If you really want a gravatar you can use mailinator.

  184. 184.

    MonkeyBoy

    @Violet:

    Can we have a ‘no avatar’ option? Or would we have to sign up with the evil gravatar to do that?

    One of the site-options is what avatar to use if the user hasn’t made one. Throughout the rollout at one point it was blank, at another it was a vague outline of a head, and now it is some freaky alien cartoon shit.

    I hope it goes back to blank or vague outline.

  186. 186.

    kerFuFFler

    “Testing”

    One, two, three

    OK, the avatar does not showcase my typical warm green glow, but this will do. I also could go for more hair…..

  192. 192.

    Julia Grey

    Need (slightly) more space between lines (it looks like leading remained same from smaller font?).

    Space needed between post and identifiers, etc. at the bottom.

    Space between one comment’s end and the avatar for the next comment.

    More spacing!

  193. 193.

    Mary G

    I have no ads (not using AdBlock or anything) in Firefox – not a problem, but weird. Also would like a little white space between comments.

  198. 198.

    matoko_chan

    @debit: the difference is i already KNOW what EDK is going to say.
    WE ALL KNOW.
    His glibertarian bullshytt has been deconstructed here at least 50 times.
    since Cole wont give that intransigent assclown the hook, why should any of us sapients have to even see his tedious repetitive drench (recycled conservative cowshit) on the front page?
    sooner and agmn are protecting their info cocoons.
    they cant deconstruct my arguments, so they block me out of their belief structure.
    the pie filter enables them to protect their belief structures from reality.
    Like EDK, they are non-empirical.

  199. 199.

    MikeJ

    @gogol’s wife: Actually the different goofy heads have a purpose beyond looking goofy. If you comment with your regular name/email combo, you’ll get the same icon. If somebody else posts with your handle but a different email addy (and there’s no reasonable way for them to have your real addy) they’ll get a different icon. SO it makes impersonation much harder.

  201. 201.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    Much easier on the eyes, and like so many, I like the addition of avatars.

    Though as a FYWP blogger myself, I’m not sure I would have gone with the squiggly space monsters (or whatever they’re called) for the default gravatar! But I’m a bitch, so there’s that.

  203. 203.

    Stillwater

    Excellent work John Cole and others: this is really a nice looking format. Very readable.

    One suggestion: maybe move the time stamp to the right? Or make commenter names appear in black? Or both? It’s still sorta cluttered on the left, hard to discern commenter names.

  205. 205.

    LiberalTarian

    Test. My cat Abby, leader of chaos and destruction where so ever he goes. I was trying to get a picture of his face and he self-zoomed into the frame.

  206. 206.

    PeakVT

    More posts in the recent posts list.

    Move the empty line from the top to the bottom of each post.

    Move the reply hover so it doesn’t cover text (perhaps on the same line as the poster/timestamp).

    Get rid of Gravatar (though I don’t care so much about this as I’ve blocked images from hosts 0 and 1).

  207. 207.

    Mary G

    Seeing if my avatar changed

    Eta: no, it didn’t, I joined gravatar and all, how do I get rid of this thingie?

  210. 210.

    Radon Chong

    Looks fine in IE, but I use Chrome, and the site is nearly unreadable at this point in that browser…

    EDIT: Looks fixed now.

  211. 211.

    debit

    @matoko_chan: You do realize how silly that argument is, right? Everything you said about ED applies to you and your posts as well.

    On topic: I don’t have any complaints except when I right click to go back, I don’t get the front page, even if I came from there, just the previous post. Firefox 3.5.11 on Mac OSX. Not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.

    ETA: Strike that. It works now.

  213. 213.

    Jay C

    Looks good so far; then again, I’m viewing it on an iPad, which usually adds at least one level of (technical) suckitude to everything I view or do, so who knows?

  215. 215.

    eemom

    does “get matoko-loko the hell out of our faces” count as a “comment, suggestion, criticism”?

  216. 216.

    Fallsroad

    Post titles enormous.

    Post text small.

    All ads, Contact links and everything else that used to be in the left and right columns are now below the last post. Using Firefox. Disabled all extensions, still looks like that.

    No space between the commenter name, time of comment and link and the body of comment makes for cluttered reading.

    Not a fan of avatars, but apparently people like having them.

    EDIT: Refreshed and everything looks suddenly better. I feel so…powerful!

  217. 217.

    parsimon

    The only thing I’d wished for was more comments listed in the recent comments list.

    I see there’s some business about avatars now, which I couldn’t care less about.

    As you were, then.

  218. 218.

    The Dangerman

    New Avatar test.

    Edit: Fuck; didn’t work. Fuck WordPress AND Gravatar.

    Edit Edit: Gravatar wants me to wait 5 to 10 minutes; I don’t do waiting well.

  219. 219.

    tesslibrarian

    It looks great, is easy to read on Safari 5.0.3, despite that I have to keep it set to run in 32-bit mode in order to read djvu files. (that shouldn’t affect anything, but thought I’d mention it)

    Firefox 3.6.13 is a freaking nightmare, though–gigantic text and everything all smooshed together. Chrome should work as well as Safari.

  220. 220.

    matoko_chan

    @debit: no because I HAVE FUCKING REFUTED DECONSTRUCTED AND DESTROYED HIS ARGUMENTS REPEATEDLY.
    read any post of his.
    and it does no good to debate him because he is non-empirical…..
    he goes right back to the conservo-glibertarian trough on the next post.
    you are non-empirical also if you have not observed this.
    that is my greatest insult, btw.

  221. 221.

    Mary G

    Avatar fixed – could we have option for no avatar?

    Liking the space and little gray line between comments very much better. Thanks.

  227. 227.

    D-Chance.

    Looks SUPER, Cole! Congrats to your webmistress for a job well done!

    Although it will require a re-write of my BJAuthorKill and BJCommentKill scripts to make certain hate-mongers (see above) permanently disappear… sorry, Chan-chan.

  229. 229.

    licensed to kill time

    Question for the geeky types-what is horrible about Gravatar? Is it a safety/privacy thing or what? I notice that when I refresh the tab it hangs on 0.gravatar and 1.gravatar a bit (I use NoScript and AdBlock). Is there a way to NOT use it? I’m not part of the Faceborg.

  230. 230.

    matoko_chan

    Everything you said about ED applies to you and your posts as well.

    in case you havent NOTICED…..I AM NOT A FRONTPAGER.
    retard.

  231. 231.

    The Dangerman

    I think I have a new Avatar; testing here.

    Edit: Me likey (I figured a bombthrower was apropos for this site).

  232. 232.

    Jim, Once

    Avataravataravatar. So far, I’m really liking all the shiny newness. Echoing Stillwater … congratulations!

  233. 233.

    Stillwater

    One other option on cleaning up commenter name area: how bout making the font size for commenter names bigger?

    Anyone else feel like names are hard to see?

  235. 235.

    Zuzu's Petals

    May just be my aging eyes/brain, but comments seem a little hard to read from being so scrunched together.

    (Using Firefox)

    Edit: Hey, where’d the paragraph spaces go?

    Re-edit: refresh, now fixed …?!

  237. 237.

    MikeJ

    @licensed to kill time: I don’t know that it’s *horrible*. You do have to give them a reachable email address, and then you have to use that real, reachable address on every blog that you want your gravitar to appear on.

    So you’re giving away your email address to a third party, and then giving a real addy to every blog you comment on, and then allowing a third party to track all of your commenting across the internet. What types of blogs you read when and where is interesting data about you that they can do anything they wish to with.

  238. 238.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Stillwater: Yes. It’s because the names and the dates are the same color. Make names bigger and different color.

    @debit: Looks like the Chrome filter will not be updated until tomorrow. I’ll just have to put up with her insane, juvenile, ridiculous bullshit until then.

    @MikeJ: God, I can’t wait until you can update the Chrome filter. I would send you an actual real-life pie as a thanks if I had a way of reaching you.

  239. 239.

    TaMara (BHF)

    @Mary G: Well I see a cute kitty, I don’t know what you’re seeing.

    Also, since no one has mentioned it yet. All of you with problems it would probably help the web-guru if you also said what system you’re on.

    Windows 7/Chrome looks good. Windows 7/IE 8 – bleeding issue seems to have resolved. Sorry, I don’t do FF.

  240. 240.

    Stillwater

    @debit: If you have to tell me you’re insulting me you’re doing it wrong.

    Heh. It’s like saying to someone who’s feelings you just hurt: ‘I was kidding’.

  243. 243.

    The Dangerman

    Mad props to the first poster that signs up a sock puppet as Tunch (must have Tunch “Feed Me” avatar).

  244. 244.

    Xenos

    Excuse the pointless comment… just trying to figure out how the avatar thingy is done.

    Edit- cool! My gravatar thingy is showing. Maybe I just need a non-sucky gravatar.

  245. 245.

    MonkeyBoy

    @Stacy:

    Since you are the one doing the upgrade, could you post a list on your website of what issues you are aware of and which of those you intend to fix? That could at least keep people from repeating known complaints.

    I presume a bunch of what you are doing is creating a master CSS and then adding tweaks to it that depend upon specific browsers. At your site could you include a list of what browsers have been tested? Also I presume you are doing things involving changing plugins.

    To all commenters voicing complaints:

    Please indicate which browser and version of browser you are complaining about because things look different in different browsers

  246. 246.

    Brachiator

    Or make commenter names appear in black

    I also vote for this, along with a feature to suppress avatars.

  251. 251.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Huh. Looks like I get an ugly avatar if I don’t propose one of my own.

    Oh well. I don’t comment much anyway, and now maybe it’ll be a little less.

  252. 252.

    licensed to kill time

    @MikeJ: Ok, I get it. I use a throwaway addy and this is actually the first time I have ever had an avatar (see how much I love you, Balloon Juice?!) so I’ll keep that in mind when I don’t comment on other blogs :)
    Thanks for the info, MikeJ.

    eta: oh wait, I have one on my real email acct. But that’s it. I really don’t care for those thingamajigs much.

  253. 253.

    JD Rhoades

    @MikeJ:

    Since I use my real name (or more accurately, my pen name which uses my real initials and last name), I’m not all that worried that people will know where I comment.

    But that damn default avatar is still up.

  254. 254.

    jnfr

    @cleek:

    Thanks cleek.

    Just another comment, I also don’t like the javascript wrapping links. It’s pretty easy to choose to open a link in a new window if you want to, and annoying to not have the option not to. I like options!

  258. 258.

    The Dangerman

    Looked for a plug-in to un-plug Avatars; what if you uploaded an Avatar of the Abominable Snowman in a Snowstorm (or whitespace for the culturally impaired)?

  260. 260.

    Jennifer

    I’m still having the problem with the post margins bleeding over into the right sidebar. Usually but not always can resolve it through (often multiple) page refresh, but not always.

  261. 261.

    Kysen

    Looks good using FF 3.6.13

    If anything…would perhaps lessen the whitespace on left on both the FP and comments pages……ADD whitespace Below comments…and add back the parent/reply links to comments.

    Good Job, Mr. Cole.

  262. 262.

    xian

    @matoko_chan: is “JesusHumper” a way of making fun of my (actual) first name, ms. pseudo-identity?

    clicking my name takes you to my site, where I stand behind everything I write.

    who the fuck are you, really? for all i know you could be ratfucking things by taking shreds of legitimate left/radical critique and rendering it into a self-mocking sluice of word salad worthy of palin.

    learn the difference between an argument and a mescaline-fueled screed and we can talk.

  265. 265.

    NobodySpecial

    Something goofy about the ads on my FF 3.6.13, they all spawn up below the reply field.

    EDIT – got it. Not used to clearing my cache here.

  267. 267.

    Martin

    Aaaah! Change!

    Looks good on Safari and Chrome. Faster to render too – good work there. I’d also vote for options on the avatars just because they take up vertical space. If they were off on the left that’d be better, or the option to hide.

  268. 268.

    mistermix

    I had to clear the shit out of my cache to get it to look good, but it’s looking pretty good now.

  272. 272.

    South of I-10

    @Brachiator: I was talking more about when I am just reading and not necessarily responding. iPad seems to go back to the top when I refresh. Does that happen to you?

  273. 273.

    Stillwater

    Also, (others have mentioned this) the front page posts are too tight. Maybe move the Facebook stuff to the right? Maybe have a space between the end of the post, and the FB/tags/time stamp?

  274. 274.

    licensed to kill time

    @MikeJ: One of the things I do is use Cookienator to clean out google/email/etc cookies every couple of weeks, BetterPrivacy to clean out LSO cookies, and run ATF cleaner every so often as well.

    I think that helps with the tracking cookies issue, or at least I tell myself that. God knows what else lurks in the bowels of my computer, but I try to keep it clean.

  275. 275.

    MikeJ

    @xian: : That is an odd thing for her to say. [1] I can’t think of any religion that really has anything against J-Dog (pbuh). Even if they don’t think he’s the bee’s knees, most offer some sort of minimal nice-itude. Even Dawkins is an “Atheist for Jesus.”

    [1]Ok, not really that odd if it’s coming from a psychotic.

  276. 276.

    matoko_chan

    @xian: no ty. not interested.
    AFAIK this teh interwebs, baybeee, not a debate society.
    ill write as i please.
    the pie filter is up, she says helpfully.

  277. 277.

    MikeJ

    @licensed to kill time: Every time you post balloon-juice tells gravitar, no intervention on your part needed or possible. If you use the same email on other places that use gravitar, they will also tell gravitar, and they can make a link between the two.

  278. 278.

    matoko_chan

    @MikeJ: lawl. I have nothing against Issa. But American jesushumper democracy ruins everything. where have you been for the last 50 years?
    and im not a psychotic, im an aspie.

  280. 280.

    PurpleGirl

    testing, testing, testing

    I ignore annoying posters.

    ETA: Yes, that’s me. I should redo the image to have a crochet hook instead of knitting needles, though. It comes from a New York cartoon of a woman sitting in a chair completely knitted over with the ball of yarn at her feet.

  282. 282.

    asiangrrlMN

    @matoko_chan: Since you are a complete mess in the first place, it’s simply not possible to deconstruct you more than you already do to yourself. I don’t argue with idiots as there really is no gain in it. You are an irritant on the ass of life. And, as you admit Asians are superior to you (though, really, who isn’t?), you really have no recourse, do you? I am curious, though, as to how old you actually are. You write as if you’re a junior high schooler. It’s a shame your parents have neglected you so and that you have no friends in real life, but do try to realize that negative attention is a very bad substitute for actual affection. Yes, I know it can feel good to get someone, anyone to notice you, but if you tried to be an actual decent human being instead of a bile-spewing, batshitcrazy caricature, you may find someone who can actually put up with you for more than a minute.

    @xian: No. He’s more coherent than she is.

  284. 284.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I seem to have blocked gravitar, and I only get some of the avatars. So I can’t see what ugly thing gravitar has dumped on me, but others presumably can.

  286. 286.

    matoko_chan

    @asiangrrlMN: yawn. i said asian mean between group IQ is 103 to non-hispanic cauc 100. that says nothing about within group variability.
    IOW im still waaaaaaay smarter than you.
    you dont because you cant.

    you know nothing about me, and you never will.
    i rent, no fb, there are no pics, and i shut down my blog.
    i never cross the beams.

  287. 287.

    D. Mason

    When I view the page in Firefox there are no dividers on the front page, all the posts are pushed together and the sidebar content is all at the bottom – inconvienient to read for sure. In IE the front page content overlaps the sidebars and is mostly unreadable.

    Edit: Also I have apparently been assigned an avatar…

  289. 289.

    xian

    @MikeJ: i like the rapid lookup she(?) did from “deciphering” my username to grabbing some poo from her bag of slurs.

    a better username for matoko_thing would be “i read some books by william gibson in college.”

  291. 291.

    dmsilev

    @matoko_chan:

    admit it, you dont have the substrate to deconstruct me.

    This is either incredibly deep or incredibly asinine.

    I’m going to go with the latter.

    General gripe about webforums today: Why can’t we have kill-files at the level of sophistication of a 1988-era Usenet reader like rn?

    dms

  294. 294.

    Uloborus

    This is great. So will it use MY email avatar?

    EDIT – Nope! Gotta figure out how to fix that. I’m sure someone mentioned it in this giant thread.

  296. 296.

    xian

    @asiangrrlMN: I think it was the circular reasoning. The tautologies presented as if they were (“empirical”) proofs (or “science”) and endless use of shorthand to paper over massive cognitive gaps.

    apologies for the multiple posts, troll-feeding, and pig-wrestling.

  298. 298.

    askew

    @Julia Grey:

    The spacing is a huge problem. All the comments just run together into one big blob. There needs to be some space at the end of one comment and beginning of the next. It’s almost unreadable now.

  302. 302.

    Laura W.

    @SIA: A non-commenting lurker (who I hope will return to the land of the commenting lurkers soon!) asked me to relay this to you, SIA:

    My suggestion to her is to download Opera Mini as her browser, then set it to “mobile view” — voila! I’ve been using it for a couple of years and really like it.

    While I’m here speaking for my own self, I would like to go on record as a huge NOT-fan of the avatars. Way too distracting to my eye, anyway. They junk up the clean look.

    That said, the front page is really lovely, especially when viewed in Safari (I use FF full-time and it’s purty there too.) Very elegant and sleek, in a strong, confident, manly, minimalistic way, of course. Great job!

  303. 303.

    Mornington Crescent

    Same thing here with everything that are not the post responses being put at the bottom of the page, after the reply box.

  306. 306.

    kdaug

    @NobodySpecial: OK, now, that’s just rude.

    Funny, but rude.

    Are you somehow implying that matako_chan is a systemic fault? A cascading failure? A corrupt memory allocation?

    Oh, OK then.

    Agreed.

  309. 309.

    parsimon

    I haven’t followed much comment, but I’m not a big fan of avatar images. This is a text-based medium. If poster names are overwhelmed by avatar images, you get an atmosphere of play which is fine itself, I imagine, but changes the dynamic quite a bit.

    This isn’t the place to say that I don’t like the avatars at all, though, since I take it they’re a given.

  310. 310.

    Loyal Cole Soldier

    @asiangrrlMN @xian @matoko_chan: It’s awesome how Cole asks you clowns to keep this thread for site comments but you shitheels can’t help but spread your navelgazing high-school bullshit everywhere and anywhere.

  313. 313.

    Laura W.

    @parsimon:

    If poster names are overwhelmed by avatar images, you get an atmosphere of play which is fine itself, I imagine, but changes the dynamic quite a bit.

    Well said! I made this point in an email but called it a “junior high school vibe”. (Yes, appropriate, I know.)
    I think John should pull a Sully and put it to a reader vote: To Avatar or Not Avatar? Or he should just ditch them.

  314. 314.

    PPOG Penguin

    +1 for ‘plain’ links (instead of mini-JavaScripts) so I can right-click them and choose how/where to open them (or to bookmark them instead of opening them immediately).

  316. 316.

    dmsilev

    OK, created a gravatar account, uploaded an image, etc. Lets see if this actually works.

    By the way, since gravatar asked me, what is the rating of this site? I’m going to guess R, but who really knows…

    dms

  318. 318.

    Evolved Deep Southerner

    I read through 50 comments here and didn’t see this mentioned (sorry, ain’t going through the other 250) but it’s still all fucked up in Internet Explorer with the lines running out into infinity on the right.

    I mean, I’m used to having to get into FireFox to read the blog by now, for sure, but I’d sure like to be able to read it in IE, which (for work/compatibility reasons) is what I normally use as my browser.

    Otherwise, hell, I think it’s fine. If I run into any problems, I’ll let you know, but I’m just happy to be here.

    Otherwise, testing:

    block quote

    Link

    italic

    bold

  319. 319.

    henqiguai

    What happened to the DATE being prominently displayed for each post on the Front Page ? Granted it’s nitpicky, but I’m that kinda guy.

  320. 320.

    SIA

    @Laura W.: Thanks Laura W.

    My suggestion to her is to download Opera Mini as her browser, then set it to “mobile view”—voila! I’ve been using it for a couple of years and really like it.

    __
    How do I load Opera Mini? And do I load that on to my BlackBerry? Many thanks to you and your non-commenting lurker friend, who I also hope will comment soon.

  321. 321.

    dmsilev

    Hmm, gravatar alteration appears to be successful. What the point of all this escapes me though.

    EDIT: Spoke too fast, it seem. Now *all* the avatars are gone.

  322. 322.

    Lysana

    OK, I’m on Google Chrome for Windows 7. Issues I see:

    1) Posts and comments are a little too cramped. Need more whitespace. (Tricksy John you fixed this!)

    2) All ads and sidebar material are shoved down below the comment entry box. (This, too, yay)

    3) The previous/next post links really could use the titles. Just sayin’.

    And for the record, I’m pleased to see the gravatars (or was… but I’ll live) and love the new font muchly.

  326. 326.

    kdaug

    @Laura W.:

    @parsimon:

    If poster names are overwhelmed by avatar images, you get an atmosphere of play which is fine itself, I imagine, but changes the dynamic quite a bit.

    Well said! I made this point in an email but called it a “junior high school vibe”. (Yes, appropriate, I know.)
    I think John should pull a Sully and put it to a reader vote: To Avatar or Not Avatar? Or he should just ditch them.

    Just spent a few minutes scrolling through this 300+ post thread, and the visual correlation between a poster and an avatar rather impressed me. I found myself skipping over anything posted by a default space-monster cartoon, and focusing on the ones with customized avatars. IOW, a visual tag allowed me to skip quickly through posters.

    The drawback is the criterion. I often find insightful arguments from all sorts of non-regular posters, and I want to continue to have access to their ideas and insights. But I find that with avatars I’m tending to skip over the generic ones, even if they’re from regular posters whose options I respect and appreciate.

    Avatars thus become sort of a mandate – make a unique one, or become kind of lost in the crowd. If BoB and DougJ are randomly assigned the same avatar, and I’m scrolling through a 300+ post thread, it’s hard to distinguish the two.

    The avatars make it easy to spot the people you like if you’ve got one. Otherwise, it obfuscates.

  327. 327.

    Sharl

    I can take or leave gravs, as long as their presence doesn’t impact the loading of the page. That did happen in the early days of gravatar.com over at Atrios’ place with its several hundred commenters per page, and he had to disable them for awhile.

    How many folks still have to use dial-up? It used to be the only option for folks in the sticks for whom satellite wasn’t an option, but it’s neither my personal demographic nor area of expertise, so don’t know. If gravatars are still a problem in slowing things down on long comment threads, I’m assuming dial-up folks will be most impacted.

    Otherwise, gravatars can be a quick way for commenters to locate/identify each other. [Then again, I never had the impression that anyone felt this was a problem here anyway. {shrugs}]

  329. 329.

    JD_PhD

    Whoa, you changed the format in the middle of my commenting!

    1. Verdana? Really? Please, start with Helvetica and fall back to Verdana, if you must. Google “ikea verdana”.

    2. Put the avatars (which you’ll be putting back, right?) off to the left side, where they won’t take up extra room.

    3. Extra vertical space FTW. Too cramped in the earlier version.

  330. 330.

    Laura W.

    @SIA: To Load Opera Mini from my non-commenting lurker friend:

    If she goes to “m.opera.com” from her phone, I think it will go to a site that lets her select her phone type and then will walk her through how to do the download. The regular opera website is where she can go to learn more about it. I obviously can’t guarantee that it will work great on her particular phone, but it’s easy enough to try it out and remove it if there are any problems.

  331. 331.

    xian

    i see the avatars are gone. i liked ’em, but agree that the goofy monster defaults isn’t in tune with the tenor here.

    designwise, i’d have embedded them (something like a drop cap) so they didn’t take up so much vertical whitespace and stand out quite so much.

    i would boldface or otherwise distinguish usernames.

    also, the post numbers (i liked em bigger and more styled in the old design, btw) right now touch the left margin rule. there should be padding. overall padding an margins feel a bit blocky and could probably be tuned a bit by eye (make adjustment, refresh, squint, repeat).

  332. 332.

    uila

    @Lysana: I initially thought Chrome was royally fucked too, but if you hit F5, it will refresh the css or whatever and things will fall into place.

    One minor formatting issue, I get a horizontal scroll bar on 1024 wide screen. If you can tighten it up by 10 pixels or so, should go away.

    Look at the Ann Taylor Loft banner – fancy! You’ve come a long way from the Pamela Anderson three-armed sex tape.

  333. 333.

    Laura W.

    @kdaug: I would’ve responded with a very appropriate and well-thought-out acknowledgment of your most excellent points, one of which I made myself privately to my non-commenting lurker friend (ie, in the absence of the pie filter, we could “filter” someone visually by the personalized avatar!), but now it’s a MOOT POINT.

    THANKS JOHN COLE!

  335. 335.

    Ron

    Can I echo the request for a mobile site? I thought you once said that was going to be part of the rebuild.

  337. 337.

    Warren Terra

    Its is not displaying properly in Chrome – the left and right columns are at the bottom instead of left and right of the center column.

    Same problem on my iPod Touch, now that I look.

    And Im not fond of the appearance of the comments – the old verson, with some spacing, looked nicer to me.

    All that said, I haven’t actually read the comments and am mostly curious about whether this comment will successfully post.

  339. 339.

    Warren Terra

    OK, a couple of more serious comments:
    1) I do not have permission to edit my comment.
    2) On my iPod’s Safari I can see two recent-ish posts on the front page – one from fully 40 minutes ago – that I can’t see in Chrome on my laptop no matter how many times I refresh. This is irritating, and weird.

    P.S. Apparently the comments are supposed to have spacing, but it’s sometimes there, sometimes not.

    P.P.S. And apparently I can sometimes edit. Is this like one of those things where you’re flying the plane as you rebuild it?

  340. 340.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Loyal Cole Soldier: Yeah. I like how you contributed to the thread by adhering to what Cole asked for. Way to go, Loyal Cole Soldier. Tell me, what did you contribute on topic to this thread at all? I actually did in my first comment.

  341. 341.

    M. Bouffant

    Move the empty line from the top to the bottom of each post.

    Absolutely. And jack up the #, commenter, date &c., font a few points.

    Otherwise, Chrome/W7, everything was functional from when I tuned in, just before the Seahawks actually scored.

    Avatars: Check Whiskey Fire for more, uh, tasteful random ones, if the biggest complaint is Wonkette-y avatars.

  342. 342.

    Brachiator

    @South of I-10:

    I was talking more about when I am just reading and not necessarily responding. iPad seems to go back to the top when I refresh. Does that happen to you?

    Not sure what you mean. If I let the entire thread page load, I can scroll down and read the posts without problems.

    If I want to go to the bottom of the page, I have to select “Reply.” But this option did not consistently appear in previous site versions using the Safari browsers.

    But now, next to the commenters name, date and time, a blue word appears, “Link.” If I select this, the “Reply” option then appears, and I use this to move to the bottom of the page.

  343. 343.

    fordpowers

    readability is brutal!
    More space and deliniation on both comments and front page otherwise my eyes will explode.
    And your css is all screwy. I see all the adds and blog roll stuff on the bottom here:: im on mac firefox v. 3.5

  344. 344.

    fordpowers

    chrome looks delicious on the other hand.

    so i upgraded stupid firefox. so it looks better on 3.6
    but you know – a little progressive enhancement doesn’t hurt.
    :)

  345. 345.

    TooManyJens

    @TaMara (BHF):

    But what I would like is for the commenter’s names to be bolded so I can pick them out of the thread better. Right now they are a pale green. Bolder or a bit bigger font would make it easier.

    Seconded. Also, the green and blue fonts are just too light in general — not enough contrast against the white background.

    Also, please don’t force links to open in a new browser window. What the people who ask for that don’t seem to understand is that you can already open links in a new window/tab if you choose to. If the blog authors force links to open in a new window/tab, those of us who hate that have no way to not do it.

    I also wish the “reply” pop-up thingy worked on my iPhone. I liked the old (really old, now) reply button better, where there was just an arrow ne

  347. 347.

    cs

    Can’t edit my comment so have to say I’m glad the avatars are gone. Its probably just me, but every time I stumble across a forum with avatars, I think I’m in a place where 14 yr olds are yelling ‘fag’ at each other over the way they fail at Call of Duty.

    The current version of comments seems nearly perfect on this end.

  349. 349.

    scav

    Possible suggestions put out for Kicking Around and General Abuse. What about swapping/reordering the the sections in the right hand column? The part I used most is the Recent Posts section so it would be handiest if it was on top. I can understand why the front-pagers names belong up there too, but the contact function is something done less often so for me at least it gets pushed lower down the column. Categories and Archives drop down? Down toward the bottom — certainly less important and frequently used that the recent posts link. I’m agnostic about everything else. Kick away.

    ETA: Edit test in Chrome.

  350. 350.

    Comrade Mary

    Overall, it looks good. I’m a little uncomfortable with some aesthetic choices, but not enough to bitch and I’ll probably adjust to it soon enough, same as last time.

    I would really like the banner image to be clickable to return us to the home page. Keep the home page link on the rotating tagline, but please add it to the banner image. Also, too.

  352. 352.

    Comrade Mary

    Nope, we still can’t talk about soshulism, foot coverings, and all the usual dangerous topics.

  355. 355.

    The Raven

    @JGabriel:

    Add a line of white-space between the bottom of each post and the divider line. They look cramped at the bottom.

    Half a line, I think, if the CSS allows. And, he’s right, the font size is marginal for people over 50.

Comments are closed.