Got a phone call from my mother this morning: “Your readers are very upset about the Reply button. They were reading you the riot act. Are you ever going to fix it?”
Open Thread
by John Cole| 75 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
by John Cole| 75 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Got a phone call from my mother this morning: “Your readers are very upset about the Reply button. They were reading you the riot act. Are you ever going to fix it?”
Comments are closed.
eemom
yay Mrs Cole!!!!!
jon
If you do it, you’re a Mama’s Boy. If you don’t, you’re an asshole.
Now you know how John Boehner must feel.
Canuckistani Tom
But both sides do it!
Carrie
Your Mom’s the best!
cathyx
So if we want you to do something, do we have to ask your mom?
Trollenschlongen
I am horrified that the presumably lovely and talented Mrs. Cole reads the vulgar profanity put down here by some of your commenters.
Yevgraf
If you were a better son, you’d fix it.
jwb
cathyx: Notice that John didn’t say he was going to fix it. I think he also knows very well that if we didn’t have the reply button to bitch about we’d find something else to bitch about. You could practically see the smirk on his face when he posted this.
cathyx
@jwb: And he didn’t give us his mom’s email address or phone number either.
gene108
One thing I learned this summer is you never forget to ride a bicycle.*
I started riding mine after a long, long time and took to it instantly. The only downside is I always feel like I’m going uphill. The hills here in southern New Jersey aren’t very steep, so you can’t coast much on the downhills and for whatever reason it makes me feel like I’m always going uphill, because I’m always peddling (which I guess is good for me).
* Only applies, if you learned to ride as a child. My mom learned as an adult and stopped doing it for a couple of decades. She can’t do it anymore.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
At least someone cares about us.
peej
Why don’t you tell her that Tunch sat on it and broke it.
Roger Moore
Which just goes to show that your mom cares more about your readers than you do.
cleek
i blame Obama
BalJu Commenter #2401
OMG I set up a website for my mom and boy that was a mistake! “Where are my stats? Wherearemystats?? Mystats???” Bless her sainted heart. I did so much eye-rolling that I cured my amblyopia. Good times, good times.
Well Anonymous pantsed a defense contractor named ManTech. With Dick Armitage on the BoD, I wonder what kind of dirty secrets will be chummed up?
As a responsible adult I can’t condone random-acting hackers kicking over any server they don’t like, but as a political animal I can’t help but enjoy the fallout.
So sue me; I’m human.
Davis X. Machina
@gene108: Your rolling resistance is the same, going uphill or down, being a function of the mechanical friction in the bike itself, the tires, the road surface, etc. Aerodynamic drag, too, and that increases logarithmically with speed.
You don’t notice these two much when you’re going uphill, because then, to a much greater extent, you’re fighting gravity.
But you’re always fighting something.
I recommend a negotiated settlement and
UN peacekeepersbeer.ruemara
Dude, your mom reads your blog. #squickish
also too, I didn’t join the bitchfest, but sunovabich (not you, Mrs. Cole) get it done already.
donnah
I think it’s cool that Cole’s mom reads his blog. It reminds me of Sharon Gless’ character in Burn Notice.
“Michael, someone needs your help”.
kansi
Mrs. C Rox!
debit
My theory is that maybe if we’re good, we’ll get the reply button back. Frankly, I don’t see it happening any time soon.
misterbones
cathy x, a photo of her countertops would be sufficient. /stalkinmalkin
Yevgraf
Cole’s mom should definitely be a front pager. A good son would see to it that she would get a prominent spot, and would take her opinions to heart.
WeeBey
Cole’s Mom is a Hippie Puncher.
karen marie
This helps McCain, doesn’t it?
Citizen_X
Damnit, Cole, listen to your mother!
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Mr. Cole is obviously discriminating against me because I’m black and a Safarian.
.
.
Villago Delenda Est
I can imagine your mom dolefully shaking her head, wondering just exactly where she screwed up in raising you that the reply button is still broken.
Amir_Khalid
@Trollenschlongen:
Some of that vulgarity comes from you.
In any case, I’m not worried about Mother Cole’s sensitivity towards the saltier prose sometimes deployed here. If she were upset about that, she would have said so. She certainly knows how.
As for the reply button, who knows when John Cole will get around to heeding his mother’s advice. I have applied MonkeyBoy’s fix, so I’m good. You should too.
Maude
Thanks, Mom.
Roger Moore
@Amir_Khalid:
I tried, but Firefox decided it needed to upgrade to 6 Beta, and Stylish isn’t available for it yet. Just fix the reply button on the site itself, for FSM sake.
BTW, is anyone else wondering about Mrs. Cole’s pseudonym? I have this amusing idea in the back of my mind that she’s one of the site’s more notorious trolls, like m_c, which is why John is so lame about controlling them.
cathyx
@Roger Moore: Is her first name Sarah?
We’ve never seen John, maybe she’s Angry Black Lady.
Chad N Freude
@jwb:
We bitch about the reply button and everything else. We don’t have to find something, we’ve already got it.
Chad N Freude
@Roger Moore: You can replace the update with the previous version.
General Stuck
Mitch Mcconnell is on the Senate floor lying his ass off and he and his republicans will block the Reid bill, which is mostly Mcconnnell’s legislation.
Mitch was the one who rejected any more negotiation with Obama, is now telling everyone that he will only negotiate with the president. pathetic. They are and have declared a civil war that is barely disguised by legalities. It is nothing short of a covet insurrection to bring this country down to its knees.
They want default, or everything they want. period. And banking on, imo, the fact that Obama is a black man and therefore will get blamed for whatever destruction happens to the economy. They wouldn’t be doing this with a Bill Clinton, or any other white dem president.
nancydarling
Your Mom and I are near the same age and with the same number of years mothering experience. You should listen to her because Moms are always right.
Because I said so!
The Other Chuck
Does your mom know you’re the top hit for “skull fuck a kitten”?
PIGL
Can your Mom make the add for Ann Coulter’s “Demonic” go way? And while we are involving your family, maybe Tunch could bestir himself to eat the dried-up bitch?
The Other Chuck
@gene108:
Get a lighter bike. And make sure your tires are fully inflated.
SRW1
Does that mean all hope for a reply button are now gone cause Cole junior has to demonstrate to his Mom that she stepped over the line?
Or is there a chance that a reply button will appear with a note of “This one’s for you, Mom”?
TooManyJens
I can’t stop laughing about this. The other parents at my kids’ gymnastics class now think I’m a crazy person.
#TeamMamaCole
nancydarling
Chuck @ 36. Moms don’t like tattle tales very much.
Ditto for PIGL’s suggestion.
matt
@cathyx: Randomly picking on this comment to show that via Firebug, or presumably Greasemonkey, one can make the hidden reply button visible again. This technique be added to the pie filter, for example. [Edit: Monkeyboy has already done it.]
ht to all those who pointed out that the problem is the visibility attribute of the yarr class.
suzanne
I officially adore your mother.
While you’re at it, could you fix the mobile site? I have to type in my email address for every comment. LAME.
Punchy
Why’d she have to call when all she needed to do was open up the door to the basement and shout it down to you?
hildebrand
I have read in a number of corners of left blogistan that Obama….
Nah, never mind. I was going to ask a couple of probing questions about motives and assorted whatnot, but decided that I would receive only thundering denunciations of the President instead of actual reasoned discussion.
As I said, never mind, dealing with some of the most ardent critics around here (giving a great deal of the benefit of the doubt with using that term) is like dealing with the Tea Party types in the House.
trollhattan
Any time I want to get a message to Mrs. Cole I attach it to Rosie’s collar and set her loose.
Ben Cisco
@The Other Chuck:
Soshulist!
shortstop
Yeah, John’s mom! Not your fault that your son is a barbarian!
Notice how Cole passes along Mom’s remark without any indication of whether he’s ever going to fix it. Commenting here is like eating at one of those restaurants where the servers are famous for being rude to the customers. Except the food at those places is never any good, and the FP posts/comments threads here are.
Yutsano
@suzanne:
Okay that makes me feel better. Until I read that I thought it was my Torch that was being the problem child.
shortstop
Roger Moore:
suzanne
Nope. Same on my iPhone. Pisses me off.
matt
Or, follow the instructions (say) here:
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/tb-bo/acch-aacc-eng.asp
and put in userContent.css the snippet
@-moz-document domain(www.balloon-juice.com)
{
.yarr {
position: relative !important;
visibility: inherit !important;
}
}
ABL
@cathyx: John Cole was born a poor black child.
ETA: Hey! I finally got that reply button thingy to work. That’s the only semi-productive thing I plan to do today.
RossInDetroit
Now I understand why John keeps posting about the meals he cooks. Mom has to be convinced that he’s getting proper nutrition and not just filling up on Cheetos and Bud.
WaterGirl
Thanks for all the laughs.
It started with John’s post, and the comments just kept rolling along. Several were laugh out loud funny, but if you made me choose, I might have to go with the Burn Notice reference.
Oh, and BattleCat, if you’re out there, check your email.
Jewish Steel
Dear Mrs. Cole,
Sorry about all the swears.
Sincerely,
J. Steel
Warren Terra
The weird thing here is that, as we don’t know what his face looks like, we can picture the smirk but only the smirk. Like a Cheshire Cole.
Ruckus
Jewish Steel
I would never apologize for the swears to my mom.
Who do you think taught me to in the first place?
blackfrancis
@jwb: does it work?.
Oh my stars and garters!
BattleCat
@WaterGirl:
BattleCat is always here. He’s absolutely purrfect.
Mustang Bobby
My mom not only sends me notes about what people are saying on my blog, I occasionally get “How come you didn’t write a post like that nice John Cole boy?”
Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.
Violet
Your mom is awesome! Go Mrs. Cole!
Uncle Clarence Thomas
@matt:
So far, this seems to work in Safari 4.0.4 / 10.5.8 / MacIntel. Saved as text file and selected via Safari / Preferences / Advanced… / Style sheet. Hasn’t affected any other settings.
Thanks and kudos to Matt!
.
.
fraught
How are your mom’s tomatoes and did she vacuum today? These are the questions that our country needs answers for. Also, does she watch White Collar?
asiangrrlMN
I’ve been using MonkeyBoy’s fix for Chrome and it’s a DOGsend! Love. It. I can do my patented triple-reply move. Hm. I wonder if I can do more than three?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
no worries, tell your mom the riot act got stalled in committee.
Jewish Steel
@Ruckus:
Shiiit, Deadwood learned how to swear listening to your mom.
(sorry. you left that one out over the plate.)
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Mom likes us better!
nancydarling
DriftGlass and BlueGal had a short segment in their weekly podcast at http://professionalleft.blogspot.com/ on the beauty of swearing when it is well done. I approve of it on most occasions and most of the swearing here at BJ is well done. I am sure Mrs. Cole does not get the vapors and head for the fainting couch when someone drops an f-bomb.
El Cid
I wouldn’t think it would be so much about swearing being bad; it would be if the swearing were just too boring and predictable. I’m sure John’s mom has heard a lot of swearing. What we need to do is make sure it’s entertaining.
replicnt6
@Davis X. Machina:
Quadratically, FWIW.
Being pedantic, someone was wrong on the internet.
shortstop
@Jewish Steel: Nicely done.
LT
The involvement of your mother has to be one of the funniest things about this blog.
Rome Again
I love the fact that John’s mom reads this blog. It’s so completely unlike the sort of parents I had. If they were alive today and saw me even just commenting on this thing, they would have slapped me for sure.
Paul in KY
Thank you, Mrs. Cole!