Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Republicans in disarray!

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Readership Capture / Site Rebuild

Reader Interactions

157Comments

  4. 4.

    The Dangerman

    Apparently, this redesign is what happens after a late night with heavy drinking. Let this be a life lesson for those with impressionable children out there.

  10. 10.

    mai naem

    Dude, do you realize you did this when Dick Cheney got a new heart. Are you freaking serious? Like I was looking forward to a snarkuhlicious thread about Dick and his new heart and your redesign launch has denied me that. That is not very nice at all. Not at all.(Stomps off and starts texting like Sarah Palin in Game Change)

  14. 14.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Anya
    Sign on John Cole’s lawn
    This property is protected by an attack cat, enter, if you dare.

  19. 19.

    eemom

    I did NOT e-mail you, I posted on your FB page, for the express purpose of enabling other people to see it and NOT e-mail you.

    Nothing I do is ever appreciated. : (

  20. 20.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Do you care about possible things that need to be fixed? If so, on the front page, for the “Credit Where Credit Is Ignored And Stuff” article, the tags overlap the first line of the article text. It seems to clear up when you go to the article, but the tags and text are very close together.

    FF 7.0.1 on SuSE 12.1.

  22. 22.

    gbear

    I used to like Balloon Juice a lot before everything changed. Now it’s changed and I just can’t get into it. Why does everything I like change so that I can’t like it any more? It’s not fair.

  23. 23.

    The Dangerman

    On the positive side, this new look might have a slimming effect on pictures of Tunch.

  24. 24.

    woodyNYC

    Re: font size, I know its clunky – , but for now on the browser side you can use the editable style sheets feature on Firefox….

  25. 25.

    cathyx

    Yeah, everybody, leave him alone. He knows it stinks, he’s working on it. Now, where are my glasses?

  26. 26.

    schrodinger's cat

    The balloon looks nice. For the next rebuild, replace the balloon with a blimp with Tunch on it.

  27. 27.

    mai naem

    If you people have the google chrome, you can put your big boy pants, go to tools and increase the font size all by yerselves.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    All I’ll say is that fixed width posts suck. The old behavior, where the post was spread as wide as I saw fit to spread it, was great. Don’t fuck it up for no good reason.

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    BJ Tag @ Top:

    This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2012 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Assholes …

    Aw, thanks Cole! We love you too!

    .

  32. 32.

    RossInDetroit

    a blimp with Tunch on it.

    Edited for redundancy.

    ETA: don’t try strikethrough. It’s not working.

  33. 33.

    jeff

    I wasn’t going to say anything, but now that I’ve been insulted for no reason, I’ll say I think it’s nice:-)

  37. 37.

    Sawgrass Stan

    bbbbut… John!! We LOVE you… this is so hurtful… blubber blubber waahhh!
    Actually, it looks nice, but I DO miss the old logo. But we’ll get used to it.

  38. 38.

    jl

    Looks OK to me. As long as I can read the text and look at the purdy pix and bloviate in the comments, I’m good. Wrap it up and ride, is my advice.

    Good job so far, Cole and BJ intertube team.

    I’m pretty basic when it comes to this ‘puter and intertube stuff.

    By cracky, you damn kids, I ‘member back in HS, my first project involved downloading weather data. Flat text files, blue numbers on gray background.

    All this new fangled stuff, bah humbug.

    Also, apologies to BJ community for not complaining. A serious breach of etiquette, I know.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Okay, I’ll STFU for now, but John, will you please alert us when everything is done and we’re allowed to comment?

    Because comments, I haz them (some complimentary, some … uh … constructive suggestions).

  43. 43.

    Comrade Mary

    Lots to like, a few issues.

    LIKES
    1. The BJ header image is clickable — yay!

    2. The general styling of text in the blog post is fab. Like the blue header text, like the indication of a quote.

    Oh, wait, I’m going to try something now.

    Paragraph

    Another paragraph

    Oh wow, it’s like Christmas! I can’t wait to post and see what happens.

    3. LOVE the tabbed Recent posts/comments/archives area — tidy and efficient.

    4. This site actually looks pretty damn good on the iPhone. I may not need to switch to the mobile version (if there is one in the works).

    Issues:

    [EDIT: OK, text is being dealt with, and yes, I know how to use Ctrl + guys, but it’s not a big thing to ask that the text be a reasonable size on first visit. We aren’t trying to fit the Bible on the head of a pin here.]

    2. The Categories drop down in the right sidebar is very wide to hold some longass category names, which creates on hell of a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen. This really makes me twitchy. I know that re-arranging things is a real pain, but is there another place that this could be placed, like in the header or in the block just below it?

    3. The serif text in the top right doesn’t really seem to fit the design. It just seems to be plopped down there. A little larger/bolder, maybe? It could be a sans-serif font, too.

    4. You need a new tag: Capturing Readers’ Assholes.

    That is all.

  45. 45.

    JGabriel

    In the logo, I miss the little man with the barker’s horn, striped pants, top hat and cane.

    .

  48. 48.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    I would love to say something snarky, just out of love, mind you, but I spent all day at the funeral mass of a 50 year old guy who made the world a better place and I just don’t have it in me. I’ll wait. And the rest of you assholes, go hug somebody.

  50. 50.

    jl

    ” replace the balloon with a blimp with Tunch on it ”

    Yeah. Redundant. The white blog background is a life size pic of a small patch of the TunchMass.

    Anyway, that’s what I’ve always assumed.

  53. 53.

    Anya

    Dude, do you realize you did this when Dick Cheney got a new heart.

    Dick Cheney has a human heart?

  54. 54.

    eco2geek

    Dick Cheney went to the hospital for a transplant, and all I got was this stupid site rebuild.

    Actually, it looks pretty good.

    How do you give Cheney a heart transplant, anyway? Hand the new heart to him and tell him to eat it?

  56. 56.

    Comrade Mary

    You know who else did a site rebuild that sucked this bad?

    I thought we had agreed not to discuss your mother.

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    Why don’t the posts have numbers anymore? And where are the onions that used to be on my belt? That was the style of the day.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    OK, test 1 failed. Soshalist is still on the spam list.

    Test 2:

    This is block quote paragraph 1

    This is block quote paragraph 2 (no underscores before)
    __
    This is block quote paragraph 3 (underscores before)

    Edit. Well, that sucks. Block quotes are still broken, and now the work-around is broken.

  61. 61.

    Corner Stone

    @Comrade Mary:

    I thought we had agreed not to discuss your mother.

    Actually, I was looking for Hitler. Hitler.

    We would’ve also accepted Steve Gilliard.

    What? Too soon?

  62. 62.

    Insomniac

    Well it’s a bit better now. Re: the font size, the Firefox No Squint addon helps lots.

  63. 63.

    Warren Terra

    Oh, and obviously this thread needs a WordPress &#9002 Error reference, to trigger nostalgia in people who’ve been coming by this blog for more than four years.

  64. 64.

    Poopyman

    Another vote for the Reply button. And on Firefox the post has a date but no time. I liked to see when it was posted.

    And it was goofy but I liked it: the old BJ logo with the guy with the megaphone. The new one is fine – I just don’t like change.

    ETA – Hey, can we have the comments numbered again?

  65. 65.

    Warren Terra

    @ dmsilev

    This is block quote paragraph 1

    This is block quote paragraph 2 (no underscores before)
    __
    This is block quote paragraph 3 (underscores before)
    __
    Edit. Well, that sucks. Block quotes are still broken, and now the work-around is broken.

    Maybe you should have put the “underscores before” before the “no underscores before”?

    ETA Yup, using the underscores still works. As does editing. I’m getting no reply button, though.
    ETA 2 On the other hand, saving the Edit to my comment no longer takes me back to the thread.

  67. 67.

    Comrade Mary

    Actually, I was looking for Hitler. Hitler.

    Oh, Hitler jokes are so twentieth century. We’re all about “your mama” jokes this millennium.

    Plus, we now wear shallots on our g-strings. Pass it on.

  69. 69.

    Narcissus

    It does have like a self-edited look

    I half expect to read an article about Night Elves or something

  70. 70.

    Poopyman

    … And after you save a comment edit you are not returned to the comment thread.

    Just sayin’.

  74. 74.

    dmsilev

    By the way, not that anyone really cares but apparently Frothy just got called as the winner in LA.

  79. 79.

    Poopyman

    I see date and time. I use Firefox exclusively (currently FF 11.0).

    Well I’m on 10.0.2. It may make a difference. Guess I’ll update one of these days.

    The comments have times, just not the original post.

  81. 81.

    jl

    Not a complaint, but my first insulting comment directed at Cole and/or DougJ on the new blog layout.

    Reading the posts from last night, I see evidence the one JG Cole needed help in putting Angelina Jolie’s leg pose onto a pic of one unfortunate Wylie Cash (and we see what kind of treatment Cole doles out to his friends).

    Is that true? Seriously? Anyone know?

    Even an IT ignoramus like me can do something like that.

  83. 83.

    Starfish

    I am seeing a website that works with Chrome on a Mac. I like it. For the past few days, the site hasn’t been able to decide if it wants to show me a mobile or regular website if I am using Chrome on the Mac.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    @Comrade Mary:

    Oh, Hitler jokes are so twentieth century. We’re all about “your mama” jokes this millennium.

    Wait a second…”Hitler” jokes are passe but “yo momma” jokes are the rage?

    What kind of sick fucking time warp did that freakin balloon pass through during the redesign?

    “Yo Tunch is sooo fat that when he sits around the house, he sits AROUND the house!”

  85. 85.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    One more thing: When I edit a comment, it takes me to a new page, but clicking save does not return.

  89. 89.

    Poopyman

    I see date and time. I use Firefox exclusively (currently FF 11.0).

    OK, now I’ve updated to 11.0 and I STILL don’t see the post time.

  90. 90.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I don’t recall which I found first, BJ or Redstate. Do people here ever comment there or do they simply ban people who do not fall in line.

  91. 91.

    Tim in SF

    Love it! Love the colors! I like the headline fonts!

    If any of you people DON’T like it, it’s easy enough to substitute your own stylesheet.

  92. 92.

    eco2geek

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Time to do an update, already! My version of Firefox on openSUSE 12.1 is up to 10.0.2 (and that’s out of the regular repo).

    @Comrade Mary: LOL

  95. 95.

    Comrade Mary

    Wait a second…”Hitler” jokes are passe but “yo momma” jokes are the rage?

    I blame the Eleventh Doctor. Look at me. Now look in the mirror. You’re wearing a bow-tie, right? Look again. Now the bow tie is made of fezzes.

    Look, as long as Poopyman can’t see a post time, it means we’re in flux. Just be patient.

  96. 96.

    jl

    Hey, wait a minute. This blog STILL doesn’t reheat my coffee. Dammit.

    And where is the holodeck? No dioramas. Can’t find the booze.

    What kind of site rebuild is this anyway?

  97. 97.

    amk

    left orientation. no reply button. fucked up font. aarrgghh.

    The good news is sick rantorum wins LA.

  99. 99.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @jl:

    back in HS, my first project involved downloading weather data. Flat text files, blue numbers on gray background.

    I did the same thing back in HS. I subscribed to the NWS weather map service and got out of date maps in the mail every day.

    So get off my lawn you damn kids!

  104. 104.

    Mark S.

    I also miss the “Previous Post” and “Next Post” links that used to appear at the bottom of the page. I loved clicking next post and then typing “Frist!” That never got old.

  105. 105.

    piratedan

    if only the site rebuild could work like an old fashioned barn raising but then again with our happy band of commenters we’d be asking if the hay really couldn’t be left outside and there’s be a cat door installed before the roof was up.

  106. 106.

    A Humble Lurker

    I like it except for lack of reply button (which I figure will be fixed in time anyway) and that the posts are off to the side instead of in the middle. Makes me a little cross-eyed.

  107. 107.

    PeakVT

    @Tim in SF – only if everything was done with CSS it would be. Right now I’m trying to take out a bunch of hardcode BR tags with greasemonkey so I can set the vertical spacing to what I like.

  108. 108.

    Corner Stone

    @NotMax:

    Is it still okay to complain about New Coke?

    “New Coke” ?
    What the heck is that? Come to think of it, what the heck is Old Coke?

  109. 109.

    John Cole

    For fuck’s sake, the reply button and other stuff are third party addons that we will deal with once the fucking site is done.

    SCREAM

  111. 111.

    Comrade Mary

    Hey, there’s a nifty little triangular “return to top” button by the reply box now, which means we can check to see if John has edited in any new invective in his original post.

    @Yutsy: There is a long list of things that one should not do around River, I believe.

  113. 113.

    marv

    I liked it better when the site’s hair was parted in the middle instead of on the one side (so to speak).

  115. 115.

    jl

    ” be a cat door installed ”

    No. Tunch jumping out of the damn blog will get a lot of people killed, and whole buildings trashed, neighborhoods leveled, mass quantities of blog reader food disappeared. Don’t do it Cole.

  120. 120.

    jl

    cole – what “other stuff” ?

    The holodeck and the wet bar. Those are going to be great!

  122. 122.

    Anne Laurie

    Don’t worry, John, we’ll love you no matter how much the rebuild sucks.

    A reply button certainly speeds up the repartee, though.

  123. 123.

    Comrade Mary

    Hey, kids! It looks as if they’re playing around with the rotating tagline. It’s like an Easter egg hunt!

    I’m getting a beer — anyone want anything while I’m up?

  124. 124.

    cathyx

    Good God, people, you sound like my 13 year old complaining about every little thing before it’s done. Give that man a little time to finish it. Sheesh.

  125. 125.

    jwb

    Good God, people, you sound like my 13 year old complaining about every little thing before it’s done. Give that man a little time to finish it. Sheesh.

    What would reason would John have to scream if he wasn’t being given a hard time on the site build?

  126. 126.

    Corner Stone

    Arrrrgggghhhh! Now there’s a Reply button for every post, not just when I hover over one!
    Cole! Make it stop man! It’s like I’m fucking Dennis Hopper up in here and shit!

  128. 128.

    David Koch

    shrinking the font is a plot by the Professional Left to blind the Balloon Juice community.

    This is exactly how they got Kucinich. They inflitrated the campaign and shrunk him.

    Bastards.

  129. 129.

    Calming Influence

    On Ubuntu it’s all ones and zeros. I’m writing this comment in machine language, but really, I’m not complaining.

  130. 130.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @eco2geek: I did an upgrade after finding out that OpenSUSE is way behind on their installed version. Now on 10.0.1. In this version, the tags are rightfully at the bottom of the post, but for the article I mentioned above, they run outside the box.

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    I’m pretty sure that this makes me a bad person, but I am repulsed at the idea of Cheney getting a heart. Not intellectually, but viscerally.

    i love that Cole has this post listed in the Assholes category.

    This site redesign brings back (not so) fond memories from when I worked in IT. The network for the entire building was down, and I was in the network closet trying to figure out what was wrong, and there was one guy who kept standing there, asking me over and over when the network would be back up. With all my heart, I wanted to say “All I can tell you for sure is that it sure as hell would be back up a lot faster if you would quit asking me when it will be back up.”

    So I gotta side with Cole on this one.

  133. 133.

    amk

    oh great. now we got the little black triangle thingy after the last post that takes you to the top of the thread.

    john, how did you know we wanted this thingy so badly ?

  140. 140.

    Calming Influence

    This is what Tunch looks like now in my browser: 10001010010111111000010100101111101001000
    01001001010010010101010001001111101010001
    00100000100101010010100010010010101010001
    00100100101010111110101000100010111110001
    00100100100101001111101001010101010010100
    11010100101010001001000101000100100100100
    00100100110101010101001010000100100101111
    01001001001001001000100100100001001001001
    00100100100100100100010011111010100101010
    10010110001010010111111000010100101111101
    00100001001001010010010101010001001111101
    01000100100000100101010010100010010010101
    01000100100100101010111110101000100010111
    11000100100100100101001111101001010101010
    01010011010100101010001001000101000100100
    10010000100100110101010101001010000100100
    10111101001001001001001000100100100001001
    00100100100100100100100100010011111010100
    101010100101!

  144. 144.

    Rome Again

    Leave it to me to share Balloon Juice with a very important person today only to then come on and find that I couldn’t load the site, and saw the new balloon. Just my luck! (Not blaming anyone but myself).

  147. 147.

    WereBear

    Holy crap, Dick Cheney got a heart transplant?

    I’m really going to struggle with the proper attitude here. I’ll flat out admit it.

  154. 154.

    Elizabelle

    I liked that “recent commenters post” feature from vintage Balloon Juice. You could see if a thread was still active, or if someone responded …

    Agree that numbering posts would be good; know you’re still working.

    Keep up the good work!

  155. 155.

    Maude

    Thank you all for whining for me. I went to bed early.
    Last night, just as I posted my comment about the font size, the site went down. I was worried that no one would notice the 2 point font.

  156. 156.

    Stephen LaRose

    In other words, stfu about the font size, stfu about the new appearance, stfu about the mobile site, and basically just stfu. We’re working on it.
    And stop emailing me.

    Even if you like the changes? Harsh.

Comments are closed.