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Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

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Ah, the different things are different argument.

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You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance / Trying a New Mobile Site Plugin

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  6. 6.

    Steve V

    Just to repeat my comment on the previous mobile site thread, I really do not like the BJ mobile site and think that especially with the redesign it’s unnecessary. (I’m an iPhone user, can’t speak for blackberry/android people). Ok, thx. :-)

  8. 8.

    Punchy

    So now I gotta type FYWPT?

    At least it’s not WPPTouch. Sounds like something a priest would use.

  15. 15.

    Punchy

    Your contact list is missing SteveM and Rodhino, or whatever that soccer guy’s name is.

    Found my first tick today. Gunna be a looooooong summer if I’m getting ticks while living in a nice very clean house with no foundation cracks and a clean-freak wife. Guessing the dogs Trojan Horse’d ’em in.

  16. 16.

    SectarianSofa

    Weird — from my kindle fire (rooted, but with stock browser), I get the non-mobile site. Which is also fine.

  22. 22.

    Ron

    It also worked using Firefox for Android. (as an aside, while I look forward to being upgraded to ICS on my phone, I worry that some stuff will be screwed up)

  23. 23.

    b1naryserf

    Nice compact theme on my Android. Seen it work pretty well for other blog sites too. If you’re not demanding fancy comment options, should fit the bill.

  24. 24.

    WyldPirate

    I actually like the mobile sites look better. It’s easier to read and non of the extraneous bullshit on the pc version.

  26. 26.

    patrick II

    This afternoon I was not getting the mobile site. At 8:13pm (checking after your earlier post) I was getting the mobile site. Now (at about 10:44pm ) I am not getting the mobile site. Although I will say it looked nice on my phone when I did see it.

    (Wrote this during a Justified commercial break).

  27. 27.

    Stan

    Please change it back, it was so nice just before this.

    Nothing about mobile makes boxy title-only views better: on the contrary, you just have to wait for page-loads more often.

  29. 29.

    Comrade Mary

    I haven’t tried to swap yet: is there a link on the mobile site allowing me to swap back to standard?

  32. 32.

    Insomniac

    On my Blackberry, getting what looks like the full regular site. Not looking like the mobile site of yore. Too wide to fit on the device’s screen and makes it tough to read. Have to scroll to right and left just to read the blog anymore because one needs to zoom in to see the text, ‘cos otherwise the font is way too small.

  35. 35.

    woodrow/asim

    Works a charm on Firefox Alpha mobile for Android.

    @Ron: ICS and Firefox seem to work well, I like the Alpha (Aurora) I just mentioned better than even the new Chrome beta for Android.

  36. 36.

    jwb

    It’s great. Except I turned it off and now can’t figure out how to turn it back on. There’s nothing in the footer as promised to turn on the mobile site.

  39. 39.

    Yutsano

    One drawback: it seems to load a lot slower on my Crackberry. But it looks pretty darn good from my perspective.

  40. 40.

    Woodrow/asim

    Also works a charm in Chrome Beta for Android.

    Are people not seeing the “mobile theme” toggle at the bottom of the page? I see it in both browsers I’ve tried so far.

  42. 42.

    sneezy

    I tried it on a iPod Touch and an android phone, the latter with both its built-in web browser and Opera Mobile. Works fine, looks good. Thanks!

  43. 43.

    WyldPirate

    Well this is fucked up.

    The mobile site had a “on-off” switch at the bottom of the page. Out of curiosity I hit it to see what the new site looked like on my phone (it sucks compared to the mobile version). When I hit the switch, it politely informed me I could “switch back in the footer” (I’m presuming at the bottom of the page of the “regular” web site.

    It lied. No “switch” to mobile option in the footer.

  44. 44.

    Comrade Mary

    @WyldPirate: For now, try clearing your cookies, like jwb did, but yeah, if the standard site could include a link to the mobile site in the footer or some other spot, I know that I’d be thrilled.

  46. 46.

    Mark B.

    Wow, that’s a big improvement. I actually like it a lot better than the non-mobile version. From now, I’m gonna balloon juice from my iPhone.

  48. 48.

    WyldPirate

    Clearing the cache restored the mobile site access.

    Life is good. I can read the wankerific BJ comments while I take a shit at work.

  49. 49.

    Nanette

    Takes me to the full site (BlackBerry, Opera mini browser), which I much prefer, so I’m good.

    Only, in case I *did* want to get to the mobile site, for some odd reason, there is no link.

  50. 50.

    YellowJournalism

    Ditto Insomniac on the Blackberry. This is a pain in the ass to read. Sorry. It’s a big deal to me because this is the main way I get BJ now. I don’t touch the computer as much.

  52. 52.

    WyldPirate

    @Comrade Mary:

    Thx. Figured it out b4 I got to your comment.

    I can’t see myself switching back to the regular site on my phone. My Samsung Infuse has a huge screen, but the regular site looks like shit on it even in landscape. The font is way too small.

  54. 54.

    Comrade Mary

    @WyldPirate: The standard site font is too small for me when I wear contacts without reading glasses on top, but I can read it fine bare-eyed. There are a few advantages to being really near-sighted all your life.

  55. 55.

    Calouste

    Back to the desktop site on Windows Phone 7, but as I can just tap in the text column to have that expand to the full width of the screen, that is very readable. It even saves the email address when commenting, which the old version didn’t

  56. 56.

    WyldPirate

    @Comrade Mary:

    Ha! I’m blind as a bat w/o lenses and HATE wearing glasses witch I ditched 40 years ago. I switched to the bifocal contacts about 3 years ago. They’re the shiznit!

    It was torture when my close vision started going out about 7 years ago. I had readers all over my house, vehicle and work.

  59. 59.

    Comrade Mary

    @WyldPirate: OK, which brand of progressive contacts do you use? I tried some and found that they didn’t correct enough for reading, while my distance correction also worsened. I’m willing to try again if I can find a set that actually work as well or nearly as well as my cherished new glasses.

  61. 61.

    RSA

    Works for me on an iPhone. The font is smaller than before, I think, which makes it harder to read, though.

  64. 64.

    SuperHrefna

    Cool! It’s working on my iPhone, I’m commenting on it now. Thank you for finding an alternative mobile platform so fast! I count on BJ to keep me entertained while I’m out and about.

  67. 67.

    FlipYrWhig

    Still have never seen first-hand this mobile site you speak of. Using iPad 2 and Safari currently.

  68. 68.

    Pen

    Works like a charm on my iOS 5.0 iPod Touch. Glad you switched, I had to resort to using a id string modifier hack to even read the comments here with the old version.

  71. 71.

    dww44

    @mikej: I agree, it’s hideous. That is if you are talking about the site redesign. As a non smartphone user, I think this site redesign has been done for those particular BJ readers. Not for those of us who read from a desktop. Everyone talks about how the font size is too small. It’s way too big (on both Firefox and IE8) and there is all this glaring white space that just hurts my eyes. Most importantly I can’t seem to see very much, even when I expand the page to fill my monitor. Most of the stuff on the right doesn’t show. It requires lots more scrolling and arrowing over to catch stuff.

    I really do hate it.

  72. 72.

    Comrade Mary

    @dww44: What’s your resolution? This site is a little too wide for me at 1024 x 768. The font size here is about as big as it is at the CBC, which is a little coarse but readable.
    __
    Have you confirmed that you are using the default font size?
    __
    Are you using NoScript or any ad blockers? I’ve got chunks of white space showing at the top and right when I have those turned on because the ads are hidden. The white space for each comment is generous but not excessive, I think.

  73. 73.

    worn

    Oh good Lord. I mostly lurk here but at first glance this new mobile thing is awful. And I’ve been pretty frustrated in the last little while in the SNAFU that has been the inability to choose to view the ‘regular’ site via a mobile platform. But forcing a click-thru on *every* post. Ski ja nai, that’s fer sure.

    In other words, on my iphone mostly what I see is solely a list of post titles. As the stable of front pagers has expanded in the last little while, I have increasingly had to rely on a quick perusal of the first few sentences of a given most to ascertain whether further reading is warranted; this mobile theme greatly compromises my 8 tab max limitation.

    John I surely do know you don’t necessarily enjoy complaints from the choir, and yet but yet…

  74. 74.

    worn

    OK, scratch my comment. Was able to switch to regular view once more. All is felicity from this corner of Sogtown. Am is happy.

    Also, too: FYWP totally butchered the line breaks in my previous comment. At least as composed via iPhone. YMMV

  75. 75.

    Ripley

    WP Touch is probably the best mobile switch plugin for WP sites, right now. If you and your blogmistress are in the mood, you can place advertising in the footer, as well. It’s a pain in the ass and it’s not always pretty, but I’ve done it.

  76. 76.

    Joseph Nobles

    For all who don’t like the WPTouch mobile site and would prefer to see the regular site on your mobile devices, there’s a switch at the bottom of every page of the mobile site. Click it over, and you get a cookie that forces the regular site to publish from then on. Erasing the cookie is the only way to get back to the mobile site.

    I’m very grateful for the new template for the mobile site, as I said above. It lets me view and post comments. That’s all I wanted. Thanks, John and nice blogmistress lady!

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I actually like this part of the site rebuild, and I can see myself using the mobile version regularly on my Droid Incredible instead of the regular version, which is what I used previously. This based on reading one vanilla thread with no YouTube links, etc.

    ETA: Holy shnikeys! I can even edit. What is the opposite of FYWP? Never had occasion to wonder before.

  79. 79.

    LiberalTarian

    Eh, miss being able to read the first paragraph. Loads faster. Have to drill Down to get to comments, but not a very big deal since I often don’t read them anyway. Like knowing post author.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    So far so good on ipod touch, except it crashes Safari on certain posts when I try to open up the comment section (this post worked – Tom’s next post did not).

  82. 82.

    Sarah

    As someone noted above, there’s no way I can find to switch back to the mobile site on my iPhone. It says there’s a switch in the “footer” but I can’t find it.

  83. 83.

    iriedc

    I could get use to this. Especially since I can only use mobile to read political logs during the day. This loads so much faster!

  87. 87.

    Tim o

    I switched to regular view because I like it a lot better so I’m glad we have the option because many of you seem to like the mobile format.

  88. 88.

    geg6

    Hate it! Titles only? For real, Cole? And a font that’s microscopic? Old eyes like mine will not be reading unless I’m on the PC, I guess.

  90. 90.

    lee

    I like it. I wish it had at least a small section of the actual post instead of just the title. But much better.

    opera mobile on Droid

  91. 91.

    kc

    Got damn it, now I can barely see the type on my iphone. Is there a link to switch to the regular site?

  96. 96.

    Zagloba

    Just opened great in both android’s native browser and in Firefox for android. Two thumbs up.

  98. 98.

    Wilson Heath

    This sucks. Give me an option to kill the mobile plugin. The new non-mobile site is the best BJ mobile viewing experience I have seen for my little Android phone.

    Washington Monthly is the site I read most because I read on my commute. Through tunnels. Clicking through to content doesn’t work where my antenna doesn’t work. I couldn’t follow Steve Benen to the Maddow Blog and GOS is off my radar because their mobile formating needs click throughs. The Washington Monthly site doesn’t do bullshit mobile formatting or relentless click whoring.

  99. 99.

    dww44

    @Comrade Mary: Thanks for the reply. I will check all those things out. I do know that the IE font size is definitely default;not sure about the Firefox. Re the latter I did zoom out, and it reduced the font size and made the page more readable. I will check out the other suggestions with my computer guru.

    The way the site now loads is just so unfriendly. I loved the text loading in the middle. Was there a reason the posts were moved to the left? Was that to accomodate mobile browsers? Also I checked out the CBC site. Would that BJ was 1/2 as readable as CBC is.

    @Maude: Site is way too wide for me, too.

  101. 101.

    geg6

    @Wilson Heath:

    And even those that have them tend to not have working buttons to turn it off.

    I really need to figure out how to turn this new BJ mobile site off on my phone. It’s so horrible and small that I can’t imagine even attempting to read it. And I couldn’t find any button at the bottom to turn it off. Hopefully, this is just a glitch with the switch. Because if it isn’t, I’m going to be very, very sad. No more BJ on the phone makes geg a very unhappy woman.

  102. 102.

    Comrade Mary

    @geg6: Weird that the button isn’t showing for you. I can see one labelled “Mobile Theme” way at the bottom of the screen, looking like the usual iPhone setting control. What phone are you on?

  104. 104.

    FlipYrWhig

    Ok, call me stupid, but how is this supposed to work? I’m reading this on an iPad. It looks just like the normal site. Is the site supposed to detect that I’m using the iPad and switch me to the mobile site automatically, or am I supposed to request it somehow?

  106. 106.

    kitts

    I can actually view comments now! That’s very exciting. This htc droid user is now quite happy.

  107. 107.

    kevin

    It looks nice, but there’s no way in hell I’m gonna tap and wait just to get the first sentence then click thru and wait to see the whole story. The old mobile site was bad enough (three clicks to view a picture); this is horrible. I wish I could get the desktop version on my iPod touch, but I haven’t been able to do that in months. Terrible upgrade.

  108. 108.

    kevin

    Just tried the regular view and it finally worked for me! We’ll see what happens tomorrow when I come back again. Mobile version still sucks balls.

  109. 109.

    WaterGirl

    The font is too small on the mobile version on my iPhone, and I was unable to do anything to make the text larger. I had to go back to the regular version, even on the iPhone, in order to be able to read without straining my eyes.

    While we are on the subject of eye strain, with the new upgrade, I can’t spend much time on Balloon Juice without my eyes getting really tired. I agree with others who have said that maybe it’s that the letters ares spaced too closely together, or the lines are spaced too closely together. Whatever the cause is, it’s not good.

    I think you will lose a lot of readership if this doesn’t get fixed. When your favorite internet hangout hurt your eyes, it’s not good.

  110. 110.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl:

    On my iPhone, at the top, next to the URL is a choice to view the page as a Reader. There is a little gray rectangle next to the url that says Reader on it. Select that and you can view any post with text only and you also can change the font size. No graphics or photos, but you can read text and change the font.

    Also, your browser on your desk top should have the ability to change the font size on any web page you a viewing.

  111. 111.

    Scout211

    @Scout211:

    Well, darn. Now I don’t see that anymore. So sometimes, I have a way to view the page text only with the ability to change fonts . . . . .

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