Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

In my day, never was longer.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Second rate reporter says what?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance / Open Thread

Open Thread

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: 

I think we are at this point pretty much done with everything on the rebuild. The site appears to be loading quickly as we have two dedicated servers, I find it quite readable (my inane babbling posts notwithstanding), the comments work, and the mobile site works, so I think we are pretty much done.

So what do we think? Was it worth the switch?

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  4. 4.

    mark

    ABC News has posted a police surveillance video, showing George Zimmerman on the night he killed Trayvon Martin — and Zimmerman is very obviously not injured at all. Certainly no broken nose, and no visible injuries to his head, despite the recent claims by police that he was punched in the nose by Trayvon and had his head bashed into the pavement.

    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/40131_Video-_George_Zimmerman_on_Night_of_Trayvon_Killing_-_No_Injuries!

    ….also, can we get the time stamp back? I didn’t realize it was important til i see i can’t tell how long since the last post or guestimate the next open thread.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    Sorry to be a wet blanket, but the mobile site crashes my ipod touch Safari browser if the comment thread is about 90 comments or more.

    And does this mean that Recent Comments will not be returning to the desktop site?

    ETA: Otherwise, everything is great (including the mobile site).

  8. 8.

    Laertes

    1. Everyone’s losing their shit because the Supremes today all sounded like they’d decided to strike down the mandate…when the question of the day was what to do if the mandate was struck down.

    2. Rick Santorum was absolutely right to snap off that dickhead reporter who asked him that obnoxious, dishonest question. I’d have used much harsher language.

    3. Did you see/read that segment where Billo and Hume talked about it? They couldn’t bring themselves to take Rick Santorum’s side in a fight with a NYT reporter when Santorum was clearly in the right. They are so in the tank for Romney.

  9. 9.

    patrick II

    I don’t have a smart phone, just a Nokia Nuron. But I am not getting the mobile site. However, I would guess Nurons are a pretty small segment of your audience.

    But the regular site looks great, loads fast, and I like the enhanced search.

  10. 10.

    Hal

    Can I just say how fucking sick I am of the American public? This whole healthcare debate, with this ridiculous conservative wing of the court redefining the lives of people in this country for the worse, while sign wielding geriatrics ask the Government to keep their hands of their medicare.

    It simply amazes me that you can be an elected official, and basically give a big, fat, fucking “oh well” when asked about tens of millions of underinsured, and uninsured; all in the name of freedom and democracy, and still come within a thousand yards of the Presidency.

  13. 13.

    handy

    The things in the important/urgent quadrant got addressed. The only thing is, can you tweak the ctext class style? Maybe bump up the padding a little. Everything in the comments just looks a little crowded.

  14. 14.

    mark

    It’s getting worse, too: Funeral Director: No Injuries on Trayvon’s Hands.

    The funeral director who prepared Trayvon Martin’s body for burial told HLN’s Nancy Grace Wednesday that he did not see any cuts or bruises on the teen’s hands that would have been indicative of a struggle with George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed the Florida teen.

    Richard Kurtz of Roy Mizell and Kurtz Funeral Home in Fort Lauderdale said there appeared to be a gunshot wound in Martin’s upper chest area, but he received the body after the autopsy was completed so it was difficult to tell whether he had other injuries. He also could not determine the bullet’s entry or exit point.

    “As for his hands and knuckles, I didn’t see any evidence he had been fighting anybody,” Kurtz said. 


    While Kurtz is not a forensics expert, the funeral director said he has handled the bodies of many homicide victims in his career. This case in particular affected him as he learned more about what happened to Martin and how the case was handled.

    “I think the police investigation was the most unprofessional one I’ve ever seen in my lifetime,” Kurtz said.

    oooo, the blockquote didn’t get an update i see. oh well, everything else is hunky dorie

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Hal: The American Public hasn’t selected Mitt Romney–a very small group of Republican primary and caucus go-ers have.

  16. 16.

    wvng

    Overall very nice. One thing. If I click on share below any article on the home page, it doesn’t “attach” the share to that blog. It does work on a blogs own page.

  18. 18.

    Donald G

    The rebuild looks pretty.

    However, is cleek still around, or the guy who adapted cleek’s pie-filter to Chrome? The old version of the pie filter doesn’t seem to work with the new version of Balloon Juice.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    Well, we need the Recent Comments list back.

    Also, too, repost from previous dog bleg thread:
    Why can’t Mitt keep his foot out of his mouth?

  20. 20.

    Laertes

    @mark:

    Christ. Are we sure they’re not fucking with us? The man getting out of that car sure as hell doesn’t look like a 250-pounder to me.

  23. 23.

    David Koch

    Obama opens up 11 pt lead in today’s CNN Poll (54 – 43).

    ABC shows Romney most disliked pol in 28 years (34 – 50).

    Quinnipac shows Obama with 7 pt lead in Florida and with a 6 pt lead in Ohio.

    ———————————–

    Pretty good – right?

    Not for the corportate media.

    CNN described Obama’s 7 pt flordia lead as …. wait for it…. “narrow”.

    On Hardball, the talking heads said this was great news for Romney because it gives him a chance to reset his campaign. I’m not kidding.

    PS Joe Klein was freaking out about the …. wait for it.. the debt, saying we have to rein in medicare costs (translation: “Paul Ryan has the bluest eyes”).

  27. 27.

    Anoniminous

    The Pope has called for an end to the US trade embargo on Cuba.
    __
    Waiting for Santorum, Gingrich, Buchanan and the other Pope-junkies to fall in line in …
    __
    3
    __
    2
    __
    1
    __
    never

  28. 28.

    mrmike

    Apart from wishing there wasn’t an acre of whitespace and a correspondingly narrow centre column on my shiny widescreen display I haven’t had many issues with the new format. I’ll eventually greasemonkey up a style sheet mod for it when I have time.

  30. 30.

    ShadeTail

    @David Koch:

    no paragraph breaks in the comment section.

    Also, blockquotes are a bit difficult to see properly. Having a box around the quote was much better for distinguishing it from the rest of the comment. Having just that line on the left margin makes it kind of blend in.

  31. 31.

    Soonergrunt

    While I very much like the re-design, it would be nice if it would auto-format for wider browser windows. I have a widescreen display and the actual parts of the site only fill about 50-60% of the browser window. Still, I’m getting far more than I’m paying for, so I really only have to say “good job” to all.

  32. 32.

    Steve in DC

    I like it, a few things though…

    My comments seem to get messed up. The spacing that I see in the box is not what shows up.

    Odd mobile issues. It works fine on my ASUS Transformer Prime (android 4.0) goofy on all three ipad versions (might be mobile, might not) mangled on NSA secured android (but that’s probably nothing to do with you) and fine on Blackberry.

    I only jump through devices since I have all that crap from work, I just find it odd.

  34. 34.

    WyldPirate

    The redesign is full of win on all fronts from my POV. I especially like the little arrow at the bottom of the page that takes you back to the top and wish there was one at the top of a thread to do the opposite. It’s handy on a tablet.

  36. 36.

    gbear

    I like the new layout, but the background is just so incredibly unrelentingly white. I feel like I’m reading in a hospital waiting room.

  37. 37.

    David Koch

    @Raven:

    The Pope has called for an end to the US trade embargo on Cuba.

    to do otherwise would be an attack on religion and the Catholic religion.

  40. 40.

    Steve in DC

    @AA+

    What’s so LOL? I work in IT, we support IOS, android, and BB devices. Perk of IT, you get all sorts of work related toys!

  42. 42.

    Constance

    Everything working great here and I like the new look–very clean and fresh. The old one probably was too but I’ve already forgotten everything about the old one.

  43. 43.

    RSA

    I’ll again mention the font size of comments on the mobile site; it’s a couple of points smaller than the font size for posts, and hard to read for my aging (40+) eyes.

    Otherwise, it’s good.

  47. 47.

    PeakVT

    The programming for the comments is awful. I’ve never seen a site where the commenters discuss how to hack the appearance so it doesn’t bug them.

    Current problems include:
    1) No strike. Snark production is down at least 8% because of this.
    2) No space between paragraphs. Now people are inserting various tags to trick the parser into putting in blank lines.
    3) The edit window no longer pops up as a floating window, but takes you to a new page.
    4) Hardcoding [BR] to create whitespace. That was acceptable web programming in 2002. Not now.
    5) The most recent post doesn’t show in the Recent Posts lists. People don’t always (or in my case, don’t ever) read the front page so it’s useful to have the most recent post in the most Recent Posts lists.
    6) No previous/next post at the bottom.
    7) Navbar at the top doesn’t change size with long post titles, so the title for the next post appears below the box.
    8) Removing the class for the commenter name that existed in the previous version (.commenter) and replacing it with [strong]. Cleek has made the pie filter work again but there was no reason to stop tagging this key bit of information.
    9) Uppercase->lowercase “Says”.

    I looked at a couple of other Sekimori-designed sites and they look to have been done better, so I don’t know what the deal is here.

  48. 48.

    Gravenstone

    Well, given the fact my first attempt to comment post-rebuild took nearly 3 minutes to actually process, we’ll see how it works going forward.
    __
    eta: 90 seconds that time. maybe if I comment more regularly they’ll actually post in a timely manner.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    Two requests:
    __
    1. Jump to bottom arrow.
    2. Fix the paragraph breaks – seriously, this is a big problem. I think it’s just one of your WP plugins causing it.
    __
    Yeah, just do what PeakVT says.

  52. 52.

    piratedan

    JC, just wanted to say thank you for the forum and wonderful array of folks that work with you on this blog. I don’t agree with everyone or everything, but I find out more important information here with well reasoned arguments for multiple sides of multiple issues that makes this the first stop for where I get my news and starting spot for thinking about the relevant political/social/financial matters of the day… so..uhh..umm.. Thanks!

  55. 55.

    LT

    I’ve never been one to become invested in such things – you get used to stuff. But I don’t see how it’s better. Maybe I don’t use the site the same as others. It’s uglier – in a midwest town industrial strip full of billboards kind of way. And the comments aren’t harder for you to read? Really? The only motivation I can see for the change seems to be money. I can’t argue with you having that goal – I hope you’re very successful, I really do – but it was at another kind of cost. IMMFO.

    Did I say I’m not one to get invested in these things? Ignore me. (As if you need my invitation.)

    Wow – you took MY advice (I’m sure I was the ONLY one) and moved the tagline back to where it makes a lick of sense. Cool.

  56. 56.

    Nicole

    My only bummer is that I can’t pinch and make the text bigger on my iPhone. On the bright side, it’ll probably get me to stop reading on the street, which will reduce the likelihood I’ll trip and eat pavement.

    I can pinch and enlarge text on the iPad, though, so go figure.

    Otherwise, love the new look!

  57. 57.

    LT

    I’ve never been one to become invested in such things – you get used to stuff. But I don’t see how it’s better. Maybe I don’t use the site the same as others. It’s uglier – in a midwest town industrial strip full of billboards kind of way. And the comments aren’t harder for you to read? Really? The only motivation I can see for the change seems to be money. I can’t argue with you having that goal – I hope you’re very successful, I really do – but it was at another kind of cost. IMMFO.
    __
    Did I say I’m not one to get invested in these things? Ignore me. (As if you need my invitation.)
    __
    Wow – you took MY advice (I’m sure I was the ONLY one) and moved the tagline back to where it makes a lick of sense. Cool.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    John, overall a very nice job on the site rebuild. Thank you for all the consultation.

    .

    I do wish you would very strongly consider restoring hard return paragraph breaks in the comments.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    Lack of paragraphing in comments text as well as in blockquoting within comments remains an annoyance.

    So too the horizontal scrolling (1024 wide display here).

    Minor quibble: why is the ‘s’ capitalized for the word ‘Says’
    appended to each commenter’s name?

  61. 61.

    schrodinger's cat

    I liked the old comment format better. It was much easier to read now there is too much white space on the right.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    John, overall a very nice job on the site rebuild. Thank you for all the consultation.
    .
    I do wish you would very strongly consider restoring hard return paragraph breaks in the comments.

  63. 63.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Haven’t read through all the comments yet, but BRING BACK RECENT COMMENTS! Also, previous and next posts at the bottom of the comments. Thank you.

  64. 64.

    handy

    @Joseph Nobles:

    That is odd. Using same browser but for Mac and the header gradient spans the width of the page. I wonder if that’s a Windows (Vista/7) Chrome bug.

  67. 67.

    Warren Terra

    Everything PeakVT said, albeit phrased more politely, and with appropriate gratitude for the effort already done and improvement already shown.

    Oh, and Recent Comments.

  68. 68.

    LT

    Um, my edit came out as a new comment. #54 and #56.

    And I need to addd – my first comments on teh site change days ago were much more positive. I like the trim and fit look of everything – but I dont’ like being assaulted with large ads so primary to the first view.

    But I’ll get over it like tomorrow.

  69. 69.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    If the site being harder to read makes some of the old scolds go away, yes, it was worth it.

  70. 70.

    LT

    Um, my edit came out as a new comment. #54 and #56.
    __
    And I need to addd – my first comments on teh site change days ago were much more positive. I like the trim and fit look of everything – but I dont’ like being assaulted with large ads so primary to the first view.
    __
    But I’ll get over it like tomorrow.

  72. 72.

    Comrade Mary

    John, I mostly really, really love the main site and the mobile version. I hope you and the web goddesses have had some ice cream and beer and whatever else you want. I’m in the middle of wrestling with the CSS (and someone else’s PHP) on a client site and I know how utterly infuriating the code can be even when you don’t have a bunch of people cat-calling you.
    __
    That said, I have some specific feedback:
    __
    1) BUG: We have to use the double underline hack to force a paragraph break in all comment text, not just quotes. This is a big fucking deal. If nothing else gets changed, can this be priority one?
    __
    2) The post text (in the entry div) are set to a line-height of 140%, which is nice and airy. The comments are less cramped than they were a couple of days ago, but it would be nice if their line-height matched the line-height in the entry.
    __
    3) People with 1024 x 768 resolution have to scroll horizontally to see all of the sidebar. Can the combination of the content area and the right sidebar be set to fit within the available width for a maximized browser at that width?
    __
    4) Could the footer of the main site include a link to the mobile version so that those of us on smartphones have the option to go back and forth without clearing cache or cookies? (The swap button is already available on the gorgeous mobile site.)

    Thanks!

  73. 73.

    dr. luba

    Nice, but, as others have noted, the text is too dense. It seems to be single spaced; 1.2 would be much nicer.
    __
    Also, paragraph breaks, please. Otherwise each comment looks like those endless RWNJ screeds.

  75. 75.

    TaMara (BHF)

    So what do we think? Was it worth the switch?

    No paragraphs in comments.

    Block quotes are kinda useless with just a faded line separating them from the rest of the comments.

    Really hard to read more than a few comments because the formatting is so terrible.

    I’m getting used to the left side for the content, still don’t like it, but whatever, I seem to be in the minority as far as the overall design goes, but for actual usage, comments are very, very difficult to read.

    FYI, there are 4 paragraphs here. I’m sure none will show up. And can you easily distinguish John’s block quote from the rest of this comment?

  77. 77.

    Djur

    @Soonergrunt: I really would prefer the center column to stay at the width it is now. Extremely long lines of text are harder to read.

    But yes, the paragraph break issue needs to be fixed, and the line spacing for the comments could stand to be bumped up a little.

  78. 78.

    amk

    No previous/next post at the bottom. Lopsided comments board. Font issues. No line breaks. Non-working html codes. Stuck in edit land.

    No, it was not worth it. My $ 0.00.

  80. 80.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    The most recent post doesn’t show up in the Recent Posts List. If I’m in another post, it would be nice to be able to see all the posts.

  82. 82.

    THE

    I agree we need the Recent Comments list back.
    __
    I quite like the look.
    I can live with the new formatting — Paragraph spacing etc.
    Now the date tag is at the bottom of the comments, the Reply tool no longer overlaps the text which is cool.
    Edit: It loads very fast.

  83. 83.

    Joseph Nobles

    Yes, here in IE, the header populates correctly. So it’s definitely a Chrome thing.

  84. 84.

    Eastriver

    It all looks good. Though I love the idea of a Go To Bottom arrow. And I’m not a fan of the sans serif font. It’s not the most readable.

  85. 85.

    AA+ Bonds

    The near-invisible blockquoting makes people who quote me look like they’re supporting my opinions, I approve 100%, AA+ Bonds seal of approval

  86. 86.

    Gin & Tonic

    If the post titles are short enough they’ll fit together in that top rectangle. If they’re longer, so that they might otherwise overlap, then the “previous post” stays in the top left corner but the “next post” title drops down into the body box of the current post. This looks stupid.
    __
    I don’t like that I have to take an extra step (which I’m sure I will often forget) to get a blank line between paragraphs. Before I’d get it automatically.
    __
    I don’t like the fixed width of the main body column.

  88. 88.

    MoXmas

    FWIW, the RSS feed has continued uninterrupted. Which is nice.

    I clicked through just to say things look very good indeed.

  90. 90.

    Gin & Tonic

    @amk: Double underscore where I want a blank line.
    __
    I’m old enough that I recall having to trick other systems with a single period (dot) to get a blank line, so this is kind of old hat.
    __
    __
    See?

  91. 91.

    Cacti

    At this point, I really do wonder what the Roberts Court will unleash on us.

    Striking down the PPACA would take us back to the Lochner era, where the Supreme Court decides by fiat that the national government lacks the authority to address national issues that effect both the general welfare, and interstate commerce.

    This could be the decision where John Roberts writes his name next to Roger Brooke Taney as the greatest hack to ever sit in the Chief Justice’s chair.

    Will he shoot for the moon?

  92. 92.

    kindness

    I am used to the block quote actually encircling (rectangling) the quote. I can get used to the gray bar at the left though.

    Not letting us put an empty line between paragraphs, eh? Kinda tight with your bits I guess. Lotta real estate over on the right of my screen. Yea I got wide screen monitors at work & at home. Use that turf to sell lots of ads and become the next Huffington Post. Hell, you already get the free content.

  93. 93.

    Thymezone

    Hey, I heard there was a site rebuild coming. Any ETA on when that will happen?

    Thanks.

  94. 94.

    Thymezone

    Also too, can we have a Request Deletion button on posts by people we don’t like?

    Thanks again.

  96. 96.

    AA+ Bonds

    @PeakVT:

    1) No strike. Snark production is down at least 8% because of this.

    Praise the Lord and Hallelujah, people are forced to use wit

  97. 97.

    AA+ Bonds

    I don’t mind no paragraph spaces because I can be extra fucking problematic by using tags or characters

  98. 98.

    different-church-lady

    Mostly good, many improvements, the stuff I don’t like is the kind of stuff I’ll forget about once I get used to it.

  99. 99.

    AA+ Bonds

    Basic commenting on this site should slowly and gradually be made more difficult so those commenting are forced to learn more and more about Web design, and you are well on your way

  100. 100.

    Ash Can

    No spaces between paragraphs? No recent comments list?

    For those two reasons alone, the new design is definitely a step down from the previous format. Seriously. Not sure if you were deliberately shooting for an inferior version of the site, but that’s what you have.

    ETA: Now testing the edit function to see if it works efficiently like it did before, automatically returning to the page…

    Again ETA: Nope, still doesn’t work. Seriously, this was a pretty smoothly functioning and well organized site before. Now? Not so much.

  102. 102.

    Wilson Heath

    Yes. Current mobile site sucks worse than old mobile, but the ability to turn it off and view the normal rebuild on mobile is the best mobile viewing of the site I’ve ever seen.

  104. 104.

    Bobby Thomson

    The font looks way too small and the margins look way too big. They could be the same size for all I know but the white background swallows everything.

  106. 106.

    John H.

    I really dislike the mobile site. So I like the toggle button at bottom of page… However it does not seem to be functional.

  107. 107.

    stoned stats

    I’d like to request the time of the day the post goes up on the front page. Strangely enough I measure the passing of my existence by the time between posts on this blog.

  108. 108.

    Rafer Janders

    Rafer Says: was it worth the switch? God, no.

    Unless, that is, you prefer reading grey on white to black on white.

    And having no paragraph breaks anymore.

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    @amk: No, the double underscore has to go in the leftmost two spaces, right after your cr-lf. So, not here __ but over on the left.
    __
    And nothing else on the line after that.
    __
    Again.
    __
    __
    Two lines’ worth.
    __
    But this sucks.
    __
    At least you’re calling it his Vista moment and not his Bob moment. That would hurt, probably.

  110. 110.

    gnomedad

    Very nice new look. I’d like to repeat my request for a permanent “comment formatting tips” cheat sheet. Haven’t tried to create a paragraph break yet. Let’s see if HTML helps.

    This is either a new paragraph or not.
    EDIT: Not. Paragraph tag was replaced by a blank line which is being ignored.

  113. 113.

    CynDee

    @gogol’s wife: I’m with you, and LT, #54 and Ash Can #100. The old design had a lot of character and the quirky, integrated theme was a work of genius, inviting and fun and easy on the eye and spirit.

    Of course it’s wonderful to fix all the technical things that make it run better and good for the other formats. But why not just leave it at that?

    I appreciate the desire to “improve,” but I’m just so sad about the shredded design — to achieve what? –Sterile header, crowded fonts, harsh look, doesn’t do justice to animal pics, The the loss of what was fine to needless destruction. Just another culture fail. Another beautiful thing gone by the wayside for no good reason. It’s like coming to the park and finding all the trees cut down and everybody saying, “fine, fine; it’s cool.”

    Welcome to the post-modern blog.

    @AAPlus Bonds: the ability to use the strike well IS wit.

  114. 114.

    Gin & Tonic

    @amk: I wonder what happens if you try the dot trick,
    .
    Like this. Or a tilde
    ~
    Didn’t the Uncle Clarence troll use something like that?
    __
    ETA: The period at the start of a line gets eated, the tilde gets preserved. Interesting. I could play with the parser all night.
    __
    __
    But I won’t

  118. 118.

    Gin & Tonic

    @amk: Funny, my leading period got eated in my comment which also got eated when I went to edit it.
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    .
    .
    .

  119. 119.

    Steeplejack

    @Cole:

    The site appears to be loading quickly as we have two dedicated servers, I find it quite readable (my inane babbling posts notwithstanding), the comments work, and the mobile site works, so I think we are pretty much done.

    Well, I guess two out of four isn’t bad.
    __
    Load time is improved, although that wasn’t an issue for me before, and the mobile site looks pretty good on my Droid Incredible, for the occasional times that I read it. But I don’t find the desktop site “quite readable,” and the comments don’t work—at least not as well as they did before. I agree with the points brought up by @PeakVT, @Comrade Mary and @TaMara (BHF). I have been striving mightily to accept the new look, but I have to agree with TaMara that it is “really hard to read more than a few comments because the formatting is so terrible.” The Arial is an awful choice for lengthy body text, and when I use my browser’s embiggenator to bump up the size it goes “bold” after about three clicks. That’s even worse.
    __
    In addition, the comment time stamp is ill-placed at the bottom of each comment. It should be up under the commenter’s name. If you click it, it is used as a positioning tool to put the current comment at the top of the browser window. If the time stamp is below the bottom of the screen, either because the comment is lengthy or it just starts near the bottom of the screen, you have to scroll down just to find the time stamp so you can click it to put the comment at the top of the browser window. Yes, you can just scroll the text so the comment is at the top of the screen, but clicking the time stamp also serves to refresh the “my last position on this page” gizmo. I can’t be the only reader who uses it a lot as I go through threads to keep track of where I am after refreshing the page, going to another tab, etc.
    __
    Finally, I can’t believe the socialist spam filter hasn’t been fixed or replaced. That should have been item number one on the site rebuild. For a political blog it is ridiculous that you have to remember not to use certain common words or you have to jump through hoops to get them into a comment.
    __
    I guess I am a little dispirited because the blithe tone of your post makes it sound like you have not been reading the comments, or have decided simply to ignore them. All of these issues have been brought up repeatedly over the last week, but you seem to think everything’s cool and it’s a wrap. You don’t acknowledge them even to say, “Fuck you, we’re not doing that.” Forget the aesthetic points, about which people can disagree; I’m talking about things that are actual bugs or that don’t work as (presumably) intended. Line spacing and lack of paragraph separation in the comments are the two most glaring issues. Another example: when you edit a comment you get left in limbo instead of being returned to the post page (as it worked before). And I would include the comment time stamp thing, although maybe that’s just a frilly gewgaw that only a few people noticed or used.
    __
    Let me say that I do appreciate all the work you and the Web crew have done. I’m sure there was a shitload of back-office stuff that needed to get fixed and was taken care of. But I have to say that on balance the reader experience has not been improved.

  120. 120.

    Irony Abounds

    Looks great and everything seems hunky-doory – unless of course, you are the now unemployed little barker. He and his family are now on the bread lines, he’s had to pawn his megaphone, and with Obamacare soon to be struck down, he can forget about getting any health insurance. So kudos Cole, bask in the glory of your site rebuild and blithely forget about those left behind.

  121. 121.

    Steeplejack

    @amk:
    __
    Do it like this:

    First paragraph.
    &#95&#95
    Second paragraph.
    &#95&#95
    Third paragraph, etc.

  122. 122.

    Steeplejack

    @CynDee:
    __
    Well said.
    __
    Also, @amk, this is good. I’m fighting it, but I know “Cole’s Vista moment” is going to stick with me.

  123. 123.

    Rafer Janders

    @CynDee:

    I Says: 100/% agreement.

    This new look is cold, harsh, sterile, with lots of blank white space.

    And grey, lots and lots of grey. On white. Which is oh so readable.

    Does this come out as four paragraphs? Because that’s how I wrote it.

  124. 124.

    FlyingToaster

    The site is ‘way faster. I’m on a (new) laptop, so sizing is pretty near perfect; and for a small screen, sans-serif is easier to read that serif. (Note, you can always override sites’ CSS; you may have to install some addons to your browser-of-choice to selectively override the font.)

    Yay! for moving the reply button.

    I’m going to check here to see if strike or del work. Heh.

    {head whip} If that singing was my four-year-old, there will be hell to pay. Hopefully it was the neighbor boys.

    Toaster +2

  125. 125.

    amk

    @Steeplejack:

    I am a little dispirited because the blithe tone of your post makes it sound like you have not been reading the comments, or have decided simply to ignore them.

    yup, cole has gone all galt on us and basically said to GFY.

  126. 126.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Gin & Tonic: Actually, I don’t know if my comment got eated or not. My comment editor window left me in some indeterminate state – it says the comment was marked for moderation, and it has a “Close” hyperlink which does nothing. So in addition to saying FYWP, now we can say FYAJAX.

  127. 127.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:
    __
    To get out of “edit comment” limbo, press your browser’s Back button, or the backspace key, to return to the post page, then refresh the page to see your comment show up.
    __
    Don’t know from personal experience if it works exactly like this when you throw in the “I’m in moderation” angle, but I think it should.

  128. 128.

    Comrade Mary

    After returning from the edit page, you may have to refresh twice before your changes show up.

  129. 129.

    dance around in your bones

    Everything that I am going to say has been said already, but here I go anyway.
    __
    Recent Comments is sorely missed
    __
    Line breaks between paragraphs, ditto: It’s crazy to have to put double underscores to get an empty line that should be automatic.
    __
    Previous Post/Next Post at bottom of page was very useful; it can’t be that hard to put it back in.
    __
    The old block-quote that appeared in a blue box all on it’s own was much more distinguishable than the vague line on the left.
    __
    I REALLY miss the little dude in the top hat with the megaphone – it gave the site a funky, quirky charm. The colored half-balloon does not.
    __
    The new big numbers are a pale approximation of the curvy old numbers of a few years ago.
    __
    I liked the centered comments much more than this left-justified thing; it felt more balanced. And yes, there is too much white space.
    __
    The soc.ialism bug NEEDS TO BE FIXED!
    __
    From the Wayback machine: The way the site used to look, for folks that have forgotten already. It had charm! Balance! Quirkiness! It may just be me, but I liked it much better.
    __
    I DO appreciate the speed of loading and all the work you and webmistress have done. I will always read this site anyway, just because I love it so. We criticize because we really care, not just to bitch and moan. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t comment all that much, but who reads faithfully every day.
    __
    CONSTRUCTIVE criticism! (I hope)

  130. 130.

    Stan

    Keep providing a lively forum, and I’ll keep reading.

    Beyond that, I like the new look and it works fine on my phone without any special mobile mode. Win!

  132. 132.

    dance around in your bones

    @amk:

    I used to say this back in the day, that Balloon Juice had one of the most appealing comment sections (the little platform for each comment, the beautiful numbers, the almost Zen serenity of the layout)…I hope I don’t sound like some hopeless Luddite, but I just liked the site the way it was then.
    __
    It looks too modern and sterile now. This is said with love and affection, John Cole.

  133. 133.

    dww44

    @dance around in your bones: I endorse everyone of your comments but will steer clear of the socialism one, cause obviously that causes JC major grief. However, I am so with you on the centered comments and despise, literally despise the left-justified thing.

    I liked the centered comments much more than this left-justified thing; it felt more balanced. And yes, there is too much white space.
    From the Wayback machine: The way the site used to look, for folks that have forgotten already. It had charm! Balance! Quirkiness! It may just be me, but I liked it much better.

    I’ve spent the better part of my day playing with my browser settings (both of them) to make this site easier to read and all I’ve managed to do is screw up the way my Facebook page looks and the way my home page looks.

    I truly do miss the old site. But question, why the need for all this glaring white space? And, is there someway I could create a different less glaringly white background that wouldn’t hurt my eyes so much?

  134. 134.

    mac

    I mostly read this via phone on the bus. The old mobile site sucked. The new site is much easier to read on mobile.
    Last week was a bitch-completely unusable on mobile. But the wait was worth it. Kudos to your IT dept!

  136. 136.

    Violet

    1. Having to double underscore to separate paragraphs, even if those paragraphs are NOT in blockquote is a change from the previous site design (for me, anyway) and not a good one.

    2. The comment numbers are great but they mean that the first bit of the comment is indented. This style makes the comments harder to read. Not an improvement. Can this be changed?

    Edit: The paragraph separation thing seems to have been changed, so thank you.

    Now to see if the edit window, when the comment is saved, sends you back to the actual site…

    Edit again: Yes it does, so thanks for that. My only complaint now is the comments and numbering and indentation.

  138. 138.

    desertscope

    I have a kindle subscription to Balloon Juice. It has not updated since 24 MAR 12. I checked my Amazon account, and all is in order. I have to assume the problem is with the site redesign.
    _
    Am I the only person with this problem?

Comments are closed.