Last night there was an aborted attempt to switch over to the new theme. Then the site was switched back to the old theme. I had nothing to do with that abortion, so let’s just all agree to treat it like an act of God, like most abortions.
The only difference between this theme and what was running last night prior to the switch is the Newsmax ad.
I saw some griping in the comments about the ad. For those of you complaining, let me ask you a question: when’s the last time you sent a thank-you note to a website’s operator for running an awesome ad? Newsmax pays to put that ad on this site, Balloon Juice is an ad-supported site, the end. If you had a better revenue model, you’d be counting your fat stacks on a private island instead of reading this blog.
Update: I see that some fonts have been changed, too. Don’t know how that happened.
lojasmo
Thanks a lot, Obama.
eric
I am reading the blog on my island counting my fat stacks thanks to a thing called the internet. Now where are my cheetos….
piratedan
is there a way to link the pie filter to the Newsmax links? I.e. if someone is entered into the pie filter, can the next bogus link/post that the pie’d user posts automagically directs them to the Newsmax site? They get their hits and we send trolls where they belong…..
Gex
I was also of the understanding that the ads that anyone sees on a web page tend to be influenced by their own browsing history. I suppose I *could* complain to you about something of my own doing, but why?
Baud
I thought BJ was moving to a subscription model. John announced it at the beginning of April.
BruceFromOhio
Why do all IT guys sound the same?
Hawes
Can we bring back the ads where Pamela Anderson has three arms?
the Conster
I’m not getting out of the boat, but I wonder if that Newsmax article about the Benghazi cover up explains what’s being covered up?
chopper
@lojasmo:
i knew it was him. even when it wasn’t him, i knew it was him.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Thank Jeebus we don’t have anything any more critical to complain about, right?
Valdivia
The Newsmax ad makes me realize they are as crazy as I thought they were.
centerfielddj
Us discerning Balloonheads can see a Newswmax ad and react accordingly- laughter that those dummies are wasting money on our favorite shitty little blog.
JoyfulA
Doesn’t clicking the ad cost Newsmax money? We could bankrupt them.
monkeyfister
There are ads on this site?
Newsmax ads?
Good thing I use Ad Block.
I donate when the tip jar is passed around.
NobodySpecial
If Newsmax wants to give Cole money, who am I to tell them no?
Baud
Mistermix, in case you haven’t seen it, the comment numbers occasionally disappear on the new site.
Ash Can
The Newsmax crap does not appear as an ad. It has no graphics, mimics the style of the “recent posts” feature exactly, and has only “What’s this?” in small print rather than the usual disclaimer of “advertisement” that ads that are too clever by half run to distinguish themselves from actual news items for unsuspecting/careless readers.
I’ve long since gotten over seeing stupid ads on this site. However, the Newsmax “ad” blends in so well with the features of this site that it looks like it was deliberately embedded by the creators of the site’s new format. I didn’t realize that it was an ad until you said so. Knowing that, I realize that you have no control over its content or looks. But don’t bitch at us for bitching about the ad, because it sure as hell looks like something you guys put there yourselves.
aimai
I like the Ads, in a perverse sort of way, because I don’t see very much advertising so I like to know what’s out there among the nutcases. I love to get ads for “christian singles” since I’m neither and I like to know what crazy the right wing is flogging (as it were). So keep ’em coming.
JPL
Newsmax has been following me to all the cool sites, including Wonkette’s. I feel icky like I’m being stalked.
Ash Can
PS: Get off my goddamn lawn.
Ash Can
PPS: Other than that, I think the site redesign looks dandy. Seriously.
dance around in your bones
@Ash Can: This. I didn’t realize it was an ad at all.
I like the new font for the post titles.
quannlace
NewsMax? Pffft. Who cares? The headlines are good for a laugh.
If you looked at their site three years ago, there’d be no less than fifteen different headlines about Obama’s birth certificate. Today it’s all Benghazi!Benghazi!Benghazi!
“NewsMax. If we repeat it enough times, maybe that’ll make it true!”
Wick
If NewsMax wants to pay money to Liberal sites, that’s money they aren’t using for other, less useful purposes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Wick: My thoughts exactly. Let’m piss it away.
Singular
You can’t avoid ALL responsibility for the ads you run by saying “Oh well, that’s how advertising works”.
And… what Ash Can said.
Warren Terra
@Ash Can:
What Ash Can said.
I’m not whining, if you feel the money’s worth it keep on with it, it’s your blog, etcetera. But it really does look a lot more like part of the site you’ve installed as a feature – look like the “Recent Comments” widget – than it looks like an ad.
cathyx
@Baud: Yes, I seem to remember that posted on April 1st. Hmmm…
Mike E
You don’t have to shout.
NotMax
That means accepting ads from every Tom, Dick and Bozo?
Lucre overrides standards?
Soonergrunt
@BruceFromOhio: Because we all hear the exact same things over and over again, no matter where we go and no matter who we talk to.
Soonergrunt
@NotMax: Standards? Standards?! What site did you think you were on, here?
Baud
@Soonergrunt:
newsmax.com
;-)
Robert
@NotMax: Not how it works. You don’t get to decide what ads run on your site with programs like Newsmax and Adsense. The most you can do is input keywords and decide whether or not to earn significantly less money by not running video ads. The only ads you can control on your site are bought ad-space and affiliate programs.
It’s like people think you WANT to run ads on your website to keep it up and running. We do it because we have to in order to stay operational.
Eric U.
I thought the newsmax ad was pretty common here, if not a permanent fixture. I never look at ads, and the only ones that bother me are the ones with sound
MomSense
Ha! I just clicked on the ObamaCare911 Survival Guide link on Newsmax. Hilarious!!! So full of exactly the crazy stuff you think will be there. All I can say is it’s a good thing ObamaCare improves mental health coverage–those folks need it.
Poopyman
Does LegalZoom know they’re paying for five ads on my page? I don’t recall ever visiting their site, either.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m still trying to figure out why for about two weeks I was getting ads for Christian maternity wear, essentially big tee-shirts with Bible verses. And even though they nailed my demographic, I’m still a little pissed about the ad for “Russian hotties: We don’t want young men, we want you!”
Lojasmo
@JoyfulA:
I blame Benjamin Franklin.
scav
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Russian Hotties wearing Biblical Maternity Wear is one of the more interesting Fetish demographics I’ve ever run across. Need to get out more.
Ash Can
@NotMax: I believe the deal is that WordPress itself signs contracts with ad services, and those ad services are the ones who sign up the assorted idiots, crackpots, and charlatans whose ads show up here. Furthermore, the ads that appear are triggered not only by our recent Internet searches, but by key words that show up in the posts (and maybe the comments too; I don’t know). Those who are actually in the know should correct me if I’m wrong, but AFAIK, it’s because of this construct that Cole et al. really do not have any control whatsoever over what shows up in their ad space.
NotMax
@Robert
Ah, so if the programs have in-built suckitude as a feature, that makes it all right.
Excuse me, I hear Han Solo yelling “It’s not my fault!” in the next room.
ThresherK
BJ gets money from a Newsmax ad? Cool!
For me that falls under the Texan axiom of how a politician is persuaded by a lobbyist: Eat their beefsteak, drink their boubon, screw their broads. And vote against them anyway.
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I get pissed every time Facebook offers me “faithful older men.” I don’t care if they mean “non-cheating” or “followers of Christ,” I don’t want any of that.
MikeJ
@Robert: Actually most ad networks will let you block certain advertisers.
I don’t think it’s worth the trouble though. Better to take Newsmax’s money and laugh at them.
shortstop
@scav: It’s sort of the Rule 34 of mate-shopping: if it exists, someone wants to do it.
Origuy
Ok, so you won’t get rid of the Newsmax ads, but maybe you could move them? Like down next to “Blogs We Monitor and Mock As Needed?”
Singular
@Baud: Thanks Baud. For a chuckle on a grim day :)
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
Well, this is as good a place as any, I guess, to put my GBCW comment. Last night did it for me. I’m “green ballooned” out on asshats like Corner Stone and JSF. If you want to joke about the possible death of a former frequent commenter, well, it’s your life and if that’s the sick fuck you want to be, I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with you in meatspace.
To most of you, thank you for all the laughs and community. Carry on as you were. I’m done, though.
So long and thanks for all the laughing helicopters.
Amir Khalid
I have no idea what everyone is complaining about. For a few months after I unblocked ads here, all I got were Malaysian ads for sites that sell women’s clothing — which, for obvious reasons, I don’t buy. Now, I get no ads whatsoever.
Steeplejack
@Hawes:
I still say that wasn’t an arm.
shortstop
@Hawes: I try to live my life without regrets, but I’ve never gotten over my sadness at not having seen that.
Calming Influence
@Gex: I made the mistake of going to the “Zombie Industries” website that had the bleeding target dummies at the NRA convention, so now I have one of their ads following me all over the nets. Right now it’s perched over the Newsmax ad.
It’s all good; I’ll just be pre-outraged whenever I comment.
WereBear
There is some kind of perverse ad metric that will reliably serve up ads that completely contradict what the blog posts and commenters are saying. Seems like most of them use it.
As a very low profile blog which nonetheless gets enough traffic to have hefty bandwidth & optimization costs, I’m in the worst of both worlds and have been all around this issue.
A political site is hip and ironic enough to get away with letting the ad metrics do their crazy thang, but a cat advice blog has a different audience; I’m selling my competence and sincerity, and so I can take very few ads.
Personally, I’ve gone Reader Supported. Seems like the best way; and not that different from subscribing to a magazine. Remember that?
Irish Steel
I don’t mind the advertising. But I like complaining!
So you can see that puts me in a bit of pickle.
shortstop
@Irish Steel: Enjoying a good gripe is #1 in Maslow’s hierarchy. Go for it.
Schlemizel
I guess I am lucky, I have not seen the newsmax ad. Also gone finally are the gruesome anti-abortion hate ads that replaced the anti-marriage hate ads once they lost here.
I hardly blame the site for the ads as they are not selected by the admins and are hilariously misplaced. Really newmax? You think you will gain eyeballs from an educated aware community? HAHAHAHAHA. I love to click on that sort of crap knowing BJ is getting half a penny but the morans are just pissing that money away.
Thats a good way to say thanks – take money from the morans & send it to Cole. I often fill out contact info with obscenities just so they know they are wasting money.
Amir Khalid
@Calming Influence:
Do tell. Do they make anything else that’s deliciously objectionable?
scav
@Irish Steel: 21st C, I thought we’d all found our sincerity off-switch by now. Disconcerting people (and advertising heuristics) by rapid toggling between settings can be quite amusing.
cathyx
I’ve become so good at ignoring all ads, that I have no idea what any of you are talking about.
ETA: And I still curse eemom for mentioning the pig ad that I then searched for and then saw it every time I refreshed. I will never do that again.
belieber
If the Newsmax ad shows up through a 3rd party ad aggregator that’s one thing but no excuse for accepting their ads directly. None!
You seemed to imply it was a direct ad. Either way, spare me your ‘this is an ad supported site so get over it’ horseshit.
Calming Influence
@monkeyfister: Just installed Adblock for FireFox. Pooof! Newsmax and bleeding zombies all gone! I feel like I’m living in the future.
Chris
@WereBear:
I assume it’s the subject matter that matters most.
E.G: you write a post about how much James Dobson sucks. Whatever program determines such things only sees the name “James Dobson” used again and again, it can’t tell that it’s being used negatively. So it throws you an ad for James Dobson’s latest book.
Lee Rudolph
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, be specific—was the “Christian maternity wear” specifically Russian Orthodox maternity wear?
dance around in your bones
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS):
JSF always makes offensive and inappropriate comments on ANY topic, that’s his shtick – so I take it as tongue in cheek. I’ve heard from other commentors that he’s a mensch in real life, so…..
Now Corner Stone seems to have some anger issues which he plays out on this blog (he’s nice to his kid, though). That’s what the pie filter is for – if a particular commentor drives up your blood pressure, pie ’em! (BTW, I don’t have CS pie’d because he is sometimes insightful and/or informative – unlike the other 23 people in my filter, 20 of whom I believe are the same person).
Stay for the laughing helicopters!
Calming Influence
I’m kind of enjoying the shrill Newsmax reaction. I think I’ll head over to Breitbart and Free Republic and see if they’d like to buy some space here.
RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual
I like the new quote box color. The fonts I can get used to.
scav
@Lee Rudolph: Well, that combination somehow inspired not one but two innovative (and opposite) applications of the Russian nesting dolls motif that may haunt my nightmares for quite some time. Time to get out a bit less already.
Calming Influence
@Amir Khalid:
Why yes, I’m glad you asked! The bleeding zombie dummy they had on display at the NRA convention looked remarkably like Obama, and on their web site they have a blond female bleeding zombie called “The Ex”! As in:
“HAR HAR HAR! I just done shot my ex-wife! Ain’t I fuckin’ clever!”
shortstop
Where’s commenter matryoshka when we need her?
Mike in NC
One time we got invited to visit a couple in their mid-70s who live in our community. When I spotted a stack of Newsmax magazines on the coffee table, I knew it was time to put down my glass and back slowly out the door.
scav
@shortstop: Nesting comments usually voted down each time we do this — she might be off sulking for a bit. GBGBgbcwCWCW?
gogol's wife
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS):
Please don’t do that. We need the sane people!
shortstop
@scav: I don’t think she’s really pro-nesting comments. She just loves to hide things. ;) XO, G, if you’re seeing this.
Ruckus
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS):
Those two bother you? That’s what they constantly do. They try to get under your skin. That is their only goal. Or at least it seems like it. The fact that they do it for any and all subjects is why they are laughable. It’s a game, not an adult way of communicating, or anything really.
But leaving? Why would you let them win?
Slogby
Well, I think we all want blog theme changes to be safe, legal and rare.
Villago Delenda Est
Do these five things and you’ll get Altzheimer’s:
1. Read Newsmax
2. Listen to Limbaugh
3. Benghazi
4. Read any Breitbat site
5. Vote Republican.
TaMara (BHF)
Oh the butt-hurt over the ads begins. “I’m 2 and I can’t control the impulse to look and now it offends me.” Pleeezzee.
xian
@Chris: actually there’s a thing called sentiment analysis that kinda sorta works in some cases. also the thing where gmail tries not to show you vacation ads to disaster spots in the news, etc.
ThresherK
@xian: “Sentiment” analysis or “sentient” analysis?
(But the way you typed it sounds like a term in search of a good idea nonetheless.)
WereBear
@Chris: Well, it can be programmed any way they like, I suppose. Though I don’t know if they could parse the difference between “Dobson sucks” and “I love Dobson, Liberals suck!” with enough reliability.
Bitter and Deluded Lurker
I use adblock for three reasons: overly obtrusive ads, ads with sound or video and ads with malware. Apparently ads are one of the biggest vectors for malware nowadays.
I occasionally feel a twinge of guilt but if I browse the Internet for a few days without adblock somebody pisses me off enough to turn it back on.
scav
@shortstop: Pro-nesting is for the birds, right? So Happy Mother’s Day to the avian commentors as well! May your worms be close to the surface, your bugs plentiful and your seeds untroubled by thieving chipmunks.
Should come up with something called sediment analysis too, to deal with those ads where the bullshit layering is too deep for safety.
Villago Delenda Est
Five hidden signs of cancer:
1. August.
2. Reading sites like Newsmax and Breitbart.
3. Benghazi
4. “I blame Obama”
5. “George W. Bush wasn’t really that bad a President, if you ignore 2001-2004 and 2006-2009.”
Yatsuno
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): For my sake I hope this is just a temporary time-out. I can certainly understand you needing a break from those two (although I just remember that JSF is very rarely serious) and you ultimately need to do what’s right for you. But you’re an important component in the fabric of this blog and you colourful strand will be missed.
Promise to at the very least lurk okay?
eemom
Glad it’s back to normal, but I must say that was pretty dang funny last night.
Also…..we all joined hands and stuck TOGETHER even as the vortex sucked us in and threatened to annihilate us all. Says a LOT about this community. Sniff.
Schlemizel
@dance around in your bones:
I went back & looked at last nights comments and I still don’t get it. IS this whole thing some sort of inside joke that just passes me by? I feel like there is some sort of group that know wtf is going on & I am not part of it. I have been hanging around here regularly for a few years & still don’t get a lot of the interpersonal relation between some people. And, yes, I am dense
Just Some Fuckhead
@Yatsuno: Nope, I’m always very serious. Forget him, Yats. This is Chinatown.
Calming Influence
I’m working on an implementation of centipede analysis, which will cause ads that you don’t like to scurry of the page on 100 tiny feet.
Just Some Fuckhead
I agree with him about Corner Stone though. What a fucking jerk. Next time I go GBCW, I’m going to let him have it.
Yatsuno
@Just Some Fuckhead: Then where’s my dim sum and orange chicken?
scav
@Calming Influence: Aaahh! Help! Anybody else remember an early Unix(? – think so. that type) windows implementation where when you moved a window, all the little cockroaches hiding underneath it would break out and scurry around to other windows. You could turn them bright neon colors too. Late 80s probably.
CaseyL
@Ash Can: This! I don’t care what ads appear here, but the Newsmax thing did not look like an ad.
Calming Influence
WAH! Someone going by “Just Some Fuckhead” said something mean to me!
I remain amused.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Schlemizel:
I’m with you on this. It’s like the rest of them are part of some weird sex cult with Stuck.
scav
@Yatsuno: McArdle is bringing the dim sum and Boehner the chicken dish, but consume at your own risk bien sûr.
clearly one of my manic days. help.
Mnemosyne
I don’t block ads, but I do use Click to Flash so I don’t have a bunch of dancing dildoes or whatever distracting me from every corner.
I looked for the NewsMax ad and I can see what people are complaining about — it has the exact same format as the legitimate blog content and looks like a tab that you guys set up for people to click on. So, yes, having ads format themselves to look exactly like the content of the blog is kind of a problem, IMO.
trollhattan
This dood says that instead of dicking around the internet, you should be raisin’ rabbits and diggin’ holes on your acreage.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/12/5413809/preppers-ready-for-the-end-of.html
Wonder if he’s been talking with this dood?
http://www.redding.com/news/2013/may/11/triple-homicide-suspect-remains-on-the-loose/
JGabriel
@Villago Delenda Est:
Those are causes? I thought they were symptomatic diagnostic criteria.
.
Keith G
@Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS): Jumping Jehosaphat. It’s performance art. Ya know, like the “vitriolic pack of jackals” tag line that used to rotate.
Just words on screen that might not even represent a condition in the real world and (though often worth a smile imho) should be given even less personal regard than Jason Richwine has for his Hispanic housekeeper.
Buck up, Skippy.
eemom
@Keith G:
SOME of it is. However, there is also some actual human interaction mixed in, and it can be hard to tell which is what, sometimes.
The thread about General Stuck was a good example, imo.
GxB
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’ll take that as a typo, but it works. Sounds like something you get when you read “Wine by the gallon” Ann.
xian
sorry for the doublepost. yes, “sentiment” so not just was it mentioned but what did the person’s attitude or affect about the topic seem to be. pro, con, happy, angry, sad, etc.?
lojasmo
Why is every word in the title capitalized? That’s Dumb.
pokeyblow
Blog commenters are funny. They harsh the shit out of people for no reason, then get all maudlin about the deep meaning of their digital friendships.
xian
scav, i remember the scurrying cockroaches too, if not the configurability of same.
dance around in your bones
@Schlemizel:
If there’s any sort of inside group, I’m not part of it. It’s just from reading here for years and getting a feel for who is spoofing their fuckheadedness and who is just stirring up shit and who is just angry and wants to spew.
I know some longtime commentors connect on Facebook but I don’t do Facebook so I wouldn’t know who.
Just take things with a grain (or TON) of salt and if someone gets too annoying, pie the mofo.
eta: I find JSF very funny, but then I have a dark sense of humor, too.
Just Some Fuckhead
@pokeyblow:
lolz
Just Some Fuckhead
@pokeyblow:
Laura and I called it “e-friends” but we never took it seriously enough to care whether or not one of us had died.
pokeyblow
@Just Some Fuckhead: Being sad about someone dying, even if you’re only marginally acquainted, strikes me as a noble sentiment.
Threatening to hack someone to death because they have a slightly different set of political beliefs than yours, or decline to sufficiently worship those you’ve apotheosized… that’s kind of nuts.
And kind of pathetic… one can only assume a lack of “juice” in real-life lies behind that sort of hair-trigger anger, and a lack of “life” in real-life lies behind that sort of blog-comment-space tribalism.
Just Some Fuckhead
@pokeyblow: Meh, I never cared enough to analyze it.
JGabriel
John Cole, mistermix: FYI, the serif font in the post headlines looks weird and incongruous next to the rest of the page being set in sans serif.
Just noting it here in case you guys are looking for any feedback.
JGabriel
@Calming Influence:
Me too. Given that Balloon-Juice often links to conservative stupidity for free, why not get paid for it?
Calming Influence
@JGabriel:
That, my friend, is an excellent observation, requiring what’s called critical thinking. Unfortunately, Critical Thinking is anathema to Drama and Lulz, and therefore has no place in the Balloon Juice comments.
We’re going to have to let you go.
Maude
I whined about the all Caps Font.
It takes a bit of doing to get a new theme up and running.
ETA I plan to send a series of emails thanking John Cole.
We thank him in comments. Not politely, but…
Villago Delenda Est
@Calming Influence:
Yes, and the really tragic thing is, we were never paying him. That’s what makes it so difficult.