Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

This fight is for everything.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

We won’t go back.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Bark louder, little dog.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Everybody saw this coming.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Let me file that under fuck it.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Site Changes, They Are A-Comin’

Site Changes, They Are A-Comin’

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Folks,

Just a quick note about upcoming site changes.  I mentioned this a few days ago in a comment or two, but didn’t make a full post, so here it is.

The new commenting system is finally ready – not perfect, but good enough to grow with. So the plan is to launch it sometime late next week. I will be working on a few things on the live site between now and then, but mostly on the test site. Once it’s close to ready, I’ll invite a few folks to use it and then work from there.

I have a list of tweaks and edits that have been requested and will try to wrap as many of them in as I can along with the main focus – the commenting system.

I will be doing a number of improvements and have already added long-link word wrap and have removed that nasty video autoplay thing from the sidebar. Not sure where it came from or how it got there as I had to research what it is, but it’s gone. Please alert me should it return.

Which brings me to my final point for now – there have been some alarming reports of WordPress sites being compromised and delivering malware using exploits in old browser/operating systems (Windows XP and older versions of Chrome, IE, and Firefox) as well as older versions of Java, Flash, and Adobe Acrobat.

So please be careful out there and should you get something and think it came from here, please let us know immediately. I strongly recommend anti-malware  software as well as keeping your computer current with all security and service packs.

And, if the OS has been declared dead by its manufacturer, then please plan and budget for a new machine or install something more secure like Linux Mint, a great graphical Linux that runs awesome on older hardware.

Like herd immunity-trusting anti-vaxxers, if you are the weak link, you can actually cause trouble for those around you, even if you don’t suffer too much yourself! All opportunistic malware needs is some fertile ground to then contact home and get much nastier payloads to deploy on your local network or via USB.

That said, I can’t promise I’ll answer all questions or comments or requests in this thread, but I’ll try! And I’ll certainly review tomorrow to ensure I don’t miss comments or issue reports from late comers.

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    chopper

    better keep the comment numbers. can’t figure out who’s flaming who without the comment numbers.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    Just a quick note about upcoming site changes.

    I’ll preemptively speak for many people by saying I hate it.

    And also speak for many other people by saying I love it.

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    …upcoming site changes….

    The Pope was going to comment on those changes but got distracted by Trump….

  10. 10.

    Alain the site fixer

    @RSA: Sorry, turning off the Like/ranking comment features as well. But we will have a comment refresh functionality that will reduce the load on the server, so that should be good for high traffic nights and I expect a lot of those as the election heats up.

  12. 12.

    Loneoak

    For some reason when I try to edit my comments, the popup box is always blank. It may have something to do with a plugin, but I’m not sure which one. I am running Chrome on OSX with AdBlock, Privacy Badger FlashControl and Ghostery. Any ideas?

  13. 13.

    gbear

    I finally dragged myself out of the dark ages during the President’s Day sales and replaced my 8 year old XP computer with a spanking new Windows 10 model. I’m trying to not curl into a fetal ball about how different it is.

    Edit: That said, I’m still glad I didn’t upgrade during Windows 8.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    You are a jewel, Alain. Apologies in advance for all the rage and butthurt that will be coming your way. There’s a reason why every time Cole says that he is planning a redesign he first has to find a new designer, because the last one refuses to have anything to do with Balloon Juice ever again for any amount of money. Your communication skills are to be commended.

  16. 16.

    Chris Bennett

    I would love to see thread headlines in a larger type face. From a graphic design stand point I find it a little disorienting. It all tends to blend together to my eye, and a larger type face would help break up the page into visually distinct sections.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    Hi Alain. I’m seeing a popup that says the following when I visit the site with my admin credentials saved:

    This content is currently locked. If you take over, [insert name of co-blogger] will be blocked from continuing to edit.

    Underneath that text, it displays three buttons labeled: All Pages, Preview and Take over.

    No clue what that’s about. The box doesn’t go away. I logged in on a browser I don’t normally use to tell you about it here.

  22. 22.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Loneoak: Hmm. Making a note of that to dig deeper. I’ll see what Editing a comment does to see what could go wrong. I’ll let you know in my summary of fixes in one of the next maintenance posts (and I’ll come back here to reply as well).

    Majorx4 – there was the option of liking comments but too many folks spoke poorly of the idea, so for now, not doing it.

    As for link button, that plugin will be going away….hopefully very soon but likely not for a few more weeks until that function is hardcoded into the commenting system. Since this is iOS I suspect this is due to a No Pop Ups setting in Settings/Safari which you likely want to leave as-is. This also affects the Blogroll dropdown and the contact List. I’m hoping to fix those; the link function likely won’t get fixed but I suggest using the mobile version of the site.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    Kudos in advance, Alain. I wouldn’t do this for a million dollars.

    We’re moving to a new university-wide student system (based on PeopleSoft, but with massive customizations), so it could be worse. You could be working on this project, which I liken to trying to make a u-turn in the Ohio River on an aircraft carrier. Over 100,000 students, 24 campuses and more than 30,000 employees, all bitching about everything all day long. And for good reason, apparently, because what I’ve seen of my area (student aid/veterans benefits) is not working as advertised.

  25. 25.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Betty Cracker: Hmm. will look ASAP. Must get some cooler air, smooch my wife to welcome her home, and will be back in a couple. I did enable a new plugin to help John and it’s linked to the Edit Post/Edit Page button (and when you click New/Post), so if that’s what your’e doing, let me know so I can turn it off!

  28. 28.

    Lee

    Hopefully I’ll start getting the mobile version on my phone (Chrome) with the update. I’ve got Opera mobile and it loads mobile but chrome does not.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    “…have removed that nasty video autoplay thing from the sidebar. ”

    My eyes and brain and sanity thank you! I do not do well with flashing things.

  34. 34.

    KS in MA

    @gbear: Congratulations! Thinking of doing the same with my old Vista computer. Would love to know what you think of Windows 10 (once you’ve gotten used to it).

  36. 36.

    JustRuss

    Will the upgrade automatically insert Oxford commas, or just delete posts that don’t include one?

  38. 38.

    BruceFromOhio

    Once it’s close to ready, I’ll invite a few folks to use it and then work from there.

    Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! If you look around you will see I have yet to cuss and whine about the fixes, and I echo the upthread comment about being awesome to do this often-thankless and much bitched-about activity.

    @Roger Moore: What is this heresy? EMACS is for the lazy and unimaginative. vi all the way, baby. All your LISP routines are belong to me.

  39. 39.

    Alain the site fixer

    To Amir Khalid and (I think) JR in WV specifically, and to all others: I am so sorry about that video autoplay ad thing. I didn’t look closely enough and thought it was a Google Ad being an ass when it was something hard coded in a widget in the sidebar pointing to some online tv channel.

    I know the two of you are on capped bandwidth accounts and I apologize for not catching that the last time I looked at this.

  41. 41.

    Alain the site fixer

    @JustRuss: Are you making fun of my love of the Oxford comma or just of it in general? It truly is a necessary punctuational choice to reduce confusion and more correctly captures how my thoughts group things.

  42. 42.

    Germy

    @TooManyJens:

    My middle-aged eyes would very much like to be able to turn the background white again instead of gray.

    But other middle-aged eyes were complaining about the bright glare of the white background.

    I’m just grateful it isn’t white text on a black background,
    like classicshowbiz.blogspot.com

  45. 45.

    Alain the site fixer

    Folks, if you want to be part of the new commenting system test, send me your email address at [email protected].

    I’ll send the URL when it’s ready and has enough memory/CPU to handle a dozen or two simultaneous users.

    I won’t share or store your addresses – once I send out the URL and announcement, you’ll never get another email from me.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @TooManyJens: I was probably one of the loudest “please don’t make the background so bright!” people, I have to say that I agree. I suggested to Alain that he check the background code from the old site and just use that one. :-)

    @Germy: see my reply to Jen

  47. 47.

    Germy

    Site Changes, They Are A-Comin’
    It’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain gonna fall…

  49. 49.

    daveNYC

    Watch it, too many people complain about the background color and he’ll put everything inside ‘blink’ tags.

  50. 50.

    Germy

    @WaterGirl: I like how after the site redesign, we all made suggestions (which thankfully were followed for the most part) and now the site basically looks the way it did before the redesign. Except block quotes have vertical lines now, instead of those handsome boxes they used to appear in.

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @gbear:

    spanking new Windows 10 model. I’m trying to not curl into a fetal ball about how different it is.

    Shoulda gone with the Linux Mint.

    Probably less change than Win10 from what you had..

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @? Martin: @geg6: Oh my god. I read “PeopleSoft” and nearly broke out in a cold sweat. Then I got to Martin’s comment and read “Banner” and I nearly had to reach for a drink.

    We are apparently 10 years ahead of you guys, and we are still living with Banner. Ugh.

  53. 53.

    Alain the site fixer

    @TooManyJens: Can’t promise but I’ll try one lighter grey and see how folks feel. Please let me know – I’ll be making a “I changed all these things” list so when you see this, your feedback is very desired. I think it’s a tad dark myself, but was spooked by so many complaints of the brighter white but perhaps I over-adjusted. Might even take a survey once this is all done…

  56. 56.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Betty Cracker: Betty, is it any better now? I was just researching this issue and then got into responding forgetting your most urgent issue!

    You can email me and I’ll reach out directly because this might be what I did, or might be a feature of newish versions of WordPress.

  57. 57.

    ? Martin

    @WaterGirl: It’s astonishing how far behind we are, and Banner won’t be up and running for another 4 years. I don’t know why we chose the IRS as our IT role model, but we did.

  58. 58.

    catclub

    @BruceFromOhio:

    EMACS is for the lazy and unimaginative.

    It takes a lazy man to find an easier way. The intro to the book “Misbehaving” by the now famous economist, Richard Thaler, is amusing.

  60. 60.

    Mike J

    @Chris Bennett:

    I would love to see thread headlines in a larger type face. From a graphic design stand point I find it a little disorienting.

    I may be alone in this, but I think the contrast on body type is awful. Especially in the text edit box while it is active. And frankly I hate sans typefaces for reading large amounts of text.

  62. 62.

    jnfr

    Just another request for increasing the number of posts shown in the RSS feed from the current 7 to at least 10 and 15 would be better. If this is like my own WP installs, it just means flipping a number in the settings.

    Many thanks for all you do.

  63. 63.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Alain the site fixer: This seems to be a fairly pro-Oxford comma group, though never underestimate our ability to find something to bicker about, even if we generally agree.

  66. 66.

    Alain the site fixer

    @A Ghost To Most: Unless your county clerk doesn’t like you and your ballot “has issues”….I always would include a photocopy of my DL with the ballot to be sure there was no “well he didn’t send it when we asked” BS the day after the election. Sad to say that I had to worry about that in a small county, working with the county Democratic party, where I knew all the officials and they knew me. Needless to say this was not a Democratic Clerk, and even when the Clerk had been a Democrat, her staff were all Republicans with less than stellar reputations for acting without prejudice to all voters and party officials.

  67. 67.

    JustRuss

    @Alain the site fixer: Nope, I’m a big Oxford comma fan too. I just find arguments about it amusing…and if you could code an automatic oxford comma generator, that would not only be wicked cool, it would annoy the right people.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @? Martin: Look at it this way, it’s not great to be that far behind but you have 4 years to be grateful you’re not on Banner yet! :-)

  69. 69.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    These “fixes” suck ass. I know you haven’t done them yet, but they still suck ass, and they’ll suck ass even more once we know what they are. They’re the worst. everything anybody has ever done to this site since the first day has made it worse. It’s a clusterfuck of a disaster of a cataclysm. How dare you! It’s ugly, it doesn’t work, and even if it did, I can’t understand it. I know you did this just to piss me off. There’s a special place in hell for you, and anybody who thinks you’ve done a good job here. Just make this blog just the way it was, way back when it started in 1834, or I’m never going to read this shitty blog again, and, believe me, you’ll all miss me, but it’ll be too late. I won’t come back now, even if you do make it the way it was in 1834. You’ve made your beds, and now you’ll have to lie in them. Serves you right. Fuckers.

    O.K., I think I got everything covered here. Now nobody will need to chime in. This has been done as a public service to all Balloon Juice readers. You’re welcome.

  70. 70.

    Bill Arnold

    @Germy:

    Except block quotes have vertical lines now, instead of those handsome boxes they used to appear in.

    Also, block quotes are single spaced (yay!). Alain, any chance we will get single spacing for non-block-quoted commented text? I’ve been thinking about block quoting long comments just to make them single spaced.

  72. 72.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Bill Arnold: Yes. Will do. Just a reminder, I was originally the back-end guy and am not normally a front-end designer. I am a good writer, but design is not my strength, nor is it a passion. So thanks for the specific advice!

    And you too Germy/Watergirl.

    I’m stepping away for a few but I’ll be back. Like I said in the post, I’ll be re-reading this tomorrow to get all the details down. I think that this time next week, folks will be excited, and I’ll be looking – at long last – the end of this project. I hope to stay around but have no more major site plans beyond maintenance and re-applying custom tweaks after updates.

  73. 73.

    Germy

    @catclub:

    How about breadcrumb trails? That nearly worked for Hansel and Gretel.

    Betty Cracker’s hens would gobble them up, and we’d have no way of proving we didn’t vote for Jeb.

  82. 82.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Baud: People who want stability are in the wrong damned place at Balloon Juice. Baud 2016!

  83. 83.

    debbie

    @Bill Arnold:

    I’ve been thinking about block quoting long comments just to make them single spaced.

    Tighter leading will make them more difficult to read. Even so, loss of leading wouldn’t make the posts that much shorter.

  89. 89.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    “Stable chaos” sounds like something an MBA would propose.

    Oh, it definitely is something that MBAs would like, almost as much as “change for change’s sake.”

  91. 91.

    Shortribs

    @Loneoak: Might want try turning Ghostery off, refreshing and trying again to see if that plugin is the problem, I’ve had a lot of issues with Ghostery breaking sites I visit to the point I no longer use it.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @Loneoak: @Shortribs: I am on Safari, and I use Ghostery and AdBlock. On BJ, I have everything turned off in Ghostery except the twitter button, and I do not have the problem you describe.

  94. 94.

    Wyliecoat

    I don’t know if anyone’s already posted this, because the fonts to small to read, but could you please, please optimize the site for phones. I have to keep enlarging and then I miss some stuff on the sides.

    Please, pretty please.

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    Oh, Betty, yes it IS the end of the online world!!

    What will I do for Chicken fixes?!?! Wait, I have a chicken pasta dinner in the freezer. Never mind!

    /snark

    I really like your comments, you do it so swell, with good topic choices too. I don’t know how you live in FL in the summertime. We visited Key West in September and I could, barely, go, outside. Not really an Oxford comma, just fooling around again.

  97. 97.

    Gvg

    May I suggest we not put in any changes the night of a primary? We are coming up on a couple and people here tend to want their news….

  98. 98.

    Cain

    Fuck.. you’re killing me. Here I am a former director of the GNOME Foundation and I have to put up with a distro using a GNOME fork. Come on man.. let’s not do Mint.. how about Debian instead????

  100. 100.

    Keith G

    Please forgive if this is repetitious, but it really would be cool if on the mobile site at the bottom of the thread that there would be some navigation buttons. My first world sense of privilege really gets overheated it if I must physically scroll to the top of the thread so that I may then move to the next thread.

  101. 101.

    Paul in KY

    Alain, it would be nice if you could fix it so that little ‘2’ at bottom of page would take you to the 2nd page. Thanks!

  102. 102.

    Bill Arnold

    Alain, another thing, please don’t break search engine crawling of comments. Some (many) of use use e.g. google to find old comments. (Seriously.) Also, breaking comments into short pages would be pretty irritating.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    Here’s a weirdness (possible bug) spotted on Anne Laurie’s post “Sunday Evening Open Thread: Inspiration (& Other Stuff)”: On the desktop site (Firefox, Windows 10), Laura Olin’s first tweet (about black men) doesn’t show up, only the second one (about black women) does. On the mobile site (Chrome, Android), they both show up—with the Twitter icons. On the desktop site only the text appears. No Twitter icons.

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