Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The willow is too close to the house.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

This really is a full service blog.

Let there be snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

He really is that stupid.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Not all heroes wear capes.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Everybody saw this coming.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance / Prepare For Turbulence: Site Update Rolling Out Soon

Prepare For Turbulence: Site Update Rolling Out Soon

by | 52 Comments

This post is in: 

ETA: Site was updated with the excellent help of Hosting Matters’ excellent support folks, our procedure is fixed for the next time. I’ve still lots of tweaking to do. Recipe widget coming live soon.

 

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I’m still puttering about trying to figure out why the Read More links don’t create the anchor like they’re supposed to, but I will be launching the updated files, new plugins, etc. shortly.

I’m using a software repository to apply changes already working on my test server, but last time I did this, there were some permission issues. If they re-occur, I will note them and will have the Hosting company fix it as that is out of my control. Their script, made after the last update/twitch, resets permissions on files, so finger-crossed, there should be no issues.

Worst case scenario, the site is wacky for five minutes.  Hopefully that won’t happen.

Once the new files are all good, and the dust settles, there should be a few welcome tweaks:

  1. A recipe plugin to make using them, copying them, finding them, etc. much easier.
  2. Adam has his own “Silverman on Security” section from Quicklinks.
  3. Bare link issue should be solved.
  4. This should mean that editing comments going into moderation is solved. If not, speak up!
  5. I made the video add force HTTPS so no more security warnings about mixed content. This may break some work-arounds, so if it is an issue, make sure you’ve adjusted your filter to https
  6. Fixed mobile site icons being “vertical columned”
  7. Once main site updates hit, I will update the mobile sit and plugin so that will be a bit later this pm.
  8. Amazon ad will be added to mobile site and I will make a few tweaks to it.
  9. Blogroll opens in same window because if it forces a new window, many devices block popups. So error reports galore, not to mention bad user experience. Deal with it or shift-click to open it in a new window/tab!
  10. Looking at adding CAPTCHA or such to Contact FrontPager form; we’ve been getting too much crap.
  11. Arrow controls on main site – there are hovering arrow controls to jump to top/bottom and prev/next post on the main desktop site.  They are great tools, so please use them if you don’t already.
  12. There are no arrow controls on the mobile site but you can us links to jump to comments, and there are visual controls for next/prev post.  The one thing missing is arrow to jump to top of screen, but for mobile devices, there are simple built in shortcuts:
    1. iOS: double-tap top of screen and it will jump to top of browser page
    2. Android: There is a simple technique. I was wrong, the technique I read about was BS. There is no jump to top outside of some apps that you can get, but I can’t recommend them as I do not know them.  Apparently you can swipe to top of window much faster in Android than iOS. I will get some solution soon for the mobile site.
  13. I plan a few slight font tweaks and such, but that’s pretty much it.

 

Hope the changes are good to you all, but please feel free to use this post to complain, troubleshoot, etc.  I hope to push the changes about 3 Eastern. Be well.

ETA: The site is secured using HTTPS, using an SSL certificate from the Let’s Encrypt initiative. I have one Opera user reporting some errors about the certificate authority, but I am mentioning this in case anyone else gets weird certificate notifications.  We’re legit, and I suspect that the Opera version is old, or that the list of CAs that install is using is outdated but not updated.  Similar issues may occur to users of other older browser versions or OSes without recent builds. But please do report any SSL/certificate issues.

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  2. 2.

    Anoniminous

    Worst case scenario, the site is wacky for five minutes.

    Trying to square “the site is wacky for five minutes” and “Balloon Juice.”
    :
    :
    :
    :
    :
    :
    :
    :
    :
    Nope, can’t do it.

  3. 3.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Villago Delenda Est: Site Not Found. In what respect? All I can figure is old links to http not being redirected to https but my mind is not in that ‘hood right now. So please clarify

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    Looking at adding CAPTCHA or such to Contact FrontPager form; we’ve been getting too much crap.

    Shrug. Well, I never email the frontpagers anyway.

  5. 5.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Amir Khalid: Once we get the recipe widget working well, I hope we can entice you to share some family recipes; I know I am not the only one here who loves Malay and nearby cuisine.

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Alain the site fixer: Well, often when I’m refreshing a particular post (to keep current on the comments) I’m told the site can’t be found. Then, I try reloading directly from the main page, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This is the only site I have that problem with.

  12. 12.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Miss Bianca: I replied to your comment last week – sorry I missed it! Pop me an email at please at getmechamot dotcom so when I get my butt to Canon, we can meetup – either at Dorothy’s Tamales, or on the West Slope, or somewhere else appropriate!

  14. 14.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Villago Delenda Est: Thanks for the additional detail. To be blunt, that’s not right!

    Not sure what or why. I’ll do some investigation. Making the long-awaited switch to using a CDN might alleviate that, come to think of it.

  15. 15.

    Royston Vasey

    Any chance of stopping the auto-playing ora.tv ad/video featuring Larry King and Jessie Ventura? So annoying

  17. 17.

    Major Major Major Major

    I don’t know what is causing this, but occasionally I’ll try to read something on mobile and it’ll go to a 404. It won’t let me read anything. The page loads, and then a second later it redirects to a 404.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    Okay, there are “Mayhew on Insurance” and “Silverman on Security” Quick Links. Where are the “Cracker on Chickens” and “Cole on Pet Waste Removal” links? Is it because our areas of expertise might be deemed insignificant and/or gross? No fair! (j/k, obvs.)

  23. 23.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Betty Cracker: I’d love to get Betty on Life and Cole on Crap, but that’s most of the blog anyways, or so it seems. Perhaps we’ll see how the gallery functions work after the dust settles; you continuously put out great imagery that should be collected in one view/area.

  24. 24.

    Alain the site fixer

    First snag, So working with Hosting folks to fix as I am not admin on the server, unlike with my test setup. Luckily I learned last time to plan better so site is still working for users.

  25. 25.

    John Revolta

    Every time there’s an update the site works worse for me.

    Of course it may have something to do with the antique browsers I’m using on my steam-powered computin’ machine.

    Anyway, just in case: it’s been nice knowing you all.

  27. 27.

    Mike J

    Looks like you caused a bunch of tweets about old postings, but it;s not really an issue. Just odd to seem them pop up.

    Can you explain to posters how to post pictures along with stories that don’t appear as a whole post on their own?

  32. 32.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Mike J: I’ll see what I can do.

    @Amir Khalid: Sorry about that.

    There are rights issues, I can’t solve them without Hosting folks and so files are mid-update. And no idea why the plugin is re-sending out tweets. If I try to access that page, it wants me to update site db and I don’t want to do that until I know the files are sorted. So we’re blessed that it’s working as it is right now. I’m not really on Twitter or FB so please let me know here if you still see stuff

  34. 34.

    David Rickard

    Alain the site fixer: This update is gonna get pretty interesting.
    Reader: Define “interesting”.
    Alain the site fixer: [deadpan] Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die?
    Alain the site fixer: This is the sysadmin. We have a little problem with our upload sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then – explode.
    Reader: We’re gonna explode? I don’t wanna explode!

  36. 36.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    The back button is completely not working, and that annoying script that sloooooowly scrolls the comment to the top when you click on the date is back. IIRC, they were linked before.

    That scroll script is the web equivalent of the dancing text that all Powerpoint beginners think is just SO COOL!

  37. 37.

    Alain the site fixer

    Yeah this sucks because all I can do is send an email. There is no number to call. I could have fixed it on my server in 20 seconds. But it’s a weird situation with their permissions such that even a script they run every 5 minutes isn’t taking. Like I said, I’m afraid to update the WordPress database so that means not going to the admin pages. I fear doing so will make the site worse until the permission issue is fixed – we’re kind of in a state of grace, limbo. It CAN get worse.

  39. 39.

    Alain the site fixer

    Files fixed it looks like but I’m going to wait for email from support before I do the files again to be sure they land, then the db update.

    And then I can work on a few style things, etc… And then the mobile site and we’ll be done for this stage.

  44. 44.

    Miss Bianca

    @Alain the site fixer: OK, will do! If I screw up your email addy I’ll come crawling back via your front-pager link here (you left one in, right?) ; )

    And once again, thanks for all the work you do on the site!

  45. 45.

    The Other Chuck

    You can fix the back-button behavior with “Even Betterer Balloon Juice”. Google for it, I’m tired of fighting FYWP.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    In case no one has mentioned it, the back button is broken again. FF/ Windows 7. I am presuming it is/will be one of the tweaks on the tweak list.

  49. 49.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Welp, editing still throws me in moderation – at least with a bad anchor link.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Ruviana

    Hi Alain:

    The back button now takes me to the front page, not to the comment I was trying to return to. Prolly what Omnes said but some more description. FF/Win10

  51. 51.

    The Other Chuck

    Looks like posting a proper link just causes the post to be silently swallowed.

    Slow clap.

    Disgusted sneer.

    Bye.

Comments are closed.