Hi Folks, I hope you are all doing well this cold December day. Hard to believe we’ll soon be ushering in 2017, and with current events I still wonder if I’m in a fever dream. I just. can’t. seem. to. wake. up. Aside from this mortal terror, I hope that you and yours have a wonderful Holiday.
So I’m putting this post up to get some fresh tech issue reports/requests and to help solve the “Read More” issue. It appears to be the theme malfunctioning so I’m working with their great support folks. I’m making this post for them to analyze and help me fix the issue.
So right now, the Read More function shouldn’t work. I created it using the button in the Visual editor for making a new Post.
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End Diagnostics
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So folks, feel free to throw out tech issues/peeves, etc. in the comments. I’ll see what I can do. I will not be actively in the comments, but as I am waiting in lines, etc. I will see what I can say. Later today I will make a list of issues and will see what I can do over the next few days.
No promises, but I’d love to make things a bit better for all, except some of the asshats who insult or otherwise bully other commenters. I’d prefer to make the site work worse for them, but they’ll have to settle for the coal that’s replaced their heart.
Oh – if anyone can send me links/contact info for the filters/tools/etc. that the community has created, that would be great. I have a few requests from commenters on what to do/how to block certain commenters, and I know that some users might prefer the More Better Balloon Juice script or whatever it’s called. Due to my role, I should keep track of such things, but haven’t. I plan to, going-forward.
Also, open thread!
Jerzy Russian
The “read more” function seemed to work for me.
Alain the site fixer
@Jerzy Russian: Doesn’t it take you to the top of the post instead of to the next section of text after what you read/before the Read More link?
Jerzy Russian
@Alain the site fixer: Yes, it took me to the top of the post. In the main post the text ended after “read more”, so I just assumed that that particular function was working.
Keith P.
Peeve: no JumpToEnd function. Scrolling to leave a comment on a phone can sometimes turn into a swipe-a-thon. (would use Ctrl-End on a PC)
Ahasuerus
Hi Alain. The main troll-blocker that I (used to) use is called Balloon Juice Troll-b-Gone, and was based on an earlier script by commenter Cleek. It runs as a Greasemonkey script, and you can find a relatively recent copy of it at the userscripts-mirror site.
Unfortunately, the script is no longer usable with the newer BJ DOM, as it makes the comment entry HTML tag buttons (b, i, link, quote) disappear. I’ve done some basic troubleshooting, but haven’t come up with a solution. And the author seems to have vanished. Would it be possible for this site to host that script, or a corrected version? That would be ideal.
And thank you for all of the work you have done on this site. I realize we’re a cantankerous bunch on the best of days, but you have truly done yeoman service here.
West of the Cascades
When I click on links to John Cole posts on this site I expect photos of cats to appear. But photos of cats do not always appear. Please to fix.
(the Read More function seems to work just fine for me, and thank you for all the work that you do to please us jackals!)
Roger Moore
@Ahasuerus:
Cleek has kept his pie filter up to date, so you might want to try going back to it as your anti-troll device. I can guarantee that the latest version of Cleek’s filter still works; it has been protecting my sanity for quite a while.
p.a.
Alain when I put a comment link to my tumblr page the comment doesn’t post, in fact it disappears into the ether, yet the link works for my commenter name. iPad Air, wifi only. Any ideas?
Keith P.
@West of the Cascades: Now that I think about it, what ever happened to the ads with the woman straddling a cucumber? Are you going to bring those back?
Steeplejack
Alain,
You might look at reinstating the desktop/mobile site toggle switches at the bottom of the page. (I don’t know exactly when they vanished.) I would like to switch to mobile mode on my 8" tablet (Android, Chrome) but cannot, because the buttons no longer appear. (This is also true on my Windows/Firefox computer, but it’s not an issue there.)
The toggle buttons do appear on my cell phone (Android, Chrome). But I am afraid to see if they work, because I’m in mobile mode and don’t want to switch to desktop mode and then not be able to get back if the buttons disappear.
debbie
Any chance of adding the zip up and zip down buttons to the mobile version?
Big Picture Pathologist
I usually read the site on a Galaxy Note 4 phone. Yesterday I noticed that I’m getting the “desktop”version of the site and when I click on an entry it does not offer the “next post/previous post” links at the bottom of the entry before the comments, and when the phone asks if I want the site to be more mobile friendly and I click it it’s easier to read but comments are gone. I’m not sure whether this is a website issue or maybe I screwed with some phone settings.
BellyCat
Small holiday wish for mobile site:
Add the “Previous Post / Next Post” links (that are before the comments) also to the bottom of the comments.
Would save lots of scrolling!
schrodinger's cat
The ability to edit my own comments would be nice.
Another Scott
@Alain the site fixer: That’s the way the “Read more” link from the front page behaves for me – it shows the full start of the post once clicked. (Chrome on Winders 7) – rather than scrolling the page down to the text just after the “Read more” anchor (as it should).
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
I use Cleek’s Pie Filter with TamperMonkey on my (non-mobile) browsers on my PCs and Chrome laptops to sanely browse here.
BJ Pie Filter.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yarrow
@schrodinger’s cat: Can you not edit any of your comments? I found that I couldn’t edit a comment that ended in a :). I wonder if the apostrophe in your name somehow affects your ability to edit your comment. I’ve been able to edit mine with my one word no symbols name.
Another Scott
The Other Chuck’s scripts for here can be found at UserStyles.org. It has links to the Troll-B-Gone and Even Betterer Balloon Juice scripts (upper right).
I think The Other Chuck has posted here after BJ updates about how difficult it is to make his scripts work properly because of various broken plugins. See, e.g. these threads.
HTH. Thanks for your efforts!
Cheers,
Scott.
greengoblin
This seems silly, but I would love the Reply button be moved. I almost always read this site on my Android phone (mobile version) and when scrolling down as I read the comments I hit the reply accidently. This sends me to the comment box and I have to go back and find where I was. The Reply link is right where I scroll – right side of the screen.
Sab
@greengoblin: I have the same problem.
Seanly
Are you looking for any tech peeves/issue? Coz I got one. Chrome (ver 55) stopped working on my Windows 10 laptop. Tried turning off Kaspersky firewall, uninstalled a couple of different times. Very annoying as my password software only has an extension with Chrome…
max
I had not even noticed the read more issue. Nothing to say except that the ‘read more’ link is the same as the permalink for the page, which is not what you want.
max
[‘I have no other problems here.’]
henqiguai
Just refreshed the tab and saw the post above. Cole is fat. Can you fix it?
J R in WV
If anyone would care to post step-by-step explain like I’m five directions for implementing any pie filter, I would be grateful.
I’m running Firefox V 50.1.0 on Linux Ubuntu V 14.04 right now. I have installed a couple of different ad-blockers using the Ubuntu software installer tool – I have used Term boxes to do things, but I do need pretty complete directions as I’m a long way from understanding Linux internals.
Alain, keep up the good work. Thanks for the upkeep and care you provide technically!
NotMax
Still don’t understand what possible purpose other than bloat the circle with the number of replies serves. That info is already in the post proper.
Another Scott
@J R in WV: I don’t think the fact that you’re running Linux complicates things very much. I’ve installed Cleek’s Pie Filter on the Chrome browser on a Chromebook, and have installed things in FF on Linux (but it has been a while).
For Cleek’s Pie Filter on Firefox:
1) Install TamperMonkey for Firefox. Alternatively, you may be able to simply install it from the Mozilla AddOns “store”
2) Download and install Cleek’s Pie Filter from his web page. Worst case, simply dropping the script on a FF window should install it (I think).
HTH a little. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Janet Strange
@Steeplejack: yep. I made the mistake of hitting the “desktop” button on my phone and now can’t get back to the mobile version. I deleted the balloon juice bookmark and restarted my phone but that’s all I can think of to do. Still stuck in desktop mode with no way to get back. And can’t read bj on my phone bc the type is too small with the desktop version.
Help!
smike
@Alain the site fixer: I use Firefox, and for a while the button worked (after an update). But it stopped working correctly shortly thereafter.
As a general style/function thing, I would not mind seeing some sort of symbol to mark the jump point.
Thanks for the work.
Another Scott
@Janet Strange: On Android, click the three vertical dots on the upper right of the window. There will be a drop down list that says “New Tab, New incongnito tab, …, Request desktop site with a check box.” Click the check box and you should get the B-J desktop site.
Presumably there’s something similar on iOS.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Scott.