‘Morning to all Juicers and a fond “have a great time” to those going to the LA Meetup later today.
I am performing a few quick updates. I have not yet fixed the Read More function but will check to see if/what the theme support folks have to say if I get a chance later.
More pressingly, valued failed-candidate Baud reported that the mobile site is/has been flaking, and someone else also reported this. I just renewed the license which had just expired, and am going to update it, WordPress itself, and a few other plugins in a few minutes.
This should all go smoothly, but should there be a hiccup or two, please say two curses at Alain, and the site will be OK. I have made some notes from the post late last week, but for anyone else, please feel free to report issues, ask for features, etc. I’m not promising to fix them all but will see what I can do over the next few days.
Here’s praying for a miracle tomorrow and that we somehow avoid the dystopian future rushing towards us all.
Aleta
Clap if you believe
Baud
Some might say there is a connection between these two things.
Thanks, Alain.
Jerzy Russian
I am sure the mobile site will be fine, so don’t worry.
jeffreyw
Rescue kitteh, NTBDL. Anyone want him? He’s currently exploring basement amenities.
BellyCat
Thanks for all that you do to keep this jalopy humming!
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: He looks like mini-Tikka. I say, just keep him. Your basement cat has a cute.
Alain the site fixer
@Jerzy Russian: thanks for the laugh! It makes dealing with Windows issues mid-site update a little easier….
jeffreyw
@schrodinger’s cat: The chances are his chances are awfully good.
Kathleen
Thank you, Alain The Site Fixer! Did John give you a cape and decoder ring to go along with your title?
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: We need regular updates. Have the resident kittehs expressed an opinion yet? BTW you look like Santy Paws.
Alain the site fixer
It’s a half-kitler! Well, almost. Ok, stepping away from computer in hopes it finally does reboot so I can get back to work on the site! Right now I’ve done nothing except make a plan, ? At least with my chicken curry leftovers over cauliflower and rice for breakfast, I’m full of good stuff, but yegads I’m sick of seeing “Please Wait” and an endless spinning circle, the first circle of Windows 10 hell, according to al-Dente, the prophetic medieval pastafarian writer.
Alain the site fixer
@Kathleen: truth be told, I brought my own! ?
debbie
Can I ask again that buttons be added to the mobile version that zip to the top or the bottom of the page?
Kathleen
OMG. Somewhat OT but I just laughed out loud reading Cole’s Twitter timeline. And that was just the first half of the screen. Thank you, John Cole!
Schlemazel
Alain, thanks for your hard work. I know there are assholes here who don’t care about how hard what you are doing is or how many things not under your control can go wrong but know that most of us really appreciate all you do.
I gave up hope a long time ago, part of that is just my personality but I have never seen a miracle in my life and have learned to never expect them. I will not be disappointed when one does not appear tomorrow.
Schlemazel
@Kathleen:
Reading his twitter feed has become a regular thing for me. I have an account I never use because 90% of it is twits but JC is often a gift.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Alain:
Can you take a look at how easy it would be to replace the desktop/mobile toggle buttons at the bottom of the page? Currently I am trapped in desktop mode on my tablet and can’t get to the mobile site.
Also, the text size in this comment box is changing radically from small to large every few keystrokes. WTF?
Calming Influence
I’m against site updates, particularly quick hiccupy ones. Nothing personal. I’m sure that there are human beings out there that think quick hiccupy site updates are the cat’s PJs.
I am not one of them.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
I think that’s the normal aging process. You watch hope get it’s ass stomped enough times, you start to lose sight of it’s charm.
JPL
If the site crashes, I suggest that those able pick up today’s NYTimes. One section is nothing but puzzles, including the largest crossword puzzle that the NYTimes has printed. It will take your mind off whatever ails you.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack (tablet): As I mentioned in the previous site thread, in the mobile Chrome browser there are three vertical dots at the upper right corner. Click on that and you’ll see a checkbox for “Request desktop site”. Unclicking that should give you the choice of the Mobile site. I assume something similar exists on your browser, also too.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Alain the site fixer
@Schlemazel: I don’t believe in praying or miracles, so yeah. But I’m out of reason, facts, nobility of my fellow humans, etc. They’re about all that’s left. It sucks to be powerless and watch a major preventable accident happen. But at least after tommorrow, the die will be cast. For now there’s still some hope of an alternative bad outcome – either some other republican shit or Hillary, but either option will tear up the country.
jeffreyw
@schrodinger’s cat: He’s been sniffed a few times but mostly ignored. Homer has had a look through the cage wire, expressed himself with a small hiss and growl but thereafter has ignored him. NTBDL kitteh is cool with everyone, so far.
Alain the site fixer
@Steeplejack (tablet): after I updated it, I turned off thode controls then re-enabled them so they should be back. But that tip might help if your browser is creative; I use Safari on iPhone so that’s my window into the mobile site.
And yes those up and down buttons will come to the mobile site. My present to all. Just not today!
Schlemazel
@Alain the site fixer:
I believe the nation would be ungovernable if Hillary were to win the EC tomorrow so that is right out. I don’t see a single Republican who would not be as bad as Boy Blunder was. While that is a huge improvement over the Melon Melanoma I don’t find it encouraging. Oh, and the nutballs would still riot just not as badly as if Hillary won.
So that leaves someone who will be “acceptable” and not a disaster. I’d gladly entertain names if anyone cares to suggest someone.
Alain the site fixer
@Calming Influence: I did hold off the theme update. I’ll need to prep for that one and there will be a brief period where the site is a little off while i apply necessary customizations to the theme. But that will be later this week and will most likely be 7’am ish and over before 7:30. I’ll announce it.
That said, today’s updates are done. Mobile site should be ok now. If not, please let me know.
Time to go play with electronics and then bake some shortbread. I will check this post later so any late arrivers, feel free to report issues, etc.
Alain the site fixer
Oh one last thing – saving comments seems to take longer compared to before I just made these updates. Does anybody else notice this, or is it just hyper-critical evaluation on my part?
debbie
@JPL:
Arghh to those puzzles.
Kathleen
@Alain the site fixer: Ha! How about a theme song?
Kathleen
@Schlemazel: Yes. He. Is.
Another Scott
Testarino.
Quamquam?
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Doesn’t seem weirdly slow here (Chrome on Chromebook).
Cheers,
Scott.
Pogonip
@jeffreyw: whatcdoes NBTDL stand for?
MazeDancer
When sharing a link to a specific post on Twitter by clicking the little birdie icon here on the site in the post, is it possible for that to make the picture show up in the tweet? Or at least the headline of the post if there is no picture.
It seems to work for the auto post on John Cole’s twitter. But when I click the birdie, all that happens is the link appears in my tweet. Which looks not so tempting for clicking. Or widening the BJ audience. Tried both Safari and Firefox, doesn’t work. Perhaps it does for others.
NeenerNeener
@Pogonip: Name to Be Determined Later?
JPL
@debbie: lol Mustang does the puzzles, and if he picked up the paper, we might not hear from him for days. I’m going to wait to tackle the large one, since it is table size and will take me awhile.
jeffreyw
name be to determined later
I hope that claers thnigs up!
Schlemazel
@Alain the site fixer:
I have noticed that it won’t let me edit a comment, says the comment has loaded but there is no comment in the box to be edited. Small sample size though so it may be coincidental.
Another Scott
@Schlemazel: Interesting. Many of us who have had trouble editing had apostrophes in our ‘nyms. You don’t.
But, IIRC, your ‘nym used to be Schlemezel (or similar) and you somehow got locked out and had to change it. FYWP certainly seems to have it in for some of us. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who hasn’t had any editing problems since Alain’s fixes and since giving up the apostrophe.)
Schlemazel
@Another Scott:
I changed it a very long time ago because originally I had misspelled it. I was going by the way it sounded when I was a kid & I heard it. One of the lonsmen here straightened me out so I fixed it.
EDIT: OK – I can edit so ignore that other comment as a one-off, thanks!
Alain the site fixer
@MazeDancer: I shall investigate. That’s something that should work better, that’s for sure!
Nicole
No curses, regardless of how many hiccups may occur. Thank you for putting in all the hard work!
Alain the site fixer
@Schlemazel: that just happened to me and I’ve never seen it before. This was before updates today so nothing I did today made it happen, but hmmm. Are you by any chance on a tablet, using wifi near edge of range? I normally can edit comments, this one I edited once then went to edit it again and it was blank. And no matter what I did on my iPad, it would load blank. Subsequent comments have been editable like normal.
Schlemazel
@Alain the site fixer:
Sorta – chromebook but right in the heart of the wifi signal. I had never seen that before so at first I wondered if it was connected to any changes. But it is not. Maybe it I just tried at the exact wrong time, maybe it was the phases of the moon.
oatler.
I’m on Chrome and getting “page is trying to download scripts from unauthenticated sources”. I blame Microsoft with their Windows 10 holocaust. Other than Cole’s dewlapped pic on here the other day, site is fine.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m at the movie theatre waiting to see the Bolshoi’s “Nutcracker.” I hope it can work some magic on me a help put me in a slightly more holidayish state of mind. Because I’m mostly not feeling it so far.
Bah humbug. Bring on the sugarplums!
SiubhanDuinne
Hope everyone attending the LA Meetup has a great time! Be sure and provide pictures later so the rest of us can be envious.
Josie
@Ruckus: I think I love you. Or at least your lovely cynical outlook.
Baud
Can anyone recommend a good password manager for Android? I don’t want something that requires me to create an account. Thanks.
wmd
May you find yourself in thirst, and have 3 choices – dirty water, Coors lite, and low grade tequila as the only options.
May your cat wander and return home 2 days later.
Calming Influence
@Alain the site fixer:
Good God, don’t get me started on theme updates!!
[grumble grumble curmudge]
Redshift
@debbie:
And next/previous buttons at the bottom as well?
Calming Influence
@jeffreyw: There’s nothing wrong with “Enty Beedle” as a cat name.
Gravenstone
@Pogonip: Name To Be Determined Later
Alain the site fixer
@Redshift: yep
Mike J
@Alain the site fixer: Twitter cards are what you want.
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: NTDBL?
schrodinger's cat
Test
fuckwit
@Schlemazel: that’s rule by mob. BaD bad bad. I don’t care who riots. If we let the most violent rioters constrain our options, then by default the nation is already ungovernable.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Another Scott:
No, you’re wrong. My browser (Chrome) has “Request desktop site” unchecked, but I have the desktop site. This is not a browser thing, it is a specific feature of Balloon Juice. There is a desktop site and a different mobile version of the site. There used to be buttons at the bottom to switch between the two, but they have disappeared, for some reason.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Alain the site fixer:
The desktop/mobile buttons are not back on my tablet (Android, Chrome, currently in desktop mode). They do appear on my Android phone (Chrome, currently in mobile mode), but I don’t want to switch to desktop mode to test for fear that I won’t be able to get back.
Also, the comment box text is still alternating between very small and very large. Weird.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Steeplejack (tablet):
ETA: My phone has been in it mobile mode for months, probably since before the disappearance/reappearance of the buttons.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack (tablet): I know what you (and the poster in the earlier thread) are talking about. :-) I too was stuck in mobile mode there after clicking the button at the bottom (as a test). I then found the 3-vertical-dot thingy and “request desktop version” checkbox (in Chrome, anyway).
I know how the site is supposed to work, and something’s clearly broken in the code here, but at least in my case there was a work-around. Sorry it didn’t work for you.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Another Scott:
There used to be a couple of ungainly workarounds for the persnickety desktop/mobile buttons. But that is a different problem from not having the buttons at all.
Thank you for your attempt to help, but I am beyond that point.
ETA: I am in desktop mode and need to get to mobile mode, if that was not clear above. The desktop mode is unreadably small on my tablet or phone.
Alain the site fixer
@Steeplejack (tablet): but at least you can zoom!
Another Scott
@Steeplejack (tablet): I’ve got a V10 with Android 6.x. When I scroll down to the bottom of the Desktop version of the site, I don’t see buttons for changing to the mobile version, at the very bottom of the page there is “Switch to Mobile Version” in blue text on a black background. That isn’t there for you?
The actual HTML is this link. Maybe that will give you some clues? Maybe adding the wptouch… text will fix things for you.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Oh, Alain, if you’re still reading…
Adding a reply count to the left- and right-flyout buttons for the Previous/Next posts would be helpful. E.g. if there were 66 replies to the previous thread the last time I read it, then seeing that in the left flyout button would save me a click and save some load on the server.
Maybe something like:
“Sunday Morning Garden Chat:
Winter Solstice Prep (66)”
Oh, and having it update that number in parentheses automagically when the button flies out (without having to actually have to refresh the page) would be nice, also too.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Alain the site fixer:
Yes, and I have to do it on every new page, after every comment I write and at random other times besides that. It’s a major nuisance.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Let me make this as simple as possible, so you don’t continue to think that I am an idiot. At the bottom of my tablet’s Balloon Juice pages (Chrome, desktop mode), the black area contains only the “Creative Commons” and “Read the site license” stuff, with the tiny bottom-of-page and top-of-page arrows parallel with that text on each side. There is no other text—blue, hidden or otherwise—below that. I even did a “select all” command to highlight any and all text that might be there. There is none other than the boilerplate stuff. The bottom of the page looks exactly the way the desktop site looks on my notebook computer (Windows/Chrome). There is no option to go to the mobile site.
I just performed an experiment on my old tablet (Nexus 7, Android, Chrome). In mobile mode it shows the desktop/mobile toggle buttons at the bottom of the page. This tablet has been in mobile mode for months, except for a couple of experiments as below.
I changed to desktop mode and arrived there after refreshing the page a couple of times. The “Switch to mobile” text now appears at the bottom of the page. Note: It is parallel to the top-of-page and bottom-of-page arrows and below the boilerplate. And it is clearly visible even to this simpleton’s eyes.
I hypothesize—but have no way to prove—that if you start from the mobile mode and go to desktop mode, FYWP sets some internal switch to show the toggle buttons at the bottom so you can go back to the mobile mode (and then back and forth). If you start from the desktop mode, however, the toggle buttons do not show up, so you have no way to get to the mobile mode in the first place. That is the crux of the problem.
P.S. Your link merely takes me to the top of this page and lops off the
?wptouch_switch=mobilesuffix, which means that it does not exist in the version of the page that I am seeing. Another indication that FYWP is setting some internal variable(s) when it switches between modes, but you first have to get to a position where you are able to switch between modes.P.S.S. Hopefully this will give Alain some useful information to fix the problem.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Sorry I’m getting your dander up. Just trying to help. (Some people have trouble seeing similar color intensities, etc., – I was just checking).
It’s probably not related, but I remember years ago at one point being unable to view B-J when I wasn’t “logged in”. I realize lots of weirdness can happen in such a complex bit of code…
On a lark, I decided to play with Firefox on my V10 just now. It comes up in the Desktop mode. I click the Change to Mobile link at the bottom of the page and it goes to the Mobile version. If I click the 3-vertical-button menu and request the Desktop version checkbox, then it goes to the Desktop version. At that point, the Change to Mobile link isn’t present (at least part of the time). Unchecking the check box will let me get back to the Mobile site, but not back to the Desktop (at least part of the time). It seems a little flaky, but eventually I’m able to see either the Desktop or the Mobile site and switch between them.
It seems to behave a little more reliably under Firefox than Chrome, but it’s still not 100%.
Maybe try playing around with the 3-dot menu at the upper right, toggling it off-and-on and seeing what happens in each state, if you’ve got nothing else to do. ;-)
Have a good evening.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
My dander was upped because I have tried to be painfully accurate and complete in my problem reporting. I’m not just some A-hole popping off about random stuff he doesn’t like—okay, well, I am just some A-hole popping off—but I also spent 25 years in software development, and when I get into Q.A./testing/debugging mode I try to be serious. This is not just some style preference disagreement; it’s a bona fide bug.
I did try “playing around with the 3-dot menu at the upper right,” and it did precisely dick to solve the problem. In fact, most of the time it posted a blank page while telling me that it had correctly refreshed the current Balloon Juice page.
You didn’t say, but I presume your V10 is an LG cell phone, not a tablet? My other theory is that FYWP may decide which version of the site you get initially based on your display size. My new tablet has an 8" screen, which it may think is big enough to not offer the mobile option. (Obviously it doesn’t know how big the display is physically, but it can check the screen resolution.)
The final thing is that this tablet is new; I got it the day before Thanksgiving. I theorize that your V10 had internal variables set by FYWP* (perhaps in the register or in its own cache) a long time ago, and they are there to be read by FYWP regardless of which browser you use to access the site. My new tablet came in after the toggle buttons disappeared and (presumably) those variables no longer existed.
* For troubleshooting purposes, FYWP = WordPress and extensions as installed on the Balloon Juice sites.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: My V10 has a 5.7″ 2560×1440 display, it is a phone, and I’ve had it all of ~ 3 weeks. ;-) I do almost all of my Balloon-Juice stuff on a PC or Chromebook because of the huge hassle it is to cut-and-paste links and the like on a phone.
Alain said at one point that he was thinking about giving humble posters the ability to post images. That might have reduced the amount of talking past each other that was going on, but of course it didn’t happen.
Again, sorry for the annoyance. Here’s hoping that Alain is able to fix whatever the issue is.
Cheers,
Scott.