note: I pulled this and scheduled it for a later publish to not stomp on Betty’s post. Sorry for the brief stomp, Betty!
Just a quick update:
The video as is back – yay more site revenue for good causes.
The video ad is back – boo, it makes the page refresh.
Well folks, we’re working on it. We’re seeing what we can do to make the best of both worlds.
Please don’t block all the ads on the site, they’re the lifeblood that a) keeps the community going, and b) ensure that good pet causes are supported. And, should you ignore this plea, once the refresh issue is past, please consider white-listing the site so that we get more ad revenue!
For today, perhaps tomorrow, as we experiment with some settings, the ad may go away, make the page refresh, or show an error message. Please be patient while we try to get it right.
This wouldn’t even be seen by you if we had a test server, but which we don’t…yet. I just started setting it up today, and expect to have it fully functional by the end of the week. When ready, it will be an almost clone of the full site, with a few configuration differences. It will be a full-time dedicated server for experimenting with new or changed features, etc. So less bumps in the future as we return to the ideal of a full-time test/development server!
Alongside this will be a proper Issues tracker so that problems, ideas, complaints, etc. about the technical side of the site can be put in one central, public place. No more spreadsheets, to-do lists, emails, comments, phone calls, etc. – just a simple, organized list of Issues.
More details will be forthcoming, but it is my sincere hope that we’ll be able to improve this site, smooth over rough patches, and hopefully add a feature or two here and there that makes your reader/commenter life better.
As a final piece of news, you may have noticed that there is an In Memoriam widget at the top of the sidebar. It’s temporary, just there for a few weeks, but please do keep greennotGreen’s family in your thoughts and prayers, and if you have a bit to spare, consider a donation to honor her, and to thank her and her family for sharing her journey. I know that I am changed from going through this; I suspect many of us are.
I don’t expect to be in the comments much, but feel free to post tech issues, ideas, etc. I am taking good ideas and adding them to the list. That won’t mean they all get done, but once they’re official issues, at least there’s a process and explanations if an issue is closed without resolution.
ETA: Please give feedback below if the desktop site is working better for you than earlier today or yesterday, or if it’s the same, or worse. If it is the same as before, also let me know. I made some changes that seemed to fix things but then I just saw what I think was the partial reload, so now I’m not sure what to think.
Betty Cracker
No worries! Thanks for adding that widget. The desktop seems a little faster to me.
Alain the site fixer
Thanks for the suggestion. FYI i downgraded you from Admin to Editor. You were not alone in that change – too many folks had Admin rights. If you ever need anything, ask me, John, Anne Laurie, or Adam.
ps, nice PSA.
pamelabrown53
@Alain the site fixer: #2.
Alain, I know my question is unimportant to the working order of Balloon Juice. Still, I’d love to ask if there is an easy way to code the reply with its number. Since we don’t do nested comments, it would be much easier to follow a particular conversation in a thread of many.
Thanks for all you do.
NotMax
Just noting that ora.tv is co-owned by Larry (*cough* Russia Today *cough*) King and Carlos Slim.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: So you’re saying Balloon-Juice is on the Russian payroll too!
ETA: More relevant to us is that they’re still using some flash content for whatever ungodly reason.
SiubhanDuinne
Thank you so much for the In Memoriam link. It’s a nice tribute to gnG, and a helpful reminder to me to make a donation in her memory.
pamelabrown53
@SiubhanDuinne: #6.
Yes. Alain is not only a fixer but sensitive to our needs and wishes. His early morning travel post is yet another example.
PaulB
At the moment, I’ve whitelisted the site in both Ad Block Plus and Ghostery, so you will get revenue when I visit. Any thoughts about a PayPal link so that I can donate and then have a guilt-free and ad-free experience?
Edited to add: Doh! I now see the PayPal link.
Alain the site fixer
@pamelabrown53: I’ll put it on the list. It’s been there before, forget why it was shelved. But I know more now, have more resources, and at least this way, there’ll be an official “why not” explanation if shelved again.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
That was quite sweet. Many thanks, Alain..
pamelabrown53
@Alain the site fixer: #8.
Thank you; you’re the best.
Alain the site fixer
@SiubhanDuinne: coming soon, a get involved widget of some form, Just a link doesn’t seem enough. Thus still pondering. And really just waiting to get test site setup pre-tested changes here.
SiubhanDuinne
@pamelabrown53:
Absolutely! I look forward to starting my day with it M-F.
SiubhanDuinne
@Alain the site fixer:
Nice. I love that you are so responsive to this community — and that this is the kind of community that invites responsiveness.
Alain the site fixer
@pamelabrown53: thanks. It’s important to see and notice the beauty around you, and to always keep “another place I want to see because of a picture I saw or story I read ” in mind. I fear it will get much worse before better with Trump, Republicans, growing fascism and authoritarianism at home and abroad.
Laertes
Thanks for the reminder. I run an adblocker and I’d forgotten to whitelist this site. It’s done now. Thanks for everything.
Alain the site fixer
@SiubhanDuinne: I love this community, this family. It’s great to be able to help out, maybe improve it some here and there, and help our fabulous front pagers continue their great service. Do stay tuned because I have a few guest posters I’m hoping to present soon, on specific topics. Coming first, hopefully this Friday, is a post on Oceanography. Should be very interesting!
Mary G
Alain, you are a marvel and have decreased the number of “fuck all you fucking people, stop emailing me” posts by JGC 100%.
Lately the side bars to go to the next and last posts have shown up for me only sporadically, especially on my Kindle Fire. When you first installed them, I hated them because I was always accidentally hitting them. Now I can’t live without them. Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
Desktop is fine. No changes. I never get sound on the video ad, so I just ignore it. Might as well put Putin’s money to good use for once.
Steeplejack
@pamelabrown53:
Can you explain more what “[coding] the reply with its number” improves?
If I want to see the comment you’re replying to, all I have to do is click the hyperlink of the person’s name in your reply, which takes me up to that comment—much easier than looking for it by its number. And then to come back to your reply, I just hit the back button (which, admittedly, is not working perfectly right now). I don’t see what a number improves.
You can also use this method to go up through a whole conversation and then step back down through it.
jeffreyw
looks good on mobile!
Alain the site fixer
Warning: site might be a bit sluggish for the next few hours, hopefully you won’t notice too much.
And on a completely unrelated note, anyone here play Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare? I just bought the Ozzy Man (Australian) voice pack. My lords, so, so funny. If you’re looking for some silly things to enhance your duck, fly, shoot and scoot fun, look no further, fair dinkum!
Alain the site fixer
@Steeplejack: I think she means the visual cue – the number. Which is what I would think would be helpful to include, and that’s just the kind of small enhancement I’m hoping to introduce. But first on the test server so it doesn’t kill commenting while I’m testing it, lol.
ETA: and for those using Assistive Technology to access the site (screen readers, I know you’re out there!), I bet the comment number might help them too.
pamelabrown53
@Alain the site fixer: #14,
Yes, yes, yes.! Not only the beauty of the planet but how the physical, historical and cultural restraints (the anti progressive forces) of countries and regions impact of the here and now.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: It’s the first step on the slippery slope that ends up with threaded/nested comments.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Don’t tease us like that.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
pamelabrown53
@Steeplejack: #18.
Thanks. I get there’s a way to do this but it is not adherent to the law of parsimony. I think if you hit “reply” the number should automatically appear in the response. I think it would help us better track threads within a thread, while still preserving the immediacy and providing a map to those who just joined.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I wouldn’t use the word tease like that. It’s not nice.
SiubhanDuinne
@Alain the site fixer:
Excellent!
Steeplejack
@Alain the site fixer:
I get that she means the number. (She’s adding them manually on her replies.) I just don’t see what it gets you, especially when you can just click the person’s name and go right to the comment, wherever it is.
I guess what I was wondering was if she didn’t know about that and was trying to solve the “go back to the comment being replied to” problem with visible comment numbers.
I can maybe sort of see the point for screen readers, although I don’t have much experience with how that whole interface works.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s suspicious as hell. I’m against it!
piratedan
@Steeplejack: the big thing is, if you’re responding to multiple people with various comments, then it becomes more problematic. Add in the possibility of people having their comments in moderation, then your numbering factor gets tossed out when they are released.
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: “I smell…nested comments…”
shuck-shuck (12ga)
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone:
Stop wasting the shells.
debbie
Yes, thanks for adding the Memoriam up top.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
Also that you can’t stop it from playing.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Also, her post to Alain’s post labeled #8 is actually #9 on my feed. This could get very confusing.
Steeplejack
@piratedan:
Good point. Subsequent comments get renumbered when a comment comes out of moderation.
Steeplejack
@pamelabrown53:
I don’t understand any of this.
Raoul
Thanks for this, Alain. The ad causing the auto-refresh is annoying, but I also get that in a capitalist culture, the site needs to be at a minimum self-sustaining.
So far BJ has avoided the bullshit that makes me flee so many sites: popovers and other aggressive ads that make me crazy. Good on you all for trying to find what works without turning BJ into “super-blaring maxi-ad site”.
Oh, and the desktop site seems fine today, other than the refresh-blinky-thing, which is the point of this thread, huh.
izzysmoms
The ora – or whatever it is also shows that ridiculous former governor and I have disabled java on your site. Pain
Alain the site fixer
@Raoul: thanks. In an ideal world, no ads, but then again, that would be about item 1,000,000,000 after many other more-important things!
We’ll get this sorted. The good news is that the page isn’t really refreshing – it’s the browser looking like it is, with the “loading” icon. But if you look at the text or pictures, they don’t disappear and repaint, so the whole page isn’t refreshing. It’s annoying but not as bad as refreshing the whole page constantly, which would eat up a LOT more bandwidth. Some very dear friends live on a ranch in Colorado and their metered internet access is no joke! They are not well-off, so an extra $50 a month for overage can mean limited food or new clothes put off. I get that some of our readers have similar setups, so we will get this improved as much as we can.