Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Second rate reporter says what?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You can’t love your country only when you win.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

This really is a full service blog.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

When we show up, we win.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Previous Site Maintenance / Site Maintenance

Site Maintenance

by | 72 Comments

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Before you bitch up a storm and blame Alain, he’s not responsible. We’re trying different ads out. I’m going to be getting rid of the taboola one which is just fucking hideously large and awful (and makes me want to throw my fucking phone on the mobile site), so we are trying other shit.

There should be no audio autoplay ads. If there are, email ME.

I’m sure you all will handle these changes with the typical amount of patience, grace, and charm we all display when there is the slightest change (by which I mean none), but I promise you we will get through this.

You fucking assholes.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    TenguPhule

    I’m sure you all will handle these changes with the typical amount of patience, grace, and charm we all display when there is the slightest, which is to say absolutely none, but I promise you we will get through this.

    You fucking assholes.

    Thanks John!

  2. 2.

    I'll be Frank

    Micro-marketing through micro-aggression. As an f’ng a’hole I like it, and I like the s’canning of taboola.

  3. 3.

    Yutsano

    TBH the Taboola ads don’t bug me mostly because I only see them either on my phone or at work.

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    Reposting as it may fit better here:

    While we’re just sayin’, I will just say that I finally got AdBlock to kill the *connatix.com plug-in or script or whatever and it has made a world of difference in loading this site.

  7. 7.

    geg6

    I have no problems with the site or any ads, on my phone or computer. But I’ll still be an asshole. Fix the fucking thing so everybody who is will stop bitching about it.

  9. 9.

    Jean

    Would these problems explain why I get “This website is using a lot of energy. Close to improve the responsiveness of your Mac”?

  10. 10.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I’m sure you all will handle these changes with the typical amount of patience, grace, and charm we all display when there is the slightest change (by which I mean none), but I promise you we will get through this.

    You fucking assholes.

    I can not tell you how much my day needed that. Love you, too John

  12. 12.

    Calouste

    The elevator at work has a screen in it with news flashes and stuff, and of course because of where it is, it presents the news in the most neutral and bland way possible.

    And even on that the newsflash about Melania returning to public life had ‘minor kidney ailments’ in quotes. Fewer and fewer people are taking the shitgibbon at his word.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    I have no adblock or other type of software on this computer, and the video ads autoplay, but muted, so they’re easy to ignore.

    Sometimes I’ll click on a taboola ad that’s about a rescued animal just to contribute. Even though I know it’ll be 20 pages of more ads with two lines of text about the animal and random pictures of other animals taken from different areas of the web, I am still a sucker for the “Bambi has found her forever home” endings.

  14. 14.

    HRA

    Have to go to the bottom of this before reading the comments to thank you John Cole for giving me a hearty laugh for today.
    Hope
    PS Hugs to Lily and the furry crew.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, the checkbox to save our info on the mobile site. Having to re-type it for every comment is annoying.

    I do try to click on an occasional ad from the mobile site, but only for stuff I’m actually interested in. Luckily for you, I have ads from eBags and 6pm following me around the Internet.

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    Don’t care about the ads.
    I DO care that, on the mobile site, I have to fill out my ID Information – EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!

    Come on, folks.
    Come on.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    I block ads for stuff not available in Malaysia. I hope that’s okay with you.

  23. 23.

    ruemara

    Obligatory fuck you back. The ads aren’t the problem. It’s the autoplay and hidden controls. Ugh, those bastards!

  31. 31.

    Gravenstone

    This is probably going to unleash the hounds of Hell upon me, but have you explored the option of a premium fee that would lead to an ad free version of the site. Not sure how technologically challenging that would be for everyone to set up and maintain in parallel, but it could quell a lot of bitching (*rolls eyes*). And I know a lot of people already donate occasionally to offset the adblockers that help keep us sane. So this way you can keep your revenue stream up without the aggravation of our whinging (at least on that topic).

  34. 34.

    Central Planning

    Still borked.

    FF is trying to load the following URLs in the bottom left side of the browser: http://www.ora.tv, imasdk.googleapis.com, adservice.google.com, http://www.balloon-juice.com, video.culturalconvergencemedia.com, and probably more. that was over 5 seconds and many of them repeated.

    I think I saw a connatix URL, so I’ll try blocking that and see if I notice anything better.

  35. 35.

    Central Planning

    FYWP ate my last comment.

    Still borked.

    FF is trying to load the following URLs in the bottom left side of the browser: http://www.ora.tv, imasdk.googleapis.com, adservice.google.com, http://www.balloon-juice.com, video.culturalconvergencemedia.com, and probably more. that was over 5 seconds and many of them repeated.

    I think I saw a connatix URL, so I’ll try blocking that and see if I notice anything better.

  36. 36.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I just tried to submit phots for the 7th or 8th time in a row and I got the spinning basketball of doom after clicking the capture thingy for 30 minutes and then this

    Secure Connection Failed

    The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
    Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

    Learn more…

    Report errors like this to help Mozilla identify and block malicious sites

    And then when I was trying to post this the tab crashed. BJ obviously hates me.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    You fucking assholes.

    Psst, dad’s in a great mood, we should ask for the car keys. You go first.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Keep in mind that the Guardians of the Galaxy are a bunch of a-holes.

  41. 41.

    Doug R

    I would probably disable adblock on my phone if that taboola crap disappeared.

  43. 43.

    Lee

    @Gravenstone:

    I run adblocker on both PC and phone. I also donate/pay for sites that have the option & are quality sites.

    I think people are getting more willing to do this as time goes on.

  44. 44.

    The Other Chuck

    @Gravenstone: The challenge to that would be maintaining the account information, as in having proper logins, which BJ has avoided so far for regular users. It’s not actually difficult (admins and front-pagers do have to log in), but it does add another responsibility that I don’t think Cole wants.

    Me, I do toss over some cash via the paypal link, then block every last ad, but that’s just my personal solution. Patreon would probably be a better payment model for actual subscriptions.

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    @WereBear:

    No, bible says the AntiChrist rules for forty and two months.

    I thought he ruled for eight years, 2009 to 2017. At least, that’s what Fox News tells me.

  46. 46.

    FlyingToaster

    We aren’t known as jackals for nothing.

    Thanks, John!

    [Waiting here in the school library waiting to take WarriorGirl and her crooked teeth to the dentist.]

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    If you get rid of the taboola, what the hell am I going to put on my sandwiches? Miracle Whip?

  50. 50.

    Gin & Tonic

    Before you bitch up a storm and blame Alain, he’s not responsible

    Can we blame Tommy instead?

  52. 52.

    The ski stir

    I didn’t bother to read the comments but has anyone quoted the “major asshole” scene from spaceballs yet?

  54. 54.

    Yutsano

    @The Other Chuck: Patreon fees are the devil. Plus Patreon usually requires reward levels and that might be a bit much for our misanthrope of a blog host.

  55. 55.

    TenguPhule

    @SFAW:

    If you get rid of the taboola, what the hell am I going to put on my sandwiches? Miracle Whip?

    Ketchup.

  62. 62.

    J R in WV

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I submitted one photo set several days ago, and two more today. I’m not sure why you’re having problems, but perhaps an older version of the browser or OS? Or add-ons that aren’t compatible with some stuff the submit form needs.

    Have you noticed there’s an option to send in a set of photos via email? I for one want very much to see you pictures, so don’t give up just yet!!

  63. 63.

    J R in WV

    And so few comments!??! I send money via that paypal link every couple of months. If everyone does that, even for a little bit of money, those terrible awful ads would be less important.

  64. 64.

    BruceFromOhio

    I’m sure you all will handle these changes with the typical amount of patience, grace, and charm we all display when there is the slightest change (by which I mean none), but I promise you we will get through this.

    You fucking assholes.

    This is why I read this blog every day.

    And thank you, John and Alain, for keeping the place clanking right along.

  65. 65.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    I’m sure you all will handle these changes with the typical amount of patience, grace, and charm we all display when there is the slightest change (by which I mean none), but I promise you we will get through this.

    You fucking assholes.

    Quintessential Cole. Love this. ?

  66. 66.

    worn

    Well it’s good you are getting rid of the Taboola ads, John, because they are fucking major bullshit. I mean that in the dishonest clickbait sense of what’s advertised is never what appears after one clicks a Taboola link. And given how long I have been reading your musings, I really have come to believe that you are a no bullshit guy. So their appearance some months back caused a fair amount of cognitive dissonance out here on the left coast.

    Plus, there’s this crap, which I had meant to PM you (assuming other readers haven’t already): https://www.ghostery.com/blog/ghostery-news/session-replay-scripts-video-record-your-activity-as-you-browse-a-website/

    Also, too, would you please have Alain not have the main page URLs that lead to a post’s comments anchor ad the top of the ad block, but rather, the comments themselves? Or do the advertisers force ya’ll to set the site up in this way?

    And finally, I’d like to thank you for your choices in bringing more advertising to the site. I resisted setting up an ad blocker for literally years on end because I believed that not doing so was part of the ‘internet bargain’. But there it has come to the point where online advertising in general has just become abusive, what with the auto-appearing autoplay video ads, ads that zoom in from the edges of the site, ads that hijack one’s browser to unexpectedly navigate to another fucking page, ads whose Flash component or need to download content from remote server brings Firefox to grinding and unceremonious halt, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, that I was forced to reconsider my position.

    The appearance of the Taboola bullshit here was the final straw. So now I run an adblock extension. And I guess as a result the desperation for eyeballs will become that much more dire in a world I am no longer forced to deal with. As Vic Chesnutt once said so very elegantly, “C’est la vie, whatever that means, la di da…”

  70. 70.

    3am

    This site isn’t social enough, it needs a like button. Where are emoji in my comment editor, too?

  71. 71.

    2liberal

    you were just waiting for me to finally install an ad-blocker to get rid of those fucking autoplay ads. I donated $25 since I visit and lurk here so much to make up for lost revenue.

  72. 72.

    The Other Chuck

    @worn: Hear hear about adblocking. The behavior of advertiser networks has gotten steadily worse, and now I regard any unknown advertising network as probable malware, their guilt already predetermined. Google is still a good actor as ad networks go, and Facebook proper as well — though the latter just outsources its evil — but I’m generally sick and tired of unaccountable third parties constantly sticking their fingers into the pot with every last site I visit.

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