Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

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

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

This blog will pay for itself.

I really should read my own blog.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance / Something’sWrong With The Site

Something’sWrong With The Site

by | 125 Comments

This post is in: 

Folks,
Something’s wrong with the site and I’m going to try changing the theme to another one to see if it makes a difference in performance.

You have been warned.

If things work speedily then I’ll know it’s the theme and work accordingly (and will return the theme back to the malfunctioning one while I work on repairs).

Actually, either way the current theme will return after a few minutes.

I don’t expect to solve the problem for hours, FYI. But this is necessary diagnostics.

I will consult the post from last night for details folks submitted.
This mostly affects the desktop site and will be fixed. If you need to email me, use the contact form to submit an email.

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  5. 5.

    Jean

    For some reason, this is the only website where the following message is at top: “This website uses a lot of energy. To improve the responsiveness of your MAC, close the page.”

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    If you need to email me, use the contact form to submit an email.

    That’s one of the problems. The contact form has disappeared. In fact, the entire Quick Links is entirely depopulated.

    iPhone, Safari

  7. 7.

    Ruckus

    @Jean:
    You must be on High Serra. Apple changed the way it handles memory, so even though the site isn’t using too much memory, we get the message. And it’s random, I get it occasionally on Netflix but can’t recall getting it on BJ.
    I’ve checked it out and the percentage of memory used is normal for the site and I’ve never seen all my memory being close to being used. Apple has seen a number of complaints and I think they have/are changing something to address the issue.

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    Allan.
    This may be unimportant to what you are doing……
    For me the home page is still the replacement site and doesn’t seem to be up dating comment numbers, etc, while actual posts are showing up in the regular theme.

  10. 10.

    Sebastian

    I get a lot of “this website is using a lot of memory” on my Mac. So much so that i had to install an adblocker.

    You sure there is no cryptomining ad?

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    I use Chrome on Chrome and have not noticed any problems. I guess I’ll just be over here counting my blessings

  14. 14.

    Alain the site fixer

    Some people see an issue and some don’t. For me the site – front and back-end – are pretty much unusable.

    This is so damned weird.

  17. 17.

    Bill Door

    If negative info is any good… I have been lurking on this site for a coon’s age, using Firefox on a Linux Ubuntu laptop, and the only problem I have ever had is once a few months ago when the comments were coming up in living black-on-black, and that only lasted a short while. Do not have any problems currently. Site acts like it always has. It’s always loaded a bit slower than other sites I regularly visit, but not extremely so. As far as I can tell, the comments are OK. Same-old, same-old for me.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    Getting timeous with various Android mobile browsers. Chrome, Brave. Site would not even load using Brave.

    Now trying a new faster browser Kiwi. Still some issues.

  20. 20.

    Redshift

    A small thing compared to site borkage, but please put it on the list –

    For the past month or so, the mobile site is no longer remembering my name/email, and there’s no checkbox to tell it to. This would be less of a problem except that something has also changed so the browser auto-filling the form doesn’t entirely work any more. (If I tap in each field, it suggest responses, but it won’t fill in the whole form.)

  21. 21.

    SectionH

    Still being glitchy on my MacBookPro and ipad mini with Safari. OS’s are HS 10.13.5 and iOS11.4 respectively. Took 3 tries to load on my laptop. Haven’t seen any msgs about memory, but I use Ublock there and maybe that’s why not. Also took 3 tries to load on the ipad just now.

    That’s an improvement since the site mostly hasn’t been loading at all since Friday night. I dunno if any of this info is helpful or not, Alain, but Good Luck and thanks for all your work.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    If it is worth anything to know about it, the rotating quotes near the top of front page are suddenly appearing again here after an extended absence of like a year.

  24. 24.

    p.a.

    usually get ‘server time out’ on first try, especially leaving a comment. format changes I usually don’t notice unless the look is waayyy off…

  25. 25.

    Redshift

    Oh, the one other thing I’ve noticed lately is that on Android, I often get an alert that the browser tab is playing sound (though fortunately there’s no sound.) I assume it’s ad-related, and it’s not really a problem, but it might be a clue. (Or it might be just that a Chrome update has added that notification.)

  26. 26.

    Scout211

    I have not been able to access the site via my iPad on chrome or safari (even after clearing everything) since yesterday. Safari says there are too many redirects and chrome just spins and spins.

    On my mac, I have had the same problem (even after clearing everything in both safari and chrome). I was only able to get here right now by finding a link to one of the posts from this morning and linking directly to the post. Then clicking on the balloon-juice logo to get to the whole site.

  27. 27.

    Jackie

    Reeeaaally long opening/refreshing window. Getting timed out messages. I have to turn off phone and reboot constantly. iPhone Safari.

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    My comment disappeared, so I will leave another.

    I can access the site if I click on a google link that takes me directly to a post from this morning. I found the link to the world cup post and got into the site from that direct link. Then I clicked on the balloon juice logo and was able to access the whole site, on my mac.

    I have been unable to access the site on my iPad (using chrome and safari) or on my mac (using chrome or safari) since yesterday. But the direct link to a post from this morning on my mac worked fine.

  29. 29.

    The Pale Scot

    OSX 10.12.6
    Watching the activity monitor, Both Safari and Firefox’s “WebContent” processes ramp up to 2 or 3 gigs of Ram. Safari no go but FF is able to handle it.

    OSX has been going down hill since 10.6 or 10.8

  33. 33.

    sdhays

    The site has basically been unreadable for the past 2 days for me, slightly better today, but after you switched the theme, it’s working perfectly again for me.

  35. 35.

    Jean

    @Ruckus: Thanks, Ruckus. It doesn’t seem to slow anything anyway. I just don’t get it. Hope you’re right, and a fix is coming for High Sierra.

  36. 36.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Scout211: it should be much better now. Shift-reload a page to force it to completely re-download. Things are cached
    Now and we are using a CDN so performance should be much better.

  37. 37.

    Alain the site foxer

    Major thunderstorms on the way. I’m shutting down my PCs until they pass. Good thing I can watch Colombia represent!

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    @Jean:
    I’ve upgraded to 10.13.5 and most of my issues have gone away. This is not unusual for all operating systems, the companies test them extensively and don’t find all the issues until the masses tries it out and adds several layers of things. Apple is better because they build both hardware and software. You don’t add stuff to any Apple hardware product. They are what they are when you get them. It is what makes them different. OTOH windows boxes come from many sources and can be wildly different. I hate to say it but MS seems to have done a reasonable job with W10. It may be somewhat on the hardware end as well as the mfg seem to have gone with a number of more standard parts, the variability seems to have lessened.
    With Apple I suggest updating to any latest Apple upgrades when they happen because they don’t seem to often upgrade without reasonable need. And my systems always seem to work better after I upgrade. I never got that in my microsoft days. Which spanned something like 30 yrs, all of my work computers were microsoft powered, after the first apple II in the late 70s. Before that, starting in 73 we used a Teletype machine to punch paper tape. Finally dumped MS in 2012 and have been much happier with my computing needs since.

  39. 39.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    Site loaded MUCH faster than last night/ this morning.

    Ios9 iPad4 Chrome latest, now on crappy ORD wifi.

  42. 42.

    RepubAnon

    Yesterday, I was able to access the site normally – now it’s very slow.

    MacBook Pro, OS 10.11.6, 8 Gig RAM, Chrome Version 67.0.3396.87 (Official Build) (64-bit).

  43. 43.

    Gelfling 545

    Um, I’m having just as much trouble on the mobile site. It loads half way & then I have to reload it. Sometimes that works, sometimes it says server stopped responding.
    (Safari, iPad ios 11.4)

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    On the phone andriod FF and it seems to be working fine.
    Ok so far it’s not saving info but it is working.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    Still asking for the mobile site to be fixed. Still annoying to have to put in your ID information everytime ?
    Phone-Chrome
    Kindle Fire- their Silk browser

  46. 46.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    Well, it just now loaded quickly/normally for me, first time since breakfast yesterday.

  47. 47.

    Yutsano

    Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.

    My nym was wiped out but should be sticking now.

  49. 49.

    efgoldman

    Still slow loading, even after a cold reboot

    ETA: Saved my info

    ETA2: Very slow to return to comment after edit

  51. 51.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    Still pretty fast, now on plane’s wifi.

    Lost my nym (no big deal).

  52. 52.

    J R in WV

    Woah,

    My user-name and email is GONE for the first time since the change that upset that applecart for others. The appearance of the comments is sometimes odd today, running from left to right of the screen instead of in a column as usual. Here and now they look normal as it was in the recent past, tho.

    When I type the first character “J” the rest is there, just not filled in from the get-go.

    Getting better than it was, though.

  53. 53.

    Shana

    Not sure if it’s related or not, but for the past week or two I’ve been getting messages at the top of my page on BJ, and only BJ, that the site is using a lot of memory and shutting it down may help. I have a year-old MacBook Pro and use Safari as my browser. Heading out for a Dem party in a bit but will check back tomorrow.

  57. 57.

    sdhays

    @Alain the site fixer: No, Verizon. But I am currently at a coffeeshop and I don’t know their internet provider. It should be either Verizon or Cox since Comcast doesn’t operate around here.

  58. 58.

    chris

    It’s working now on my desktop although using more memory than I’d expect. I’ll turn the ad blocker off so Cole can pay the toll. Net neutrality was nice while it lasted, eh?

    I was in Maine for a few days and the mobile site was so bad I gave up but it’s working now. Well done, Alain.

  60. 60.

    J R in WV

    OK, I had lost the click on the save my name box, once I clicked that it saved my stuff properly, including the click on the save box…

  61. 61.

    chris

    Site dumps my nym and email when I reload but I’ll take it. Three minutes to load was more than my internet-addled brain could handle.

  63. 63.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: I think the malfunctions have scared them off.

    How are you doing? I’m sitting on a plane still at the gate because we’re like 4th in line to clear this alley (ORD L middle). FamilyToaster will be arriving home to storms. Heh.

    Aha! Pushback! Let’s see if they can put on the eastbound film this time.

  65. 65.

    Madeleine

    This is my second attempt to send a message about problems. Last night hitting send lost the site. My problem is with my iPad in Safari 11. For 2-3(?) wks the site has been freezing while I’ve read comments. To unfreeze, I’ve left Safari, clicked into email, then clicked back into Safari. Site would still be frozen, but restarting it unfreeze it. If I click out and back in without the visit to mail (might work with something else but mail is convenient), BJ won’t unfreeze. This sounds nutty to me, but it’s what I’ve done.

    And thanks, Alain, for site guru I got . . . And photo shepherding.

  67. 67.

    FlyingToaster

    And eastbound movies just started!

    Back to y’all when we’re on the ground.

  69. 69.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Working fine for me with the most recent Firefox build on Win 10.

    Well except for my name and email poofing!

  71. 71.

    gbbalto

    I have had no trouble except that, using the combo Verizon/Firefox on home computer, I get 1-2x/day a “we cannot find that site” msg, requiring me to switch off the modem for 30+ sec, then switch on and wait for a minute before any pages can be refreshed. Only other site that does this to me as reliably is NYDN.

  75. 75.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    Well, it was working well earlier, then it was slower than molasses again and now it is working fine for me. Yay! Hope it is fixed for everyone else, too

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    My housemates’ parents are visiting and they are using a giant mortar and pestle to mash plantains.

  78. 78.

    Mary G

    Interesting thread:

    NEW exclusive from @georgejoseph94 and me — In the rush to incarcerate as many immigrants as possible, ICE is putting civil immigration detainees into general population units in federal prison, creating a wildly dangerous and cruel situation. https://t.co/2w6rfkmosY— Max RN (@MaxRivlinNadler) June 21, 2018

    California state prisons and county jails are refusing to house immigrants detained at the border, I guess. Yay us!

  79. 79.

    zhena gogolia

    The blog was working perfectly for me before this afternoon. Now it says there are 187 comments on the thread below when there are really 195 or so, and I have to actually go to the comments and refresh to find that out. And I see my nym has disappeared and I’ll have to type it in.

  80. 80.

    JMG

    Site has worked fine for me on my MacBook on Safari. To the surprise of no one here, Maggie Habermas’s twitter feed is full of approving retweets of the civility police. Maybe she’s afraid she’ll get chucked out of a few restaurants.

  81. 81.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mary G: Sounds delicious. That’s how my hubby who is Haitian does his plaintains before seasoning them with salt and frying them.

  82. 82.

    Ohio Mom

    Just stopping by to wish you lots of luck Alain and to thank you for all your hard work.

    It just took my three tries to open the blog and I did have a few panicked moments when I realized how addicted I am to BJ. But for now, I’m okay and no longer hyperventilating.

    Also, my nym and email address are right where I left them, so that part is working.

  85. 85.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Many of the problems I’ve had in the past (IE11.0.20, Win7 Home Premium) are gone, for the moment. (Murphy heard me* – they’ll be back :^( ) Will switch over to my Acer cloudbook & see how that functions.

    Just FTR, torrential rain started about 5 mins ago here in northern Baltimore City – waiting for serious 1812ish blunder&frightening to commence.

    (* ETA: & here it is, “IE has stopped working” – but at least it seems to have recovered after one close-&-reload cycle.)

  88. 88.

    Brickley Paiste

    I’ve had zero problems with the site.

    Running Apple MacBook 11.0.1 Safari.

    Running adblock plus and ghostery..

  90. 90.

    chris

    Blog is shaky and back to the two minute reload for me.

    I tried to tell you net neutrality was a big deal.//

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    For some reason WordPress let me request deletion of Brickley Paiste’s comment #88. I did try, but nothing happened.

  95. 95.

    Barbara

    If this comment shows up I can say no problems here except my name is not automatically populated. Android device.

  97. 97.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Uncle Cosmo: On the Acer One 11 cloudbook (WinBlows10, Edge 40 POS browser) ora.tv continues to seize the entire screen unless I rightclick rapidly & repeatedly in its sidebar window some yet-to-be-determined magic number of times, after which it stays put until I try clicking to another thread, at which point the farce restarts. (You’ve heard my sad story before, Alain, this is just FTR.)

  105. 105.

    Duane

    @efgoldman: I leave here for a few hours and the place falls apart. You kids are gonna drive me crazy.
    ETA or maybe it’s Bauds fault. It usually is.

  106. 106.

    FlyingToaster

    Looks fine from the desktop at home. Tried Firefox, Chrome, Safari latest on a MacBook 10.13.5.

    Infinitely faster now, on the tablet last night it took 2 minutes (minimum) for a page load or reload.

    ETA: Edit’s working and the nym is back.

  109. 109.

    Platonailedit

    Wonkiness of last 2 days is gone. But for a site with no photos or videos, bj has always had speed problems. Too many theme changes is also a factor?

  110. 110.

    Elizabelle

    @efgoldman: Effing demanding a new thread.

    Come on folks. I have been out to see a movie (Isle of Dogs, charming) and dinner and drove around and … something’s wrong….

    hello out there?

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Jackie:

    There are two different versions of Balloon Juice: the desktop version and the mobile version. The “save nym” checkbox is only in the desktop version. The mobile version has had an ongoing problem of not saving nym and e-mail.

    And to everybody: it is helpful when reporting problems to mention which version of the site you are using, desktop or mobile. If you report that you’re using a computer, it can be presumed that you are using the desktop version. But if you are using a phone or a tablet, it could be either one. Letting Alain know which helps him pinpoint the problems.

    For example, both my phone and my tablet use Chrome on Android. But the phone runs the mobile version of the site and the tablet runs the desktop version (because of its much larger screen size). So just saying “Runs fine for me on Chrome/​Android” doesn’t tell the whole story.

  113. 113.

    Jackie

    @Steeplejack (phone): Thank you for the clarification. I’m using my IPhone with Safari. My name/email info used to be saved – and I’m more lurker than poster – but it hasn’t been saved for a month or two.

  115. 115.

    Alain the site fixer

    Sorry I didn’t make a new thread, I shut down and then avoided the internet except for Netflix until just now. I will be fixing the mobile site early this week and updating the site in general later in the week.

    The recent comments widget from the sidebar is gone; the performance hit from it was bogging the site down quite a bit. I’m planning a few other tweaks to reduce memory server-side and client-side.

    But not now, it’s not time to dig into such work.

  116. 116.

    Amir Khalid

    When I go to a new thread, the check mark in the “save my name …” box does not persist. I have to enter nym and email all over again to comment. Please to fix?

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Jackie:

    You still haven’t said whether you’re using the desktop or mobile version of the site. You could plausibly be using either with an iPhone.

    If you go to the very bottom of the page, you should see two buttons, “Desktop” and “Mobile,” and you can tell which one is currently active from those.

    Another easy way to tell: On the desktop version, comment numbers appear alone on a line above the commenter’s nym. On the mobile version, the number is next to the nym.

  118. 118.

    Ohio Mom

    My nym disappeared but that is a small price to pay — for the first time in days and days, the site loads without any delay!!! I am so happy!!!
    THANK YOU ALAIN!

    Now go do something to reward yourself!

  119. 119.

    Alain the site fixer

    I will fix mobile site tomorrow and begin the work to upgrade and fix the desktop site for completion later this week.

    @Ohio Mom: For now, it’s time to go scrounge up some food. If only I’d made rice earlier…

  122. 122.

    Jackie

    @Steeplejack (phone): Using mobile. Desktop doesn’t work on my phone. I actually tried switching to desktop to see what would happen. Safaris or my phone didn’t like. At all. Trying to switch back to mobile took several hard reboots.

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    Mac desktop, safari 10.13.5
    Been away for a while, I still see problems but see that Alan has responded.
    Name is not saved, number of comments are not updated when going back to main page, which has been the norm for a while.
    I’m wondering who in the maladministration has been messing with the site. Or if it’s just WP gremlins having a go. Whatever I need my fix……
    Names finally back to being saved. For now.
    I backed out to main page and same on comments. Clicked on comments and the former page opened without this current comment. Came back upon reload.

  125. 125.

    Smitty

    This site has always been problematical. My posts have never been retrievable. Alain has been unable to assist.Knock it down. Start from scratch.

Comments are closed.