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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Ch-ch-changes

Ch-ch-changes

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Folks,

You may have noticed that a lot of ads are gone and, until a few minutes ago, a lot of sidebar content was also missing.

I’ve restored or added much sidebar content back and expect to have some new ad code to throw in. Hopefully things will be back to sort-of-normal. I had to spend a lot of time yesterday that I hadn’t planned for, as well as this morning and it looks like, much of the rest of the day.

That all said, I’m working on a new redesign. It will be a while before it’s ready, and it will change things big and small. Our current situation is like a rickety rowboat taking on water; some changes are needed. This is as much about our inherited quirks as it is about WordPress having evolved, as well as such changes as embedded tweets or memes.

In the 16 years that this blog has been around, much has changed, and the back-end is a complex series of plugins to solve problems that bring their own set of problems. This site does not need to be state-of-the-art, but it’s time to do some major remodeling so the server doesn’t crash, your browsers don’t complain about memory or security, and there are many less downloads from different sites/sources.

I am in conversations with John about some major changes that I believe will improve things for all. It should be simpler to maintain in many respects, and the performance should be improved, even with the enhanced functionality I hope to bring on.

Major Major Major Major is now onboard, so we’ll be able to do some custom work, and he’ll figure out other ways to contribute. Exciting! When it’s in a good enough state, a test panel will be assembled to evaluate the new site, we’ll incorporate their input, and then we’ll launch the redesign. And then tweak it as needed, of course!

I have a lot of work to do to get ready for a demo of my vision to John, so I’m investing my time in that as opposed to solving the current-site issues I’d planned on. As the afternoon/evening continued yesterday, my weeks-to-months plan jumped the queue. In fact, earlier yesterday, I shared my priorities/short-medium term goals with Majorx4 and this change was in the future, not now. Funny how a few hours dealing with issues with the current site/theme/setup will change your plans!

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed new contact options for website or ad issues. It’s now easy to report misbehaving ads to John or other site issues to me.

On that up-note, have a great Monday and Open Thread.

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  5. 5.

    TenguPhule

    You may have noticed that a lot of ads are gone

    So we’re down from four autoplay ads to just one now.

  6. 6.

    West of the Rockies

    Thanks to all: JC, 4M, and you, Alain! This site helps more than a few of us stay semi-sane. (Other times, one could say “Balloon Juice–not sane–has stood for 15 years and might stand for 15 more…”

  7. 7.

    James E Powell

    That all said, I’m working on a new redesign.

    Are we talking like New Coke level changes or more like IHOP to IHOB?

  8. 8.

    germy

    (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) has asked large U.S. banks to share detailed financial information about their customers, as part of an effort to offer new services to users, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The financial information asked from the banks include card transactions and checking account balances, according to the report.

  11. 11.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Hey Alain – Why not go to WordPress hosting and their packages? They do a lot of updating behind the scenes and provide security. Nuclear Diner was standalone until we found it was just too much work, and we were having numerous hacks from people who really knew what they were doing. Life is simpler now.

    And, with my bellingcat article, we may get more hack attempts. Some of the folks who disagree with me can get nasty.

  13. 13.

    The Dangerman

    This site does not need to be state-of-the-art…

    No, but it has to always be functional, so years and decades into the future, when men (and women) travel to distant planets, they can look back to Earth and exclaim, with all due majesty, “Damn, that willow is awfully close to that house”.

    Hmmm. I need a second cup of Joe.

  14. 14.

    Alain the site fixer

    @James E Powell: New Coke…(runs away) Don’t hurt me!

    Seriously, ever since the site/server crashed, there have been issues. I’ve wanted to update the theme to a more recent version to see how much that helped, but on both the original dev server and the new one I recently built, the new version of the theme does not like BJ and locks up the server and kills the site immediately. This is true whether I update the site or drop in new files. Other themes are not so affected.

    So we’re going to a new theme and with that, a redesign. Getting rid of lots of old components and embracing new ones. (Hopefully) Some new functionality for commenters. Toss in a little custom magic from M4, and we’re onto better times!

  17. 17.

    Gravenstone

    @LAO: Which may explain why Trump has apparently decided to go to ground in his bunker (post-Twitter admission of collusion, also). Or maybe the minions decided to keep him there rather than risk the inevitable public explosion over whatever Gates might say.

  18. 18.

    Gravenstone

    and the back-end is a complex series of plugins to solve problems that bring their own set of problems.

    Welcome to modern medicine, with a new prescription to address the side effects of the old prescription.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    On my desktop, the recent Cheryl Rofer’s thread is stuck at showing 61 comments and this site fixer thread doesn’t show up at all. Things work okay on my mobile browser. Using Firefox on desktop.

    Except of course for the nym thing.

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    Wut? Is that legal? I’d have written “ethical” but we’re talking major banks and Facebook here.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    Just no threaded comments. I love seeing the whole thread. Threaded comments are tedious and stop me in my tracks.

    Thanks, Alain and Major Major… and John, for this site.

  24. 24.

    BruceFromOhio

    Alain, Major Major Major Major, John, thanks to you all for providing for the site. I love it when people bitch about something they get for free.

    I jump from desktop to tablet to phone, IE to Chrome to FF to Safari, and the site is mostly available on all. The ads are a necessary evil, I get it, but whatever you did last has improved things noticeably.

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    @Alain the site fixer:

    but on both the original dev server and the new one I recently built, the new version of the theme does not like BJ and locks up the server and kills the site immediately.

    You are Hank Pym and you have created Ultron.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    And now we’re back to having to fill in the name for every comment now.

    I can hear ef, mx4 and OO screaming from here.

  30. 30.

    Doug R

    Taboola, please.
    Also, does no one else know you can left click twice on the name and email fields and it offers you a choice of nyms? At least in Firefox and Chrome.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    At the risk of being Mr. Negative, I will say that this plan makes me a little uneasy, because there are a lot of dissimilar things thrown together in one sack: bug fixes, back-room component swaps and “enhanced functionality.” And being done by a handful of people with (it seems) no input until post-design “testing.”

    Perhaps a more “stepwise” approach might be considered? What the site most needs right now (IMO) is a back-office renovation to make the current user-facing interface work correctly. Tedious work, not sexy, but necessary. And, yes, a lot of the new components could be incorporated into that. But get that working, then you start talking about “enhanced functionality” and wholesale UI changes.

    Actually, I think the current user interface works pretty well when it’s working. But I realize that the back room is a mess.

  33. 33.

    Rand Careaga

    Early in the present century I was talked into doing site maintenance for a non-profit (some emotional blackmail was involved), and found myself blundering around a poorly-designed product put together in an authoring environment with which I was then unfamiliar. I should mention that I possessed, neither then nor now, anything like Alain’s chops. I knew enough HTML, provided one or another of my reference manuals was within easy reach, to poke around under the hood at need, but after importing the site into my own software (“Adobe GoLive,” if you must know) I found that whenever I attempted to change the structure of the joint, I risked bumping into some load-bearing piece of code. This was largely because my predecessor had put the thing together with baling wire and spit: cheats, shortcuts, workarounds, and hey—I can respect that. I’ve done the same thing. But when I modify my work product I know where the “Caution: Dodgy Code” signs are, and tiptoe accordingly.

    I ultimately redesigned the site twice, the first time in GoLive and the second in Dreamweaver, by then an Adobe property that wrote much less idiosyncratic HTML/CSS/etc. Several years after that the nonprofit “fired” me (I’d been doing the thing pro bono all along after a member of the board discovered one of these “roll your own from our templates” website hosts. I was rather relieved than affronted, particularly since the emotional blackmailer was long departed.

    All this to say that I feel Alain’s pain, distantly, at having to deal with a bunch of legacy mishmash.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    Earlier I posted “Godspeed fellas” and it got eated. I guess the old code is fighting back.

  37. 37.

    The Moar You Know

    Perhaps a more “stepwise” approach might be considered?

    @Steeplejack: My first job in software dev was regression testing, and I’d normally agree with this. Given one thing: that normal maintenance had been performed. That’s not the case here, obviously. So to paraphrase something I read once, “Judgment Day is not a thing that can be put off”. Balloon Juice looks old, in addition to the functional issues it has. Same UI and look n’ feel it had when I got here way back in 05/06…whenever it was. So they need to do a redesign AND incorporate the fixes on the back end that we’ve all been yelling about, but do it to the new site, not the existing one. This is something you kind of have to “wing it” on and I don’t envy anyone involved.

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    Tues., Aug. 7, 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m.: Worried about speed and performance on your WordPress-hosted site? WordPress Pittsburgh is hosting an event to evaluate tools, plugins and other resources that improve a WordPress website’s performance. Don’t forget your laptop! Click here to register or to find more info.

    – Ad in my Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tech email. Maybe we should send the boss?

  42. 42.

    Aleta

    @germy:

    The social media company said it wouldn’t use the bank data for ad-targeting purposes or share it with third parties, the WSJ said.

    Unless it just happened. Or if no one would notice. Or if FB figured it was no big deal anyway.

  43. 43.

    Alain the site fixer

    @rikyrah: I am, thank you. It’s so much better each day. Still aways to go before I get back to where I was (not wincing when I lift something, for example), but I’m living a largely normal life now. I only use the cane now to get out of bed; that can be agony though less so each morning. Thank you so much!

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    Thanks John, Alan, M.
    Also, rikyrah said it best: “You will fix it eventually, but you need to heal, Alain.”
    Hope you will take a healthy number of days off. Have enough time to reflect and all.

    Re: ‘we’ll be able to do some custom work, and he’ll figure out other ways to contribute. Exciting!’ My 2 cents: Priorities that I would place in front of the new and fun are 1–not adding to your workload/stress; 2–not sacrificing whatever you most want to do here. (Your writing and creative ways are unique here. Of high value! If serving others’ ideas were to diminish that, I’d regret it. Unless you preferred it so.)

  45. 45.

    Alain the site fixer

    Folks, I adjusted the caching which I hope will make things run a bit smoother. I hope this fixes the edit comment not showing up or being for others’ comments. Time will tell. I’m taking a break while my office cools down. Be back later.

  47. 47.

    J R in WV

    I’m unable to edit comments. It brings things up alright, but then says “you are not authorized to edit this comment” probably/perhaps because it’s losing use-rnym and email instantly. If you’re going to replace everything, never mind, just go to it.

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