It’s been a couple of weeks since the last update, so here’s another one – lest anyone think we have forgotten you or the continued frustrations with the current site. We had another test run of the new site this week, and we were all quite pleased with how well it went.
The old, rickety Balloon Juice database continues to present challenges, which the developers continue to meet, emerging victorious each time. With any luck, there won’t be a lot more database surprises. Apparently when I described the database as a clusterfuck, even I failed to comprehend the level of clusterfucked-up-ed-ness. Not entirely surprising, I guess, since the database might just be older than our youngest Balloon Juice commenter, or they might share a birthday, at least.
I continue to stand by my mantra that it’s not possible to accurately predict how long this phase will take, because you never know exactly what you are going to run into. That said, I am upgrading…
FROM THIS: Could testing start in a week? It’s within the realm of possibility. Could testing start in 3 weeks? Quite possibly.
TO THIS: If the front-pager testing hasn’t begun by October 18, we are going to see one surprised, disappointed, and cranky WaterGirl.
So – Ask Me Anything – and in the meantime, I will share details that may be of interest in the comments. If you prefer to ask questions by email, you can send email to my nym at balloon-juice.com.
Update at 4:30 pm Eastern: As always with the site update posts, I will be checking in for additional comments and questions throughout the weekend.
Regrets, I Have a Few: Trump’s Young Black Leadership Conference
WaterGirl
The blogroll is back – after originally being cut by our beloved blog master – and there is a section for Readers and Friends of Balloon Juice.
So if you have a blog that you would like to see on the Balloon Juice blogroll, please share the name of your blog and a link to it here, so I can add it to the blogroll.
On the current list: Way of Cats and blogs by Tom Levenson and the person formerly known as Iowa Old Lady.
Omnes Omnibus
I just want the screen sucking ads gone from the mobile site and no you know what in the comment section.
Other than that, thank you and the rest of the team for working on this and trying to make sure that you cater to all of our neuroses.
NotMax
Will the new site make me appear irresistibly svelte and handsome?
/lost cause :)
Thanks for the update. Now aware of the need to look at that e-mail account more frequently than fortnightly.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus:
The current ads are driving me up the way, and I wouldn’t have thought anything could be worse than the ads we had a year ago.
Omnes, are these ads on your phone or on a tablet?
bemused senior
Someone (Cole) must know how much the ads bring in per active visitor (e.g., anyone that displays the comments). I wish there were a way to subscribe and not get the ads. They drain the power in my phone such that I have to leave it plugged in to be actively reading the site. I know, “just donate”. But why can’t we subscribe?
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I thought the reports from previous meetups indicated that you are irresistibly svelte and handsome?
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: iPhone SE.
MattF
@Omnes Omnibus: I have seen those ads on other sites, popping up from the bottom to occupy half my iPad screen. Why advertisers think that aggravating people is a good thing, I just don’t know.
ETA: Specifically on SMBC.
Omnes Omnibus
@bemused senior: This has come up before. What about people who cannot afford a subscription? I believe that Cole has specifically said that he will not allow tiers of commenters.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Modesty forbids….
:)
WaterGirl
@bemused senior:
There is a pretty strong feeling that we sink or swim together here on Balloon Juice. The idea that someone would have to deal with the obnoxious ads on BJ because they have less disposable income than others who could afford to be ad free… personally, that kind of makes me feel sick to my stomach, and I am glad that BJ is not going in that direction.
The good news is that we are going with the ad service provided by the site developers, who are also doing our web hosting. So they have a vested interest in our site, for a number of reasons. Last I heard, they had promised no autoplay video. And if there is an obnoxious ad with the new system? I have their cell phone number, I won’t be afraid to use it. Or annoy John until he uses it. :-)
edit: There has been no disagreement when I have said these words to the developer: “Taboola is the devil”.
piratedan
if we’re creating a blogroll of somewhat fellow travelers, I would suggest (since no one else is doing so). Also, I would suggest, anything any of our other front pagers are involved in, would make a certain amount of sense as well.
Lawfare
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Little Green Footballs
Wonkette
Stonekettle Station
XKCD
TPM (Talking Points Memo)
Unsure if recommendations to non-political content is something I want to stray into, but ymmv obviously, but if so…
The Oatmeal
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Are they the ones that say PROPER and have the x for you to click to close? The one you have to f-ing click 3-5 times before it closes?
All I can say is that if you see an ad like that that covers up the comments on the new site, let us know right away.
Also, with the new site, we will have an email address for ad-related issues. The address will be ad-issues at balloon-juice.com. I presume I will monitor that and bring issues to John’s attention. Don’t be afraid to use it.
NotMax
Has there been any testing directed at how well the architecture can deal with super-peak times of visitation? Election nights, debate live blogging, those sorts of things which drive traffic and refresh clicking to levels significantly above the norm. Or, FSM forbid, DDOS attacks.
WaterGirl
Currently on the blogroll:
Readers and Friends of Balloon Juice
Dorothy Winsor
Tom Levenson
Way of Cats
Politics & More
Angry Black Lady Chronicles
Avedon
Barry Eisler
Calculated Risk
Charles Pierce
Cleek
Critters by Britty
Crooked Timber
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos
Dan Savage
Digby
Driftglass
Emptywheel
Eschaton
Eunomia
Gin and Tacos
Glenn Greenwald and the Intercept
Greg Sargent
John Scalzi
Kung Fu Monkey
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Lawfare
Mahablog
MaxSpeak, YOU LISTEN!
No More Mister Nice Blog
Obsidian Wings
Orcinus
Outside the Beltway
Pharyngula
Progress Pond
Real Climate
Roy Edroso
Sadly, No!
Skippy
Steve Benen
Talk Left
Talking Points Memo
The Daily Howler
The Panda’s Thumb
The Raw Story
The World According to Meh!
This Modern World
TRBC (Mark Kleiman and Co.)
Unqualified Offerings
Vox
Washington Monthly
West Virginia Blue
Wil Wheaton
Wonkette
Zandar Versus The Stupid
piratedan
@WaterGirl: I guess a question would be, how many of these are active and my GOD! can we please dump Glenn Greenwald!!!!!!!!!
just started checking on the sites I do not know about….
Unqualified Offerings, no new posts since 2016
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl:
Yes, and they are paired with another ad the top of the page with a matching set of ads. When I open or refresh a page on my phone, the screen is 95% covered with ads. I can scroll past the one on the top of the page. but the whole thing is ridiculous. I didn’t make a fuss before because I know you have indicated that this sort of thing will be fixed on the new site, but I’ll take the opportunity to gripe now.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: There are a few non-political blogs in the Politics & More section.
These are not yet on the blogroll, but I can compile a list or additional recommendations for John.
Little Green Footballs
Stonekettle Station
XKCD
The Oatmeal
For the blogs written by BJ front-pagers and commenters: anyone who wants their person blog in the Readers and Friends of Balloon Juice section – all you have to do is ask*, and it will be on there.
*With, I suppose, fine print similar to what you might see at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. No nazis, no mysogyny, nothing x-rated, et.
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
Yes and no. No testing of our particular site for that, but they have the infrastructure to deal with extremely heavy traffic.
Ked
LGM after Disqus is worthless, unfortunately. The site reformat has only encouraged less writing and the comment threads are impenetrable. I’ll check out Lawfare, I keep seeing people quote it.
Unfortunately there is nothing to do for ads, anymore – the entire marketplace has been corrupted into networked resellers of payload-delivery systems, which in turn can be trivially corrupted to harvest data or push malware. The web is unusable without ad blockers, and even sites which I might wish to support inevitably serve me shit that I refuse to look at.
When you commit to only serving pure image/link ads, I might unblock your ads. Maybe.
cain
@WaterGirl:
I think the biggest problem with these ads is that they actually cause my system to slow down. The browser starts sucking in a lot of resources, eating battery life, and all that other good stuff. A simplified ad system with only one ad system rather than multiple ad sources would be really nice.
It’s hilarious how we can get all these high speeds on the Internet, but it is only as fast as the network connection between the front page and the ad services.
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
I’m not quite sure how to quantify it, so I’ll just say that security on the new site will be oh, about a million times better than on the current site.
NotMax
@<a href="https://balloon-juice.com/2019/10/05/site-update-ask-me-anything-3/#comment-7428752"WaterGirl
Suggested:
Informed Comment (Juan Cole) https://www.juancole.com/
Maddowblog http://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
SCOTUSblog https://www.scotusblog.com/
cain
@WaterGirl:
Would love to have something for open source and free software. Although I don’t really have a site that encapsulates that.
NotMax
My bad. Fix.
@WaterGirl
Suggested:
Informed Comment (Juan Cole) https://www.juancole.com/
Maddowblog http://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
SCOTUSblog https://www.scotusblog.com/
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: This is why the buttons aren’t a terrible idea.
frosty
@piratedan: YES!!!! for XKCD. Then I’ll remember to look at it more than three or four times a year.
RandyG
Is the site update still being hosted on Hosting Matters? I seem to remember John making comments here and there that he was pleased with this hosting company. Still true? And, if not, who are you going with? I’m looking for a change of host and I see that you have what appears to be an affiliate link to Hosting Matters, which I’d be happy to support (or for a new host)… in addition to my using the Amazon affiliate link. (Using these affiliate links helps to directly support BJ, folks.)
Thanks, WaterGirl!
WaterGirl
@piratedan:
Sigh. I know. As John and I went down the list, deciding which to keep and which to dump, I had high hopes that GG could be on the DUMP list. Alas, John’s vote on that trumped my vote.
oops, looks like we missed that one. It redirects to something that isn’t a blog anymore. I just deleted it from the blogroll.
We did go through and check to make sure blogs were still active – please let me know if you notice any other defunct ones still on the list.
piratedan
@WaterGirl:
thank you…
I’ll keep running down the blogroll for a few and see just how many of these are still doing bidness
looks like TRBC doesn’t exist, at least by the clues provided in the blogroll
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: The ones on the top? That plop themselves in the middle of a photo on the On the Road posts? Those? I would nuke those ads from orbit in a heartbeat.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: perhaps a compromise, just a link to the Intercept itself, and remove any mention of the sockpuppet master incarnate?
NotMax
@cain
Like SourceForge?
WaterGirl
@Ked: I think a lot of the blogs on that list have become either unusable, annoying or just plain unappealing because of their site “upgrades”. I’m looking at you, BooMan, and many others.
All I can say is that we have worked really to make sure the new site is nothing like those gaudy blog upgrades that make me want to run screaming when I open them. Once. Because after that, I drop them like a hot potato.
You will get no argument from me about using an Ad Blocker if there more than a very small number of ads, or if even one of them is obnoxious. And if you don’t want to see a single ad, that’s your right.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
And why a preview function is a good idea.
For the record, never said word one against the buttons, only about the buttons being the sole method.
aj
I think this was decided ‘no’ long ago, but there won’t be threaded comments, is that right?
WaterGirl
@cain:
The ads are John’s thing, not mine, but I believe that is the plan.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Maddow is under Steve Benen’s name.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Yep, those.
WaterGirl
@RandyG:
The new site will not be hosted by Hosting Matters.
And our developers, who are hosting our new site, only do web hosting for sites they have created. So they have a vested interest in making sure everything is hunky dory. Same thing with the ads, if the ads are slowing things down or making the site unusable, they have skin in the game, too.
WaterGirl
@piratedan:
Not sure what you mean? Their last post was Oct 1.
donatellonerd
@piratedan: @piratedan:
what he said.
WaterGirl
@piratedan:
done!
piratedan
@WaterGirl: may have been my google fu skills, we’re good
WaterGirl
@aj:
Correct!
I believe the posted comment policy will list the mere mention of threaded comments as a ban-able offense. NOT INTENDED AS A FACTUAL STATEMENT.
RandyG
@WaterGirl:
“Skin in the game”. What a concept! Sounds great, thx!
MattF
I don’t see Kevin Drum on any of the lists. He’s generally interesting, if a bit idiosyncratic.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/
WaterGirl
@piratedan: Okay, but do let me know about any others you find.
worn
@piratedan: Last time I checked, the site was at the URL samefacts.com. But the original blogmaster, Mark Kleiman recently passed away. Truth be known, I lost interest in the site several years ago, when they added a bunch of new commenters & then messed up the commenting system.
Funnily enough, it was a link from that site that originally led me to Balloon Juice. Dr. Kleiman had linked to something John wrote, saying we should give kudos to consevatives when they come down on the right side of things. So I began regularly tuning in to try and a get a dose of ‘reasonable conservatism’.
But not too long after that, the Terry Schavio thing happened…
Redshift
From a great essay about the meaning of software scheduling terms I read a few years back, “Alpha: when software is in alpha, not even God himself can day when it will be released.” :-)
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Another excellent non-political “blog”:
Astronomy Picture of the Day at NASA.
Thanks for your efforts on this.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@MattF: I believe John had me take Kevin Drum off the list. But I can ask John about him when I share the other suggestions.
NotMax
@MattF
Ditto for Fred Kaplan. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/war-stories
Another Scott
@frosty: Explain XKCD could be a worthwhile addition as well. Randall gets in the weeds sometimes… ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Redshift
@WaterGirl: Like when Steve Benen/Maddowblog went over to MSNBC. The old site had lively discussion, but first an “upgrade” on the show site made scrolling freeze on my phone on the comments page, making commenting difficult and reading comments impossible, and then recently they removed commenting until another “upgrade” that will happen… sometime.
worn
@Omnes Omnibus: A thousand times over, this. The Proper ads cover 1/3 of the screen of my mobile, but that’s only after hanging up the page render while some sort of background resources take time to load. It is only after this delay that ‘x button even works.
NotMax
So long as Jurassicpunk isn’t on the roll, it’s all good.
:)
trnc
Would it be possible, when we reply to a comment, to be returned to that comment?
WaterGirl
@Redshift: That’s funny, thanks for sharing. (And true.)
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Yep. I said the same thing to John as we went through the old blogroll for the Keep/Ditch discussion. I read the old Steve Benen blog religiously, and commented. Once it moved over the Maddow-land, I didn’t stay long. First, it seemed like he had started to report on things hours after I had read it elsewhere. And the interface, don’t get me started. Sad.
piratedan
@worn: for me, the remarkable finding of how many flavors of thought that there are out there is pretty awesome. While I may not personally agree with each and every site that I visit, the perspective change is always appreciated when its done the right way. I know after being here the last few years that blogs change in and of themselves and I try to be aware of that and opening up to different sites and their positions/approaches to keep my own bubble of informational sources from being too small is a very real thing. Just very difficult when the right these days have essentially devolved into a bunch of greedy racist theologians as opposed to any idea on how to address the challenges that we face. I don’t want to suffer from the idea that we have all of the answers, problems need to be researched, solutions to be tried have to run into reality and see if they work as planned. A vibrant blogroll helps with that, even in a small way.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
I go there for the articles. To be honest, wasn’t aware commenting was ever available, as don’t see any of that due to preferred browser settings.
WaterGirl
@trnc:
I nearly asked for that very thing months ago, and here’s why I didn’t.
1. Because it’s not a bad thing to be returned to the spot where you can see the comment you just posted. Often typos or other things jump out once you see it posted.
2. Because you are left at the reply you just made, you can just click the @personyourepliedto link in the comment, and you will be immediately returned to the comment you replied to.
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
Just like Playboy! :-)
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Yup. If come in late and read down to comment 300 and then decide to reply to comment 10, certainly don’t want to be returned to comment 10.
WaterGirl
I am surprised – not a single person mentioned their own blog for the Readers & Friends of balloon juice section yet today.
These are the suggested blogs I have noted as possible additions to the Politics & More section of the blogroll.
Little Green Footballs
Stonekettle Station
XKCD
The Oatmeal
Informed Comment (Juan Cole) https://www.juancole.com/
Maddowblog http://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
SCOTUSblog
Fred Kaplan.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
appeal for Kevin Drum to be added back in
TRBC – Mark Kleinman passed away awhile ago, keep or not?
If you suggested a blog that is not on that list, please let me know.
bemused senior
@Omnes Omnibus: No one should have to subscribe to comment, but that doesn’t imply it should’t be a choice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Zander and ABL are former frontpagers, probably better under “Friends”; Cleek is a current commenter.
Omnes Omnibus
@bemused senior: Take it up with Cole.
Josie
Juanita Jean’s: The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon. https://juanitajean.com/
NotMax
@WaterGirl
When it comes to the “& More” part of the equation, maybe Live Science? https://www.livescience.com/
Not a blog, but often find McClatchy’s news site invaluable. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/
Ruckus
@piratedan:
If TRBC is the blog I’m thinking of, that’s been gone for a while. It was inactive long ago, decades of internet time.
bemused senior
@WaterGirl: That’s what I’m going to have to do (ad blocker). I spent a lot of time reading BJ while I was having my chemo, and I had to drag around a charger because the BJ ads drained the phone so quickly. Above I suggested a subscription option to make a way not to stiff the blog when blocking ads. I contributed when I put an ad blocker on my laptop. I guess I’ll have to do that for my phone, though that is obnoxious in other ways (many sites block you if you don’t turn off the ad blocker.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: While the Astronomy Picture of the Day isn’t really a blog(Another Scott said “blog” in his comment), maybe something in addition to the blogroll for links that aren’t really blogs.
Cheryl Rofer
Nuclear Diner
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, John started to go down that road and backed up because I think (he didn’t explicitly say) that was because he didn’t know how to draw the line between “Friends of the blog” and not.
But good point about Cleek, and I think you make a good point about Zandar and ABL, also. ABL doesn’t actually blog anymore, but we wanted to leave her anyway because she was a front-pager. I’ll make those 3 changes and then let John disagree if he likes. thank you for the input!
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: Absolutely – done! Do you want your name in there at all, or just Nuclear Diner?
NotMax
@Cheyl Rofer
While this isn’t the thread in which to answer (if you so choose), posted a query to you downstairs.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
I probably am thinking of the wrong blog. There was a decent blog a number of years ago with a similar name and it’s long gone.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I found BJ from someone else’s blog roll so I’m glad to see one come back.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I still have my blog, don’t write on it currently but have been thinking of getting my ass in gear and starting again.
Possible to add it later if my ass gets off it’s dead and back to actually working?
cain
@NotMax:
ugh, that’s still a thing? No.. that’s all been replaced by Github these days. Maybe opensource.com? Not political enough, but a good blog would be – https://where.coraline.codes/blog/ – who works on SJC stuff in free and open source software.
For instance, the last two weeks, there has been a lot of talk about software licenses and how a lot of folks who write the code wants a say in how the software is used. The example that started this whole discussion is about a man who wrote a critical library for Chef, the company recently signed an agreement with ICE and so this person removed his code from the public, and is refusing to update or support it. The existing institutions are not responding fast enough so now there is a whole new movement to remove these institutions.
It’s fascinating stuff. My community man.. always interesting.
Aleta
Is Rewire on the VIB list
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
Know it’s just me, but that title always makes me think of this place, which in their former location included a large stylized depiction of an atom on the sign.
:)
cain
@cain:
Here is an example of an article – https://boingboing.net/2019/10/04/free-vs-open.html
worth reading especially if you believe that software should be used for bad ends – war, caging children, and various others. Community based software only wants to be used for good.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: Absolutely! I can make the change at any time.
WaterGirl
@Aleta:
??
Ruckus
@piratedan:
Actually writing on your own blog takes time away from commenting on BJ!
It’s a lot of work to maintain and at least attempt to keep it fresh and reasonable. BJ is no exception but of a number of issues, like no threaded comments, or that John is involving us in the rebuild, many of us are invested somewhat in how this place works and how good it is. And that is rare as a lot of blogs are places for the owner to vent rather than have some really decent discussions of issues – yes also along with school yard spats sometimes, about nothing really. We become acquaintances and even friends. This blog could be called Back Yard Fence in all honesty. An around the world back yard fence.
cain
@NotMax:
Clearly a front for a mob to clean up business :) (eg blacklist!)
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Election Law Blog electionlawblog dot oscar romeo golf
CarolDuhart2
Stephanie Miller Liberal Radio Show-I’ve been a fan for all 15 years of its existence. Verry Funny, A Bit Racy, too.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
done! all 3 moved up top. great suggestions, thanks.
LivinginExile
I would like to second Informed Comment.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Funny you should say that. John talked about adding other resources on the future.
You could say that “John has a plan for that!” Better look out, Baud, you may have some competition. :-)
Maybe I should add another category for fun or interesting photo of the day kinds of things. Holy cow, there’s a NYT photo fo the day, Smithsonian, National Geographic,e tc.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: Ah, that must be Very Important Blogs list.
I only figured that out because when I went to ABL’s blog to check the link, I saw a link to Rewire, where she moved. Are there other things at Rewire? Just one other person we might want to link to, or the whole site?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: I hear a guy in Glendale, CA has some interesting photos…Gill, Shrill, something like that.
jeffreyw
If TaMara isn’t going to tout her own blog I won’t, either.
Aleta
@WaterGirl: I think it’s a good site in itself, reproductive rights, race, LGBTQ, law, more.
Now I see ABL does have her own blog there too.
Andrea Chalupa.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I want to know why advertisers and marketers haven’t realized yet that bouncing, flashing, shrieking ads gain fewer customers than well-designed spaces promoting good products.
Is Flash dead yet?
Mary G
I like Kevin Drum.
Maybe just link to the home page of the Intercept – I’ve never liked GG, but a couple of the other contributors write good stuff once in a while.
Ed Kilgore at NY Mag
This link goes to his stuff only so you don’t have to see Sully or Chait
Ditto Rebecca Traister
I’m sorry, I haven’t kept up really well with these threads, WG, I try but my brain shuts down a lot these days. Did you change the rule about commenters being denied html? I love being able to embed tweets.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: That definitely belongs on there, but I will wait for TaMara to let me know what the clickable name should be. Food Goddess? What’s 4 Dinner?
delk
Hmmm… posts went bye-bye for some reason.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: I don’t see bloggers listed on the rewire front page – it looks more like a news site. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Also, if you want Andrea Chalupa, you’re gonna have to give me the link. Please :-)
WaterGirl
@debbie:
It boggles the mind.
I hope so. If it’s not dead yet, even a minute from now is not soon enough.
Cheryl Rofer
@WaterGirl: How about Nuclear Diner (Cheryl Rofer’s blog)
@NotMax: Lots of “nuclear” and “atomic” businesses in places like Richland, Washington, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, NM.
WaterGirl
@Mary G:
He’s officially on the “appeal to John to change his mind about him” list.
Had already changed the name to The Intercept, but I just changed the link, as well.
On the list to propose to Cole.
WaterGirl
@Mary G:
Site News: A Quick Update (from 2 weeks ago)
You can read the whole thing at the above link, but here is an excerpt:
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: done! sort of. blog seemed redundant
Nuclear Diner (Cheryl Rofer)
is that okay?
CarolDuhart2
@WaterGirl: Flash is scheduled to die by the end of 2020. Adobe is no longer going to support it. As for me, could you link my site? Not much on it yet, but I’m promising to do more with it.
WaterGirl
@delk: I’m sorry to hear that!
WaterGirl
@CarolDuhart2: Great news about Flash!
Would you like your blog added now? Or would you like to do what Ruckus is doing, which is say he would like to add it soon, as soon as he gets it together to post more on it?
If the answer is now, please supply the URL as well as the name you would like it to show up as on the list.
A Ghost To Most
My 20+ years of DB design/tuning stands ready to help if needed. I was quite sure from the start that the DB would be your devil. Good luck.
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
That particular business in in a tony suburban area of Long Island (nowhere near Brookhaven), and can vouch it was extant in the 1960s. Probably dates back to the 50s, when Nuclear and Atomic replaced Radio (and the shorter-lived Jet) as a stand-in for “ultra-modern” or “up to date.”
Another Scott
@CarolDuhart2: I only use one (public) page for Flash – the NWS regional weather radar loop. When Obama was still in office, they were working on some “new and improved” site, but that seems to have died when Donnie took over. (Probably so that the commercial weather sites get more traffic.)
(Weather.com / WeatherUnderground.com and all the rest usually throw a huge amount of cookies and other junk up with their weather pages. The NWS is much, much cleaner.)
I wonder if they’ll have a replacement weather radar page before Adobe pulls the plug… :-/
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
susanna
When viewing a highlighted site contained in someone’s email, upon returning to BJ lands me at the beginning comments, not the email with the highlighted site. What am I doing/not doing erroneously?
Ruckus
@debbie:
I think there are so many ads that the concept has lost all meaning and is going after the name recognition end, hear crap enough times and it becomes real, sort of like republican talking points/faux news. And they are going after limited space, like your phone screen.
Boiled down – If you only saw what you wanted you wouldn’t want any of their crap.
I use ad blockers so that I get the content I want and nothing more. And browsers keep fixing themselves so that ad blockers have to fix themselves so that our lives are not one long commercial telling us to buy crap that we don’t want and most often don’t need. Like prescription drug ads. WTF are those about besides asking our docs if we can have some? That is just wrong.
And in case anyone is thinking this is recent, my grandfather put a switch on a cord for the loudspeaker of his TV in the late 50s so he wouldn’t have to listen to the ads. An early mute button.
WaterGirl
@A Ghost To Most: Thank you! The owner of the web development group is a database guy, so he has it in hand. Unless you’re an expert in converting all the characters that don’t behave well when they are imported into a more current and appropriate database schema / structure?
WaterGirl
@susanna: If I am understanding your question correctly, it sounds like what you want to be doing is opening those links in a separate tab, which leaves you where you are on the original page. Then you can click to go to the tab that is opened, then close that tab when you’re done, and you will be back on the original page where you were when you clicked.
TomatoQueen
@WaterGirl: There has been no disagreement when I have said these words to the developer: “Taboola is the devil”.
This gives me hope.
WaterGirl
@TomatoQueen: Me, too!
stinger
@WaterGirl:
Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day is sometimes a subtle (or pointed) comment on current events. http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day
cain
I feel like I should create a blog so I can get added to the blogroll!
WaterGirl
Somebody needs to supply the link to XKCD so I can be sure I am getting the right one.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
https://xkcd.com
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): thank you! Since I didn’t know what I was supposed to find, I wasn’t sure that was the right one.
CarolDuhart2
@WaterGirl: https://www.carolduhart.com
WaterGirl
Okay, this is where we’re at after the inclusion of suggestions so far today. I’m pretty sure some of the ones under Political Blogs are not political, but I hate to click every one of them to find out. So if you see something in the list below that is out of place, please speak up.
edit: should Vox be a news site rather than a blog?
Blogroll
Blogroll was last updated October 2019.
Readers and Friends of Balloon Juice
Angry Black Lady Chronicles
Carol Duhart
Cleek
Dorothy Winsor
Nuclear Diner (Cheryl Rofer)
Tom Levenson
Way of Cats
What’s 4 Dinner
Zandar Versus The Stupid
Photos, Fun, Humor
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day
The Oatmeal
News Sites
McClatchy
Rewire
Political Blogs
Andrea Chalupa
Avedon
Barry Eisler
Calculated Risk
Charles Pierce
Critters by Britty
Crooked Timber
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos
Dan Savage
Digby
Driftglass
Ed Kilgore at NY Mag
Election Law Blog
Emptywheel
Eschaton
Eunomia
Fred Kaplan
Gin and Tacos
Greg Sargent
Informed Consent
John Scalzi
Juanita Jean’s
Kevin Drum
Kung Fu Monkey
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Lawfare
Little Green Footballs
Maddow Blog/Steve Benen
Mahablog
MaxSpeak, YOU LISTEN!
No More Mister Nice Blog
Obsidian Wings
Orcinus
Outside the Beltway
Pharyngula
Progress Pond
Real Climate
Rebecca Traister
Roy Edroso
Sadly, No!
SCOTUSblog
Skippy
Stonekettle Station
Talk Left
Talking Points Memo
The Daily Howler
The Intercept
The Panda’s Thumb
The Raw Story
The World According to Meh!
This Modern World
TRBC (Mark Kleiman and Co.)
Vox
Washington Monthly
West Virginia Blue
Wil Wheaton
Wonkette
XKCD
Non-Political Blogs
Live Science
CarolDuhart2
I’m not surprised that so many blogs are going to a donation based system or a membership system. Advertisers are as faithful as Orange Donnie these days, and so many of them seem to freeze phones or get in the way of good reading. But hosting at least needs to be paid for somehow, and a reasonable amount of money coming in for bloggers who are doing it full-time. Little Green Footballs has both ads but donation buttons and a membership mode that gets rid of the ads. Others have podcasts (Patreon) to supplement the blog work.
I don’t see much out there otherwise that preserves editorial independence. A sugar daddy would be nice, but sugar daddies (like a foundation and such) can pull the plug too. Or demand we not discuss certain topics. Or disappear without notice.
CarolDuhart2
https://community.adobe.com/t5/Flash-Player/I-heard-that-Flash-will-be-shut-down-in-2020/m-p/9779118#M198386
From Adobe.
No flash on my site-I guess you have to add it-but a radio site I listen to still uses it, and right now I’m looking for a viable alternative right now. I’ve been a Flash hater since my WebTV days, when Flash was everywhere and would freeze our little black boxes so that they would have to be rebooted by turning it on and off and helped make so many sites inaccessible.
And it was in every radio player, video player and worse. Even early YouTube used it, and it was never easy to use even when I got a computer-freezing up browsers and using a lot of bandwidth. So I won’t miss Flash at all.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring that. That kind of fits in with something else I’m working on, so I’ll come back to this next week.
A Ghost To Most
@WaterGirl:
Is the new database Unicode? If not, misbehaving characters are more likely. If so, that’s interesting.
satby
Ugh, blogroll. But evidently the masses have spoken.
Sorry I’ve been AWOL most of the week, but I’m pretty caught up now.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
XKCD is not (overtly) political. Should be under “Photos, Fun, Humor” (of the categories available).
Also, if you’re going to have West Virginia Blue, you should also have Blue Virginia.
WaterGirl
@A Ghost To Most: Are you talking about Unicode or UTF-8? Just want to be sure we are using the same terminology before going any further!
WaterGirl
@satby: It’s okay, satby. It’s in 3-point type in the footer, where it can be ignored by all who desire to do so. :-)
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack:
Hey Steep. XKCD moved. I was totally winging the heading, just trying to group the less serious things together in some way. All suggestions welcome.
Blue Virginia: done.
WaterGirl
@satby: check your email.
Steeplejack
@CarolDuhart2:
I think the only site I frequent that still uses Flash is the Minneapolis Star-Tribune crossword puzzle. It comes from an outfit called Arkadium. Can’t tell from their website whether they have an alternate version of it.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@WaterGirl: I recommend Contrary Brin for the Blogroll. http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/
WaterGirl
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): done.
WaterGirl
Can someone please remind me of the blogger that Raven hates? I want to make sure that one doesn’t get added.
susanna
Thanks for info, WaterGirl, this thread is interesting and gives me many internet readings on cold mornings heading into the 2020 election season, and intending to emerge with sanity intact.
From my view, you’re doing enormously important job here very well and thoughtfully. This is *intended* as a compliment, even though I know nothing about web sites.
CarolDuhart2
@Steeplejack: I think a lot of sites have already gotten rid of it, just waiting for the leftovers to do so. But I imagine that the ones that still have it haven’t found a workable solution yet. Maybe with the announcement, some developers will be spurred to help the remaining sites replace Flash by creating alternatives.
WaterGirl
@susanna: Thank you so much for your kind words!
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
The guy’s name is Pat something. Can’t remember the blog name, but it’s not in your list so far.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@WaterGirl: FWIW, I’d put xkcd in the fun/humor as opposed to politics category. It’s essential to sanity, wherever you put it.
ETA: late to the party as always. [shakes fist at Steeplejack]
@WaterGirl: Pat Lang – Sic Semper Tyrannis is the blog.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Is Scalzi’s blog whatever really political? I mean, he does get into it sometimes, but more often literary than political. I love it, it should be on there, but political, I dunno.
Slashdot.org is a hit or miss open source site, or was. Still operational, since I’m no longer a pro software person I’m not there every day, but still…
A Ghost To Most
@WaterGirl: 2 byte Unicode. UTF-8 doesn’t support everything. Not enough bits.
A Ghost To Most
@A Ghost To Most: UTF-16 may also be a preferable alternative to UTF-8.
Eta this is all based on how Oracle works. Did you say this is MySQL?
NotMax
Add Act Blue?
A Ghost To Most
@A Ghost To Most: The unfortunate thing is that character set is determined at database creation. You would need to create a new db with a 2 byte char set, then import from source again.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Pat Lang.
WaterGirl
@A Ghost To Most: Would you mind sending me an email message so I have your email address again?
WaterGirl
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Thank you!
terben
The Sensuous Curmudgeon has not been mentioned so far as a blogroll candidate.
WaterGirl
@terben: added.
2liberal
@WaterGirl:
science news site:
https://phys.org/
A Ghost To Most
@WaterGirl: I will when I get on my PC in the AM.
ltelf
Mock Paper Scissors, please!
https://mockpaperscissors.com
WaterGirl
@ltelf: added.
smike
@WaterGirl:
I’ve enjoyed reading ‘Jesus and Mo’ in the past, but don’t remember to very often. It might fit in the proposed category, as it still seems to be an active site.
WaterGirl
Blogroll snapshot, as of this moment, before I head to bed:
Blogroll
Blogroll was last updated October 2019.
Readers and Friends of Balloon Juice
Angry Black Lady Chronicles
Carol Duhart
Cleek
Dorothy Winsor
Nuclear Diner (Cheryl Rofer)
The World According to Meh!
Tom Levenson
Way of Cats
What’s 4 Dinner
Zandar Versus The Stupid
Photos, Fun, Humor
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day
The Oatmeal
XKCD
Political Blogs
Andrea Chalupa
Avedon
Barry Eisler
Blue Virginia
Charles Pierce
Contrary Brin
Crooked Timber
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos
Digby
Driftglass
Ed Kilgore at NY Mag
Election Law Blog
Emptywheel
Eschaton
Eunomia
Fred Kaplan
Gin and Tacos
Greg Sargent
Informed Consent
John Scalzi
Juanita Jean’s
Kevin Drum
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Lawfare
Little Green Footballs
Maddow Blog/Steve Benen
Mahablog
MaxSpeak, YOU LISTEN!
Mock Paper Scissors
No More Mister Nice Blog
Obsidian Wings
Orcinus
Outside the Beltway
Political Animal
Progress Pond
Raw Story
Rebecca Traister
Roy Edroso
Sadly, No!
SCOTUSblog
Skippy
Slacktivist
Stonekettle Station
Talk Left
The Daily Howler
The Intercept
This Modern World
TRBC (Mark Kleiman and Co.)
Wonkette
Non-Political Blogs
Calculated Risk
Dan Savage
Live Science
Pharyngula
Phys*Org Science News
Real Climate
The Panda’s Thumb
The Sensuous Curmudgeon
Wil Wheaton
News Sites
McClatchy
Rewire
Talking Points Memo
Vox
WaterGirl
@smike: which category?
smike
@WaterGirl:
Photos, Fun, Humor
https://www.jesusandmo.net/
JAFD
Good Morning, everyone !
Agree strongly with adding David Brin to the bolgroll
Would suggest, also, Fred Clark –
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/
and, from my hometown – http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/
In the fun section – http://www.boardgamegeek.com
Advertising, etc – I am an old man, don’t want much and need even less, live in small place with little room for more stuf, not much cash coming in but fortunately more than what’s going out. When I have seen the ads on BJ, ’twas nothing I’d be likely to purchase. So do most browsing with adblocker, use another non-adblocked browser when must.
Like to buy most stuf from local stores, but used Amazon link for stuf I’d simply given up trying to find (wire coathangers ??) and for stuf that’s Too Much Trouble To Get Home On The Bus (but trying to deal with Amazon’s ‘delivery system’ …).
Have been meaning to send our Blogmeister a check for the ‘Lily Ribbon Fund’. String around finger have tied.
And, if you ever consider a category for ‘friends or interesting people from the other side’ – Eric Raymond –
esr.ibiblio.org
(I’ve known him for forty years, we stopped arguing politics a while back)
Finally, many many thanks to WaterGirl and her team for all the work they’re putting into this.
A Ghost To Most
@A Ghost To Most: Email sent.
WaterGirl
@JAFD: Thanks for all the ideas. I will look at them after breakfast. In the meantime, though, you mentioned David Brin as if he had already been nominated – I did a search of this thread and didn’t find that name. What is the name of his blog?
Also, good catch on Slacktivist. He was on there yesterday morning, and yesterday I edited to change it from The Slacktivists to Slactivist. Somehow in all the edits yesterday I must have accidentally removed it. It’s back now. (and without “The”)
edit: Oh, and you are very welcome!
WaterGirl
@A Ghost To Most: Thank you!
JAFD
Hello, WaterGirl !
(Somehow the ‘reply’ arrow ain’t working. Seems like Optimum CableVision does maintainance on Sundays. Or maybe it’s the football streaming….)
‘Contrary Brin’ – davidbrin.blogspot.com
He’s between Charles Pierce & Crooked Timber
WaterGirl
@JAFD: When I searched for “brin” earlier that nothing came up. Odd, that. Anyway, thanks for responding.
WaterGirl
@JAFD: Jersey Jazzman added.
WaterGirl
@smike: Jesus and Mo added.
WaterGirl
Mid-Day Blogroll update:
Blogroll
Blogroll was last updated October 2019.
Readers and Friends of Balloon Juice
Angry Black Lady Chronicles
Carol Duhart
Cleek
Dorothy Winsor
Nuclear Diner (Cheryl Rofer)
The World According to Meh!
Tom Levenson
Way of Cats
What’s 4 Dinner Solutions
Zandar Versus The Stupid
On the Lighter Side
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Jesus and Mo
Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day
The Oatmeal
XKCD
Political Blogs
Andrea Chalupa
Avedon
Barry Eisler
Blue Virginia
Charles Pierce
Contrary Brin
Crooked Timber
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos
Digby
Driftglass
Ed Kilgore at NY Mag
Election Law Blog
Emptywheel
Eschaton
Eunomia
Fred Kaplan
Gin and Tacos
Greg Sargent
Informed Consent
Jersey Jazzman
John Scalzi
Juanita Jean’s
Kevin Drum
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Lawfare
Little Green Footballs
Maddow Blog/Steve Benen
Mahablog
MaxSpeak, YOU LISTEN!
Mock Paper Scissors
No More Mister Nice Blog
Obsidian Wings
Orcinus
Outside the Beltway
Political Animal
Progress Pond
Raw Story
Rebecca Traister
Roy Edroso
Sadly, No!
SCOTUSblog
Skippy
Slacktivist
Stonekettle Station
Talk Left
The Daily Howler
The Intercept
This Modern World
TRBC (Mark Kleiman and Co.)
Wonkette
Non-Political Blogs
Calculated Risk
Dan Savage
Live Science
Pharyngula
Phys*Org Science News
Real Climate
The Panda’s Thumb
The Sensuous Curmudgeon
Wil Wheaton
News Sites
McClatchy
Rewire
Talking Points Memo
Vox
WaterGirl
No longer checking in on this thread. -WG