Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We still have time to mess this up!

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread Test: That New-Platform Smell

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    Nicole

    Woohoo! Yay for new site, yay for Ruemara becoming a front-pager, yay for it all!

    And that commercial is amazing.

  4. 4.

    Mike in DC

    I guess the big question of the day  is how many people can be persuaded to support removal by the public hearings? My general impression is that at most about a fifth of the population is persuadable on this point.  But if we get most of them,  both 45 and his supporters are doomed.  It’s just a question of whether the end comes slowly or swiftly.

  6. 6.

    Spanky

    Wait, my first comment never appeared.

    Testing, testing ….

    ETA, never mind.

    ETA2 – Well, we know the edit function works.

  7. 7.

    karen marie

    OH MY GOD – THE SITE IS SO PRETTY!

    But it sure is WHITE! Going to have to adjust my brightness.

  12. 12.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Man, a new coat of paint works wonders, don’t it?

    No, seriously, the joint looks great.

    Now the question is— will the Republicans permit his removal?

    And if not, can we hang his corruption around the necks of every single Republican running in 2020?

  17. 17.

    jeffreyw

    not seeing the wing tabs on mobile but with the floating header with nav arrows – not a problem

  22. 22.

    moonbat

    The new site is gorgeous. Congrats to all the people who designed it, tested it and got it up and running. It’s FANCY!

  26. 26.

    HeleninEire

    Missed John’s thread so I gotta say here two very important things.

    1. When I was a teenager I loved Barry Manilow. Yeah; fight me.

    2. Ruemara is gonna be a front poster? SHUT UP. That is the BEST.

     

  27. 27.

    Mart

    Site looks great.

    When that damn thing popped out that guys belly I jumped up and ran out of the theater. Took about ten minutes to convince myself that it was just a movie. When I sat back down my wife and the two high school girls next to us proceeded to question my manliness in the most un-PC manner possible; not that I blamed them.

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    I guess the big question of the day is how many people can be persuaded to support removal by the public hearings?

    It’s got to be near zero. As far as I can tell nothing is really being said here that wasn’t already known, in general if not in detail; if you could rationalize this away before you can probably still do it now.

  36. 36.

    PJ

    Yeah, it remembers my name but not my email.  I’m using Firefox 70.0.1 on MacOS to the extent that matters.

     

    The side wings are annoying, too, because they block text, and the arrows at the top do the same thing.

  40. 40.

    MattF

    OK, a nit. When I’m in the ‘visual’ comment box on my tablet or phone, I can’t see the tags on the row of icons over the box– because there’s no mouse. And the mobile/desktop distinction might help here for the phone, but won’t help for the iPad because the new iPadOS defaults to desktop versions of sites.

  43. 43.

    jeffreyw

    had to bail out of the android mobile app, several problems for me there, android 10 on a pixel

    not remembering my email, when pushing the publish comment button the site scrolls me to the top, the nav arrow brings me back to the bottom but my last comment is a no show until I refresh, a refresh when at the top takes me straight back to the bottom and displays the comment

  44. 44.

    Alain

    Ok, I’m done for tonight, chores to do then bed.

     

    Don’t forget to submit content for OTR, folks – I hope against, but fear there might a lurking issue that needs ironing out, so just submit 2 pictures so nothing major is lost if we hit a snag.

     

    Good job, everybody!

     

  48. 48.

    JaySinWA

    Looks like my email is permanently forgotten. Needing to fill it in all the time

    ETA after this comment, the website address was moved to the email field and the website field was blank.

  54. 54.

    chris

    @MattF: (This is a test.) Switch to text? It’s at the top right corner on my Android phone.

    ETA: Surprise! Reply opens a comment box. Did not expect that, very 21st century.

  55. 55.

    Mart

    I cannot handle scary movies. It all started when I was about five. My whole family gave me shit for running out of the rec room when them damn flying monkeys started fucking with Dorothy and crew.

  59. 59.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    Woot.

    I’m resisting the temptation to snark about how the old (2005) site was better.

    Ruemara, is that the lady we did the GoFundMe to help her become a citizen?

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m kind of relieved that there are still a few glitches in the new site. I was afraid there might be nothing to complain about.

  62. 62.

    Alain

    @WaterGirl: I know we did, weeks ago and you likely did recently.  I’m just seeing people and myself seeing/reporting issues or quirks and so figure that there might be a lurking issue in OTR so I don’t want to encourage anyone to submit a big production first thing out of the gate in case it gets chewed up!

     

     

  63. 63.

    Fair Economist

    I’ve seen that too. I post and my comment is missing because the comments displayed stop a few back. Refresh and I see it.

    Edit: but this time was OK.

    Re-edit: but the edit required a refresh.

  66. 66.

    Citizen_X

    I dunno. A lot of the mushy middle is comprised of people that don’t pay attention. So if they see Trump’s malfeasance and the nonsense propaganda of his supporters displayed on TV, I hope that would have some effect. But it is a different media and political world than it was during the Watergate hearings, so we shall see.

  68. 68.

    The Dangerman

    *kicks shoes off*

    *pours something appropriately non-alcoholic*

    *cues up some appropriate tunes (feels like a Neil Young, Harvest Moon kinda night)*

    About to hit Post. Maybe I should cue up some Feels Like The First Time by Foreigner.

    “It’s just the magic in you that brings out the posting in me….

    ETA: Huh. It doesn’t like blank lines.

  69. 69.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Hey…has anyone had luck going back to a previous comment? I’ve tried Alt < and just < , nothing works. Is it something else

    alt <  takes me back to MY last comment, but that’s not what I want. I want to go back to the last comment I was reading when I follow their comment back to who they are replying to.

  70. 70.

    Uncle Cosmo

    At least before The Change an autofilled e-mail would stick around for a half hour or so. Not now – it’s wiped out after posting. (Even though the nym remains, wtf?) And if you forget to fill in the e-mail & hit “Post Comment,” the text vanishes.

     

    This is actually worse than the old site.

  71. 71.

    jeffreyw

    Amir, my reply was #53  still not autofilling the reply to nym for me

    or remembering email

    eta, or bringing me back to the just posted comment, instead it scrolls me directly to the top

  76. 76.

    jeffreyw

    it’s just random shit now, never the same thing twice,

    except forgetting email, it does that every time

  77. 77.

    Ked

    This seems to be a generally well-considered update, without Disqussing everything for clicks and awful threaded conversation like so many blogs do. Good job probably!

    I think my one main quibble is it feels like overall whitespace on the page has increased, and I’m not sure I like it. This might be an artifact of the the new font, but I’m going to stick my foot in it and ask if line spacing can be notched one pixel tighter? It also might be that lack of ads is making everything feel whited out for the moment.

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m having the same problems. Chrome on laptop.  e-mail not sticking and comment not appearing until I refresh.

  79. 79.

    JaySinWA

    @TaMara (HFG): It generally works for me when you anchor by clicking on the date stamp where you want to return and then use the appropriate go back to previous page function for your device.

    ETA it never worked consistently in testing with images or Twitter links in the post or comment stream.

  80. 80.

    Aziz, light!

    Thank you thank you for an end to that infernal impossible to close pop-up ad at the bottom of the phone screen that popped up every goddamn time!

    Or is it coming back tomorrow?

  82. 82.

    japa21

    This is kind of a first for me. Haven’t had a single issue yet, except one minor thing which I figured out how to do fairly quickly. Working off my lap top so far. When I retire to my Kindle other things may come up.

    I did notice that when I tried to reply, the normal old sequence with who I was replying to didn’t show up, but it showed up when I posted the reply correctly, so I just figured that was fine. Different but fine with me.

    ETA: Email had been showing up every time until I posted this one. Oh well, perfection is still something to be longed for but never achieved.

  83. 83.

    chris

    Are we on the same page here? On my phone/firefox  at the top right corner of the comment box I can choose [Visual] or [Text]. Visual gives icons, Text is, well, text, and pretty self-explanatory. HTH

  85. 85.

    MomSense

    I’m so excited about Rue being a front pager.  Site looks great.  Thanks to everyone who worked on this – especially our blog host and Watergirl.  I also feel like I should thank Steve because he’s not the kind of cat you want holding a grudge.

  86. 86.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @JaySinWA: Sorry, I understood none of that. I need a simple solution like before. Alt < always worked.

    I think they misunderstood when asked to design a back button and made it default to the commenter’s last comment, not the last comment we were reading.

  87. 87.

    The Dangerman

    I have the email not being sticky and the post not posting until a refresh, too.

    ETA: OK, ignore the second part of that post; it posted immediately this time.

  88. 88.

    TS (the original)

    Mine remembers both (I don’t use the website item) but I’m still using Win 7 which will shortly be history – & chrom

    Edit: And this time I can see my comment immediately after posting

  90. 90.

    JGabriel

    OH MY GOD – THE SITE IS SO PRETTY!

    But it sure is WHITE! Going to have to adjust my brightness.

    If you’re having a problem with the glare from white space on web pages, look for an app called Dark Reader in Firefox Add-Ons or Google Play. They both have it.

    Install it and see a world of difference. It flips text to white and backgrounds to black (or other colors depending on your settings and the web page). Your eyes will thank you.

  91. 91.

    Ohio Mom

    Just got here. Looking forward to not having to type in my bum and email again and again and again…

     

     

     

  93. 93.

    Aleta

    omg it’s up!!  So clean. ‘She’s very sparkly.’

    Life is still very wow.

    Watergirl, you’re a fountain and a brook and a wave.

  94. 94.

    Kelly

    I went to the original Alien movie with my brother. We were single me 23 and him 21. He was chatting up a pair of young ladies sitting next to us before the lights went down and making a good impression. I SCREAMED when the chest burster happened and an generally reacted squimishly to all the scenes where someone was heading into a bad spot. He maintains to this day that’s why he couldn’t entice them out for drinks after the show.

  95. 95.

    chris

    Banned from Balloon Juice! Me, after all these years! Just for trying to embed a tweet. *Looks up.* Oh, wait…

     

    Guess it won’t let us do that any more. Also wipes email when I hit post.

  96. 96.

    Felanius Kootea

    My nym and email are sticking but posting a new comment requires hitting refresh before I see it.
    Chrome, MacOS 10.14.6.

    Other than that it looks great. And the pie filter icon right before the comments is a nice touch.

    ETA: and editing comments works well.  In color!

  97. 97.

    TS (the original)

    @TaMara (HFG):  I use the back arrow  which takes me back to the post I was reading

     

    And now my email has disappeared. Does this relate to replying to a comment, rather than starting a new comment

     

  102. 102.

    Gin & Tonic

    I submitted a small handful of photos through OTR – now I can finally use the submission form. Let’s see if this works.

  106. 106.

    Duane

    While the site was down the morning people met for breakfast. Bet they’re asleep  now. With my free time I googled “porn on the internet.” They weren’t kidding. Things you learn on  Balloon Juice.

  107. 107.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @TaMara (HFG):  as Jay said (and Roger Moore in the last thread) just click on the date/time on the right side of the comment you want to anchor to in the case of your comment #86 that’s

    November 13, 2019 at 7:52 pm

    But remember do that before you click the poster’s nym/link

     

  110. 110.

    JGabriel

    I guess the big question of the day is how many people can be persuaded to support removal by the public hearings?

    Support for Nixon’s removal was a little over 60% when the GOP sent Senators to the WH to force his resignation.

    We’re already close to or above 50% support for Trump’s removal. My wild ass guess is that there’s a minimum of another 4%-5% who will be persuaded by the public hearings, and a max of about 15%.

    So it’s pretty much still a toss-up. But if support to remove Trump goes over 60%, it’s probably game over for him.

  112. 112.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TaMara (HFG): The date and time in each person’s comment is a link. If you click on it, it sets an “anchor” which I believe means the back button will take you to that comment. I forget the exact functionality, but whatever it was I remember it worked pretty well in testing.

     

  113. 113.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Okay… so it’s expected that random visitors and regular commenters are going to do that when before the back button used to work perfectly?

     

    And I’m still unclear on what you mean by anchoring.  So, that’s probably a non-starter and should be fixed. We are trying to make the site more accessible, not harder for visitors.

     

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    On mobile, the Twitter feed sidebar appears below the comments–which means that the down-arrow button takes you far below the bottom of the comment feed and you have to scroll up to read comments. I’m not sure what should be done about this (perhaps nothing), but it’s a small annoyance.

  122. 122.

    Jay

    Site blocked me when I tried to use Twitter embed, to embed a tweet, then ate my first attempt to comment on that.

    Oops, no it didn’t eat the comment. Just didn’t immediately load.

  123. 123.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JGabriel: When the Watergate story really broke, Nixon’s popularity had been quite high, and it plummeted rapidly over the course of a few months. We already know way more about Trump’s misbehavior than they knew about Nixon then, and I just haven’t seen any such motion–he’s permanently stuck in the low forties or so, far lower than Nixon upon reelection but far higher than Nixon ended up. I think we’re living in a fantasy world if we think many people will be convinced.

     

     

  126. 126.

    karen marie

    I tried to reply to another comment and got an “Error 502 bad gateway.” Boo! I posted a screenshot to John Cole’s twitter.

  130. 130.

    Uncle Cosmo

    I think my one main quibble is it feels like overall whitespace on the page has increased, and I’m not sure I like it.

    You’ll get used to it in a week or so – & then Cole will fill all that white space up with shitty loud autoplay ads again.

  133. 133.

    Kmax

    I like what I see so far.
    Apologies if I missed this earlier but do we have the pie filter on new site?

  134. 134.

    Jay C

    Hard to believe: 133 comments, and no one has made the obvious snark about the “Alien” franchise being part of Disney+ ??

    In Space, No One Can Hear You Stream

    And btw, are we to do without the “bold” “italic” “blockquote” functions in comments??

    Never mind, they popped up in “edit” mode

  135. 135.

    Wolvesvalley

    Testing a comment in visual mode. Buttons are present.

    Will spacing and line breaks be preserved on edit? On third edit?

     

     

     

  136. 136.

    Wolvesvalley

    Another test using text mode. Formatting buttons present and functional.
    Buttons still present and functional. Strikeout.

Comments are closed.