Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Republicans do not trust women.

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Stay strong, because they are weak.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Consistently wrong since 2002

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Readership Capture / Welcome To the New 2019 Edition of Balloon Juice

Welcome To the New 2019 Edition of Balloon Juice

by | 319 Comments

This post is in: 

That’s right, we’re rolling in the new website with the soothing tones of Barry Manilow.

First off, I’d like to thank all of you for showing an alarming amount of patience during the never-ending rebuild and for your help testing, and especially the people who just shut the fuck up and didn’t do anything- you, people, are the true heroes.

I’d also like to thank the OG crew of folks who did the initial selection of the web developer.

And of course Watergirl, who carried this baby to completion.

I’d also like to thank Alain and crew, who literally performed miracles for the past two years keeping this puppy afloat. I don’t know the specifics, but I know we were like umpteen updates behind and Alain was constantly hotfixing stuff because the database was so wrecked we could not even recreate the website on a test server. We really would have been up shit’s creek without them. Thanks, man. I’m glad to have you onboard as a front page poster and super happy to take this burden off of you.

I would also like to ANNOUNCE SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL and something I am super excited about. Please welcome commenter Ruemara to the front page. I am so surprised I managed to not blab this before. WELCOME ABOARD RUE!

And that’s it. Obviously there are going to be some wrinkles, we are going to be doing some tweaking here and there, and we really need to make the site as ADA compliant and screen reader friendly as possible (AND ONCE AGAIN, FRONT PAGERS, PLEASE ADD ALT TEXT TO IMAGES FROM HERE ON OUT), but that is it.

I’m only mildly compelled to tell you all to go fuck yourselves, so I am going to call this a victory. I’m going to head out to get something to eat.

I really hope you enjoy the new website. We worked very hard to add as much of the things you guys wanted, while also keeping the “blog” feel to the joint. We’re also spending a LOT more on hosting to speed things up, and I hope it works out for you all. Have fun.

Reader Interactions

319Comments

  3. 3.

    Mike in DC

    Site looks good. Also, public hearings off to a very good start for Democrats. Remove The Mother Fucker Already(RTMFA)!

  6. 6.

    Martin

    Good job WaterGirl!

    I don’t know what Johns contribution to the redesign was, but whatever it was, I hate it. Everything else looks wonderful.

  9. 9.

    PenAndKey

    It’s live?!? But how can I enjoy John’s Twitter posts mocking us for being impatient if it’s livebefore I get home from work?

  10. 10.

    Felanius Kootea

    Woo hoo! I like it; I really do! Great job Watergirl and nice to have Ruemara on the front page. Hope she doesn’t get the Angry Black Lady and Zandar deranged stalker treatment.

    I had to go to Wonkette for the impeachment news but it’s all good now.

  14. 14.

    Gravenstone

    Aaaandddd, we’re back!

    ets: I actually had to read training documents during the outage. Do you know how BORING that was?

  19. 19.

    Sloane Ranger

    Hurrah. O fabulous day. It’s finally here and looking good! Thanks to all concerned.

     

    Will be sending a little something to help with the costs when I get my monthly pension payment.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    Let’s set how comment editing works. Other post had some fancy formatting widget I’m not seeing here…

  24. 24.

    H.E.Wolf

    Thank you to everyone involved in the process – it looks beautiful! – and three cheers for the addition of ruemara as a front-pager!

  26. 26.

    Mezz

    Very nice rebuild. Aesthetically pleasing.
    But there’s no pet posts yet?? Is the site broken?
    (smiley face)

    Also, rebuild even remembered my auto-fills. So that was nice.

  27. 27.

    notoriousJRT

    It looks GOOD! When I have more time I will look around to learn about all the new features. Well done and congratulations to the team!

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    Man..
    I have missed this place.
    The new look is very nice ???

    Congratulations ? and thank you to all involved.

    Congratulations to the??

  37. 37.

    ThresherK

    Cool. Looking forward to it, if only (I hope) it’s less a bother for the folks keeping it running.

    ETA: Hey, the edit thing is back!

  43. 43.

    Gravenstone

    And I missed my first edit time… oh well, that’ll teach me to work in the kitchen.

    I actually had to read training documents during the downtime today. Do you have any idea how BORING that is?

    eta: and just as I was about to lament the lack of top/bottom arrows, I find them tucked inconspicuously into header.

  46. 46.

    Eljai

    Woo-hoo! I was starting to have severe Balloon-Juice withdrawal symptoms. I think I can stop breathing into this paper bag now. The website is beautiful! Thank you, John, Watergirl, Alain and everyone!

  50. 50.

    zhena gogolia

    God, I was at the mercy of Aaron Rupar and Kyle Griffin all day (stalwarts but no substitute for BJ). And I actually had to watch the livestream, which means I got an unhealthy dose of Gym Jordan and Rat-cliffe.

  52. 52.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m not commenting on the website because I am congenitally allergic to change of any sort. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

  54. 54.

    Rose Weiss

    Delurking just to thanks everyone for the hard work – the site looks gorgeous. Congrats, John and team! ETA I actually had to go back to Orange Satan for my politics fix this morning.

  55. 55.

    PAM Dirac

    @H.E.Wolf:

    three cheers for the addition of ruemara as a front-pager!

    I’ll add three or four cheers for that and an additional two or three for remembering the nyms

     

  57. 57.

    piratedan

    when are we allowed to express what a shitshow the GOP was today on day 1 of the impeachment hearings? Now? is now a good time?

  58. 58.

    tokyocali

    Yeah! So excited to have this place back. I clicked so many times. Is it up yet? Is it up yet? Thank you to all who worked on creating this new space for us to romp in.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    I like the new look. I’m seeing some bugs though. I’ll wait for the complaining thread for that.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    I suppose it will be fixed, but after posting, I’m not returned to where I was; I end up at the top of the thread.

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    Recent comments at top right! I am in love. Now to check out this puppy …

    anything much happen today, in the interim??

  70. 70.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    Looks nice. No obvious issues so far. Maybe I can find something to whine about later.

  73. 73.

    Gravenstone

    Just a note, post edits are not showing up for me on exiting the edit window. I have to force reload the page for them to show. Chrome on Win 10.

  74. 74.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    Wow, the new site looks beautiful. Very clean and modern aesthetic. Thanks Watergirl and Alain!

  81. 81.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @debbie: That’s funny. I ended up at the (new) bottom of the thread after posting.  Nym stuck though. Yay!

    Edit. New improved BJ made a liar out of me. Ended up at the top of the post after replying to debbie. First comment, in “comment” box, dropped me at the bottom.

  85. 85.

    Searcher

    I don’t like it; can we go back to the 2012 version? That was a good year.

    (Just kidding, looks fine, and if it can finally remember my *nym from post to post, I will have no complaints.)

  88. 88.

    japa21

    This may change over the next few days, but as of now I just want to say, whatever they are paying you, it isn’t even close to enough.  Looks great, easy to read, and all that good stuff.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: If you see bugs, you can *post them here or use the Site Feedback form.

     

    *I will monitor the threads for any issues for the rest of this week. After that people will need to use the Site Feedback form if they want the guarantee that I will be aware of any problems and look into them. :-)

     

  93. 93.

    Sloane Ranger

    Err, where’s the donate button, hyperlink, whatever please?

     

    Also it remembers who I am, lovely!

  103. 103.

    HRA

    Looking very good! Very happy for having Ruemara as a FP.
    Congratulations to John and Water Girl for the success! Need to say good work to the testers since chances surely those that nicked my seldom remarks are among you.

  108. 108.

    jeffreyw

    there are some weird Xs  boxes and arrows when I mouse over the comment refresh area  firefox windows 10

  110. 110.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    Thank God the site is back up! Never knew how addicted I was to BJ until this morning! Thanks to John and the crew and I’m so glad the Balloon Guy is back!!

    Well done!!

  112. 112.

    LivingInExile

    The only problem I see is the Manilow video actually plays.  Looks Great!

    Thanks everyone for all the work.

  116. 116.

    Miss Bianca

    Yay, new blog look!! It’s fabulous!!

    And, yay, Rue!! Looking forward to reading your posts!

  122. 122.

    Auntie Anne

    Balloon Man is back! And it looks fabulous!

    Congratulations to Ruemara on the front page, and big thank-yous to Alain and WaterGirl.

  123. 123.

    Tom Levenson

    Very late to the game but — this is awesome. Thanks and congrats John, Watergirl and all involved.

    And yes, tip o’ the hat to Alain.

  126. 126.

    Fleeting Expletive

    Glad you’re back. I missed you. The place looks good, smells nice. I feel like I shoulda brought flowers and a bottle of red.

  127. 127.

    Elizabelle

    The pie filter.  Woo hoo.  And welcome Ruemara!  Another woo hoo there.

    So:  climate activist Greta Thunberg set sail today for Spain, from Salt Ponds near Hampton VA (near Norfolk).  On a catamaran with minimal carbon footprint (once the thing was manufactured, anyway).

    Richmond Times <strike>Dispatch</strike> Disgrace: 

    HAMPTON — Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg hitched a renewable-energy ride back to Europe on Wednesday, sailing into the Atlantic on a trip she hopes will get her to Madrid in time for another climate conference, and then home for the holidays.

    Thunberg tweeted as she took to the sea on the 48-foot catamaran of an Australian family that answered her urgent appeal for a low-carbon way back home after the United Nations climate meeting she had planned to attend in Chile was moved due to political unrest there. She encouraged followers to track their journey online.

    Skippered by a lovely Australian couple (with 11-month old baby) who do a Youtube channel.  Check out their boat, the La Vagabonde — this is pre-baby and pre-Greta.  I do wonder how this vessel will do in the November Atlantic, but they are experienced sailor/skippers.

    Gonna enjoy their videos over the next few weeks.  Entranced by people who travel and live in small, mobile spaces.  Theirs is pretty nice.  (Two bathrooms.  Ocean view.)

  128. 128.

    Searcher

    @Gin & Tonic: Your previous Cyrillic comment looks fine to me on Chrome/Desktop?

    But if you really want to stress-test non-Latin character sets, لا شيء أفضل من العربية.

     

  129. 129.

    Tony Jay

    Cock-cheese. Bang-spawn. Grumble-splat.

    Yep, everything seems fine.

    Welcome to the Adult Table, Ruemara!

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    Why is everything different?

    Who snuck in, in the middle of the night and stole BJ?

    I demand answers yesterday!

  138. 138.

    Baud

    Bug: In a mobile web browser using dark mode, the BJ banner at the top is hard to see.

    ETA:  Android, Samsung Browser

  142. 142.

    Edmond

    Been mostly-lurking around here for years, and I just wanted to chime in that the rebuild looks fantastic. I am legitimately impressed with how clean and clear it all came together.

  143. 143.

    Elizabelle

    Incidentally, I am fine with Barry Manilow for this inaugural post.

     

    I am delirious that you did not go with any Paul Anka song for the Keep Calm We’re Having a Baby post.  Not even gonna mention it.

  145. 145.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    All day while staring at that Under Construction message I’ve been thinking of the economics term “pent-up demand”. As in the thousands of comments that must be piling up in jackals’ minds, just waiting for the new site to open.

    Maybe the right analogy is the toy store on Black Friday in one of those years where there’s a toy everybody just has to get for their little monsters, and so when the doors open…

  149. 149.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Federal judge strikes down Trump Administration action allowing release of 3D-printed guns

    In July 2018, [WA state] Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, arguing that Trump Administration efforts to allow the distribution of data files for downloadable, 3D-printed firearms violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution.

    In his ruling, Judge Robert Lasnik granted Ferguson’s motion for summary judgment, meaning the case will not need to go to trial. The judge ruled that the Trump Administration’s decision to allow the unlimited distribution on the internet of data files for untraceable, undetectable 3D-printed guns was arbitrary, capricious and unlawful. Source

  151. 151.

    Denali

    Everything looks great! Know you are pleased. So glad to have Ruemara and her excellent  thoughts!

  152. 152.

    Gravenstone

    Too late. That’s an auto-populating earworm…

    eta: hrm, wonder why this reply is not giving proper attribution? Did I fat finger the cursor and overwrite the link?

  153. 153.

    BBA

    Can I lose the dots?

    EDIT: apparently not, though if someone can let me out of the mod queue and allow me to use my old dotless nym again, I’d be grateful. I’m the same dood who posts here under this nym with dots in between, but had to switch when I started getting flagged as spam after some…unfortunate comments on my part.

  154. 154.

    RedDirtGirl

    New is scary, but I think I can handle it. Although I was only just getting the hang of things on the old one, to be honest.

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    Thanks to Team Watergirl/Alain/John Cole. It’s a lovely update, and I like all the white space.

  157. 157.

    Fair Economist

    Congrats Ruemara!

     

    Great job by the transfer team. I’ve never seen a transfer go so well before. One rabbit forum I followed has been down for 7 months and counting.

  158. 158.

    japa21

    The more I wander around the new digs the more I think my prediction from last night is wrong. Instead of a top 9,999 political blog, with this look we might make it to top 9,250 political blog.

    I love the refresh button and how quickly it refreshes.

    Also, I have no problem with the last post arrow being too large. On a Windows 10, Firefox lap top.

  159. 159.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Curious, I was replying to raven. Reply thingy not work? Or the dreaded user error?

    I love that my nym stays!

  162. 162.

    Rob

    This new site is awesome-looking! Thank you WaterGirl and everybody else who made it happen, and made it beautiful.

    Also, I donated to the blog via the link up top.

    Now, back to lurking.

  163. 163.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Major Major Major Major: So what’s the over/under on how many days before we have to turn off text colors in comments?

    (Slaps forehead) Dang! I should have asked for a blinking text option during beta testing. Also control of both foreground and background colors. Blinking yellow on orange, anyone?

     

  164. 164.

    scav

    ok, this is?
    and this next puppy is

    baffling (more?)

    and I still don’t know what the explody chain icon is . . .
    nor where the code button is on visual.
    Let’s see what close tags looks like

  168. 168.

    Citizen_X

    Gawsh, it’s bootyful!

    And hooray for promoting ruemara to jackal cadre! Or, fine, FPers, whatever.

  172. 172.

    MattF

    So, the icons above the ‘visual’ edit box… what’s the one after the ‘link’ icon? And what’s the one after the text color thing?

  177. 177.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @TaMara (HFG):  This is a BUG. I posted this comment, but when I went in to respond to someone else, this comment showed up again. I thought, oh, maybe I didn’t press post. But, nope, I did. It duplicated the comment.

     

  178. 178.

    donnah

    Congrats to all involved on a job well done! It looks so clean! Looking forward to a lot of new posts.

  180. 180.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @MattF: I have explanatory text that describes the icon when you hover the mouse. You’re not seeing that? Might want to mention your hardware and browser.

    After “insert link” is “remove link”. And next to “text color” is a little eraser that’s for “clear formatting”.

     

  183. 183.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @WaterGirl: I don’t think that’s how this should work. It should size itself down. I am NEVER in full screen (I have a 17 inch screen so I can have several windows open at once, monitoring BJ and working). I’ve never had something bleed in because of it.  Abd And it’s well into the comments when my screen is almost full-screen.

     

  186. 186.

    oatler.

    slightly disappointed I couldn’t vent my outrage at Nunes during the impeachment hearings, but good show, chappies.

  192. 192.

    Walker

    Much more mobile friendly. The old site had these side tabs that I would always click on when I scroll.

  195. 195.

    West of the Rockies

    The new design looks great!  Well done, all.  Thank you for your efforts and expenses.

  197. 197.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @NotMax:

    “arbitrary, capricious and unlawful.”

    This can be used by all other judges in any future case because it applies to everything Drumf does. We should call it the “Lasnik formula” in the judges honor.

    BTW: Watergirl, I love the new way Tweets embed! Any my nym & email stick!

     

  199. 199.

    Mary G

    Looks fantastic, so clean and clear.

    Hurray for Ruemara!

    Now here’s a little complaint – can the commenter’s name be in a bigger font? The numbers are huge, but I’m having to tilt my head to find the spot in my progressive bifocals that fits.

  202. 202.

    Roger Moore

    Let me try this again. One problem I notice is that it doesn’t remember my website the same way it remembers my name and email. Also, too, my previous comment saying this got eated.

  206. 206.

    Roger Moore

    Halp! My comments is getting eated!

    ETA: It seems it may have something to do with the website I link to with my Nym.

  209. 209.

    O. Felix Culpa

    To Watergirl: 1) thank you! Site looks great.

     

    2) the reply @person is not showing up when I hit reply and comment. Using Android phone, Chrome.

  213. 213.

    spudgun

    Wow, very nice! I like the assorted fonts – clean and elegant.

    Congrats and a hearty thanks to all involved in the whole process – thank you thank you!

  216. 216.

    satby

    Yeah,  the side fly out button isn’t a problem  on my tablet, so might be a scaling issue. I drove WaterGirl  nuts I bet,  because  she needed picky,  picky testers and I’m not. Though it looks like a few of you will step up on that score ?

  218. 218.

    MisterForkbeard

    The new site looks great! I’ll only whine about the fact that it was unavailable during the Impeachment Hearing today. I had to hit TPM for liveblogging and discussion. :P

    Gonna have to take the new site for a spin as soon as I get the time!

  219. 219.

    banditqueen

    ♥ Huzzahs, thank yous, high fives, hails, and other rapturous praises to Watergirl, Allain, the web developer, John, and all the pets who kept them happy during the site rebuild–it’s most excellent indeed, and so nice for the lurkers amongst us. And impeach the mofo already.

  222. 222.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Roger Moore: I’m having issues with replying, the comment where I said “Nice pics” was a reply to your comment, but it didn’t insert the ref to your original comment.  Worked the second time.

     

    Looks good in general, when I enter a reply it took me back to the top of the page, also when click on a reply it takes me to the comment fine, but the back button on my mouse take me to my previous comment not back to where I was.

     

    Oh, and remembering my website.

     

  224. 224.

    Betty Cracker

    Another test comment. Can i really add media?

     

    Nope! Was gonna show y’all my grandcat. ?

     

  233. 233.

    nicdanger

    Wow,place looks and feels great.Easy to read and functional too!Congrats on a successful transition…(crap,hope I didn’t jinx anything)

  234. 234.

    trnc

    @zhena gogolia: And I actually had to watch the livestream, which means I got an unhealthy dose of Gym Jordan and Rat-cliffe.

    Since Jordan appears to be so very, very concerned about first hand knowledge of DT’s scheme, perhaps someone could ask him if he has insisted that Mulvaney and Half Ass Nosferatu obey their subpoenas? Also, would he like to throw out all convictions for cases that started out with a 3rd party reporting a crime?

    ETA: Almost forgot to say – the site looks great!

  237. 237.

    geg6

    Wow.  Love the clean look.  Balloon Man is back, which I love with all my heart.  I’ll be checking out all the new bells and whistles later, but the most important things seem excellent.  Big kudos to John, WaterGirl, Alain and all the testers.  Great job.

     

    But never ever do this again on the same day as the opening of impeachment hearings.  I was just dying all day without BJ and all the commenters here.  No way to get the full context without the discussions here and the commenters who had more time than I did today to watch.  It was awful. ?

     

  239. 239.

    terben

    O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
    Glad that you’re back ….breathing again.
    Site looks so slick and clean.

  240. 240.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: when click on a reply it takes me to the comment fine, but the back button on my mouse take me to my previous comment not back to where I was.

    The trick there is to click on the date and time stamp for the post you want to navigate back to before clicking on the link to take you forward. That sets a new anchor in the page, so the back button will now navigate you back to that anchor.

  242. 242.

    MazeDancer

    Yay, WaterGirl!

    She lavished a good 75K of FREE time on this site. Possibly more.

    Her dedication to perfection was relentless. And it shows. She deserves something big. An annual award named after her. Something huge and lasting.

  247. 247.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Okay. I have taken my screen size down to 90%, which is where I will probably keep it. The 100% is just HUGE on my screen and overwhelming. Ninety-percent also solved the Previous post tab bleeding into all the text on the left.  I honestly don’t remember it all being the LARGE on the test site. But it is kind of disconcerting. Found my solution, so not an issue on my end any longer.

  248. 248.

    Mousebumples

    Yay, it’s back! Missed having a live thread for impeachment stuff, but it looks awesome.

    Minor bug /quibble – on mobile (Android, Twitter link launched browser) when I was attempting to scroll, I apparently hit the reply button 3 times for various posts. I’m not sure if it’s a my phone sensitivity thing or a website sensitivity thing since I’m not trying to press the buttons at all…? I ended up scrolling in the middle of the screen, so I can adapt if it’s a my phone problem… But thought I’d mention it all the same.

    Thanks again for all your efforts!

     

  249. 249.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Looks like you went to the slot canyons

    There are many, many slot canyons in that part of Utah.  I went to Crack and Leprechaun, neither of which I had been to before.

    The group I go on Utah vacations with has a simple rule: every trip should include a mix of new and old stuff.  By going places you’ve been before and know you like, you’re guaranteed some things you know you’ll enjoy.  By going to new places, you can find exciting new stuff you’ve never done before.

    For example, I had been to Horseshoe Canyon (the one with the amazing pictographs) before and knew I wanted to go back with better gear.  But I had never been to Sunset Arch or Upper Calf Creek Falls, both of which were a lot of fun.

     

  253. 253.

    SFAW

    IS THIS THING ON?????
    COLE, I CAN’T GET TO THE SITE!!! WTF!!! HOW CAN I COMMENT???
    WHEN WILL THE SITE BE BACK UP?????

    Tons of thanks for all the hard work to WaterGirl and her band of elves!!!

    I’m just glad today was a slow news day, so I didn’t miss much.

  254. 254.

    FlyingToaster

    I spent much of today putting together a new office chair for HerrDoktor, whose previous version collapsed under him Monday at 11:15pm.

    Did the Goopers at the hearing really sound like QAnon? Jeebus.

  255. 255.

    JaySinWA

    When I scale my screen to 3/4 or so, I get previous tab bleed into the comment number but not the text. My screen is 1080p but scaled to “1536 x 864 (Default)” by ChromeOS to make text and icons readable on a 14″ screen.

    ETA.

    If i pull the screen into half screen mode the side wings disapear, but there are top arrows to back and forth. The side wing intrusions start after widening the screen, and continue pretty much to full screen.

  257. 257.

    MisterForkbeard

    So now that we have a pretty new website, we can bitch about the cafepress site that looks like it was made in 2003, right?

    Seriously though, this is good work. I used to break websites for a living and many of the obvious tricks aren’t working. :)

  260. 260.

    PJ

    If anyone is listening, if the text box is in the lower half of the screen (at least on my laptop), the left arrow tab (to go to the previous post, I guess?) covers a portion of the text box so that you can’t tell if you’ve typed something correctly or not. Are these tabs needed, since the two left and right arrows at the top fulfill the same function? If they are duplicative, I vote to get rid of them.

    Also, I now have to keep typing my name and email each time I comment – can you put the check box back so that one doesn’t have to keep doing this?

  261. 261.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Trying again because a previous reply got eated.

    There are so many slot canyons in Southern Utah you could spend a lifetime visiting them all.  I went to a couple I had never visited before, Crack and Leprechaun.

    My friend and I actually have a rule for our trips: we have to do a mix of new and old things.  That way you have some stuff you’re confident you’ll like, but you also get to try some new things to see if you’ll enjoy them.

    On this trip, for example, we went back to Horseshoe Canyon, the place with the amazing rock art. We had gone there before and knew I wanted to come back with better gear.  But we had never gone to Sunset Arch (the only arch in those pictures) or Upper Calf Creek Falls, both of which I would be interested in doing again.

     

  263. 263.

    JaySinWA

    @JaySinWA: Whoa some thing ate my email address in the prefill.

    ETA and it is gone again after commenting.

    Also, sometimes the screen repaints before the comment is accepted, I had to refresh the screen to see my last.

  265. 265.

    suezboo

    Wow ! Thanks and congratulations, to Cole, WaterGirl and Alain from an irregular commenter. But daily appreciator of your hard work and dedication.

  266. 266.

    BroD

    Um, ok, I can see it’s different but I don’t understand how it’s better (but that’s ok–I don’t need to.)  I’m sure I’ll find something to gripe about–give me time. In any case, props to those who made it happen.

  267. 267.

    Rileys Enabler

    It’s gorgeous and quick! Hurray! Congrats to all who worked, developed and tested it. Good job, and many thanks.

  269. 269.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Roger Moore: click on the date and time stamp for the post you want to navigate back to before clicking on the link to take you forward.

    Thanks I was wondering about that, It works, but will i remember to do that new little step every time?

     

  270. 270.

    JanieM

    Late to the party, but this looks wonderful — my thanks on top of everyone else’s for all the work, and I’ll kick in a little $ shortly because I usually use an ad blocker.

    !!! Wow!

  272. 272.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Roger Moore: click on the date and time stamp for the post you want to navigate back to before clicking on the link to take you forward.

    Thanks I was wondering about that, It works, but will I remember to do that new little step every time?

  274. 274.

    Chris Johnson

    Woot! Congrats on the new site. My aging eyes are loving the somewhat bigger font and the general look :)

  279. 279.

    GxB

    [In Indy Jones voice…] Manilow… why did it have to be Manilow?…

    Go on with your bad self JC – I’m just a lurker now, but shine (or whatever the fuck Barry did…) on you crazy diamond.

  281. 281.

    JAFD

    First, many thanks to Mr. Cole for cultivating this community, and to Water Girl and all those who worked on the new 2020 model Balloon Juice !  (‘Tis almost like back in ’62, when the local Chevy dealer would get 3 or 4 searchlights and the high school marching band for the day the new models came out…).

    But now, I, unfortunately, must make a serious complaint.

    Am reading the new Balloon Juice on laptop screen, 1366×768

    For me, the font/typeface on the new site is much harder to read than the font on the old. At the default size, the verticles are either very faint or solid black, and the curved letters faint. Hitting ctrl-+ three or four times (to point where comments take up entire width of screen) increases the letters’ size and density to point of easy readability, but leaves the letters with noticable ‘jaggies’.

    Thank you all, very much, for your attention to this.

  282. 282.

    Yutsano

    Our long national nightmare is over?

    Am also not getting e-mail stickage. Firefox Mobile Samsung Galaxy S9

  285. 285.

    Roger Moore

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think there’s some kind of caching issue where new comments sometimes take a while to show up.  There also seems to be an issue where comments get eaten because of the commenter’s website.

     

  288. 288.

    Dan B

    @Roger Moore: Your pics are fantastic!  Wish there were locations.  Or are there that I didn’t notice?  And the movie fooled me at the beginning and near the end.  I thought it wasn’t playing.  Very cool that it was subtle in a way it fit the terrain- very quiet.

     

  289. 289.

    Mousebumples

     

    @Yutsano: I am not having this issue. Galaxy S9 plus, though, if that makes a difference.

     

    One more mobile observation – the down nav arrow takes me to the bottom of the page (I.e. Cole’s latest tweets) versus the end of the comments. Not sure if that was intended?

     

  290. 290.

    Dan B

    @NotMax: My AG, yea!  Bob Ferguson is fantastic, not much charisma but boy does he know how to get progressive results!!  Bob for Supremes, except we’d hate to lose him.

     

  293. 293.

    madeliene

    This looks so good and it’s easier to read! Thanks so much Watergirl, John, and, for keeping us alive, Alain. Hurrah Ruemara!

  298. 298.

    Mousebumples

    @Mousebumples: correction – it’s an issue if I use Chrome on my phone.

    Eta – though I immediately saw my comment with the refresh of the page in Chrome so that’s good…

  303. 303.

    FelonyGovt

    Looks wonderful. Congratulations to WaterGirl and John Cole and Alain and everyone else who worked so far. So glad it’s back and I can resume my vacation from Twitter.

  305. 305.

    smedley the uncertain

    Loses comment.  Please type a comment…  WTF.

    Just sent congrats and it lost it.

    See if this goes..

     

  310. 310.

    Angela (@Toocananj)

    Lurker popping up to say it’s perfect, I love the balloon man and lexicon back, and prominence of the rotating tag line.

    Best of all though is Ruemara front-paging. Woo hoo!

  313. 313.

    sphex

    Delurking to say I think the new site looks absolutely beautiful- I love the clean font and that Balloon Man is back! Thank you, everyone who worked hard on the new site (and thank you to everyone who makes up this magnificent community!!)

  314. 314.

    Michael Cain

    Can the visual mode editor be set up to show more than the current minimal white space between paragraphs?  The current amount of space seems to be encouraging some users to put their own blank line in, which means something different in the visual editor than it does in the text mode editor, and results in a bunch of extra (probably unintended) vertical white space when the comment is displayed.

    Overall, well done.  I run every page I download through a piece of JavaScript to change fonts and sizes to match my taste.  (Yes, that means all of your team’s efforts on font selection and typography are wasted on me.)  The front page renders well using the default decisions that little program makes.  I had to add a couple of special cases for the comments to get the comment number and commenter ‘nym to be appropriate sizes and properly aligned.  That’s about the average for the sites that I visit regularly enough to do special cases.

  315. 315.

    Wolvesvalley

    Testingwhethervisualmodehasformattingbuttons.Yes!Dothebuttonspersistintheeditwindow?Yes.ThisisonaWindows7PCwithFirefox.

    Yikes. All spaces and carriage returns have vanished on second edit.

    How about third edit.

  316. 316.

    Wolvesvalley

    This is a comment to test the text mode. Formatting buttons present.

    Here is a block quote.

    This is text after the block quote. This is an added sentence in the edit window. Will a second edit lose the spaces and line breaks?
    Vertical white space gets added with every new edit.

Comments are closed.