Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

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

T R E 4 5 O N

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

I really should read my own blog.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

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

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance / Site Update: The Updating

Site Update: The Updating

by | 62 Comments

This post is in: ,

Is this a good time for a site update?

Those of you who aren’t sick in bed (or rocking in the corner because of current events) may have noticed the site behaving a bit better than it had been.

We made some programming changes on Friday, and the issue isn’t entirely resolved, but we’ve gone 36 hours without the 502/524 issue occurring, so that’s encouraging.

In addition to the programming changes made at the end of last week, we asked the front pagers to only log in to WordPress when they were creating or editing their posts.  What was the reason for that? It’s because there are things that WordPress does in the background when someone is logged in, and they were contributing to the problem – even if the person has walked away from their computer or has left for the day.

Anyway.. that was Phase 1, and the purpose was to provide a baseline to evaluate the programming changes that were made.  Phase 1 ended a few minutes ago.

Phase 2 starts right now, where it’s actually helpful if front pagers stay logged in!  That way we can evaluate the impact that 15 people being logged in to WordPress has on the 502/524 issue.

So it’s quite possible that we could see an increase in the frequency of the 502/524 error.  Or we might not!  What’s important for you to know is that it is not necessarily a bad thing if that happens.  Yes, it will be an inconvenience for that 20 minutes.

But either way – whether the frequency increases or it doesn’t – that will tell us a lot about whether login habits have an impact on the 502/524 error, now that some programming changes have been made.

It’s also true that posting was extremely light this weekend, and traffic probably won’t get back to normal until everyone is back to their regular schedule after New Years, so that’s another variable.  But that’s not one we can control.

I simply cannot imagine that people would actually read and comment at Ballon Juice while at work, but there are actually people who believe that is true!  Really, they do!

Speak up in the comments if you don’t care to hear about details like this and would prefer more general updates in the future.  And speak up if you do like to know.  As always, we aim to please!

Adding a flower, because it looks so happy, and it’s a very gloomy weather day here.

Plus, it’s one more way for you guys to learn about what images show up where.

My tree is the “featured image” and, well, you can see for yourself that this flower is visible in the post.

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    Thanks for all your work! I don’t think I’ve had any problems commenting in the last couple of days. (Whether that’s good or bad for everyone else is up for discussion.)

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    FWIW if any of you still think my ‘nym has anything to do with public transport, I quoted the origin story in one of the break the blog threads last night.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just for the record, I have seen a a 502 or 524 error this past wkend, tho I don’t think I saw one today. I can’t give you any details because to be quite honest, I just thought it was another day ending in y. I will pay attention going forward. Thanx for all you do.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can’t give you any details because to be quite honest, I just thought it was another day ending in y.

    Ouch!

    To the best of my knowledge, the last 502/524 error was somewhere around 4am on Sunday.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I did!  But if you spent a long time writing it up and you know if you were in thread 1, 2 or 3, I could undelete it, copy the info, and delete again.

  12. 12.

    sab

    I like reading your details. It’s like reading Mayhew Anderson. Mostly I don’t understand, but sometimes I do, and then I learn, often a lot.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    So seriously, guys, do you like knowing what’s gong on, or not so much?  I am an information share-er, and John is more of the “the more you tell people, the more they will bitch” persuasion. So help me out here and weigh in, if you have an opinion.

    edit: thank you, sab.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    “the more you tell people, the more they will bitch”

    Ideal opportunity to bitch about that stance.

  21. 21.

    Mel

    Thanks for everything you do to get and keep things rolling smoothly. And thanks for the beautiful peony photos a couple of days ago!

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: I appreciate your threads on what’s happening in the background.  It’s a behind the curtains look at what it takes to optimize a big web site.  But more importantly it’s another illustration that there are amazing people who are willing to volunteer to help a community when that community has sky-high expectations and strong opinions and really, really doesn’t like being disappointed.

    You’re one in a million.

    Thanks, WG.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:

    I like to call that “pointy-haired manager talk”. One hates to pay tribute to a glibertarian like Scott Adams, but that’s what it sounds like to me.

  24. 24.

    BBA

    @Mary G: Bloomberg ran City Hall the same way.

    Open plan offices are the norm in the finance industry, originally out of necessity (you need to be in constant communication with everyone else on the trading floor). Some people have gotten it into their heads that this is therefore the most productive way for anyone to work, no matter their job, and wanting privacy is just a sign of low testosterone or something.

  27. 27.

    sab

    @Omnes Omnibus: All those threads were in Latin, German or Dutch.

    I was going to guess which language, but I thought we were doing computer bug stuff, beyond me, so I was quiet ( offline) all night.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    For those of us who created new nyms for your testing threads, are those nyms still valid (approved)?

  34. 34.

    Laura Too

    @sab: Agreed 100% Not too technically able, but it is always interesting. And fun to read the comments, because I know there will always be comments. :) Thanks Watergirl for all you do!!

  36. 36.

    Ascap_scab

    Watergirl, I noticed that a few commenters had images of pie or cake and nothing else in the comment. Only a couple of days ago, I noticed the “Toggle” button that dissapeared the image and appeared the text.

     

    What is the purpose? Is there a setting where I can turn the image off, text on without having to hit the button every time?

  37. 37.

    JanieM

    Count me as one who’s interested in hearing the details, although a family health crisis, the holidays, the winter weather, and my own tendency toward disorganization I haven’t kept up as well as I would have liked.

    Also, what  @Another Scott said.

  41. 41.

    frosty

    @BBA: The only (non-cubicle) open plan office I worked in was when the company moved a dozen scheduling engineers into what used to be a drafting bullpen.

    What an excellent location for rubber band shooting fights!

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @Ascap_scab: That means that you have someone added to the pie filter, that’s why you see the images and TOGGLE.

    If you don’t want the person in the pie filter, click on the cherry pie and take them out.

    Otherwise, you can use TOGGLE to see what the comment was, and then TOGGLE again to hide it.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @frosty: Please send me email if you see 502 or 524 again.  I am watching the site closely, but I am not on 24 hours a day. :-)

    That goes for everyone.  Please.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: You asked:

    “People of this great city of Nantes, I have come to summon you to arms!”

    In the amazed and rather scared silence that followed he surveyed them for a moment before resuming.

    “I am a delegate of the people of Rennes, charged to announce to you what is taking place, and to invite you in this dreadful hour of our country’s peril to rise and march to her defence.”

    “Name! Your name!” a voice shouted, and instantly the cry was taken up by others, until the multitude rang with the question.

    He could not answer that excited mob as he had answered the president. It was necessary to compromise, and he did so, happily. “My name,” said he, “is Omnes Omnibus—all for all. Let that suffice you now. I am a herald, a mouthpiece, a voice; no more. I come to announce to you that since the privileged orders, assembled for the States of Brittany in Rennes, resisted your will—our will—despite the King’s plain hint to them, His Majesty has dissolved the States.”

    ….

    I need not dwell at any length upon the sequel. It is a matter of history how that oath which Omnes Omnibus administered to the citizens of Nantes formed the backbone of the formal protest which they drew up and signed in their thousands. Nor were the results of that powerful protest—which, after all, might already be said to harmonize with the expressed will of the sovereign himself—long delayed. Who shall say how far it may have strengthened the hand of Necker, when on the 27th of that same month of November he compelled the Council to adopt the most significant and comprehensive of all those measures to which clergy and nobility had refused their consent? On that date was published the royal decree ordaining that the deputies to be elected to the States General should number at least one thousand, and that the deputies of the Third Estate should be fully representative by numbering as many as the deputies of clergy and nobility together.

  46. 46.

    JanieM

    @WaterGirl:  Thanks for the good wishes. There are actually two crises — one person in my extended orbit has cancer — so far so good, but it’s a scary and difficult situation, as many here know from firsthand experience. I’m at a remove from this one, and mostly just trying to be supportive to people who are closer to it.

    The other thing is that my 96-year-old mother was finally forced out of her little apartment by a health crisis that she couldn’t dismiss, and is now in “rehab” (i.e. a nursing home). She’s dreadfully unhappy; it has been clear for a while that she thought she was going to go on living in her own place indefinitely. Long, long story, but it inspires me to tell my own offspring: if I get to that point and I’m bitchy as hell, just drug me. ;-

    ETA: because my mother isn’t going to be able to go back to her place, my siblings and I had to empty it, but without knowing whether she’ll be in an assisted living apartment or a nursing home room in the long run. So I spent two weeks away from home just before Christmas. Aiy!  But — good to be with my family despite the difficulty of the reason; we aren’t all together very often as the years go by, as far-flung as we are.

  48. 48.

    Laura Too

    @sab: Only occasionally. If I quit reading on the computer 1/2 hour before bed I am usually okay but if I read too late (tough not to) then I do wake up at 3 and have a hard time falling asleep again. But I have a 65 pound basset/springer spaniel that makes sure I’m up at 5 every morning by standing on my chest so I try to fall back to sleep.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Happy to see this!

    “My name,” said he, “is Omnes Omnibus—all for all. Let that suffice you now. I am a herald, a mouthpiece, a voice; no more. I come to announce to you that since the privileged orders, assembled for the States of Brittany in Rennes, resisted your will—our will—despite the King’s plain hint to them, His Majesty has dissolved the States.”

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    @JanieM:

    She’s dreadfully unhappy; it has been clear for a while that she thought she was going to go on living in her own place indefinitely.

    That has to be a terribly low point for anyone.  Not to be able to go back to your home, your things, your life, everything you love.

    I am tearing up just thinking about it.  Heartbreaking for your mom, heartbreaking for you.  Sounds like only one of you has the wherewithal to do what has to be done, which doesn’t make it any easier.  I’m so sorry.

  51. 51.

    frosty

    @JanieM:

    …because my mother isn’t going to be able to go back to her place, my siblings and I had to empty it

    This was the case with the next-to-last move for my mother in the continuing care facility. Us three sibs cleaned out the apartment and the storage lockers, figured out who was taking what, and took care of it without the necessity of bothering her with the details. With the ever-increasing dementia, it wasn’t an issue.

  52. 52.

    JanieM

    @WaterGirl: Thanks some more, and yes, it is indeed heartbreaking.

    It’s a big topic in so many ways, too big for blog comments. But it helps to come here and be reminded that other people have coped with big difficulties and survived.

  53. 53.

    frosty

    OT, but I just fixed a buggered blockquote by flipping between visual and text. Having this choice is brilliant! Thank you so much.

  55. 55.

    JanieM

    @frosty: We went through that same process, except that my mom’s dementia is still pretty mild, so we did feel like we had to ask her for some thoughts on what to keep instead of just deciding ourselves. The fact that she never answers a direct question with a direct answer drove us all a little crazy, but especially the sibling who’s getting the brunt of the bureaucracy and medical stuff. And again, I’m very grateful to have a group of siblings (and in-laws) who are managing to navigate these stormy waters with grace and good humor.

  62. 62.

    BruceFromOhio

    Thank you for the flower! =)

    I hope Comment Thread 3: The Commenting exercise worked to your satisfaction. All that experimentin’ looks like it was deleted.

    Very much enjoyed the carnivore greeking for the long comments, that was hilarious.

    Site still works a treat on Windows 10/1903 with Firefox 71.0

Comments are closed.