Folks,
Just a quick update and then open thread.
I just sent out a notice to our group of testers to take one final look at the test site. The test concludes tomorrow, and I’ll then review and act upon their feedback. The goal is to launch on the live site Tuesday about 9 pm Eastern. The new stuff will all launch in an instant, but I will still need to do a bunch of back-end settings adjustments, so I expect the site will be fully ready by about 10 pm.
The big news that many might not yet know: we are not adding the new comment system; it had too many negatives for our testers. So I tightened up the existing system a bit. We experimented with reply-to-post/reply-to-comment notifications, but it was too quirky and had limited appeal, as it turned out. We experimented with enhanced text/link/media buttons for comments, but there was too much to work through, so we’re sticking with the existing Bold/Italic/Link buttons.
I’ve re-organized the menu system and sidebar and rebuilt the site from the “stock” theme and plugin files. This gets rid of the “page controls” issue at the bottom of the page. Note – this won’t work until Tuesday night.
Some other highlights: the “back” function has returned to comments, the sidebar ad isn’t getting chopped off, improved fonts – style, size, font, etc. for many things, altered Blogroll and Contact so that iOS users and those blocking popups won’t have issues, and much more.
That should (finally!) wrap up this stuff for me. I know that Mistermix had planned to do some magic to improved performance by combining and editing a number of site files. He had also planned to get our caching and CDN setup running smoothly. So this should make for a lightning-fast site, when he gets a chance to make those enhancements.
I’ll make an announcement Tuesday once the final test concludes to remind folks that there will be some major maintenance in the 9-10 pm Eastern hour.
Besides that, Open Thread!
Paul in KY
Come on little numbers at bottom of page that actually work!!!
Poopyman
So the switchover will go unnoticed during the Primary returns thread(s), eh?
Dennis D. Croskey
Love the picture. Monument Valley is one of the most starkly beautiful places we’ve ever visited.
Prescott Cactus
Will we still be able to turn the cameras of other commenters on and watch them clandestinely ?
Please so no !
NotMax
Very minor, but note on this screenshot the overlapping text under Follow when images are turned off.
Chyron HR
If only you could be in charge of product development at Apple.
Gin & Tonic
Are you bringing the balloon guy back?
superpredators4hillary
How about html anchors in user comments instead of that one-directional javascript thing you got going on? The html anchors could also solve the problem of the useless comment link in the OP.
BR
What road is that picture from?
superpredators4hillary
@BR: That’s the road where Anne Laurie and Betty Cracker drive this blog off a cliff like Thelma and Louise.
Miss Bianca
thank you, Alain!
EthylEster
I just want to mention one thing.
The blogroll just after the upgrade would always open the selected site in a new window, clobbering the previous blogroll selection. OK, I lived with that.
But NOW it opens the selected site in the same window as B-J. This seems even less optimal.
Of course I yearn to return to the original (and most intuitive) behavior: select a site, get a new window, select another site, get another new window. But I can change (if I have to)…as they say in Red Green’s Man Prayer.
But…thanks Alain et al.
BillCinSD
I am using Firefox 45.0.1 and Windows 10 and get my back button filling up with references to the open page, right now I have 2 Balloon Juice front pages and 5 links to this page (6 now as another one was added while typing, 9 now that I just went to check out Chrome). This does not seem to happen on Chrome, nor on Firefox 45.0.1 and Windows 7.
eta: The back button is now reading only references to this page
getsmartin
@superpredators4hillary: Highway 163… 13 miles north of the Arizona / Utah state line.
Citizen_X
Can we get the “comments” and “continue reading” links to actually go to the top of comments and the break point in text, respectively, like they used to? Pet peeve of mine. Thanks!
Prescott Cactus
@BR: Monument Valley in Mexican Hat, UT. Was used in Forrest Gump movie when he ran across the country.
Villago Delenda Est
Um, is Tuesday, um primary day, the best day to do this? Especially in the evening as the polls are closing and the results are coming in?
Why not wait a day and avoid the disaster?
slag
Yay! Back button!
WaterGirl
@BillCinSD: Alain will know better than me, so he may jump in. But my understanding is that craziness is related to the evil autoplay video automatically refreshing the site.
I got rid of the awful evil autoplay video by telling AdBlock to block the video ad (you cut & paste the URL for the evil video). I suggest you try that because I am almost certain that will eliminate the issue you described.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Villago Delenda Est: Same question.
Not sure primary day is the best timing, unless there are no other options for whatever reason?
henqiguai
D@mmit, Alain, you’re destroying one of the fun things going on here! The ongoing kvetching, p!issing, and moaning about the site was part of the fun! Ah crap; will just have to get along with an improved reading experience. Thanks!
Doug R
I think this road’s closed, Dad.
Doug R
m.youtube.com/watch?v=tfmKwgrQzdE