WaterGirl

Good morning!

Not making any promises about timing, but if you signed up as a tester for the new site, please get in the habit of checking your email every couple of days for the next 3 weeks.

You guys may be out of questions about the new site, but if you still have some, you can ask me anything.

No Promises, but… Testers Check Your Email Regularly, PleasePost + Comments (14)

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.

Site Update: Ask Me Anything #3Post + Comments (174)

A quick update.

I read all the comments from last week’s site update post again, as promised.  All 368 of them!  We often learn a lot from these threads, and last week was no exception.  I had absolutely no idea that commenters were pasting in twitter embed code to get the pared-down version of tweets that show up on Balloon Juice.

When I managed my IT group, I used to joke that if you put 10 tech people in a room you’d get 11 different opinions. My new corollary: if you put 10 Balloon Juice commenters in a room, you’ll find a lot of interesting people, and you’ll also find 11 different ways that people accomplish the same thing.

But I digress!

I spent some time this week documenting what we want from the new comment system and why we want it.  I am happy to tell you that we now have a shiny, new, custom-built comment editing system for the new site.

If you want buttons, you’ve got buttons!  You don’t need no stinkin’ buttons? You can enter your own html code or create it elsewhere and paste it in. You want to paste in a twitter embed code?  You can do that.  If you’re a front pager, it will look like a fully embedded tweet, just as it does now on the current site.  If you’re a commenter, you’ll get a pared-down version of the tweet, with text and links, as you do now.

You can format your comment with buttons in visual mode and then hit the text button if you want to see the html code. You can do the reverse: compose in text mode and then hit the visual button to see what it looks like before you post your comment.  You can compose in one mode and edit in the other, if you want.  You can go back and forth so many times that you forget to ever post your comment.  You get the same buttons on edit that you had when you created your comment.

If anyone wants to weigh in, and particularly if you were kind enough last week to share your opinions or your place on the Art Pain Scale, you are welcome to use the (10-point) WaterGirl Happiness Scale, as shown below.  In random order.  Please check all that apply.

WaterGirl Happiness Scale

Yippee!
I couldn’t be more pleased.
Meh.
I am so relieved!
Yawn.
It still feels like there is a rock in my shoe.
You guys rock.
I want to have your babies.
I was terribly distraught last week; now I feel mildly relieved.
No matter what, I will never be happy.
What are you talking about?  I missed last week’s thread.

~ WaterGirl

Updated at 2pm Saturday: I will check back periodically all weekend for additional input, questions and comments.

Site News: A Quick UpdatePost + Comments (130)

Good morning!

The first two threads this morning were a good reminder that the current site continues to be a source of frustration at times and that it’s been 2 weeks since the last update.

So here’s another Site Update / Ask Me Anything combo thread.

For anyone who missed the last one, or for anyone who would like a refresher, these two paragraphs from last week will likely be useful:

“The site rebuild project continues apace. The new Balloon Juice site is in place and pretty much fully functional on the Development site. And by that I mean that the design is done and the coding is pretty much complete. I’d say we are down to details there, like the auto publishing of new posts to John’s twitter, and working on bug fixes.”

“Even as we complete that, we are now in the phase [GoLive] of combining the new design/programming with 18 years of balloon juice posts, a zillion images, the 5 million comments, and the entire contents of the WordPress database, merging it with the newly developed site. That takes time. To avoid surprises when we go live, we are doing this merging and the database conversion on the actual infrastructure where the new site will reside when it’s live.”

Last week we started our second test run of the GoLive server – which I call GoLive v2 – and I was quite pleased with how well it went.  The build of GoLive v3 should be complete sometime tomorrow or Tuesday.

Until last week, the only access to the new site was with a WordPress login.  As of last Monday, I have finally been able to test the site without a login, so it’s been great to get in that way and be able to determine what worked when logged in but doesn’t work the way most everyone accesses the blog.

I was very pleased to find that nearly everything that worked when logged in also worked when not logged in.  The one exception was the new On the Road submission form – which I love, by the way! The developers are of course working on changes to resolve that issue.

So I’d say we are a lot closer (to rollout) this week than we were last week, but what I wrote last week still applies here:

“At this stage of the game – in this second phase where we’re converting the database and merging all the data – it’s not possible to accurately predict how long all of that will take, because you never know exactly what you are going to run into. I wish I could tell you that testing will start within a certain timeframe, but that prediction would be worthless. Could testing start in a week? It’s within the realm of possibility. Could testing start in 3 weeks?  Quite possibly.”

So –  Ask Me Anything – and in the meantime, I will share details in the comments that I think might be of interest.  If you prefer to ask questions by email, you can send email to my nym at balloon-juice.com.

Site Update / Ask Me Anything #2Post + Comments (368)

The site rebuild project continues apace. The new Balloon Juice site is in place and pretty much fully functional on the Development site. And by that I mean that the design is done and the coding is pretty much complete. I’d say we are down to details there, like the auto publishing of new posts to John’s twitter, and working on bug fixes.

Even as we complete that, we are now in the phase of combining the new design/programming with 18 years of balloon juice posts, a zillion images, the 5 million comments, and the entire contents of the WordPress database, merging it with the newly developed site. That takes time. To avoid surprises when we go live, we are doing this merging and the database conversion on the actual infrastructure where the new site will reside when it’s live.

We are also indexing the entire site, including the comments, so our search function will be able to search comments as well as front page posts. That takes time, and it takes a ton of space to index 5 million comments, so infrastructure had to be adjusted, as well. As part of this process, we are converting the WordPress database structure to something more appropriate for Balloon Juice, which will make it more stable. All of which also takes time.

We love stable, right? It’s worth the time to get it right.

At this stage of the game – in this second phase where we’re converting the database and merging all the data – it’s not possible to accurately predict how long all of that will take, because you never know exactly what you are going to run into. I wish I could tell you that testing will start within a certain timeframe, but that prediction would be worthless. Could testing start in a week? It’s within the realm of possibility. Could testing start in 3 weeks? Quite possibly.

Functionality: is it helpful to be specific? Already in place on the new site:

Balloon Juice banner with balloon man and rotating tags in the banner

All the usual things like About Us, Contact Us, etc.

Links for all the usual things like RSS feed, Balloon Juice Facebook, Cole’s twitter feed, etc

Navigation on desktop and mobile sites – top of page, bottom of page, previous post, next post, go directly to comment box

Little blue bird for sharing Balloon Juice posts

Recent Comments

Balloon Juice Meetups

Nominate a Rotating Tag

Submit photos to On the Road

Site feedback form to submit general feedback or report a problem

Featuring area with 5 links that will change periodically

View Posts by Topic

View Posts by Author

View Posts by Month and Year

Comment system that lets you see formatting as you create your comment

Permanent nyms/email/URL

Spam filter that lets you say fuck and talk about card games and establishments where gambling is allowed

Pie filter

Update: If you have any questions, ask away!

Balloon Juice Site Rebuild: Progress ReportPost + Comments (75)

I will put up a website update post tomorrow, but in the meantime… Ask me anything in this thread and I will answer all your questions.

You can also send email to my nym at balloon-juice.com, and I will respond.

 

Balloon Juice Site Rebuild: AMA (Ask Me Anything)Post + Comments (113)

To: Balloon Juice Testers and anyone else who is interested:

We are getting closer to “Go” time for testing the new site – which I think will surely begin by sometime next week – and we still have a bit more to do before we will be ready to go when the developers say that the site is all set.

I am so grateful to all of you for volunteering to help test the new site!  If you have volunteered, I am asking you to do a few things:

First, please send an email as soon as you can to my nym at balloon-juice.com

If you are one of the 10 or so people who volunteered in the threads but never sent a confirming email, I have had no way to contact you. If you still wish to participate in testing, it’s not too late to jump in.

Second, please put your BJ nym in the subject line of your message.  That’s how I will know you are receiving my communications and how I will match up nyms with email addresses.  If you are one of the lurkers who were awesome enough to volunteer to test the new site, you’ll need a nym anyway to access BJ to create comments as part of the testing process.

Third, if you have not returned a filled out testing form, please do so and send it to me so we can confirm the form is working for you.  If you need another sample form, please let me know that in your email.

Fourth, if you haven’t identified the testing groups you want to be in, please include that information in your email message.  If you have already supplied that info, there is no need to do so again.

Within 3 days of receiving your email, I will reply and will include the actual forms that will be used for testing. (There will be no math!)  If you volunteered for multiple test groups, you will receive a form for each group.

Then, as soon as the developers say “Go”, I will send you all the URL by email, and we will be off to the races!

Balloon Juice Testers – please send emailPost + Comments (36)