Such a quiet overnight at Balloon Juice! If you had issues with the site after the one I’m aware of at around 10pm, please chime in here.
Open thread.
by WaterGirl| 13 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Previous Site Maintenance, Site Maintenance
Such a quiet overnight at Balloon Juice! If you had issues with the site after the one I’m aware of at around 10pm, please chime in here.
Open thread.
by WaterGirl| 62 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Previous Site Maintenance, Site Maintenance
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.
This post is in: Dear WaterGirl, Site Maintenance
Dear Watergirl,
Does Tunch show up on every post, everywhere? It seems like I see him a lot. He’s the perfect choice, so I’m not complaining! I’m just trying to make sense of it.
Dear Just Trying to Understand,
No, Tunch is not on every post. That awesome picture of Tunch is the default for some things, but not for everything.
Dear WaterGirl,
I see images everywhere, even in places where I didn’t know they existed! Imagine my surprise the other day when I saw an image when I clicked on one of the wings to take me to another thread. Where else might I see images?
Dear Surprised,
I may not be able to think of all of them at the moment, but I’ll give it a try. Sometimes there are images in the post. Sometimes there are images that show up in the the wings, and it’s not even a picture that’s anywhere in the post. There are images on Twitter feeds, images on Facebook. Images that show up with a post in a RSS Reader. If I think of any more, I’ll add them in later.
Dear WaterGirl,
What’s up with images on the new site? I don’t understand the logic of what images we see where. Are you using some kind of image randomizer just to mess with us?
Dear What’s Up With Images,
I would never do that! But this is a classic example of a situation where if you know the rules, it makes total sense. But if don’t know the rules? It’s difficult to reverse engineer and figure out what the rules are. The short story is that it’s pretty much up to the front pagers to determine what pictures show up where.
Dear WaterGirl,
If everybody doesn’t have to use the same images, and front pagers can do what they want…
Could Cheryl always use that map I’ve seen a couple of times?
Could Betty use a picture of Badger?
Could Mayhew use an abacus?
Could Tom use a printing press?
Could TaMara use a duck?
Dear My, You Have Given This a Lot of Thought!
Yes, if they wanted to, each front pager could have a standard featured image on most or all of their posts, that could be a brand, of sorts. Their posts would be known by the company they keep could be easily recognizable from the image that shows up.
Dear WaterGirl,
I saw that a couple of commenters had added an image directly into their comment, and they weren’t even front pagers. How come they get to do that and I can not?! It’s not fair! Or can we all do that, and I just don’t know how?
Dear It’s Not Fair!
Only front pagers can add images in the comments. That’s the plan, anyway! I turns out that we have some clever commenters who like to test the boundaries, and sometimes they find a way around things. That’s okay, that just helps us make the site more secure. They find ‘em, we block ‘em. :-)
THAT’S ALL THE LETTERS FOR TODAY. I’LL CONTINUE TO DO THIS FOR A BIT UNTIL EVERYBODY IS UP TO SPEED.
Please feel free to snack on some cake while you read.
Dear WaterGirl: So Many Image Questions!Post + Comments (120)
This post is in: Open Threads
This is not a democracy – Cole will decide which of the nominated rotating tags make the cut. But I thought you guys might like to see what has been nominated and share your thoughts.
In no particular order:
This is the way.
McConnell is a turtle-faced, fascist sack of shit who doesn’t believe in the United States Constitution.
Balloon Juice is such a weird place.
We ended up with transgender bathrooms instead of flying cars.
A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.
When your President is a carnival barker, you’re going to have a circus.
The taproot of bigotry is the seeking of unfair advantage. So their arguments are never sincere or in good faith, and libs are suckers for thinking otherwise.
The GOP is FUBAR.
Cole is an eldest child, so he has no idea how a little love can avert pooping in the hallway to the bathroom.
Balloon Juice, which has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Trump is going to draw a dick on that dog with a Sharpie before this is all over, isn’t he?
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Think of it like Cole’s new house – you walk in and find Walter, but then you fall through a hole in the front porch.
Meth, This Site Is On IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nevertheless, she persisted.
Fortunately nobody else was home, and we have no rabbit.
… and don’t forget to hydrate.
These assholes make me want to scoop out my eyes with a melon baller and jam chopsticks through my eardrums right now.
“Fear is never a word used with me. You should know right away,” Pelosi added. “I’m never afraid and I’m rarely surprised.”
All I wanted from the trip was a t-shirt, and I got this shitty president, instead…..
Yeah, two fucking people in their 70s on the ticket. That is brilliant.
He’s the index to the cookbook, except no one has written any of the recipes.
edit: and for no reason other than that I mostly missed Christmas because I was sick – and because it will be a good example for my post this weekend on what images show up where – here is my tree.
by WaterGirl| 22 Comments
This post is in: Absent Friends, Guest Posts
A belated guest post from our beloved Schlemazel, written in 2012.
NOVEMBER 23, 2012 AT 2:38 PM
DEAR EDITOR:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no war on Christmas. Papa says, ‘If you see it on FAUX News it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a War on Christmas?
VIRGINIA O’HANLON,
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET
Schlemaze’s Reply:
No war on Christmas?
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by rationality in an irrational age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not provable by rational observation. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, can be little. The reaction to this great universe of ours can be for man to be a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a war on Christmas. It exists as certainly as hate and stinginess and demagoguery exist, and you know that they abound and give to their life its highest ugly and lowest meaning. Alas! How merry might be the world if there were a war on Christmas. It might be as merry as if there were no teabagers. There would be no inchoate hate then, no petty sniping, no panic to make less tolerable this existence. We should have enjoyment, except in insensate cruelty and slights. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be increased.
Not believe in the war on Christmas! You might as well not believe in T-bone eating Bucks! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all of FAUX News to catch the war dispatches, but even if they did not witness BillO frothing at the mouth, what would that prove? Nobody sees the war on Christmas, but that is a sign that there is a real war on Christmas. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see (according to FAUX News). Did you ever see welfare queens driving Cadillacs on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the evils there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
No war on Christmas!? Thank God! it lives, and it lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, it will continue to make mad the ‘brains’ of morans.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Much love to all those who have gone before us, and can longer be with us.
Dear Virginia, A Reply from Schlemazel from 2012: Is There a War on Christmas?Post + Comments (22)
This post is in: Open Threads
I am writing this morning with a quick update on the site issues we have been experiencing. There are more details to share, but the site has been a source of frustration these past few days, so it’s important to get this information in your hands right away.
The Balloon Juice crashes over the past few weeks have mostly been the result of space issues on the server. At 9:45 ET this morning, the Balloon Juice website was successfully moved from a 20 GB space to a 100 GB space.
So regardless of how the site behaved yesterday or last week, as of this moment we need to start with a clean slate in terms of how the site behaves.
Now is when we will truly get to see which issues were caused by the space issue – or were exacerbated by the space issue – and which are bugs or cache issues that still need to be resolved. So if you experience a problem, please let us know ASAP, even if it is something you have brought to my attention before.
To clarify, if a single comment is eaten, or disappears for no reason, we want to know about it. Every time. If you post a comment and sometimes the edit box isn’t there, please tell us about that only once.
Feel free to note any issues in the comments of this thread – issues that are new, or issues that you were experiencing before but aren’t anymore. That may go a long way to giving us a quick sense of where things stand. As always, it will be a big help if you use the Site Feedback form or follow up with an email to WaterGirl.
If you caught the “error establishing database connection” error this morning, that was because the database was in the process of being moved from one location to another, which happened at 9:35 ET. The move should have happened within the scheduled midnight to 6 am window as planned, but it did not.
One final editorial note: John cares, I care, the developers care. We are going to get this right.
Edit at 2:00 pm
The developers have added a new line in the Leave a Comment area. It’s a short-term workaround to the remaining cache issue, but it should work like a charm in the meantime.
If you don’t see both the Visual and the Text tab on the editor, click here to refresh.
If you look carefully, you’ll see that line in the image below.
Site Issues Update: Major Change – Starting with a Clean Slate on IssuesPost + Comments (181)
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance, Site Maintenance
The new site rolled out a month ago, and I’d like to get a feel for where things stand in terms of any remaining problems with the way the site functions. Please keep in mind that no site will ever be perfect, and please also note that we are not asking for design suggestions at this stage of the game.
The goal is to get the remaining rollout issues resolved soon.
This is your opportunity to make sure your site problems are represented on the “Remaining Issues from Rollout” List. I want to be sure that all ssues related to function are on the list, so please speak up now. Feel free to also pepper the comments with things you like, lest it start to feel that everyone hates everything!
I am not certain whether some of these might the same issue, just being described in different ways. Or perhaps they are different behaviors but they only happen when one of these other things happen?
I am hoping to get clarity on that from all of you in this thread: The more details and patterns that I can describe for any problem, the easier it is to resolve the problem. So things like “yes, this happens to me, but maybe only once or twice a week”, or “it only happens when I use this browser and not the browser” will be especially useful.
If just one or two people are having a problem, that may be related to particular device/browser combinations, or even browser settings, so part of what I hope to accomplish with this post is to get a sense of the scope of any remaining issues.
Commenting
A. Posted comments don’t always show up as soon as you post them, until a manual refresh.
B. Bounce to the top of the thread after submitting a comment.
E. Edit Comment is not always available after posting comment.
Are A, B, and E all different ways of describing the same issue? Are they related in some way?
Do B and C only happen when your comment does appear immediately after posting?
Edit Comments
TV. Text / Visual tabs aren’t consistently and reliably there.
Is this related to creating a comment? Editing a comment? Or both?
When do they go missing? Do they stay missing? Is it a now you see them, now you don’t kind of thing?
Navigation
N. Back Arrow doesn’t take you back through a series of steps, as it should
If you have noticed any patterns, please share what you have noticed.
Scrambled Comments Just after Multiples of Ten
aka Comments Overwritten
aka Comment Sandwich
aka Overlapping Comments
Is anyone still seeing this behavior now that the ads have started?
Recent Comments
RC. One person is reporting problems with Recent Comments
Is anyone else having this issue? If so, please describe it in the comments.
Replies
R. Only one person is reporting that they sometimes don’t get @nym when they hit the reply button.
Is anyone else having this issue? If so, please describe it in the comments.
RSS Feed
RSS. Only one person is reporting issues with the RSS feed.
Is anyone else having an issue with the RSS feed?
Wings for Previous Post / Next Post
Sometimes we have Post titles with special formatting: italics, strikethrough, etc.
This causes “interesting” formatting issues in the wings.
As long as there is special formatting in the titles, the wings are going to do that.
To do otherwise would involve non-trivial programming that we’re not prepared to ask for.
Have I missed anything? It will be super helpful if you refer to an item with its initial/s as you speak about it in the comments.
It’s also useful if you note if you do not have the problems listed.
Update 5:30 pm Saturday: I’m going to keep checking back on this thread throughout the weekend, so input will be included from everyone who posts by 7am on Monday morning.
One Month Out: Last Call on Site Rollout IssuesPost + Comments (303)