z-Retired Categories

More ad-related testing… trying to determine which ads cause which issues.

Zerg*net ads are the big square boxes that show up after the first post on the front page and at the bottom of the page once you click on an individual post.

Zerg*net ads are now off, and the big banner ad is back.  That’s the big one that shows up at the top – above the Balloon Juice log, the balloon man and the rotating tags.

How is the site behaving now?

Thanks for your help with this!  I know this is tedious, but we’re trying to get this figured out.

Update:  wow!  I originally had Zergnet in the title of the post, and after I hit Publish, the thread wouldn’t open on my computer!  The error message was something about “content blocker”.  Interesting!  I changed the title and it still wouldn’t open.  I had to change the url to remove zergnet from the URL, and then it opened.

Tell Us How It’s Working Now: Ad ChangesPost + Comments (85)

Update: I am moving this post forward by a day to make sure everyone sees it.  It originally went up on Sunday morning.  (The first 119 comments are from Sunday.)

We are doing a major test this week, and we need your help.

But first, since this is Sunday, I will share another photo of my tree peony, one week later, which amazingly made it through three (3!) freeze warnings and two days of rain.  I am ecstatic!

We need your help.  We turned off all the ads on the site so we can determine what role ads are playing in site issues that some people experience.  When we take issues to the developers, I want to be sure that the problems are ad-related.

Please include hardware/OS/browser information with your comments – without that information, it’s impossible to discern patterns, and without patterns, we don’t know where to look.

Please state whether the problem occurs all the fucking time, sometimes, or only occasionally.

Please state whether you use an ad blocker, and which one.

Even if you commented in John’s technical Issues post from last week, we need all the information in one place, so please post your issues again here.  You can copy & paste from there, and then edit to indicate which issues are no longer a problem.

Technical Issues

1. Comments do not show up until a manual refresh, or multiple manual refreshes.
2. Sometimes you can not edit your comment within the normal 5-minute window.
3. When clicking on Reply, sometimes @nym does not show up in the popup reply box.
4. Site takes an impossibly long time to load on a phone.
5. Site takes an impossibly long time to load on a tablet.
6. Site is slow, even on a computer.
7. Back arrow no longer reliably takes you even one step back.  (The back arrow took you back many steps during testing before the rollout.)
8. Back arrow reliably takes you one step back, but you cannot trace back through several steps.  (The back arrow took you back many steps during testing before the rollout.)
9. You bounce to the top of the page after making a comment.
10. After upgrade to Firefox 85.0 and higher, visual mode no longer works.
11. Visual and text tabs are not always visible; when that happens it defaults to text with no tabs showing. (Question: is that true in the comment box only or also in the reply popup?)
12. Recent comments do not always update properly.
13. Other issues that are not on this list.  (Please explain any additional problems in detail.)

Please weigh in either way.  If some issue remain, please specify which issues are still happening, and which have gone away.  Make that double-please, this is really an important piece to know.

Site Troubleshooting: The Gloves are Off, and So are the Ads. What Problems Remain, Which are Gone?Post + Comments (178)

As I mentioned last week, Watergirl and I are going to be talking to the devs about fixing some issues. So this is the thread for technical issues or things that are broken.

NOT, AS MANY OF YOU ARE PRONE TO DO, A PLACE TO DISCUSS THINGS YOU DO NOT LIKE. That is every OTHER thread on this here blog.

So things that are broken or do not work. Like “the back button does not work.” Or “the comment function is sometimes wonky.” Not, “I don’t like X and I am a crusty old fart and it puts me in a bad mood first thing in the morning and then I forget about it when I have a solid bowel movement.”

Please also list what device you are using- iphone, that other type of phone the name of which escapes me at the moment, pc, laptop, mac, tablet (and type of tablet), WOPR, whatever. Be as specific as possible about the issue and your device.

Thank you. Jerks.

Technical Issues Open ThreadPost + Comments (66)

We are trying to figure out what is going on with Balloon Juice and 522 errors this morning.

Please report what you are seeing – and be sure to say what device(s) and browser(s) you are using.

Site Problems Today – Please Report What You Are ExperiencingPost + Comments (36)

Firefox 86.0 is out, and it appears that the comment issue in Visual mode is, well, still an issue.

I believe the following to be true, please chime in to agree or disagree:

This is a problem with Firefox on Windows computers.

This is NOT a problem with Firefox on Mac computers.

This is NOT a problem with Firefox on iPads or iPhones.

This is NOT a problem with Firefox on Kindle.

Question:  Does the Firefox work properly in Visual mode on mobile devices?

*****

Volunteers

Steeplejack and Wolvesvalley have both done some testing on Windows, and it behaves differently for the two of them.

I am looking for 5 more volunteers who use Firefox with Windows, and are willing to do some serious testing.

Any volunteers?

Firefox 86.0 – Asking for Info and 5 VolunteersPost + Comments (75)

I have a meeting set up with the site developers to talk with them TOMORROW about the problem/issue that appeared when Firefox came out with version 85.0.

You guys can help.

The latest version of Firefox that I am aware of is 85.0.2 – is there a later one than that?  If so, can you confirm that the problem is either resolved (unlikely) or still there?

I need you guys to help clarify the situation so I can describe very clearly what happens with visual mode.  Are the following 4 statements true?

Commenting defaults to Visual mode.

I believe that you do not have a cursor in the comment box, so it is not possible to type even a single character.

I believe that is the case whether you are attempting to reply to another comment or you are trying to create a new comment.

I believe that if click the Text tab, then you are able to type a comment both in the reply box and in the comment box.

Does the comment box in Text mode work as it normally does?  Is that true in the reply box and in the comment box?

I have seen some comments about text fragments showing up, maybe something related to tiny MCE?  I need you guys to clearly describe what’s happening there, exactly what the text fragments say, whether the text fragments show up every time or just sometimes.  Can someone get a screen capture and send it to me?

Update: please specify your operating system and device in your replies.

Firefox 85.0, 85.0.1, 85.0.2…Post + Comments (144)