Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

This fight is for everything.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The revolution will be supervised.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

You are here: Home / Archives for z-Retired Categories / Site Maintenance

Site Maintenance

So I Guess We are Going Ad Free (With Venting and Explanation)

by | 149 Comments

This post is in: , ,

I called Watergirl at around 1pm on my way to run errands, and wanted to let her know that I had thought about it and finally just given up and was willing to go ad free starting the 15th, and that was when I had learned she had posted about it this morning. We had talked about it yesterday, and either through miscommunication or sensing weakness, Watergirl struck while the iron was hot (and I am glad she did).

At any rate, if you are unaware, Watergirl has been on Team No Ad for two years and not hesitant to make the switch or coax me into making the switch. I understand why- they’re ugly, irritate some people, and she thinks the website will function better without them. All of these are valid opinions, and given how much trust I have in her opinions on these matters, not things I dismissed lightly. She is also of the belief that the website can easily be user funded and there will never be liquidity issues.

I, on the other hand, am resistant for a variety of reasons. Obviously, my name is on the bill, so that is one reason. Another reason is that ads simply do not irritate me. I do not see them. I don’t notice them. I guess I just process information differently. I could read an entire NY Times Sunday Edition and then at gunpoint be asked to name an ad, and, well, that would be the end of me. A third reason is that I look at ads as free money, and especially love it when right wing causes advertise here. Fuck yes- spend your donor money on people who will not click on your shit. Less money for you to spend on other onerous stuff.

Additionally, I do not like being reliant on donations for a variety of reasons- first, I’d rather you spend your money on other shit, I don’t want bills I am on the hook paid for by the whims of others, what happens if traffic dies and donors piss off, what happens if people don’t have the spare money, on and on and on. There is also the fact that I absolutely hate asking for money. I wish I was independently wealthy and could just pay for everything and be done with it. This is not the case, though, although were I independently wealthy I would have fucked off into the woods with the pets and picked up some goats and pigs and hens and other critters and I’d leave the website to someone else and maybe posted once a month when I found some morels or something interesting happened around the house.

I’m rambling and this post has already left the tight form I had when I was mentally composing. I suppose there was also some just resistance from me on principle. I can not state how many times I have fielded emails or read complaints in the comments and run my fingers through my hair and just screamed one variation of the following:

JUST INSTALL A FUCKING ADBLOCKER

WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS BURGER KING FUCKING HAVE IT YOUR WAY

I’M FUCKING SORRY IN THE YEAR 2021 YOU ARE NOT HAVING AN OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE ON YOUR 2011 CHROMEBOOK OR 2013 KINDLE USING AIRPORT WIFI

ADS DON’T USE THAT MUCH FUCKING BANDWIDTH

WHY IS BALLOON JUICE THE ONLY WEBSITE ON THE INTERNET WHERE THESE THINGS HAPPEN

Like that reload bug. I simply can not replicate it. The designer for this website can not replicate it. The ad developers can not replicate it. The only time it happened for the designer was if he left a tab open for like an hour and then it refreshed. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying these things don’t happen and you all are lying. It has happened to enough of you that something is going on, but I just don’t understand why we can not fix it or even figure out what is causing it.

I’ve had all these conversations with Watergirl, and she has consistently been on your side saying it is happening and we should go ad free and that we are not like other websites. And I am here to say, fine. I give up. I am raising the white flag. If you all want to pay for this, that’s how we will do it.

Balloon Juice is simultaneously a special place and a “special” place. We are not like other websites, that is for sure. Somehow we have cultivated an odd melange of anachronistic malcontents, cat ladies, artists and lawyers, grumpy codgers, foodies, hopeless romantics, animal lovers, ne’er-do-wells, people here just to not be fucked with, people here just to avoid other websites, pure of heart charitable do-gooders, mainstream Democrats, and my favorite group, do-gooders who secretly harbor murderous intent but know it is not socially acceptable to admit it but who will allude to it whenever possible. All that and more. And I do not say that in a disparaging way, because I fit into several of those groups.

So, as long as I feel that we can pass and maintain a threshold of funding that will pay the monthly bills, all ads are gone. When we need money to pay for random expenses (additional coding, purchasing apps, paying for email providers, etc.- shit piles up), we’ll rattle the cup.

But I am over stressing about this and over fighting what I feel is a rearguard action and just want the site to be able to exist in perpetuity.

I love you all, just some days more than others.

So I Guess We are Going Ad Free (With Venting and Explanation)Post + Comments (149)

Good News: Who Wants a Balloon Juice With No Ads At All?

by | 239 Comments

This post is in: ,

Good News: Who Wants a Balloon Juice With No Ads At All?

Auto Draft 53

The one good thing about the first hard frost is how beautiful my pink hair grass is even when most of the other plants have been killed by the frost.

We had a discouraging night in Virginia last night, but we get to talk about some good things today, too, and this is one of them:

Who wants Balloon Juice to be totally ad-free on all devices?

We can have that if we want it, but it will take your help.

The autoplay video ads – that most of us hated – that ate up the data plan on your phone – whose flickering caused eye issues for some of us – that messed up the site on mobile devices – that caused some of our friends to leave Balloon Juice – brought in $1,000 a month.  For the very first time, this blog really could pay for itself!

Without the video ads, the ads bring in almost nothing at all.

If you’re the guy whose name is on all the bills, ditching the video ad and losing $1,000 a month would have to feel a bit like jumping off a cliff with no net.

So here’s what it will take for me to feel good about having asked John Cole to do that:

– $1,000 in recurring donations every month to replace the ad revenue

– no subscriptions, just recurring donations every month from those who can afford it

– $6,000 in one-time donations now – that would sit in an account, unused, as a safety net, so that if for any reason recurring donations drop off or fall off completely, Cole won’t be left in a bind.  If something unexpected happened, that would give Cole time to figure out the next phase.  That should take the uncertainty out of the equation.

$1,000 IS: 100 10-dollar donations OR 20 50-dollar donations OR 50 20-dollar donations OR 200 5-dollar donations.

Not everyone can afford even $5 or $10 a month, but this is a community and those of us who can afford that can help make the site better for everyone.

I have been telling John for 2 years that we’re a community and we could easily self-fund in place of  ad money – am I right?  or am I wrong?

If you’re “in”, you can donate through PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or Pateron.  Send me an email if you want the P.O. box address to send John a paper check.

I will leave this post at or near the top for a day so that everyone gets a chance to weigh in with their thoughts.

Please chime in with your thoughts in the comments!

Good News: Who Wants a Balloon Juice With No Ads At All?Post + Comments (239)

Okay, the Video Ad is Gone, Now What?

by | 75 Comments

This post is in: 

Okay, the video ad is gone.  ? Ding-dong, the witch is dead. ?

I never experienced the automatic unwanted restarting, but I use my laptop most of the time.  And I use two ad blockers.

So I was surprised to see how much faster Balloon Juice was loading on my laptop last night!  So much faster that a few times I thought it hadn’t reloaded when I hit REFRESH.  Is anyone else noticing this?  

BJ had been mostly unusable on my iPad –  even though it never restarted itself – but I tried my iPad last night and it was much more usable.  So it’s better, but I am still getting the gaping white spaces as I try to scroll through the front page. Is anyone else noticing this? Or something similar?

I also couldn’t help noticing that Betty’s thread hit 300+ yesterday, which doesn’t happen on threads nearly as much as it used to.  That makes me wonder how many people started commenting less because of the annoyance and frustration of automatic restarting.  Can you chime in below and let me know whether that might have been the case?

As I said yesterday, John and I are both committed to resolving the problems once and for all.

I am aware that:

  1. the back arrow works inconsistently
  2. sometimes when you press reply it doesn’t always put @commenter in the box
  3. recent comments is not always up to date for you if you use Chrome, and possibly Firefox, especially late at night
  4. sometimes takes a while for new/revised comments to appear, both your comments and others
  5. sometimes the visual tab isn’t available, only the text tab

Let’s start there.  Let’s take stock of where these 4 areas stand now that the video ad is gone:  

Please speak up in the comments and let me know your thoughts/experiences in the 4 areas identified above: blue, teal, magenta, green.

There are a ton of different devices, different operating systems, different browsers, different browser versions, different ad blockers, and different browser add-ons out there.  So it takes really good and very specific information to figure out what’s a site issue and what is a device/OS/browser quirk.

So can you help us out here?  The more specific information, the better. 

I plan to keep this post at #2 all day to make it more likely that everyone sees it.

Okay, the Video Ad is Gone, Now What?Post + Comments (75)

Balloon Juice Pages Still Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?

by | 112 Comments

This post is in: 

A few days ago I put up this post: Balloon Juice Pages Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?

The (Blog) Doctor Is In. Tell Me What Ails You.

First, I want to thank everyone who responded to say whether you are experiencing the problem or not, and double-thanks to everyone who included specific information in the their comments.

After seeing how widespread the problem is, I called Cole.  John and I had a candid conversation in which he may or may not have said “why are you yelling at me?” when we were discussing the video ad.

The video ad is the most likely culprit behind the “automatically refreshing” problem, but I don’t think that is the only culprit re: the site issues.  I think the other ads are playing a part, as well, but that’s a question for another day.

First things first.  We are changing one thing at a time.

The video ad has been turned off.

What we need now is or all of you to weigh again in the comments with as much detail as you can.  Even if you didn’t comment in the previous thread, please comment in this one whether you have a problem or not.

If you say it’s not a problem for you now, and it never was, please share information about your devices, your browser versions, your ad blocker and anything else that seems relevant.  See details 1 through 4 in the paragraphs below.

If you say it was a problem before but it’s not now, please tell us 1) what devices it’s a problem on, 2) what browsers it’s a problem with, 3) whether you use an ad blocker and what ad blocker you use, and 4) whether you use Brave as your browser.  And anything else that seems relevant.

If you say it was a problem before and it’s still a problem, please tell us 1) what devices it’s a problem on, 2) what browsers it’s a problem with, 3) whether you use an ad blocker and what ad blocker you use, and 4) whether you use Brave. And anything else that seems relevant.

I would also especially like to hear from ReadWrite, Ken and FlyingToaster, who left especially detailed comments in the previous post.

Bottom line:  John and I are both committed to resolving the problems once and for all.

But we need your help, and very specific information, in order to do that.  This post today is step one.

 

 

Balloon Juice Pages Still Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?Post + Comments (112)

Balloon Juice Pages Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?

by | 204 Comments

This post is in: ,

Over the past few days, I have seen a comment or two on Balloon Juice saying something about being prompted to reload the page.  I inquired whether there was some sort of message saying they needed to reload or refresh the page, or whether it was just happening without your participation, but I never saw an answer.

Today the note below arrived using the site feedback form.  I think this may be what was being reported in the occasional comment, but I can’t be sure.

Using an apple iPad, as I scroll through the page it refreshes about every 2 minutes. This has only started happening in the past couple of weeks.

I had to restart this feedback notice because I couldn’t complete it before it was refreshed away. My browser refreshes About every 2 minutes. I am only able to complete this feedback by copying and pasting several times now. I can’t watch a 2:50 embedded video.

Anyway, I need to understand the problem and find out whether it is:

  • prompting you to reload the page? or the page just reloads itself?
  • happening to a handful of people?   to a lot of people?  to everyone?
  • happening only on certain kinds of devices – tablets, phones, computers?
  • happening only certain specific devices – like an iPad or a Kindle?
  • happening only on older devices – like it happens on your new iPad but not your old one?
  • happening only with certain browsers – Safari?  Firefox?  Chrome?
  • happening only on certain combinations of devices and browsers – say it only happens on an iPad in Safari but not on an iPad using Chrome
  • happening only one one particular device you use for BJ?  or for all of them?
  • happening consistently or sporadically?
  • happening only on certain posts?
  • happening only at a certain time of day?  fine in the morning but always happens in the evening?
  • happening only when you are reading from the front page?  or does it happen within individual posts?
  • are you running an ad blocker?  if so, which one?

Can you guys help me out and let me know whether this is happening to you, or not?

If you have experienced this, please include the kinds of information I inquired about above.  

Thank you!

Update at 3:45 pm:

Does anyone who uses Brave on their phone or tablet have this reloading issue?  Does anyone running an adblocker on their phone or table have this reloading issue?

 

Balloon Juice Pages Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?Post + Comments (204)

Semi-Annual Balloon Juice Fundraiser

by | 112 Comments

This post is in: 

It’s been about seven months since our last one, and it is time to rattle the tin cup to pay for the server costs. Because some of you set up recurring payments on patreon, we did not need to do it at six months If you are able and willing to donate, it would be much appreciated. Please do not donate if you do not have the financial means or are in a bad place.

The ways to donate are as follows:

PayPal


You can also give through Venmo: @john-cole-94 (as long as you see a photo of Lily, you’re in the right place, and you can click the “I don’t have the phone number” button and send anyway.)

You can also give through Zelle: jgriffincole at the google mail place.

You can also give through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balloonjuice

IF YOU DONATE THROUGH PAYPAL, DO NOT CLICK GOODS AND SERVICES BECAUSE THEY THEN THINK I AM SELLING SOMETHING. As always, this is my least favorite aspect of the website, asking for money, so hopefully this will be over soon.

*** Update ***

If you want to mail through usps, email me and I will send you my address.

Semi-Annual Balloon Juice FundraiserPost + Comments (112)

Ad Testing

by | 95 Comments

This post is in: 

I believe that all of the usual ads have been turned off for a test through the weekend.

Ad Testing

Zergnet – off.

Big banner at the top – off.

Prosper ads with the little triangles – off.

Our testing made it clear that each one of those was breaking the site in various ways.

?

We are trying out a new kind of ad, which was pinned to the bottom of the screen for a short time as a way to show us what it would look like.  I’ll be polite and say that it caused a kerfuffle, which I know because I got email as well as multiple site feedback messages through the form.  So yay for everyone reporting a problem right away!

The ad is now in the sidebar where it belongs.  On phones, the sidebar shows up beneath the content and the comments.

For now, it just rotates though the 6 or 7 most recent posts, but on Monday ads will be added to the mix.

There is no way to pause the video in the window or close it.

I wish I knew more about what to expect, but until ads are added to the mix, this is all I know.

But you can all let me know how the site is behaving – is it loading fine, or taking forever to load, on iPads and tablets?  How about phones?  How about the back arrow and anything else that has broken with the other ads.

I have also seen some complaints in the comments about nothing able to pause the video or close it.  When someone says something is worse than Zergnet, that’s not good.

Chime in if you have any thoughts you would like to share.

Update: Peony photo included for calming effect.  Plus, these are my last peonies to bloom for the year, so I had to share them.

 

Ad TestingPost + Comments (95)