Folks, sorry it’s been so long since I’ve been active, but I’ve been awaiting the release of required features in the upcoming new commenting system. Since that’s still 2-3 weeks off, I figured I’d post an update and general site maintenance thread.
First – I haven’t been reading the site much, so I have missed all comments that folks have made, although I did spend some time catching up on Adam’s post from last week and its comments. From now on, I’ll try to post a new Site Maintenance thread every couple of weeks until this process is through.
So a brief site maintenance news, and then feel free to comment, add issues, etc. I am making no promises about doing everything, but I’ll see what I can do. Some may be immediate, some Monday/early next week, and some may happen closer to/at the time of the new comment system release.
- New Comment System: We are launching the new comment system as soon as it is ready. Commenters need the bold/italic/link/etc. capabilities that are currently available, and this new comment system does not yet do that. This functionality has been promised by Feb 10, and I plan to wait a few days after release to let them clean up newly-found bugs, etc. When it is ready, we’ll announce the day and time that it will launch because there will be a one-time indexing and processing process that will temporarily disable comments for 6-10 hours. Once that process is complete, comments will be using the new system. This will improve a number of things, and I expect some or more new quirks or issues will appear and plan to address them as soon as they are reported.
- RSS: Some RSS users still report occasional outages. We are investigating, so if/when you do have an RSS outage, please do this: in Firefox, go to www.balloon-juice.com/feed and see if it resolves. Either way, please email me to let me know that RSS is down.
- Nighttime slowdown: This is linked to the Site Backup and I’m waiting to hear back from the hosting folks on changing the time it runs (I’m trying to move it to 4 am Eastern).
- I’m waiting to hear from the theme support folks and mobile site folks on some issues.
- I’m about to update the theme, so if anything looks wrong, please let me know.
- The “back button” functionality that so many miss: once again, the current comment setup was/is a temporary one, until we get the new system working. Once it does, we’ll get “back” working if it doesn’t automatically. I am not a programmer, but if need be once the new system is launched, I’ll get it working. If you are a suitably-skilled commenter, and have some code, resources, or ideas, please send them my way!
- Ads cutoff on right sidebar, etc. – that’s the folks who control the ads. Soon I hope.
- The previous page function at the bottom of the page was apparently solved in the theme update that I am about to load. It’s not something I broke, and the theme support folks led me to believe it was a WordPress problem so I thought it would auto-fix quickly. Sorry I didn’t follow up.
So, that all said, please feel free to post more issues and questions. I hope to have URL in comment author and small tweak on mobile site, but really I’m planning on dealing with the majority of stuff when the comment system goes live as I’ll need to touch a lot of areas.
As always, feel free to email me.
Thanks for your patience, encouragement, suggestions, and reminders.
jeffreyw
Frist!
geg6
Perhaps I missed this, but why do you go into moderation every time you post a link? I’ve never had this problem before and I’m pretty perplexed by it.
kc
Someone please just tell me the new comment system won’t be threaded.
Betty Cracker
Alain, thank you for the update and for your work on the site.
@kc: To steal an old line from Just Some Fuckhead (I think), I believe Cole has indicated he’d put on a sundress, espadrilles and floppy hat and call himself “Amanda” before he’d countenance threaded comments.
The Other Chuck
@Betty Cracker: Now I really want threaded comments.
Gin & Tonic
@The Other Chuck: +1
Ruckus
Alain
I commented in Adam’s post about an issue that I started seeing not all that long ago. The back button (and I do understand that you are waiting on the comment system to do anything, no use doing stuff twice or 3 or 1130 times!) gives me about 20 to 40ish pages to go back through, even if I’ve only just opened a post, read it and tried to back out. IOW it seems to be adding a page marker every time I scroll down to read more comments. My work around is to delete the BJ tab and reopen it. On late 2015 imac/FF latest updates for both, but don’t have this issue with any other site.
Just a note for future reference in case it keeps happening after the comment/theme updating.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Thanks for the update Alain. Best of luck with the changeover.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Wasn’t there something about slashing wrists as well?
Maybe I confused this with something that sounded like “Over my dead body.”
Amir Khalid
There’s this “JW Player” thing in the right hand column that displays two brief video clips over and over: Larry King interviewing some blond woman and something touting Jesse Ventura’s personal virtues. I don’t know what it is, I suspect it’s eating into my ISP’s bandwidth quota, I don’t want it, I can’t block it. I want it got rid of.
planetjanet
I have always had Balloon Juice as an RSS feed on my yahoo start page. It has not loaded since the site redesign. I have clicked on the RSS link on the right hand side with Chrome, Firefox and Safari, on Windows and Mac, but yahoo says it can not load it right now. I have also tried typing directly https://balloon-juice.com/feed and https://balloon-juice.com/feed. I don’t know what else to try.
kc
@Betty Cracker:
Phew. Thank you. :)
Eric S.
At the bottom of a post when I click on the Comments link it opens the entire post thread but starts at the top of the post instead of with comment #1. It doesn’t stop me from visiting multiple times of day but on longer posts it can be frustrating.
Otherwise I’ve been very happy with the redesign. Please keep up the good work.
WIN 10, Chrome Version 47.0.2526.111 m
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: So threaded comments it is then.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
@Adam L Silverman:
But John Cole absolutely must post a photo.
Redshift
@planetjanet: Weird. I get to everything through the RSS feed in Feedly, and I’ve never had any trouble. Maybe Yahoo is pickier about RSS.
SiubhanDuinne
Maybe it’s just my elderly eyes, but the dark purple (I guess) for embedded links is very hard to differentiate from the black of surrounding text, and I suspect I’ve missed a lot of them. Can you make it so it displays in the same bright blue as comment time stamps, naked links, etc.? — or at least some high-contrast color. (ETA: iPad, Safari if it matters.)
Many thanks for all you do, and for your informative updates.
Sibelius
@Amir Khalid: Seconded. It’s just annoying and I can’t block it.
Motivated Seller
Does, “I’m about to update the theme” mean in like the next four hours?
Redshift
Well, we’re doomed now. Trump will definitely be the nominee.
Mike J
@geg6:
It’s because of the poorly written, buggy user tracking software that is active even when the user has the do not track flag set in their browser. Alain said back in November he would turn it off, and it’s still on.
Felonius Monk
@Amir Khalid:
Amen, Amen, and AMEN!
Benw
Hi, Alain! There’s a bug in the site where on some posts lots of hostile comments about Bernie Sanders appear. Can you take a look at that? I’m using Chrome on a MacBook if that helps. Thanks!
SANDERS 2016
Alain the site fixer
@geg6: I suspect it’s the anti-spam plugin, which isn’t new. Technically it was malfunctioning before and I fixed that, about when this behavior likely began. There’s no settings for it for me to tweak, so I’m stuck. I did add one more to the basic limit in WordPress earlier this afternoon. Is it any different for you? I can try turning it off completely after your response to get a before/after report.
Bill Murray
@Ruckus:
I get this even just visiting the front page. I am using Windows 7, with Firefox (43.0.4). I tried Chrome and I do not get his with the Chrome browser (version 42.0.2311.90 m)
Mike J
@Sibelius: Can you just block everything from ora.tv? If you’re using adblock+,
press control+shift+V.
in the search box, type in ora
double click one of the items that shows up.
In the new window that pops up, select the “custom” radio button
in the text box next to custom, put in h t t p s : / / http://www.ora.tv/* (take out the extra spaces, I just didn’t want to go to moderation)
Alain the site fixer
@kc: When I tested it on our test server months ago, threads were an option, like they are now. An option we wouldn’t enable. That doesn’t seem to have changed.
Douglas
@Amir Khalid:
@Sibelius:
Just checked, it’s from a domain called ora.tv, just block that
(personally, I use the combination of noscript+request policy continued, which can pretty much block anything, but any adblocker (or even just the good old hostfile) should do)
Alain the site fixer
@Ruckus: Thank you for mentioning that again! Before I published this post, I did go back and read Adam’s and saw and noted your comment. That’s plain weird.
I am about to launch the theme update and hope such things will work themselves out, but I’ve got it in OneNote so I can have the info at-hand in a few weeks.
Alain the site fixer
@Amir Khalid: I’m not sure what’s doing that. I’ll look into it as soon as the theme update is done. I suspect it’s just ads, which I have zero control over.
Alain the site fixer
@planetjanet: Can you send me an email so I can ask questions? I’d like to figure out what the heck is causing this instability, and the more reports the better!
Alain the site fixer
@Eric S.: Noted
Alain the site fixer
@Redshift: How often do you use the RSS feed? I have another Feedly user who’s reported a number of problems to me!
Alain the site fixer
@SiubhanDuinne: Will do. Sorry about that, at times I swear someone else has been playing with colors, etc. a bit. But again, I’m not here often right now, so it all looks a little different to my “new eyes”.
Alain the site fixer
@Motivated Seller: Yeah, like when I’m done answering these, I’m backing up the db and then updating. Should be transparent to all of you but gotta prepare for the worst…
So, I’m not reading past your comment and will answer/respond to following ones post theme-update.
geg6
@Alain the site fixer:
Well, let me try to link…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Eagle
geg6
@Alain the site fixer:
Nope. Still sends me into moderation.
muddy
@Ruckus: @Bill Murray: I get the long streams of back arrow as well. Using Chrome on a Mac.
I thought the back arrow was broken at first until I held the button and saw how many there were.
Alain the site fixer
JWPlayer pre-theme-update followup: it’s Google Ad technology; I’ll ask; it’s not under my control.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@geg6: I posted this in the previous thread. In case it helps here:
Someone here explained that this updated version of Balloon-Juice has some fancy HTML in the background (related to the smooth scrolling and such, IIRC). When you post a “naked” link (just the URL, without the “anchor” tags and so forth), that background HTML goes nuts and creates more than 3 links in your post, which sets you over the limit, and throws you in moderation.
The way around it is to use the “link” button just above the “Leave a Reply” text box.
I assume this is one of the things that Alain is having addressed in the new comment engine. Could be wrong, though.
(I’m talking about the desktop version – dunno how one does proper links on the mobile version.)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
grammypat
Alain, Two requests:
1a) When clicking on “read more” in a long post…is it possible to pick up at the place in the post that is unread without being taken to the beginning of the post and having to scroll to find the place where it left off……. and/or
1b) When clicking on “comments” …is it possible to go directly to the comments, again without being taken to the beginning of the post,
2) When opening a link, is it possible to open that link in a tab or a new window instead of having to leave this site and then come back?
Thx
Davebo
The site seems fine to me both for RSS and commenting.
It seems everyone hates WP but honestly I think it’s pretty great. For the low low price of free I think people should quit their bitchin.
WP consultants on the other hand have a well deserved reputation of milking clients for lousy support. Seriously, PHP is a dummy scripting language and anyone who hates WP is free to improve it.
Adam L Silverman
@geg6: I just freed it for you. Please email Alain directly at the address above so he doesn’t lose track of the problem you’re having.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Oooh. I see changes.
Scary.
Cheers,
Scott.
Hob
The back button problem (if you’re talking about hitting the back button to pick up where you left off after you’ve clicked on an @ link to a previous post) is due to some kind of WordPress plugin that was added to make it smoothly scroll to the linked comment, instead of using the browser’s normal link behavior. If you’re installing a whole new commenting system, that problem may just go away since the plugin may not apply to it. In any case, it shouldn’t be too hard to find the plugin (it’s presumably something with “smooth scroll” in the name) and get rid of it. If you like the feature (I don’t see the point of it, but YMMV) it’s very likely that there are other, better WP plugins for the same purpose.
Mike J
@Alain the site fixer:
It’s the yoast google analytics that’s breaking it. It adds javascript around all links to track the user via google analytics. When there is no link text, it repeats the naked url several times, enough to trigger the three strikes your out anti spam filter.
I’d prefer not to be tracked by google analytics to beign with, and it’s doubly annoying to egt marked as spam.
Johnny Screwface
Like other commentors, I appreciate the update. But in reading this post I can say with some degree of confidence that these many unending issues being highlighted really seem to flow from this fact:
And then the web developer in charge of the upgrade asks the commenters if they know how to upgrade the site:
This is like attending a meeting with your architect and having them ask, “By the way, does anybody at the table know how to put a set of construction documents together?”
Sigh…
Mike J
@Mike J: you’re. not your. grrr.
Alain the site fixer
Folks, the theme update took. Didn’t seem to fix the problem I was told it would and in applying it, undid some customizations.
So for the moment, comment numbers are off. Sorry, but I need to find out from the theme support folks why the previous page button still don’t work, as the fix will require a new version of the theme and so I don’t want to waste time making tweaks that will be overwritten again shortly.
So please, understand that this temporary state is just that – temporary, until I can get a new set of theme files (or the necessary function edits) from support. If it takes too long, I’ll re-enable the comment numbers and such.
NotMax
Not a biggie, but ongoing inconsistency of font size and spacing within front page posts between front page and top of comments.
Screenshot. The left side is the front page, the right side the top of the comments page.
Win 7, Firefox.
Alain the site fixer
@Mike J: Thanks, so I just turned off the outbound click tracking. Can you try again? If this solves that issue, I’ll jump for joy (though carefully so as not to slip in this snow!)
Betty Cracker
I’m hoping the present theme update will be adjusted to once again include comment numbers and a line at the bottom with categories, a comment count and a link to comments.
Alain the site fixer
@grammypat: Added to the list. Since we’re going to a new comment system, I’m not going to do much on 1b. 1a and 2 should get attention before that.
Johnny Screwface
@Alain the site fixer:
Like many others, I am not a programmer, but I suspect omitting this DIV tag prior to serving the HTML would solve the problem. Such a thing could be done programmatically, right?
[div class=”textwidget”][iframe width=”320″ height=”180″ src=”//www.ora.tv/embed/partner/balloons/playlist/174/v/1″frameBorder=”0″ scrolling=”no” webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen][/iframe>][/div]
(html modified w/ brackets so as no to bork subsequent comments)
Oh wait…
Alain the site fixer
@Betty Cracker: Yep. I’ll likely get to that later this evening, not right now as I’m hoping to get a support for the theme first!
Mike J
@Alain the site fixer: This is a naked link
http://www.google.com
Mike J
@Mike J: no moderation!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mike J: Unpossible!11
https://balloon-juice.com
:-)
Yippee!
Thanks Mike J and Alain.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
BTW, meant to say thanks for removing the circle which redundantly displayed how many comments there are.
Ruckus
@Alain the site fixer:
@muddy:
As I said I don’t get this on any other site. So I’m thinking as muddy is that it isn’t an FF or osx problem. I had this through 3 upgrades of osx and two of FF so not sure it comes from that direction. I’ve tried other browsers for BJ and found them “lacking” in my opinion. OTOH I use Chrome for Netflix as it displays with HTML5 rather than microshit’s silverlight. And I try never to use any microshit products, after about 30 yrs of their crap products that I had to use for work projects. Apple ain’t perfect for sure and costs more but it is better, both technically and from the customer service side.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Me too. I have limited monthly data limits, and auto-updates and auto-playing videos and ads give my bandwidth limits a heck of a work-out.
Can’t wait for the back button to work, but of course after all this time, I’m remembering the comment number to go back to now, so it won’t be a revelation in user friendly-ness.
And just while writing this comment, something on this page auto-updated.
YEEEYEYEYAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
No offense, Keep up the good work!
ShadeTail
The (very minor) issue that’s been irritating me lately has been how the “read more” links do not seem to work properly. They’re supposed to take you to the point where you’re reading, so you can continue reading what’s below the fold. Instead, they keep taking me to the top of the article.
And BTW, the “comments” link at the top of the article acts like a “read more” link; they take me to the top of the article instead of the top of the comments.
muddy
@Ruckus: Also, for me it’s quite recent. Just a few days, I think?
Anne Laurie
Site seems to have reverted to a “mid-improvement” model — which is BAD.
a) We need the timestamp, preferably at the top of each post.
b) The ‘categories’ go at the bottom, not the top, of each post. On this blog, they’re footnotes; putting them at the top clutters readers’ feeds (& spoils the jokes).
tomtofa
@Ruckus:
I thought it was just a glitch on my iMac – sort of glad to know it’s not just me, but…
Alain the site fixer
Well no news from the support folks. I’m digging into the backup to restore things to like they were but this will take a while; downloading the backup so I can extract what I need will take a while as the host pipe for this is slower than molasses in March.
I will come back to the pc to check the download but I expect it will be 2 hours or more, believe it or not! I will get it done ASAP but right now, it’s purely mechanical limits – I have to download the backup to extract from it and I cannot get it any faster than it’s being sent.
I’ll re-visit this thread in the morning to see what’s changed, etc.
Alain the site fixer
@Anne Laurie: And yes, I want this stuff back ASAP. It wasn’t supposed to get wiped out and I’m restoring from backup so I can get the code I need. Slight delay….
DCF
I just spent the better part of an hour writing a ‘Comments’ reply to the most recent Krugman post, and it simply disappeared after clicking the ‘Post Comment’ button. Why would that happen?
SG
What happened to resize/zoom functionality? Please restore it for my weary eyes.
Redshift
@Alain the site fixer: Just in case you happen to check back here again, I use Feedly constantly, and read posts here with it multiple times a day. Mostly on Android, occasionally the web version in Chrome. I can’t say I’ve never had a problem, but not enough to mention.
Warren Terra
Could we please get (angle-brackets-I) as an italics tag back? Since the last site overhaul this has been disabled, and only (angle-brackets-EM) has worked. Sure, one option should be enough, but I can’t be the only person accustomed to (angle-brackets-I).
NotMax
@Warren Terra
You’re not alone. It has been requested by multitudes and is supposedly on the list of things to fix/implement once the new commenting system is installed, but not before then.
Gin & Tonic
@Warren Terra: Angle-brackets-i and angle-brackets-b have been deprecated in HTML5
Warren Terra
@Gin & Tonic: Good to know this, even if it seems to me like a terrible decision.
NotMax
@Warren Terra
Yeah, the HTML gods have decreed that typing extra letters is somehow more efficient.
However, both <:b> and <i> can still be implemented. Unless things have recently changed, <b> for bold instead of <strong> still works here.
NotMax
Obvious typo above. <b>
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t think they were. i and b still exist, but are to be used in cases where you need ital (or bold) and don’t actually mean emphasis or strong. For instance, homo sapiens shouldn’t be emphasized, it should be italicized.
Mike J
@Mike J: And of course you can’t tell that I put I tags around homo sapiens.
Joel Davies
In the file named style.css, line 79:
.content .entry-content-wrapper p a {
display: inline-block;
}
Delete that entire rule! It is ugly, it is stupid, and it smells bad.
Thank you!
Glidwrith
Site won’t allow expansion of text again. Mini pad and using Safari.
ETA: Or what SG said….
Steeplejack
@grammypat:
You have that ability now. Instead of clicking on a link (with your mouse), right-click it and then, from the context menu that appears, select “open link in new tab” or “open link in new window.” If you are using a tablet or cell phone with your finger instead of a mouse, press and hold the link; that will bring up the “open in new tab” context menu.
Ruckus
Well the back button works like it is supposed to now. Takes me back to the page I was on before.
It was nice when it took you back inside a post so you could click on a reply name, then hit the back button and go back to your previous position in the post but still this is far better than it was an hour or two ago.
Rusty
On an Android phone, when you click in the small arrow under the post title to see more about the post, nothing happens. Worked briefly during the site modifications, but not now. Hoping you can fix, thanks for all the work on the site, it looks good.
Prescott Cactus
Alain the site fixer,
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and may snow fall upon only your neighbors
driveways and sidewalks .
Warren Terra
@Steeplejack:
Also, on a PC, you can open a link in a new tab by holding down the CTRL key and clicking the link, or (if you’re using a halfway decent mouse) by mousing over the link and clicking it by pushing (not rolling!) down the mouse wheel instead of the left button. Either of these is really handy and will save time over right-clicking and selecting an option.
Also: if you have a mouse with a clickable wheel you can use it to close tabs, instead of hovering over and then clicking their little “close tab”button.
Steeplejack
@Warren Terra:
Baby steps. I didn’t want to get too radical.
Also, I reprogrammed my mouse wheel push to do something else. I presume others might have done the same (although probably not Grammypat).
Steeplejack
The “load more” button at the bottom of Cole’s Twitter feed doesn’t work. It did a few weeks ago. (Windows 10, Firefox.)
Alain the site fixer
Just checking in to let folks know that I haven’t disappeared. The backup download is taking FOREVER. I expect it will take another hour or two but I will be asleep. So I’ll fix this stuff in the morning. Sorry for the night folks, especially Anne Laurie. But I’m literally sitting here waiting for the download to complete before I can then open the backup and grab the code I need. It’s not for lack of knowing what to do, but I’m waiting to access the old code in the backup to apply to the new theme files.
And it sounds like support wants me to wipe the theme files and re-download them to fix the page button issue at the bottom of the site.
Night all
Steeplejack
@DCF:
With the current site instability, I have gotten in the habit of saving a copy of my comment to the clipboard before I post it: Ctrl-A (select all), Ctrl-C (copy) in Windows, or similar for Mac and tablets.
Actually, for most comments longer than a line or two—on my computer—I write them in Word and then copy them to the FYWP comment box.
Mike J
Might I suggest in the future you use diff on any files that are going to change with an upgrade? Then you can reapply your custom changes that the upgrade will overwrite. Keep all the diff files from your changes to version X, then when X+1 comes out, you can apply those changes quickly.
And do all this on a test server before you touch a live system. I have a dozen different web site configured on my local server for just this purpose.
amk
the first thread does not have a linky in the post title. when it moves down to become the second thread, the title has a linky.
also. too. insert a line space between the last line and the reply button.
amk
@SG: ctrl+ still works.
SG
@amk: Not on an iPad, unless there’s a feature I’m unaware of. I like the zoom function not just for resizing text; I like to make the text column take up most of the screen width. That way, I keep extraneous graphics, blinking ads and other distractions to a minimum. Disabling the zoom function is a dirty trick to force ads into view. I learned to hate it on the retooled NYTimes site. It’s a bit of developer tyranny that negates a key function of mobile devices.
Bart
This is just wrong: “January 22, 2016 / 93 Comments / in Site Maintenance, Uncategorized / by Alain the site fixer”
The author should be the first or the second piece of information, and the link to the comments shoudl be the last.
ryk
@SG: Yes, please.
karen marie
Overall, I think this whole redesign has been horrible. The constant instances of formatting issues in posts makes the site look like amateurish crap. The always excellent content deserves better.
The Other Chuck
@Mike J: I would strongly suggest using a real version control system like Git or Mercurial rather than doing diffs by hand. I’m also not banking on the site maintainers having experience with it, so I’d rather they followed a backup/revert discipline they’re actually comfortable with than try to learn a VCS on the production site. At any rate, reverting a plugin that made database migration changes would likely call for a full db rollback anyway.
The Other Chuck
@SG: The real tyranny (in a First World Problems sense, admittedly) is the mobile browser itself that refuses to allow extensions, such as userscripts or user style sheets that would fix the problem. Firefox for mobile addresses some of the problems, but I don’t imagine Greasemonkey is available for it. I’m aware of the Tampermonkey browser app — it’s a piece of junk. Still, you might try another mobile browser for BJ to see if it disregards the zoom-disabling misfeature.
The Other Chuck
As far as the duplicate history entries go: remember that advice I gave about using history.pushState() instead of replaceState() to fix the previous back-button problem? Reverse it: you need to use replaceState() instead for whatever is activating on page scroll.
Here’s another piece of advice: Ditch this theme. The designers don’t even test this most basic shit.
Mike J
@The Other Chuck: I was thinking of changes to the css, not the database.
They need some sort of easy to use tool to merge changes when the theme updates. When talking to a dev, I would just naturally use the word “diff”, no matter what tool they were really using. The more important issue is running on a test server first so you can find and fix breakage before it goes live. I’d never use the update button on a production system.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
This, this, this.