Good evening!
It’s time to check in with the early evening Juicers to see who is interested in testing the site rebuild. No rollout of any system has ever been perfect, probably in the history of the world, so I don’t expect this one to be, either. So please think about whether you might have some time for serious testing, and start thinking about the devices etc that you have available for testing.
We want to identify people who access Balloon Juice on various devices (laptops or tablets or phones), using various operating systems (Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, etc.) and various browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.)
Some examples: Dell Inspiron laptop, running Windows 7, browsers Firefox (version #) and Google Chrome (version #) OR MacBook Pro running High Sierra (10.13.6), browser: Safari 12.1 OR iPad, running iOS 12.2, browser: Safari 12.2.
You can volunteer in this thread or send email to me at BJfestivus at the google mail place.
In fact, please send email even if you do volunteer in this thread so I will have a way to contact volunteers.
We really want to put the site to the test: pressing every button, clicking every link, trying the same thing on multiple devices, operating systems or browsers. If that sounds too tedious, then this isn’t the job for you.
Oh, and I see that WordPress is still grumpy – on all the testing threads so far it has randomly inserted a big blank space. I think this server knows it’s about to be replaced and is taking its revenge.
Thanks in advance to anyone who volunteers!
P.S. Anne Laurie has a post in progress, but I don’t think this testing post will be in competition with that.
Roger Moore
I’m interested in looking when I get home from work. I use Firefox 67.0 on Fedora 30 Workstation on a home-built computer (AMD Ryzen based).
NotMax
Today, on Meet the WordPress….
;)
Around when is testing expected to commence? A week? Two? More?
Sent an e-mail the other day. Will there be confirmation of receipt?
something fabulous
Hey WaterGirl! You might want to highlight “send email to me at BJfestivus at the google mail place” and/or offset it into its own paragraph– I think folks are missing it at the end of the current paragraph, looking at responses in the earlier post on this.
I’ll be reaching out to you separately, as well! Thanks!
WaterGirl
@NotMax: If I had to guess, I’d say maybe testing would begin in two weeks or so. (Emphasis on the guess.)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I will send return email confirming receipt to all who send me email volunteering. It just may be a few days from now because right now I’m like a hamster running on the wheel — trying to get everything done that the developers need.
So I’m thrilled with people volunteering, just behind on email acknowledgements.
WaterGirl
@something fabulous: Good idea. Post has been edited.
WaterGirl
@Roger Moore: Everything I know about Fedoras is that my dad always wore one.
debbie
I was looking forward to volunteering, but both my MacBook Pro (aging) and iPad mini (aging) have started acting screwy lately. I do have a Chromebook, so if no other Chromebook owners volunteer, I’ll do that.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I’m sorry to hear about your aging technology acting up. That’s no fun
I’d like at least two Chromebooks so if there’s an issue on one we can easily find out if the same issue comes up on the other one.
WaterGirl
I just looked at “Lining Up Volunteers” in the title and wondered if perhaps I should reassure people that volunteers will not be lined up to be shot, or anything like that. :-)
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Okey doke. So long as testing isn’t confined to a specific block of time (I have to work), so sign me up!
If they watched the last episode of Les Miserables, they very well might.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: If you are going to shoot them, let me know. I have a few people I would like to volunteer.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I laughed out loud. Literally. And not the literally that people use when they mean figuratively.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I bet you do!.
@WaterGirl:
Could you give us a note on BJ when you send out the responses, I at least want to know that you got my email because I actually managed to send it properly, and not that it arrived 3 continents over in some kids inbox who has no idea what a balloon juice is and his mom gets upset and reports me.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I just checked and I do have your message.
Okay, I will do the right thing and reply to everyone right now with a quick message:
For anyone who wants to test and has not yet sent an email, please send an email message to BJfestivus at the google mail place.
WaterGirl
Update: I just replied to everyone whose testing emails arrived in my mailbox. You all got the same message. (see comment directly above) Not trying to be unfriendly; just trying to get them out to acknowledge receipt before I leave town for the weekend.
Yutsano
Late to the party as usual, but I would be interested in doing some testing. Specifically: testing on my work computer (can get specifics to you tomorrow) Firefox on Samsung S9 and my underpowered HP laptop with Firefox.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: Glad to hear it!
I hope you’ll send me an email tomorrow with the specifics. thanks.
DaddyJ
Hi Watergirl!
I’m not sure if this is related to the rebuilt efforts, but I just experienced some malware disguised as an ad while browsing Balloon Juice on an iPhone 4s.
This “ad” took a while to load. My guess is it threw a clickable layer over the screen so that, while in the course of scrolling, it became impossible to not click on a link. However it was accomplished, I was flung out of BJ and redirected to a “goodluckday.site” URL, which blanketed the screen with a modal reading “Dear Apple User | Wednesday, Maybe 22” and offered me a $1000 gift card if I completed a survey.
Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to shut down a phishing screen in iOS, as long as you don’t click on anything in the viewport. I closed the window down, opened a new one, then revisited the site. It happened two more times; so definitely what Ernst Stavro Blofeld would call “enemy action.”
I next went to my desktop machine, a 2010 iMac running macOS Sierra (10.12.6), and visited the site. No malign session-hijacking ads that I could detect.
I think this is the first time I’ve experienced having a iOS Safari session hijacked, and it is very disturbing. I can send a screenshot if you can provide an address to send it to. Or please at least forward this on to John or whoever might be able to pull the plug on this bad advertiser, if it’s not some kind of code injection.
I support John making money off his site, but there have always been some bad actors among BJ advertisers. I hope that during the course of this rebuild he considers implementing some controls over them. His long-time readers won’t stay long-time readers if we get shanghai’d into phishing sites when we visit.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Perfect.
Thanks!
biff murphy
This is a test…Testing 1 2 3 Testing 1 2 3 TEST TEST TEST TEST testing
WaterGirl
@DaddyJ: The site rebuild is happening on a completely different server, so these horrible ads are totally unrelated to the rebuild. There’s a discussion about this on the On The Road Thread from this morning (Thursday). The ads are frustrating, I know!
WaterGirl
@DaddyJ:
Take heart, I expect the ad situation to be quite different on the rebuilt site.