It may be true that you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you do.
List of new changes/fixes to the new site:
- Flyouts/wings/previous post button changes
- Added “Show full post on front page” for posts that hide what is below the fold
- # of comments has been added to the Post + Comments button
- external websites automatically open in a new tab
Frequent Questions from the Balloon Juice Mailbag (aka Site Feedback)
Dear WaterGirl,
Is it helpful if I report the same problem 5 times? Or ten? Does that help you fix it faster? Does that help move the item to the top of the list?
Dear Funny You Should Ask,
The short answer to your question is “no”. The longer answer is also “no”. It actually slows things down. On the bright side, I can provide some reassurance that reporting your problem multiple times does not, at least, cause that problem to be moved down the list. :-)
Dear WaterGirl,
I see the word Transparency in the post title. Are you planning to talk about how hard you guys worked to make the process as transparent as possible while the site was being developed? We really did appreciate that, or at least most of us did!
Dear Thank You for Noticing That,
That’s a good thought, but the word Transparency in the title actually refers to the flyouts/wings/previous and next post arrows, which are now quite transparent and allow you to read the text even if it is covered by the flyouts. The flyouts stop being transparent once you hover over them to see the title of the previous or next post.
If we had more time, I could share more of the requests that asked for a change to the flyouts. But here are a few, for your reading pleasure: The new website looks great. My only quibble is that the arrows for the previous and next post intrude on the content of the current post. Did I say quibble? I know it’s a small, cosmetic thing, but they are really annoying. How do I get rid of those symbols on either side that indicate either next or previous post? I’m on a iPad Air, and I’m ready to burn the new site down if they don’t go away. I know a lot of people love them but I vote them off of the island.
Dear WaterGirl,
I noticed the word Cash in the title! I bet you guys are asking people to toss some coins in the PayPal coffers if we like the site or at least appreciate the effort that went into it. Am I right? Huh? Huh? Huh?
Dear No, Not That Cash, the Other Cache,
Let’s talk about some of the occasional issues that come up related to commenting, but first I’ll back up and talk about cache.
In very simple terms: cache is good. It helps speed up the site. A lot. We want caching. The trick is to get things set up just right – or as close to just right as possible – so that we use cache whenever possible but don’t use it when it creates problems. If you occasionally post a comment and it doesn’t show up until you manually refresh, that’s related to cache. It’s probably also related to which browser you use, because some browsers hold on to cache longer than others. I’m looking at you, Chrome!
I guess you could compare this to the problem we initially had with embedded tweets. We want a firewall. We need a firewall. But the initial settings were so strict that we couldn’t embed tweets, so they had to be adjusted.
The developers are still making adjustments to cache, as they fine tune the cache setup so we can be as speedy as possible without causing other issues. It doesn’t mean that something is wrong or that the new site is flaky. Please try to be patient with them as they try to get this as “just right” as possible. They have been exceedingly patient with us!
THAT’S ALL THE LETTERS FOR TODAY. I’LL DO THIS FOR A BIT UNTIL EVERYBODY IS UP TO SPEED.
Oh, and if any of you still don’t know where to find the Blogroll, you might want to read the first Dear WaterGirl thread:
https://balloon-juice.com/2019/11/18/dear-watergirl/
Update: There’s no need to report anything if some the images in John’s twitter feed look funky. We are testing some images to see what works. Obviously, the two so far have not!
Baud
The first letter saved me a lot of writing.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Ha! I will just take a second here to say that I am so happy you are back! I welcomed you back on a few threads, but you never replied so I don’t know whether you saw them and I am in the doghouse with you for some reason, or if all my comments were after you had come to a thread and gone.
Yarrow
Thank you for your hard work in making the new website.
I have 2 questions about the blockquote boxes in comments.
Regarding the flyouts, if the left margin was moved in a bit then the flyout wouldn’t cover anything. It’s quite distracting and in the comment box it’s easy to hit the flyout and then accidentally get thrown to the previous page. The right flyout isn’t much of a problem.
TaMara (HFG)
Front pager issue: the more line doesn’t show when I add it to a post, so I’m not sure until I publish if it’s actually there or not. :-)
Baud
@WaterGirl: Thanks. I don’t have access to my notes so I can’t recall if I responded to you. Many people said many nice things, it was overwhelming.
TaMara (HFG)
@Watergirl, asking for forgiveness because I’m going to big foot you with pet adopt request.
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: I call the color blue-green-gray. What it looks like to each person surely depends on your eyes and your monitor. There is no plan to change that at this time.
As for the flyouts, where they land completely depends on how you have your window set up for balloon juice, how good your eyes are, whether you wear cheaters, etc. There are a million variations that cannot be controlled.
The first image below show what BJ looks like on my screen. For the second image, I made my window smaller and you can get a feel for how different it can look for different people.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): Pre-forgiven, always!
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): I think if you switch to text mode for a second, you can see that it’s there. Having said that, I believe I asked about this a couple of months ago and they were able to get it to show with their theme in visual mode, but I can’t recall for sure.
WaterGirl
@Baud: You are beloved!
TaMara (HFG)
@WaterGirl: It is buried in a bunch of code, so difficult to find. Also it did not work in visual mode when I added it, and as you can see now, it did not work in text mode. Added the add more, but didn’t break the page up. Also borked the formatting of the blog. I will remove once you say you’ve seen it.
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: Thank you. I’m really struggling to get the sizes of this new site right. I’ve gone deep into font sizing, which I’ve never had to do with any website before. I am constantly changing it because nothing looks right and then it affects everything else. I think I’m going to have to download a script because I find this font hard to read.
If you scale up the size of the website using just the browser “zoom” function it pushes everything to the left, which didn’t use to happen. I do that from time to time to get a closer look at a photo or something. This is on desktop mode.
One other question. There is a lot of white space on this new website. Is that being addressed in any way? It hurts my eyes and I find I can’t read here as much as I used to. I have a screengrab of the old site and it was a darker background and easier on my eyes.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): I looked at the page. Gorgeous dog! I see where you say “below the fold”. Someone else had it work today, probably Anne Laurie because it had a lot of tweets, and the “read more” break was right below some lady in a pink suit, who was in a tweet. We can test this tomorrow if you want.
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: I copied your comment below. You can see that some people do a “double-return” that leaves more space than necessary. I did not do that with my copy of your text.
“Thank you. I’m really struggling to get the sizes of this new site right. I’ve gone deep into font sizing, which I’ve never had to do with any website before. I am constantly changing it because nothing looks right and then it affects everything else. I think I’m going to have to download a script because I find this font hard to read.
If you scale up the size of the website using just the browser “zoom” function it pushes everything to the left, which didn’t use to happen. I do that from time to time to get a closer look at a photo or something. This is on desktop mode.
One other question. There is a lot of white space on this new website. Is that being addressed in any way? It hurts my eyes and I find I can’t read here as much as I used to. I have a screengrab of the old site and it was a darker background and easier on my eyes.”
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: I don’t use zoom, but I do use Command+ and Command- on my mac. It’s Ctrl+ and Ctrl- on a PC. Does that make a difference as compared to zoom?
TaMara (HFG)
@WaterGirl: You see where it broke the entire blog, right?
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): No, I did not! What am i not seeing? Are the pictures not supposed to be that shape?
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: It’s not space within comments. That’s fine. I see what you did with my comment and I find that harder to read. The paragraphs looks bunched up together. I prefer paragraphs spaced with a double return. Easier to read for me. I don’t find your version of my comment easy to read. The paragraphs just look like they run on together. One giant paragraph.
There is more space at the end of comments where the Reply button is. It seems to get its own line or two. Then there is the line to separate the comment, then the giant number, the large name, the tiny timestamp and all of that creates more whitespace and then the new comment.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): Oh, I had to look on the front page. Now I see it! I grabbed a screen capture so I can send it to the developers in the morning. thanks
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: Let me test something so I can see what it looks like when the text on the last line goes all the way to the end. End of the line. End of the line. End of the line. End of the line? End of the line?
TaMara (HFG)
@WaterGirl: Okay. Now I’ll go and remove it and see if that fixes what I just broke.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): The developers have a test server that’s identical to this one, so they should be able to reproduce it and figure out what’s happening.
TaMara (HFG)
@WaterGirl: Okay, so when I removed the MORE line, the blog reverted back to its normal self. So you can let them know that.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): updated the request! thanks
Martin
If the pet pics in his Twitter feed are centered and in focus, should we report that? Because that’s not normal.
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: Ah, I get what you mean now. Look at my #20. That doesn’t look like too much spacing to me. But I know we all see things differently!
WaterGirl
@Martin: That was good for a laugh out loud!
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: No, that’s the same function as zoom. When I’ve gone into the Text tab I can see a manually inserted line break or return or something (it’s code). I can remove that and make less white space if I want.
@WaterGirl: There is a tremendous amount of white space between the end of a comment and the beginning of the next comment. There is the white space that allows for the Reply button, then some extra space, then the faint line, then more white space, then number, name and timestamp, then more white space, then beginning of the next comment. It is so bright I end up avoiding Balloon Juice in the morning because it hurts my eyes. I’ve downloaded some dark mode thing to make it easier but then the blockquotes with the blue background don’t render well.
Did you add an extra bit of space between each line of text and the next one below it? It seems like there is more space vertically between each line of text than there used to be.
JWR
That’s what I was thinking. Having spent a lot of hours as an amateur web page “developer”, (not trained in the least), I would think that making a few changes to the CSS margin(?) values might do the trick?
WaterGirl: I’m having the “Back button landing me some place I did not expect” problem, but no biggie. I’m loving the look and feel of the new site! Now I’ll go read the comments. ;)
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
Which is a pretty good description. I checked, and it’s #d9f0f1, which is a low saturation blue green with very slightly more blue than green. You might call a darker (lower luminosity) version sea foam.
JWR
Somebody here told me about Dark Reader, an add-on that allows for endless color adjustments. I didn’t find it very useful, but you might.
WaterGirl
@JWR:
Did you see the images I posted at #7? That’s the same programming, same everything, how much people zoom in or out. I just changed the size of my window. SO MUCH depends on the way people have their window set up, the size of the screen, etc.
WaterGirl
@JWR: One of the other comments found that Dark Reader really worked for her.
JWR
@WaterGirl: Got it.
@WaterGirl: Dark Reader, good deal. Hope it can help Yarrow.
WaterGirl
@JWR: I believe that person was able to remove the blue-green-gray color with Dark Reader.
Yarrow
@JWR: Thanks. I’ve already got it and I don’t find it particularly useful for this issue. When I’m using it it’s hard to tell where a blockquote is at all. I prefer the old style where we just had a plain line box around blockquotes.
NotMax
Um, no. Unchanged; still colored here.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Institutional bilious green. The color of cinder block walls in prisons and the DMV. And yes, an impediment to reading as well as creating confusion with nested blockquotes.
TupeloPhoney
Probably too late to this somewhat stale thread, but “transparency” is an interesting word in computing/software development. When a developer talks about something being “transparent” to the user, she usually means it is invisible/behind the scenes/unobtrusive, i.e., the exact opposite of what non-developers take it to mean. The use of “transparency” in the GUI sense as in this post is yet another sense of the word. To a developer, the ambiguity/fluidity of human language can be frustrating. Mysterious and even beautiful at times, but perplexing.
Mo MacArbie
I’ll pipe up to add a rec for Dark Reader. It makes everything much easier on my eyes. You know those eyeball floaters one sees more and more as one tires and/or ages? You just don’t see them against a black background. As to the blockquote color, it doesn’t disappear completely; the difference between it and the normal background is just very subtle when viewed in the negative.
The only downsides are that suddenly every smudge and mote of dust on your monitor become far more visible, so have your screen cloth handy. Also, one needs to find a few sites that are already dark so that pornhub isn’t so prominent in one’s hypothetical list of exceptions.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Try closing your browser completely and then restart it. You should see the transparency then. They wings are still colored, but significantly less so, and any text that is beneath a wing is quite readable. Unless, off course, you hover on the wings to see the name of the post, in which case they are no longer transparent.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Nope. No change.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I think it must be something in your setup then. Perhaps javascript turned off, or something else you have blocked.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Just a little something to tuck away in the back of the mind as a possible alternative.
Ditch both fly-outs. Move the arrows from the white bar to the left-hand margin (in place of what would have been the left fly-out). Nothing to extend out = nothing covered. Hovering over the arrows gives the title, so no real loss of functionality.
FYI, still getting bounced to top of page on like every other comment made, then multiple refreshes necessary in order to see the comment.