Site Maintenance

Folks,

I hurt my back Thursday morning and have been unable to sit at a computer until now. Even then, it’s only a matter of time before I have to move. So I’m trying to get as much done on the site as I can off and on the next few days.

I’m applying some updates now, and hoping to get a fix for the #$%@q($^ iPad mobile site issue. I sent the company an email two weeks ago but they’ve not gotten back to me. I suspect that the bloom is off the rose of their months-ago acquisition and that they have less staff as many of their support resources are non-functional. I just submitted a customer contact form entry since their support ticket system has disappeared into the aether.

For iPad or other tablet users accursed with the “left blank panel” issue, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the Desktop theme by tapping the link.  That’s the only solution for now, which is in fact a workaround.

I also hope to solve the many edit comment bugs.  This is likely a side-effect of the caching we’re now doing.

There are numerous complaints about the video ads; I don’t like them either but they pay the bills. Talk to John. I will be setting up a complaint form to submit ad issues so that if, for example, audio auto-plays, you can more easily report it.  Do note the advertiser so John can get it taken care of, as well as date/time. Many video ads have controls so you can pause or mute them, and some ads have controls where you can give feedback (such as this ad is of no interest to me) to refine their controls.

I will be updating WordPress and some plugins over the next few minutes.

Finally, since today through tomorrow is Prime Day on Amazon, please do your shopping through the Balloon-Juice Affiliate link so John gets some extra moolah. It won’t increase your bill and helps the site any day, but since many folks will be buying lots of stuff today, do help the site out!

The link again is:

Amazon Smile Link (also does not affect your donation or price) :  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fhomepage.html%3Fie%3DUTF8%26%252AVersion%252A%3D1%26%252Aentries%252A%3D0&tag=balloonjuice-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

Site Maintenance Monday and Important, Timely Site Support BlegPost + Comments (26)

Ok folks, there have been some changes to the site and there will be a few more coming over the next few days.

We’re now using the Cloudflare CDN to speed up the site for everyone. This should be a very good thing. We’re also now using a better caching mechanism which, coupled with the CDN, should really make things scream.

I’m sure there are twitches to work out.

Some may have noticed that the Recent Comments and Recent Posts widgets were removed. These were taking up huge amounts of processing power that most readers never used. In other words, they sucked the site’s performance down for everyone while benefiting few. The difference on CPU usage before and after was striking, even more so for disk access.

I will be updating the core theme over the next few days and hope to have a fix soon for the tablet users trying to use the mobile site. For now, scroll to the very bottom of the page and switch to the Desktop site and it will behave.

I will also address a few other odds and ends.

Open thread. I will not be here to respond until perhaps later.

Site Changes… Ahem – er – enhancements!Post + Comments (46)

Folks,
Something’s wrong with the site and I’m going to try changing the theme to another one to see if it makes a difference in performance.

You have been warned.

If things work speedily then I’ll know it’s the theme and work accordingly (and will return the theme back to the malfunctioning one while I work on repairs).

Actually, either way the current theme will return after a few minutes.

I don’t expect to solve the problem for hours, FYI. But this is necessary diagnostics.

I will consult the post from last night for details folks submitted.
This mostly affects the desktop site and will be fixed. If you need to email me, use the contact form to submit an email.

Something’sWrong With The SitePost + Comments (125)

Folks, I am not sure what the issue is with the site. Nothing changed that I’m aware of, but it appears that a link to Google’s resources is crapping out and that’s the main issue. I’m trying to disable or alter things that touch Google, but I’m not sure if it’s us, Google, a plugin, WordPress, the theme, or something on L3 or some other network segment.

In short: we’re working on it.

Is this a little bit better, or a little bit worse?Post + Comments (56)

Before you bitch up a storm and blame Alain, he’s not responsible. We’re trying different ads out. I’m going to be getting rid of the taboola one which is just fucking hideously large and awful (and makes me want to throw my fucking phone on the mobile site), so we are trying other shit.

There should be no audio autoplay ads. If there are, email ME.

I’m sure you all will handle these changes with the typical amount of patience, grace, and charm we all display when there is the slightest change (by which I mean none), but I promise you we will get through this.

You fucking assholes.

Site MaintenancePost + Comments (72)

Folks,

The mobile site is going to be a pain for a couple more days and I’m sorry. The mobile theme vendor provided me with a link to download a file from another of their themes and I thought that would suffice until next week, but it causes the mobile site to be pretty unusable for a number of readers (much less commentors!) and thus I’m replacing the new file with the original file.

This whole issue is because of the new European privacy laws, GDPR.

WordPress released an update to accommodate the new privacy laws, and the checkbox to allow saving your nym, email, and website is missing on the mobile site so now every time you view a post and go to the comment form, you have to re-enter that info. I’m sorry it’s a pain. Perhaps users can offer some suggestions or workarounds until this can be solved.

Before I waste real time trying to make this hybrid work, I’m awaiting clear instructions and since it’s a holiday weekend, that means Tuesday. This replacement file is different enough from what we were using as to require a lot more work than I’d hoped for and so I’m returning the mobile site comment form back to what it was. We’ll sort out this mess later this week.

My apologies for a less-than-ideal solution, and have a great holiday weekend for those in the States.

Quick Tech Update: Mobile Site BluesPost + Comments (22)

Folks,

As you may have noticed for a moment, an ad was in the wrong place. My fault.

I’m doing a few updates to the site today. One important update will be the newest WordPress release, which has lots of privacy stuff – yay. This is in response to the new privacy laws in Europe.

I’ve not yet wrapped my head around the changes, so there may be some new buttons for things like Privacy Policy or Private Comment or who knows. Point being, if new things show up related to Privacy and they don’t work at first, or even today, drop me a line and I’ll get to work on it as I can.

Ok, I’m going to some updates now and so the site may show “Maintenance Mode” here and there. Just count to 5 and reload the page and you should be good to go. If something goes horribly wrong, it will get resolved ASAP.

Site UpdatesPost + Comments (63)

Folks,

It being a rainy day here, and just a few hours until Spring begins, I’ve decided to do some site work. I’ve got some plugins to update, then the main site. I hope this fixes a few things that bug many and makes it perform better. I expect we’ll make a few more enhancements early Spring; more on that when appropriate.

RSS

One issue that many folks have reported in the past few days is RSS not working. This seems to happen every few months, so let me explain how things are setup in hopes that it helps those so afflicted.

RSS feeds from Balloon Juice are an automatic part of WordPress; we host a URL at https://www.balloon-juice.com/feed/ that is our RSS feed. It is not a service we pay for or otherwise configure – we host a URL, which is automatically served by the same WordPress engine that powers the main site.

There are many RSS readers and services that folks use. These point to our URL and give you the results.  Should your reader or service not have updated content, the first thing to check is that URL, in FireFox (as it has a great RSS feed reader in it). If it shows current content, then the problem isn’t on our side, it’s you or your service.

Some users have reported that removing the Balloon Juice feed from their reader, then re-adding it, makes it sync properly again. One user had to do that twice to succeed.

If I could figure out why this happens, or what triggers it, I’d love to nail this down. So, should this happen to you, please let me know via the contact form the last post that shows up for you.  I suspect there’s a character in some posts that throws things off, and perhaps I can figure that out with user help.

That all said, a few weeks ago I posted about site issues and have not followed up on anything that was mentioned. In my defense, I’m not really working for myself these days as I’m dealing with my mother’s affairs and getting used to the new life/new normal. So I’ve worked on tech things when I’ve had the time and brainpower bandwidth to fully engage with things. I’ve found that working on site issues when tired and semi-braindead is a recipe for bad things, so caution has been my lantern.

So today I’m not overpromising, but I will work through outstanding suggestions and issues as time permits after I do the main stuff today. And I’m scheduling a few hours later this week to continue that work.

On that note, I’m going to kick off some plug-in updates then get a cup of tea.

Site Updates Today: RSS, the explainaningPost + Comments (12)

I forgot to re-register the domain name so we were down for a spell. We’re back live and good for five years (if blogs and the internet even exist then- we need some new blood, an influx of young kids to come shake things up in the comments and rouse us old farts). To make up for this, an adorable picture of Steve after I have tucked him into the bed he made out of blankets on the couch:

Such a good boy.

And We’re Back LivePost + Comments (63)