Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Han shot first.

We still have time to mess this up!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Four legs? good! two legs? we’re not so sure…

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The house always wins.

We can agree to disagree, but i’m right.

I personally stopped the public option…

Verified, but limited!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

This blog will pay for itself.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week.

This is all too absurd to be reality, right?

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot.

This blog goes to 11…

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Mission Accomplished!

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Site Maintenance

Site Update: The Updating

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Is this a good time for a site update?

Those of you who aren’t sick in bed (or rocking in the corner because of current events) may have noticed the site behaving a bit better than it had been.

We made some programming changes on Friday, and the issue isn’t entirely resolved, but we’ve gone 36 hours without the 502/524 issue occurring, so that’s encouraging.

In addition to the programming changes made at the end of last week, we asked the front pagers to only log in to WordPress when they were creating or editing their posts.  What was the reason for that? It’s because there are things that WordPress does in the background when someone is logged in, and they were contributing to the problem – even if the person has walked away from their computer or has left for the day.

Anyway.. that was Phase 1, and the purpose was to provide a baseline to evaluate the programming changes that were made.  Phase 1 ended a few minutes ago.

Phase 2 starts right now, where it’s actually helpful if front pagers stay logged in!  That way we can evaluate the impact that 15 people being logged in to WordPress has on the 502/524 issue.

So it’s quite possible that we could see an increase in the frequency of the 502/524 error.  Or we might not!  What’s important for you to know is that it is not necessarily a bad thing if that happens.  Yes, it will be an inconvenience for that 20 minutes.

But either way – whether the frequency increases or it doesn’t – that will tell us a lot about whether login habits have an impact on the 502/524 error, now that some programming changes have been made.

It’s also true that posting was extremely light this weekend, and traffic probably won’t get back to normal until everyone is back to their regular schedule after New Years, so that’s another variable.  But that’s not one we can control.

I simply cannot imagine that people would actually read and comment at Ballon Juice while at work, but there are actually people who believe that is true!  Really, they do!

Speak up in the comments if you don’t care to hear about details like this and would prefer more general updates in the future.  And speak up if you do like to know.  As always, we aim to please!

Adding a flower, because it looks so happy, and it’s a very gloomy weather day here.

Plus, it’s one more way for you guys to learn about what images show up where.

My tree is the “featured image” and, well, you can see for yourself that this flower is visible in the post.

Site Update: The UpdatingPost + Comments (62)

Dear WaterGirl: So Many Image Questions!

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Dear Watergirl,

Does Tunch show up on every post, everywhere?  It seems like I see him a lot.  He’s the perfect choice, so I’m not complaining!  I’m just trying to make sense of it.

Dear Just Trying to Understand,

No, Tunch is not on every post.  That awesome picture of Tunch is the default for some things, but not for everything.

Dear WaterGirl,

I see images everywhere, even in places where I didn’t know they existed!  Imagine my surprise the other day when I saw an image when I clicked on one of the wings to take me to another thread.  Where else might I see images?

Dear Surprised,

I may not be able to think of all of them at the moment, but I’ll give it a try.  Sometimes there are images in the post.  Sometimes there are images that show up in the the wings, and it’s not even a picture that’s anywhere in the post.  There are images on Twitter feeds, images on Facebook.  Images that show up with a post in a RSS Reader.  If I think of any more, I’ll add them in later.

Dear WaterGirl,

What’s up with images on the new site?  I don’t understand the logic of what images we see where.  Are you using some kind of image randomizer just to mess with us?

Dear What’s Up With Images,

I would never do that!  But this is a classic example of a situation where if you know the rules, it makes total sense.  But if don’t know the rules?  It’s difficult to reverse engineer and figure out what the rules are.  The short story is that it’s pretty much up to the front pagers to determine what pictures show up where.

Dear WaterGirl,

If everybody doesn’t have to use the same images, and front pagers can do what they want…

Could Cheryl always use that map I’ve seen a couple of times?
Could Betty use a picture of Badger?
Could Mayhew use an abacus?
Could Tom use a printing press?
Could TaMara use a duck?

Dear My, You Have Given This a Lot of Thought!

Yes, if they wanted to, each front pager could have a standard featured image on most or all of their posts, that could be a brand, of sorts.  Their posts would be known by the company they keep could be easily recognizable from the image that shows up.

Dear WaterGirl,

I saw that a couple of commenters had added an image directly into their comment, and they weren’t even front pagers.  How come they get to do that and I can not?!  It’s not fair!  Or can we all do that, and I just don’t know how?

Dear It’s Not Fair!

Only front pagers can add images in the comments.  That’s the plan, anyway!  I turns out that we have some clever commenters who like to test the boundaries, and sometimes they find a way around things. That’s okay, that just helps us make the site more secure.  They find ‘em, we block ‘em. :-)

THAT’S ALL THE LETTERS FOR TODAY.  I’LL CONTINUE TO DO THIS FOR A BIT UNTIL EVERYBODY IS UP TO SPEED.

Please feel free to snack on some cake while you read.

Dear WaterGirl: So Many Image Questions!Post + Comments (120)

Apparently the Website Is Asphyxiating On Its Own Vomit

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In a completely predictable series of events, immediately after rattling the cup to defray server costs last night, the website immediately began shitting the bed and we had probably a dozen short outages over the last 20 hours. Rest assured, we are working on a solution.

It’s not the cloudflare configuration or not enough space or anything like this, and nothing that throwing money at can fix. The problem is basically (and will always be) this- WordPress was not designed to have an archive of eleventy billion comments, so some of the coding messes with this website but leaves virtually every other WP website untouched. You’ve heard, no doubt, of the different meanings of the phrase “the exception that proves the rule,” well, we are ALWAYS going to be the exception.

In this case, there is a query that involves going through every single comment (again, for the god damned recent comments thing that you all love so much and I have NEVER used), and it just blows up the site. Here’s a picture:

Apparently the Website Is Asphyxiating On Its Own Vomit

Basically, that query needs to be rewritten, but it can not be rewritten solely for this website, it is going to need to involve the WP developers, and it has to be done in a way that won’t jack up the millions of other websites that use WP but DON’T have our unique situation. So we are working on it. Basically, the recent comments may disappear temporarily so we can confirm that that is in fact the case.

To continue the grotesque metaphor, we have gone through five sets of sheets and are now putting a plastic cover on the mattress and handing out adult diapers until we can get some immodium or get to a doctor.

The End.

Apparently the Website Is Asphyxiating On Its Own VomitPost + Comments (113)

Rattling the Cup for Server Costs

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As you know, we moved to a different hosting company and now have significantly larger hosting costs for the server. Additionally, we went basically a month without any ad revenue because we took a week or so off, put ads up for two days, then got denied because we are a bunch of foul mouthed heathens, then a few weeks later got ads up from an ad company with standards more in line with ours. As such, there was a significant decline in revenue for the past five weeks (read, basically none). The server is paid through the 1st of January, but then we will owe another payment.

Several of you have signed up for recurring monthly donations, and that adds up to about 75 bucks a month, but we are still well short of costs. So, if you can, and only if you can, please consider hitting the paypal link to the right.

Thank you!

OOOH YEAH! I went to the PO Box today and there was a nice package of dog treats for the doggos from one of you generous bastards, as well as a bunch of damned fine looking jams and jellies from Alain! Thank you!

Rattling the Cup for Server CostsPost + Comments (61)

Site Maintenance Update

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The website is being moved to a bigger server with twice the processors and 1.5 times the memory. We’re still 2-3 times as fast as the old site prior to the relaunch, but they want to move us to a bigger one. What that means for all of you is that the server will be down for a spell (30 mins to an hour) this evening after ten pm.

So don’t freak the hell out.

Site Maintenance UpdatePost + Comments (116)

One Month Out: Last Call on Site Rollout Issues

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The new site rolled out a month ago, and I’d like to get a feel for where things stand in terms of any remaining problems with the way the site functions.  Please keep in mind that no site will ever be perfect, and please also note that we are not asking for design suggestions at this stage of the game.

The goal is to get the remaining rollout issues resolved soon.

This is your opportunity to make sure your site problems are represented on the “Remaining Issues from Rollout” List.  I want to be sure that all ssues related to function are on the list, so please speak up now.  Feel free to also pepper the comments with things you like, lest it start to feel that everyone hates everything!

I am not certain whether some of these might the same issue, just being described in different ways.  Or perhaps they are different behaviors but they only happen when one of these other things happen?  

I am hoping to get clarity on that from all of you in this thread:  The more details and patterns that I can describe for any problem, the easier it is to resolve the problem.  So things like “yes, this happens to me, but maybe only once or twice a week”, or “it only happens when I use this browser and not the browser” will be especially useful.

If just one or two people are having a problem, that may be related to particular device/browser combinations, or even browser settings, so part of what I hope to accomplish with this post is to get a sense of the scope of any remaining issues.

Commenting

A.  Posted comments don’t always show up as soon as you post them, until a manual refresh.

B.  Bounce to the top of the thread after submitting a comment.

E.  Edit Comment is not always available after posting comment.

Are A, B, and E all different ways of describing the same issue?  Are they related in some way?

Do B and C only happen when your comment does appear immediately after posting?

Edit Comments

TV.  Text / Visual tabs aren’t consistently and reliably there.

Is this related to creating a comment?  Editing a comment?  Or both?

When do they go missing?  Do they stay missing?  Is it a now you see them, now you don’t kind of thing?

Navigation

N.  Back Arrow doesn’t take you back through a series of steps, as it should

If you have noticed any patterns, please share what you have noticed.

Scrambled Comments Just after Multiples of Ten

aka Comments Overwritten
aka Comment Sandwich
aka Overlapping Comments

Is anyone still seeing this behavior now that the ads have started?

Recent Comments

RC.  One person is reporting problems with Recent Comments

Is anyone else having this issue?  If so, please describe it in the comments.

Replies

R.   Only one person is reporting that they sometimes don’t get @nym when they hit the reply button.

Is anyone else having this issue?  If so, please describe it in the comments.

RSS Feed

RSS.   Only one person is reporting issues with the RSS feed.

Is anyone else having an issue with the RSS feed?

Wings for Previous Post / Next Post

Sometimes we have Post titles with special formatting: italics, strikethrough, etc.
This causes “interesting” formatting issues in the wings.
As long as there is special formatting in the titles, the wings are going to do that.
To do otherwise would involve non-trivial programming that we’re not prepared to ask for.

Have I missed anything?  It will be super helpful if you refer to an item with its initial/s as you speak about it in the comments.

It’s also useful if you note if you do not have the problems listed.

Update 5:30 pm Saturday: I’m going to keep checking back on this thread throughout the weekend, so input will be included from everyone who posts by 7am on Monday morning.

One Month Out: Last Call on Site Rollout IssuesPost + Comments (303)

Dear WaterGirl: Did You Know…

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Dear WaterGirl,

I just travelled around the world in my hot air balloon, and now that I am back, I’m wondering if you guys made any changes to the new site while I was gone.

Dear Wow, That’s Amazing!

And here I thought we had accomplished a lot this week!  Let’s see… We switched from the lovely blue-green-gray background on block quotes to a possibly-more lovely blue outline with a shadow.  People seem to like that a lot; hopefully you will, too.

We increased the size of the space you get when you press RETURN, so we think people won’t feel the need to press RETURN twice between their paragraphs.  That should go a long way toward decreasing extra white space we’ve been seeing.

We also made a change to the comment numbers; they are a bit smaller and should size better on all devices.  (Bye-bye tiny little numbers on phones!)  Oh, and we changed the pie filter font that you see when you select quotes instead of images.

Dear WaterGirl,

What about the loyal On the Road people?  What have you done for us lately??  Writing not just for myself, you understand, but for all of us.

Dear On the Road Peeps,

Well, let’s see.  We moved On the Road from Featuring in the sidebar to the category bar at the top.  We hope that was a nice surprise! But we took away something, too; we hope you won’t mind.  You won’t see duplicate images anymore when the most recent post on Balloon Juice happens to be an On the Road post.  Going forward, you’ll just have to be satisfied with a single copy of all those gorgeous images.

Dear WaterGirl,

Have there been any changes that would specifically affect front pagers?  We love change!

Dear Front Pagers,

At long last, we added a plugin for filtering Categories and Snark to the Classic Editor, so those of you who don’t typically use the Block Editor won’t have to go to the Dark Side for ease of adding categories and snark to posts.

Dear WaterGirl,

Are there any little things we might want to know, that we may not know already?

Dear Inquiring Minds…

Yes!  That’s an excellent question!

Did you know you can make the comment box longer, so you can see your entire comment, even if it’s long?  Just drag the little thingie (technical term) that’s at the bottom of the comment box until it’s the size you want.  The little thingie is to the right of the little P that people ask about, and it works in the Reply box as well as in the comment box at the bottom.

Speaking of the little P, what does it do?  P stands for Paragraph, so it’s saying you are in Paragraph mode.  If you put your cursor inside a blockquote, it will say P and Blockquote.  If something is in color, it will say P and Span (which indicates color).

Speaking of white space… the block quote feature automatically adds space around the outline of the quote, so now if you add an extra line manually, either above the quote or after it, you get a boatload of extra white space.

The RSS feed now includes the name of the BJ author, but that won’t show up in your old feed; in order to see it, you have to subscribe again.

Sometimes we refer to a location for something on the site as if that location is true for everybody.  (I am definitely guilty of this!)  For instance, the Pet Calendar Info is located at top right on the site, but only for computers and for tablets that are in landscape mode.  Tablets in portrait mode, and phones, will show that under the hamburger. (aka the 3 lines located top right on a phone)  The same is true when we talk about the sidebar – that’s only true on computers and tablets in landscape – on a phone, or a tablet in portrait mode, that’s all located after the comment window at the bottom.

THAT’S ALL THE LETTERS FOR TODAY.  I’LL CONTINUE TO DO THIS FOR A BIT UNTIL EVERYBODY IS UP TO SPEED.

 

Dear WaterGirl: Did You Know…Post + Comments (66)