Notice Of Tinkering Going On

screenshotHello one and all. This is just a very brief advisory that we are going to be doing some updating to Emptywheel blog today. It should start in the next 30 minutes to hour from the time of this post. The site may be down briefly. Frankly we think we have it slicked out pretty well, but you never know when things hop off the drawing board and into practice.

Even if things go smoothly, as hoped, I am sure there will be some refining and testing to do throughout the day. In that regard, please bear with us and help us by giving us feedback. As always, we are doing the update to give you a better overall experience, so your input is valuable.

Thank you for your patience and assistance. Exciting times!

Also: McCaffrey is our engineer. May be more trouble than originally anticipated.

image_print
80 replies
  1. rg says:

    Hope this tinkering with the fonts is only temporary. It was fine the way it was. The larger letters in your notice is nice, but the commentary is too small for us oldsters; even with my computer lenses, it’s too fuzzy. The font in the block quote (of the previous post) was a bit cramped too.

  2. Anonsters says:

    I like the font change, except for the comments, which are teeny-tiny. I’m 31, and I can barely read them. :P

    Also, if you really want to improve the EW reading experience, I suggest free pastries. Everyone loves pastries.

  3. ffein says:

    Already I love the new font size for the article part — aging eyes — comments are a tad too small. Change is good.

  4. Phil (Bustednuckles) says:

    The one thing that I have mentioned before that I would really like to see if at all possible is the feature that allow an email alert to follow up comments.

    I work swing shift so I am always out of synch.
    I may not even see a post until there is already another one up and I have to remember to go back to see any comments after I have left one to see if there is a reply.

    I will also agree on the comment font issue.

    Just my .02.

    That and my thanks for all you do, I just adore Marcy.

      • bloodypitchfork says:

        Cool. Thanks bmaz. I’m going to try my original user name again. Hey, don’t let those assholes on twitter get to ya. Ha!

        • bmaz says:

          And I found this in moderation, but you seem to be posting fine under Chronicle now. Some people have had a real problem getting hung up for a while now, including Rosalind who even posts to the blog sometimes. It is not just you, but we are trying to get a lot of things cleaned up.

          • chronicle says:

            I appreciate you efforts bmaz. And btw…I like your replies to all the creepy assholes on twitter too.

      • chronicle says:

        Hey, something weird is going on bmaz. I posted a reply to you using my old username, and a different email. It worked. It posted. Then I tried to post a comment in reply to you using my old username AND old email…POOOF! The previous comment disappeared, and the latest comment would NOT post. Now, I’ve reverted back to a new username and new email and we’ll see……

  5. chronicle says:

    Well I’ll be. It worked. After an initial try on this new format using my original username and email , my comment failed to post. Fuck you NSA. I figured out your interdiction. Now eat me.

  6. chronicle says:

    Fantastic. I like the font size of the blog post. I don’t like the font size in the comment section. Thanks for upgrading.

  7. chronicle says:

    geeezus…I was wrong. It DOES show I am replying to you…but not until the comment is posted…vs the old format which shows who you are replying to BEFORE you submit. Sorry for all this crap bmaz. I’m just trying to get this to work.

  8. TomVet says:

    I agree with others about the font sizes, but can deal with all that locally. However there does not seem to be anything to identify yourself at the top – no banner, no namespace, nothing. Emptywheel only appears in the byline of her posts and above the Twitter sidebar.

    You prolly want to fix that!

    Also, my preview button is MIA from the compose box.

    • bmaz says:

      There should be a large banner across the top of the page much like there was before. It shows up for me. Maybe try resetting your browser and clearing cache etc.

       

      Woot! Bigger comment font rocks.

    • jo6pac says:

      Works for me but I see no button to make changes to my comments so I but get better a spelllingggg;)

  9. scribe says:

    Do Not Like Massive Comment Font. Do Not Like Larger Post Font. Liked things Old Way.

    This is what you get when you put a dog in charge – everything goes fine for a minute or two then the attention gets diverted by squirrels, treats, or sticks and everything goes to shit.

    • emptywheel says:

      You dissing McCaffrey the MilleniaLab’s choice in font?

      He’s getting older now so his reading ability is declining.

      • scribe says:

        The font is too f’g big and and bold I don’t like commuters sitting two or three rows away from being able to read both what I’m reading, what I’m writing and my screenname and email address. Particularly when the “post comment” button and other stuff is in 4 point.

        If this is what your dog calls smart, he’s misguided at best.

  10. scribe says:

    Why no buttons for HTML code “tags and attributes”? Much easier.

    Need preview button, else sausage fingers typing makes for bad reading.

  11. P J Evans says:

    Fonts now are much better. I can read them at the distance I normally sit from the computer. (I also have Win7 set to slightly larger font size, which may affect things as well.)

  12. rg says:

    If you’re taking requests here, I’d like to have a return to the feature in which a reply indicates which comment is being replied to (the comment # worked well before). For example if I reply to something bmaz has said, and he has said several things today, there could be some way to indicate which of his comments I’m responding to.

    And hey, why does the “post comment” button have to be so small and obscure? Are you trying to save space?

  13. pdaly says:

    The font size just improved in the comments section (compared to the size about 30 minutes ago). Nicely done. Now all comments are legible.

  14. pdaly says:

    The list of “Latest Posts” seems difficult to read, even though the same font in a larger size reads well for the main post. Could the Bold be removed from “Latests Posts” or if increased size is not an option, a skinnier font for that section?

  15. Cavin says:

    Hey. I resist change, so I’ll need to get used to the new thing. But I would like to drop a vote for returning to the classic dating format underneath the header. This is a busy enough place for it to be really handy, when scanning to catch up, having the day and time of post mentioned right along with the month, date, and year. Assume that people check here more than once a day, especially on big news days; it’s handy to know what has been added (or updated to the top of the feed), something that can be quickly parsed by time stamp (especially during those months when all the headlines are eerily similar). Just a thought.

  16. orionATL says:

    i don’t want to sound like the old fart i am, but i really, really appreciate the large print in the article.

    i also like that clicking on “comments” at the bottom of the initial article no longer has the high probability it did of sending me to “share”, “reddit”, or archives.

    i echo others comments about print size in the comments section – way too small. not that i can’t cope; being quite near-sighted all i have to do to read the current print is take off my glasses and switch to super-Asimov with the screen 7″ from my nose :)

    identity line at top with name, date, replying to is unnecessarily busy. drop the superflous “on” and move “in reply to” further out on the line or on its own line just below.

    coloring is calm. shading, i’m not too keen on yet.

    thanks for all the work.

  17. Greg Bean (@GregLBean) says:

    I’m here. You had me worried with your absence.

    For all of you commenting on about font size, I think you’re possibly asking the site to deal with something that is a function of your browser.

    Hold down the key and press ‘+’ or ‘-‘ and in most browsers the font will increase or decrease. Repeat to get the font size you want.

    • rg says:

      Nonsense. The fonts at this site were fine before the tinkering began (idle hands on a Sunday?) and I haven’t changed anything on my browser.

  18. Greg Bean (@GregLBean) says:

    You all may also like to use the and ‘f’ key combinations. Ot gives you a search box in the bpttom left of the browser window and and ‘up’ and ‘down’ arrow to find the next/previous occurrence.

    Also, did you know if you put your userid and the string “site:emptywheel.net” into a google search you will see a list of articles you have commented on?

    Try it, key “bmaz alexander site:emptywheel.net” into a google search and you’ll see all articles that bmaz commented on containing the word alexander. Further, using the google search tools you can also filter it down to certain dates.

    Not to teach Gramma how to suck eggs, but thought some may find these tips useful. I use them regularly.

  19. Greg Bean (@GregLBean) says:

    it’s the ctrl key you hold down with either the + – or f to get the function to work. Putting ctrl inside causes it to be hidden. Learned something new. :-)

    • P J Evans says:

      use square brackets when you’re writing it, and make clear that they’re substitooties.. Otherwise, it’s &lt and &gt (with the semicolons after).

  20. Francine fein says:

    New changes work well on my phone. Before if I increased the type size I had to scroll to read a line. It seems to adjust now…although the type size is more readable without enlarging. Nice.

  21. prostratedragon says:

    Font size looks ok on my ancient kde browser —maybe my preferences get prioritized, I forgot– but you might want to limit the depth at which replies get indented. One word per line …

  22. valleygirl says:

    Just looked back at new view of FISA Court Finally Discovers a Limit to the Word “Relevant”

    The text in the block below this “Judge Reggie Walton has just denied DOJ’s motion. In doing so he has found limits to the word “relevant” that otherwise seem unheard of at the FISC in recent memory.” is way too small for easy reading. IMHO would be better if closer in size to article text- using browser function to increase text size makes it easier to read, but then rest of text is huge.

    Not sure if this particular issue has been noted.

  23. valley girl says:

    oops, maybe my last comment is in mod b/c I typed valley girl as one word. I can’t remember which I normally use.

  24. valley girl says:

    Just looked back at new view of FISA Court Finally Discovers a Limit to the Word “Relevant”

    The text in the block below this “Judge Reggie Walton has just denied DOJ’s motion. In doing so he has found limits to the word “relevant” that otherwise seem unheard of at the FISC in recent memory.” is way too small for easy reading. IMHO would be better if closer in size to article text- using browser function to increase text size makes it easier to read, but then rest of text is huge.

    Not sure if this particular issue has been noted.

  25. valley girl says:

    Oh, you meant I typed my user name incorrectly, w/o the space. I think. I wasn’t sure which comment you replying to, so I second or third or whatever the suggestion that it be made clear which comment is being responded to.

    Let me add, however, that I much appreciate the work behind the scenes.

  26. rg says:

    the girl from the valley’s comment @ 57 is about the same thing I mentioned @ 3, in case you’re keeping count of the complaints.

    • abbadabba says:

      Geezer font, how quaint. I resemble that remark, but agree with those who want privacy, this shite is too big.

      I just LOVE you little rug rats. Come here and give Auntie a big wet kiss! I hope I yucked you out for making fun of old fonts.

  27. bmaz says:

    Okay, just have to say, this thing today went really well. Thanks to one and all for the help and feedback.

     

    But SPECIAL THANKS to Millenial Labs who kicked ass.

    • jo6pac says:

      Not only that Tuesday nfl players start moving around to other teams and F-1 starts Sunday. I hope bmz is resting up this week for trash talk.

  28. abbadabba says:

    Someone at the Intercept is using my nom de plume and trying to riff off my style. I doubt it’s GCHQ, but there are some rather vicious gate keepers now moderating that pile of hot hay. Hay, Intercept, how’s the drone killing, today? You got some very trigger happy dashpilots!

    Their system is WIDE open and thus subject to intermittent moderation and now this conflagration. Nom de guerre, Wild Weasel! There’s a GCHQ mimic operating at the Intercept! I’m just a wild weasel, that’s the way they do. They ferret out the stinking SAMS under the floorboards.

  29. lefty665 says:

    Font sizes are fine. Sure could use an edit button.

    For the visually impaired still bitching about small comments fonts, use your OS tools to make text more legible. Or, get a bigger monitor, they’re getting cheap. 32″ or larger at 1366×768 have nice big fat type even I can read without glasses.

  30. Snoopdido says:

    I don’t know if this post is still being monitored, but if so, here’s another minor flaw to consider changing.

    When one ends a paragraph (like I just did) and hits Enter twice to double-space before starting the next paragraph in a comment, the current iteration of your updated system doesn’t double-space, and instead starts the next paragraph with only one space.

    This leaves our comments somewhat unreadable with all of the sentences and paragraphs we enter as one large paragraph.

Comments are closed.