Site Problems Are Now Solved (Mostly)

General Required Reading Site News76

Update 4: First of all, thanks to everyone for your kind words and your patience.

I’ve finished rebuilding SFN from scratch, and as you can see, the site looks dramatically different as a result.  As I pointed out in the comments, it is mainly because the styling code that SFN has used for quite some time has reached end-of-life and I had to scramble and find something that worked and was available to replace it.  Yep, it’s different all right and will take a lot of getting used to.  There are some benefits, though:

  • You might notice that there’s little if any blue left on the site. No offense to our UNC or Duke readers, but those colors don’t belong on this site. I’ve been meaning to fix that forever and finally got around to it.
  • The pages now size to your monitor and fill the browser edge-to-edge.  That’s nice, because I swtich back and forth from a 1920*1200 screen to a laptop that’s far smaller, and with the old design, the browser in full screen looked 1990’s.
  • The site is far faster.  I never realized how out-of-date the old style’s PHP and underlying Javascripts were.  I can see a dramatic reduction on the server load, which will hopefully translate to faster load times for you.  Of course, I went through the database, the OS and the web server itself with a fine-tooth comb today and optimized it while I was looking for the source of the errors that started this process in the first place.
  • I think that the look in the comments make them easier to read.  Sometimes long threads would make my eyes bleed, but I am getting older.  Hell, I remember the first game Lou Holtz coached.  I also remember selling mixers Coca-Colas when I was 12.  And I get to see Thompson play…in person.  You get the picture.

That’s my take.  The important thing is that we can share our takes and opinions just like always.

Last thing: I do need to update the photo-bar and will be working on that after I get some dinner.

Update 3: Never mind these ugly pictures.  They will be changed.  I had to use a new style-sheet, as I don’t have time to carve out a new one and also make sure it is compatible.  The default photos are going to be exchanged, but right now, I have other fish to fry.  You guys can comment on articles, however, and that’s a MAJOR improvement from 4pm today.

Update 2: You can now leave comments.

I am working to rebuild our site’s look and feel, and right now, it looks like this upgrade and the theme layout were not compatible.  The replacement theme that works is ugly (as you can see) and I am working on that.

Update 1: I’ve wasted enough time with half-assed support and more false starts than a typical Amato offense.  I am rebuilding the site from scratch and it’s going to be ugly around here for a while.  Bear with me, I don’t like the Carolina blue theme either and it is temporary.  If things are looking strange or the site doesn’t react for a few minutes, it is because the monkeys are at their keyboards typing furiously.

Hi folks –after a so-called minor upgrade of WordPress (the underlying blog software) late last night a major problem has erupted: users cannot leave comments.

We are aware of this and are working with the vendor to try to figure things out.  That is going to take some time on their end as well as ours — we have jobs that we would like to keep and time is at a premium.  So, until we hear from the WP folks and until we get some time to roll up our sleeves and get gritty in the code, this issue will continue.  Hopefully that won’t be a long term issue.

Anyhow, please bear with us.  We’re working on it.  –Alpha

General Required Reading Site News

76 Responses to Site Problems Are Now Solved (Mostly)

  1. Cosmo96 02/13/2009 at 1:06 PM #

    Testing my Gravatar.

  2. Rick 02/13/2009 at 1:29 PM #

    I am testing my gravatar

  3. highstick 02/13/2009 at 1:43 PM #

    Looks good so far and Alpha I can definitely relate to the “eyes” thing. I’d been at State and had come back to finish the year before Holtz came, so I had the opportunity to see Case, Earle Edwards, and Vic Sorrell in action before that. Ease of reading is definitely important for me.

    Also, does it have to be an avatar from Gravatar or can I upload my own that I have saved? You may have to send me a private message if it’s too bloody for the site though, but it does show the “results of highsticking” very graphically.

    BTW, is the Old Red & White site totally dead? I know it hasn’t changed in the a long time

  4. Alpha Wolf 02/13/2009 at 1:52 PM #

    Highstick,

    You can load your own avatar up at Gravatar.com and use it. We only ask that it’s not obscene or way over the top.

    As for RAWFS, yes, it’s pretty much finished as an entity because as a one-man operation I have nowhere near enough time to keep it up properly. I changed jobs in August and it went forever without being changed, and Jeff kindly offered me the space to write here. I had been keeping up SFN technically for quite a while anyway, so the change was a natural progression.

  5. lloydpdavis 02/13/2009 at 2:03 PM #

    Just a suggestion, but you may want to limit the width of the middle column. It is much more comfortable for people to read something like 8-10 words per line, and any more than 15 words per line is too many in my opinion. Go pick up your favorite book and count the words/line. In print, the page and font size is set to keep the words/line to a readable ratio. The same rules should generally be followed for the web as well. You guys have a lot of long articles that I love to read, but on a big screen it would stretch out too wide.

    Either way, I’ll still read your site every day! Thanks!

    Lloyd, thanks for your thoughts. I would recommend decreasing the size of the browser if things are too wide. Thing is, if I lock the width down it will be too narrow for some and too wide for others, and that’s always something I didn’t like about the previous iteration of the site. Screens these days range from 22″ monitors to the little 8″ Atom-processor Netbooks…quite a difference. One size clearly won’t fit all.

  6. highstick 02/13/2009 at 2:06 PM #

    It’s not obscene, just a little bloody face after taking a stick to the face. I’ve seen much worse on the rink with the little kids in the stands. Granted, if you’re not a hockey fan, you may not understand.

    It’s loading now so I’ll check it shortly.

    You guys do a great job and we can’t thank you enough!!

  7. highstick 02/13/2009 at 2:14 PM #

    Testing my avatar

  8. TheCOWDOG 02/13/2009 at 2:24 PM #

    Need something that looks less like the top 1/2 of universal mmen’s room

  9. levelsixtyfour 02/13/2009 at 2:44 PM #

    My avatar isn’t working now either, Highstick. For some reason Gravatar never worked for me despite the fact that it checks out fine on their site. I was having to use Openvatar before, but now it doesn’t seem to be working either.

    Seen that and it was an email address issue.

  10. wufpup76 02/13/2009 at 2:56 PM #

    Sham-WOW!!

  11. non sequitur 02/13/2009 at 3:04 PM #

    Sham-WOW!!
    Now all we need is someone in a Snugee warming themself by a Heat Surge Amish-built electric fireplace.

  12. wufpup76 02/13/2009 at 3:17 PM #

    “Now all we need is someone in a Snugee warming themself by a Heat Surge Amish-built electric fireplace.”

    ^While talking on the phone using Magic Jack!(tm) 🙂 …

    Alpha, you changed your “gravatar” back from Vince the Sham-Wow guy … what gives?!?! … Please don’t deprive us of Vince’s image!!

  13. Ed89 02/13/2009 at 3:33 PM #

    Testing my Gravatar.

  14. wufpup76 02/13/2009 at 3:38 PM #

    ^I can’t get mine to work either … I suck

  15. highstick 02/13/2009 at 4:16 PM #

    Make sure you set the setting to G on the gravatar. I had mine set on PG(because of the bloody face) and never could get it to work. I went back deleted, then added again, but set it to G, checked it, and it now appears to work.

    Now we got us an ugly hockey player to bash around. Maybe you guys want to rename me, HWSNBS, ie. He Who Shall Not Be Seen!!

  16. DoubleE 02/13/2009 at 4:48 PM #

    testing Gravatar…

  17. levelsixtyfour 02/13/2009 at 5:10 PM #

    Make sure you set the setting to G on the gravatar.

    That was exactly the problem all along. I assumed that a PG rating would be acceptable and, as usual, overanalyzed the issue. Thanks highstick.

  18. Greywolf 02/13/2009 at 5:49 PM #

    I’m awed by the commitment and hard work. Thank you AW.

    I’m looking for an avatar. Anybody got a pic of an old, ef’ed up wolf from the late fifties/early sixties?

  19. highstick 02/13/2009 at 6:18 PM #

    Greywolf, I have a picture of Les Robinson that you can use!! LOL!

  20. highstick 02/13/2009 at 9:24 PM #

    http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Pictures/wolves_pg8.html#Wolf_Photographs_8

    Here you go, Greywolf!! LOL!

    Look on Gallery 8 and get the picture of Ursa scent rolling. This could be appropriate for one of us old guys!

  21. wufpup76 02/13/2009 at 9:44 PM #

    test?

    gahhhh! i suck again!!!

    I have the G-rating, etc … This must be a really serious case of user error

  22. 4in12 02/13/2009 at 10:27 PM #

    test test

  23. Greywolf 02/13/2009 at 10:47 PM #

    highstick,
    I love the pic of Ursa scent rolling — kinda reminds me of me, drunk, lying on my back, holding on to the grass to keep from falling off the front yard. I mean the yard was turning and seemed about to dump me right off. Cheap beer from Red’s.

    I thought I’d tell one on myself to take attention away from the fact that I’m too computer illiterate to know how to get the picture, turn it into an avatar or gravatar or any thing else. I came along when one meg of RAM was a foot thick, 6 feet high and 12 feet long and full of tubes and shit. Computers were in air conditioned warehouses, not on your lap.

  24. highstick 02/13/2009 at 10:58 PM #

    No kidding about coming up with no computers! I was exposed to IBM punch cards in the Army, but didn’t get to actually touch a computer until grad school and we still used punch cards. We had one early PC, but nobody knew what to do with it. The story back then was that the difference between a grad and undergrad student was that we could actually feed the cards into the reader whereas an undergrad had to stand on the other side of the door while we did it.

    Glad you liked the picture. I was looking for an old one, but that was the funniest one I could find.

    Wufpup, don’t give up, it’s probably something pretty simple that you’re missing.

  25. wufpup76 02/13/2009 at 11:16 PM #

    thanks highstick … all this time I thought I was at least somewhat computere literate

    Test #4000

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