Please test the new server

by philg

Folks: As you may have noticed, as of today this 15-year-old blog is now integrated into my regular philip.greenspun.com server. Can you please test signing up for email alerts, commenting, and anything else that you might have done on the old (Harvard) server?

Thanks in advance!

Philip

——— squawks so far

“Your blog title comes across as “s Weblog” in my reader.”

48 thoughts on “Please test the new server”

  9. GTMetrix reports SSL error: “The SSL certificate for this site is not trusted in all web browsers / You may have an incorrectly installed SSL certificate.”
    https://gtmetrix.com/?job_error=fzuKH10L

    Qualsys SSL Labs gives certificate a “B” grade:
    https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=philip.greenspun.com

    Google Chrome Developer Tools reports as follows:
    * Emulated mobile device, 3G throttling performance: 20%
    * Desktop, no throttling performance: 96%

    Ctrl + Shift + I in Google Chrome to open Developer Tools, go to “Audits” tab to see recommendations for improvement.

    • Thanks for those links. I’ve addressed most of the issues they reported.

      For anyone whose feed “automatically” switched, I would double check that you are subscribed to the new URL, or it will stop working when the permanent redirect gets shut off.

    • I have translated the Bureaucratese into English:

      Harvard lacks both the moral and technical expertise to handle modern free speech, therefore we are killing it.

  15. Why did Harvard kick this blog out? That’s a good question!

    Their document says “At that time, restrictions were put in place to only allow account creation on the new WordPress platform by users having a harvard.edu or affiliated (HBS, HMS, etc) email address. … We are giving non-Harvard users with active blogs the opportunity to export existing content over the coming weeks.”

    HMS = Harvard Medical School.

    When the “blog administrators” (nameless) first put https://blogs.harvard.edu/blog/2018/07/13/upcoming-changes/ out there and emailed a termination note, I responded to them from my active HMS email address. They never explained why being an active teacher at HMS (though it isn’t a full-time job because the course is an intensive one and happens only for one month per year) and holder of an HMS email address didn’t qualify.

    https://blogs.harvard.edu/faq/

    says “Who can get a blog? Anyone with an email address at harvard.edu, radcliffe.edu, or hbs.edu can sign up for a blog.”

    So maybe the answer is that I could sign up for a new blog because I have a hms.harvard.edu email address, but I couldn’t continue to maintain an old blog?

  17. Why host your own blog? Why not just create a subreddit like “www.reddit.com/r/philipgreenspun” or “www.reddit.com/r/philg”?

  18. If this gets posted it works for me. I preferred the other site, it was much more easily legible.

  19. “Why host your own blog?” – Reddit has been removing ‘hateful’ content lately, and much of the content here might be considered ‘hateful’ there, e.g. most Real World Divorce content.

    Hosting his own blog removes that risk.

  22. You may want to add a “favicon”. Makes it easier to find your page in a drop-down list of bookmarks.

  26. Suggestions:

    Comment markup seems to accept at least some HTML tags. A page on ‘How to comment with markup’ would be useful.

    Add a ‘Preview’ button.

    I fear the ‘Reply’ link will promote comment squabbles.

    I too would welcome a less austere color scheme.

    Thanks:
    For a comment form that still works without javascript.

  27. It would be nice to have a facility to edit (or delete) comments for some period of time – sometimes you hit sned and then you realize that there is a typo.

    It would also be nice if the form remembered your name and email.

  29. Long time reader. I liked the old style/theme more than this current one.

    I had to go to the wayback machine to get a visual of your old site at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/ to compare. Somehow, the old format had more text on the screen. I come here to read your text (of which you generate a great deal :-)) and the theme can get in the way.

    The new format seems like it has more open space (wasted space…) but it seems to be a matter of a few percentage points here and there.
    -The right hand column is wider, and the font on the RH column used to be smaller so it fit more in.
    -The padding/margins seem wider between blocks. The left and right margins could be narrower.
    -The left and right margins (and the content) don’t operate smoothly when increasing the size. In Firefox, Ctrl-Scroll from 110% to 140%. The margins at 140% get wide again and the text content inside is squeezed to make the page longer.
    -The font is less readable than the old one, and the font color is grey rather than black- lowering the contrast. (I find this the most objectionable thing about the modern design industry: reducing contrast in the body of the text).
    -Specifically to this font (Linux Libertine): The capital T left serif is not clear at 110% on a 1080p screen in Firefox.

    In my glance at the wayback machine I found an example of pure unadulterated content created by you, Phil- from before modern design. It’s….. beautiful!! Just your content. No sidebar, no “like this on facebook”. Ah, the good old days.

    See it here: https://philip.greenspun.com/ancient-history/

  30. Some feedback:

    1) I don’t like the “Reply” feature because it generates a nested comment which makes it hard to see / fallow as new comments get added when I revisit the blog. Not only that, unless if you look at the time stamp, you won’t be able to know when comments were added.

    2) I would like to see a #N added for each comment. Maybe that will help with my issue #1 above (but I still do not like the “Reply” feature, I do not like nested comments).

    3) I mentioned this on “October 26, 2018 at 6:00 pm” (it would have been far easier for me and readers to find what I was referring to if comments have numbers and I could say see #N (see item #2 above)) the new site is way too white. The old blog had better color contrast and color altering between comments made it very easy to see start and end of comments. Hmm, can someone post formatted comment with horizontal line and make his comment look as if it was 2 or more comments!!

    4) The site doesn’t seem to remember returning visitors. I have to re-enter my name and email each time I come back.

    • Agreed, nested comments are no good for returning visitors.

      The theme of an eerie glowing white, coupled with a snazzy light grey background to add some life, must have been the brain child of a googler.

      I do like the larger font, because I guess I’m getting old and blind from peering at screens. This setup seems about 10 years more modern than the groundbreaking achievement of Harvard IT too, so it’s likely a good platform for the future.

  31. Another feedback.

    With the old site, I use to be able to see my comment as soon as I post them. That was a way for me to know my post made it. The new site doesn’t have this feature and thus I don’t know if my earlier comment from few minutes ago made it or not.

  35. Well…this will definitely work as a stop gap, but if you can improve the colors and spacing that would be nice.

    Thank you for all your efforts on this blog. I enjoy reading it!

  36. My first comment seemed to disappear. So I’ll revise and repeat it…

    This format will work, but the white coloring using Safari makes the blog a bit more difficult to read. In any event, it’s a great stop-gap to keep the blog going.

    I did want to say thank you for hosting this blog. I enjoy reading your thoughts and would really miss it the blog if it was gone

  41. Longer posts get cut off when viewed on the main page, and have to click through to the specific post page to read the whole thing. Many blogs do this, but it’s not obvious here that it’s happening… post just seems to end abruptly.

  42. Can you get rid of the “Full post, including comments” hyperlink and just just have a hyperlink for the comments? It’s annoying to have to click on this link to view the full text of each post. Thanks.

Comments are closed.