As many of you regular readers know over the past few weeks I have done a complete migration of the website over to a new Cloud Server. The first week was a bit Rocky and we have some trouble with people being able to reach the side, but now everything seems to be pretty well under control.
I added new features to enable commenting to be a little easier including better threading and editing up to 15 minutes after you first made the comment, as well as the ability to delete the comment within that time frame.
Right now I’m traveling so I’m not able to produce some new blog post for a while but I did want to take this opportunity to ask you the readers what you think of the new changes and what else might need to be done. I may not be able to do everything you ask but I’ll certainly give it my best effort.
Along those lines I’d like to ask you some questions about content. What would you like to see more of and what would you like to see less of?
As always thanks to you the readers, the guest authors, and the moderators for making this website what it is today, which is still the leading climate-related website in the world.
I miss the number of comments on the main page.
The count is on the page (maybe not pages from the old site). The number in the comment cloud symbol before the text “Leave a Reply” is the number of comments.
Below the reply text area are two or three numbers, the first two are the number of comment threads and replies in those threads.
Threading, editing and new comment signalling features are great, IMO. Especially editing.
I’ve noticed that words which previously triggered moderation apparently no longer do.
But let me test that: fraud, Nazi.
No moderation, he said in edit mode.
It’s nice that the default font for indented comments is now full-sized. However, it would be even nicer if italics, bold, bold-italics,
strike-through, and links were also full-sized. It is kind of strange seeing comments with the plain text one size, and all the special fonts slightly smaller.Also, how are true subscripts and superscripts easily set:
H_2O (Nope)
H₂O (Nope)
(Using angle brackets around “sub” or “subscript” does not work either.)
I tried/asked about subscripts before the transfer in a reply to somebody.
No details were given but one the Mods said chimed in and said it was harder for them on their end.
I don’t know how they see a comment but that was enough for me to stop trying.
Ha! I guess you could take advantage of the 2-point font size difference, and make your subscript italic or bold, as long as you do it in a reply to another comment:
H2O or H2O.
(Of course, that will break as soon as my complaint about the font sizes is addressed.)
I generally just paste in the special Unicode subscript and/or superscript characters:
H₂O or 2.8 W m⁻² or 2.8 W/m².
Subscripts: ₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉₋₍₎ᵢₙ
Superscripts: ⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁻⁽⁾ⁱⁿ
Ja, there aren’t that many subscripts that I need, in most cases. I think most people know what 10^6 means, so scientific notation doesn’t need superscripts.
Technically, we no longer should be using the degrees symbol (°), though I like it so people know I’m talking temperature and not thousands of something or other. [98.6°K, not 98.6K or 98,600.]
Don’t use ~ for approx. It looks too much like a minus sign (-). And vice versa. Maybe just indicate negative numbers as “minus something” and remove all ambiguity.
You could use ≈ which looks like ≈ (a doubled ~ tilde).
Agreed
You beat me to that one, so here’s another up vote.
Hmm. CO2. xn.
Off of the technical track – what I want to see? More of David M., Willis E., etc. Lord M., too, when you can get him. (Even though I have the energy to unpack maybe one-third of his very dense and impeccably reasoned posts, Lord Monckton invariably teaches me at least one new vocabulary word every time.) Edit – yes, more interesting space items too. I have more links in my research folder from WUWT than from just about anywhere else.
Now let’s see what those tags come up as…
Yep, not recognizing standard tags.
Oh good – then I can finally call the Eco-Nazis what they are. 😀
I often click on a comment in the right hand side “recents” column, without its going to the comment.
Good response times – search seems slower but I rarely need it. Availability seems good.
Content: I like anything that show me, step by step, how to dig into a problem and understand it. The cases where people walk through a scientific paper and show why its flawed are especially good (not because it is flawed, but because I learn how to be more careful). Climate is a good base for a LOT of flawed research, but honestly anything interesting in the realm of science is a good topic in my opinion.
This has been one of the few sites where I can learn a lot of interesting things without having to learn an entire new topic-specific language. When I read medical journals I sometimes feel I am reading Martian. It is great to find smart people taking the time to put things into small words (and less acronyms).
For me the updated site works well. I prefer the new-look comments section, and like that I can vote for posts I agree with. Not a fan of the grey background though.
I agree. The comment section has improved greatly.
I like the open threads. Some of the unusual things that occur (or read) in open threads allows for differences of opinion on wild thoughts. 😉
How can I directly put an image or a video in a posting without having to use a special program? Why cant we directly do this ? Also your site seems to be slow maybe because of too many graphics on each page but I realize you need advertising dollars. A great site with the best experts . Thanks Anthony.
Your picture needs to be permanently hosted somewhere and end with .JPG or similar. Facebook pictures seem to work if you put &xxx=foo.jpg at the end of the URL (as advised in the Test link)
Test of video.
https://youtu.be/uzck9o2lvik
GD, that looked like a mobile link. Let me see if it works in a desktop config. Same link different format.
Hmmm….I don’t have a mobile device. Not even a laptop.
I did a search for it from my desktop.
I’m to try copy/paste of your video.
(Apologizes to the readers for this sidetrack.)
https://youtu.be/uzck9o2lvik
I see the “still” of your video but only the links in my comments.
I suspect the “almost a problem” is on my end.
Actually… You can cancel an edit – you CANNOT delete a comment. (Unless the widget is hidden somewhere thanks to Firefox.)
ossqss – can you share the exact string you used to get the video shown? YOUR comment shows it – but when you try to copy the video URL, it is exactly what Gunga Din tried. (And I am working on a desktop right now myself.)
Hmm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzck9o2lvik
That works for a direct link in a bookmark – but not here. I’m stumped…
Try a different browser. I used Chrome and it works. Could be an HTML5 issue. Not reall sure.
Can’t delete a comment? What would happen if you edit it down to a single space? Or a single character
ant
Looks like a single character won’t work. I chopped ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ down to just ‘ant,’ and the editor accepted it. So you can delete a comment, if you leave behind ‘ant’ or ‘del’ or any three symbols.
jorge ==> Try it — it’s free to try.
Sorry, readers.
Last try. I’ll manually delete the “dot” between “youtu” and “be”.
https://youtube/uzck9o2lvik
A couple of video tests of the same video. First YouTube:
Well, that didn’t work. Now Hooktube:
https://www.hooktube.com/watch?v=iAbgmXVaOc8
The first showed the “still” (it worked) but the hook just showed the link.
I can see and play it through Chrome?
Brilliant from a veteran who wasn’t there, but his lyricist must have been or knew well those who were.
I can see the YouTube video now. Don’t know why not at first.
Yes, it seem so. When I see the photographs in this video now, it’s almost unbelievable how young we were.
I enjoy the occasional postings of new information from space explorations, as well as from other hard sciences such as physics and geology.
I too would like WUWT to return to its original theme of “other interesting scientific topics”, however it was phrased. But it ought to remain primarily a climate related site.
My own background naturally inclines me toward wanting more life science and general earth science posts, but then we run the risk of inundation with Young Earth Creationists, which would blot the scientific escutcheon of the site.
However, welcoming antiscientific religious commentators as well as climate alarmists might highlight the differences between WUWT and alarmist blogs.
There has been a glitch since the last software change, so the “subscribe” icon no longer works for me. I have no idea what went wrong.
I can subscribe, but if I select “to responses to my posts” it ignores that, and gives me every new followup post to the thread. “If it is broke(n), do fix it.”
It works fine on my RSS reader.
I think the migration has gone well, and the result is good. Congratulations! Many appearance issues have been fixed.
There are a couple of more subtle things. It used to be that if you had a wordpress login, a bell would appear top right with notification of responses to comments. It worked across wordpress sites. Early in the transition, it disappeared, but I could still see notification of WUWT responses on other WP sites. But now that doesn’t happen either, and no bell is visible at WUWT.
I have noticed too that WUWT only updates RSS every three hours or so. It used to be about 40 minutes. It’s a problem because there seems to be a buffer of about 25 comments in an update, so now many do not get through.
Yes, I miss a lot the possibility of answering comments from the now missing WordPress top bar’s bell. We could be notified and answer WUWT comments even from other Worpress sites without having to go to WUWT, and the comments would appear right below the comment we would answer, regardless of other comments. Now we have to sign up to be inundated with emails. A great loss.
I would concur with Nick. The notification worked on other sites, then stopped on the generic WP notification process. The notification bar only appears on other WP sites, not here. I did not do a new login/password for the change and that may be the disconnect
That worked. I did a new login. It didn’t recognise the password, so I had to go through that procedure to get a new one. But then the bell returned. It doesn’t have notifications yet, but I expect that will come.
Did the reply show up from this? Bell that is?
No, nor others. So something still isn’t right. It knows about the old replies from weeks ago.
I have done all I can Nick. All I can do at this point is reply. 😉
ossqss
“I did not do a new login/password for the change and that may be the disconnect”
Did it work for me?
Edit: Drat, no. Try again.
There’s a button one can press (just to the left of “Press Comment”) just before submitting a comment for the first time that will send one an email when a response to that comment is posted. It’s easy to miss.
I’ll try that, Roger, but my path using the Subscribe button and pull-down menu is broken and should be fixed, or redesigned.
For a self-hosted site, using WP for user authentication is a simple matter. For tapping into the “world” of WP comments, it’s a bit more complicated. Your site has to send notices to WP (for replies made, commenter/respondent identification, and comment contents), and has to receive notices back (same things). WP, of course, charges for this use of their servers.
It may even be a transaction-based fee, I don’t recall from my long ago research – which could play hob with Anthony’s limited budget.
Um. Ignore all that – just noticed that the “Proudly powered by WordPress” is still displayed, which means Anthony isn’t self-hosting, WUWT is still in the wordpress dot com environment. Next theory is the new commenting plugin is funky or malconfigured, and thus not cooperating properly with the WP global comment system.
Nick
Thank’s for the comment about the bell, I too miss it and my experience was the same as yours regarding other sites.
To be alerted of replies to posts I now have to click on the bell next to the ‘Post Comment’ button. Then I get an emailed alert of a reply which goes straight into my spam folder, every time, and I can’t stop it. However, I’d rather not have a succession of emails clogging up my inbox anyway.
Nick
Yes, I miss the bell feature and as you say the comments at wuwt no longer show up on other sites
Tonyb
It is revealing in a good way that you care enough to keep asking open ended questions about the quality of your blog.
Thank you and keep up the excellent work.
The website migration is great.
By in large, I regard the new platform to be excellent. One minor complaint is the tips and notes area. You get to submit a tip, and that is fine, but seeing what other folks may have said is no longer with us. There were some things that were previously put there that were not perhaps worthy of being an article by themselves, but which were interesting to investigate. If this is a bit unique to me, it may be because of some script blocking or ip blocking I have in place. Please let me know if so.
Overall, great. Much better than previous.
Being able to see other tips would also mean not duplicating them and therefore making more work for Anthony.
When I subscribed to receive the follow up comments in the old setting, in the message I received that there was a new comment, I used to get first the name of the one who was commenting and (if I remember well) a part of his comment. That message gave me some valuable information. In the new concept I get the following information in my mailbox: “Hi, new reply on the discussion section you’ve been interested in”.
That information is not interesting at all. I want to know: which person (on which thread) wanted to tell me ‘what’. So I think there is some improvement possible for the information message we get in our mailbox. Some messages (pro and contra) are more interesting than others.
(And thanks, Anthony, for trying to improve your website over and over again!)
After reading the article, I then read the comments. If I then want to make a comment, I have to scroll all the way to the top of Leave a Reply (S/B Leave a Comment?). What about a comment area at bottom of last comment?
For news: I would like to see monthly updates on court case status of Dr. Ball, Mark Steyn, etc. I know the terribles like Mann are purposely using every legal maneuver to delay trial not going forward to bleed the opponents, but these are very important items.
If I remember correctly, Anthony had said that moving “Leave a Reply” from the top to the bottom is not in his control.
I also would like to have more legal updates but I understand that the legal system is slow so there may not be anything new to “update”.
(But, if not a legal “update”, the welfare of the victims would be nice.)
” If I then want to make a comment, I have to scroll all the way to the top of Leave a Reply (S/B Leave a Comment?). What about a comment area at bottom of last comment?”
Just hit ctrl-home and you’ll jump to the top of the page. Then just scroll down a bit to the comment. But I do agree that having one at top and bottom would be nice.
Mark Steyn has an update on his 1st lawsuit win by CRTV (Kratz) – a nice read. He is being sued again by Kratz for 20 Mill.
https://www.steynonline.com/8711/a-note-to-my-readers
Oh, after posting my comment, the url link appears in a real pretty blue.
Your comment page is over run with trolls! A first class website shouldn’t have a third rate comment page. (it oft feels as though one is stuck in the remedial class with the sweat-hogs here… ☺️) The new new watts up with that deserves a quality comment page to compliment this quality blog. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade moderation standards, too…
(consult with dr curry)…
No, I disagree. If someone is really out of line there are people here who will say so. There are a wide variety of readers here; not everyone has a PhD and sometimes it’s good to slow down and explain the basics. I appreciate this; I’m not a scientist. I’m here to learn, mostly, and sometimes to put in my two cents.
I agree with censoring insulting comments or bad actors. I don’t agree with censoring ideas or questions or concerns or disagreements. I think the denizens here do a pretty fair job of policing the site and calling out bad actors.
One of the outstanding features of this site is its tolerance, which I know some will argue only goes so far, but as far as it goes, it should not retreat.
Don, if memory serves me, you had a very ugly go round with Monfort over at Climate, etc*. You were a model of civility and he was a classless piece of [snip]. That is NOT something that you should ever have to put up with. Here it happens so often that there are people who don’t even care to show up here. Is this anyway for a comment page of a blog of this caliber to be run? Heck, there is at least one contributor who no longer posts because of the nasty tone of the comment section. Think of all the quality people who may not be posting or commenting simply because the comment page here is such a mess. That may have been o.k. when wuwt was in its infancy. But, i think it’s time now that the quality of commentary matches the quality of this wonderful blog…
*Dr Curry moderates her blog beautifully. Any comments laced with ad homs disappear without a trace. Her problem is that she doesn’t have the time of day to moderate her blog as she sees fit, it’s such a tall task. And the Monforts take advantage of that. (heck, she won’t even let me call mosher “sloppy steve”!) The end result, even still, is a coment page that’s far less acrimonious than here. Ultimately, better moderation will attract much more quality commentary. WUWT deserves that…
Piltdown Mann?
fonzie, I see your point. I think the personal insults here sometimes go too far. As far as the Monforts go, I’d rather hear what they say and deal with it than have people like him censored.
What I’ve found here is that some ideas are attacked and some ideas are supported, and it gets to be a bandwagon effect without a serious consideration of the underlying logic and facts. Sometimes ideas and paradigms are just certain ways of looking at things that seem so right and true, but if we shift our perception just a little bit, as in autostereograms, we begin to see that what we thought made no sense at all makes perfect sense.
The famous line from the Beatles is true: “Got to be good looking ’cause it’s so hard to see.” Sometimes we go off on our assumptions and build large edifices out of them without looking closely at the underlying premises; mainstream climate science is a great example of that, but the stubborn adherence to assumptions (which we suppose to be irrefutable facts!) happens at WUWT, too. Maybe this is why some people avoid the site, or at least commenting on it.
This IS a first class website.
One of the things that has made it a first class website is its tolerance of opposing views.
Stay within site policy (and on topic), and your view can be heard.
Sure, some abuse the system but habitual abusers seem to be spotted and eventually dealt with by the ModSquad.
The on-topic part is the problem. So many reply threads go off the rails quickly. But the worse ones are the top level comments that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Often the person will say “Sorry for the OT, but…” No, you’re not sorry or you wouldn’t do it. Those comments absolutely need to be deleted by mods as soon as they’re seen.
I’m OK with off topic. A lot can be learned off topic. I’m happy to let the mods decide when commenters have wandered too far astray.
You talk like you have a choice.
Felix
I’m with you on the subject of off topic.
Gunga, how many have come in here lacing their comments with the D-WORD lately? A lot and there’s no reason for that. If nick stokes can behave, then there’s no reason that others can’t behave in like manner. Strict moderation will produce good behavior which in turn will improve overall commentary. Once folks are trained, it becomes the norm. (as is, it ain’t happening)…
I suspect the new system isn’t just new to us but also to the Mods.
I also suspect that Anthony is also trying out new things to make it easier on the Mods.
I don’t think by “strict moderation” you meant censorship of ideas but rather the “tone” of a comment?
I think the commenters (us), the Mods and Anthony just need more time to learn and adjust.
I’ll repeat what I said above.
… just don’t be too addled by libations …
What’s wrong with liberation?
Oh . Sorry.
You said “liberanations”.
Miy Mishtake.
Gunga Din
Agree with you on all points. I think we’re all big enough and ugly enough to deal with the trolls.
What I have noticed, which is a big up for the Mod’s, is that comments dropping into moderation are now out in double quick time.
Scot, i think your missing the point… With a blog this professionally done, people shouldn’t have to be dealing with trolls. It’s inconsistent with a quality blog to have to have a less than quality comment page. You’ve been over to Curry’s. When she’s up to the task of moderating her blog in her way, you’ve really got to be on your toes! And the commenting experience is all the better for it. The level of commentary there is consistent with the quality of her blog (even though she only moderates it sporadically). So, it’s not as though what i’m suggesting can’t be done. And here at wuwt it really ought to be done. Not only would the initial improvement be a plus, but over time more ‘quality people’ would be attracted to the comment section than otherwise would be…
fonzie,
Totally appreciate your comments. When I spoke with Judith about this last week, she actually admitted that she only reads the top xx number of posts, and if she doesn’t like the tone (or whatever) just kills them. We also discussed how we do it here, with mods and etc. I would offer that here we have the challenge of a much higher volume, as well as a fairly diverse crowd. Anthony does provide guidance to the mods, though, and whereas I can’t speak for the others, I usually try to take a light hand in my approach.
There have certainly been conversations that I wished were more civil, and I know we’ve lost some commenters due to general incivility. Again, I find it tough to know exactly where to draw the line, and in general, try to salvage comments rather than simply trash them.
It is good to have this feedback, though. And I sincerely appreciate it. It’s useful to know how I need to improve…
With gratitude,
rip
Not comfortable with snipping off-topic posts. These should be pointed out and people should be directed back to the original post; however, sometimes off-topic isn’t so off-topic after all, and sometimes the ideas are interesting.
Moderating of ad-hominem comments and insults: yes. I’m OK with snipping these so long as the writer understands that the comments must be civil, and then they’ll be posted. Moderating of ideas and disagreements: no.
I have to say that whenever a new essay is posted, I generally find the comments more interesting than the essay. It’s interesting to see what people are thinking and how they react to the essay. Even rude comments say a lot about the commentator.
I have had to delete a few comments because they go waaay off topic AND violate the Policy as well. That is a double problem that Mods have no problem deleting.
I have approved many comments I don’t agree with, usually check to see why it is in the Mod bin first, before approving.
Sometimes I UNapprove comments because the person that has posted them are in trolling/heckling behavior. One who did that was put in Moderation because I had WARNED him several times, he has not posted here since.
Sometimes the Mods will leave what is an unapproved comment through with a note from the Mod saying why such will not be approved again.
That shouldn’t be done all the time but, when it has been done, it helps the rest of us “get back on the rails” and/or recognize just what crosses that sometimes-fuzzy-line.
“Not comfortable with snipping off-topic posts. These should be pointed out and people should be directed back to the original post; however, sometimes off-topic isn’t so off-topic after all, and sometimes the ideas are interesting.”
Off topic usually means there isn’t an original post. People just jump in and post something totally unrelated to the head post.
And if it’s “not so off-topic”, then it wouldn’t need to be snipped, would it.
There have been plenty of mildly off topic comments being allowed because they still have a connection to the main topic.
With a few exceptions, i.e.Griff in all his guises,isn’t there a thin line between uneducated readers and trolls?
Nick Stokes “behaves”, but many of the people who reply to him do not.
All right, which of you NERDS didn’t like my comment? (come on, fess up… ☺️)
[The mods note that it’s becoming a full time job keeping your post down voted to negative, and would appreciate it if people would stop upvoting it already… 🙂 -mod]
Wasn’t yours truly!
Maybe a Mod or Anthony?
Probably not.
No violation of policy!
(Sorry for the OT. 8- )
Yeah, Gunga, that’s funny (i can just see anthony voting down my comment)….
Really? Why do you think such? C”mon Fonz!
(WHOA!)…
Blog/Forum Moderators have to support the POLICY as set fourth by the blog/forum owner, which are quite specific in things, but all Mods sometimes have to interpret some comments that are in the “grey” area that requires snipping to make it approvable or if too much snipping is needed will get deleted.
People who comment here are the first line in moderation, by adhering to the policy guidelines, they will be ignored by moderators like me. If everyone can adhere to the posted policy, then the Mod team can sit back drinking hard lemonaide with a smile.
Oh, so you’re the one drinking all of them! I’m going to have to tell Anthony to put a lock on the fridge…
rip
My primary browsing computer refused to lose the wordpress link no matter what I did. Finally, while on a different computer, I set a bookmark on the Chrome bookmark bar to the new url. Once I got back to my home machine, the bookmarked allowed me to pull up your new website. In the meantime, I have been an infrequent visitor, so I cannot comment on how things are working.
Feels smoother and has cleaner look.
I like the change.
It would be nice to have a “Killer Blow” Posted.
Any such post I have seen is too long and complex.
Maybe a new section or Reference Page where those with the “know” could agree on the top 3 or 5 “killers” to the CO2 alarmist demonization.
We punters could use that to encourage “believers” to look deeper and get some knowledge.
I have been reading WUWT posts for 5 years.
Love the openness of your blog.
A minor quibble (or perhaps it’s just a housekeeping problem). In the sidebar where bookmarks resides you used to have the categories listed as Humor, Political , Lukewarmer, etc. Is there any chance those category listings could return?
The comment on “Skeptical Science” has also disappeared. To the new person, that makes it look as though it has the same value as the Doctors Curry, Pielke, Spencer, etc.
Pravda sites really do need to be marked appropriately (linked to, yes – but with the Rod Serling warning that you are now entering the Twilight Zone…).
A more relevant issue is that a lot on the blogroll are defunct. Niche Modelling, Planet Gore are dead links. Autonomous mind has a 2014 post “That’s all folks”. ClimateDebateDaily has a 2016 closedown notice. Climate realists has a 2013 closedown. Etc.
The full category list and links to each article each category is in my Guide to WUWT. The category page is https://werme.bizland.com/werme/wuwt/categories.html
Folks, don’t overlook Ric’s link!!!
Very impressive resource, Ric! I’ve added a link to it on my page.
agreed, it is a very fine resource.
Oh, it’s still there (or recently restored). Look for
June 2018
…calendar…
Archives
Categories
Recent Comments
Your Guide, along with Archives and Categories, should be up near the top, just under Search, with which they are akin. There, site rookies, including MSM journalists and warmists, could immediately navigate to locate material they were researching.
I really like the website. One thing you can look into: I get two emails for every new post that is sent out. When you get a chance maybe you check your email database and remove duplicates. Thanks
An “upgrade” in every sense of the word. No problems noted other than change over glitches.
Regarding content:
I note a systemic problem with missing URL / links. This occurs with a significant number of posts from you as well as from other authors.
For instance. This post does not give the URL to press release for the paper.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/20/claim-new-model-for-gauging-ice-sheet-movement-may-improve-sea-level-rise-predictions/
———————————————-
2. I appreciate getting a heads-up about a new paper. However …
But once I’ve seen a summary I want to read the original press release or paper. ( see comment about missing URLS above.)
What I want/crave is more intelligent commentary / “peer review” / critique.
I always appreciate those who try to “translate” the science lingo for those of us with a general science background. Which given the multi-disciplinary nature of climate science is nearly everyone.
If the post basically quotes from the press release or papers’s abstract then do we assume that the poster agrees with the statements quoted?
??? The paper in question is linked in that article. Of course, you cannot view anything more than the abstract unless you are an AAAS member, or have your VISA handy. (The journal Nazis tend to come after you hard even for limited “fair use” quotations from the actual paper. They have more money and infinite patience, so this is not a good idea.)
Myself, I do on occasion plump for the full paper that is linked in WUWT. Admittedly, usually for a space sciences one – such as the “life-bearing moons of giant planets” one the other day. That’s all that I can justify to myself, as climate “science” is only a sideline to where I am doing research for writing in the area of extrasolar planetary science and terraforming. There are plenty of people here with a much better ability to either debunk or support these papers, in any case (although I do add the occasional snark when I see something entirely idiotic – such as in the post in question, where the “scientists” are substituting one parameter that they do not measure for another parameter that they do not measure, and call it “better” for modeling).
Works great for me…and I like it all!!
C’mon Lat! Ask for more! 😉
Anthony,
Good job. The site works fine for me and as far as content goes, if it’s not something in which I am interested, I simply don’t spend much time on it but figure someone else might have an interest in that item. Really enjoy hard sciences articles and real discoveries in particular.
Thanks for all you do.
JimG1
I even enjoy some of the- um – less clever articles about new batteries, new power sources that Anthony posts for yuks. In case it comes up in external conversations, I like to know what is trending, if only for 15 minutes. It is good for a laugh at the least. I enjoy seeing comments to such articles here – especially those outside my area of knowledge, to see if the writers really know what they’re talking about.
Keep it climate centered, but bring in any interesting big science news. Or even just oil production news like Middleton (IIRC) provides. Then again, that latter is strongly related to Climate “Science”, as many support it because they think we’re running out of oil in the next few years – or used to.
One thing I’like to see with regards to replies, a small indicator of the person the reply was directed towards. Often people don’t add that information in their reply, and 20 replies down, you have no idea who they’re replying to. But with a little arrow or something with the name the reply is to, would be very helpful.
Jeff: one way to take care of that situation is to start your reply thusly: “@Jeff 6/20/18 6:27pm”
Jeff Alberts wrote, “I’d like to see… a small indicator of the person the reply was directed towards.”
I often manually add a link back to the comment to which I am replying, typically on the word “wrote.”
It would be nice to have a button or something, to automatically such a link to the comment that I’m composing. But I’ve gotten used to doing it manually, and it only takes a minute or so, if that.
It helps that I have Ditto Clipboard Manager installed, so that I can copy/paste the URL without wiping out what was already in the Windows clipboard.
(BTW, if there’s a Windows user reading this who is not already using Ditto, then STOP whatever you are doing, RIGHT NOW, and install it. Thank me later.)
Does anyone know if there’s a Mac equivalent to Ditto Clipboard Manager?
I usually include a quote from the comment I’m responding to, which can be even more helpful in providing context (no need to look back to read what commenter X was saying). (This practice should be done for all responses, not just to ones by Willis.)
The first level of indentation is needlessly too far to the right.
← I agree.
Concur.
Maybe not fixable.
Anthony – great job! One of my favorite sites.
I REALLY appreciate skeptical commentary on articles or papers of the day – and the folks who drive the assault on reason. ‘From the … you can’t make this stuff up Department’ kind-of-thing. Don’t lose this – it helps keep me informed and aware.
I would like to more see informed commentary on the Models. I can’t quite understand how there haven’t been a crop of models that have been developed that test / use skeptics’ parameters – if not just a way to fend us off. Show us why a lower sensitivity wouldn’t work. Maybe there is but I haven’t seen it.
And because there is such a great body of work on this blog – is there a way (at the start page, in the main menu) to hunt for earlier posts keyed to Titles, Authors and Keywords?
Many thanks, kudos and Boiler Up!
No problems now, thank you! I can even get it on this tablet using Firefox!
Just one thing, not to do with WUWT directly. Since the changeover I keep getting a number of ‘Recommendeds’ which drive me nuts with their flashing lights and rapidly changing pics; not good for epileptics apart from anything else. I can’t see a way of getting rid of them other than what I do atm by expanding the screen text. Is there anyone out there who can give me any hints on how to avoid this nuisance? I tend to put up with most ads in favour of, maybe, giving Anthony some ad income. The same stuff comes up whichever browser I use. The flashing stuff is all the more annoying because I am not remotely interested in the subject matter.
I want to say thank you for something else…. hanging in there. Now that climate science is settled (just kidding) and boring (it never gets settled), most of the old good sites are gone (or are in hibernation).
Somebody needs to do the work WUWT is doing (and the journals are not doing).
So thank you, congratulations, and keep up the good work!
I’m not sure why Mr. Watts no longer allows me to use my own name as the commenter and ha replaced my name in all comments I made throughout the years. “Joe Born” is what I put in the dialog box, but he insists on replacing it with “jhborn.”
Not good.
I don’t know what’s behind that, but I’m sure it’s all WordPress “magic” behind the scene. I expect it has something to do a long forgetten account or something at WordPress.
I already checked on a WordPress forum. They say they have no control over this site. And my WordPress display name is Joe Born. It works on Judith Curry’s site.
Judith Curry runs on wordpress.com I run on Pressable.com, a WordPress subsidiary. You hat have created and forgotten about an account you created for some other website hosted on pressable.com
I’ve done nothing specific to you or your name, it has something to do with your logged on identity. See what Ric Werme said. I have no control over this and it’s related to an account you own, not me.
An update on my Guide to WUWT:
The changeover means that posts have new “IDs”. I use them as the key reference point to a post, and instead of trying to deal with updating them, I created a new database. I also had to change some of my Python code for scraping the pages, and the older posts don’t have comment counts on them. Ah, it looks like when the comment period expires (in two weeks), the comment entry area and the counts disappear.
I have code that counts the comments in a page, but it needs work to scrape the whole page instead of the first 50 or so. I do have good counts for older pages, I may copy those over some day or rescrape those years if I figure out how to read the whole page.
All that’s on “Ric Werme’s Guide to WUWT” at https://werme.bizland.com/werme/wuwt/index.html , see the icon on the right side nav bar.
I have not done much on the HTML guide and other static information on that page or at WUWT test page, I hope to get to that fairly soon. I’ll delete most of the old posts on the test page first. That’s at https://wattsupwiththat.com/test-2/ , see “Test” on the top nav bar.
Thanks for what you do.
The only problem I experience from time to time is that the site hangs and I get the prompt telling me that wattsupwiththat.com is not responding due to long-running script … and I’m offered a button to stop script; it might even happen two or three times on one post. My guess is that there may be ads running or videos loading that causes this.
Just a note to say that the problem with the address in FIREFOX has disappeared, so I can again make the site my homepage. Reading the titles helps me keep up with the thirty years war 🙂
I see a new title for a post here. 🙂
[Edit] Oh wait, Willis already did, I even had it in a different tab…. Yay for edit.
All very good; thank you Anthony for your efforts
I used to read WUWT on Flipboard. Can’t find it there now. So I read on Feedly instead.
Very good. I made half a dozen comments since, although all got the positive score, I think the scoring is a bit of a distraction.
I just down voted you.
Cause I could. Not that you deserved it one bit!
Apparently Dr S didn’t read his comment.
I would love to see an RSS feed
We’ve had one for years, address is in the lower right of the sidebar under “Meta”
Had problems with my I phone ? a 6 with WUWT site. Could not get the list of other sites as each time scrolled down to it got older WUWT stories instead. OK on computer though.
Only you can help yourself there…
No technical problems, saving grey text visibility. The ability to edit the typos after posting is a great improvement, the limitation on that not (no second chance/time limited?). Miss the comment list on the RHS that WordPress had (too much detritus to check email notifications of all replies. but facility is still there on WordPress native server account. But details compared to the value of the well studied occasional gems of insight from people with facts and a scientific and engineering discipline amongst the opinions.
Agree on too light text colour.
My first site to visit each morning. I really appreciate the wide variety and quality of articles, and which are easily digestible and enlightening, as are most of the comments.
The occasional ad-homs seem to be put in their place very quickly by other commentators.
The edit function has occasionally not appeared, usually when I realize that I have spelled some word incorrectly, or phrased a comment badly.
I would like the comment section to be in the same font as the main article.
Anyway, thanks to you all for such an important website, Anthony and moderators, and please keep going!
I welcome the changes you have made and appreciate all the efforts made to achieve them.
I particularly like the fact that on refresh new comments in a thread are highlighted in yellow, so it is easy scroll down a long thread and find these new additions (taking care not to touch them, as the yellow highlight then turns off).
The editing function is very good, however I posted a comment with 4 links and found that it went into immediate adjudication with no option to edit.
I hope that you will look again at the voting scheme you have adopted. If a contentious comment receives as many positive votes as negative ones then the sum total is zero. I would prefer to see both positive and negative votes recorded (as Jo Nova does), rather than just the sum of all votes cast.
“I particularly like the fact that on refresh new comments in a thread are highlighted in yellow, so it is easy scroll down a long thread and find these new additions (taking care not to touch them, as the yellow highlight then turns off).”
Yes, the highlighting of the new comments makes it so much easier to find the new comments in threads. Very much appreciated.
+++++ many ! I like to see the whole score also .
“I particularly like the fact that on refresh new comments in a thread are highlighted in yellow, so it is easy scroll down a long thread and find these new additions (taking care not to touch them, as the yellow highlight then turns off).”
This yellow-flagging isn’t happening on my new-ish Mac with Safari 11.1.
Seriously this is a huge improvement.
Outstanding niggles:
I cant seem to post videos
The style sheet needs work. Colors and fonts sizes are pretty rubbish.
I’m disappointed I can’t just copy an image I have say in a file as .jpg or .png and then paste into my comment. Chasing the url etc. is a bit beyond me.
Also I would like to be able to copy a section from someones’s comment and paste into mine for subject reference. Repeating it by hand is a bit of a pain.
Otherwise am happy with the migration and extremely grateful to one and all who have given me such interest, tickled my little grey cells and given me the opportunity to put in my meagre influence.
Particularly Anthony who has made this all possible.
Regards to all
Alasdair
There’s no forum I know of of where you can just copy and paste an image.
I vote up^2.
In general, I think the new site is great. Two problems I suspect may be due to my ancient browser (Opera 12.6) and feeble PC (Via C3 CPU) Or perhaps to what I perceive as the Internet’s slow descent into chaos.
1. The text editor is very slow. Backspace, right and left arrow are painfully slow. Not a problem on other sites or with the old editor.
2. Clicking Reply doesn’t often work. The button highlights when the mouse is positioned over it, but clicking it – quickly, slowly, double-clicking … whatever … is usually ignored. OTOH The Edit button seems to work fine.
If it’s just me, that’s fine. I can always try a different browser. I’ll try that later today. But if the problems affect others, then I guess they probably need to be looked into.
OK, I’m trying Firefox now. The Reply button worked OK (Sample size one). Editing is better than it was with Opera. Still clunky, but definitely better.
You make the best argument for getting a computer upgrade ever written in comments here.
Don, I am very confident it is your computer that is the problem:
“Two problems I suspect may be due to my ancient browser (Opera 12.6) and feeble PC (Via C3 CPU) Or perhaps to what I perceive as the Internet’s slow descent into chaos. ”
Consider getting a new one, you will be amazed at the change.
As with any new system it just takes a while to get used to it. I think most of us have now made the adjustments. You train us well Obi-Wan.
Don’t like having to click through to read the whole story in wordpress
Gosh I’m so sorry for that terrible inconvenience. But, that’s the way it is.
Comment sort should default to NEWEST.
Site shouldn’t refresh EVER unless I specifically tell it to. The site just refreshed in the middle of me making a BRILLIANT point about the ice sheet research. Now I have to try and replicated that fleeting thought.
HI Anthony,
Most of my concerns posted here and on nearby threads seem better now.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/open-thread-trying-out-a-new-comment-system/#comment-2370390
I still cannot seem to post images – just the url’s.
It is unfortunate that the old wattsup url’s no longer work – but at least one can find the article and search for the post.
“All-in-all, it’s kinda sorta OK I guess – he said grudgingly.”
Image test:
http://www.woodpilereport.com/photos/Willem-Claesz-Still-Life-16.jpg
you have to use https, unfortunately not all websites support it.
Why cannot I not see any entries on Tips and Notes?
Because there are none. They go to email now.
Well, let’s see if image link works in the top level: http://www.woodpilereport.com/photos/Willem-Claesz-Still-Life-16.jpg
By the way, the pages load a lot quicker now than they did before. So far, I like the new way things work better.
Let’s try the img tag:
Let’s try an image tag with an https address instead of http:
and without the img tag:
I do miss Jerry Pournelle’s writings.
So that’s it. You have to have an https address.
Glad I don’t have to log into WordPress any more to leave a comment.
I find the comments posting a bit sticky and slow for me, but it may just be my 13-year-old computer and its sometimes slow browser. (In your face, MSFT, you mad a hash out of my e-mail.) Yes, I do have to gt a new computer some day, but I’m no longer impressed by Microsoft’s self-aggrandizement.
Otherwise, not a lot of difference, just the stickiness, which may be at my end.
Anthony — Overall very successful. I have experienced professional (IBM) migrations that went much much worse.
It would be useful to have a volunteer re-do the TEST page apply to the new system — how to put in links, images, which HTML tags are allowed.
I really miss CA Assistant functionality — it still works on Climate Etc. (something in the programming of the new site foils CA Asst). Don’t know if there is a plug-in from WP that would apply).
I don’t think that the formatting problems with older pages are worth bothering about….although some inadvertent changes have taken place.
As a regular reader and one who sometimes posts a comment, I do like the new format. It is clean and the comment section is easier to follow a discussion string. I really appreciate the hard work put into this site and all the information I shared by contributors. I have learned a lot and I view it as part of my life long learning. Keep up the great work.
Pros
* Reading articles and comment – Very good.
* Comment input at top of comment thread – Excellent and very convenient.
* Ability to edit comments after submission – Excellent
* Far fewer of my posts have disappeared into WordPress’s black holes – Excellent!
* “Tips and Notes” works far better with minimal crashing! – Excellent!
Cons
* WordPress no longer notifies commenters of responses or likes.
* My “Like” button has been broken since last Friday, around June 15th-16th.
* Submission of comments is not immediately reflected in the comment thread. I’ve had a couple of comments that did not show up till well past the 5 minute editing time frame expired. – Very frustrating!
* * Yes, this is in spite of refreshing frequently. Please consider extending the “Edit comment” time frame!!?
* When submitting “Tips and Notes” it is unsettling to see personal information in a post that used to be very public.
* A functional WordPress code list would be beneficial. It does not need to be interactive. Yes, Ric Werme’s list is excellent, but unfortunately minimal.
I haven’t been tracking positives or negatives, so this is off the cuff.
First time using the site on my lPhone. It works great
It’s like getting a new vehicle, just have to get use to it.
I rarely comment but read here almost daily.
Would like to see more of anything related to our solar system and earth sciences, esp in the historic sense.
I can’t speak to what not to put as science and curiosity go hand and hand.
The only thing for me, and it’s a tiny thing & may even be just on my end, but in the bookmarks – many sites come with their site’s logo or image with the link & in firefox they put a default one in if there’s none; but now WUWT’s logo/image is blank on my book mark menu and no default one is used – just blank.
I don’t know the technical term for that image or how to restore it. I have made another bookmark to see if that might solve – but no luck.
Just a minor thing no big deal
So congrats Anthony – considering the size of this site I think it went pretty well.
Where is weather picture of the day?
For those having issues posting images, you can upload to https://imageshack.com/ and then paste the URL here. Accounts are free or you could use JShot (https://jshot.en.uptodown.com/windows) which will do the ImageShack upload automagically (in this case you have to add the s to the http…).
I like not having to log into another wordpress site in order to make a comment here.
I’d like to see more of rgbatduke.
I like the comment editing feature a lot!!! I wish editing weren’t disabled for comments that go into moderation, and for comments that are flagged as possible spam.
I also wish that comments flagged as possible spam were just kicked into moderation, instead of vanishing completely, with no warning message.
Being in the web business myself, you’ve done a good job. Technology is ever changing, often for no particular reason, so be pleased this project has turned out so well.
I’m a money scientist (accountant and programmer), so if it doesn’t add up then it doesn’t add up and no amount of lipstick will make it so. This site, and and those commenting, are a breath of fresh air. Keep up the good work.
How would you know?
I see many comments in the Mod bin every day, some are obvious spamming, those are immediately deleted.
WUWT was the best climate science website in the world.
.
WUWT is still the best climate science website in the world.
.
Considering the fact that “modern climate science” is
partly based on bogus claims of 97% consensus …
.
I wonder if the Like / Don’t Like voting option
is of value, or could even be counterproductive:
Does a science website
really need a popularity contest
for the comments, and does that
popularity contest create an incentive
to say what others want to hear?
.
Also, the edit feature should automatically
correct my spelling and grammar,
and rewrite my comments
so they make sense.
Working well now — texts are better sizes and figured out how to work things, etc. Already used the edit feature a number of times. 🙂
I do get a little frustrated by one change. When I click on Reply, the cursor does not start in the comment box. It appears to search down stream for matches to what I type in. I notice my error when the page starts jumping all over the place.
Still wouldn’t trade the new website for the last. I’ve learned to love it. Just little nits here and there – most of which have been fixed.
Previously when I accessed your page I world get security warnings from both Windows or Linux. Now I don’t, so that’s a good thing.
Those were due to links to my domain, which doesn’t have a https certificate being redirected to the real web host, which does, but only works with a URL for them. Or something like them. It seems to be under control.
One thing I’ve noticed is that if “most voted” is clicked at the top, individual replies don’t seem to be included. Just the original comments.
Not a criticism or complaint. Just an observation.
(Likely something “built into” the new system.)
When I “select” a whole comment with my mouse, starting from the end and ending with the author’s name, the “highlighted” portion extends up beyond that name, which is disconcerting. But the copying operation works correctly.
Something about the new format prevents it from loading properly at work now taking away my normal lunch time routine.
Can you describe the problem in better detail?
Clever how the EU cookie message sets a “cookie_notice_accepted” cookie. I look forward to answering the dialog again when it expires next year. What will you say when the fabled Brexit occurs? “Take our blasted bickies and slap ’em down yer yap?”
I wish there were a way to click on a name, or at least one’s own name, and scroll through past comments.
I do not see the value in the disruption. The comment formatting looks fine, though.
Would like to see fewer posts starting with “claim” or “paper” or “study”; maybe “Phred Djones claimed…” or “Henrik van der Whatzis et al. concluded…”
Most web site/page changes do more harm than good, so you are running way ahead of the pack.
Good .
I find that (on a computer), if I reply to a comment, my “name” and “e-mail” don’t stick – I have to re-enter them several times (should be “remembered “ after the first comment like it used to be. (I use Firefox if that’s important).
If I enter my OWN comment first, THEN it “sticks the first time.
I take that back- it doesn’t stick either way.
Is there really any correlation between number of links and whether comments are spam? How about ditching the four-links trigger which sends comments into the moderation queue? Please?