LGF Front Page > TagViewer (entries by tag)
A new addition to the site, although you wouldn’t know it unless you look at the source code: Mint, a nicely-designed site statistics package with a slick Ajax interface by Shaun Inman. Quickie review: very simple to install, and started working flawlessly right away with almost no perceptible impact on ...
Tech Note, LGF Blog Engine, Javascript, jQuery, Mint, Statistics, Ajax
In the latest tech note that will inevitably become an open thread, still more outdated code has been trimmed, modernized, and tightened up in the LGF Blog Engine templates. The comment entry form that registered users see is now table-free, using floated elements to create a table-like look for the ...
Tech Note, LGF Blog Engine, Javascript, jQuery, HTML, Comments, Optimization, CSS
Behind the scenes, the LGF Blog Engine code is being radically reworked, especially in pages with comments. By optimizing the HTML/Javascript/CSS design, we’ve managed to reduce the size (defined as the amount of HTML code it takes to render the comment in your browser) of each individual comment by about ...
Tech Note, LGF Blog Engine, Javascript, jQuery, HTML, Comments, Optimization
It’s time to reload the page, as we’ve made structural changes to the HTML and Javascript code to make comments pages significantly smaller and less complex, which should help keep the hamsters from going totally insane.
Tech Note, LGF Blog Engine, Javascript, jQuery, HTML, Comments
A very common complaint I receive about the comment rating system is that people accidentally hit the wrong button—resulting in a plus where they intended a minus, or vice versa. So now, after clicking the plus or minus button, the opposite button will still be active and clicking it will ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface, Comment Ratings
In our comment entry form, I’m trying out a new way of inserting the HTML tags for bold, italics, etc., based on a very nice plugin for the jQuery Javascript library titled markItUp. This plugin has several improvements over the code I was using, and is more cross-browser compatible, so ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface, MarkItUp
A technique I use at LGF to speed up the loading of Javascript files is to run them through a “minifier” script that removes spaces and extraneous formatting such as comments. Combined with server-side gzip compression, this produces the smallest possible download size. (There’s another technique for compressing Javascript called ...
LGF, Tech Note, jQuery, Javascript, Minify, Crockford, Linux, shell script
I received a couple of emails last night asking what happened to the lists of news sites and blogs that were in our right sidebar for years. They’re still here! Those sections have now been moved to the left sidebar, in that collection of “flippy triangle” menus. Just click the ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface, flippy triangles
The LGF interface cleanup continues; the “News/Opinion” and “Anti-Idiotarians” sections that used to be in our right sidebar have been moved to the left sidebar and set up as Flippy Triangle menus. (“Anti-Idiotarians” has been renamed to “Blogs.”) Both of these sections are dynamically refreshed via Ajax each time you ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface, flippy triangles
I’ve been using that Flippy Triangle technique to organize more of the stuff that used to be visible by default in our left sidebar, like the Statistics, the Tag Cloud, and the contact form. This user interface saves a lot of space; in fact, the sidebar looks almost naked with ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface, flippy triangles
You may have noticed that I've organized the stuff in our left sidebar with a series of "accordion" menus; some call this style the Flippy Triangle, since a little triangle indicates whether the menu is currently expanded or not, by ... flipping, believe it or not. Here's the technique I'm ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface, flippy triangles
You might have noticed that I’ve gotten rid of those pop-out menus in the left sidebar, and redesigned that section to use the same expandable “accordion” menus as the “LGF Headlines” and “Recent Comments.” Two benefits to this tweak: 1) It eliminates one jQuery plugin from our lineup of Javascript ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, User Interface
The LGF CommentSpy has been renamed simply “LGF Spy,” because its powers have been greatly expanded with little or no congressional oversight. In a nutshell, the LGF Spy now displays nearly every user-initiated action (comments, spinoff links, or ratings) that happens at LGF, in very close to real time. (Every ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, jQuery, Javascript, CommentSpy, LGF Spy
We’re unveiling a new feature for registered LGF users — the dreaded nefarious CommentSpy. The link shows up in your login panel at the top of the left sidebar. When you click that link, a new window opens displaying the most recent 10 comments posted in all front page articles ...
To make it more obvious which “pseudo-links” will cause some hidden content to slide into view, they’re now styled in green, with little “flippy triangles” to show that clicking them will display their associated content. Also, the “LGF Headlines,” “Recent Comments,” and “Top 10 Comments” all use a similar collapsible ...
In our left sidebar you will now discover a widget titled “Top 10 Comments.” When you click it, you’ll see the top-rated comments posted by LGF lizards during the last 24 hours. The list of top comments is produced with an Ajax call, so it updates each time it’s displayed. ...
Actually, they’re “regressions,” not “adjustments.” Versions 6 and 7 of Internet Explorer have bugs that prevent our new comment reporting and user profile features from working correctly; it appears that these versions of IE get very cranky if you try to create an IFRAME via Javascript that fills the entire ...
Internet Explorer, Javascript, BlockUI, jQuery, Report, Comments, Tech Note, LGF
As we continue to Ajaxify the LGF Blog Engine, the latest new feature is the user profile display, which appears when you click on a commenter’s personal icon. (Or if they haven’t uploaded a personal icon, the tiny green football.) Instead of opening a new window with the profile data, ...
LGF, Ajax, Javascript, Tech Note, jQuery, dialog box, Comments, profiles
To help us keep track of what’s going on in our comments, tonight we have some new features in our “report” function. The first thing you’ll notice is that there’s no longer a text link labeled “report” in the top line of each comment. Instead, there’s an icon that’s supposed ...
LGF, Tech Note, Comments, Report, jQuery, BlockUI, Javascript
Let’s check the PHP error log, shall we, and see what kind of spambots we’ve caught in our trap? When I installed our new spambot blocking code yesterday, I made sure to log all email script accesses that didn’t pass the token verification procedure. This lets me collect a list ...
LGF, Internet, Blogosphere, Technology, Spam, Bots, captcha, jQuery, Javascript, Security
Here’s an update to yesterday’s report on the spambot infestation at LGF, attacking our contact form and “email an article” form: both forms have been available and active since yesterday afternoon, and not one spam email has gotten through since I installed the token-based method (using the jQuery Javascript library) ...
LGF, Internet, Blogosphere, Technology, Spam, Bots, captcha, jQuery, Javascript, Security
Wee-oo wee-oo! Page reload alert! Wee-oo wee-oo! Yes, it’s time to reload the page again, as we install the fix for another annoying bug in our Ajax comments. To be completely sure you’re up to date, you may also want to clear your browser cache before hitting the refresh button. ...
LGF, Technical Info, Javascript, Ajax, jQuery, Comments, Metadata
If you’ve been plagued with a message about an “unresponsive script” when you load LGF, I’m happy to report that the problem is fixed. Non-techies may now proceed to the open thread ... For the techlizards amongst us, here’s the explanation, because it may help someone diagnose a similar problem. ...
LGF, Technical Info, Javascript, Ajax, jQuery, Events, window.unload
In the “Top Rated Links” area, you can now set how many links you want to display, from 5 to 25, in increments of 5. This value is saved in a cookie, along with the current category, the number of days, and the state of the link area (visible or ...
LGF, Technical Info, Javascript, Ajax, Spinoff Links, jQuery
One of the issues I considered when implementing the ‘Top-Rated Links’ feature was: how far back should the feature look? A day, two days, more? After some experimentation I settled on one day as a reasonable interval. But this meant that comment threads and conversations would disappear from the listings, ...
LGF, Technical Info, Javascript, Ajax, Spinoff Links, jQuery