TCR is Back on the Air

Well I'm sure there are some bugs, but as far as I can tell everything is functioning with one minor exception. That being under the "Our Writers" drop-down menu, the links for Arizona Phil's latest (also under AZ Phil's Corner), Cubnut's latest, Dr. Hecht's latest, etc currently aren't working. Some of the code is clashing with some other code and now they're waiting for the other to apologize. I should be able to fix it down the road, but it's not particulalry vital either for the site...at least not for the moment.

As for the upgrade, most of the new bells and whistles are behind-the-scenes, but they will appear around the site as the offseason progresses. The one change you will notice is in the comments. We've added something called AJAX comments, which is basically some cool javascript code that will now post your comments without having to refresh the whole page (although it doesn't seem to work for the first comment of a post if you click "Add New Comment"...shrug). That should save on some load times for everyone. You still need to refresh the article or go to the front page to see if anyone else has posted new comments, but all your postings will load right up at about half the time. So let's say you visit the site and there are a bunch of new comments and you want to reply to a couple of them. You can do that without having to refresh the page three times and losing your place. The one little bug in that is that the comment subjects get erased after the first reply, so if you guys can stay on top of filling that in I'd appreciate it. It's always better for other users using the flat view if you type in a unique comment subject anyway.

Anyway test some things out and let me know if you come across any bugs.

UPDATE: Also, the ability to add signatures to your comments has disappeared. This wasn't a decision on my part, rather the developer that created that functionality didn't update it for this version of the software. If I can find a suitable replacement, I'll install it.

UPDATE #2: One feature that was requested awhile back was a Return to Homepage link at the bottom of the comments so you don't have to scroll all the way back up. It's there now.

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Site news
Submitted by Rob G. on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 7:28pm
Return to Homepage

Comments

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 7:45pm

first.

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 7:59pm

lulz...also the "save" button might need to be renamed "post"

also, the Drupal logo is the site's "bookmark logo" (upper left corner of browser bar).

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 9:18pm

Picky, picky, picky.

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 9:24pm

free qa is free. hehe.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 8:16pm

The font is different.

Meh.

Hope all are having a nice halladay weekend.

Submitted by jacos
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 8:38pm

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do....

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 9:04pm

Where's the nudity?

Submitted by 10man
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 10:27pm

where's the profanity?

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 11:15pm

Yeah, where's the fuckin boobs and shit?

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 11:16pm

Jokes and kidding aside, Rob, the work is always appreciated man.

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 11:50pm

occasional TCR conversation piece and baseball (and other sports) sportswriter Mike Penner/Christine Daniels dead at age 52.

no cause of death released...believed, but very unconfirmed to be suicide.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 1:42am

When Grabow officially inked a two-year deal to serve as their primary southpaw bullpen guy recently, he admitted to the huge expectations that go along with playing for a big-market team that hasn’t won a World Series in 101 years. At least Grabow has his eyes wide open. The likes of Milton Bradley and Jacque Jones barreled in, grabbed the Cubs’ megabucks and then folded quickly upon the first setback with literally the whole world watching.

use the tag blockquote when quoting text.

Submitted by The Joe
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 2:19am

Neat.

Submitted by Cubster
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 2:44am

Not much news out there, saw this yahoo sports summary of the Cubs...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=teamrep...

Submitted by Jumbo
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:42am

Saw this interview with John Sickels. Pretty nice job of describing a philosophy about the ML system

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2009/11/20/116...

Submitted by Jumbo
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:44am

Thanks for the work you do here, Rob. The comment feature that you talked about is something that I had noticed. I was starting to get the shakes without this site

Submitted by artskoe
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:40am

Keep Milton! "Come, let us reason together..."

Submitted by The Joe
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 12:38pm

No signatures?! How will people know how awesome I am?

Submitted by Jumbo
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 2:03pm

Your awesomeness precedes you. It makes me want to change my name to "the jumbo"

Submitted by The Joe
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 3:35pm

As you should! Everyone needs a direct article.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:44pm

If I am only 'A Tony S.', what does that say about me??

Submitted by The Joe
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 9:08pm

You have the humility I need?

Actually, years back someone else started posting as "Joe" so I needed a way to distinguish.

Submitted by Cubster
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 1:09pm

Muskat tweets:

Jake Fox hit first HR in fourth game Sat with Licey in DR; is batting .333 so far. Some AL team should consider this kid for DH/OF

Submitted by Jumbo
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 2:36pm

I assume she is aware that Fox is still a Cub? If she is just a mouthpiece of the team that sure ain't a good sign for Fox being on the team next year. For all the teams problems I don't see why it's such a no-brainer to just get rid of Fox. I know Lou had him in the doghouse or was protecting his trade value from sliders or whatever but the guy is a cheap bat that can fill in for Aram or Soriano for league minimum. I think you hang on to that

Submitted by crunch
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 3:16pm

bobby scales disagrees.

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 8:04pm

Then how do you get the roster space for Aaron Miles?

Submitted by ruz
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 3:39pm

Thanks for all the hard work, Rob.

I caught the Sporcle bug from you so I whipped up this quiz:

http://www.sporcle.com/games/ruz/cubs3b

How many of the Cubs thirdbasemen between Santo and Ramirez can you name?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 5:19pm

32 of 97...brutal quiz.

Submitted by Jumbo
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:34pm

That is wicked
I only got 8
After the results were revealed I recognized about 10 more names. What a black hole.
I'll bet CF's of the last 10-20 years would be equally difficult

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:59pm

Ruz... Where the hell have you been young man?? =)

10... that's a bitch.

Submitted by ruz
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 8:38pm

I've been...around.

Some of those names are never going to be guessed by anyone, I'd imagine, but some of them sure do bring back memories.

There are quite a few Cubs quizzes up already, but I'll try to get some more up over the next few weeks.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 9:13pm

I may not be creative enough to make them, but they sure are fun.

And I just hope things are well.

Submitted by The Joe
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 3:53pm

Looks like the updates have attracted spammers. You're moving up!

Submitted by Cubster
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 4:18pm

CCO reports on Bruce Levine's saturday talking baseball show. Mostly no/old news on Hendry still working (seems more desperate now, but that's my read into it) on a Bradley deal and an interview with Samardzija after his Mexican league experience

http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2009/11...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:23pm

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/11/...

The White Sox and Cubs are among eight teams pursuing former Dodgers closer Takashi Saito, who had a 2.43 ERA in 56 games out of Boston's bullpen last season.

Submitted by crunch
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 7:42pm

make your own joke, but he was commonly known in LA/BOS as "sammy saito"

lulz.

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:35pm

Where's the Real Neal when we want some action?

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 9:37am

Waiting for some actual Cubs news to comment on. I wouldn't mind Sammy Saito. With an excellent manager like Lou in the fold, I am sure there wouldn't be any clubhouse distractions.

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:29pm

"Saito, 39, does make sense for both teams"

that's a blockquoter if ever.

Hey, I'm old as shit, but I don't make sense for any team at that mother fucking age.

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 8:38pm

Rob, I'll echo others and say, whew! Nice to have you back. I would recommend a new Drupal developer, however. There are ways to set up staging (test) environments without kissing away a lot of advertising, which you've worked hard to get. But I also understand budget constraints, so no big deal. I see you still have a Ford ad on the right rail, so I guess all is good.

Submitted by crunch
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 8:56pm

yeah, im sure the TCR corporate helicopter didn't go out to Martha's Vineyard this weekend.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 8:58pm

I suppose you mean the 3 day downtime...

but there was a test environment, just that with the holiday break it took a bit of coordination to make sure everything was up and running. Not a lot of visitors to lose over Thanksgiving break to be honest...

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 10:54pm

I was just playing. I know how hard this shit is, and I think, Mr. Rob, you are kicking some serious ass. If you had Ricketts money it wouldn't be much better cuz web dev is harder than most people think.

Submitted by 10man
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 10:18pm

I'm happy with the new updates. however, i have been noticing that as the number of those 3rd party boxes and stuff are growing on the main page, the time to load it up is also taking longer. too many thingamajigs and whatchamacallits. i'd consider removing those that aren't so critical.

and thanks for the return to homepage link. i've been lobbying for that for who knows how long.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 10:37pm

Most anything with a tab now will only load if you click on the tab which loads up the home page much quicker.

But most of the 3rd party boxes are ads and they're not going anywhere

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:11pm

So part of that is the upgrade. Rob has obviously upgraded to the new version of server software (called Drupal) and it is using a technology called AJAX. AJAX is this thing where when you type something in things change on the page. I'd get more detailed but, well, no point.

The other problem Rob is having is a part of his own success and I say let's be patient with that.

By that I mean, he's getting more ads. So the site is getting sluggish cuzza that.

The only real solution is to give Rob all your money, every penny, so he can Akaimize his ads.

My point is that the more Rob's site sucks, the more he needs the bucks. Maybe Bleeding Blue will stick a few bucks in to the cause.

Submitted by Ryno
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 9:12am

i have been noticing that as the number of those 3rd party boxes and stuff are growing on the main page, the time to load it up is also taking longer

The ads are fine. I would hope TCR would be somewhat profitable considering the quality unique content that is provided regarding medical issues, the farm system, and general baseball expertise.

My only objection to ads would be IF they were racy (thus far they've been acceptable). I'd hate to have improper images show up on this site while I'm at work. I'm in the midwest (NE Indiana... the very red part of Indiana), so it doesn't take much for an image to be considered improper around here.

Not like in California where I imagine you pass marijuana around the workplace and fornicate openly.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 10:01am

Not like in California where I imagine you pass marijuana around the workplace and fornicate openly.

We call that a Tuesday.

Submitted by Charlie
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 11:34am

Hey all--I'll be missing from TCR for a couple of days. I'm moving to California.

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:31pm

That's an upgrade. Nice going, Rob.

Submitted by Ryno
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 8:57am

Status of the parachat meatspin filter feature request?

Submitted by Cubster
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 10:08am

I'm in the midwest (NE Indiana... the very red part of Indiana)
We call that a Tuesday...
---
Isn't Tuesday Bowling shirt day?

Submitted by Sweet Lou
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 10:42am

What day isn't bowling shirt day?

Submitted by navigator
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 11:07am

MLB.com: This offseason, when do you start your workouts?

Fukudome: I will take two to three weeks off, and then start moving, like walking and more active things.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...

Submitted by jacos
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 11:44am

"I will take two to three weeks off, and then start moving, like walking and more active things."

That's my 81 year father's regimen after Thanksgiving.

Submitted by The Joe
on Tue, 12/01/2009 - 1:23am

That's awesome. He uses a Segway until then.

Submitted by hippolito
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 12:05pm

1. the guy can hit;
2. we need hits;
3. patience - it's bad karma to sign a headcase then abandon him because he's a headcase;
4. the law of averages is in our favor;
5. he'll bring more value in July.

Flame away, but the logic (other than the karma bit) is pretty solid.

Submitted by Ryno
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 9:48pm

FLAMES!

Trade Bradley!

Submitted by The Joe
on Tue, 12/01/2009 - 1:24am

I have a problem with #4...the Law of Averages does not apply to the Cubs.

Submitted by hippolito
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 12:14pm

Don't trade anybody or sign anyone new. We all know the 2009 roster badly underperformed expectations. We all know there's not enough money to make a bunch of high profile questionable FA signings this off-season. We all know we're back to building for the future and waiting for some long-term heavy contracts to expire. So let's field exactly the same team and see whether 2009 was a fluke. Fielding the exact same team will automatically lower expectations so any success will already exceed 2009. Really, if you think about it, it's what's best for Cubs fans. No more spring fever and delusions of grandeur. We'll start the season already waiting for next year. No disappointments unless they actually do better. And if they actually do better. . .

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 1:04pm

I vote that we sign a bunch of mid-30 guys with questionable makeup or injury questions and just backload the hell out of their contracts.

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