We’re performing some long-needed maintenance on the site. If we did things right, you should not have noticed most of our work, but there will be a few user-visible changes.
First, you may have noticed that the site is much, much faster now than it was a few days ago. The (temporary) price of this has been the “Recent Comments” sidebar is now visible only on the front page. We will restore the sidebar when our new theme is complete.
Second, as implied above, we’re working on a new site theme. It should be much like the old on the surface. However, it will be much more maintainable, will feature better and more modern mobile support, and have (very) slightly updated aesthetics. It may also improve site performance even further, though things are quite snappy after our first round of changes.
Third, there has been a bit of site downtime in the last day, and will be a bit more in coming days as we complete our work. Downtime should never last more than ten to thirty minutes, so if the site is down, fret not, it will be back quickly.
But will there be hippo blogging?
Always…
Good. The Good Life needs Hippo Blogging. :>))
.
On a related note, I think I owe Hippo Leader an explanation.
A long time ago, I got it into my head that the Hippo Insignium, the Hippo Crossing sign, said “Evil Hippo,” wherefore I have made many references to our Evil Hippo Leader. While I daresay that our Hippo’s skin is fairly thick, and his sensayuma not entirely defunct, I have taken Remedial Reading lately and find that I must have read it wrong Lo! these 800 years or so ago. So if he has noticed my ongoing joshing reference at all, and been a bit bemused by it, that is the explanation.
At this point, however, I have become attached to what is to me the amusing Evil Hippo appellation, so if (when) it appears in future, I beg the indulgence of Evil Hippo Leader, and ask him to understand I mean it strictly in fun, and no hidden barbs. (I also think this whole remark may well be entirely unnecessary, but in courtesy I’ve been wanting to explain.)
Here’s a delicious Evil-Hippoism from the distant past:
https://www.samizdata.net/2003/04/the-dixie-chicks/#comment-12957
As apt today as it was 16 years ago. 😆
. . .
Also, thanks for the update on the site renovation. The last one was fine [except for the banishment of the Smite-Cats, and those I have saved in a tab I keep permanently open. The captions on them are wonderful! :>))) ]. I daresay this one will also be good (as long as my chief preferences are preserved — the coloration and the clean, straightforward appearance of the site, sans “threading.”)
And I am glad if it makes the site easier to maintain.
Best site on the Internet. Thank you. 😀 😀 😀
Excellent! It is important to keep a sense of perspective and put first things first! 🙂
Keep up the good work!
Since the site renovation, has anyone else experienced not getting the ‘Click to Edit’ link and 5-minutes-to-edit countdown clock after hitting ‘Post Comment’, just the posted uneditable comment appearing immediately, as it did before that ‘grace-period-to-fix-typo’ innovation came in?
I have twice seen this recently (since the site renovation). At first I thought it was caused by previewing the comment before posting it, but previewing (an earlier version of) this comment gave me the grace period as usual.