BB Caching update

meta
1

Hello!

Over the last few weeks, we’ve (ok, I’ve) been playing with the caching we do here at Boing Boing for the main site.

We’ve used more-or-less the same setup for several years now, and it has mostly behaved, occasional weird out of sync archives and whatnot notwithstanding.

We have just (as of about an hour ago) transitioned to an entirely different vendor and an entirely different setup. I’ve tried to be proactive where I could about ensuring our various pages (like /blog and /ascii, as well as page archives) are updated properly for the new cache, but I may have missed things.

Additionally, the new cache also tries to help give you images sized appropriately for your browser, supports brotli, HTTP3/QUIC, and minifies js/css hopefully allowing for faster (and smaller) page loads.

SO! That’s a lot to change at once. If you happen to see anything out of the ordinary, feel free to pipe up here and I’ll take a look.

Also: This has nothing at all to do with ads, which do not load from us. I know the ad loads cause all sorts of issues on pageload, but it’s not something I can fix. No point in reporting them to me. My changes strictly affect the page itself, the css/js that load said page, and images loaded on said page.

Thanks!

17 Likes
2

On blog view, it’s worked great on page 1…no reloads needed to see fresh content since the change.

Today I noticed page 2 was stale from Friday.

1 Like
3

Can you try clearing your cache? This seems to be ok for fresh pulls from the site, but I wonder if you got a copy that told you to keep a copy longer during the initial setup.

Thanks.

1 Like
4

All day blog view has been stuck for me - top post Pianu Pro, followed by heirloom corn. I tried clearing cache, no luck, then I tried downloading a browser I have never used on this machine, still the same. Also tried machines on different networks, still stuck.

2 Likes
5

Thanks for the report. We have some changes in the works this evening that should rectify the issue.

1 Like
6

Not sure if related but the new Safari in ios14 is not playing well with the bbs.

Trackers galore caught in its net btw.

1 Like
7

Are the lack of links to the forum (at least in blog view) an intentional “feature”? I’ve noticed more and more broken links over the last few days, and today they have disappeared altogether. You can obviously still get here, but I’m curious if the forum is being phased out (at least in terms of importance)?

8

That reminds me, a few weeks ago the notification area, category list, and search bar in the header disappeared for me in Safari with iOS 10 (Older model iPad won’t upgrade any further). I can still get see user cards if I click on a user’s name, and I can still post replies and new threads, but the header menus just come up blank.

2 Likes
9

We’re not phasing out the BBS, worry not!

1 Like
10

That’s a bug report better sent to meta.discourse.org - as they handle the Discourse software itself. :slight_smile:

11

For me, /grid is broken on Safari / MacOS and Brave / MacOS: doesn’t show any items. I don’t remember when I last checked the grid, but it most likely was before Sept. 12.

Here’s a screenshot, ignore the colors on the top right, that’s just my floating color palette.

Brave|20%
Brave|20%1274×731 74.8 KB

12

Same here in Brave and Firefox. I don’t think I visited yesterday but the grid view was definitely working on Wed 16th Sept.

Also, the tag is missing from all the main site pages:

image
image1374×71 7.6 KB

13

Sorry about that - /grid has been retired, but it should have been redirecting you to the homepage. Fixed.

You’re welcome to view the site from the homepage, or /blog or /ascii, none of which are going anywhere. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
14

The /grid view was my main way of seeing what has been posted. /Blog and /ascii are fine but not really comparable as replacements for grid. If it isn’t coming back I may just skip visiting the BB entirely and only browse the BBS. This sucks but is on par for 2020.

1 Like
15

/grid was my main way to interact with the Boing. I will miss it. Was it announced?
And I am curious as to the rationale, although obviously BB is under no obligation to explain their decisions.

2 Likes
16

Blog seems broken, it’s not showing the blurbs and it’s got older stories at the top since this morning.

17

Could this update have caused all the issues we’re currently seeing?

4 Likes
18

Blog has been broken for me for the last two days. It’s been stuck on the ‘Create Dynamic Videos’ post, followed by the ‘Ice Cream Scoop’ one. Same problem for Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

Also, why is there only a red ‘Next’ button at the bottom of all the pages? It’d be nice if the older pages had ‘Newer’ and ‘Older’ buttons so we could go both directions if desired…

1 Like
19

The images in blog view are decidedly low-res. Like 1998 low-res. I know there’s higher res images available because I can click through to stories and see them. I think it must be the resize engine. I see on the current top article it’s taking a 1200x800 image that looks good resizing to 200x135 which looks terrible. Even when the resized image is viewed at actual size it just looks bad. When the browser goes and upsizes it to whatever is showing on my screen it’s not good.

2 Likes
20

Ads like crazy on front page. Thought they were gone after signing in.