PHOTO: Some repairs needed to what we used to call the information highway. Expect delays.

Notice to readers of AlbertaPolitics.ca … the time has nearly arrived for some design changes and technical updates, which have the potential to disrupt publication of this blog, perhaps over the weekend or maybe a little after that too.

So don’t panic if this blog looks different when you open it next, if it’s not updated for a few days, if your comment isn’t approved, or if you encounter technical problems in the short term. In my experience, such bumps on what we used quaintly to call the information highway are inevitable.

The WordPress theme I have been using for about three years has grown long in the tooth and increasingly clunky behind the scenes. I hope, naturally, that readers will be pleased with the new look, and that the new design will work more smoothly for me within the content management system. Without, for example, causing all the photographs to disappear every time I change a featured photo at the top of a story.

The print will be bigger, to accommodate readers whose eyes, like mine, are growing old. It won’t necessarily be adjustable, as on some websites and apps, because this is a low-budget, one-writer operation, and it doesn’t have $42 million US to spend on a website like the New York Times once did.

Because I am working with a web designer here in Alberta, I may be able to make adjustments to solve particular problems that arise for readers more easily than in the past. Do ask, and I will do my best to help.

As for your reading experience, it is to be hoped it will continue to be an acerbic one.

David Climenhaga

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10 Comments

  1. Pressing the control key (CTRL) and the plus key (+) simultaneously will increase font size for the current site. (CTRL – decreases font size). No worries.

    1. It does! Thank you Anonymous, you have doubled my knowledge of computers!

      Is there a trick like that for iPads too?

  2. David, your picture says it all similar to Ralph KLEIN (bless his sole) running Alberta into the ditch with his austerity method of getting Alberta out of debt/deficit not knowing that we would need to pay for his poor decisions down the road like today.

  3. So your reliable and definitely April’s fool, has now passed fifty! Here’s a post for your reconstruction! A soundtrack if you will! Ah! F&ck it. I love this site and it’s host. I kinda wish a lot of others would read what he has to say. So with that, I’ll leave him with re-construction music! https://youtu.be/P2qwS4iAFKE

  4. Thank you for all the work you do, and for giving us the opportunity to express our thoughts. Considering the drivel I see in the essentially un-moderated comment section of news sites, I imagine you must wade through a lot of chaff.

    1. Less than you might think. The biggest source of chaff, as you call it, is spam robots from Asia that post links to porn, commercial come-ons and seemingly purposeless word salads. Fortunately, WordPress’s spam filter is excellent and effective, and catches literally thousands. Very few get through to me. A number of people make worthwhile comments but defame the subjects of their ire or slip into extreme profanity. These few I discard or edit, depending on the value of the comment and, of course, my mood. A very few threaten me with doxxing or worse. These I do not post but set aside for future action if necessary. However, only one topic generally prompts this kind of response: sensible gun control. This tells me that a very large proportion of so-called “law abiding gun owners” lack the maturity and common sense to own a hatchet, let alone a firearm. A similarly small number are simply incomprehensible. These are discarded as well. Occasionally, too, I see one written by someone I know that appears to have been composed under the influence of alcohol. Subjective judgment is applied in such cases by your moderator. But as a general rule, the quality of comments on this blog is thoughtful, and of high quality, even when taking me to task – perhaps especially so. DJC

      1. If you consider David’s commentary high quality, please make a monetary contribution. Even if you don’t, be a good sport and give him one anyway!

  5. I’m actually finding the new font more difficult to read than the previous one. I think it’s because the spaces between lines of text are really small (so the lines almost bleed into one another a bit). It’s not as much as issue in the comment text – just the main blog post text. Not sure if there’s a setting for line spacing, but it looks like the text size increased, but the line spacing is still the same size as would correspond with a smaller font size.

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