Meta – MoA Cleanup After Moving

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September 29, 2025

Meta – MoA Cleanup After Moving

After Moon of Alabama had moved to a new server and software various problems occurred.

Thanks to helping hands most have been fixed:

Commentator names on the right side of the main page are now linked to the appropriate comment.
The comment entry field now has a ‘Preview’ replacement in form of a small what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor.
The ‘line-height’ attribute of the typeface has been modified to give it a more consistent look.

Open issues:

Someone yesterday mentioned problems with the ‘Search’ functionality. It is currently the standard function that comes with the software. I will have to look into that and, maybe, find a replacement.

Please let me know in the comments of any further problems with these or other features of the blog.

A note on Spam control.

The blog is, like before, using an automated Spam control feature:

Obvious spam comments from know spamming sources are automatically moved to trash. I never get to see them.

There are additional criteria which move some comments to a ‘pending’ queue where I can review them. I do check this queue twice a day and decide on publishing or trashing the comments in question.

Criteria for a comment to get stuck in the ‘pending’ queue are:

it includes a ‘bad word’ from a list I maintain. This is used to keep advertisements / discussions of certain topics away from the blog.
it is coming from certain IP-addresses which I have manually blocked. This is used to keep certain trolls away from the blog.
it contains more that 5 links.

If there are consistent problems with your comments not getting published please contact me via email.

Posted by b on September 29, 2025 at 06:17 UTC | Permalink

Comments

people are still making lots of “test” posts, how about creating a sandbox for this purpose?

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Sep 30 2025 18:58 utc | 99

—

A test sandbox that automatically deletes whatever is posted within after a short period of time, say 5 or 10 minutes, would be very practical. And shouldn’t be too difficult to set up as a plugin for this purpose exists.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/auto-delete-post/

Posted by: too scents | Sep 30 2025 19:11 utc | 101

The bug i already reported before but you did not mentioned it.
When one opens any post, above the text and the title there is a single link:
> Back to Main
There used to be THREE links: prior post, main page and next post

Posted by: Arioch | Sep 30 2025 19:34 utc | 102

I have a failsafe solution to maintain the mystery if b creates a page with his lists of bad words and site links juliania. Do not read it.
Posted by: dodger | Sep 30 2025 5:54 utc |75
I’d be fine with that, dodger, except that I think b has enough on his plate re-creating what we have already.

I don’t want to make more work for him ; he’s too precious to us all, and it’s his blog.

Posted by: juliania | Sep 30 2025 21:46 utc | 103

Posted by: Arioch | Sep 30 2025 19:34 utc | 102
That’s not a bug; it’s a feature you want restored.

Posted by: juliania | Sep 30 2025 21:46 utc | 103
I’m confident our host can parry our requests and work on the ones he feels are important.
No harm in asking.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Sep 30 2025 22:23 utc | 104

Adding to the congrats. Thank you -b for all you have done.
My checks to MoA are still getting cashed. All is good with MoA, I cannot speak for the rest of the world.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Oct 1 2025 0:56 utc | 105

This is a test.
Thank you, b, for this valuable site site .
I am having a problem rather regularly. I can’t type into the comments box because a white rectangular band appears covering about 1/3 of the screen depth right over the comment input section. The box reads at top left: ‘Insert link’

Some vertical space down at left inside the box, it asks for a
URL. EX_____________

The line below reads,
Text to display EX_____________

Last line is,
Target____________None

I can type in the first 2 lines, but can’t read ‘Text to Display’ beyond first couple of words — the rest runs off the screen so it certainly doesn’t work as an area to post

Another problem is behind this white box the page goes dark, so I can’t read or refer to other posts even if I can scroll very limitedly.

Finally, there is no way to get past this impeding box because it won’t move so I have to start over be exiting the screen which puts me back to post 1. Finally, most disappointing scenario, I have written a post and this happens before I’m quite done so I have to exit losing all the work.

Can you please investigate this situation.

It can even happen as soon as I enter my screen name.

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 1:57 utc | 106

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 1:57 utc | 106
Sounds like you clicked on the “Insert/edit link” button in the toolbar above the composition window by mistake and opened the link editing window. Maybe start over? (Or click the “Cancel” button if you can see that, which will close that window.)

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Oct 1 2025 2:05 utc | 107

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 2:10 utc | 108

I see what you mean, but should it be that the only way to close that insert box is to start over, this losing ones entire post.
Also this happens even if I am just writing in my name and haven’t proceeded further down to the comments box .

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 2:15 utc | 109

Thank you for your help. Where is cancel button and what does it look like, please?

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 2:18 utc | 110

If you click on the “Insert/edit link” button, which is the 8th one in the toolbar—the one that looks like a paper clip—that opens the Insert Link dialog, which is what you were seeing.
There are two buttons at the bottom, “OK” and “Cancel”. The “OK” button is blue, the other one white.
Don’t click that paper clip! (Unless you want to insert a link.) That’s what got you in trouble in the first place, I’m guessing.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Oct 1 2025 2:26 utc | 111

Thank you for your help. Where is cancel button and what does it look like, please?

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 2:28 utc | 112

Thank you. Maybe this cra**y old Android phone isn’t up to this program. Now the insert box keeps popping up even before I type anything so keep having to start over just to get going. I will look for cancel button as you describe.

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 2:32 utc | 113

Thanks much. If I turn the phone sideways I can get to the cancel button. (Pho ne is 5 5/8″ x 2 5/8″ only.)

Posted by: Lavieja | Oct 1 2025 2:42 utc | 114

–

Posted by: WMG | Oct 1 2025 8:59 utc | 115

– I posted one comment but only one character (“-“) was published in the comment (post #115).

Posted by: WMG | Oct 1 2025 9:01 utc | 116

Text before quote.

Testing paragraph breaks inside quotes.

Testing paragraph breaks inside quotes.

Text after quote.

Posted by: S | Oct 1 2025 14:00 utc | 117

I concur with Norwegian that a solution must be found regarding the need to type Enter twice to create a new paragraph. Typing one Enter displays a paragraph break in TinyMCE preview, but in reality results in a line break.

Posted by: S | Oct 1 2025 14:04 utc | 118

Testing, Testing,

One,Two,,

One, Two,,Three,,,

Oh, I’m forever blowing bubbles…ENTER..

ENTER Gordham muva phuck!

Jesus H Christ in a chicken basket!!!

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.
I’m half-crazy all for the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage.
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.

Open the text editor please HAL.

OPEN THE GOD DAMN EDITOR!!!

“I’m afraid I can’t do that lachaussette”

https://i.postimg.cc/25YwRjZc/Stinky-Sock.jpg

Posted by: lachaussette | Oct 1 2025 17:28 utc | 119

Suggestion: keep this post pinned to the top of the blog for a while unless all problems nad suggestions , as reported by the visitors, have been fixed and implemented.
– Still would love to see an “Edit” button.

Posted by: WMG | Oct 1 2025 17:41 utc | 120

Thank you for your great work b, but again I request you increase the point size. Or, pull in the margins a bit. On my 13″ monitor, even when enlarging (2 finger double tap on a Mac), the lines are overly long and typeface small. Even with younger eyes, excessively long lines were difficult, while small type but two column format was easier to read. Thanks again

Posted by: Samu | Oct 1 2025 18:22 utc | 121

To be serious for a moment, how about formulating a comment on something like this:

https://onlinenotepad.org/notepad

Maybe do some test configurations of your text / links etc and copying and pasting to MoA?

Something like Samsung Notes if you use a phone?

Posted by: lachaussette | Oct 1 2025 18:30 utc | 122

@Samu – You could shrink the browser window. If that interferes with your other browsing needs, open an extra window for MoA.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 1 2025 18:35 utc | 123

@lachaussette | Oct 1 2025 18:30 utc | 122
This is a test of formatting using https://onlinenotepad.org/notepad . This is the end of the first paragraph, next will be a blank line.

There is a blank line before this paragraph. Now comes some “Ipso lorum” text to fill up this paragraph with some lines of text: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

This is the third paragraph, there is a blank line before it. This is bold text.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 1 2025 19:01 utc | 124

This is a test of using TinyMCE Editor hosted at https://www.quackit.com/html/html_editors/tinymce_editor.cfm
This is the second paragraph, there is a blank line before it. This sentence is in bold face. This sentence is in italics. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
This is the third paragraph. It contains a link to Wikipedia. Below comes a numbered list with three items.

one
two
three

Let us see if this can be copied to MoA. End of post.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 1 2025 19:13 utc | 125

Test results

With onlinenotepad you can get normal paragraphs but no links, bold/italics fonts or lists.
With TinyMCE Editor at quackit.com you can get bold fonts etc., but no normal paragraphs.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 1 2025 19:22 utc | 126

This is a test using https://fiddle.tiny.cloud/ in default configuration. Bold text.
Second paragraph. End of post.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 1 2025 19:29 utc | 127

This is a test using https://fiddle.tiny.cloud/ with added configuration (see bottom) to tinymce.init
Second paragraph.
force_p_newlines: true, forced_root_block: false,

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 1 2025 19:37 utc | 128

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 1 2025 18:35 utc | 123

Thanks Persiflo. Slapping forehead, of course it’s not hardcoded line lengths.

Posted by: Samu | Oct 1 2025 21:19 utc | 129

one
two
three

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 1 2025 19:13 utc | 125
Country Joe and the Fish…
https://youtu.be/3W7-ngmO_p8?si=28hIFy-3C3fuOJUo

Posted by: ThouShalt | Oct 2 2025 2:39 utc | 130

Posted by: ThouShalt | Oct 2 2025 2:39 utc | 130
Pardon me if I’ve posted something like this before, but the only problem I see the post composition and line spacing is with the “visual editor”, the “Visual” tab of the composition window.

When you hit <Enter> once there, you get two line spaces (in the edit window), not one, making it difficult to see what your post will actually look like. But once you post it it looks fine. So all you have to do is pretend that those double line spaces in the edit window are actually single ones.
I’m hoping our host will be able to fix this problem sometime. Other than that, it works exactly as one would expect it to.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Oct 2 2025 3:08 utc | 131

I mix a the technical stuff with some other stuff like youtubes from the past.

Posted by: ThouShalt | Oct 2 2025 3:24 utc | 132

Amazing that the concert with Country Joe had an ocean of fans. Compare that now with Taylor Swift? Also an ocean of fans but for what? I see nothing there.

Posted by: ThouShalt | Oct 2 2025 3:30 utc | 133

Watch that video and see the difference between the young hippy-libs from the 60s and 70s compared to how they all turned out as Booners in in the 2020s shouting and demanding that USA kill Russians and Palestinians. It is just amazing to me how people can so easily abandon their “principles” for social popularity and media accolades.

Posted by: ThouShalt | Oct 2 2025 4:10 utc | 134

It’s so easy to see how the masees of people are psychologically manipulated into “believing” one thing or another.

Posted by: ThouShalt | Oct 2 2025 5:28 utc | 135

Test post.
Please ignore.

Posted by: robin | Oct 2 2025 6:24 utc | 136

Posted by: robin | Oct 2 2025 6:24 utc | 136<BLOCKQUOTE>Test post.Please ignore.</BLOCKQUOTE>Testing quote function

Posted by: robin | Oct 2 2025 6:26 utc | 137

Posted by: robin | Oct 2 2025 6:24 utc | 136

Test post. Please ignore.

Second attempt in code mode

Posted by: robin | Oct 2 2025 6:28 utc | 138

OK, breaching my retirement from posting just to leave this here (not that anyone will likely read it anyway, they’re all too busy chasing the latest “shiney”).

It is ~~strange~~, actually comical, to watch how so many self-proclaimed intelligent people can’t work out the new posting format, and amusing to watch their whining, as they discover that perhaps, after all, they don’t actually know everything about everything and a little bit of time taken to learn new processes is somehow beneath them.

Failure to take this learning time leads to huge walls of text, with no paragraph breaks, that just become tedious to try and read, diminishing the reader experience.

Clearly many here have never used a mechanical typewriter, with which one carriage return gave a new line, two carriage returns gave a paragraph break. Too many so-called “digital natives” seduced by their smartphones these days.

And choose your posting mode, either “Visual” or “Code”, stick to one or the other, don’t flick between the two and expect your post not to look scruffy, that is your fault and not any perceived shortcoming in the software.

Getting out of the cab of a crash-gearbox Bristol FLF and jumping into a Tiptronic-equipped Porsche, expecting the exact same handling characteristics, or expecting a MotoGP bike to handle the same as your Honda 90 step-through reflects an inability to take on new learning.

As said, not expecting many to read this and absorb it, but to those who do “Thank you for your attention to this matter ”, as someone might have once said…

Back to lurking retirement…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Oct 2 2025 18:47 utc | 139

After clicking post on a new comment, the software updates the thread and shows its end with new comment in place. This is different than before – it’s probably more intuitive, and presumably the old version caused many of the multiple posts we saw. However, it is a bit less convenient as well when reading through threads while commenting. Seeing that this is bad thread hygiene anyway, especially when there is long way ahead, I recommend using an editor to write stuff and only post it all later (some do that). I declare myself guilty of occasional <cough> negligence.

Posted by: persiflo | Oct 2 2025 21:11 utc | 140

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Oct 2 2025 18:47 utc | 139
————————————————————————————–
Not contradicting what you posted.
But the thing we’re all having trouble with (well, at least those of us who use the “Visual” tab of the composition window) is that this window shows the line spacing of your post inaccurately.

It’s pretty simple, really:
When you’re writing a “paragraph” (a block of text where you don’t hit <Enter>), the line spacing is almost what it’ll be in the actual posted comment, but not quite: it’s about 1½ line spaces.

When you hit <Enter> once, you get 2 line spaces, which will actually only show one line space in the posted comment, at the same line spacing as in the block of paragraph text.

So you basically get twice the line spacing in the composition window as the actual posted comment.
The upshot is that the composition thingie, whatever it’s called, needs fixed.
Dunno if our host can do that or not. I sure as hell can’t.

Posted by: George the Zeroth | Oct 2 2025 23:43 utc | 141

I want to make excuses for the way this editor works by crudely explaining the requirements of XML which is the data definition language for XHTML. It requires a preciseness and hierarchy that the old web site did not enforce in the editor and which barflies seem to have trouble adjusting to.
I agree that the Comment display is misleading but not sure if the cure is better than the current solution. As I understand it, the comment program, when getting an ENTER, shows blank spacing looking like an empty line when the real blank line is not added until another ENTER is done and then the program closes that XMP “paragraph” and inserts another visible blank line in the comment display….with a bunch of effort I suspect it could be programmed to reformat the previous text to take out the first visual blank line spacing….but is it worth the cost?

I have used over 30 text editors in my career an they all have their plusses and minuses…..barflies are encouraged to take advantage of the new digs and respect the upgrades, odd, or otherwise.

I think what Bernhard and his help have done is remarkable and to be commended….thank you!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 3 2025 0:47 utc | 142

– Another complaint: I regularly use 2 “Carrier Returns” (CR) to separate 2 pieces of text and to make a post easier to read. But I noticed that the MoA blog software removes those double CRs and a post becomes (much) harder to read. I would like to see that these double CRs aren’t automatically removed.

Posted by: WMG | Oct 3 2025 12:31 utc | 143

Correction of my previous post:
– Another complaint: I regularly use 2 “Carrier Return” (CR) to separate 2 pieces of text and to make a post easier to read. But I noticed that the MoA blog software removes those double CRs and replaces them with one CR and a post becomes (much) harder to read. I would like to see that these double CRs aren’t automatically removed and replaced.
Posted by: WMG | Oct 3 2025 12:31 utc | 143

Posted by: WMG | Oct 3 2025 15:55 utc | 144

Old comments look wrong (no space between paragraphs) because they have been imported with the wrong structure:
First paragraph. Second paragraph. Third paragraph.
instead of the correct one:
First paragraph.Second paragraph.Third paragraph.

Posted by: S | Oct 4 2025 7:52 utc | 145

Para 1.
Para 2.

Posted by: S | Oct 4 2025 7:56 utc | 146

Posting Para 1Para 2 in the Code mode results in displayed structure Para 1 Para 2 (see the HTML source of the above comment), which is clearly wrong. That’s the source of the problem.

Posted by: S | Oct 4 2025 8:01 utc | 147

I would like to see that these double CRs aren’t automatically removed and replaced.Posted by: WMG | Oct 3 2025 12:31 utc | 143

Hi,

In my comment here Posted by: dodger | Oct 4 2025 2:32 utc | 175 and above it, I have used a double enter/return to create new paragraphs. It seems to work fine. If that’s not what you were talking about, I’m sorry, and will shut up. lol

I do agree the change is hard to get used to. Maybe you could use a “line” between texts?

———————–

with a double CR ?

Posted by: dodger | Oct 4 2025 8:54 utc | 148

The “twice ENTER for paragraph spacing” problem arises because the paragraph spacing is set to 0 (zero). This makes it appear as if its just a line break after one ENTER.
Should be possible to configure that globally in wordpress.

Posted by: umuntu | Oct 4 2025 9:01 utc | 149

because the paragraph spacing is set to 0

Posted by: umuntu | Oct 4 2025 9:01 utc | 149

No, that’s not the problem. The problem is that all paragraphs in the comment are turned into one big paragraph with line breaks ( ) in between. See my comment #147.

Posted by: S | Oct 4 2025 17:50 utc | 150

Works for me … https://www.moonofalabama.org/feed/
Posted by: Tel | Sep 30 2025 9:20 utc | 86

So it does! Still missing to is the machine-findable link on the main page, like:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9210151/how-to-get-the-rss-url-in-an-html-page#9210203
Thank you!

Posted by: choo | Oct 5 2025 14:49 utc | 151

Thanks B,I hope the line-break/WYSIWYG/preview is worked out. That aside, as Gruff noted, the refresh speed is much better.

Posted by: S Brennan | Oct 5 2025 15:40 utc | 152

No, that’s not the problem. The problem is that all paragraphs in the comment are turned into one big paragraph with line breaks ( ) in between. See my comment #147.
Posted by: S | Oct 4 2025 17:50 utc | 150

Oh, ok. Sorry, I overlooked your comment. I know this problem only from layout design where it is very common and the solution as I suggested.

If actually a wrong translation is the cause that’s something different of course.

Posted by: umuntu | Oct 5 2025 18:11 utc | 153

This blog is exactly the same. (space / space)

I don’t think b has done any work at all. (space / space)

Seriously though – thank you B.

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Oct 5 2025 22:39 utc | 154

Testing paragraph spacing. None.
Testing paragraph spacing. One line no java.

Testing paragraph spacing. None.
Testing paragraph spacing. Two line no java.

Result.

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 16:58 utc | 155

Testing paragraph spacing. None.
Testing paragraph spacing. One line java.

Testing paragraph spacing. None.
Testing paragraph spacing. Two line java.

Result (copypaste)

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 17:01 utc | 156

Testing paragraph spacing. None.Testing paragraph spacing. One line java.
Testing paragraph spacing. None.Testing paragraph spacing. Two line java.
Result (copy paste, 156 with no java)

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 17:03 utc | 157

Result:

With java disabled writes as original site.

With java enabled, even two line space gets deleted, requires two line space to be inputted while typing in window. Will retest that.

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 17:06 utc | 158

Result:With java disabled writes as original site.With java enabled, even two line space gets deleted, requires two line space to be inputted while typing in window. Will retest that.

(Testing if copies syntax from previous post, java, two line above)

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 17:09 utc | 159

Retesting copied double line.
Two line.
Two line.
Three line.

Three line.

Result. Java. Copy paste.

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 17:12 utc | 160

Results:

Without java script writes as normal.

With java needs two line when writing in window, needs three line when copy pasting text, for paragraph space (but test that again to make sure) .

That’s all.

Posted by: Ornot | Oct 6 2025 17:15 utc | 161

Just testing if the visual editor now works, i.e. if a single blank line ends up as a single blank line in the post.
Test ends.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 9 2025 17:11 utc | 162

After this follows a single blank line.

This is the new paragraph.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 9 2025 17:12 utc | 163

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