Crexit

A warm welcome to the new and, hopefully, improved Poll Bludger.

For the better part of a decade now, The Poll Bludger has proudly been part of the Crikey Blogs network. However, all good things must come to an end, and that now applies to Crikey’s interest in funding a psephology blog that has ceased to contribute much to its business model. If you’re a follower of Poll Bludger specifically, and the media environment more generally, you will be aware that this has nothing to do with the vitality of this particular corner of the blogosphere, and everything to do with the fact that mere web traffic now generates a tiny fraction of the revenue it did in the good old days. So while I will continue contributing to Crikey’s subscriber email, the blog is on its own.

I am somewhere between hopeful and optimistic that Poll Bludger can remain viable in this new form. For reasons just noted, advertising revenue will be of limited help (though if you do use an ad blocker, you can do a small amount for the cause by adding pollbludger.net to your whitelist). What I’ll be relying on is the support of the blog’s faithful and, in some ways, long-suffering readership. To this end you will find, courtesy of the good people at PressPatron, a facility at the top of the page through which you can do your bit for the Poll Bludger cause. Needless to say, donations will be very gratefully received in whatever form, including the one-off variety. However, it’s the recurring, monthly variety that stands the best chance of keeping the shop open.

The upside of all this is that Poll Bludger is, as Brexiteers like to say, back in charge of its own destiny. Regular readers will know all too well that the blog architecture provided by Crikey was not designed with Poll Bludger in mind, and contained a number of bugs-not-features. With the first of these shackles removed, everything can be arranged with no other end in mind than giving the blog community with what it wants from a comments facility, leavened just a little by my own judicious perspective on what it needs. For starters, what you will find below the fold is a return to the beloved old regime of chronologically ordered comments broken down into pages of 50. As for bugs, it would perhaps be going too far to say they will be a thing of the past, but I believe I can state with confidence that they will be less bothersome than they have been.

So welcome to Poll Bludger Mark 3, and thank you one and all for making the site what it is, and hopefully will continue to be.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

124 comments on “Crexit”

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  2. Looking good, fairly navigable too.

    I’m pledging a $25 donation next pension WB.

    Hope the new jaunt gets the recognition it deserves.
    Invaluable info here from you and (most of) your members.

    Cheers.

  4. Hi William, I haven’t commented on PB for a while but hope to continue my long-running association with the blog.

    Best of luck with the new format and your new home.

    Cheers, Scorpio.

  9. Thanks to all for your kind words and support. If you would like to donate but can’t or won’t use the available facilities (which now include a Bitcoin payment feature, although going on my form up to this point, it probably doesn’t work), shoot me an email at pollbludger-at-bigpond-dot-com.

    A running list of promised features and various issues of concern, both for informational purposes and in the hope that someone can tell me what to do.

    I actually thought I’d set it up for editable comments, having installed the Ajax Edit Comments plugin and spent about two hours identifying and fixing an annoying little styling bug — only to realise, after logging in under my non-admin test account, that it’s only working for me.

    Similarly, I installed a plugin for numbered comments, but it hadn’t been updated in a long time and doesn’t seem to work.

    I’ve looked into square brackets, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that doesn’t involve hacking around with the code in ways that are beyond my pay grade.

    I have no idea why Twitter embeds aren’t working. Apparently this shouldn’t need a plugin.

    Someone on the previous thread asked about Favicon, which is the tiny little square site logo — in my case a little black-bordered box with a 1 in the middle — that you get in address bars and tabs and such. Is this working? I’ve uploaded the required file to the required place, and for me, it’s appearing in some browsers and not in others. I can never be sure if it’s going off the cache when it does actually work, and I’ve had some infuriating experiences in the past of this failing to work for no discernible reason at all.

  11. William

    in my case a little black-bordered box with a 1 in the middle — that you get in address bars and tabs and such. Is this working?

    Yep. Appearing on the tab on Lap Top with Win10/Chrome and on Samsung Tablet Android/Firefox.

    Might stand out more if it was red.

  14. Hi William – I work on an iPad and I have terrible trouble finding the login. There does not seem to be a link on the page when I first enter the site – the only way I got in this morning was to /login after the web address in the address bar.

    Is the login icon when you first enter the site hidden somewhere?

  17. Hi William

    Congratulations on the new blog. Just one suggestion, now that you are master of your own destiny …

    Over the years I have told many people about PB, and how great it is as a way to keep abreast of daily political events. They have all at one time or another tried it but many have ended up leaving. The main reason tends to be the same – i.e. unless you log in every day, and follow the thread closely, it can be hard to quickly find the “latest” general thread – especially when a new thread is started and people keep commenting on the old thread until they realize. This even happens to me occasionally if I happen to miss your “New Thread” post.

    Is there some way to make the current general/federal thread REALLY prominent, such as having it up on the top of the sidebar? If there was a consistent place to find it, it would make life much easier for newcomers.

    Thanks for all your efforts!

  20. I haven’t been on here for ages, and even had to look up my user name, sigh. But happy to help out a bit monthly, as this is the best
    political place on the net.

    Now, can anyone tell me how to add my old picture? Or a new one? Cheers to you all.

  21. a r @ #69 Friday, November 3rd, 2017 – 11:54 am

    Edit Test (edited).

    Using my main computer Windows 10 either Firefox or Chrome – C+ works as expected with quote, block and preview.

    Using secondary computer Windows 10 with vanilla Firefox I have the edit function. With C+ I have the Block and Preview but no Quote function.
    I am about to try Chrome on secondary computer. Chrome the same as Firefox edit with vanilla Poll Bludger and no Quote using C+. Block and Preview work fine.

    I will try a third computer quite soon – after lunch.
    I could not get C+ to work with android – probably wanting Crikey (my guess).
    I hope this is of some help.😎😎

  22. Tested Firefox and Chrome on a third computer.

    Both Windows 10 and vanilla had Edit enabled.

    Both Windows 10 with C+ had Block and Preview enabled but no Quote function.

    Nap attack time.

    😴😴

  24. Good to see your site being independent again William. You will be getting financial contributions from me whenever I can.

    LONG LIVE POLLBLUDGER!!!

    Tom.

  32. I closed down my browser and am logged out.

    To post this I have to enter my ‘Name’ and email with the post.

    How do I get to log back in???

  34. CTar1 @ #81 Friday, November 3rd, 2017 – 4:22 pm

    I closed down my browser and am logged out.

    To post this I have to enter my ‘Name’ and email with the post.

    How do I get to log back in???

    Good question.
    I am guessing that you were a very early connector to the new website, as was I.
    I think that when I am logged out I will be restarted on the same plane as you.
    Do you have C+, and if so, is it still working with all the functions, Quote, Preview and Block ❓

  37. CTar1 (Block)
    Friday, November 3rd, 2017 – 4:39 pm
    Comment #84

    Thank you. I suspected as much.
    Hopefully our residents Captain Ahabs – AR and Musrum will be able to sort this out.

    Currently my backup up computers are using C+ and have Comment No’s, Block, Preview and the use of square brackets to give blockquote.
    Only lacking “Quote” and the projected “Edit”.

    😀

  39. KayJay

    I saw it mentioned that ‘Edit’ appeared after you post and remains visible for a short time. I haven’t seen it – maybe working on Apple kit?

  43. Excellent, it works. 🙂

    Thanks for the new site, Mr Bowe. Apart from any other reason, it makes it much easier for the terminally short of cash, who couldn’t afford a Crikey subscription, to donate to this worthy cause.

    Also thanks to AR for a prompt updating of that very useful C+ plug-in. Only thing not showing up for me yet is the quote function.

    Tip to those having trouble getting the updated plug-in to work: took several hours after selecting the Override HTML button for it to start working for me. So install it, select that button, then leave it overnight, and see what happens.

  45. KayJay @ #87 Friday, November 3rd, 2017 – 3:50 pm

    Only lacking “Quote”

    The answer to that one is that you’re not actually logged into the site. The ‘Quote’ button will only appear after you’ve logged in.

    Easy way to tell if you (or any other poster) was logged in when they posted something is to click the ‘Block’ link next to your/their name. If nothing happens, you/they weren’t logged in when you/they posted that comment.

    and the projected “Edit”.

    Will be available in v0.8.5, which you can probably get now if you force an update.

    However like ‘Quote’, the ‘Edit’ function only becomes available once you’ve actually logged in.

  47. One other very minor issue with the C+ plug-in, that also happened on Crikey, is that when loading a new page it always lands about 4-5 comments into the thread.

    A low priority, sure. But if it is being fine tuned for the new site, that could be added that to the list of things to do.

    Thanks. 🙂

  48. “However like ‘Quote’, the ‘Edit’ function only becomes available once you’ve actually logged in.”

    Ah, crossed posts. Thanks.

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