Congratulations to OnlySky for getting out from under the pious thumbs of Patheos, and finally joining the rest of us as independent secular voices. They’re looking good so far.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Thanks for the reminder. Just added them to my RSS feeds.
I wish but so far, they are looking like they are on a shakedown cruise and finding a lot of bugs.
I followed a few blogs from Patheos to OnlySky.
The comment program they are using is way underpowered compared to Disqus, which is what Patheos used. It also is buggy and sends large numbers of comments to moderation for no visible reason. It doesn’t support HTML which is a basic function that most comment programs support.
I do wish them well and hope they manage to join the 21st century blogging standards.
My observation, which is typical, is that blogging is a form of social media. If you allow comments and have a good feature supporting comment program, it vastly increases your readership. Because we like to be interactive and engaged and be participants as well as readers.
I just tried it and it seems to be mostly eye candy. There’s actual content; but it’s difficult to find; and when you do load an actual blog post, adds for Only Sky itself seem to take up as much space as the text.
Also, whenever I move from one page to another, it asks me yet again to allow cookies for things like advertising. That’s not what I would consider a trusted website, and I don’t think I’l be back.
billseymour @ #3:
Yeah, that’s really annoying and unacceptable.
There are good bloggers at OnlySky, including Captain Cassidy and Neil Carter. However, the commenting system sucks so far– they seem to have a nanny filter, you cannot upload images, comments go into moderation for no reason, no editing option, no bolding or italicizing text…I wish it used a halfway decent commenting system like Disqus.
@3/@4, That only happens (for me) when I open the page in a new tab. For me, if you open the page in the same tab (obviously replacing the current page), the cookie-question does not appear again.
Oh, yeah, ViaFoura sucks ass as a commenting system. Disqus had its flaws, yes, but dammit, at least it was functional!
blf @6: I did open the new pages in the same tab. It’s more likely due to my having third-party cookies turned off in my browser (Firefox).
@8, Interesting. So do I (also using Firefox, on Linux). However, I have other protections — VPN, various filters & blockers, and other measures — and I suppose what I’m seeing might be connected (e.g., almost certainly the reason I’m not being bothered by any ads). In any case, there is something badly borked about the cookie policy implementation (I didn’t check the actual policy itself). And I concur the layout heavily leans to the whiz-bang distractions (“eye candy”) than anything easy-to-use or comprehend (it took me a surprisingly long time before I found any new (dated this year) content).
Not really a launch, more of a fizzle. Remember the MythBusters episode where they tried using gummy bears as rocket fuel. A few sparks out the bottom, no lift, then the nose cone and parachute fell off.
Also, I signed up for email notification of the launch a month ago and still no notification, so I don’t know if they are officially launched or if they opened some blogs early to work the bugs out.
Every blog network has these kinds of glitches when they’re set up. I’ll give them time to shakedown.
OT
The Scathing Atheist has a beautiful rant about the anti-vaxxers at 2-8 minutes in.
http://youtu.be/EEaQf8SQ7Ko
i wish we were going at it in the comments here like jets and sharks. oh well.
@PZ 11
OnlySky also has a nanny filter that’s worse than the one on Patheos.
PZ @11:
Generally a good idea, but in this case, I think I have to disagree. It seems to have been set up more to be flashy than to be informative, kind of like my local TV news, and not a problem that’s likely to be fixed.
I hope I’m wrong. I guess I’ll try again in a few months.
i hate the interface but kaveh mousavi’s article on martyrdom’s influence on iran’s culture is a moving read.
I’ve never seen a commenting system that could hold a candle to trn.
what’s trn?
OT
Meat Loaf has rocked away on a motorbike at age 74. He was too cool to need an afterlife, he lives on in our hearts.
In need of ‘fake healing’? New Age meets Ice Age at Lake Harriet’s Art Shanty Projects
Great American Satan@18
If my guess is correct, a network news (usenet) reader from way back. To my surprise it’s still alive.
You could say that reddit is kind of a usenet clone. Except that usenet is distributed.
It’s like a group of public e-mail lists, organized by topic but duplicated over several servers.
Not sure how many providers still carry usenet these days.
Ed Brayton’s Dispatches From the Culture Wars is on Patheos .It is still accepting comments from his loyal
readers. But still getting comments left by wackaloons like jose antonio.
Don’t know what is going to happen to it.