After years and years of anticipation and false promises of 'any day now' going back years, the 'Vanguard News Group' new website landed last week with a 'plop', like the sound of a human turd dropping on a San Francisco sidewalk.  I honestly wanted it to be better, but it wasn't.  In some ways it was worse.  Why spend so much time to get it right, and then roll out something that is less functional and still has many of the problems of the old site?

The old site was bad and getting worse.  It would load so slowly it would often time out.  The site used massive RAM memory that would drain a laptop battery.  The pages would skip while you were reading them, and then when you went back (if you could find where you were), the page would skip again. 

Towards the end the site had some sort of virus/malware that would cause the page to spontaneously skip to unwanted ad pages, and it would replace the recent history with six steps of the same ad page address with the original address eliminated.  Usually it was unwanted ads, or Bing, for some reason.  A couple of times it was straight up porn.  Without giving it in full the domain address it skipped to once began with "https://da.check-tl-ver-176-2.com/my-adult-video/ . . . ".   This should have been stopped at once, but it happened 2-3 times.

One piece of good news, the new site hasn't spontaneously skipped to ads or porn or replaced the short-term history.  It has, however, had the same loading issues and even said, "The site you are trying to reach is taking too much memory and is slowing down your browser.  Would you like to leave?".  It also still spontaneously skips text as it is trying to load text, and still does it again when you go back.  Others have told me this was the worst part of the old site to them as well, and it's amazing DG rolled out the new site without fixing this.

Certain things about the new site are worse:  It's too plain.  While the old site had too much color, it would have been nice to have kept the old color scheme, just as borders and highlight, but it's just plain with no character.  For some reason, the "Davis Vanguard" livery is replaced with "Vanguard News Group".  Like so many things with the Vanguard, I'm sure this has some meaning to DG, but to the common person it's just confusing. 

There is no ability to click on comments so you have to scroll through the whole article to reach them.  Honestly, the so-called articles are so often dull and predictable and/or copied from elsewhere, so I'd often read the comments first or don't read the article at all.  Having to scroll to comments, if there are any at all, which increasingly there are not, is just more than I feel like doing.  In addition, there is no 'new comments' box, so you'd have to keep track of each article and keep clicking on it to see if anyone added a new comment.  And again, that's more than me or most people are willing to do.  And as people learn that no one knows they posted a new comment, they won't bother to post at all.

The banner at the top only hides one article at a time, and it moves at a weird rate, and it's too big and obscures to those not familiar that the most recent news is below.  The articles are still repetitive crap on housing in Davis, how someone is going to sue on measure J, and on why cutting school costs actually costs money, and how more housing will save schools.  And there are the usual copy articles on the evils of 'carceration' by the ACLU.  And by the way, if you liked the ACLU of years ago, join F.I.R.E..  It's like the old ACLU without all the new utlra-progressive crap.

DG say:  "The website highlights the various segments of the Vanguard. My focus will continue to be heavily on Davis issues and multiple commentaries each week."  Let me guess:  Recycled crap about  housing in Davis, how someone is going to sue on measure J, on why cutting school costs actually costs money, and how more housing will save schools.

DG say:  "we now have a team member who is working exclusively on grants which we see as part of the long-term financial sustainability for the Vanguard."  It's good to have a team member doing this, so they can get grants that will partially cover their own salary  :-|   And bye bye Sparkplug Foundation:  you exhibit poor judgement.

KO say:  "I remember the days when there would be 50 comments by 9am. There were robust conversations. The fact now that comments often sit in the moderation queue for hours kills any chance of that ever happening again."   Yup.

KO say:  "Where are the several conservative commenters that used to post? Having diverse views used to generate more commenting. I thought progressives were supposed to be all about diversity."  Diversity of skin color, not diversity of ideas.

KO say:  "What you need are the Alan Millers, Ron Oertels, SOD’s and Frankly’s to return."  Not to mention Rik Keller, that spacey woman who talked about space aliens, and that drunkard musician who doxxed RO with the global coordinates of his house.

And yes, bringing back Alan C. Miller would be the savior of the Vanguard.  He is more interesting then the entire blog and its staff combined and can bring you joy and eternal life.  Alan C. Miller says:  "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in my will never die!"  [Actually Alan C. Miller does not say that.]

But it is true that bringing back the robust community comments would bring more clicks and more eyes.  Apparently that doesn't interest the Vanguard.  Having developers, H.A.L.'s, useful idiots, startup foundations and civil-rights lawyers fund the thing is all that matters in the new business model, apparently, and community engagement and discussion or even clicks really don't matter.  Is that sustainable?  Especially with a tax lawsuit to fight?

I would have gladly served as a site-tester for the new website, but no one asked me.  Apparently DG never even had a normal person look at it, as surely they would have said, "Dude . . . "

Well, DG, your savior awaits.  DG deep down knows I am the savior, that my comments are the best, most humorous, and most interesting and will save all blogs whom I touch.  DG knows my terms.  DG knows the real problem.  But until he deals with it . . .

Your host:  Alan C. "Al" Miller

Pictured:  an extreme version of himself

Come on Greenwald.  Seriously?

When people fought decades ago to save land from development, forever, do you believe what they were really fighting for was to save the land from development 'forever, or until there was pressure to build housing, whichever comes first' ?

In a bozo move by the owners of the Davis Enterprise, Bob Dunning was terminated without so much as a thank you after 55 years of service to the paper (and Davis).

Shelley Dunning pays a very sweet tribute in a 7-minute video on her Facebook page:

facebook.com/shelleydunning

She also outlines how cold the termination was.  I doubt that will sit well with the Davis community.

Bob's column will continue at: 

thewaryone.com

Please share your thoughts here in comments regarding this poorly-handled move by the owners of the Davis Enterprise.

Full disclosure:  Bob Dunning once wrote a column about how I should be on the City Council :-|

Note:  Pardon the pictured haircut, Bob, this is what A.I. gave me when I described the incident!

These dark forces are believed to be funded by the Dark Underbelly of Davis. 

In true Davis Vanguard journalistic style, no information on who the dark forces may be or why they are suing, but the Vanguard did ask for money to the tune of $100k.  Statement:

I'm tired of being optimistic about the new year.  Since Covid-19, we've all hoped the next new year would bring better times, but each subsequent year since 2020 has sucked, culminating with the October 7th Invasion & War and Increased Hatred of Groups of People.  And our City Council ?  NOT HELPING.

People suck.

But, as R.O. says:  "we do go after the Vanguard on here".  And that is the most important thing -- even more important than world peace.

Not much going on in Davis these days . . . coming up short on starter topics . . . #sigh# . . . anyone?

SUBJECT: "Commentary: A Wake Up Call"  (Wednesday's Blavis Blansplard)

Only DG could get a robo-call about solar panels from a call center in India and think it was a a wake-up call.  I was rummaging through the trash behind Vanguard Headquarters on Thursday evening at 8:17 p.m. and found the recipe for the article.  As a public service I am posting it here:

This volume of Al's Corner is dedicated to the celebration of the Davis Vanguard's National Issues Open Discussion Page.  Of course, this page isn't open to me, or several other banned people.  Nor, in practice, is it a discussion.  Let's do some stats and declare a winner:

While there has been a discussion on that 'other' blog, the reason I hang here is that many comments get deleted there without explanation, especially on this issue and especially comments even modestly politically right.  However, this is a sensitive issue, and I am not going to allow outright insults directed at trans people/supporters/protestors nor at persons associated with Mom's for Liberty. 

For example, for some reason that other blog allows MFL persons to be called Nazis, and that sort of useless comment isn't going to be allowed here.  On the other hand, in the Yahoo comments on the Bee article, about 153 out of 155 comments were against the library actions, despite the article leaning towards supporting the protestors.  AND . . . many if not most of those commenting there were denying the existence of trans people, insulting trans people, and/or calling trans people various derogatory terms implying mental illness just for being trans.  I'm not putting up with any of that shit here either.  I won't outright delete a comment unless it's completely empty of anything but outright hate towards either side, and I'll always explain why a comment or part of a comment was deleted.

My views on the library matter are simple:  I'm a Jew who believes the Skokie decision was the greatest triumph for the core of what makes America great:  Free speech, baby!

What are your views?   I'd like this to focus on free speech vs. hate speech; the actions/authority of the library/library-manager, the actions of those putting on the meeting and those protesting the meeting, and various takes in the media.

(Note:  I have a life, so your comments may not be posted for many hours.  Deal with it.)

Got a thought on Davis politics, or a even a single politic?  Got a thought on the request to give a donation to the Davis Vanguard so they can fund the replacement of their crappy old website?  I have a thought -- give instead to the Davis-Ite to replace the D-ite's even older, crappier website !   Underfunded old crappy blog structures:  It's the Davis Way !

Note: The following email was sent to the Davisite, asking for a correction to Alan Hirsch's recent articles.  As the email contains some misunderstandings about the nature of the Davisite, a new article has been written that tries to correct these misunderstandings and other common misconceptions – see More about the Davisite.  Just as with Alan Hirsch's articles and with any other article on the Davisite, the volunteers who operate this blog do not vouch for the correctness of what is written below.

The Davisite has recently posted a series of guest-authored pieces by Alan Hirsch about the Yolo 80 Managed Lanes project containing a pattern of significant inaccuracies, potentially causing confusion about the project among the general population. Providing a forum for vigorous policy debate is an important role of blog-based local media, however, informal media should aspire to post accurate information, even from guest authors.

As Caltrans’ partner on the Yolo 80 Managed Lanes project, the Yolo Transportation District (YoloTD) responds to two inaccuracies in Mr. Hirsch's most recent July 24, 2023 article posting titled, "I-80 update: Caltrans proposes cutting mitigation for Phase I".

               Article Title and Article List Item #1: Mr. Hirsch's title “I-80 update: Caltrans proposes cutting mitigation for Phase I” is inaccurate. Caltrans has not proposed in any way to cut mitigation for Phase 1 of the Yolo 80 Managed Lanes project. Any version of the project that moves forward will be subject to CEQA. The Draft Environmental Impact Report has not yet been released, and any speculation about its contents is just that -- speculation. Mr. Hirsch has speculated that funding will not be available for mitigation, which is an opinion, not a fact.

               Article List Item #2: YoloTD's statement that an HOV lane would be congested on day 1 requires additional background. The comment refers to "peak" hours at bottleneck locations under a specific HOV2+ scenario where high-occupancy vehicles with two or more people (HOV2+) are allowed access to the lane, which is one of several scenarios that could advance. Other scenarios with higher occupancy requirements could result in lower congestion levels on the new lanes.

A huge explosion and fireball enveloped the Al's Corner tanker truck late Tuesday evening.  The explosion was heard as far away as Esparto, Knights Landing, Allendale, Zamora, Broderick, Saxon, Batavia, and the Milk Farm.

Preliminary investigation by the combined UCD and City fire departments indicate that a flea had flown into the side of the tank, causing the explosion.

When asked how a flea could have caused such an explosion, fire chief Woody Burns said simply:

"It was a very annoying flea".

Contacted at his new residence on the east side of Pole Line Road just north of 8th Street, Al was asked about Al's Corner's iconic run in the Davis shitty-blog scene.  Al responded simply:

"It's been real, and it's been fun.  But it hasn't been real fun."

There's a part B.  We hit 100 comments: such an ashwevement :-|

There MAY not have been a May version of Al's Corner.  People got by.  They posted May stuff in April.  We all lived.

June's Al's Corner will feature ketchup and mustard on top.  Peace.  Over & Out.

March, like February, starts early at Al's Corner.  We'll start off trashing the Davis Vanguard, as common a theme on Al's Corner as housing articles on the Davis Vanguard.  Recently posted:

Walter Shwe February 26, 2023 at 6:00 pm

Has anyone at Davis Vanguard lately tried to comment on an article or replied to a prior comment on an iPhone? The experience is atrocious. Articles always load slowly except late at night. Ads interfere with the top page buttons, particularly the Login button. Most importantly to you the Donate button is inaccessible. Earlier today I had to login by first tapping the Register button. Will anyone at Davis Vanguard ever fix these frustrating issues? I realize that ads help pay for site costs, but this is simply ridiculous.

Moderator February 26, 2023 at 6:26 pm

We’ll forward this comment to the webmaster and then remove it in a few hours. Thanks for your feedback.

Funny, myself and I believe RO and KO all pointed out that since the Vanguard added Newsy and other advertising that it has become an annoying, almost unusable piece of sh*t, and most especially on a phone, where you might as well drop your phone in the toilet and flush.  But no, we were ignored.  Maybe because we also, in not so many words, or maybe in so many words, also called the content of the DV sh*t also.   But hey, you should listen to your critics, because we know what is best for you.  But no, y'all wait until a fan-of-the- blog points out the very same thing.  Good going.

And one bit of housekeeping to our thousands or hundreds or tens or single-digits or negative-number of fans:  In February we ran over the previously-unknown-to-me 100 comment limit.  This caused a "Page 2" to be created that many did not find, and missed brilliant commentary.  To find Page 2, either dig up the corpse of Paul Harvey, or scroll to the bottom of Page 1 and click on the "Newer >>>" button.   Yeehaw

Happy Early March Everyone!  Happy Easter!  Happy Passover!  Happy Good Friday, if that is a happy holy day otherwise maybe a solemn one!  And then there are other holidays for all the people of the world and I am now going to list them all and celebrate all of them . . . or not!