On the topic of reading more, and deteriorating lending standards, have a look at what a Vancouver BC real estate agent has to say about financing a purchase in North America's frothiest market, at: The Best Real Estate Anywhere!, under the title "Creative Financing with Everyone Onside!"
The "Read More" feature impedes a plain-ol' text search of your posts. Needless to say, they are awesome and compell me from time to time to search for text that I read a while back. The "Read More" will make this more difficult for simpletons like me.
This activity not only wastes limited governmental investigative, administrative and judicial resources, but it also fundamentally undermines the public’s confidence in the fairness of the tax system.
HAHAHA. The government would never waste precious limited resources if it weren't for those dirty defiers!
Seriously, only employees with-hold, right? All the businesses have to cough up at the end of the year. With all the "credit turmoil", how many businesses are going to unable to cough up? How much of the collected taxes are borrowed each April?
Bill - I wish I could convince you to give Calc Risk its own LOOK, and re-organize a bit. Still its ALL about content, so the site will always be great, but I think you can add structure the site so that it is scalable for future proprietary tools/products, such as your newsletter. Hopefully down the road, there are more tools here.
Anyway, looking forward to meeting you at Inman Conf in SF!
If you are taking votes, I hate the whole "read more" concept - needing to read a lot weeds out those w/ short attention spans. If you are not taking votes, please ignore my first sentence. Appreciate your efforts either way.
I actually hate the "read more" because all to often it is just a link to comments. If I want to read the comments, or make a comment, I click on the "comments" link.
Please don't use read more just to link to comments, it is quite annoying.
Also, don't be ashamed of your (mostly Tanta's) long posts. Brevity is a great quality, but it's of highest value when the author can't write, and here there are two bloggers who can.
Firedoglake.com did this and it completely ruined their site, in my opinion. The new format is uninteresting and "all the same, all the time" and each and every post becomes routine and boring.
For example, will all graphs have to be on the subsequent "read more" page? They can really draw a reader into the story if they appear on the main page.
This will not matter for long-time readers; they are devoted followers. For newcomers, you are probably shooting yourself in the foot. Maybe you don't need additional readers and the usual cast of characters suits you just fine. But if the goal is to reach as many as possible, visuals can really help.
The old layout worked well for me. (And I thought "Read More" was like a public service announcement meant to prompt to hit the book stalls at Amazon more often.)
Was I hallucinating? Or were there ratings stars on the front page for a few moments?
Tanta definitely doesn't need a read more. Love her writing just the way it is.
-- Yahoo! Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are close to striking a deal to combine their Internet operations, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Can we get an analysis on the Citigroup 12B "sale?"
I wrote this comment on Seeking Alpha:
OK, got it. Citigroup borrows money from the Fed window to lend to a group of LBO artists in order for them to purchase their own bad debts back from Citigroup (who also is throwing in a free PUT option on the asset so that Citigroup doesn't have to hold the asset on their books and write it down this quarter). This way they get to write down the debt at a later point when it goes bad, artificially inflating revenue for this quarter's earnings. It looks like another form of an off-books vehicle that caused all this mess in the first place. This is moving the chairs from the deck of the Titanic to the top of the iceberg with which it's going to collide. And then they'll rearrange them next quarter. And win the Nobel prize in economics.
I'm sort of putting things together here, but I think I missed something along the way.
I have Greasemonkey but I'm not a codenerd so I have no idea what to do with it. Scripts? Are we making a movie? (Mrs.B would want Christian Slater to play me.)
But JJ is only funny, so it's not all that necessary.
I actually look for the longer posts to get immersed in ... that's where the detail and the real information is. If I am scrolling through the blog and see a particularily long post, that's what I stop and read, versus just browsing for headlines.
Great idea. Can you also make it easy to ignore certain posters (I won't name names). An "Ignore Button" would make my day. Some posters seem to bring politics into almost EVERY thread. Very annoying!
FWIW, the page down button works fine for longer posts, and the contents archive on the left is a good quick topic list. Besides, many of your beautiful graphs will be hidden.
All, I appreciate the feedback. If it's OK, let's try it for a few days. My main focus is on the content, but I'd like readers to enjoy the experience (while they read mostly bad news - unfortunately).
I've tried to follow a few guidelines - like links that take you to the new page without opening a new window or inserting an Ad. I've tried to kill all flashing, sound, pop-up, pop-under, etc. ads. And we don't put ads in the content.
Tanta and I appreciate everyone that visits this site - and we try to respond to requests for changes - and make the site easy to read.
I'm going to change the page layout some within the next few weeks - hopefully it will be less cluttered and more readable.
Once again thanks for the feedback,
Best to all
CR
CR, I dislike the Read More link. One more click. Usually I read the whole post (except for those Tanta posts - you know the ones I am talking about - sorry!) and then hit the comment link. Now another click on the middle.
May be as a compromise, use Read More only for the "those" posts, and leave it out for normal posts.
Sheesh! what's with all the Tanta bashing? Tanta is what makes this place unique. No offense, CR. You work hard too at bringing all sorts of depravity to light.
Tanta and her wry wit expose the murky and arcane workings of the backrooms of mortgage origination in a way that is fluid and understandable for even the dimmest of bulbs... such as moi.
I don't mine either format. Although I can't imagine people complaining about the old one...how lazy can people be? "It's sooooo hard, CR and Tanta... scrolling down for an extra second to see more free content... please, please, I demand you change the format!" Sheesh.
Marcus Aurelius said: "I hope i irritate the piss out of you. Punk."
No, MA, you don't irritate me. You're really more of an infliction. You know, you are more like a pimple on an elephants ass. Just an annoyance. Please stay on topic. No one cares about your politics on THIS blog. You are being just plain RUDE.
No, CR--in my humble but idiosyncratic opinion you're making a mistake. Do you think the illustrious bloggers Mish or Karl Denninger would resort to the "read More" ploy? No, they give us the full post--charts, graphs. invective, warts and all. Please, if people want it, give them "the full Tanta."
Under your old system, if I ever wanted to skip over one of the incomparably brilliant (though interminable) posts by Tanta, I could simply scroll down quickly until I reached the end. That scrolling to the end of Tanta's posts, by the way, is the only exercise I get.
CR, I dislike the Read More link. One more click. Usually I read the whole post (except for those Tanta posts - you know the ones I am talking about - sorry!) and then hit the comment link. Now another click on the middle.
I like what I assume you're referring to as "those Tanta posts" (the Ubernerds?), and would dislike the extra click on those as well. Daily Kos has these links (where relevant, not all posts), but they have an explicit agenda so maximizing front-page space makes sense there. I don't see this blog as having the same purpose. I'll live with it either way...it's CR's and Tanta's blog, not mine. But my $0.02 (1 Euro Cent) is ditch the Read More links.
Turbotax is f****d up again. Per that verklempt piece of crap, my deductions are higher than the income and yet when I go back to review the details, everything's apparently okay.
Note to CR: Last time I use that crap. If you start advertising for that ()%&()#&%(#*% firm, I'm gone.
Another thing - anyone that thinks the rotten-to-the-core financial system has some US political party affiliation is nuts. Greed is an emotion - not a political belief. Plenty of grifters on both sides of the trough.
The world's major banks promised Wednesday to impose new guidelines on themselves to ease the current financial crisis, in a bid to head off new regulations that would hurt their businesses.
Shortly before a meeting Friday of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 7 nations, the Institute for International Finance, a global association of financial institutions, said in a report that new strictures on openness, ratings agencies and valuation of complex securities were priorities for industry action, not government fiat.
"We are resolved to do the utmost to clean our houses first and not to let regulators do it for us," said Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank and chairman of the group, which is based in Washington.
barely,
One party has a history of supporting policies that concentrate wealth in the top 10%. The other has a history of spreading it out, by a variety of means. Whether you like those "means" or not, we cannot survive much longer as a nation if the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Frankly, we may already be past the point of no return, but one has to hope...
But I do agree there are plenty of shysters on both sides.
Here's another vote to keep the graphs and long posts on the main page. On the more hectic days when I can't make time to read everything you and Tanta post, it's very efficient to scan down the main page to see what's there, check out the graphs, and make a note of things to come back to later.
Don't Do It (9:40 pm) put their finger on why firedoglake grew less interesting to me. I never thought much about it, but since the redesign it just fell off my daily reading list. Now I'm convinced that this happened because most of the good stuff is hidden behind the "Read more" wall, which makes it less likely that I'll see it, unless I'm fanatical about following the "Read more" on each post just to see what's there.
Another data point is Digby's Hullabaloo. Large, wonderful, Tanta-post-sized pieces, all on the main page for easy reading or skimming, as time permits.
I just went through my blogroll and made note of which ones use "Read more" and which don't.. and I'm even more convinced now that those links disrupt the reader's train of thought, make it harder to read the site's posts, and make it more likely that a reader will completely miss some of the site's best work.
That said, I am very thankful that I have the opportunity to read your site, no matter what format it's in.
I bet there are others like me who like to read the Blog's content even when at locations disconnected from the Internet.
In the old mode, I could just navigate to the Blog, let the page load and be out the door to whatever place I needed to go and read the content en route, while disconnected from the 'net at a site, etc.
In this Read More world, I can't see any of the content past the teaser and needless to say, clicking on all the Read More links just as I'm heading out the door isn't a convenient element to add to one's workflow.
I'm willing to give the new format a chance per CR's request.
But I think a different Kevin has a point. I can't stand reading DK anymore, and one reason is that the interface makes the dreck dreckier. You have to step right into the muck before you notice what you're standing in; much nicer to skim quickly for nuggets.
However, since I read every word posted here by CR or Tanta, none of this may make any difference anyway.
I detest "Read More". I've all but given up reading FireDogLake since they made the change.
To me, the "Read More" approach gives a site the feel of a local news program or a copy of USA Today.
Two big negatives for me:
1) Most sites with "Read More" put too little info before the RM. I have to click to learn enough to know if I want to read the whole thing. With full articles, I can scan as I scroll and pause to read as desired.
2) Sites with RM inevitably end up with a springling of posts with almost no "More" to read after the click.
Have you considered other alternatives that would allow readers to scan headlines before drilling in? What if the top 10 lines of the blog had the 10 most recent posts? Scan, click, and go.
I've learned more useful knowledge about the mortgage industry just by scrolling through a few screens of a Tanta Ubernerd post than I learned from months of reading and listening to financial news report.
FWIW - I was taught in my "Effective Presentations" class not to hide your bullet points and expose them one by one - cos you are teasing the audience and distracts them into wondering what's been hidden.
Same with the "Read More" - its an irritant - but not much more than that. I can deal with it.
I don't like "Read More" on every post.... certain long ones. This blog certainly has changed in the past 3 years. You're way too prolific CR now... when was the last time we had a post on the deficit?
Went driving around the neighborhood and picked up some fliers. Saw a middle class home listed by a "Luxury" real estate agent. My wife and I laughed... they really did have a nice color brocure.
Another house on the same block for sale. On the flier the relitter had some financing options.
a) 5 year Fixed ARM, 15% down, 6.225%
b) 5 year fixed ARM, 20% down, 6%
c) 5 year fixed ARM, 30% down, 5.875%
Still advertising 100% financing available.
Sigh As long as people are still able to get monopoly financing the housing prices are still going to be too high for anyone that's been sane enough to sit out of the market anyway.
p.s. I'm very disheartened to see the Tanta-bashing. Sometimes it takes a lot of words to convey understanding of a complex idea. Tanta deserves a LOT of props for having superior knowledge of her chosen topics, the ability to explain these complex ideas such that us mere semi-nerds can understand it, and especially, for being willing to put in the effort required to write long, uber-nerd posts for a blog that anyone can read for free.
I could just say "Tanta rocks," and it would be true, but sometimes more words really do help the reader to understand what the writer is trying to say.
I forgot negative #3 with the "Read More" approach:
3) "Read More" does something amazing - it makes a web page look as boring as a paper telephone book.
Another vote against "read more". Too hard to decide if I want to read more or not. Except on this site I'm going to read everything anyway, so the button is superfluous.
BTW- I love the two distinctive styles between CR and Tanta, it gives the site a lot of energy. I love the way Tanta's been cracking down on the commenters during her watch, and I hope it spills over into the other threads where some people are getting a little too caught up in their personal idealogical feuds. Yeah, you know who you all are. I wouldn't mind it so much if it were maintained at the level of wit that I know they are capable of, because I love the other posts they've done, but it just seems to head downhill. And that's why we ask for the fig leaf of economics and finance over the political rhetoric.
I'm also not in favor of the rating stars, but I can see where they have some utility for the average reader/browser. But hey, the CR readers are all above average!
And further in my new position of self -described sycophant, I think you need to remember your position as the best is because you're pulling us along in your wake. The best attracts the best! Don't worry about the ones who say they don't get it; they can struggle along learning until they do.
I prefer no "read more". "Read More" is OK on very long posts, but not preferred. "Read More" is really annoying on relatively short posts or when there is in fact really no more to read.
Tanta is, indeed, a national treasure: terrific voice and attitude; abundant knowledge; ability to explain complex and unfamiliar topics clearly enough that I'm now shaking my head in disagreement almost any time I hear a journalist say something about the mortgage mess; and, best of all, she stops writing when she's finishes what needs to be said, not when she hits some number of lines or words.
I also prefer it the old way, especially as I read the blog primarily via RSS readers. I understand if the objective is to get more clicks but otherwise it really doesn't make much sense to me.
I am just amazed how stupid so many people sound who hold influential positions in finance, government or the media. I told you I do work for hedge funds, asset managers, brokerage firms, etc. and mostly they also have their heads in the sand these days.
On shows like Kudlow's, there is literally an institutionalized cult of stupidity, in which the stupidest people get invited back to reinforce each other's weak and repetitive arguments.
Last week, Richard Russell declared pompously that the stock market is in an "epic bull market." Why? Because it's been that way for 30 years, and the odds are it won't change after such a run.
A lot of the stupidity is fear and some of it is inflexible thinking, or inability to recognize patterns of change as they gain momentum. When those changes are mostly negative, the recognition radar gets jammed by a lot of flack deliberately thrown in the air by powerful people (you know their names).
So, I come here for the open-minded intelligence in an age of stupidity, and that goes for (almost) all of you. But especially the bloggers who are able to create and nurture this culture in this unusual time.
Everyone who wants to meddle with CR's toy should put their $money$ where their mouth is and vote by TIP JAR! Add on .01 to your contribution to vote NOT or, add on .02 to vote for READ MORE and .00 for MORE TIME
I have a suggestion. The idea of the "read more" is a nice way to consolidate a topic (by you guys) but I happen to enjoy the comments you made as an intro, to set a tone for the blog. I guess setting the tone can be done in fewer words and then "read more".
Nonetheless, what about "forcing" that type of "read more" into this blog format, i.e, what if each reader was cut off @ about 50 words +/- and then a little blue link takes over and if readers want to read blog comments over 50 words, they click on the link to "read more". I thinkmit only fair that if your going to be more efficient on the front page @ CR, then why not force consolidation inside the blog area (theme parks)??
In regard to one other potentially related area, I posted here today as some dumb alias and somehow pissed of Tanta -- which was not my intention, but now as you are changing the format, I wonder if reducing content by bloggers is a possible circuit breaker which could be used to keep posts from being too long and off topic.
Does that make sense, or does that piss people off? I felt like I wasnt that far out of line...
If I have been a major problem for people I'm sorry, I just try to add content and stories and contribute in a positive way.
The stars received analysis and comments from judges Debbie Reynolds, Brian McKnight, and Gavin Polone before the online polls were opened for the audience to vote. The judges unanimously chose Clint Black and Mya to move on, but the at-home audience had different ideas. Once the votes were tallied the two stars chosen to move on in the tournament were Sasha Cohen and Clint Black.
CR minions, practicing for the real thing in November!
"
Sometimes I will cover the service desk so a team member can take a lunch/break. When I do I sometimes process peoples credit card payments which lets me see how much they owe and how much they are paying. There are tons of people with THOUSANDS of dollars on their card only making minimum payments. These balances are usually at interest rates over 20%. Then there are people bringing in checks for the full amount, but they are BALANCE TRANSFER checks.... they are just moving it to other cards.
But that isn't what really worries me. What worries me is the changes corporate is making. I have worked here for years, and in the last 4 months I have seen more changes than all that time combined.
We are getting emails all the time from corporate telling us to reduce costs anyway we can. We recently got one telling us to start pulling fluorescent light bulbs, that we don't need all of them in order to provide illumination.... and those bulbs barely use any power.
Corporate has instructed all stores to lower the AC. It has been lowered enough to the point we get complaints from team members and customers.
Corporate has sent us emails telling us to make sure we fill bags to the absolute possibly maximum. They are not even sending us large bags anymore to some stores.
Corporate has recently eliminated (what I would estimate based on how many positions we lost vs the thousands of stores we have) several thousnad management positions at all levels of management at stores. This NEVER APPEARED ON THE NEWS! I suspect because it was not a traditional lay off. What corporate basically told us was "Your position is eliminated, but you are not laid off. Once you quit/get your self fired/whatever your position just won't be filled again" So we are basically slowly losing jobs as people company wide quit, get fired, etc.... but the jobs are never filled again. So basically we are cutting jobs, but the way it is being done is preventing it from getting reported in the media or tracked by the government as job losses." MyProps.org - "I work retail and I can tell you something big is definitely coming" - Housing Bubble and Bear Links
I posted here today as some dumb alias and somehow pissed of Tanta
Hint: When Tanta's on duty and responding to comments, (especially about her posts) she feels as if she's engaging in a conversation. She hates the cross talk. You can get by with it any other time.
Thanks for the reply,
Now if I could just use a spell checker and edit out the typos and misprinted junk...gheeeze. Maybe I'll just stay on the nightshift and take up Spanish....and get out of the economic insanity business.
To all those weary, phone-reading world-travelers. Poke A finger in your eye.
To all those whiny, squeaky wheels, I present to you a great gift.
CR/Tanta, you should train a machine learning algorithm with good and bad threads and then you can crunch some data and see if changes make negative or positive changes in comment thread quality.
Seriously though, this makes phone reading really painful. Is there some way to export a separate RSS feed of the full post so that I can read it with an RSS reader uninterrupted?
I don't like this change one bit as I'll be using up quite a bit more of my company's bandwidth during my "breaks" reading CR click on Read More. It'll surely register on the censor's radar and will result on CR being blocked permanently.
Thank you for those valuable clues and hints, I'm sure someday I'll get it and by then it may not matter. The sad part is that this is all OT and I feel I'm in a land of forbidden fruit eating sweet meats, wallowing in drunken greed and wondering when I'll be zapped for my inability to focus.
Calculations by market analysts of the "option-adjusted spread" on mortgages suggest that the cost of these benefits conferred by fixed-rate mortgages can range from 0.5 percent to 1.2 percent, raising homeowners' annual after-tax mortgage payments by several thousand dollars. Indeed, recent research within the Federal Reserve suggests that many homeowners might have saved tens of thousands of dollars had they held adjustable-rate mortgages rather than fixed-rate mortgages during the past decade, though this would not have been the case, of course, had interest rates trended sharply upward.
**P.S: This is top-notch shit, so your welcome in advance if I never see you again... (see Goldman Level 3 unobservable assets.... I mean, try to find them).
Go ahead Benny, save your buddies. Bet ya can't push the gini coefficient much further... Maybe good ole Diebold will put in a quickie FICO check in the next version of their e-voting software. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer
I'm not in your target audience, but I want to say that I hate the "read more" lines you had in your posts yesterday.
I dislike them in general since they break up my reading and make it hard to scan through text.
I particularly dislike the ones you had which had "read more" even when there wasn't anything more to read. If you must put them at the bottom of every post, would it be possible to end each post with some sort of obvious closing line so one can tell if "read more" goes to additional content or just to comments? I understand, though, that this would be bad because then every single post would be cluttered with a meaningless line at the bottom.
I like long posts. Long posts have lots of explanation while short posts can be sort of cryptic.
I was hoping for, er, more . . .
especially now that Goldman Sachs has gotten out of Dodge . . .
On the topic of reading more, and deteriorating lending standards, have a look at what a Vancouver BC real estate agent has to say about financing a purchase in North America's frothiest market, at: The Best Real Estate Anywhere!, under the title "Creative Financing with Everyone Onside!"
First with the new format?
98.45% of all visitors will want to hit the "read more" button.
Read more is OK, but PLEASE don't make me click it just to read the 21'st line of the post. Only on the multiscreen posts does it make any sense.
And... "read more" is currently broken and showing even when there is NOTHING more to read.
Save the clicks!
CR,
The "Read More" feature impedes a plain-ol' text search of your posts. Needless to say, they are awesome and compell me from time to time to search for text that I read a while back. The "Read More" will make this more difficult for simpletons like me.
DOJ Announces National Tax Defier Initiative
This activity not only wastes limited governmental investigative, administrative and judicial resources, but it also fundamentally undermines the public’s confidence in the fairness of the tax system.
HAHAHA. The government would never waste precious limited resources if it weren't for those dirty defiers!
Seriously, only employees with-hold, right? All the businesses have to cough up at the end of the year. With all the "credit turmoil", how many businesses are going to unable to cough up? How much of the collected taxes are borrowed each April?
Jack, we will use the read more for the longer posts.
For existing posts, read more goes nowhere.
Unfortunately the read more will always be on the post - so for short posts I'll make it clear there is nothing after the click.
I'm trying to save people time - so they can scan down the page easier to see the posts and read the ones that interest them.
Best to all
anya, this is probably the number one request I've received - lets try it out and see. If people hate it, I'll remove it.
Best Wishes.
Bill - I wish I could convince you to give Calc Risk its own LOOK, and re-organize a bit. Still its ALL about content, so the site will always be great, but I think you can add structure the site so that it is scalable for future proprietary tools/products, such as your newsletter. Hopefully down the road, there are more tools here.
Anyway, looking forward to meeting you at Inman Conf in SF!
When the music stops, in terms of blogging, things will be complicated... We're still blogging.
If you are taking votes, I hate the whole "read more" concept - needing to read a lot weeds out those w/ short attention spans. If you are not taking votes, please ignore my first sentence. Appreciate your efforts either way.
Why would anyone not read more? To watch TV?
What Jack said regarding the 21st line.
I actually hate the "read more" because all to often it is just a link to comments. If I want to read the comments, or make a comment, I click on the "comments" link.
Please don't use read more just to link to comments, it is quite annoying.
Also, don't be ashamed of your (mostly Tanta's) long posts. Brevity is a great quality, but it's of highest value when the author can't write, and here there are two bloggers who can.
CR, thanks for the hard work. You deserve more $.
Sorry, I posted my comment and saw the Sasha Cohen video and realize it may have sounded like a criticism of that - not at all. Sometimes TV is good.
Firedoglake.com did this and it completely ruined their site, in my opinion. The new format is uninteresting and "all the same, all the time" and each and every post becomes routine and boring.
For example, will all graphs have to be on the subsequent "read more" page? They can really draw a reader into the story if they appear on the main page.
This will not matter for long-time readers; they are devoted followers. For newcomers, you are probably shooting yourself in the foot. Maybe you don't need additional readers and the usual cast of characters suits you just fine. But if the goal is to reach as many as possible, visuals can really help.
Warning: serious butt kissing
I find I want to hit a "Read More" button even after the longest Tanta posts! We want more CR!
A vote from the bleachers
The old layout worked well for me. (And I thought "Read More" was like a public service announcement meant to prompt to hit the book stalls at Amazon more often.)
Was I hallucinating? Or were there ratings stars on the front page for a few moments?
Tanta definitely doesn't need a read more. Love her writing just the way it is.
-- Yahoo! Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are close to striking a deal to combine their Internet operations, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
WHATTTTTT !!!!!
it's friggin aol...
i think we need a post just on this.
read more
CR,
Can we get an analysis on the Citigroup 12B "sale?"
I wrote this comment on Seeking Alpha:
OK, got it. Citigroup borrows money from the Fed window to lend to a group of LBO artists in order for them to purchase their own bad debts back from Citigroup (who also is throwing in a free PUT option on the asset so that Citigroup doesn't have to hold the asset on their books and write it down this quarter). This way they get to write down the debt at a later point when it goes bad, artificially inflating revenue for this quarter's earnings. It looks like another form of an off-books vehicle that caused all this mess in the first place. This is moving the chairs from the deck of the Titanic to the top of the iceberg with which it's going to collide. And then they'll rearrange them next quarter. And win the Nobel prize in economics.
I'm sort of putting things together here, but I think I missed something along the way.
Great idea.
Now if you could do the same thing for all of Jas Jain's posts...
Shnaps, JJ doesn't post, he comments, you born-and-bred American dope!
Mercifully, all he can do is comment, yes. Good catch, AB.
I am such a born & bred DOPE! Doh!
I have Greasemonkey but I'm not a codenerd so I have no idea what to do with it. Scripts? Are we making a movie? (Mrs.B would want Christian Slater to play me.)
But JJ is only funny, so it's not all that necessary.
YahooTimeWarnerAOL Inc.
Or
TimeWarnerAOLYahoo Inc.
or
AOLYahooTimeWarner Inc.
or
TimeWarnerYahooAOL Inc.
Take your pick.
I'm kinda keen on #3
Chris
I actually look for the longer posts to get immersed in ... that's where the detail and the real information is. If I am scrolling through the blog and see a particularily long post, that's what I stop and read, versus just browsing for headlines.
YAOLhoo Mother f***er!
and skip the TimeWarner altogether. It's so 20th Century anyway.
Great idea. Can you also make it easy to ignore certain posters (I won't name names). An "Ignore Button" would make my day. Some posters seem to bring politics into almost EVERY thread. Very annoying!
FWIW, the page down button works fine for longer posts, and the contents archive on the left is a good quick topic list. Besides, many of your beautiful graphs will be hidden.
It also seems to be pandering to the Tanta-ists.
I vote for the old layout.
Is this the method I mentioned that another blogger used about a week ago, or is this a better method someone else worked out?
All, I appreciate the feedback. If it's OK, let's try it for a few days. My main focus is on the content, but I'd like readers to enjoy the experience (while they read mostly bad news - unfortunately).
I've tried to follow a few guidelines - like links that take you to the new page without opening a new window or inserting an Ad. I've tried to kill all flashing, sound, pop-up, pop-under, etc. ads. And we don't put ads in the content.
Tanta and I appreciate everyone that visits this site - and we try to respond to requests for changes - and make the site easy to read.
I'm going to change the page layout some within the next few weeks - hopefully it will be less cluttered and more readable.
Once again thanks for the feedback,
Best to all
CR
I'll give it a whirl.... I mean I'm not going stop coming here
Maybe a survey monkey after
Actually, I think it's the antiTantaites you're of Anon.
IMHO, it's Tanta's interminably long posts that are so much fun to fall into and lose all track of time and space.
And a part of what makes this place unique.
mndean, I don't really know. I found this on a blogger forum.
I wish the "read more" was optional for each post - that will be a problem for shorter posts.
Best Wishes.
ades, I'll run a poll on this.
Best Wishes.
Sweet! As always love the blog, thanks for all the hardwork!
ades, I put a poll up on the left sidebar.
Best Wishes.
Oh, thanks heavens for this change. This is especially appreciated for Tanta's excellent posts.
Dumb guys need short posts
Tanta should Haiku all posts
We are all dumb now
I don't care if I have to manually translate the site from ancient Greek to English, I'm still coming here everyday.
I did like the point about having the charts BEFORE read more so that it can draw reader into the story.
CR:
I really don't mind either way.
I've developed this little weekend activity of seeing how many lines Tanta writes on Saturdays(other weekend was champ, I believe).
That said, if you really want to deliver what readers want, can I have a pony?
cant stand Marcus Aurelius | 04.09.08 - 10:13 pm
Why don't you grow some nads. I hope i irritate the piss out of you. Punk.
CR, I dislike the Read More link. One more click. Usually I read the whole post (except for those Tanta posts - you know the ones I am talking about - sorry!) and then hit the comment link. Now another click on the middle.
May be as a compromise, use Read More only for the "those" posts, and leave it out for normal posts.
CR, it your place and I'll visit here no matter what
but got to be honest, i liked it as it was
as for long posts...i have no problem...im not adhd...and even if i was this place is gold... you and tanta are spot on.
roubini's "read more" often locks my computer on Firefox and i have to switch to safari...a nuisance.
but hey, like i said, you are the host...I'm the guest and I'll abide by your rules...but read more is not my preference.
Bloomberg News Video
Moelis Says Wall Street Banks May Cut 35% of Jobs
bring back the forest path!
U.S. dollar falls below the 7-yuan level
Sheesh! what's with all the Tanta bashing? Tanta is what makes this place unique. No offense, CR. You work hard too at bringing all sorts of depravity to light.
Tanta and her wry wit expose the murky and arcane workings of the backrooms of mortgage origination in a way that is fluid and understandable for even the dimmest of bulbs... such as moi.
Tanta's a National Treasure.
I think I'll like the new format. It's an improvment to my favorite blog, and I thank you for taking the time to do it.
Maybe "Read More" should be the first line of all of Tanta's posts...
No need on yours, CR.
I don't mine either format. Although I can't imagine people complaining about the old one...how lazy can people be? "It's sooooo hard, CR and Tanta... scrolling down for an extra second to see more free content... please, please, I demand you change the format!" Sheesh.
CR-
Thanks for all that you do, regardless of format. This site has been invaluable.
From a long time lurker.
Marcus Aurelius said: "I hope i irritate the piss out of you. Punk."
No, MA, you don't irritate me. You're really more of an infliction. You know, you are more like a pimple on an elephants ass. Just an annoyance. Please stay on topic. No one cares about your politics on THIS blog. You are being just plain RUDE.
Please don't do the "Read More".
I'm a long time reader-way before Tanta, back in the days of the virtuous and vicious cycle graphs.
I love reading this blog. I feel proud when I get through a Tanta post. Don't change.
Too lazy to spell check, I guess. Mine = mind.
traunches what happened to the love?
cant stand Marcus Aurelius | 04.09.08 - 11:08 pm
You are weak.
I vote to get the nature scene back on the top of the CR page.
ades, my username got caught up in a wave of downgrades a few months ago. Pretty soon it will be "tranches of grumpy."
Marcus Aurelius writes:
cant stand Marcus Aurelius | 04.09.08 - 11:08 pm
BTW:
Q: Why don't you man-up and post under your usual moniker?
A: Meow.
I vote to get the nature scene back on the top of the CR page.
-barely
SECOND !
Wahhooo! ! ! !
Dont worry traunches I'm sure a swf will give you boost.... or are they done....
No, CR--in my humble but idiosyncratic opinion you're making a mistake. Do you think the illustrious bloggers Mish or Karl Denninger would resort to the "read More" ploy? No, they give us the full post--charts, graphs. invective, warts and all. Please, if people want it, give them "the full Tanta."
Under your old system, if I ever wanted to skip over one of the incomparably brilliant (though interminable) posts by Tanta, I could simply scroll down quickly until I reached the end. That scrolling to the end of Tanta's posts, by the way, is the only exercise I get.
Further Recession confirmation tomorrow with chain store reports. Could be a tough day to be long.
barely,
If recession is confirmed tomorrow, you'll need to be long. Dow up 500.
Haven't you been following the markets?
CR, I dislike the Read More link. One more click. Usually I read the whole post (except for those Tanta posts - you know the ones I am talking about - sorry!) and then hit the comment link. Now another click on the middle.
I like what I assume you're referring to as "those Tanta posts" (the Ubernerds?), and would dislike the extra click on those as well. Daily Kos has these links (where relevant, not all posts), but they have an explicit agenda so maximizing front-page space makes sense there. I don't see this blog as having the same purpose. I'll live with it either way...it's CR's and Tanta's blog, not mine. But my $0.02 (1 Euro Cent) is ditch the Read More links.
Had to come back for some reality.
Turbotax is f****d up again. Per that verklempt piece of crap, my deductions are higher than the income and yet when I go back to review the details, everything's apparently okay.
Note to CR: Last time I use that crap. If you start advertising for that ()%&()#&%(#*% firm, I'm gone.
rant off
Another thing - anyone that thinks the rotten-to-the-core financial system has some US political party affiliation is nuts. Greed is an emotion - not a political belief. Plenty of grifters on both sides of the trough.
CR, This is the first blog I have ever participated in. Up until 6 months ago, I was a workaholic (no life).
Because I enjoyed this blog, I decided to check others. I haven't found anyone better. This is truly in my opinion, the best one out there.
Not brown nosing, just saying what I think. If it ain't broke.....
But I'll give the "read more" link a shot, and who knows; maybe this blog will get even better.
OT
The world's major banks promised Wednesday to impose new guidelines on themselves to ease the current financial crisis, in a bid to head off new regulations that would hurt their businesses.
Shortly before a meeting Friday of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 7 nations, the Institute for International Finance, a global association of financial institutions, said in a report that new strictures on openness, ratings agencies and valuation of complex securities were priorities for industry action, not government fiat.
"We are resolved to do the utmost to clean our houses first and not to let regulators do it for us," said Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank and chairman of the group, which is based in Washington.
Major banks promise new guidelines to try to head off further regulation - The New York Times
These guys need a good beat down.
barely,
One party has a history of supporting policies that concentrate wealth in the top 10%. The other has a history of spreading it out, by a variety of means. Whether you like those "means" or not, we cannot survive much longer as a nation if the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Frankly, we may already be past the point of no return, but one has to hope...
But I do agree there are plenty of shysters on both sides.
CR,
Don't let jokers who don't have anything substantive to contribute distract you with their idiotic formatting requests.
Just do what feels natural and convenient to you. Most of us have been thrilled with your analysis. That's what we come for.
For the record, I dislike the 'Read More' format. Too much clicking and backing out for my tastes.
"Greed is an emotion - not a political belief. Plenty of grifters on both sides of the trough."
Absofuckinglutly
"We are resolved to do the utmost to clean our houses first and not to let regulators do it for us"
Do we get a Vote button for that?
Here's another vote to keep the graphs and long posts on the main page. On the more hectic days when I can't make time to read everything you and Tanta post, it's very efficient to scan down the main page to see what's there, check out the graphs, and make a note of things to come back to later.
Don't Do It (9:40 pm) put their finger on why firedoglake grew less interesting to me. I never thought much about it, but since the redesign it just fell off my daily reading list. Now I'm convinced that this happened because most of the good stuff is hidden behind the "Read more" wall, which makes it less likely that I'll see it, unless I'm fanatical about following the "Read more" on each post just to see what's there.
Another data point is Digby's Hullabaloo. Large, wonderful, Tanta-post-sized pieces, all on the main page for easy reading or skimming, as time permits.
I just went through my blogroll and made note of which ones use "Read more" and which don't.. and I'm even more convinced now that those links disrupt the reader's train of thought, make it harder to read the site's posts, and make it more likely that a reader will completely miss some of the site's best work.
That said, I am very thankful that I have the opportunity to read your site, no matter what format it's in.
Marcus Aurelius said: Why don't you man-up and post under your usual moniker?
Simple!!!! I wanted to get YOUR attention. Smart move on my part. It worked. Let's chat more tomorrow. Ta Ta
cant stand Marcus Aurelius | 04.09.08 - 11:44 pm
I'm flattered, but I don't swing that way.
CR,
I bet there are others like me who like to read the Blog's content even when at locations disconnected from the Internet.
In the old mode, I could just navigate to the Blog, let the page load and be out the door to whatever place I needed to go and read the content en route, while disconnected from the 'net at a site, etc.
In this Read More world, I can't see any of the content past the teaser and needless to say, clicking on all the Read More links just as I'm heading out the door isn't a convenient element to add to one's workflow.
Down with 'Read More'!
I'm willing to give the new format a chance per CR's request.
But I think a different Kevin has a point. I can't stand reading DK anymore, and one reason is that the interface makes the dreck dreckier. You have to step right into the muck before you notice what you're standing in; much nicer to skim quickly for nuggets.
However, since I read every word posted here by CR or Tanta, none of this may make any difference anyway.
Re: Curious
You need to try the application 'Download them All!
I detest "Read More". I've all but given up reading FireDogLake since they made the change.
To me, the "Read More" approach gives a site the feel of a local news program or a copy of USA Today.
Two big negatives for me:
1) Most sites with "Read More" put too little info before the RM. I have to click to learn enough to know if I want to read the whole thing. With full articles, I can scan as I scroll and pause to read as desired.
2) Sites with RM inevitably end up with a springling of posts with almost no "More" to read after the click.
Have you considered other alternatives that would allow readers to scan headlines before drilling in? What if the top 10 lines of the blog had the 10 most recent posts? Scan, click, and go.
I've learned more useful knowledge about the mortgage industry just by scrolling through a few screens of a Tanta Ubernerd post than I learned from months of reading and listening to financial news report.
FWIW - I was taught in my "Effective Presentations" class not to hide your bullet points and expose them one by one - cos you are teasing the audience and distracts them into wondering what's been hidden.
Same with the "Read More" - its an irritant - but not much more than that. I can deal with it.
-K
barely-
the yosemite webcams have been down for over a month now
hope they will be back online soon
Error
I don't like "Read More" on every post.... certain long ones. This blog certainly has changed in the past 3 years. You're way too prolific CR now... when was the last time we had a post on the deficit?
Went driving around the neighborhood and picked up some fliers. Saw a middle class home listed by a "Luxury" real estate agent. My wife and I laughed... they really did have a nice color brocure.
Another house on the same block for sale. On the flier the relitter had some financing options.
a) 5 year Fixed ARM, 15% down, 6.225%
b) 5 year fixed ARM, 20% down, 6%
c) 5 year fixed ARM, 30% down, 5.875%
Still advertising 100% financing available.
Sigh As long as people are still able to get monopoly financing the housing prices are still going to be too high for anyone that's been sane enough to sit out of the market anyway.
p.s. I'm very disheartened to see the Tanta-bashing. Sometimes it takes a lot of words to convey understanding of a complex idea. Tanta deserves a LOT of props for having superior knowledge of her chosen topics, the ability to explain these complex ideas such that us mere semi-nerds can understand it, and especially, for being willing to put in the effort required to write long, uber-nerd posts for a blog that anyone can read for free.
I could just say "Tanta rocks," and it would be true, but sometimes more words really do help the reader to understand what the writer is trying to say.
I forgot negative #3 with the "Read More" approach:
3) "Read More" does something amazing - it makes a web page look as boring as a paper telephone book.
Lifeless.
Dude, you killed your blog page.
CR: Re: read more
How about having different starting points for each possibility:
Blogger: Page not found
Blogger: Page not found
Blogger: Page not found
Blogger: Page not found
That way people (and other readers) could bookmark the one they want.
I usually read CR on a pc or mac. I have tried on my Treo, but it was too big. Now, with readless, it might work.
Martin Cohe
I enjoy Tanta and all of her posting goodliness... she's the best value in the blogosphere!
I don't notice any Tanta bashing... at least none of it that was serious.
Sheila Blair: Vacant houses contribute to crime and erode the tax base.
We're all criminals now!
Another vote against "read more". Too hard to decide if I want to read more or not. Except on this site I'm going to read everything anyway, so the button is superfluous.
BTW- I love the two distinctive styles between CR and Tanta, it gives the site a lot of energy. I love the way Tanta's been cracking down on the commenters during her watch, and I hope it spills over into the other threads where some people are getting a little too caught up in their personal idealogical feuds. Yeah, you know who you all are. I wouldn't mind it so much if it were maintained at the level of wit that I know they are capable of, because I love the other posts they've done, but it just seems to head downhill. And that's why we ask for the fig leaf of economics and finance over the political rhetoric.
I'm also not in favor of the rating stars, but I can see where they have some utility for the average reader/browser. But hey, the CR readers are all above average!
And further in my new position of self -described sycophant, I think you need to remember your position as the best is because you're pulling us along in your wake. The best attracts the best! Don't worry about the ones who say they don't get it; they can struggle along learning until they do.
I prefer no "read more". "Read More" is OK on very long posts, but not preferred. "Read More" is really annoying on relatively short posts or when there is in fact really no more to read.
Tanta is, indeed, a national treasure: terrific voice and attitude; abundant knowledge; ability to explain complex and unfamiliar topics clearly enough that I'm now shaking my head in disagreement almost any time I hear a journalist say something about the mortgage mess; and, best of all, she stops writing when she's finishes what needs to be said, not when she hits some number of lines or words.
"Read More" is the anti-Tanta.
Curious-
I do the same thing... I will open multiple tabs as a work-around.
mock turtle-
have you tried CR on Camino?
CR,
I also prefer it the old way, especially as I read the blog primarily via RSS readers. I understand if the objective is to get more clicks but otherwise it really doesn't make much sense to me.
I don't come here for the layout, so whatever layout CR wants is okay with me.
There's a really excellent article here called "The Great Dumbing Down of the Market."
The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter News Pick-ups: The Great Dumbing Down of the Market
I am just amazed how stupid so many people sound who hold influential positions in finance, government or the media. I told you I do work for hedge funds, asset managers, brokerage firms, etc. and mostly they also have their heads in the sand these days.
On shows like Kudlow's, there is literally an institutionalized cult of stupidity, in which the stupidest people get invited back to reinforce each other's weak and repetitive arguments.
Last week, Richard Russell declared pompously that the stock market is in an "epic bull market." Why? Because it's been that way for 30 years, and the odds are it won't change after such a run.
A lot of the stupidity is fear and some of it is inflexible thinking, or inability to recognize patterns of change as they gain momentum. When those changes are mostly negative, the recognition radar gets jammed by a lot of flack deliberately thrown in the air by powerful people (you know their names).
So, I come here for the open-minded intelligence in an age of stupidity, and that goes for (almost) all of you. But especially the bloggers who are able to create and nurture this culture in this unusual time.
Everyone who wants to meddle with CR's toy should put their $money$ where their mouth is and vote by TIP JAR! Add on .01 to your contribution to vote NOT or, add on .02 to vote for READ MORE and .00 for MORE TIME
Get tippin'
Read more.
Hey CR/Tanta
I have a suggestion. The idea of the "read more" is a nice way to consolidate a topic (by you guys) but I happen to enjoy the comments you made as an intro, to set a tone for the blog. I guess setting the tone can be done in fewer words and then "read more".
Nonetheless, what about "forcing" that type of "read more" into this blog format, i.e, what if each reader was cut off @ about 50 words +/- and then a little blue link takes over and if readers want to read blog comments over 50 words, they click on the link to "read more". I thinkmit only fair that if your going to be more efficient on the front page @ CR, then why not force consolidation inside the blog area (theme parks)??
In regard to one other potentially related area, I posted here today as some dumb alias and somehow pissed of Tanta -- which was not my intention, but now as you are changing the format, I wonder if reducing content by bloggers is a possible circuit breaker which could be used to keep posts from being too long and off topic.
Does that make sense, or does that piss people off? I felt like I wasnt that far out of line...
If I have been a major problem for people I'm sorry, I just try to add content and stories and contribute in a positive way.
The stars received analysis and comments from judges Debbie Reynolds, Brian McKnight, and Gavin Polone before the online polls were opened for the audience to vote. The judges unanimously chose Clint Black and Mya to move on, but the at-home audience had different ideas. Once the votes were tallied the two stars chosen to move on in the tournament were Sasha Cohen and Clint Black.
CR minions, practicing for the real thing in November!
Interesting news from the retail sector:
"
Sometimes I will cover the service desk so a team member can take a lunch/break. When I do I sometimes process peoples credit card payments which lets me see how much they owe and how much they are paying. There are tons of people with THOUSANDS of dollars on their card only making minimum payments. These balances are usually at interest rates over 20%. Then there are people bringing in checks for the full amount, but they are BALANCE TRANSFER checks.... they are just moving it to other cards.
But that isn't what really worries me. What worries me is the changes corporate is making. I have worked here for years, and in the last 4 months I have seen more changes than all that time combined.
We are getting emails all the time from corporate telling us to reduce costs anyway we can. We recently got one telling us to start pulling fluorescent light bulbs, that we don't need all of them in order to provide illumination.... and those bulbs barely use any power.
Corporate has instructed all stores to lower the AC. It has been lowered enough to the point we get complaints from team members and customers.
Corporate has sent us emails telling us to make sure we fill bags to the absolute possibly maximum. They are not even sending us large bags anymore to some stores.
Corporate has recently eliminated (what I would estimate based on how many positions we lost vs the thousands of stores we have) several thousnad management positions at all levels of management at stores. This NEVER APPEARED ON THE NEWS! I suspect because it was not a traditional lay off. What corporate basically told us was "Your position is eliminated, but you are not laid off. Once you quit/get your self fired/whatever your position just won't be filled again" So we are basically slowly losing jobs as people company wide quit, get fired, etc.... but the jobs are never filled again. So basically we are cutting jobs, but the way it is being done is preventing it from getting reported in the media or tracked by the government as job losses."
MyProps.org - "I work retail and I can tell you something big is definitely coming" - Housing Bubble and Bear Links
I posted here today as some dumb alias and somehow pissed of Tanta
Hint: When Tanta's on duty and responding to comments, (especially about her posts) she feels as if she's engaging in a conversation. She hates the cross talk. You can get by with it any other time.
Bloomberg
The Rise and Rise of Analyst Meredith Whitney
The Rise and Rise of Analyst Meredith Whitney: Michael Lewis - Bloomberg.com
sdtfs,
Thanks for the reply,
Now if I could just use a spell checker and edit out the typos and misprinted junk...gheeeze. Maybe I'll just stay on the nightshift and take up Spanish....and get out of the economic insanity business.
To all those weary, phone-reading world-travelers. Poke A finger in your eye.
To all those whiny, squeaky wheels, I present to you a great gift.
CR/Tanta, you should train a machine learning algorithm with good and bad threads and then you can crunch some data and see if changes make negative or positive changes in comment thread quality.
Seriously though, this makes phone reading really painful. Is there some way to export a separate RSS feed of the full post so that I can read it with an RSS reader uninterrupted?
msd&f- gizoogle her comment...might help the sting
She can't possibly stay pissed off at the TPT! BUT, trust the wisdom of sdtfs on this one...
I don't like this change one bit as I'll be using up quite a bit more of my company's bandwidth during my "breaks" reading CR click on Read More. It'll surely register on the censor's radar and will result on CR being blocked permanently.
Won't someone think about the children?!?
Christ, first The Daily Dish and now CR.
sigh
Anon 1:42,
Thank you for those valuable clues and hints, I'm sure someday I'll get it and by then it may not matter. The sad part is that this is all OT and I feel I'm in a land of forbidden fruit eating sweet meats, wallowing in drunken greed and wondering when I'll be zapped for my inability to focus.
Re:
Alan Greenspan: ARMed and dangerous. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine
Calculations by market analysts of the "option-adjusted spread" on mortgages suggest that the cost of these benefits conferred by fixed-rate mortgages can range from 0.5 percent to 1.2 percent, raising homeowners' annual after-tax mortgage payments by several thousand dollars. Indeed, recent research within the Federal Reserve suggests that many homeowners might have saved tens of thousands of dollars had they held adjustable-rate mortgages rather than fixed-rate mortgages during the past decade, though this would not have been the case, of course, had interest rates trended sharply upward.
**P.S: This is top-notch shit, so your welcome in advance if I never see you again... (see Goldman Level 3 unobservable assets.... I mean, try to find them).
Go ahead Benny, save your buddies. Bet ya can't push the gini coefficient much further... Maybe good ole Diebold will put in a quickie FICO check in the next version of their e-voting software.
Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer
What's up doc?
Didn't mean to be cryptic...here's a step by step:
Go to gizoogle.com paste her text OR paste the entire CR http; click, wait for it...then read.
I'm sure she'll forgive the Tanta Protection Team!
p.s. I think this is an Open Thread so no comment is Off Topic here
Scotty/doc/moe/anon,
To quote Humongous,
"just.....go...... away.
For the record, I'm not a fan of the "Read More" option. I hope you'll reconsider.
I'm not in your target audience, but I want to say that I hate the "read more" lines you had in your posts yesterday.
I dislike them in general since they break up my reading and make it hard to scan through text.
I particularly dislike the ones you had which had "read more" even when there wasn't anything more to read. If you must put them at the bottom of every post, would it be possible to end each post with some sort of obvious closing line so one can tell if "read more" goes to additional content or just to comments? I understand, though, that this would be bad because then every single post would be cluttered with a meaningless line at the bottom.
I like long posts. Long posts have lots of explanation while short posts can be sort of cryptic.
One more vote against "Read More," if you're counting.
I know nothing about finance and I love this blog. Thanks CR & Tanta!