Hey Everyone!
The nice folks at King Features have installed some new software for the site. As you see the comic is displayed a lot larger, which is a nice plus! Otherwise things are pretty much where they were before.
Undoubtedly, things will be tweaked in the coming weeks, but please let us know here in the comments if anything is acting weird.
Enjoy!
Hopefully the update fixes the broken auto-updater that stops working on Sundays. Sad to see the random comic function go though. I liked being able to look at random Retail strips.
Hi, NGamer! We completely changed the update mechanism, so it is no longer relying on the software that wasn’t functioning. Hope you enjoy the new site!
Hey for some reason I can no longer read or get your comic to load on to site could you please look into it?
Please remind the webmasters that not everyone has an HD monitor yet. The site doesn’t fit my 1024×768 screen.
Hi, Bob! You can make the site fit your monitor easily by going to “view” in your browser toolbar and choosing “zoom out” until you get the size you like.
Yeah, that’s a nice trick for those who know about it. For everyone else, though, it would be nice if the site scaled well to various screen sizes. I have a 1024×768 screen myself, and the site looks terrible.
The 1024×768 screen resolution is a dying size. You’re going to see less and less websites cater to this resolution as time moves forward.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/11/move-over-1024×768-the-most-popular-screen-resolution-on-the-web-is-now-1366×768/
I’m with Garth and Bob. Adjust the screen size please.
Regardless of whether or not something’s being phased out, the fact is that adjusting this could make it fit on EVERYONE’s screen instead of only some. If you want to encourage readership, it makes sense for that to be the default.
I understand your frustration but the CTRL+ and CTRL- functions to zoom in and out of a webpage should be common knowledge among Netizens anyway. When 80% of computer users in the world are using widescreen format monitors, you cannot expect websites to cater to the remaining 20% when widescreen provides such a massive opportunity to showcase information.
Was curious if you were going to bring the RSS feed option back? noticed after the update the RSS feed link was no longer pulling the images. Very funny comic, seen a lot of the same things in my 10+ years in retail
Yeah, I almost forgot the comic updated since there’s no RSS for the comic strips themselves, only for the Retail blog.
You can still get a comic RSS feed from here:
http://retail.kingfeatures.net/comics/feed/
It’s just missing from the main feed now.
Will we have the ‘Random’ button back in the near future?
…and all the comments we’ve made are gone. Boo.
This is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it? (that’s what I get…)
Hopefully just a glitch. I see the strip fine in google reader but not when I click on the posts.
best
Hildi.
I get this too.
I once ate a piece of pizza that I found wrapped in tin foil and sinittg in the middle of a snow-covered parking lot after a day of skiing. It was chicken BBQ very tasty.
Hopefully this isn’t an issue (we’ll see tomorrow), but it doesn’t look like the comics themselves are appearing in the RSS feed.
Both http://www.retailcomic.com/feed/
and http://retail.kingfeatures.net/feed/
only have the news posts, with no comics listed.
This may only be an issue with past comics, but I’m thinking not.
If, tomorrow, the comic doesn’t appear in the RSS feed, can we get an RSS feed for the comic from those same King Features guys?
If not, then the site is losing features, which kind of sucks.
And as soon as I post, I figure it out (partly):
If the main feed doesn’t have the comics in it, they are still available from the following feed:
http://retail.kingfeatures.net/comics/feed/
Those of us using RSS readers like Google Reader will have to watch our feeds tomorrow, and add the above url if it doesn’t show up.
With that, I’m pretty sure (based on my own WordPress experience) that it would be possible to add the comics to the main feed, too. Your backend guys may have to do that themselves.
At minimum, if the comics don’t show in the main feed, can you at least post the comics feed I linked above on the main site?
And, confirmed. The main RSS feed has no comics in it. Anybody who wants a comic RSS feed will need to add:
http://retail.kingfeatures.net/comics/feed/
Please post a link to this feed on the main page.
ALL the comments are gone from the older strips??? That sucks. Other than that and the missing Random button, sites looks good. I am happy the old Sunday strips are now larger.
Would also LOVE an edit button for comments in the event of typos and such.
All of the clicky buttons (Home, FAQ, etc above and Previous, Calendar, etc below the strip) have a text description above or overlaid on them. Otherwise looks good!
I was reading the archives from the beginning, and had gotten as far as the middle of May 2008; when I brought that page up, I also get the “oops this is embarrassing” page. So I went to the home page, and clicked on the calendar. Well I clicked all the way back to May 2008 (which was a pain in the rear), and picked a date, which gave me the comic of that day, but I can’t continue forward—there are 2 ‘back’ arrows, so I can view previous days, or go all the way back to the beginning, but I can’t go forward! I want to keep reading, but not in reverse!!
It’s all good, but I’m starting to miss being able to access all the old strips the way I was able to. Now it would take hours just to get back to the strips I were looking through for the 2007 year. And I’ve been accidentally clicking on one of the numbers, which sends me right back to the present day and I have to start all over again.
and now I see nothing at all, neither Google Reader nor any of the strips
For Google Reader, the old feed no longer has the strips. You’ll have to add:
http://retail.kingfeatures.net/comics/feed/
to your reader.
I can’t see the comic at all. :< And no buttons besides the Test one.
I can’t see the strip either. Using Firefox on Mac. I can see the strip in Safari, though.
On Safari…
All i’m seeing is the Way Far Back, Back , and calendar button’s. When I click on the calendar button to find a previous strio, The forward and Way forward buttons appear underneath the calendar.
On my Firefox, I don’t get the comics at all. It’s missing the entire section.
My safari is 5.0.5
Firefox is 3.16.2
I know I’m somewhat outdated in what I’m viewing in. But I have not had the problems with the virus’s flying around with what I am using.
Regards
There is no Firefox 3.16.2 as you likely meant 3.6.2 something as the last security update is 3.6.28 at http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-older.html
Also note that support for the old 3.6 will finally end on April 24. It was originally planned to be made EOL back in August last year but it unintentionally became the older supported version after Firefox 4.0 was released.
Looks fine. Just one thing – it’s no longer centered. Can we get the page centered again?
They changed the screen size. It’s affecting a lot of people apparently.
I miss the random Button, beyond that no real complaints
Posted here, so that it’s not buried in replies:
The main RSS feed has no comics in it. If anybody wants to get comics in their RSS reader, they will need to add the following feed:
http://retail.kingfeatures.net/comics/feed/
Reading through the comments here, and from my own experience, the new design seems to be incompatible with Firefox. Like several others who posted before me, I cannot see the comic or the comic navigation buttons at all. They’re just not there. Works fine in Internet Explorer, but I hate having to use that browser for just one comic.
I’m using the latest version of Firefox on Windows, and everything’s fine. What version are you using?
I can’t see the comic at all anymore.
where is the comic?
Looks like the “Cure” is worse than the disease. I only had 2 issues with the old look. The Sunday updater being broken and the Sunday comics from years past, being too small to comfortably read. Now those two are fixed, and there are a Ton of new issues…
are the archives deleted? i had a certain spot in the archives bookmarked and am now getting an error.
I have had no issues in Chrome or Dolphin (the browser on my Android), so everything is working okay there.
I’m also not sure if I like the new comment system – it seems a lot less clean. I miss being able to see comments on old strips. The random button was fun too. I really prefer the old site, to be honest – it would load faster, also. :/
I’m using the latest version of Firefox on Windows, and everything’s fine. What version are you using?
(Sorry, that last comment was supposed to have been in reply to another poster.)
Is there any way to access the old site version so I can see the comic?
or is there somewhere else I can go?
I’m on a PowerPC Mac using Firefox 3.2.8. There’s no way to upgrade the browser. I can’t stand Safari, there’s no IE anymore, last I knew Opera didn’t work (I don’t like that one either), and anyway there’s no reason for me to use a different browser just to see one webpage. Okay, I also have a Mac laptop that’s more current, but it’s not my primary and again, annoying to do something special for just one comic.
by the way, the “About” and “FAQ” pages are blank, and there’s no calendar to look at older strips, either. So I can see the background stripes, the header, the four buttons (Home, About, Faq, Store), the assorted social media connections (including two “Like” buttons), the blog and comments, copyright notice, annoying overlarge King Features expando-bar, and nothing else.
So, you don’t want to do something special to view one comic, but you want them to drop everything and change the site just for you and your out of date browser?
a) it says “Undoubtedly, things will be tweaked in the coming weeks, but please let us know here in the comments if anything is acting weird.”
Not being able to see the comic image or calendar in an older browser when every other website everywhere is fine would be “acting weird”. As is the various extraneous buttons.
b) I asked if there was a different place to view the comic. I never said or implied anything about them “dropping everything to change it” just for me.
c) it’s the computer that’s out of date, not the browser. The browser’s as up to date as possible, given that the computer is out of date.
d) why’s your nose out of joint? Did you forget your nappy today?
I can’t see the comic strip either (Firefox on Mac), so I’m getting my daily fix at one of these places:
http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Retail/
http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/comics/king-comics.html?feature_id=Retail
The azcentral.com site also runs Gil.
yeah it seems the new site isn’t working that well .. ever since the ‘update’ the comic has not appeared .. the main title ‘retail’ with the main characters appears, a few buttons and the social media stuff but that is it. Does not seem to be an issue with my end as I am able to view other K.F.S. sites with no issue. Tried zooming in and out in case the comic was at an odd resolution that would not load .. no luck .. probably should go back to the older software that worked until K.F.S. can work the bugs out of this version.
People, if you are having trouble seeing elements of the site, upgrade your web browser.
Internet Explorer (Windows XP only), use IE 8.
Internet Explorer (Windows Vista and 7), use IE 9.
Firefox, use Firefox 11. If you cannot use Firefox 11, use Firefox 10 ESR.
Opera, use 11.62.
Safari, use Safari 5.1.5.
Chrome, use Chrome 18.0.1025.162.
If you can’t use a specific fully updated browser, change to a different web browser. Retailcomic.com works for me on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0 (Firefox 12 beta 5 on Windows XP SP 3).
Now if you’re viewing this site on a mobile/tablet/TV web browser, it’s impossible for this site to be compatible with every device.
Though Opera Mini 6.5 and Next render Retailcomic.com just fine on my Blackberry Torch 9800 (OS 6).
The RSS feed for the comic is no longer working.
Since the update I’ve haven’t seen anything but the blog feed working. Several of the comments say that http://retailcomic.com/comics/feed/ still has the comic feed, but that doesn’t seem to be working.
I added it to google reader and nothing has been updated. I tried to track it down earlier and it looks like that is causing a 500 error (Internal Server Error).
I’d really love to have the comics rss back working because without it, it’s just too easy to forget.
Looks like all of the RSS feeds are giving a 500 error.
Yeah, the feed stopped updating for about a week. I couldn’t tell you why. But it seems to be working again.
I can see the comic itself OK, but the navigation buttons below are cut off & their labels are not visible to me.
I am using MSN Explorer.
…the assorted “SHARE” buttons are visible.