What we covered in Visual step-by-step guide to DK4 - PART I:
The Front Page: DK3 vs DK4
Recommended List & the Recent Diaries List:
Recommended List: Front Page DK3
Recommended List: Front Page DK4
Recent Diaries List: Front Page DK3
Recent Diaries List: DIARIES link on DK4 Front Page Main Menu
Recently Rec'd List: Front Page DK4
This is a new DK4 feature. Recent Diaries with at least ONE Recommend from a Trusted User
DK3 vs DK4 Profile Page with the new goodies
What we learned in Part I:
Visual aids are helpful. There is a lot of fear and some loathing of the new functions, and most of it is aimed at the FOLLOW feature.
Onward, Kossacks, to PART II...
First up - What to do during the Great Outage?
Per this comment in PART I, by kos, on the Timing of the Great Outage:
Awesome diary!
But quick correction -- the changeover begins late Friday night, PT. I'm talking like 11 p.m. or midnight. So DK3 will still be around all of Friday for the right-side of America, and will be around for all of Friday except for an hour or less for the left side.
Saturday, expect us to be down all day, but we should be back up that evening.
by kos on Sat Feb 05, 2011 at 01:22:49 PM PST
Keep that timeline in mind when you read, this comment From Part I where tmo had this suggestion:
2 to 3 days = 48 to 72 hours - where to go?
It's going to be rough.:) Congress Matters is one good replacement. Maybe folks should suggest additional meeting spots for DK refugees to gather?
Atrios' blog Eschaton was a traditional meet-up spot in the past for folks to gather whenever DK had a rare outage. However, while I have a lot of affection for that blog for its history as a "godfather" to Daily Kos, there's just not much going on there.
IMHO some good replacements for the duration and just to get out more would be Booman Tribune, where BooMan (who also posts on DK as BooMan23) hosts an excellent leftist anti-torture-oriented blog; Suburban Guerrilla, where Suzie Madrak hosts an excellent leftist feminist blog; and Pandagon, where Ezra Klein got his start waaaaaaay back in the day and where Amanda Marcotte hosts another excellent leftist feminist blog.
and from the comments...
For the blackout period, try this site...
It's called www.OpEdNews.com It's a progressive site that's been around for a while. They had an interview with Kos a few weeks ago,
I'm an editor there, and I'll heave a welcome article for Dailykos people. Hopefully we can get some good conversations going.
by arodb on Sun Feb 06, 2011 at 12:53:53 PM PST
Now, what shall we look at first?
I believe, considering the angst which suffused the comments section yesterday, that I will jump right into the deep end and address FOLLOW and it's relationship to Privacy.
What is FOLLOW and should I be concerned about my personal privacy?
FOLLOW is a new function, much like the Follow function on Twitter. For those who don't use or want to use Twitter...
FOLLOW = FUNNEL Content to Me
(not cyberstalk!)
If you FOLLOW a diarist, every time they write a new diary, you'll see that diary in your personalized version of the Recent Diaries List (My Stream). That's it. Nothing more. If they write it, you'll see it - if you use the My Stream to read stuff that you already know you are interested in.
What if you FOLLOW a TAG?
The same thing, if you read your personalized version of the Recent Diaries List (My Stream) to find new diaries, then you'll see EVERY diary which has a TAG you are FOLLOWING in it.
So, where is all of the angst coming from?
Apparently, there has been a lot of conflation of the word "Follow" with the idea "Invade my privacy", as in: You are invading my privacy by following me around!
In addition, we can already Follow someone on DK3, did you know that? It's just called Subscribing, and it puts the diarists name on your "Diary Watch List", which you can see here on DK3:
Main Page link:
Which brings you to your Hotlist & Diary Watch List:
See Diary Watchlist? Click it to expand the list ...
These are of the Kossacks that I am (and have been for some time) Following on DK3:
It's clunky, and it takes a some searching to find this feature if you don't know about it - and it doesn't do anything on DK3, either. It just makes this list, which is nice, but not very efficient. You have to click and unclick those little plus and minus buttons and...
Now, let's see how FOLLOW works on DK4, shall we?
First, a brief reminder of what your new Profile page looks like:
Now, let's zoom in to the Profile Page Main Menu...
where you can see the link to Following, click it and you see:
This is the default view when you click Following from the Profile Page Main Menu - the Diarists you are Following.
As you can plainly see, you can DELETE REMOVE any of these entries (just like on DK3), or all of them if you so choose, and that applies to the ALL of the categories that you can Follow:
PEOPLE | GROUPS | TAGS | HOTLISTED DIARIES | BLOGROLL.
What happens when you are FOLLOWING a Diarist?
Can you peek into their window? No. Can you find out where they live? Yes - but ONLY if the diarist PUTS THAT INFO IN THEIR PROFILE voluntarily. There is nothing in your Profile that you did not put there. Don't want anyone to know anything PRIVATE about your life? Don't put that info in your PROFILE.
That is it. There are no new ways to invade your privacy on DK4, regardless of what you may have heard or assumed. Everything that DK4 makes easy to see is information which is ALREADY available on DK3 if you just go looking for it...
For instance...
If someone Follows me on DK3, what can they find out about me? Well, they can read my Profile information, which I put in there, voluntarily. What else? Nothing. That's right. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. Nothing that YOU don't put in there to be seen.
But what about knowing too much about my actions while I'm online at DailyKos?
Won't the DK4 let people know too much about what I'm doing?
Well, let's see, what can they find out about what you are doing on DK3?
We'll look at your Profile Page on DK3 again, to find out...
This is your DK3 Profile Main Page (cropped for best visual effect). See the tabs?
Diary | Comments | Ratings | Subscription | Drafts | Blogroll| Recs | Profile
The following screenshots show that on DK3, anyone can already see:
Every comment you've ever posted, and by association, every diary you have read opened and looked at, because you posted a comment in it (Comments)
Which comments you have Rec'd (Ratings)
What other websites you are interested in (Blogroll)
Which diaries you have (hopefully read and) recommended (Recs)
Recommended Comments:
Blogroll
Recommended Diaries
To Recap:
Every time you see the word FOLLOW on DK4, think FUNNEL CONTENT TO ME, and not I'm being stalked... .
Words matter, but meaning does too, don't get caught up in the language and forget what the function of FOLLOW is - funnelling content to my personalized version of the Recent Diaries List.
Worried about privacy issues? There is no change in privacy in the new format - just an easier way to view the information which is already available on DK3.
I hope that PART II is helpful to those with concerns about the new function FOLLOW and how it does or does not affect your privacy on DK4.
Check in tomorrow for PART III - wherein I attempt to guide you through the great new feature Group!