Greetings, Cranky Users! I'm a little behind in touting the latest elfling update diary from last Thursday, but I needed to be mostly out of here for a few days, so whaddaya gonna do, as we say in the Greater New York area? We have a few interesting points from that diary, as well as a couple of other things, if you'd care to join me below the delicious orange gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce.
The most notable update addressed by elfling was the addition of a new option only for Trusted Users, shown here, when you edit your profile. It's right below the box for your sig, and it allows you to choose whether you actually want to see hidden comments, as you are entitled to do, in place in comment threads. (It does not impact their visibility if you go to the hidden comments page, or directly to the link of a hidden comment.) The default is "No", so if you want to see them, you must edit your profile (and click Save at the bottom). The third option allows you to see them until you personally hide-rate them. So, if you find pie fights upsetting or are too tempted to join them, but you'd like to read the sorts of threads they occur in, here is your chance to shape your own Daily Kos experience in that regard. Another improvement to the comment-reading experience is, when you link to a comment, it now opens Expanded, regardless of your preference setting, on the theory that you would not click the link if you didn't want to see the body of the comment!
There were also a couple of bug fixes, one preventing the first tag in a diary from getting a leading space, and another fixing a bug that was introduced in the last release, that had made the republish comments disappear.
elfling also made an interesting observation in the comments. We knew that the bug report form had been decommissioned, and that bugs must now be reported using the tech support form, or by comment or PM to elfling directly. We did not know that this was because a new bug-reporting system is under development:
We thought it might be fun to have a more robust and user-friendly bug system BEFORE we built in the next level of features this go-round.
So do not fear, Cranky Users! When we have a link to a NEW AND IMPROVED bug report form, we will put it right in place in the Cranky Information Box at the end of these diaries.
Last for today, our previous Cranky diary talked about using a width of 100% for photos in comments. Sometimes, for instance, we see a reply in our Recent Replies list, and want to answer it with a picture. We don't realize how far to the right that part of the thread is in the actual diary, because we're seeing it start on the left with our last comment. We specify too large a width in pixels, and our photo gets cut off when seen in the diary. We said that can be avoided by eliminating the height entirely and using "100%" for the width, so your photo resizes itself based on how your comment is viewed.
I'm rehashing this because rs arrived late, possibly after you read the diary, and discussed the downsides of doing that. I attempted to summarize the discussion, with examples, in this comment, and there's a bit more discussion in that thread if you're interested. In short form, your photo host offers you different-sized versions of your picture, at different links, and the smaller ones have lower resolution (that is, the larger ones have more bytes). If you're going to change the width, including to 100%, you should first copy the link for the size that will fit properly in the largest size your comment might reach (probably Medium) and then change the width, so your picture gets smaller, but only a little bit. If you use too small a picture size, it will get blurry if it expands. If you use too large a size, it will take hellishly long to load for those with slower connections, while giving no benefit. If I'm not being successful in telling you what I'm talking about, go to the link and look at the examples. Or yell at me in the comments.
But not too much yelling, please! Use the comment thread to make complaints and ask questions, and to help one another out with whatever information you've gathered. Or just say hello or post funny pictures -- we all need practice, right? We are Cranky, but we are a community!
ATTENTION PASSING DEVELOPERS: Today's big issue with our Cranky Commenters has been the appearance of "phantom" duplicate comments. This seems to have begun with last Thursday's upgrade, and to occur when people with default = Shrink click the link of a comment and it opens expanded -- there is also a shrunken copy showing below the expanded one. The phantom disappears when clicked. Comments containing screencaps of this:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/993319/42333418#c34
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/993319/42333634#c46
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/993319/42335546#c98
WHERE TO TURN: LINKS
☀ For more stuff sort of like this, the Cranky Users group.
☀ For lots of official detail about the site and its workings, the DK4 FAQ (frequently-asked questions). The main Daily Kos FAQ is still here.
☀ To get immediate response for technical help or urgent site problems, the contact form (be sure to select the tech support radio button). Note that THE BUG REPORT FORM HAS BEEN DECOMMISSIONED. To report a bug to the dev team now, you can use the tech support form, or you can comment in an elfling diary or send her a personal message. Congratulations to the development team for reducing the bug collection to a size where it can be drowned in the bathtub.
☀ For immediate catharsis, complain in a Cranky Users thread. These threads are regularly scanned by kos and developers, but it's not a guaranteed way to bring an issue to the attention of these folks. But sometimes you just need some sympathy from other cranky people! (And sometimes, other cranky people have advice that can help you.)
Our thanks to kos, the development team, and the Dkosopedia contributors for their vigorous efforts to deliver a site that works well and to help us know how to work it!
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