Welcome, New Users, to The Daily Kos. This Diary is intended to help you orient yourself to the site and ask questions about how to use it.
In the Body you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in the Body this week is a discussion of Bookmarks and Tabbed Browsing using The Daily Kos (dKos) interface.
After that you can ask me any question you want. I don't know all the answers so if you stump me, you do. I invite those wiser than I to contribute and correct (or raise a ruckus, just don't scare people).
No permission slips needed, join us at the deep end of the pool for adult swim.
Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today, have all my friends been good at play?
I can see Claudette May (#116188) and uprcuc (#116602), the first and last users to join the week of 1/19/07 to 1/25/07, and all of you boys and girls out there in DailyKosland!
Hello Devil. Welcome to Hell.
Recommended Links-
Frequently Asked Questions
Highlighted FAQ Areas/Rules for polite conversation-
I have written some diaries you may find useful-
Other Useful Diaries-
Here are some other Diaries that address the needs of new users-
Here are some older takes on what the well informed user should know-
Other diaries in the Welcome New Users Series. The Welcome New Users dKosopedia page.
Power User's Tips I-
I have a lot more to say about Bookmarks than I thought. The are a life changing experience if used imaginatively. Almost anything you can do at dKos you can Bookmark and you don't even need your 'Swipe-O-Matic 2000' to do it.
There will be more Power User's Tips. You have not suffered enough.
This Issue is about Bookmarks and using Tabbed Browsing and Bookmarks together to make you very fast indeed.
Bookmarks
Fundamentally, every link in the dKos user interface can be bookmarked. Tired of pushing buttons? Pick it from a list.
Most browsers provide pretty good control over a Bookmark list, allowing you to create them with a single click of the button, and then by using a Bookmark 'Manager' to sort them into folders just like the folders of a hard drive.
My folders are-
Google
News
Do I look at news? Only when I have to. The lack of real news is what drove me to dKos in the first place.
My blogs
I belong to other sites, and I have Bookmarks for them too. Each site has a set of Bookmarks based on my set for dKos.
My dKos Specific Bookmarks
- Front Page, I in fact mostly use just this tool for navigating the site. Things don't happen that fast and if they do it might be best not to be a part of them.
- My Comments, I use this to keep track of my conversations, though it's a little less useful if you're running at 60 comments a day. Keep track of the number of 'Replies:' and you can generally keep track of the reaction you're getting, but not always.
- The Window of Time, for if things get fast.
- The Magic Bullet, for if things get faster.
- All Tags, for when things are slow and I'm feeling virtuous.
What ek? No Search?
Nope, I'll pop up a copy of My Comments because otherwise it's hard to get the Results: '50' to stick. Besides (another meaning of meta), while I'm not generally concerned by what people say about me behind my back, if they've taken the time to respond to me I at least like to show them I've read what they said promptly.
Other Important Bookmarks
I don't have a Wikipedia bookmark, I use Google and search |wiki subject| because Wikipedia search sucks.
Just sayin'.
Tabs
Before Yellow Canary's Diary How do YOU dKos? I didn't really understand the power of a 'Tabbed Browser'.
My 'Tabbed Browser' is Firefox version 1.5.0.9. Why not 2.0? I don't .0. Ever. That includes IE 7.0 and it's ugly father, 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.zzzzzzzzzzzz. I sometimes use it for direct typing of urls I don't want junking up my history because it keeps it's own.
How do you get Firefox 1.5.0.9? The Firefox main page only has 2.0? You go to this site, download version 1.5.0.7 (big green arrow upper right) and do an online update (hmmm... now has 1.5.0.9 direct). Excellent. Let me show you how excellent.
Google is my homepage so everytime I hit that big Home icon on my Browser I can look for stuff. This will be important later.
After I fire up my Browser, I go to my Bookmarks where there is a folder- dKos. It contains-
When you open the Bookmark folder, all these Bookmarks appear and at the bottom of the list is a button that says 'Open In Tabs'.
I call it- Open for Business.
In my Browser Window, which I can resize and hide and generally move around my Desktop, underneath that big green button I use to 'Back' out of Diaries that don't interest me as much as I thought, are all of these tools as labeled 'Tabs' that I can switch to with a single mouse click.
I find it far superior to opening each Bookmark in it's own separate Window and switching between them on the 'Task Bar', which I did for a time and it works, because I can open them all in one click and because XP has the horrible habit of bunching all the Windows into one button and saying 'Mozilla Firefox 5' or six or seven or...
Did I mention I hate Microsoft?
There's more-
If you have a bunch of Bookmarks to similar things, for instance the Tags of subjects you're interested in, like the giggliest of the twins Not Jenna, or my favorites-
and-
you can put them in folders for whizzy effects. I have 2 separate folders for each, one that collects about a day's worth of traffic and another that collects it all. To use it I open a new Browser Window (Google loads quick), Bookmarks, Folder, Open In Tabs.
Bang.
Diary Rescue Ranger Types! If you are not using a The Magic Bullet folder to filter Diaries or a collection of Tags and Searches in folders to find your subjects you are not reading fast.
No, faster than that.
Search History
So why is having Google as your homepage significant ek?
It allows you to keep a Search history, and for once I'm not talking about dKos.
I often look things up at Wikipedia or IMDb (their search sucks too, so I use the Google |imdb subject| trick). My Comments are always thoroughly researched and sourced.
Hah!
Seriously though, whenever I need to find something I go to my Google window and hit 'Home' for a clean page. Then I look it up, refining my search if necessary. I always go forward, never back- except to check. For what? That Wikipedia article I just quoted. Another piece of dialog from that movie we were talking about. Little things.
I don't use the Browser 'History' feature to do this because it tends to get junked up with off topic stuff.
~~~~~~~~
What? Jann Wenner on the phone again? Tell that rat bastard he'll have it when I'm damn good and ready. I want him dead, do you understand? DEAD!
Next Week- More Power User's Tips.
Stockton.
There are other things to talk about. Let's get started.