It's right over here: the DK4 beta is now open and ready to be used by everyone. In fact, this very diary here on Classic Kos should show up at the beta site within 15 minutes of being posted here.
When I say everyone, I mean everyone: lurkers, new users, old users, and everyone in between. You can read the site and never log in, you can use your current account, you can create a new account with a new username. You can peek into every corner, or you can just see how you can continue doing whatever you've done before.
Just remember: everything you do on the beta will eventually disappear when the beta period is over and Daily Kos moves onto the new software. Every beta-only diary, every comment, every message, every change to your user profile, every new group: it all disappears. What replaces it is everything you've created on the real Daily Kos, moved over to the spiffy new software, from web code to underlying databases. And once that switch has been thrown, there's no going back. It's a brave new world.
When you go over there, the first thing you'll notice is that things look different. The orange is a bit darker, there's a bar across the top of the web page showing who's logged in, maybe an alert, and a log out button. Then the big Daily Kos header with a new flagger, and below that six important links—Home, My Page, People, Groups, Diaries, and Tags, plus an unlabeled Search box that says "Go" next to it. (I'm hoping they'll change it to say "Search" instead.)
Diary titles are all caps, and will have a circled plus and a star after them. The circled plus is the Hotlist from DK3, and works the same way. The star is the Recommended button now; when you click on it, a checkmark will appear over the star to show you've recommended the diary.
Under the diary title is the diarists name, with a heart next to it. If the heart is orange, then you are not Following this diarist. If it is brown, you are following the diarist. Diarists you follow appear on your page (My Page), under the "My Stream" header. Your stream consists of the diaries written by the people you follow, the groups you follow, and the tags you follow. It's like a filtered Recent Diaries list with those people and topics you care about.
The text of each diary starts with a fancy capital letter that stretches down an extra line or two, and a few capitalized words; it looks much like the beginning of a book chapter, in fact. The Intro is separated from the Body of the diary by a fancy curlicue rather than the old double colon.
You'll notice that the Recommended list now has ten slots rather than eight. Even more, it has a "Next" button under it, meaning you can go looking for subsequent places. Best of all, clicking on it doesn't change the rest of the page; the list only changes.
There are two more lists: Most Viewed Today, and Most Commented Today. I don't know whether these are on a calendar day, or just the most recent 24-hour "day", but they give another look at what other people are looking at or talking about.
The Recent Diaries list is not on the front page. To get there, click on the Diaries link at the top of the page. Recent Diaries is the first offering there, and shows 100 at a time starting with the most recent, but you can also look at Most Recommended, Most Commented, and Most Hotlisted; for these last three, you have the choice of Today, This Week, This Month, and All Time.
I'm sure you'll find that some things work differently with DK4, or don't work at all. Doing strikeout with hyphens (e.g., strikeout) no longer works; you have to use the <s> tag for putting a line through text.
Currently, to avoid a blank line at the beginning of your blockquote, you can start the text the line underneath the <blockquote> tag. In the DK4 beta (though this could always change if it's considered a "bug"), you have to start your comment on the same line as the tag is on.
Numbered lists are no longer automatically indented, nor will 1) be turned into a 1. to make such a list. You'll have to handle the spacing yourself.
I've, alas, run out of time to detail more of these differences, though I may add them to the diary if I think of them after publication. Forewarned is forearmed, though I strongly recommend everyone check their comment previews carefully before they post, since you'll probably run afoul of at least one of these changes along the way.
Update: One thing I forgot to mention is that the beta site was loaded with all the users and diaries and comments up through sometime in May 2010. Your sig will be from then, too.
Another thing: sigs are sticky. During the beta, your sig at the time you post is with that comment until the end of the beta; it will not change the next time you change your sig. That sig will only be placed onto comments made while that sig is in force.
Even more important: whatever sig you have at the time of the conversion from DK3 to DK4 will be placed on all comments you made under DK2 and DK3 (that is, during the Scoop years of Daily Kos, starting October 13, 2003, and going through to conversion). Comments made under DK4 will have sticky sigs going forward. So be careful when you change your sig: a typo in a sig will live forever once a comment using it is made.
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The comments below aren't test ones (or even tested or testy ones), and there were a respectable number of submissions today in the Top Comments gmail account. I thank those who took time today to transport their favorites to the Top Comments mailbox despite the beta distraction, and for doing so by the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit; if you don't do a writeup, we will (though you I was spared of the necessity tonight).
Submitted separately by trashablanca and kestrel9000:
Muskegon Critic makes a spot on observation in yet another diary from Cenk Uygur. I do so love how MC cuts to the chase.
From Lefty Coaster:
citizenx's comment's photo is a HILARIOUS take on Kossacks with lots of mojo and the digital bling on now display in their new user boxes.
From Eddie C:
The Wizard posted The brave few, thank goodness We're not DOOOOOOMED by Reepicheep, and there are not nearly enough recommends for Oh the weather over here is frightful from ontheleftcoast.
From BeninSC:
I have always had a soft spot for longer comments, particularly when they teach me something. This comment, by marsanges, offers a local perspective on what marsanges calls a teabagger-type group in Holland, the Wilders. It is NOT good news, but I appreciated the insight.
From sardonyx (your beta Wednesday diarist):
Ralph Ellison said it best, as Deoliver47 reminds us in an excellent comment.
NY brit expat has an interesting comment in RainbowGirl's diary Rich Folks, Big Money & Tax Cuts.
TheGrandWazoo has a very interesting comment on many fronts: it's time to reconnoiter, regroup, split the opposition, and recruit.
Please add your own comment finds below!
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Finally, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, miscellaneous cute animals, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) Oh the weather over here is frightful by ontheleftcoast — 221
2) It's all good, because you're "uniquely American" by Nulwee — 159
3) Don't laugh. by Cliss — 149
4) I've got some more like that... by ontheleftcoast — 136
5) At by DarkSyde — 125
6) Mustn't forget that Pope John Paul by Marie — 112
7) This fills me with anguish. by 8ackgr0und N015e — 110
8) Yup. I'd be living in my car if my parents by MinistryOfLove — 102
9) I was a temp as well for a large corporation by FininWA — 101
10) When FDR Took Office Most Elderly Died of Exposur by Gooserock — 101
11) 'tis Good to Be Skeptical of Governments by JekyllnHyde — 101
12) As a retired Navy Officer, by JimMeeker — 99
13) almost everyone I know under the age of 25 by bhagamu — 96
14) Many of us didn't use our homes... by QuestionAuthority — 87
15) The Excitement Level Rises Post-DK4 by JekyllnHyde — 87
16) it may not be the bottom of the list... by Boreal Ecologist — 85
17) Oh You Folks Are So Demanding - by mattman — 85
18) I by DarkSyde — 85
19) Why isn't Eric Holder doing this? by Dallasdoc — 84
20) Please have a great day, everyone by paradox — 82
21) Everyone Younger Than Grey Hairs Thinks by Gooserock — 79
22) This is how I worked most of my life by mahakali overdrive — 78
23) In fact by david mizner — 75
24) Remember This at NN '10? by JekyllnHyde — 74
25) Soylent Greenspan®. n/t by lotlizard — 72
26) I Try Not TO "Rant" by webranding — 70
27) well you must be a millionaire now by squarewheel — 69
28) Agree with blueoasis by Dallasdoc — 69
29) Nice piece by not2plato — 69
30) Thank you so much, by Dreaming of Better Days — 68
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by DarkSyde — 629
2) Tip Jar how's the weather in your area? by LaFeminista — 451
3) Tip Jar by dewtx — 360
4) Tip Jar by bobswern — 274
5) Tip Jar by Justina — 248
6) All I want for X-mas by LaughingPlanet — 222
7) Oh the weather over here is frightful by ontheleftcoast — 221
8) Tip Jar by paradox — 216
9) Tip Jar by Forgiven — 189
10) Tip Jar by Lost Left Coaster — 184
11) Tip Jar by Sara R — 179
12) It's all good, because you're "uniquely American" by Nulwee — 159
13) Tip Jar by HeartlandLiberal — 153
14) Tip Jar by TomP — 152
15) Don't laugh. by Cliss — 149
16) Tip Jar by Hoghead99 — 143
17) Tip Jar by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse — 138
18) I've got some more like that... by ontheleftcoast — 136
19) Tip Jar by webranding — 134
20) At by DarkSyde — 125
21) Mustn't forget that Pope John Paul by Marie — 112
22) This fills me with anguish. by 8ackgr0und N015e — 110
23) Yup. I'd be living in my car if my parents by MinistryOfLove — 102
24) 'tis Good to Be Skeptical of Governments by JekyllnHyde — 101
25) I was a temp as well for a large corporation by FininWA — 101
26) When FDR Took Office Most Elderly Died of Exposur by Gooserock — 101
27) As a retired Navy Officer, by JimMeeker — 99
28) almost everyone I know under the age of 25 by bhagamu — 96
29) Many of us didn't use our homes... by QuestionAuthority — 87
30) The Excitement Level Rises Post-DK4 by JekyllnHyde — 87
© sardonyx; all rights reserved
All quotes are the property of the original authors or the websites that held them