The beta testing continues: the DK4 beta that opened yesterday continues to need users to kick the tires and report any flats that result. Once again, this very diary here on Classic Kos should show up at the beta site within 15 minutes of being posted here.
You can expect that things will look different: the front page, the user pages, even the flag-waving mascot. There will be new features, and some features may be gone (hopefully ones you didn't use much) or not where you expect.
That's where today's diary comes in. I'm going to try to point out a how to find some things, as systematically as I'm capable of, and also note a few other resources with information on the DK4 beta's workings. Then you can go and explore with a cheat sheet to hand.
One point I should make is that this diary assumes you've logged in at the beta site. You can look around as a lurker all you want, but the features I want to discuss require you to be logged in. Apparently, you can log into the regular site and the beta site at the same time on the same browser, and it won't be confused. Note: your password at the beta site is the password you had back in May 2010. If you hadn't yet joined Daily Kos back then, you can create a new account at the beta site to join in the fun.
So you've logged in, and are on the Daily Kos home page. In DK3, you have your own page that you can get to from the right-hand menu—under the Menu bar, second item, mine says "sardonyx's Page", and yours will have your username there. Where is this in DK4? You have two choices.
- On the righthand side, under the Feature box, is another box that says "Welcome back [username]". If I click on my username, it takes me to my page, with the next-line "Profile" selected, and below it the new "My Profile" information showing.
- At the top of the page under the big Daily Kos header with the new flagger are six important links—Home, My Page, People, Groups, Diaries, and Tags, plus an unlabeled Search box that says "Go" next to it. Click on the My Page link. That takes me to my page with the next-line "My Stream" showing.
Here's how your DK3 page—with Diary, Comments, Ratings, Subscription, Drafts, Blogroll, Recs, and My Profile—compares to your DK4 page (note: I'm using mixed case for DK4 even when it's all caps for easier reading):
- Diary maps to My Diaries in its Blog View submenu selection. This retains the blog look of your own Daily Kos diaries. List View offers a set of links to your diaries; you can mouse over these links to get a look at the first sentence or so of each diary.
- Comments maps to Comments in its My Comments submenu selection. It shows you 30 per page, with most recent comment first. It no longer offers a search screen along with it, but it will tell you how many comments you've written since you joined Daily Kos. (The beta numbers only include comments made as of sometime in May, plus any added in the course of the beta.)
- Ratings maps to Comments in its My Comment Ratings submenu selection. It oddly doesn't tell you what your rating was, a 4 (Recommend) or a 0 (Hide). I'm guessing (hoping?) that the actual rating or rating number will be added during the beta process.
- Subscription maps to Profile in its My Subscription submenu selection. At the moment, there seems to be a bug: I'm not authorized to view or edit my own subscription. Note that anyone who is a subscriber will have circular bronze version of the flag guy displayed between their Mojo graph and their UID and join date in the lefthand box at the top of their profile. (Other icons that can appear there include a "TU" blue ribbon, a red-and-white life preserver indicating that this is one of the people who rescues diaries for the Community Spotlight, and a silver Beta indicating one of the major beta testers.)
- Drafts maps to My Diaries in its Drafts submenu selection. As in DK3, you can also get to Drafts from the righthand Menu (DK4's "Welcome Back") box: Diaries is at the top; choose the "Drafts" link.
- Blogroll maps to Following in its Blogroll submenu selection.
- Recs, which showed the diaries you recommended, remains dependent on your Profile. To allow these to be seen, go to Profile in its Edit Profile submenu selection, and look under "Display Preferences" for "Share diary recommends you've made:" set it to "on" if you want people to be able to see it, and "off" if you don't. If you set it to "on",
the recs will appear on your Profile page for people to see, and they also appear at the bottom of the righthand column of the page when someone is reading one of your diaries. I think the recs will appear on your Profile page for people to see, though I'm not positive if they do so, or whether they appear elsewhere.
- My Profile in DK3 would show your current profile in sections, but in an editable format more like the DK4 Profile page in its Edit Profile submenu selection, thought that's displayed in DK4 as a single page, rather than several separate pages.
A few more "where to find it" tips:
Your DK3 Hotlist page has been split up. The top section, "[username's] Hotlist" can be found in DK4 on the user's page next to Blogroll under the Following header.
The second section, "Diary watchlist", is now part of your My Stream list: all the diaries appear in chronological order there, including those on your watchlist of people you've subscribed to (now your "Following" list of people). The list of people can be found on your profile page: it's the "Following" list there. You can also get to it via Following in the People section of the submenu.
The third section, "New replies", I haven't found yet. If you've found it, please let me know; I'm going into withdrawal without it.
There are many other diaries that have discussed features of the new site. One was last night's Top Comments diary on the DK4 beta. Others can be found here using the DK4 tag; I especially commend Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse's DK4: Tips on Networking for Readers, Comments & Rec List, which has helpful screen shots and the like.
Also, check out various DK4 beta diaries over on the site; a few of them are in the Feature box at the upper right on the front page. If you're interesting in the Groups function, definitely take a look at the "Using Groups in DK4" diary.
Finally, I'll repeat yesterday's update, since some of you may have seen the diary before it was added.
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.
Sigs are sticky. During the beta, your sig at the time you post will stay 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.
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.
To repeat yesterday's reminder: 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.
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The comments below aren't test ones (or even tested or testy ones) again today, and there were a reasonable 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.
From maybeeso in michigan:
This comment by the diarist is from Muskegon Critic's excellent diary More sanitary than revolt : DIY Wealth Redistribution on getting a bit of your own back in small claims court while helping out your local city budget.
From brillig:
Amidst the work-after-Christmas drama, testvet6778 reminds us of who doesn't get the holiday off.
From cskendrick:
In a thread on WikiLeaks, wu ming comments on alinsky's rules.
From Ed Tracey:
In Jotterland—in response to the words "Enough to make orangutans suspicious" from trashablanca—our ol' pal Its the Supreme Court Stupid asks if that is John Boehner's new nickname?
From sardonyx (your beta beta Thursday diarist):
Although the diary that prompted it is gone, Drummond's comment about commuting from Marin County to downtown San Francisco should be read by many more people. You should also read exlrrp's reply for an extra dose of irony.
I missed this one by RJDixon74135 last night.
makahali overdrive points out that the shift to industrialization was not one greeted with joy by the workers.
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) ... and while I was transcribing the lede by Dallasdoc — 234
2) We voted for FDR by DisNoir36 — 174
3) Capitol Police welcome 9-11 Heroes by FishOutofWater — 171
4) CEO's do well . . . by Fossil — 130
5) Let me get this straight. by SueDe — 113
6) Not the only one who is failing here by joanneleon — 108
7) Don't feel embarrassed by Raineee — 94
8) I was going to write a diary yesterday by NBBooks — 92
9) Excellent Diary by JekyllnHyde — 92
10) Damn, That Republican Kryptonite is Deadly by JekyllnHyde — 86
11) Well, be depressed while you must by Dallasdoc — 85
12) We're going to need a new vocabulary by Dallasdoc — 84
13) I agree with them by sara seattle — 84
14) Gone are the days when corporate America by rontun — 83
15) What Did Henry Ford Say In Like 1910 by webranding — 82
16) I love your Dad! by Julie Gulden — 82
17) That this might be an "or" question... by Buzzer — 77
18) I thank them for their service by House of Gin — 77
19) that was the problem; we voted by kamarvt — 75
20) No one who is not a foaming at the mouth... by DawnG — 75
21) Here doesn't much matter by Dallasdoc — 74
22) Ellsberg doesn't sit around and bitch and moan... by Nulwee — 74
23) Wasn't that the same rationale that he used by nippersdad — 73
24) "No Act of Rebellion is Wasted" by goinsouth — 73
25) Compassionate Conservatism by JekyllnHyde — 73
26) Not me, I voted for him because by Roadbed Guy — 72
27) No he doesn't. by goinsouth — 71
28) Problem is, there are a BUNCH... by ratmach — 70
29) I said this once, and I'll say it once more. by Mehitabel9 — 70
30) Me, For One by bink — 70
31) I feel your pain, I'm waiting now, too by Angie in WA State — 70
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by NWTerriD — 545
2) Tip Jar by andrewj54 — 415
3) Headed to bed soon by Dallasdoc — 358
4) Tip Jar by Scarce — 340
5) Alms (tips) by Muskegon Critic — 299
6) Tip Jar by m16eib — 293
7) Tip Jar by dissonantdissident — 284
8) Tip Jar by BOHICA — 264
9) Tip Jar by Drdemocrat — 241
10) ... and while I was transcribing the lede by Dallasdoc — 234
11) Tip Jar by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand — 222
12) Tip Jar by bobswern — 198
13) Tip Jar by Rep Louise Slaughter — 176
14) We voted for FDR by DisNoir36 — 174
15) Capitol Police welcome 9-11 Heroes by FishOutofWater — 171
16) Tip Jar by homogenius — 151
17) CEO's do well . . . by Fossil — 130
18) Let me get this straight. by SueDe — 113
19) Tip Jar by TomP — 113
20) Not the only one who is failing here by joanneleon — 108
21) Don't feel embarrassed by Raineee — 94
22) I was going to write a diary yesterday by NBBooks — 92
23) Excellent Diary by JekyllnHyde — 92
24) Damn, That Republican Kryptonite is Deadly by JekyllnHyde — 86
25) Well, be depressed while you must by Dallasdoc — 85
26) We're going to need a new vocabulary by Dallasdoc — 84
27) I agree with them by sara seattle — 84
28) Gone are the days when corporate America by rontun — 83
29) What Did Henry Ford Say In Like 1910 by webranding — 82
30) I love your Dad! by Julie Gulden — 82
© sardonyx; all rights reserved
All quotes are the property of the original authors or the websites that held them