On Monday, we were at launch countdown T minus four days; today we're at T minus seven days (and an undetermined number of hours) and counting before Daily Kos vanishes for approximately a day to switch from the current software to the new DK4 software.
The DK4 FAQ on the dKosopedia has information on how DK4 works, though it remains very much a work in progress, with some significant sections yet to be written.
The DK4 beta site has been undergoing some major stress tests over the past couple of days, and is, well, a bit stressed. Remember that this is a beta test: not everything is working as it will by the end of next week, and many improvements will be rolled out before then.
This diary is here to let you ask questions, get advice, ask for an FAQ topic to be added asap, etc. And to give you pointers to some top-notch comments from the past 24 hours.
Monday's Top Comments was also a DK4 FAQ Forum, as was last Friday's; you may find answers in the diary or the comments. As I noted in both, the founder and proprietor of the original FAQ Forum was dmsilev, who posted 77 such diaries on Wednesdays in 2008 and 2009, and did various stats and demographic diaries including what user IDs were given out when.
One feature of DK4 is that you no longer need demographic diaries to find out who joined when: user IDs and join dates are a part of all user profiles. So it's easy to remember exactly when you joined: just look at your profile.
A couple of reminders from the last two of these diaries:
- Your username, user id, account password, diaries, diary drafts (newly confirmed), comments, recs, HRs, hotlist, blogroll, subscriptions, and profile information including bio and sig file will all be transferred over as they are when the current site shuts down on Friday, February 11.
- Whatever your sig is when the transition begins, that sig will be permanently entered on all your DK3 comments. We've been used to sigs that automatically change on all our old comments when we change our sigs. No more. The sig you have at the end of the day next Friday gets glued to your existing comments, and from then on, whatever your sig is when you post a comment is placed permanently on that comment. Starting Saturday, you can change your sig as often as you want, but it only affects the comments you write going forward.
Q: What questions were asked last time?
A: What a clever timesaver. To be even more clever, it should be extended to the time before that as well, and ignore the fact that this was one of the questions asked last time.
These are from the initial diary:
- What is a Stream, anyway?
- It says I've got 1 New Message. Email on Daily Kos?
- How do I join a Group?
These were from the second diary:
- I love my Hotlist page. Please tell me I can have it on DK4. (Short answer: you can. Note that we're still waiting to find out where the New replies section will be put, but I'm told there will be a link to it from your "Welcome Back" box.)
- What do you know that isn't working, or isn't yet released. Since last week, the "My Diaries, List View" issue was determined to be an artifact of the beta site, and won't occur once the database is reloaded for the site relaunch. Also, you can now delete messages to users, but you can't delete any messages sent within a group. All other listed items still hold true.
Q: The DK4 FAQ doesn't go into details about actual group commands. I need to know more now!
A: Fortunately for you, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse published a diary last night: Markos & Meteor Blades Welcome New Users to DK 4 Groups. It goes into a lot of the details on the hows and whys of groups, with explanations and insights directly from kos and Meteor Blades, and some screenshots showing you menus and pop-ups you'll encounter along the way.
And, as an extra bonus, she'll be publishing another diary tonight. It'll also about groups, and has more material from kos, so check the Recent Diaries list and see if it's up. (After you've finished this diary, of course. There are priorities.)
Q: Just above, you said diary drafts will be transferred over to the DK4 software along with everything else. That's new. Is that really true?
A: Really. Both elfling and ct have confirmed it: all existing diary drafts will be copied over. If yours falls off the back of the moving truck, blame them, not me. (Most diary drafts claim to have a 45 day shelf life. If yours is over 45 days old, I make no guarantees about it surviving despite the above, though my suspicion would be that even the old ones will live on. Would I risk it, though? No.)
I should have thought it would be lame to use that first question to get out of having to answer a new one twice in a row, but you got the usual three questions because I know too much ran out of ideas. The rest are for you to pause in the comments.
While I'm at it, if there's some part of the DK4 FAQ that isn't clear, do let me know. Ask questions here! KimD very graciously informed me of a couple of broken links, which I've fixed. Areas that continue to need fleshing out include groups, messages, and searching. Searching is waiting for all of the Search software to become available for exploration, especially diaries and comments. This being Top Comments territory, we very much want a robust comment search for top mojo, among other reasons. The more time we have to test and to request any additional functionality, the better.
~~~~~
Many people didn't question the need for submitted comments, and sent in a number of excellent comment nominations to the Top Comments mailbox 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.
From jnhobbs:
In SallyCat's Egyptian Liveblog: Sub-Diary #56, unspeakable has a comment that I found both insightful and inspiring.
From Lefty Coaster:
This comment by Pangloss looks at why the American media moved rightward.
From Clem Yeobright:
citizenx is puzzled about the Vatican’s refusal to donate the pope’s organs, given this commonly known fact.
From KelleyRN2 (aka Nurse Kelley):
Not many men ventured into my diary about underwear...but Bill in Portland Maine did.
From Clem Yeobright, channeling a militarized Seneca Doane:
Seneca Doane requests that I forward this to you for possible inclusion today, referent to the effort to "break" the DailyKosBeta. He also asks that the name of "everyone" be acknowledged, which I find tricky: Gabriel D, nannyboz, Dom9000, woodtick, jayden, NearlyNormal, KroneckerD, mem from somerville, leu2500, pat of butter in a sea of grits, Onomastic, SadieSue, ChocolateChris ... but who am I forgetting??? kos, of course!
[Editor's note: since the comment referenced will vanish when the beta does, I reprint it in the blockquote below, a fitting fate, as it was a blockquote in the original comment. This is a comment that should be preserved for posterity, given its blackmail potential timelessness.]
"Clem",
Happily, i can still reach you on my iPhone's e-mail. I'm signed in on beta, but unable to post there or edit the diary. I have also not been able to see anything more than the headers of comments—meaning that it will SAY it will move me out of shrink mode, but will not actually DO it—with one brief exception that I think you'll enjoy:
For a brief time, I was able to see every comment twice. Once shrunk, once opened. I can't recall which variety displayed first. I was thus able to read Gabriel D's request that I edit the diary to point to his "Mothership"—in this case, would it be a "Motherfuckership"?— and when I tried to do so (unsuccessfully) and came back, the anomaly was gone. It won't let me post, either, so I'm afraid that my contributions for the rest of the day will be limited to e-mails, which I hope you'll repost on DK4.
You above all would appreciate my "seeing everything twice," as this is featured as a symptom (real for one soldier, faked by Yossarian) in Catch-22, the novel from which my former (and currently ambulatory) persona took its name. Given that the Soldier Who Saw Everything Twice pretty quickly dies, I don't know if I should take this as the equivalent of Markos's putting a decapitated horse's head in my bed, but if that's the symbolism it's pretty brilliant.
I want you to thank everyone out there who is taking part on this DAOS Attack (that's "Distributed Approximation of Service) for risking their lives to do so. Actually, I forget, did we explain that to them before this started? Doesn't matter—they can't complain once they're dead.
Please let them know that I am extremely comfortable here, earning a living wage (but not while I write this, because this is "personal time," in case my bosses wonder) and eating tasty treats that I bought in a lovely nearby bistro while listening to excellent jazz standards, so they should not worry about me but focus on slaying the bugs and probably getting killed in the process, possibly painlessly, but let's not kid ourselves. Please leave that last part out.
Regards to the troops! Fight fiercely! Destroy all monsters! Ooh, a white chocolate truffle!
By the way, I want to see everyone's name attached to the submission of this dispatch to Top Comments. Excluding those killed in this glorious offensive, of course. (Or is it an offensive glory? Oooh! Bon-bons!)
Yours in a simulacrum of solidarity,
Major Seneca
From sardonyx (your still questionable Friday diarist):
Teddifish writes about a simple touch...
dweb8231 points out that we have always had our nuts.
Earth Ling's observation is that bullying is fractal.
It's been entirely too long since I've run across one of her comments, so I was glad to see a gilas girl has another fine one today.
Please add your own comment finds below!
~~~~~
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, Mojo Friday, miscellaneous cute animals, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) We have always had our nuts.... by dweb8231 — 133
2) One of the most bizarre things about by LeftHandedMan — 110
3) You should get a wedgie by kestrel9000 — 105
4) Well, it wasn't my underwear, per se by RoCali — 99
5) Finally, someone else agrees! by Left Coast Resident — 92
6) You bet I did. by KelleyRN2 — 86
7) Living in London here... by Puffin — 81
8) Glenn Beck is not taken as a "crazy" in Germany by RaulVB — 80
9) Oh Kelley...... by princesspat — 79
10) Funny you should mention that by JG in MD — 78
11) Not at fifteen! by KelleyRN2 — 77
12) I had a fight in pre-op once by KelleyRN2 — 69
13) LOL, it was brutal. by RoCali — 68
14) Thanks for posting this Patric. by blue jersey mom — 64
15) Good Diary, PJ by JekyllnHyde — 64
16) Our money? by Dallasdoc — 63
17) It is the endgame and has been the end. by Blizzard — 63
18) Well, I think underwires are an abomination. by loggersbrat — 60
19) Good diary, and thanks for helping out! by slinkerwink — 59
20) Hai Nurse Kelley.... I feel your pain... by Statusquomustgo — 58
21) I'm with you, Will by Ivan — 58
22) And he busted the air traffic controllers union by equern — 58
23) Failed? by Aji — 57
24) Underwear? by JanF — 57
25) Happy Raining / Cold Friday by Black Kos — 56
26) Rec'd for the title alone by lgmcp — 55
27) Yes they are by Lefty Coaster — 55
28) They've always been with us, by Lying eyes — 54
29) Oh, I had a conversation with my therapist by Got a Grip — 54
30) Now that's funny! by KelleyRN2 — 54
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Is America famous for its Right Wing Crazies? by Lefty Coaster — 398
2) Tip Jar by attytood — 306
3) Tip Jar by bobswern — 299
4) Tip Jar by KelleyRN2 — 297
5) Tips to stop bullying. by Colorado is the Shiznit — 277
6) Tip Jar by Patric Juillet — 218
7) Tip Jar by teacherken — 210
8) Tip Jar by slinkerwink — 180
9) Tip Jar by Clarknt67 — 172
10) Tip Jar by Eclectablog — 137
11) We have always had our nuts.... by dweb8231 — 133
12) Tip Jar by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse — 131
13) One of the most bizarre things about by LeftHandedMan — 110
14) You should get a wedgie by kestrel9000 — 105
15) Well, it wasn't my underwear, per se by RoCali — 99
16) Tip Jar by Sara R — 98
17) Tip Jar by Black Kos — 96
18) tips against bullying by slinkerwink — 94
19) Finally, someone else agrees! by Left Coast Resident — 92
20) Tip Jar by Tchrldy — 89
21) Scritchie Jar by triciawyse — 89
22) You bet I did. by KelleyRN2 — 86
23) Mojo Mug by TexDem — 85
24) Tip Jar by hester — 85
25) For Egypt. For Tahrir by cosmic debris — 83
26) Living in London here... by Puffin — 81
27) Tip Jar by SallyCat — 81
28) Glenn Beck is not taken as a "crazy" in Germany by RaulVB — 80
29) Oh Kelley...... by princesspat — 79
30) Funny you should mention that by JG in MD — 78
© sardonyx; all rights reserved
All quotes are the property of the original authors or the websites that held them