Welcome, fellow Kossacks.
First time reader or return visitor to the Visual Guide to DK4?
Either way, bienvenidos a todos gentes!
You can read PART I here
You can read PART II here
You can read PART III here
You can read PART IV here
Lessons learned from PARTs I-IV: Pictures are good. Groups are good. The color scheme on DK4? The most unliked thing about DK4. :(
Onward, Kossacks, let us look at TAGs, and what they mean for version 4.0 ...
TAGs have been used on DK3 for some time now, and anyone who has written a diary on DK3 knows that you must use at least one TAG to publish a diary.
This is still true, on DK4.
Remember this image of your Profile Page from Visual Guide to DK4 PART I:
Look here to find a handy link to creating a New Diary:
and a close-up of that:
After you have created your diary and are ready for PREVIEW, if you do not enter any tags, you will see this message, after you hit the orange Preview button:
Just like on DK3.
But on DK4, Tags are more than just window dressing, they are the Traffic controller for the new format.
Tags determine just what you see in your My Stream
Remember, your My Stream is your personalized Recent Diaries list, personalized by you, by the Tags and Users and Groups you decide to Follow
How does that work?
Let's start with the page where you can see just what you are already Following.
When you see FOLLOWING on DK4, remember to think of it as Funnel Content to Me
[UPDATE this image has been updated with the correct image 6:53 PM PST WED FEB 9 2011]
For every diary you see in this list view of your FOLLOWING My Stream menu, you are FOLLOWING one of these three: The diarist, a TAG used in the diary, or the GROUP the diary was written under.
At this time, there is no way to determine which of those is what put the diary there. I'm not sure it matters, but I thought someone might ask...
So, let's assume you are NOT Subscribed to anyone on DK3. This page would be empty. But so would your My Stream, because that feature is dependent upon the Tags to funnel content to you.
If you choose to NOT FOLLOW anyone or any Tags, then you would use the Main Page Link to DIARIES to see the old DK3 (front page) Recent Diaries list.
Or possibly, the new semi-filtered new feature, Recently Rec'd Diaries List, which IS still on the Front Page on DK4 (on the Right Side, down under the RECOMMENDED LIST).
Remember, the Recently Rec'd List is the unvarnished Recent Diaries which have gotten AT LEAST ONE REC from a TU (Trusted User)
But let's assume that you WILL use Tags to funnel content to your My Stream. After all you don't like pootie diaries photo diaries Mojo Friday diaries satire or funny diaries SOMETHING that other people on DK4 do like.
How to avoid the stuff you DON'T like? Use Tags and use My Stream instead of of the unfiltered Recent Diaries list.
OK, enough already, show me the TAGs page!
How to find it... You can access the TAGs main page on any page in DK4, just use the TAGS link on the overhead Main Menu:
Which brings you to the TAGs Main Page:
Closeup top section. See the arrow pointing to the little orange/brownish HEART ICON? Click that Heart and you'll be FOLLOWING that TAG:
After you start FOLLOWING a TAG, any diary which has that TAG, will be added to your My Stream.
If you decide to STOP FOLLOWING a particular TAG, how do you do that?
Well, you'll probably decide to do this, whilst reading a diary with the TAG on it. Before leaving the diary, scroll down and Look at the TAGs.
Let's say, for instance, you don't want to see anything about Ronald Reagan in your My Stream. You are reading a Diary that has Ronald Reagan as a Tag. Click on that TAG, and it'll take you to the TAGs page, where you will see this:
Now, for a closeup of the top area:
Mouseover the HEART ICON and you'll see this, telling you that you are NOT FOLLOWING this TAG:
OR THIS, telling you that you ARE already FOLLOWING the TAG
If you DO NOT want to FOLLOW the TAG, Click the HEART ICON it to UNFOLLOW the TAG.
To REVIEW:
To determine if you are FOLLOWING a TAG, mouseover it in the TAG area of a diary.
TAGs you are FOLLOWING will be darker, as you can see here, Barack Obama is darker than the other entries, because I am already FOLLOWING that TAG.
To UNFOLLOW, click the TAG NOT the Heart Icon. Go to the TAG page, and Click the HEART ICON at the top to UNFOLLOW.
.
For DK3 users, every diarist whom you Subscribe to now will be converted to a diarist whom you FOLLOW on DK4.
MESSAGE TO USERS ON "SPAM" TAGGING:
Please refrain from using the buckshot method of TAGGING your diaries, in the hopes that you'll be seen by more eyes.
This defeats the purpose of using the TAG system to funnel content to users which they already want to see.
It may also garner you attention from the ADMINS, which you do not want. The sort of attention which will bring you a visit from the
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
pop-up the next time you login to Daily Kos.
So use common sense. Take some time and look over the TAGs Main Page, and get familiar with the large number of TAGs already in use and recognized by the system. Try and use TAGs which are already in use.
New TAGs will be added to the TAG library, as users add them and they start getting wider use. This is how new TAGs like Oilpocalypse and TbagR came to get more use in the past year. An event happened, a new word was coined, and it got a lot of use.
There will be, I'm sure, many many ways to use TAGs which I have not covered here. I like to think of it as the DailyKos version of The Undiscovered Country, which, after all, was just a Star Trek euphemism for the future.
Which is where we are all heading, starting in about two days, now...
I hope this edition of Visual Guide to DK4 is informative and interesting to those who have dropped by to read it.
I'll be looking for you tomorrow, on the Final Edition of the Visual Guide to DK4, where we'll have a roundup and review, just before DK3 fades out into the pages of history...