Greetings, Cranky Users! This is a short diary today, because I took off yesterday to finally get my taxes done, and now my work inbox is piled with stuff to do and I cannot be as indolent allot as much time to diary writing and tending as I'd like.
I'd mainly like to chat briefly about the newly-enhanced Permalink, but first, I have another item of business. Last night, Nurse Kelley posted this diary by Im a frayed knot to the Cranky Users group. It is not in the category of subject matter we normally publish to this group; instead, the issue is the publication of the diary itself. When it was published initially, it appeared on Im a frayed knot's page, but NOT on the Diaries page, that is, not on the list of ALL diaries. Nurse Kelley republished it to see if it would appear on the Diaries page. The comments in the diary suggest that some people could see it on the Diaries list after the republish, but I must say that I don't see it there now, if I scroll back to last night.
I know that's not the first report I've heard of a diary not appearing on the Diaries page when it's published, so if you have an instance and have not reported it as a bug, you might consider giving all the details you know to our intrepid developers so they can figure out what's going on. See the Big Box o' Links™ at the end of this diary.
Now, if you'd care to step past the squiggle with me, we'll move on to our next topic.
In this exciting diary by elfling, it was announced that Permalink, for so long broken, had been fixed. And this is true up to a point. If you now click the Permalink button, you get a URL for the diary with ?detail=hide at the end of it, which hides all the comments when you go to it, overriding whatever your preference is set to in your profile.
And far be it from us, Cranky as we may be, to complain about this! It's a beautiful thing. But there's just one teensy thing you might find surprising about how it works, to wit: the key words in the paragraph above are hides all the comments when you go to it. Once you're in it, IF you have auto-refresh turned on, and IF your preference is to expand or shrink comments, rather than hide them, any NEW comments that are posted once you've opened the diary act according to your preference. I have today's pootie diary open through permalink in another tab right now. It showed no comments when I opened it, but now there is an ever-increasing list of comments visible below it, starting with the point I opened it (it had three comments when I opened it, so the first one I see is #4).
Now, the good-ish news is, if you send a permalink to someone who's not a member of Daily Kos (I tried this logged off), their auto-refresh defaults to being shut off, so if they don't think to turn it on, they won't see any comments. If they do, though, they will see new ones, IF it's early enough that more comments are still appearing.
I acknowledge that this is all a lot better than having no way at all to remove sometimes boisterous (okay, sometimes fucking offensive) comment threads from diaries you'd like to show someone for the diary content and not the pie fight. I just want you to know that it's not an entirely watertight method. Do with it as you will.
UPDATE: Nurse Kelley reported the issue with Im a frayed knot's diary and received this reply from Tech Support:
It looks like that diary was published from a draft that was created on
9/14/2008. There's a bug that prevents diaries published from old
drafts (like more than a couple of months old) from showing up in
various listings.
To work around it for now, create new drafts when publishing, rather
than directly publishing drafts you've been working on for a long while,
or "recycling" old drafts for new diaries.
WHERE TO TURN: LINKS
☀ For more stuff sort of like this, the Cranky Users group.
☀ For lots of official detail about the site and its workings, the DK4 FAQ (frequently-asked questions). The main Daily Kos FAQ is still here.
☀ To report something not working to the dev team, the bug report form. A bug report will not be directly responded to, but will be kept on file by the development team until the issue is resolved or otherwise closed.
☀ To get immediate response for technical help or urgent site problems, the contact form (be sure to select the tech support radio button). A tech support request will get prompt response, but does not get added to the bug report database. If you use it to report a known bug, you'll be told it's a known bug, and that's it.
☀ For immediate catharsis, complain in a Cranky Users thread. These threads are regularly scanned by kos and developers, but it's not a guaranteed way to bring an issue to the attention of these folks. But sometimes you just need some sympathy from other cranky people! (And sometimes, other cranky people have advice that can help you.)
Our thanks to kos, the development team, and the Dkosopedia contributors for their vigorous efforts to deliver a site that works well and to help us know how to work it!
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