Note: if you want a preview of Daily Kos 4.0, which you'll wake up to Sunday morning, you can check out the beta site at http://www.dailykosbeta.com/ and start getting to know the place. You only have today to do so, though. This site will go down around 9:00 Saturday morning, Pacific time while the data is moved over, and the new site should be ready to use Saturday evening, after 5:00 pm, Pacific. For an introduction to DK4, check out this primer on getting started at DK4.
There are some powerful new features at Daily Kos 4.0 that will make finding the content that you're most interested in and the other community members who share your interests. Actually, rather than entirely new features, most of them will be quite familiar. It's just that now they have much more functionality.
Make the jump to see the goods.
Let's start at the top:
"Home" is pretty self-explanatory. That will always take you to a refreshed front page.
"My Page" is operations central for your content.
People
Here's a quick link to the core operators of the site--all of you. Curious about who has written the most at Daily Kos? (Well, that one's easy. It's Markos, followed by openthread.) How about who gets the most recommendations or has the highest mojo? See it here. (And let the competition begin.)
Groups
Here's where we get to one of the most powerful new features, or rather, new functionality for an ad hoc feature we had at DK3. Quoting Markos, "we already have them -- groups like Black Kos, ekos, and myriad more. DK4 just makes it vastly easier for those groups to organize."
Not only does DK4 make it easier for groups to organize, it makes it easier for groups get their message out. Groups can now have their own blog and create diaries within that blog. For example:
That's a group almost all Daily Kos readers know--the compilers of every day's top comments. If that's your favorite read of every day, you can make the Top Comment blog your home page, and never miss it.
Any trusted user can start a group by clicking on the "Create a New Group" link.
Creating a new group is simple, filling in the group name fields in this screen.
Once you've created the group, it's easy to add users to the group.
The group creator can choose who she wishes to have contributors to the group blog, and the role the member will have, whether they can help edit diaries published to the group blog or just write diaries for the group. Any user can request to be a contributor to a group by using the messaging tool--you can send to groups as well as individuals. Groups can be organized around a specific topic, or just among people who would like to collaborate. Posts can be co-authored by group editors, making efforts like liveblogging easier and more powerful. Anyone can read any group's diaries and comment in them.
(For much more on groups, don't miss the DK4 FAQ at dkosopedia, and these diaries by Dom9000 and Angie in WA State.)
Tags
Tags are still required to publish a diary. But tags in DK4 are going to be so much more useful than they used to be. Tags are used to categorize diaries, to make them easier to find for other community members and readers. A good tag can make or break your diary and whether it finds an audience.
The tags in this list are clickable, taking you to a page with a basic description of the topic and a sortable list of the diaries using that tag. If you want to follow any tag--have the diaries that are tagged with it to show up in your Stream, click on the heart symbol next to the tag.
For a great deal more on tags, once again turn to Angie in WA State and her Visual step-by-step guide to DK4 - Part V.
That takes you through the variety of new ways you can access the huge knowledge bank that is Daily Kos. Next up, adding your own wisdom.
More resources: