DK4 has been the software of record for Daily Kos for over three weeks now, and it's been getting more stable and friendlier by the week. There have been fewer reasons to visit the bug report form. Admittedly, every once in a while something very odd will happen, but it's usually suppressed with reasonable rapidity, and doesn't recur.
This is not to say that there aren't a number of issues that need addressing. It does seem, fortunately, that there are fewer of them.
I thought it would be worthwhile to mention some of the recent changes and improvements that have been made, and maybe a few that are still outstanding but that might be on the way.
This diary is primarily 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.
First, I thought it would be worthwhile to point you to the FAQ specifically about the new Daily Kos software, the DK4 FAQ on the dKosopedia. It has information on how DK4 works, though it remains very much a work in progress, with some significant sections yet to be written.
There are some things that still don't exist yet: a direct link to the dKosopedia from anywhere on Daily Kos is one example. For now, go to the FAQ, and you can maneuver around the dKosopedia in the left-hand menus, most notably in the "here" section under the blue version of the icon Daily Kos flag guy. (Clicking on the blue flag guy takes you to the dKosopedia's main page.)
Another thing I've wanted to see for a couple of months now that I can't believe isn't a very quick fix is to list the number of comments in the diary at the very bottom of a diary's comment section, on the same line as the "Post a Comment" and "Permalink" links. That same exact line appears at the top of the comment section, just above the tip jar.
There are a significant number of site changes and improvements that have been made lately, since the software was released. A couple of examples:
• The diary editor's orange rectangles at top and bottom now say "Save & Preview" instead of "Preview Diary" (the buttons under the Intro and Extended sections still say "Preview Diary"), but all four do the same thing and work the same as before: either they post a bunch of errors that you need to fix, or they Save the diary in the system and show you a Preview of it.
• The "Welcome Back" box—your little box of shortcuts in the right column if you're logged in—now appears on every Daily Kos page. It used to be that it wouldn't appear when reading someone's diary or a group's posting; now it always appears.
• Comments now can be recommended (or hidden) for up to a week after posting.
A final shoutout to dmsilev, who originally founded the FAQ Forum and posted 77 of them in 2008 and 2009.
If there's some part of the DK4 FAQ that isn't clear, do let me know. Ask questions here! Areas that continue to need fleshing out include groups, messages, and searching. I've been busier than I expected this winter, so there's been precious little fleshing out over the past month. Things will only get worse come spring.
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We received a nice group of emails today from people who took the time to submit comments that deserved recognition to Top Comments mailbox in time for 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 jlms qkw:
Here's terra's hilarious response to questions about conspiracy in moderation.
From Eddie C:
In my diary 60 Minutes: Hard Times for American Children, there are the following: What's even more remarkable is by elfling, But adding to the deficit to help these children from EWembley, and Eddie, thank you for highlighting by Kimberley.
From bronte17:
peregrine kate draws the parallels between "our present quandary" and the "postmodern war machine" in Saving Our Young from Ourselves by teacherken (one of his best diaries, imo).
From sardonyx (your sneezy Monday diarist):
In nickinnewyork's diary on the Madison protests, the diarist writes a comment: It has to start somewhere.
not this time writes an stark comment on what a typical teacher has to accomplish on the job.
In a comment today on yesterday's diary by inHI, Thoughts on Public Library Funding, notdarkyet writes that libraries are the great equalizer.
Please add your own comment finds below!
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A reminder: Top mojo will return once we figure out how to strongarm convince Comment Search to give us exactly what we need in a form that we can use. Which is more difficult than it sounds.