Since we last chatted, there have been several fixes related to scrolling, keeping the page steady, better iPad support, as well as a feature that will let you submit comments entirely from the keyboard, plus, as always, Some Other StuffTM.
My favorite new feature from this round is that if you have a comment reply box open and you somehow scroll away from it, you can start typing and the box will re-center on your screen. This has saved my bacon in long comment threads a few times already!
Here’s how you submit comments from the keyboard alone:
(legend is between the story body and the comments area)
- Select the comment you want to reply to, say by navigating using the j/k keys, or by clicking on it.
- Type `r` to open the reply box. Your cursor should be ready to go.
- Type your comment
- Press the escape key `esc` to leave the comment box
- Type `P` to preview the comment
- Type `c` to cancel or `S` to submit
This keyboard-driven comment submit should work on most browsers and we believe it to be an upgrade to the workaround users had developed on Chrome only to allow for a text only submission.
This is the sixth comment beta diary. Thank you to everyone who took the time to characterize what they saw, provide screenshots, etc — it really made a positive difference for us. We try to test everything we do, but y’all always have combinations and use cases we don’t expect, and every one of these makes us a bit smarter.
The first diary is here: www.dailykos.com/…
The second diary is here: www.dailykos.com/…
The third diary is here: www.dailykos.com/…
The fourth diary is here: www.dailykos.com/…
The fifth diary is here: www.dailykos.com/...
I promise every comment in those diaries was read, and that every one in this diary will be read too. We added many items to our to-do list from the comments. I can’t promise that we’ll do everything that you ask, but it will be noted and considered.
Our new version is not yet available for phones — those will still go to the old m. codebase that displays a simplified version of the site. But once we’re confident these are working well on the desktop, we’ll be retiring the separate mobile codebase and these comments will be there.
With a little magic, we are able to run the new comments and the old comments simultaneously, and you can choose to turn them on and off.
To turn the new comments ON, visit this URL:
https://www.dailykos.com/comments_beta/true
To turn them OFF, visit this URL:
https://www.dailykos.com/comments_beta/false
These links set a cookie that will remember your preference on a desktop or tablet device for that specific browser. (You can’t view them usefully on a phone yet, sorry.) You can use different browsers or an incognito/private window to see old and new side by side.
Your comments will be saved etc exactly the same in both. Note however that they track which comments are read differently, so when you switch over, it will think all comments are unread.
I have been using the new comments exclusively for a few months as we shake out the bugs and finalize all the features.
Mostly the look and feel of these comments is meant to be similar to what you know and love. There are some small changes to the design based on user feedback. We know it will be jarring at first.
Some of the changes we hope you’ll appreciate:
For the most part, the rest of things should act pretty much the same. We have a few known issues we’re still cleaning up , but we wanted to get community feedback on the main feature set before we polish every last bit. At this point we have both more and fewer than last time, following the logic of all software releases. Very soon, however, these comments will be the default when you come to the site. So, please, use them now, and tell us what you can’t live with now. Give it a day or three. If you’re using them now and they’re mostly working, please tell me that too.
You can give feedback in the comments below or at the helpdesk (which for example has an option for private feedback, and doesn’t require an account, if that works better for you). If it’s relevant to your comment, it can be helpful to know what browser and device you’re using and anything special about your setup (like maybe that you use a tablet in portrait mode with a keyboard, or are using a screen reader, or that you’re connecting from Antarctica).
Thanks all for helping us make Daily Kos a better experience for everyone!