The new version is clearer in its styling and with a darker typeface to make it easier to read.
If you’re viewing Daily Kos on a phone (or set your browser to mimic a phone), you’re seeing something a little different today! We’ve been hard at work revamping our story pages to use a technique called responsive design that flexibly changes the layout based on the width and capabilities of your device. This streamlines our code, makes the site more friendly for people with disabilities or using assistive technology, and also unifies the functionality of the whole site. Browsers, especially phone browsers, have improved dramatically since we first rolled out our m. version, not to mention that device sizes between phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops now overlap. Our new version can take advantage of this to create a better experience for everyone.
For now, only the phones get the new version, since we have a bit more work to do to add in all of the features found in the desktop version. Phones now get a full-fledged first class comments section using the exact same features found in the desktop version — all the formatting, embeds, autorefresh, flagging, etc. You can see the tags and groups for a story, and link to those pages. The comment editor is more friendly to touchscreens at small sizes. And — this is remarkable — any phone should now be able to handle opening a comment thread of any size. Even the biggest comment party of all, Mojo Friday - Sungha Jung - Edition, with a whopping 8,118 comments.
We did a beta period where I took feedback, and the most requested feature was a second recommend button between the story and comments. That is definitely coming! It almost made the launch, but we had a glitch where the two buttons didn’t always communicate. We’ll release that change in an update soon.
Previous stories detailing this change:
Daily Kos Beta: Let's take this new mobile edition out for a test spin
Tell me how you use Daily Kos on a phone (if you do)
Our new Daily Kos mobile version is coming soon! Here's how you can preview it.
We’re still accepting feedback
On to a better future!
Please remember that all comments will be read, and everyone who will be reading your feedback has worked hard on this release with the intent to make the site better for all our users. We want to hear about things we can do better, but understand that hostile, abusive comments are hard to share around the team. The most effective and useful comments:
- Are actionable
- Kind and constructive comments clearly describe a task you can’t do as well as before
- If your use is unusual, the comment includes the reason you use it that way (for example, maybe you collect stories for publishing to a group in a way we didn’t expect or accommodate).
- Assume we want to help you
We’ll reflect on every comment and tweak the pages as we are able to and as seems appropriate. The best way to give us this feedback if you’d like a change is to tell us about a use case — an activity that you’re trying to do — and why you’re not able to accomplish it as easily. These kinds of comments are the most successful at getting the changes you want and need. The old pages won’t be removed until the new ones seem to be doing the job well. A good example of effective, persuasive feedback:
When I want to recommend a comment, sometimes I accidentally tap the wrong spot with my finger, and do the wrong action. I’ve tried to be more careful about where I tap, but it keeps happening to me even when I’m paying close attention.
If you don’t want to leave a public comment here, or aren’t logged in, you may also use the Help Desk link in the upper right corner, or fill out this simple survey.
We want you to be able to do the things you want to do, and helping you do them is what makes our team happy. We can’t always do everything you want, but we do try our best. Critical comments can still be kind, and kind comments are more likely to be read directly by the whole team.
Tuesday, Oct 4, 2022 · 7:54:26 PM +00:00
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elfling
Some people are reporting seeing a version of the desktop page shrunk down on their phone. This is NOT what we intend!
I believe some people are seeing it this way because they have “Switch to old frontpage design” enabled, and that page has links in the wrong format. We’re fixing that, and hopefully by end of day today but possibly it won’t be ready until tomorrow. In the meantime, I believe you’ll see it as intended if you use that option in the upper right menu to “switch to new frontpage design” and click story links that way.
If you’re seeing two columns on a story page, or really small text, this is probably the culprit.
Wednesday, Oct 5, 2022 · 9:03:02 PM +00:00
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elfling
The issue where some of you were getting a desktop page instead of the new mobile page has been fixed. This may also fix some of the issues around tangled redirects that a few of you had. If it happens that you are still experiencing these issues, please let me know with a fresh comment here or at the helpdesk. Thank you for your patience!