So, I’ve rolled around in the new DK for a few hours, last night and today. First I tried it on PC and had many of the same dislikes as others about the design.
- Too much white space & light text
- Random unwanted “helpfulness” like turning th into a superscript that lasts for the rest of your comment
- Comments can no longer be looked at on an individual page (this is IMO the biggest)
- The comment reply notification does not go away even after spending the 30 seconds loading the diary with 200 comments and viewing the first reply and reloading for another 30 seconds to see the second reply
- The annoying new comment pop ups taking half the space on the left when there are alot
Some other complaints of mine that I haven’t seen discussed as much-
- I HATE THAT PEOPLE CAN CHANGE TEXT SIZE IN COMMENTS. IT’S LIKE READING A RANSOM NOTE SOMETIMES.
- When you scroll in the image library, if you get to the point where a new set of images is loading, and you try to scroll before it is done, you scroll the page in the background instead. Lost my place before I realized this.
Ah, but newDK is supposedly designed for the mobile user, or so I remember repeatedly reading. What luck! I am a mobile user. About half the time, I am reading DK on my phone. Not the m.dailykos version, because that sucks. No, I was able to use the regular DK site on my phone. I read, I sometimes commented this way (tho it took way longer with the touchscreen).
So, I have a Galaxy Note 4, pretty popular phone running Android, this should work right?
Wrong. The new DK is functionally unusable from my phone.
I read elflings post on the regular address and read most of the comments fine. Then I tried to post one in reply to elfling. A half an hour. To make one comment. About a problem picture in the image library.
- My first try, had a whole comment written, pressed preview, it highlighted. Nothing happened. Kept trying. Resized the screen. Canceled, retyped. Tried the button again, nothing. Grr.
- 2nd try. Decided to go to the mobile version. Looked much the same as before, navigated back to elflings post and comment, yay there’s a reply button. Tap that quick! Hey, it works. Except elfling comes back and says couldn’t find the pic I was reporting. Grrr. I probably got the name wrong.
- OK, let’s go find it again. GARGH! Can’t find the image library on mobile version. Hey, wait a minute… There’s NOTHING on the mobile version but posts. No apparent way to get to my comments, post an entry, can’t even see my name or find a way to my profile…
- New tab, regular website, find the image in the image library, press and hold, get the link copied.
- Back to mobile tab with elfling’s post, GRRRRRRRR. My page moved while I was gone. Find the comment again, hit reply, paste link… or not. No pasting. Nothing happens when I press and hold. Are you kidding me right now?!?!?
- Back to regular website tab, reload because it froze on image library, open image library, find picture again, note name, write it down to make sure.
- Back to my comment, oh goody, it moved again. Let’s find Waldo. There he is! Check paper, write comment, post. OMG, it’s finally over and done!
I am not a computer noob. I’m 32 years old. I learned my alphabet on a keyboard. This is back when the command line was still in use. I was the first kid in grade school to start handing in typed reports. My mom and I opened our computer and disassembled it and reassembled it. I had to figure out IP things in Windows 3.1 when I was in high school to play games like Tetrinet. I pimp software like excel. I’ve run game servers with mods, installed things with insanely complicated procedures by today’s standards. I can USE computer interfaces that are DESIGNED to be used.
This new version is not designed for commenting on mobile. So, I am wondering what the mobile version IS designed for. Viewing? Sharing? I’d really like to know.
Anyone else have the same issues or different ones you’d like to share with mobile?
*** I do like the new diary editor though. So far, it’s the one thing I really appreciate.