Welcome, New Users, to Daily Kos. This Diary is intended to help you orient yourself to the site and ask questions about how to use it.
In the Body of this diary you will find some links intended to get you participating more effectively. Also in the Body this week is a discussion of useful DK4 links.
After that you can ask me any question you want. I don't know all the answers so if you stump me, you do. I invite those wiser than I to contribute and correct (or raise a ruckus, just don't scare people).
If your user id (hover your mouse over your name in any comment, look at the status bar in the bottom of your browser) is larger than 299971 you probably haven't had the opportunity to participate in one of the Welcome New Users diaries here at Daily Kos.
That would be 3796 of you, more or less.
Before we begin, a brief word from our sponsor:
Everyone is encouraged to review some of the previously written goodness that survives here in the DKos archives.
* Other diaries in the Welcome New Users Series.
* The Welcome New Users dKosopedia page.
And finally, as DarkSyde eloquently stated:
With the exception of trolls, we're glad you're here!
Note:
The realm of Welcome New Users has evolved. For now, it will be hosted alternately by smileycreek and myself, LaughingPlanet. We hope that any attempt to revive this effort is appreciated by those who got the ball rolling, and especially the person who wrote literally dozens of such entries over the years.
So, this isn't my 1st diary about dk4. In fact, I was the 1st person ( EVER ) to use that tag for a diary. This, however, is my first diary about DK4 since there was an actual DK4 in real life.
Yeah, I know it has been a "Hot Tag" all week, but I am often not the type to hop on board a trend in its earliest stages.
1. Woe is me; I miss the recent diary column from DK3!
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Turn that silly, cranky frown upside down. The very same list is right here , just like it always has been. The main difference is that now you get only a brief pop-up preview by scrolling over the title instead of the old "Before the fold" view used by DK3. For the record, that old view is used whenever you view GROUP (a.k.a. "Blog") pages. I'd like to see that happen for TAGS as well.
If you want to find trolls, pooties, meta, politics, and mumbo-jumbo all mixed together in a tossed salad, this is your link! You need not pass go or collect $200. Delete all other Daily Kos links and use only this. You will be happily forever frozen in the DK3 front page lower-right hand column, just as you have dreamed. YAY!
Frankly, I find the sub-tab "Most Recommended (Today)" the best way to sort today's diaries. The rec list limits things to those 12 diaries with the current highet rate of recommend. I've always cared less about RATE than total # of RECS, so this list suits me just fine.
2. Okay, great. Enough about me. What do YOU think about me?
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Face it: You want to know about your own thoughts, and what others think of them more than anything. Don't try and act all humble; we know the truth. People always click on their own page as much as anything. It was true with dk3, and it is still true now. But in the past, you had to scan your comments, and try to figure out if you had looked at the replies to them yet. Not any more!
THIS is how you find out. Sure, you don't see every comment you made and its score. But you get what matters most: your comment list sorted by most recent reply. Simply ignore replace my name with yours and you now will know right away when people are praising your wit and wisdom, or when trolls have stalked you and called you a LIBTARD.
3. Stream: Not just for writing your name in the snow anymore.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Now we are moving on to more advanced DK4 items. If you lament change, stop reading NOW. Use items #1 and #2 to bury your head in the sand self in the old school version of Daily Kos. You will find very, very little scary change if you limit yourself to those 2 links plus the front page.
For those brave, un-cranky souls who are curious about evolution, continue below. I'll even post a new little squiggly thing to scare away the fearful...
Most of you brave souls have already tried to peek at this:
Stream
(again, put your name where my name is)
Another word for "stream" might be filter. Don't have time to read yet another screed about how much DK4 sucks? Well, don't follow tags like meta and DK4 and you are golden! A site like DK4 can give you only what you really want, and nothing more. I think that is a good thing, myself. Others will surely disagree.
The trick is adding people, tags, and groups to your stream, so that it actually changes every couple hours.
You know you have too few items "hearted" when the stream looks the same now that it did when you left to go grocery shopping.
Picking people to follow might be the hardest part of this. Choosing tags, the easiest. If there aren't a dozen tags you find worthy of following, I wonder if Daily Kos is really the best site for you. Maybe a site devoted strictly to your pet issue would be less complicated and distracting.
So, if you haven't yet, go, right now, to the tag list and click the little heart thingy next to 10 or 15 tags that speak to you.
There is a list on the bottom of EVERY SINGLE PAGE of Dkos for you to peruse.
But be forewarned though- tags like "Obama" and "Kos" will clutter up your stream faster than you can yell TROLL!
4. The dryer ate my left sock.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Looking for something?
Well, there's a link for that.
Yes, the new search is meant to be more user-friendly. Is it? I am not sure.
What I am sure of is that is it much, much less advanced. People who had a grip on the DK3 search function are no doubt woefully disappointed with the options afforded with the DK4 search engine.
Sure, teh googles still work as another option, but I am hoping that upgrading the new DK4 Search is on the honeydo list of things that might get tended to before 2014. I would love to someday be able to actually SHARE my search results with other users. For those of you who missed it above, THIS is the closest we can come to doing so now. Scary, eh? And yes, I know what search many of you are tempted to suggest for me.
5. Don't tell me there is even more I have to read.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Well, no. Not really. This is the part where I put in a joke about MY PAGE being the 5th most important link on all of Daily Kos.
But instead, I will suggest adding this group to your stream, and even bookmarking the group page for regular viewing. Become a "follower" by clicking the little <3 heart thingy under the GROUP name (not next to the tag) Welcome New Users until it has a little check mark embalzoned on it like so-
or like so-
Following the tag is also recommended, but you will find that smileycreek & I have begun adding items to the cue that do not have the WNU tag added. You will see new diaries that feature useful teaching about the new site every day or 2, if all goes well.