Greetings, you sweaty Cranky Users! I opened my diary draft with the vague intention of writing about this diary by kos, which has been the talk of the MetaEaters this week. But then I thought, well, hell, has this not been gone over enough? There has been at least one whole other diary of commentary on this topic. And it's Friday and I'm tired and don't feel like having an entire comment thread about why this change does or does not suck.
So, tell ya what I'll do: below the squiggle, I'll summarize the main points of Markos's diary in case you missed it, and then I will talk briefly about something entirely different and more amusing. If all y'all Cranks want to debate about the front pagers in the comments, you certainly may! But at least it won't be in any way required.
Okay, so, the big change is: formerly, stories by "editors" (front pagers) were not like diaries by us. They did not appear in the Recent list, did not have tip jars, and were not eligible to make the Recommended list. They were queued to the front page, and the queue was managed in such a way that each item got some time on top of the page before being displaced by a new one. This had the unintended effect of creating a lag, sometimes of hours, between a news event and the publication of an editor's story about it, creating a front page of stale news.
As of Monday this past week, the front page queue is still there, but now, editors write their stories as regular diaries like ours, and publish them to their own pages when they're ready, just as we do. These diaries appear on the recent list, have tip jars, and can appear on the recommended list. They may still be queued to the front page group and re-published there when their time comes, but meanwhile, they are able to be read and commented on. Here is a salient point:
...when a diary is promoted to the front page, it is removed from all the lists. So nothing on the front page will clog up any lists.
(My emphasis)
Please read the diary if you have not, because there is an interesting and clear discussion of what the intent of the change is and what will happen if it proves unsatisfactory. Also, before moving on, I'd like to highlight a passage that is not directly about the front page change:
That said, I will reiterate a point I've made several times before -- people's blogs on Daily Kos can and should be like their blogs anywhere else. There are no restrictions on topics, content, or length so long as they're not violating the broader culture of the site. People can diary a topic that has already been diaried! People can write a one-sentence diary! People can write about non-political topics!
There is no reason to police diaries except for those that are overtly trollish. If you find yourself acting as diary police, it is YOU who are wrong, not the diarist.
Now! What else can we talk about? I know -- YouTube embeds!
There are lots of wonderful music diaries on Daily Kos, and they rely heavily on YouTube. This makes them cripplingly difficult for anyone on a low-horsepower machine to open, as I can attest. And the thing is, sometimes it's interesting concert footage, but most of the time, the video is anywhere from very secondary to actually undesirable. But we use them anyway because YouTube is such a handy and easily-embeddable source of music with lots of variety available. Too bad there's not a way to use it just as an audio player without showing the video!
Props to KenBee for coming up with the idea I'm about to share! So, if you've been following along, you know that in DK4, we can no longer use the old embed shortcut with the two pairs of parens around the YouTube ID, as shown in the old FAQ. These days, you must click under the video on the Share button, and then on the Embed button that subsequently appears. On the other hand, you no longer have to check off "Use old embed code" -- the new code, which is an <iframe> tag, works perfectly well and gives you a nice option when linking you can read about HERE. Note that the appearance of the embed screen has changed since that diary. Here's how it looks now.
So, you'll notice that you can pick different sizes at the bottom, or use the "custom size" box if you don't like any of those offered. The
Custom box, however, always keeps the video in proportion -- if you change one dimension, it adjusts the other to keep the video in the same rectangular frame. Some of us have experimented with making the video tiny, but then the controls get hard to use!
Enter the idea of altering the code! Copy and paste what's there -- I suggest picking the small (eg 425 x 349) size. The code will look something like this (without the space after "http"):
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http ://www.youtube.com/embed/0S13mP_pfEc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So, if I would like to hear
Runaway by Del Shannon, or think you would, but I don't need to show you the slide show of old album covers? Let's change the
height in our code from "349" to "30", like this:
<iframe width="425" height="30" src="http : //www.youtube.com/embed/0S13mP_pfEc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Here's what we get:
Notice that anyone who would still like to see the slide show of old album covers can still use the full screen button on the right of the little control panel, and can also right-click and get the URL, and go to YouTube and view the video. But meanwhile, my page does not have to load this video and be visually cluttered by it.
UPDATE thanks to Adept2u: If you'd like your video embed to start somewhere in the middle instead of the beginning, you can do that by appending &start=xx (where xx is the number of seconds after which you want to begin) to the end of the URL, inside the quotes, in your video's <iframe> tag. For instance, to start at 1:20 in, use &start=80. Here's an example using 20 seconds:
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http : //www.youtube.com/embed/0S13mP_pfEc?rel=0&start=20" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Notice that there's no indication this has been done until you play the video and it jumps ahead.
Okay, that's what I've got. Stay cool, my Cranky friends! Please use the thread to discuss any topics you like, site-related or just friendly ({sigh} even if you want to discuss the suckitude or lack thereof of the new front-page policy, just because I love you!) Practice your YouTube skillz with songs you'd like to share! Ask and answer questions and help your community members! Pass cold drinks around!
WHERE TO TURN: LINKS
☀ For more stuff sort of like this, the Cranky Users group.
☀ For lots of official detail about the site and its workings, the DK4 FAQ (frequently-asked questions). The main Daily Kos FAQ is still here.
☀ To get immediate response for technical help or urgent site problems, the contact form (be sure to select the tech support radio button). Note that THE BUG REPORT FORM HAS BEEN DECOMMISSIONED. To report a bug to the dev team now, you can use the tech support form, or you can comment in an elfling diary or send her a personal message. Congratulations to the development team for reducing the bug collection to a size where it can be drowned in the bathtub.
☀ For immediate catharsis, complain in a Cranky Users thread. These threads are regularly scanned by kos and developers, but it's not a guaranteed way to bring an issue to the attention of these folks. But sometimes you just need some sympathy from other cranky people! (And sometimes, other cranky people have advice that can help you.)
Our thanks to kos, the development team, and the Dkosopedia contributors for their vigorous efforts to deliver a site that works well and to help us know how to work it!
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