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 stealing stuff via HTML.
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).
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. Anyone is welcome to volunteer to host a diary. We hope that any attempt to revive this effort is appreciated by those who got the ball rolling, especially the person who wrote literally dozens of such entries over the years.
What do you mean by "stealing stuff"?
Say that you wanted to repost a photo that someone left in the comment section. Or perhaps there was a series of diaries with a whole bunch of links that you wanted to use for your own diary in that series.
In the past, I actually would go through the trouble of downloading the photo to my hard drive, then uploading it to my own Flickr page, then copying and pasting the new HTML code. Kinda clunky all that. Takes 3 to 4 mins that could have been more wisely used.
Thanks to a friend at this here website, I learned the magic trick that eliminates the need for all that old skool rigmarole.
Are you ready?
Welcome to
CTRL U
With the mere click of 2 keys, you can instantly see the HTML for any given website.
(Forgive me if you have known about this for years. I am slow on the nerd uptake much of the time.)
Once you see the gobbledegook of whatever comment or page you were hoping to steal, it is then up to you to try and decipher which part you wanted. An easy way to bypass that potential headache is to copy the whole darn mess, and then start randomly nixing stuff (CTRL X) starting at the top until you have lost the part you wanted. Then go back and paste what you lost and lose all the rest.
Voila!
WTF are you talking about, dude?
I need an example.
OK then!
Say you like polar bears (real ones, not just Ukrainian beanie babies).
You see a cute one in a comment in some random diary, and you want to steal borrow that picture and post it in the daily pootie diary to garner huge mojo for all the critter lovers.
You click the comment (less HTML is more, need I explain?)
http://www.dailykos.com/...
And then CTRL U that sonofagun.
You will see a long slew of messiness that starts with the Daily Kos header.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-W3CDTD XHTML 1.0 Strict/EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
Skip down about 10 "Page Downs" and you get to this:
<div class="ct">
<p>Unrec'd.
<p><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/... width="240" height="155" alt="knut1441" align="right" />
<p>:-(
<p>I wanted to believe it was real.
<p>Here is <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/21/958662/-Knut-The-Cute-has-died-How-long-for-his-brethren-?via=user">a real one for people who like reality,
Inside all that is the comment with all its nerdy HTML goodness. For the image alone, seek out the part that begins "img"
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/... width="240" height="155" alt="knut1441" align="right" />
Copy that one little bit and you are golden.
Ta Da!
Happy Pilfering!
* Note:
This shortcut works with Firefox and Chrome with Windows, but not guaranteed to work with all browsers. Mac users should know that CTRL is not CTRL on a Mac for some reason. Use that little flowery extra key { ⌘ } that only Mac deems necessary for all shortcuts. I can only hope this trick works for you too.
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