Yo, peeps! Squeaky Wheel here to ask why things aren’t better at the supposedly “new and improved” Daily Kos. We were assured that fixes would be made and asked for patience. The very last update, nearly a month ago (after nearly daily updates for the first 10 days of the DK nightmare), hasn’t had any follow up at all. We’ve been asked to be patient, wait 2 weeks. I’ve done more than that, waited longer, with nothing to show for it.
As a lifelong activist, I know that change isn’t made unless we stand up, get busy, and demand it so I’m experienced at being a squeaky wheel. And that’s why I’m writing today.
Stuff is so bad that users are stepping up and finding workarounds to some of our problems, but workarounds aren’t a solution; they’re a bandaid and don’t help with most of the problems we continue to experience.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some things that I like, such as the new formatting tools now also available for comments. But for everything I like, there are dozens that I hate. And literally everything causing grief today were also noted and complained about for months at the beta site.
Here’s my short list:
Why does writing a comment to a diary take you to the very bottom of the comments? That's dumb. I’d like to read the comments from the top down and not from the bottom up after I’ve typed in my comment. Speaking of comments, when I look for a reply to a comment, why does the entire diary have to load? And why, if a diary has more than 100 comments, do I get plunked down in some random place inside the comments and have to search for the one I want? What a waste. Too much headache inducing white space and no link to the front page when you scroll to the bottom of the diary. More scrolling scrolling scrolling needed (or, you need to use the keyboard “Home” key which simply adds to unnecessary moving between keyboard and mouse). Where did Next Page of the Rec List go? We used to have that option and used it if we were offline for a day. Yes, there’s a workaround (go to your message page and you’ll see the “old” Rec List there with its “next page” option, but that’s more clicking and navigating to do something that was previously available in one tiny click. How are we supposed to check links in diaries when they don’t appear in full and aren’t clickable? In DK 4 we had diary “preview” which would show the diary as it would appear after publication and that made links verifiable as accurate. Now, we’ve got nothing but some What You See Is What You Get which doesn’t really show what you really get. Making “Preview” mode available would solve that new problem. Speaking of links, why is a link opening in a “new page” the default? It’s maddening to have each and every link that gets clicked on open in a brand new shiny page. Shouldn’t “same page” be the default with “new page” as an option? Makes sense to me and would certainly save the computer resources needed to open a brand new page. What genius decided that an already read hyperlink would revert to virtually the same color as the surrounding text making it impossible to locate the link again? The same one that decided not to indicate which diaries on the Community Spotlight, Rec List, and Recent List had already been read? I’m tired to the bone at having to click click click and scroll scroll scroll to do anything. Scrolling past that giant-assed picture at the top of diaries or front page stories means the title is now off the screen and I’ve forgotten what the article was even about. And then there's all the scrolling through the body of the diary or comments because of the huge font that's used. Trust me, we old folks have bifocals already and don’t need gigantic fonts. Adding to the above, is the annoying and frustrating “Are you sure you want to leave this page” pop-up that appears every time I want to navigate anywhere (or even close the DK window). It is driving me to insanity. Of course I want to leave that page. That’s why I clicked to go somewhere else. The teeny, tiny, itty bitty titles for diaries on the Rec List, Community Spotlight, and Recent List make it hard to bring them up. Even very careful aiming with a mouse requires more than 1 click to achieve the desired goal of bringing the story up to read it. Don’t you think that a title should be bigger than the name of the diarist who wrote it? I certainly do. And it shouldn’t require delicate aiming of a cursor with fine motor skills to achieve success (or more than 1 click). Speaking of the need for careful aiming, that teeny, tiny, itty bitty rec star at the end of a diary (along with the rec stars for comments) also require the delicacy of fine motor skills to achieve success. Why aren’t they bigger when the font used is so enormous for everything else? Diary List and Group Diary List format are needed. Looking at them in “blog” format is OK, but many times, the formerly available “list” format is needed when there are large numbers of diaries. Adding a tag to a diary shouldn’t be filled with effort either. Having to move between a keyboard and mouse because the cursor doesn’t automatically return to the “add a tag” line after you’ve entered a tag is just plain wrong. You have to use your mouse between tags in order to put the cursor back in the box to add another tag. Every. Single. Time. DK4 brought groups, which we love. DK5 hath taken away much of the functionality of groups. It’s confusing on how to write FOR a group so that editors and administrators have access to edit, add, or assist with a group diary. On top of that, groups can no longer use templates since each element of a diary/story/whatever must now be added individually rather than be copied and pasted from a master template. Most of the Formatting selections get “stuck”. For example, when I type and then bold something, for instance, then resume writing, the temporary format “sticks” and all words after what I highlighted are typed in bold. It’s necessary to move from the keyboard, move to the mouse, highlight the wrongly bolded words and then unbold them. An unnecessary waste of time and effort. The formatting keys should turn off with a simple click when the special formatting is no longer needed. Why are hidden comments (and the thread that follows them) literally being reduced to invisibility? The font color used is nearly white and can’t be read. Some of us really do want to read them (or the responses to them). The new search is a pain. The old search, when you didn’t type anything, took you to search where you could choose to search for a diary, comment, user, etc. Now you must enter something and are taken, often uselessly, to diary search. I miss the personalized tip jar. Now, the tip jar that goes up feels sterile and looks empty. The “j” key (to find new comments) doesn’t always work. I have to manually scroll down a comment thread in diaries I host to find comments that I haven’t read/recommended. trumpeter reminded me in the comments about the frustrating lack of a “parent” link in the comments. The useless addition of the commenter/replier names inside of a comment isn’t useful — particularly in an active back and forth thread.I know that there are many more frustrations I’ve forgotten in my short list so my apologies for the important things that I’ve left off (I might add them as I’m reminded in the comments).
While I’m cranky, I’m really writing this out of love. The love I have for Daily Kos, the people who inhabit its pages, and the solidarity I feel here among kindred spirits. I’m writing because I’m spending far less time here than I normally do because the problems I experience have been overwhelming. I’m writing because I’d love to spend more time writing stories, letting people know what’s going on, and even writing comments, but it’s just too damn hard now.
Even writing for Top Comments, a group I’m privileged to write for, takes hours of toil and frustration now. It used to be a straight forward copy and paste of the group template, the addition of new daily elements, formatting comment submissions, and the writing of a diary to accompany it. Today, I can’t even copy and paste a diarists name or diary title (they have to be typed out and double checked for accuracy).
I have been patient. I want Daily Kos to become, once again, a place of welcome, of news, and of interest instead of being an exercise in frustration.