Take a peek at my profile page, and you’ll see I have been a Daily Kos Community User since before day one. I signed up here for a login with password the day they offered one, for about six months previous to that, you just dropped in and wrote in whatever name you wanted to use on your comments (once they became available).
I’ve lived through a number of Site Update controversies here and let me tell you, EVERY TIME Markos okays a new look/format, the Community members are in an uproar over the change.
I imagine if you went back and did an analysis of the commentary each time this site upgrade business has taken place, the most common comment about it would be
I HATE IT
Followed closely by
If this is how it is, I’m leaving and NEVER coming back!
and then after all of the sturm und drang is finished, guess what?
Nothing happens, people keep on coming and writing stories and comments.
Because there is a Hiding In Plain Sight Secret about these “upgrades” that no one ever seems to notice, except me.
Every upgrade applies almost 100% to ONLY THE FRONT PAGE.
Ask anyone with a User ID number in 4 or 5 digits to confirm this for you.
The design team works FOR MONTHS (sometimes years) on a new Front Page design, to give the Old Orange Clubhouse a new coat of paint (and hey, youse guys, that ORANGE is getting pretty damn hard to find anymore) and attract new members to the Clubhouse.
They write Notice of Intent to Change Something stories and ask the Community to be Beta Testers to find all the bugs and whatnot, so that once the permanent change come across the Front Page won’t fail to load or load with a bunch of problems.
The comments from the Community in those “Notice of Intent” stories are ALWAYS THE SAME.
“why are you doing this”
“Nothing works the same”
“This looks stupid!”
The backroom tech folks try and introduce some sanity into the conversation with REASONS why they are effecting the change. The comments are overwhelming in one direction:
I can’t hear you because I’m silently screaming about this CHANGE I HATE!!!
So, the secret I promised you?
The big change is ONLY the front page.
Want to know how I can prove it to you?
Go to your Icon on the Front Page, use the drop down menu and go to your Profile Page.
Guess what, that page looks the same way it did when DailyKos version 2.0 was in effect.
And when 3.0 went into effect.
Again, when 4.0 went into effect.
Because the only thing they ever change here is the FRONT PAGE.
So settle down, get used to the new look — and if you have FUNCTIONAL problems with how it works vs how it looks? Write a story about THAT and you will most likely see elfling in the comments asking you questions about the issue and will take that back with her to the Team to find a workaround for it.
Of course, I too hate the new look with the giant fucking pictures and no hover-text on story titles and different sizes of text at the top of the Front Page (what the fuck, whose genius plan was that?), but this “site upgrade” is nothing new and eventually it’ll change some more or it’ll change back entirely if what they hope (lots of new registered users) doesn’t pan out.
See ya in the threads, because contrary to what appears to be popular belief around here, the Community part of Daily Kos is NEVER going away — if it did, in 30 days so would DK.