DU upgrades for the New Year (including the much-requested "Auto-trash by keyword" function)

[EarlG]

This discussion thread was locked by Skinner (a host of the Announcements group).

Last edited Fri Jan 4, 2013, 06:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Happy New Year DU! At the end of 2012 we almost finished a number of updates and new features but didn't have time to implement them before the holiday break. Some of these changes are minor, some not so much.

This is part one -- there will be more coming (including "Subscribe to people&quot in the near future.

[font color="red"]Correction: Originally this announcement stated that Jury checks will now be performed on the Latest and Greatest pages only. Actually, the checks are performed on the main pages of all forums and groups as well as the Latest and Greatest pages.[/font]

Auto-trash threads by keyword
Is there a particular subject that you just have no interest in seeing on DU's Latest or Greatest pages? Now you can auto-trash threads by keyword. To use this function, visit My Account > Trash Can and check out the Trashed Keywords section. Enter a keyword there, and thread titles which contain that keyword will not appear on your Latest or Greatest pages, or while you are browsing a forum or group.

My Posts and My Subscriptions tabs light up when there is new content
Wherever you are on DU, you can now see at a glance if someone has replied to you, or if someone has posted in a group that you subscribe to. The My Posts and My Subscriptions tabs will light up whenever there is new content. Once you have clicked through to either page, the corresponding tab will return to its regular grey color.

Jury checks now run on the Latest and Greatest pages, and in forums and groups, instead of on threads
Previously, when a Jury was required, the system would select the first six eligible members who clicked on a thread anywhere on DU. This ensured that Juries were always filled with members who were actively using DU at that moment, but had the unfortunate side effect of interrupting people's browsing -- just when they clicked on a thread that was of interest to them, they would get a request to serve on a Jury. We have changed this so the check is now performed when members visit the Latest or Greatest pages, or when they visit the main page of any forum or group. In other words, we're going to interrupt people when they're looking for something to read instead of when they've just found something to read.

Star member notifications
Star members are now automatically notified by DU Mail one week before their star is due to expire. If their star subsequently expires, they will receive one more DU Mail message to notify them of this fact.

Updating post count and user registration numbers on the home page
Those who were here before the advent of DU3 will recall that we used to have an updating post count and user registration count on our Latest page. This feature was left out in the transition to DU3 and replaced with static numbers. This has now been fixed so that the numbers update automatically. You can see this feature in action in the "Enter Discussion Forums" box at the top of the home page.

More coming soon...

[enough]

1. Very clever, as always. Thanks!

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Awesome. Noticed the tabs lighting up, though I broke DU.

[freshwest]

10. Oh, my, you think like me. Deep breaths...

[BlancheSplanchnik]

41. well instead of going back to grey, I'd like them to go to PLAID

I just think we could use more plaid around here.

But I do like that they light up. Tiny lights that go on and off are never out of style. We ADD kids especially love 'em.

[sheshe2]

44. LOL...saw it when I came home from work tonight...

thought for a second that I just got my pink slip or something!

[Scuba]

3. Thank you Admins!!!

But I can't think of any topics I want to trash without seeing the posts.

[oldhippydude]

4. thanks admins.. keeps getting better!!!

there was one feature in DU2 that I miss... that was the ability to forward a thread to others via email.. but du3 is still fantastic thanks!!!

[one_voice]

5. ok, dumb question here..

I rarely go to the latest or greatest pages, I do mean rarely, does that mean I'll hardly ever get picked for jury duty?

[EarlG]

15. Actually I think it performs the check when you hit a forum or group as well

I'll check with Elad and get back to you.

[Violet_Crumble]

20. That'd affect me too, so it'd be good to know one way or the other n/t

[one_voice]

22. Okay, thanks!

[EarlG]

23. Answer:

The check is performed on the main pages of forums and groups as well as on the Latest and Greatest pages. I've edited the OP to make that clear.

[Violet_Crumble]

35. Thank you for the answer. I was on a jury an hour or so ago, so I thought that was it n/t

[SidDithers]

6. Awesome...

but I also wonder about the Jury Selection criteria. I never, NEVER, go to Latest or Greatest. Will that affect my chances of serving on a jury?

Sid

[EarlG]

17. See above...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10132310#post15

[madrchsod]

7. the may 7th 2001 democratic underground........

http://web.archive.org/web/20010507174611/http://www.democraticunderground.com/

we not be the biggest democratic/ progressive site on the internet but compared to kos and or freerepublic we have the most advanced design thanks to the guys who run our site. i think everyone needs to give them a



for keeping this site the best on the web.

[freshwest]

11. +1,000

[FailureToCommunicate]

32. Wow! THAT is old school!

(Relatively speaking, of course)

Thanks!
Who knew?

(I know: "Newbies&quot

[Cha]

8. Thanks for the upgrading, EarlG

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. My god, tis as if you were reading my mind about several of these changes.

I really disliked going to a post to read it then finding the jury thing,
AND
after serving on the jury, had to go back several clicks to find the darn post again
both of which is why I have been turning down some jury alerts.

Auto trash by keyword....god, yes, and thank you!!!!

WHEN is GD going back to its original SOP about NO Guns???????????????

The especially controversial groups I have already put on ignore, only to find GD is now filled with gun arguments and has become a waste of time.

[BainsBane]

12. May I ask about the requested new groups?

Like WyldWolf's request for a Gun Control Activism Group in the Activism section?
He submitted that request over two weeks ago. Time is critical here because of the limited window to influence public policy.

[Tx4obama]

13. I would like to suggest an 'opt out option' for the My Posts and My Subscriptions tabs lighting up.

[Make7]

58. I didn't much care for the yellow, so I changed it with a User Style Sheet.

Right now I am using FireFox17 on Windows7, but I imagine the same basic code will work in most browsers (I'll do some further testing if people have any questions and/or problems). Here are the CSS selectors/declarations people can use to disable this feature:

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left: 1em !important; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.4615em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #999999;"]img[src$="tab-mysubscriptions-new.gif"]
{
[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-image: url("http://www.democraticunderground.com/imgs/tab-mysubscriptions.gif&quot !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-size: 140px 26px !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]height: 0px !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]padding-top: 26px !important;}
img[src$="tab-myposts-new.gif"]
{
[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-image: url("http://www.democraticunderground.com/imgs/tab-myposts.gif&quot !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-size: 140px 26px !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]height: 0px !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]padding-top: 26px !important;}
I actually like the idea of having an indication of new replies shown on the My Posts tab, I just didn't like the yellow so much - so I changed it to use a local image on my hard drive that simply underlines the words "My Posts" whenever the yellow tab is supposed to appear. The code looks like this (the following example also wraps the CSS selectors/declarations in a conditional that works in FireFox to apply the changes only to the www.democraticunderground.com domain):

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left: 1em !important; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.4615em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #999999;"]@-moz-document domain("www.democraticunderground.com&quot
{[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]img[src$="tab-mysubscriptions-new.gif"][div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]{[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-image: url("http://www.democraticunderground.com/imgs/tab-mysubscriptions.gif&quot !important;[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-size: 140px 26px !important;[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]height: 0px !important;[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]padding-top: 26px !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]}[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]img[src$="tab-myposts-new.gif"][div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]{[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-image: url("file:///C:\\Users\\web_browsing\\AppData\\Roaming\\Mozilla\\tab-myposts.gif&quot !important;[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]background-size: 140px 26px !important;[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]height: 0px !important;[div style="margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em;"]padding-top: 26px !important;[div style="margin-left:3em; text-indent:-1em;"]}}
The conditional is useful because I can simply change to sync.democraticunderground.com (or one of the others) to see how things look without my User Style Sheet.

Probably the easiest way to implement User Style Sheets is to install the Stylish add-on for FireFox or Chrome. It is also possible to do this without any add-ons in those browsers, but requires a bit more computer savvy. You can also use User Style Sheets with the other major browsers - just Google "user style sheets" and add whatever browser you are using to the search term.

[barbtries]

14. i really want to be able to go to My DU

and see a list of the posters i have the most interest in reading. like in the old DU? is that going to happen ever? thank you!

[Kaleva]

16. I don't visit the Latest & Greatest pages so am I out of the jury pool?

[EarlG]

18. See above...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10132310#post15

[Kaleva]

21. Thanks. I should tell myself to read the whole thread before posting.

[pacalo]

24. I am THRILLED with the keyword auto-trash!

Thanks & Happy New Year!

[KG]

25. I like pie;

how will this upgrade enhance my DU experience?

[ElboRuum]

49. Well,

For starters, you can use the keyword trash feature to trash threads that are anti-pie.

[graham4anything]

26. Thanks for the upgrades and the 2013 politics section. Couple of questions-

Any thought on having a 2014 and 2016 one?

And yes, a seperate part for anti-NRA, anti-gun part as it doesn't differentiate, and the current one is a private forum with their own moderators and alot of people appear not to want to enter there.
(though its so important the General area is needed for a while.)

Happy New Year! and thanks again.

[KurtNYC]

27. I like the keyword auto trash feature. Thanks!

[tammywammy]

28. Auto trash by key word = awesome!!!! n/t

[pasto76]

29. how about an appeal or edit option for jury decisions

currently it is censorship or the worst kind. Someone can call us all facists if we dont agree with their opinion, but type "liberal pinhead" and it is censored, regardless of whatever else you said. Particularly in a liberal heavy thread, any comments not in line with the far left of the party is censored. I personally loved the one where my comments about the war in Iraq, and how servicemembers are treated was censored...on veterans day. too easy to for butthurt people to censor someone elses opinions.

[muriel_volestrangler]

37. Oh noes! You can't call liberals 'pinheads' on a liberal board!

talk about 'butthurt' ...

[ReRe]

30. Thanks, EarlG

n/t

[Little Star]

31. I love the light ups for new content! Thanks you guys! k&r

[FailureToCommunicate]

33. Wait... where's the abject plea for $ ??

But, seriously, THanks to you ALL,

and Happy New Year!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Lone_Star_Dem]

34. Auto-trash threads by keyword is amazing!

Thank you so much, Elad, EarlG and Skinner for all the hard work.

Elad you've programed an awesome site for all of us here to enjoy.

[Rhiannon12866]

36. I knew that there was something going on, LOL

Thank you for the additional improvements to the most user friendly site on the internets...

[TrogL]

38. Could we turn down the orange in "My Subscriptions"

Damn that's hard on the eyes.

[LiberalFighter]

39. Good job guys!

I'm betting we will see more in the future. I've learned some new tricks in the database application I have created. And I believe they are deep hidden tricks that few know about.

[Jim Lane]

40. Question about auto-trash by keyword

First, thanks for continuing to work to improve the site!

I'm guessing that auto-trash is strictly literal. For example, suppose someone trashes "gun control" (I see that phrases can be trashed as well as single words). Suppose further that an OP is titled "The gun control debate has a parallel in the First Amendment." That post goes on to discuss the absolutist view of the First Amendment (no regulation of speech is permitted) versus the exceptions that have been added by Supreme Court interpretations over the years. The post has nothing about gun control except the passing mention in the title by way of analogy. Someone sick of gun control debates might want to read that thread, but the unimaginatively literal software would trash it. Is that right? (I'm just curious, not complaining. Everyone has seen computer errors that arise from such literalism.)

As an aside, it might be interesting, in a month or two, to post a list of the most trashed words and phrases. My money is on "gun control" and/or "RKBA" to be high on the list.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

42. autotrash! Clever!!! You guys spoil me, seriesly

Anytime I go to other discussion boards, I'm always surprised that the design sucks!



Actually I probably wouldn't use Auto trash, but still--very cool!

[SoapBox]

43. Great work

and great site...thank you.

[bunnies]

45. Would have killed for auto-trash during the twinkie epidemic!

You have made my day!!

[patricia92243]

46. I hadn't even noticed the "My Subscriptions" was lighted up - good thing I read this thread :)

[lonestarnot]

47. Way at! My posts just grayed out!

[antiquie]

48. How does one subscribe to People?

It appears to be one level too high for group subscription.
Thank you.

[L0oniX]

50. Finally ...a way to trash all gun threads automatically. Thanks much.

Can you also auto trash anything from a DU member?

[L0oniX]

51. Can you also auto trash anything from a DU member?

[Turborama]

55. That's what the ignore function's for n/t

[freshwest]

52. EarlG, Can we disable the My Posts and My Subscriptions tab lights?

I can check them using the buttons above the forums when I want to go there.

At first I thought it was cool, now I'm considering Unsubscribing to all My groups to stop it.

And good work as always, guys.

[Make7]

59. You can change how this works with User Style Sheets. See post #58.

 http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1013&pid=2368#post58

[freshwest]

60. You are our one of our best technogeeks. Thanks!

[Rose Siding]

53. You guys are crazy good.

Thank you so much and Happy New Year back to you, too!

[Renew Deal]

54. These are all great upgrades

[hrmjustin]

56. Thanks for making DU a great place to hang out.

[libodem]

57. Palin

Comes to mind. I remember a time, trashing everything with that name on it. Nothing since, really annoyed that much. But if it does...

[NYC Liberal]

61. Thank you EarlG! Do you know if the main page will be fixed to honor "Ignore"?

[patricia92243]

62. Do you have an estimate on when the upgrades will go into effect???