Latest DU4 status update

[EarlG]

Hi everyone,

We've just released our second patch since the launch of DU4. While this patch contains a few significant changes, it's not as large as the last one. In fact, while we will still be making periodic udpates, tweaks, and fixes as we move forward, we expect this to be the last major post-launch patch.

The headliner from this patch is that the All Forums page is back as of today:

All Forums

The page can be reached by clicking the "Forums" tab, and forums can be listed alphabetically or by category. In addition, we've added links to the All Forums page as well as each category in the left-column navigation (for non-mobile users).

Other details from the patch:

Restored Greatest page
The Greatest page now displays all threads with five or more recommendations instead of being limited to a fixed number of threads.

Standardized sticky headers across all devices
The sticky header on all devices now only shows the "location trail" -- this change was made to provide more screen space for reading the site. We felt that the previous sticky header was too large, and confusing with different versions across different devices.

Lots and lots of formatting and layout tweaks
Once again we've made dozens of small refinements and adjustments all over the site. Things should now be looking and working better across all devices and in all modes.

My usual disclaimer: Any time we make significant changes to the site's code there's a chance that things might go wrong for some people. If you have any issues or bugs to report, please use the DU Community Help forum.

And now...



Actually just kidding, it's a message from me, EarlG

2023 has been a really tough year for sites that rely on advertising for revenue, as ad rates took a huge dive globally. You can see the effects in stories like Jezebel going out of business, or Andy Borowitz getting laid off by the New Yorker, as sites have had to make cuts all over the place. DU is just a two-person, online-only operation which means we can keep our overheads low, but even we have not been immune to the effects of the downturn this year.

If you can help us out by making a one-time Star Membership purchase or renewal right now, it would be a huge help.

This isn't an official fund drive -- Valentine Hearts will be back in February as usual! -- but if you can kick in a few bucks right now to help us cover end of year costs, and get us ready for expected increases in expenses like health insurance and server costs next year, we would greatly appreciate it.

We've done a lot of work on DU this year, and we want to be firing on all cylinders for 2024.

Thank you!

[CousinIT]

1. THANK YOU EARLG for all you do and for DU!

I LOVE this place.

[Niagara]

2. Nice work, DU!

[malaise]

3. Fabulous

and thanks to you and all our tech experts

[Wounded Bear]

4. Thanks for the work you do!

[2naSalit]

5. Thank you!

And done!

[Goddessartist]

6. Thank you!

I love this place!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. Thank you! I like that blue at the bottom of the page, too.

[PatSeg]

8. Thank you EarlG

[Hekate]

9. Thanks for all you do. Happy holidays of your choice, and there's $50 on its way. ❤️

[NutmegYankee]

10. I'm really liking the changes!

Thank you for the hard work!

[redqueen]

11. Thanks for the site - will send a little holiday bonus :)

[appalachiablue]

12. Wonderful DU, real quality. Thanks for all, EarlG, things look great!

I hope you can take a well earned break over the holidays!

[Kali]

13. my insurence went down after almost tripling last year

I have no idea why, but I sent you a bit of my savings.

edit to clarify - I have no idea why my insurance premium fluctuates so much year to year. I do know why I sent you some of my premium savings .

[MN2theMax]

14. I would like a way to make a donation...

without it being tied to star membership. I like to renew my membership in February, but would not mind making a donation separate from that when needed.

If there is a way, can someone enlighten me?

Thanks!

[EarlG]

19. If you make a one-time Star Membership purchase, that's effectively a separate donation

Whenever you make a Star Membership purchase, it's like starting fresh -- you get a 12 month membership from the time you made the purchase. So people who have a recurring monthly Star Membership are essentially just restarting their membership each month. If they stop the recurring monthly payment, they still get a full year's Star Membership from the time of the last payment.

So if you like to make your payment in February, whether it's automatic or manual, making a one-time purchase now doesn't affect your Star Membership. Essentially you'll just be adding a "bonus donation" -- your Star Membership will continue, and when you make your next contribution in February, your Star Membership begins again for another year at that time.

I hope that makes sense -- the bottom line is that if you follow the link in the OP to the donation page, you can make a one-time contribution and it won't affect your February contribution.

Thanks!

[MN2theMax]

20. Okay

That makes sense.

[TeamProg]

15. Thanks very much for everything. nt

[orleans]

16. thanks youse guys! (sent a little something for your end of the year bonus)

as hekate said "happy holidays of your choice" or HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[IronLionZion]

17. Thanks! Looks great

[RussBLib]

18. Your wish is my command

Have $25 and a Happy Holidays.

And thanks again for all the fish.

[highplainsdem]

21. Thanks!

And done!

[2naSalit]

22. Okay, that didn't work.

For one, Paypal won't accept my valid, prepaid credit/debit card. I have always used them.

Then, Paypal says I have to change my security settings so they can plant cookies on my computer, I'm reluctant to go there.

Maybe I'll just mail it to you.

[CrispyQ]

23. The new upgrades are great! -nt

[AmBlue]

24. Donated! Happiest Holidays to all two of you!!

Thank so much for all you do, all year through.

DU is the best!!

[Tom Kitten]

25. I like it

Marvelous job!

[bikes and bunnies]

26. Ads Still Blocking Text

Hi Earl,

Ads continue to block my view of the left third of DU's home page, covering articles and preventing me from reading them. The problem started a few days ago, and is ongoing.

This is a major glitch that is leading me to spend much less time on the site.
If I can't even see half the articles, what's the point?

Could you please fix this?

[EarlG]

32. Those overlapping ads are the bane of my existence

I've been working with my ad company for months trying to get them to stop doing that.

I just added some code in which should brute-force the ads to stay within the containing column. The ads will be cut off on the right side but that's better than them overlapping the content. Hopefully that will solve the issue for you. The code should be updated in a few minutes.

[peppertree]

27. Can't stand Wackypedia - which I wish you could run, Earl.

While I'm indifferent as to Jimmy Wails himself, I can tell you I once had an interaction with him - on a subject he knew absolutely nothing about.

He dismissed my suggestion with this (predictably) conceited disregard, basically telling me that no explanation was needed because his mere whims were policy.

(I did get around him though)

Small wonder it's turned into a plaything for paid trolls, GSOC types, and - as one user put it - "basement-dwelling masturbators."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

29. Suggestion: a Home or Top link in the blue at the bottom

[Hermit-The-Prog]

67. D'oh! Nevermind -- every post has a "Top" link which brings the banner link in view.

[ShazzieB]

30. Thanks, EarlG!

I really appreciate all your hard work. The tab setup is working great for me. I didn't mind the other format, but now that I've gotten used to the tabs, I have to say they really are easier to use.

I've been wondering, though, whst your plans are for fixing the issues I described in this post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/125623787

All of the glitches I described there are still happening for me. I've developed some workarounds (like hitting "preview" right after I type in the title and before typing anything else; it seems to stick when I do that), but I'm still having to type most of my posts in portrait view, which is not my preference.

If these things can't be fixed, I can deal, but I really hope they can!

[NewHendoLib]

31. Happy to help! A little something for the DU stocking...

[Think. Again.]

33. Thanks for all the work you do to keep DU...

....running smoothly and enjoyably!

Now I'm off to the donation page...

[madinmaryland]

34. You're Jimmy Wales??? WTF??

🤣🤣🤣

[Polly Hennessey]

35. Done. Thanks, DU is great.

[Major Nikon]

36. Thumped the collection plate

[FailureToCommunicate]

37. OF COURSE we'll pitch in...

[riversedge]

38. Thank you Earl. Joy to you and yours this Holiday season.

[Blue Dawn]

39. I am happy to donate for DU!

I read DU posts several times a day and appreciate the differing opinions. DU has helped me survive emotionally ever since TFG reared his ugly head as a candidate. I cannot thank you enough for maintaining this site, as well as providing all the updates.

I am beyond grateful to you. Thank you.,

[edisdead]

40. Great work and awesome communicationn

Much appreciated!

[True Dough]

41. You done a Wales of a job with the fixes!

[burrowowl]

42. It's getting better, thanks!

[Hope22]

43. Thank you!

[moonscape]

44. Thanks for listening, and making

all these significant changes and improvements.

Donated and hope everyone who can, will.

[LAS14]

45. Do some of us have automatic Star renewal??? How do we find out??

I once ended up with two Star membership auto deductions.

[EarlG]

48. You should be able to see your current Star Membership status

on your Star Membership page -- click the My DU tab, then the Star Membership button.

However, the absolute best way to be sure that you don't have more than one recurring payment is to visit your PayPal account here:

https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/autopay

On that page (in the left column if you're not on mobile) you should be able to find links to all your recurring PayPal payments. That's where you can make sure you didn't set up multiple payments by accident.

[bdamomma]

46. Thank you

EarlG, and other DU officials for making DU such a great place to be.

[netrace]

47. THANK YOU!!!!!

Love love love more screen space!!!!!!

[HUAJIAO]

49. Glad to make a contribution now..

[OldSWODog]

50. trying to help

I appreciate the efforts of EarlG and others and am trying to help by becoming a star member. No luck in doing an online donation (the system wants to confirm I'm me by calling a long ago replaced cel phone) so I sent a check by snail mail a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully that'll do the trick. Again, thanks for efforts. Cheers, OSD

[EarlG]

52. Hi there

I've been so busy with DU4 that I haven't stopped by the DU P.O. Box in a while -- I'll try and get there tomorrow, but if you sent the check a few weeks ago I'm sure it's there by now. So you don't have to wait, I've gone ahead and assigned you a Star Membership. Thank you!

[OldSWODog]

63. thanks much

I had figured the DU4 launch had your attention but had no idea this whole thing is being done by so few (2?) people...truly impressive and performance clearly above and beyond the call of duty...thanks again. OSD

[CaptainTruth]

51. Thank you for all your hard work!!!

[mountain grammy]

53. You got it EarlG

I'd be lost without this place! Sanity, insanity, right, wrong and everything in between. I love this place. Best thing I can do all year.

[KatK]

54. Thanks and sure thing, I can chip in! n/t

[SunSeeker]

55. I'd appreciate having a General Discussion section on the Home Page again.

I know you can get to it via a couple tab clicks, but it would nice to be able to simple scroll down the Home Page to see the latest GD posts, like we were previously able to do.

[Alice Kramden]

56. K&R n/t

[Skittles]

57. I'm in!

I keep donating because DU keeps improving

[The Roux Comes First]

58. Many Thanks to You and All the Many Folks Behind the Scenes Who Must

Have toiled for at least many hundreds of hours on this upgrade!

[Lisa0825]

59. Donation sent! Thanks for all your work to keep this community running! nt

[RocRizzo55]

60. Thanks for the great website, but

This place is like home to me. The improvements are great. All the work you folks do here is greatly appreciated.
The fact that though I am living outside of the US, but can get prompt US news is the best.
However, there is one thing that is bugging me, and I would suspect others. That is, every time that you folks update the software here, I get the privacy notice, and have to delete the cache. The last few times it resulted in me having to retype usernames and passwords on every website that I have visited. I think I have figured out how to remove the cache for just this site in Firefox on my MacOs machine. It does bug me, but I guess I can live with it.
Thanks for all your great work
Rocco
Netherlands,

[Scrivener7]

61. I love the new format. Have since you rolled it out, so thank you. BUT something I have noticed,

which makes me wonder if an improvement you made is shooting yourself in the foot.

I LOVE the "rec post" feature, and I find myself using it a lot. But that means I am no longer replying to posts with "+1" or "k and r."

Is it possible that the "rec post" feature reduces the total number of posts on the site? And does that impact your ad revenue?

I don't know how it works and this many not be a factor, but if it is I don't want you getting less money because you did such a great update.

[More_Cowbell]

62. Done! Happy Holidays!

Thanks for all the hard work.

[crickets]

64. Thank you, EarlG!

All of your hard work is so appreciated. DU4 is looking and working great. 🥰

[EleanorR]

65. Renewed my star membership

Just hit 19 years here. DU has gotten me through some shitty political times as well as been a place of celebration during some amazing milestones. Thanks for keeping it up and running smoothly!

[NBachers]

66. Donated - send me a message if you want more. What would I do without Democratic Underground?

Edited to add: I am still having big trouble making text corrections on my cell phone. The text window jumps down below my keyboard when I try to move the cursor to the place where I need to make the text correction. Today, I just noticed that, the page is also jumping all the way up to the top of the page when I try to make text corrections on my cell phone. After five or six tries, I just abandon the text and the comment altogether.

I have to correct text invisibly because the text disappears down out of visibility and I need to count how many letters I need to X out to reach the point where I need to make the correction. It’s very frustrating.

[nitpicked]

68. Thanks for listing the forums

Now I can get there without all the workarounds.

[Kali]

69. I have a super lazy ass request, if possible at some time.

is there a way to add a link to the homepage at the bottom of pages? there are already a pile of links, for example at the bottom of this page there is a reply button, and then 4 links in the line:

Latest Discussions»Help & Search»Announcements»Latest DU4 status update

and 6 links in the footer:

About | Copyright | Privacy | Terms of service | Contact

In Memoriam

© 2001 - 2023 Democratic Underground, LLC. Thank you for visiting.

maybe the "2023 Democratic Underground, LLC" could be a link back to the homepage?

[EarlG]

70. Yes we can do that

Should be able to take care of it this week

[Kali]

71. cool!

wow!

[Kali]

72. I see you did this already!

Love it! thank you!

[A-Schwarzenegger]

73. DU lookin good! Got a star membership in Oscar's name.

Well, in my name, but i was thinking about him as i gave.