Update, 2010 June 7
Hello ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png)
dw_news readers,
It's the first full-length update of the month, so I'm here with the news. We've decided that the the first update of each month will be mine (barring unforeseen circumstances like flying pigs taking down my internet connection, or a sudden alien zombie invasion). I can't imagine doing this for an entire month, but I do like posting for you all occasionally!
We just had a code push this Sunday. This means that features and bugfixes we've been working on for the past several weeks are now live on Dreamwidth. We've had no major bug reports so far -- crossing my fingers :) -- and a lot of new features, which I'm going to focus on this update
Saying we had a successful code push in front of hundreds of people is probably tempting fate too much. I expect a burst of heisenbugs to suddenly start popping up. So! If you run into any issues, do talk to Support; the team is awesome and always happy to take bug reports or answer questions. We'll get things sorted out for you.
This week, we had a code push which represented a bit more than a month's work of development, and spanned two code tours:
Thanks to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic who did this week's code tour, which contained 50 items! Long code tour is long, and I really appreciate her taking it on. Also a warm welcome to new dev and theme submitter edgeraven, whose color themes are now available to be selected from the journal styles. And another welcome to new theme submitter, sarken, whose themes for Blanket are also newly available.
And just FYI, if you like the themes submitted by a particular user, you can click on their name underneath the theme preview in order to see all of the themes they've submitted. You can also click on the layout name to see all color themes for a layout.
The new payment system has been working out quite well. This is the second month in a row where we've brought in enough money to cover site operations, costs, and all the little expenses that add up.
With this code push, we now email you links with shop receipts after you make your order. You can always also see all your old receipts in your Order History. We've also added a link to our DW merchandise store (link goes to an external site), so you can easily find our swag.
We added a new section, "Account Contents" to our privacy policy to clarify our policy covering the privacy of journal content. This makes explicit some points of our policy which had previously been scattered across a few other sections, and is not a change in how we handle your journal's privacy.
On to less serious stuff. We had so many user-facing changes this code push, I want to set aside some space here to talk about them!
If you came to the news post from your reading page, you may have noticed a right-facing triangle just before your cut text. Click it, and it expands so you see the contents of the cut. Click it again, and it collapses back up.
(We're aware that the triangle fades into the background on darker layouts, and we're working on it *g*)
So, I didn't realize how much I needed this, until I started using it -- but barely a day since it's been available, and I already can't imagine how I ever managed to go through my read page without this. I get twitchy when I see a (fake) cut with no triangle.
Here's a nifty trick which may not be immediately obvious: you can nest your cut tags, which I've heard can work for things like having multiple layers of warnings. Nesting cut tags works like this:
text in the outer layer
text in the inner layer
And the code for that is:
The nesting only works if you expanded the outermost cut dynamically. If you visit the entry directly, all the contents of all the cut tags are immediately visible.
Again, another thing I didn't realize I really needed until I actually went to use it. So far, I've merged: two pairs of tags that only differed by a space, two pairs of tags that only differed with pluralization, about half a dozen tags into one because I could never remember what tag it is I use when I'm posting in a bad mood, several more instances of tags which I had two versions of from having an altenate version on Dreamwidth before I imported my other journal, and well. Let's just say that my journal feels very tidy right now.
To use:
And done! You'll have fewer tags than when you started, and hopefully a neater tagging system.
We've had the ability to have a crosspost footer which links back to your entry on Dreamwidth for a long time now. (If you want this feature, but don't know where to turn it on, go to your crossposting settings and make sure that you've enabled the option to add the footer to the post on the other site).
New with this code push is the ability to have links that go the other way around: links that are displayed on your entry here on Dreamwidth, which go to the crossposted copy on the other site so you can check for any other comments or discussion there.
Since we know that crossposting habits vary -- some people may not want to link their Dreamwidth account to their accounts on other sites, or they may crosspost to multiple journals and want to link to one site but not another -- the option can be customized for each account you're crossposting to.
To turn it on:
From then on, any entries you crosspost will have a link out to the entry on the site you're crossposting to.
Older entries will not have the links because we don't have enough information on hand to create the link automatically; you can make the link available by editing your entry here on Dreamwidth, then saving, no need to make any changes.
If you imported your entries when you didn't have all your icons (say you ran into your icon slot limit or there was an error with your icon import), some of your keywords wouldn't have been imported properly, leaving you with your default icon on those entries instead of the original icon.
Now you can redo your import to restore the original icon keywords:
A nifty feature we merged in from LiveJournal, this adds an additional option in communities so that entry authors can add tags to entries that they posted, which seems a fair balance between flexibility and avoiding tag trollage.
Entry maintainers, to enable this setting in your community:
Previously, it was only available to maintainers. Now any member can do so; no need to track individual entries. The option is available by going to the community profile, hitting "Track" from the action menu, and picking the tracking option you want.
This extends an existing feature for paid accounts. Previously, paid accounts could filter to specific security levels on their journal by going to: http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/public, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/access, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/private, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/group:your-group-name-here
Now a similar feature is available on your read page, which lets you filter between public and access-locked security by using either http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/read/security/public, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/read/security/access.
This only works for you on your own read page, since you can only see public entries if you visit other people's read pages anyway.
As you can see, we've been busy *g* We're also continuing to work on a lot of stuff for the future. We have a couple of brainstorming entries and shout outs. Do check out these entries and communities if you're interested in any of them:
And that's it for this week.![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png)
denise will take over for the next update. As always, if you're having problems with Dreamwidth, Support can help you; for notices of site problems and downtime, check the Twitter status page; if you've got an idea to make the site better, you can make a suggestion.
dw_news readers,It's the first full-length update of the month, so I'm here with the news. We've decided that the the first update of each month will be mine (barring unforeseen circumstances like flying pigs taking down my internet connection, or a sudden alien zombie invasion). I can't imagine doing this for an entire month, but I do like posting for you all occasionally!
We just had a code push this Sunday. This means that features and bugfixes we've been working on for the past several weeks are now live on Dreamwidth. We've had no major bug reports so far -- crossing my fingers :) -- and a lot of new features, which I'm going to focus on this update
Saying we had a successful code push in front of hundreds of people is probably tempting fate too much. I expect a burst of heisenbugs to suddenly start popping up. So! If you run into any issues, do talk to Support; the team is awesome and always happy to take bug reports or answer questions. We'll get things sorted out for you.
This week in development
This week, we had a code push which represented a bit more than a month's work of development, and spanned two code tours:
Thanks to
azurelunatic who did this week's code tour, which contained 50 items! Long code tour is long, and I really appreciate her taking it on. Also a warm welcome to new dev and theme submitter edgeraven, whose color themes are now available to be selected from the journal styles. And another welcome to new theme submitter, sarken, whose themes for Blanket are also newly available.And just FYI, if you like the themes submitted by a particular user, you can click on their name underneath the theme preview in order to see all of the themes they've submitted. You can also click on the layout name to see all color themes for a layout.
This month in money
The new payment system has been working out quite well. This is the second month in a row where we've brought in enough money to cover site operations, costs, and all the little expenses that add up.
With this code push, we now email you links with shop receipts after you make your order. You can always also see all your old receipts in your Order History. We've also added a link to our DW merchandise store (link goes to an external site), so you can easily find our swag.
Changes in the privacy policy: we had some words
We added a new section, "Account Contents" to our privacy policy to clarify our policy covering the privacy of journal content. This makes explicit some points of our policy which had previously been scattered across a few other sections, and is not a change in how we handle your journal's privacy.
Feature highlights
On to less serious stuff. We had so many user-facing changes this code push, I want to set aside some space here to talk about them!
Expandable cut tags
If you came to the news post from your reading page, you may have noticed a right-facing triangle just before your cut text. Click it, and it expands so you see the contents of the cut. Click it again, and it collapses back up.
(We're aware that the triangle fades into the background on darker layouts, and we're working on it *g*)
So, I didn't realize how much I needed this, until I started using it -- but barely a day since it's been available, and I already can't imagine how I ever managed to go through my read page without this. I get twitchy when I see a (fake) cut with no triangle.
Here's a nifty trick which may not be immediately obvious: you can nest your cut tags, which I've heard can work for things like having multiple layers of warnings. Nesting cut tags works like this:
text in the outer layer
text in the inner layer
And the code for that is:
<cut text="outer layer">
text in the outer layer
<cut text="inner layer">
text in the inner layer
</cut>
</cut>
The nesting only works if you expanded the outermost cut dynamically. If you visit the entry directly, all the contents of all the cut tags are immediately visible.
Tag merge
Again, another thing I didn't realize I really needed until I actually went to use it. So far, I've merged: two pairs of tags that only differed by a space, two pairs of tags that only differed with pluralization, about half a dozen tags into one because I could never remember what tag it is I use when I'm posting in a bad mood, several more instances of tags which I had two versions of from having an altenate version on Dreamwidth before I imported my other journal, and well. Let's just say that my journal feels very tidy right now.
To use:
- Go to http://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/tags
- Select a tag; you'll be given the option to rename it
- Ctrl+click to select another tag (cmd+click on a Mac); shift-click to select an entire series of tags. You can use ctrl/cmd+click again on a particular tag to deselect it
- The option to merge your tags becomes available. Type in your desired new tag name
- Hit the "Merge selected tags" button. Please note that you can't undo this. Confirm that you want to merge
And done! You'll have fewer tags than when you started, and hopefully a neater tagging system.
Links to crossposted entries
We've had the ability to have a crosspost footer which links back to your entry on Dreamwidth for a long time now. (If you want this feature, but don't know where to turn it on, go to your crossposting settings and make sure that you've enabled the option to add the footer to the post on the other site).
New with this code push is the ability to have links that go the other way around: links that are displayed on your entry here on Dreamwidth, which go to the crossposted copy on the other site so you can check for any other comments or discussion there.
Since we know that crossposting habits vary -- some people may not want to link their Dreamwidth account to their accounts on other sites, or they may crosspost to multiple journals and want to link to one site but not another -- the option can be customized for each account you're crossposting to.
To turn it on:
- Go to your crossposting settings
- Click on the "Change" link for each account, which will bring you to more options for that account
- Check the "Display Cross Post Links" checkbox
- Update your account settings
From then on, any entries you crosspost will have a link out to the entry on the site you're crossposting to.
Older entries will not have the links because we don't have enough information on hand to create the link automatically; you can make the link available by editing your entry here on Dreamwidth, then saving, no need to make any changes.
Importer improvements: redoing icon-keyword on imported entries
If you imported your entries when you didn't have all your icons (say you ran into your icon slot limit or there was an error with your icon import), some of your keywords wouldn't have been imported properly, leaving you with your default icon on those entries instead of the original icon.
Now you can redo your import to restore the original icon keywords:
- Go to the importer and fill in your username and password
- On the next page, select the "Update icon keywords" option from the options to import
- (optional) If you haven't imported your full list of icons yet, then also select the "Icons" option. For example, you may have upgraded to an account type with more icon slots since your last import and now have space for all your icons, but haven't run the import again. If you'd previously imported your icons successfully, you don't need to check this again
- Continue with the import as usual
Community option to allow entry authors to add existing tags on their entries
A nifty feature we merged in from LiveJournal, this adds an additional option in communities so that entry authors can add tags to entries that they posted, which seems a fair balance between flexibility and avoiding tag trollage.
Entry maintainers, to enable this setting in your community:
- Go to the Manage Tags page, and select your community's name from the dropdown
- In the dropdowns in the Tag Settings section at the bottom of the page, there's a new option "Entry authors and administrators" (can create new tags /can add existing tags)
All members can now subscribe to all comments in a community (paid communities only)
Previously, it was only available to maintainers. Now any member can do so; no need to track individual entries. The option is available by going to the community profile, hitting "Track" from the action menu, and picking the tracking option you want.
Filter by security on your reading page (paid accounts only)
This extends an existing feature for paid accounts. Previously, paid accounts could filter to specific security levels on their journal by going to: http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/public, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/access, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/private, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/security/group:your-group-name-here
Now a similar feature is available on your read page, which lets you filter between public and access-locked security by using either http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/read/security/public, http://exampleusername.dreamwidth.org/read/security/access.
This only works for you on your own read page, since you can only see public entries if you visit other people's read pages anyway.
Other minor usability tweaks
- Link to the beginning of the thread from the notification email
- Comment preview with spellcheck no longer shows you raw HTML
- Warning for bad markup after you post your entry
- Prefill the search box, so you can bookmark a query. This lets you have http://www.dreamwidth.org/search?query=dreamwidth
- option for 24 hour time
- Split up context hover menu, so you can choose to only have it for icons, for userheads, for both, for neither
- Site search module for S2, displays automatically in your journal if your journal is searchable. Can be moved or turned off in your modules settings
- Option to choose placement of metadata, to either above or below the entry
- Changed the custom email headers from "X-LJ-Journal" to "X-Journal-Name". This header identifies which journal a comment or entry was posted in. If you're using these to filter your mail, you'll need to update your filters.
Elsewhere on Dreamwidth
As you can see, we've been busy *g* We're also continuing to work on a lot of stuff for the future. We have a couple of brainstorming entries and shout outs. Do check out these entries and communities if you're interested in any of them:
- Social bookmarking brainstorm post: we're overhauling memories, and we'd love to hear your thoughts and find out what you need in a new system
- Styles roll call!: for anyone who's interested in working with styles (but doesn't know where to start)
- dw_design: new community, for people who are interested in working on improving Dreamwidth's visual design and usability
And that's it for this week.
denise will take over for the next update. As always, if you're having problems with Dreamwidth, Support can help you; for notices of site problems and downtime, check the Twitter status page; if you've got an idea to make the site better, you can make a suggestion.
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