The latest version of Democratic Underground, aka DU4, is now open for early access beta testing! [View all]

Many of you know that Elad and I have been working on a new update to our software, known as DU4, for quite some time. Over the past three years I've talked about it and shown off screenshots, and some of you have even tried it out for short periods of time, helping us test early versions.

As promised last week, anyone who purchased or renewed their Star Membership during the Summer Fund Drive can access the beta right now. Access to all site visitors will be opened up two weeks from tomorrow, on September 5 (the day after Labor Day).

For those of you who want to try it out, simply go to your browser's address bar, and replace "www" with "du4" -- or just visit this link:

https://du4.democraticunderground.com

You may want to set a DU4 bookmark in your browser so you can reach the test site easily.

What you should know

First, and most importantly, there are no new rule changes, and the vast majority of the features and functions of DU3 -- such as posting, reccing, the Jury System, etc. -- have not changed at all on DU4. Everything you have on DU3 -- such as your Journal, your Bookmarks, etc. -- you will still have, and while things are going to look a little different, everything should work as you expect it to.

DU4 was primarily intended as a cosmetic refresh, to bring the look of the site up to date. Wherever possible, I've tried to keep things where you're used to finding them on DU. However, some things have moved around, with the most noticeable likely being the navigation system.

From the "NAVIGATE" button at the top left, you will find links to the Latest page, the Greatest page, and the new Latest Videos page. There are also links to the "big three" forums -- Latest Breaking News, General Discussion, and the Lounge. Finally, there are six new forum categories which contain all the Topic Forums ("Topic Forums" also includes DU3 Groups). Feel free to explore.

Meanwhile, from the "MY STUFF" button at the top right, you will find... your stuff. Again, feel free to explore.


New features

While DU4 was primarily intended as a cosmetic update, of course we couldn't resist sneaking in some new features. So in your My Stuff menu you'll also find a new page called "Feed" (this is for Star Members only), and we now have a standalone "Member Lookup" page (for all registered members).

You'll also find new options in Account Settings (some for Star Members only) -- including an easier way to update your email address and password, and options to change the visual appearance of the site. If you decide you prefer DU the way it was before, you can select "Skinner Mode" for a retro DU3 look.

You can find a comprehensive list of DU4 features here.


Bugs and other issues

There will be quirks! This is an ongoing beta test which will be running in front of its widest audience yet, so we expect bugs and issues to crop up. The purpose of this test is for us to find and squash as many bugs as possible so that we can eventually switch the entire site over to DU4.

From time to time, depending on what you're doing on DU4, you may find yourself sent back to a DU3 page. This is to be expected for now -- if it happens to you, simply replace "www" with "du4" in your address bar and you'll be back on track.

As mentioned above, we have a dedicated forum on DU4 for reporting bugs and issues, which we encourage you to use should you find any problems. We also have a dedicated forum for questions and answers.


The test will be interrupted periodically

We expect the beta test to run semi-permanently in parallel with DU3 until we're ready to switch the entire site over to DU4. There will be brief shutdowns from time to time to implement bug fixes, and we'll notify you of these before they happen.

Both versions of the site are running off the same database, so anything you do on DU4 will be reflected on DU3, and vice versa. For example, if you start a new discussion in the Lounge on DU3, that discussion will appear in the Lounge on DU4. Or if you self-delete a post on DU4, it will disappear on DU3. No matter which version of the site you use, you will not lose any posts, bookmarks, etc. when we make the final switchover.


Final thoughts

It's been a very long road to DU4. The project began more than three years ago with a blank text document, and tens of thousands of hand-written lines of code later, we're almost at the finish line. We do not yet have a date set for the full release of DU4 -- that will depend on how the beta test goes -- but we will of course let you know well in advance before it happens.

We hope you enjoy it!

EarlG and Elad -- the Administrators