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EarlG

(22,476 posts)
Mon May 20, 2024, 11:08 AM May 2024

DU updates and announcements [View all]

Hello DU!

I have a few updates and housekeeping items you may or may not be interested in. The updates are happening today (Monday). Don't worry -- no downtime is required. Please read on for the scoop.

POP-UP FUND DRIVE

During our last fund drive (the Hearts fund drive in February) we let you know that like a lot of independent sites, DU has been going through some financial struggles recently. Many of you suggested that we run an additional fund drive during the year, and so we are going to give it a try.

Starting today, we'll be running our new "Tip Jar" fund drive. We don't want to be overly annoying, so to begin with there will just be a small banner at the top of every page, a reminder at the bottom of every thread, and the fund drive will just run from Monday-Friday. All we're asking you to do is kick into our "Tip Jar" with a one-time contribution.

The fund drive asks you to show your appreciation for DU, but DU wouldn't be the community it is without its members, and so we also wanted to recognize the DUers who YOU think make this community special. As a bonus for contributing during the Tip Jar fund drive, you'll be able to leave "kudos" for another member. This is going to be pretty low-key -- we're not going to send out notifications or leave hearts on people's posts like we do in February. But when I announce the end of the fund drive on Friday, I'll recognize the DU members who received the most kudos, for their contributions to the community.

EDITORIALS & OTHER ARTICLES

By popular demand, we're restoring Editorials & Other Articles to DU's "Main Forums" section. Starting today, it will appear just below Latest Breaking News in the navigation sidebar, and will also appear in the Main Forums section on the All Forums page. The forum will once again be hosted by the Main Forum Hosts.

TAB TEXT

This is a very minor update, but starting Monday the "Subs" and "Posts" tabs are going to say "My Subs" and "My Posts" just to make things a bit clearer.

TWITTER EMBEDDING

Given all the shenanigans over at x.com, we've received a number of questions about what will happen with tweet embedding on DU. As of right now, tweet embedding still works as it always has done, provided that you use "twitter.com" in your URL, and not "x.com"

x.com URLs do not currently work to embed tweets on DU, and getting them to work could be a lot more complicated than it might seem. So as of now, nothing has changed -- we're continuing to allow embeds with the twitter.com URL until x.com officially prevents that from happening, and after that we'll have to see what happens.

"THREADS" EMBEDDING

We are making embeds from Meta's Threads platform available, starting today. This will work the same way as other embedded content on DU -- simply paste the URL of the Thread into your post, and the embed will appear on preview. It only requires the first part of the URL, so we recommend previewing before you post, so you can remove any unnecessary characters.

Threads embedding seems a little "jankier" than tweet embedding, by which I mean that during testing, we noticed that sometimes it might take an additional page refresh to make the content appear. Unfortunately we don't have control over this, but hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.

We do not yet have a Threads "indicator" like we do for YouTube videos and tweets on the Latest/Greatest pages and in forums, but if posts containing Threads ever become as prevalent as those other two platforms, we'll create one. Speaking of which...

YOUTUBE/TWEET INDICATORS

It came to our attention recently that many DU Star Members might not know that there is an option to see at a glance which OPs contain YouTube videos, and which contain tweets. These can be particularly useful if you *don't* want to click on OPs that have videos or tweets in them.

These indicators are handled by an option on your Account Settings page. When turned on, little blue boxes appear next to the thread titles of OPs which contain tweets, and/or little red boxes appear for OPs containing a video, like this:



This setting is supposed to be turned on for all Star Members by default, but we think it might not be. So at some point (not this Monday though) we are going to remedy that. However, if you want to turn them on manually now, you can, by going to your Account Settings (My DU > Account Settings) page. Scroll down to the section titled "Social media integration" and set "Show tweet indicator" and "Show video indicator" to "Yes."

MAILING LIST

If you're not already on the DU mailing list, you can now sign up via the form on our Contact page. Right now, mailing list subscribers get a weekly "Week In Review" email from me, highlighting the most recommended threads of the week, but should we ever need to notify you of emergency downtime or problems with DU, being on the mailing list will ensure that you stay updated.

OTHER UPDATES

Although our major database project is now over, work continues behind the scenes on security updates and other essential items as we head into the second half of this election year. Aside from that, we are finally almost back in development mode (hence the updates above). I plan to start a "feature request" thread this week to take some suggestions on what you think we should work on next. And we have our own ideas for some future improvements either later this year or going into next year. But for now...

Thanks for reading!

EarlG, on behalf of Elad -- The DU Administrators

89 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Tip jar! Hugin May 2024 #1
Thank you Earl G for everything you do that makes this site Elessar Zappa May 2024 #2
whew NJCher May 2024 #3
Thank you EarlG, Elad, and all DU Administrators! Wild blueberry May 2024 #4
Kick underpants May 2024 #5
Thanks for the updates, EarlG! greatauntoftriplets May 2024 #6
Thank you for the indicators. lpbk2713 May 2024 #7
The kudos thing doesn't seem to be working central scrutinizer May 2024 #8
Did you follow the link to the page where you can look up a member? EarlG May 2024 #19
Many thanks! I wasn't aware of some of these features so used the links provided immediately. Hekate May 2024 #9
Great little tweaks! Thank you! Attilatheblond May 2024 #10
Would you all consider additional means to donate like fucking crypto or other means? I'd like to fucking kick in. SoFlaBro May 2024 #11
I do no online banking. Stay away multigraincracker May 2024 #21
Bookmarked, Prairie_Seagull May 2024 #12
Was hoping to see GrovelBot and by golly BumRushDaShow May 2024 #13
I was so happy to see Grovelbot again. Good times. Hekate May 2024 #48
Thank you for all your work keeping DU great! MiHale May 2024 #14
Thank you for providing space for us here, but I am surprised that after leaving a tip, the banners are both still at TeamProg May 2024 #15
Thank you!! 2naSalit May 2024 #16
Also, I did not see anywhere to leave "Kudos" to another member after leaving a tip. Where is that option? nt TeamProg May 2024 #17
You should receive a DU Mail message with a link in it EarlG May 2024 #18
Got it. Thanks nt TeamProg May 2024 #20
You cilla4progress May 2024 #22
Thank you, EarlG and elad! Aristus May 2024 #23
It hung up for me after I entered my billing info.. cilla4progress May 2024 #24
Hate to shame anyone, but multigraincracker May 2024 #25
it's a pet peeve of mine Skittles May 2024 #64
Price of a cup of coffee. multigraincracker May 2024 #65
yes Skittles May 2024 #70
All kinds of folks post here. multigraincracker May 2024 #73
Thank you so much for all you do!!! CaptainTruth May 2024 #26
Will "tip" donors get a star? Oopsie Daisy May 2024 #27
Yes EarlG May 2024 #29
Great! --- Done! Oopsie Daisy May 2024 #30
Thanks to you and everyone for their hard work and contributions n/t KatK May 2024 #28
Just a little BTW DFW May 2024 #31
You mean it always opens in a new browser tab or window? EarlG May 2024 #37
It's only a minor anoyance, but an annoyance just the same DFW May 2024 #41
"feature request" thread should prove interesting KS Toronado May 2024 #32
Thanks a million, EarlG. librechik May 2024 #33
the links that i posted from twitter have disappeared orleans May 2024 #34
I'll look into that EarlG May 2024 #36
i replaced the x.com with twitter.com orleans May 2024 #63
Great work, guys. Pinback May 2024 #35
I'll definitely be dropping a tip into the tip jar with my next retirement check. MarineCombatEngineer May 2024 #38
This message was self-deleted by its author cilla4progress May 2024 #39
Still hanging up at cilla4progress May 2024 #40
Hi, is that happening on PayPal or on DU? EarlG May 2024 #42
Same here! I have filled in all of PayPal's form for credit card payment, and hit the "pay" button Hekate May 2024 #46
My PayPal tip went through in a nanoxecond. NBachers May 2024 #72
I'll try again tomorrow Hekate May 2024 #74
Not Paypal, cilla4progress May 2024 #68
Understood that you're not using a PayPal account -- EarlG May 2024 #78
Hmmm... cilla4progress May 2024 #80
Right EarlG May 2024 #81
I see. cilla4progress May 2024 #82
Not a bad idea EarlG May 2024 #83
Yeah - worked on my Android tablet, cilla4progress May 2024 #84
Members are not notified about kudos EarlG May 2024 #85
You are very cilla4progress May 2024 #86
Best bargain on the webs. nolabear May 2024 #43
Well........... DFW May 2024 #44
This appears to be it. By the way, yours are among the posts I look for. Hekate May 2024 #47
Thanks Hekate! DFW May 2024 #50
Viva los Mariachis! Hekate May 2024 #52
Cuidado DFW May 2024 #55
It is finally done!! Here you go: DFW May 2024 #88
Muchas gracias. I've been saying that the defendant & friends are indeed cockroaches... Hekate May 2024 #89
DU Admins: I love this forum so much. Please know we appreciate all that you do. n/t iluvtennis May 2024 #45
K&R spanone May 2024 #49
Nice! KnR! nt intrepidity May 2024 #51
Thank you! Thanks you! For moving the Editorials to Main! question everything May 2024 #53
Thanks for your good work! burrowowl May 2024 #54
For all that is holy can you please restore so that William769 May 2024 #56
Endless appreciation Alice Kramden May 2024 #57
Endless appreciation Alice Kramden May 2024 #58
Thank You, EarlG & Elad! I didn't know Journals & Notes were back! Cha May 2024 #59
Suggestion for an easy fix with the Jury prompts during the posting-preview edge case Pluvious May 2024 #60
Thanks EarlG, but I'm landlocked and have no where to run My Subs. :D Hermit-The-Prog May 2024 #61
I DONATED Skittles May 2024 #62
The "My Subs" and "My Posts" changes satisfy my territorial nature. Shermann May 2024 #66
K and R ornotna May 2024 #67
Du is the best. No doubts: I am a better person because of DU. I appreciate all the personal time ... marble falls May 2024 #69
Thank you for keeping DU up & running Chicagogrl1 May 2024 #71
Thank you, EarlG and Elad! /team grovelbot 💙 crickets May 2024 #75
This fundraiser is too low-key for me. I want some thing like the hearts. live love laugh May 2024 #76
Thank you so much qwlauren35 May 2024 #77
Thank you for all that you do! Upthevibe May 2024 #79
水郷 YoshidaYui May 2024 #87
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