It’s not the prettiest of sites, but it’s efficient…and almost free…and quite easy to navigate.
Clicking on the Banner up top with the “Stick to sticking with it” slogan will refresh to the main page.
I will be doing this in desktop view so it’s a little different on tablets and phones…
Directly below the banner is the navigation menu:
which currently only has pointers to this “How To” (tag) series and the “Open Thread” (category). It is subject to change.
To the far right is the list of categories and sub-categories:
Every DS post is filed under a category or sub-category. If you’re interested in reading any post in those categories or sub-categories simply click on one and every post filed under the category will be listed on its own main page.
To the left of the categories are the “Sticky Notes” where you can click on the most recent posts on the left:
In the middle, click on any tag for which every post, no matter the category the posts are under, with that tag will be listed on its own main page:
Or on the right, recent comments that if clicked will send you directly to the comment:
Then you have the actual posts on the main page:
Click on a post to open and you will see the category/sub-category the post is filed under. In this case Open Thread>DOT (Daily Open Thread):
As well as the date and the author of the post. If you click on the author, every post by that author will be listed on its own main page:
[If you click on the username in the comment section, it will take you to their profile page]
At the very top right-hand corner, you can access your own profile to edit or add/change avatars, check messages and notifications:
You will receive notifications that distinguish between private messages, @ mentions, stars for comments, and stars for posts, BUT…
unfortunately, because this is the default (free) comment section, there are no notifications for replies to your comments and the comment star notifications do not notify you as to which comments have been starred. You can click on the notifications and you will be led to the comment where you’re likely to see any replies or you can use the bulk “mark as read” feature.
I am always looking for possible updates and ways to turn some of the cons into pros but it’s pretty limited.
I have tweaked the comment section to have some bells and whistles if used correctly depending on your device/browser…so far, it’s the best we’ve got.
@myopicprophet is it possible to sort comments by new?
Also, how do I get the little bio like you have under your name?
The current available settings would be to have all comments in either first to last or last to first. I have always had it set to first to last, but if enough people would like it to be the other way around, it could be. Unfortunately I don’t think there is a way for users to control that as a view from the front end (as far as I know) but I’ll look into it.
The little bio can be added in the edit profile page but it only shows up under “author’s” (please don’t mistake that for me calling myself an author-hence the quotation marks) posts.
Hi!!! just migrated from groupthink and thank you for this very helpful post!
At first I was like “shit there’s a lot to get used to” but then I thought about all the times kinja KINNNNJJAAAAADDDD us and we had to adapt. This is going to be so much better than kinja was for us!
I certainly hope the rest of the GT community feels the same way. That was specifically our intention. We don’t have all the bells and whistles that Kinja had (I am a Kinja defender as it WAS actually quite good once from a technical standpoint), but “the community is the point.”
Welcome to DS!
Thank you! This is very helpful.
Can you clarify this a little?
“unfortunately, because this is the default (free) comment section, there are no notifications for replies to your comments and the comment star notifications do not notify you as to which comments have been starred”
Does that mean there is no differentiating between a like and a response to a comment? Or something else?
Sorry. I meant that if someone replies to one of your comments, you will not get a notification. You only receive notifications for starred comments. And when you check your star notifications, there is no way to know which comments each notification are for…unless you click on them.
If this doesn’t clear it up, someone with better English than myself will be around soon to clear it up lol
@myopicprophet
Sort of, however I’ve noticed that all my notifications just say “so and so liked your comment.” I’ve been marking them as read until today. But it seems some of them were responses, it just calls everything a like?
Every “star” is called a like (I just changed the image to a star for old time sake).
What I meant was that I am replying to your comment right now and you will not get a notification that I replied to you.
If I star your comment, you will get a notification indicating that I starred your comment. When you get the notification that I starred your comment, you won’t know which comment of yours that I starred (or liked) unless you click on the notification itself which sends you to the comment I am currently responding to and about to star.
I could @ mention you in this comment which would notify you that you were mentioned in a comment…still, the notification wouldn’t tell you which comment in which you were @ mentioned unless you click on the notification.
For a comparison, on Kinja, you could check your notifications and it would say some thing like,
myopicprophet starred your comment on Deadsplinter How To: Navigate: Sort of, however I’ve noticed that all my notifications just say “so and so liked your comment.” I’ve been marking them as read until today. But it seems some of them were responses, it just calls everything a like?
you didn’t have to leave your notification box in order to see what post and/or comment I starred.
On this platform your notification looks like this:
myopicprophet liked one of your comments
…without informing you of the post or the comment i “liked” so in order to find out which comment I liked, you have to click on that notification which will take you to the comment I starred.
Also, if you end up writing posts, getting @ mentioned and pm’s, and you hover your notification bar, you’ll see how many of each notification you currently have:
Hmm, I wonder if this is a mobile vs desktop thing? I understand I can’t see which star/like corresponds to what. However your comment here was called a like in my notifications. I am not getting anything saying “myopicprophet replied to your comment.” So I have been clicking on every notification to see if it is a response to something I typed or not.
I just starred (liked) your comment:
You will get a notification for that. You won’t get a notification that i replied to it.
Thanks for these explainers, mp–it looks a little intimidating but these def. help. And thanks for welcoming us! <3
It is great to see you here! Thanks for coming.
I’m sure everyone will quickly get the hang of it but in the meantime, I’m a pm away if you (or anyone else) need anything.
You’ll catch on quickly. 😊
THANK YOU! I have been poking around and I love a clear guide on what to do! Much appreciated
Thanks, friend!
So will there be an authorship post like how we used to do things in kinja-land?
We did a “how to post on WordPress” post a while back but it is somewhat out-of-date currently and I haven’t quite got around to fixing it up. It will be updated soon, though – meanwhile anyone who’d like assistance writing posts can reach out for some how to tips to @splinterrip @megmegmcgee @hannibal or myself @myopicprophet.
Authorship privileges (which is basically wordpress-speak for being able to draft and publish posts) are a mere a click away (although for now, until everyone gets the hang of it and for the sake of consistency, we’d ask that you save your posts as drafts and communicate with us before publishing just for the time being so we don’t have conflicts with multiple posts going up at the same time) and we’d love for you and other GT authors to contribute posts…in whatever categories you’d like to have (so let me know what they are if they aren’t listed already and I’ll add them). So if you or anyone else are interested in being an author please send a message to @myopicprophet to let me know and I will get that sorted out for you.
Hullo. I am lost and confused.
k2b!
AND a cat gif!
Seems to good to be true. How goes it (all things considered)?
Oh, you know, working with yoyos, waiting for the world to end. Same old same old.
…but you have cat gifs
…so surely everything must be ok?
…nice to see you here, either way
This shit is bananas, but kitteh gifs do make things better.
…they really do…but so does having the likes of your esteemed self turning up, so thanks for taking the time
Shucks, I don’t know about being esteemed, so much. Perhaps slightly parboiled.
…I lurked kinja for a good long while…& I’m a fan of fur face fridays…so in my world you’re definitely a few rungs up from par
…either way, we’re glad to have your company
…& the cat gifs…obviously
Ah, I see. As a purveyor of cuteness celebrations, I thank you.
k2b! I’m so happy you’re here. 😊
Happy to be here.
Quite a crowd here, innit? Would be great for FFF but… tried to test run a straight image drop, failed. 🙁
Coming up with the most secure way for everyone to have the ability to post personal images in the comment section is atop the to-do list.
You have been pre-approved for authorship at Backtalk Village, btw, for the love of Fur Faces (and your own wonderful self, of course). Give me a holler when you get a username set up and I will figure out how to get you on board.
This is all very helpful, thanks. I’m figuring a lot out just by lurking and commenting here and there. I’m glad to join the community.
Oh, one lingering question that didn’t quite get touched on here. How do tags work? Is it similar to kinja where you can just enter any tag you want and it will make a new one? Will it autofill or otherwise indicate existing tags as you start typing one?
There will be a post at some point soon to explain tags and categories for those who are unfamiliar with how they work.
The upcoming “how to post” will include a how to create tags which is exactly as you just described it. When typing in the tag you want to use, already existing tags will show up as options so we don’t have multiple tags for the same thing.
For example, we had both “Election 2020” and “2020 Election” tags and we’d like to avoid that type of thing.