The DU Journals are Finally Here!

[Skinner]

WHAT ARE DU JOURNALS?

Have you ever wanted to blog, but can't find the time? Are you intimidated by the idea of setting up and maintaining a blog? Are you looking for a way to attract visitors to your blog? Now you can maintain a blog while you post on the DU discussion forums! Introducing DU Journals -- a totally new and original idea that blends the best features of a discussion forum and a blog.

Use your DU Journal to highlight your best posts from the Democratic Underground discussion forums. Many DUers already have an impressive body of work published here on our website -- now you can easily publish all of it to your own individual Journal. Instead of just letting your hard work get lost forever in the flood of posts on the message board, you can now build an audience of people who come to your journal specifically to read your posts.


HOW TO ACTIVATE AND MAINTAIN YOUR JOURNAL

1. ACTIVATE YOUR JOURNAL

Every DU member can have a DU Journal. But you cannot use your journal until you activate it. Here's how:

1. Make sure you are logged in to Democratic Underground.

2. Click this link to activate your journal: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=activate

For most members, that activation link should be all you need to set up your DU Journal. After your journal is created, you will get a direct link to go to your journal and start configuring it. If there are any problems, the activation routine should prompt you with the necessary information to fix the problem. If you are unable to fix the problem, please feel free to ask questions in this thread.

2. CONFIGURE YOUR JOURNAL

Go to your Journal, and click the little link in the top-right corner of the page which says "Edit Journal." This will take you to the Journal Control Panel. You can also access the Journal Control Panel by clicking the "Options" icon at the top of most DU pages. In your Journal Control Panel, you can change the title of your journal, change the format, select from a few different skins (more coming soon), and select special "modules" for the right-hand column of your Journal.

3. ADD POSTS TO YOUR JOURNAL

To add one of your posts to your Journal, first find that post on the Democratic Underground discussion forum. There will be a little black link in the bottom-left corner of the post that says "Add to my Journal." You can add any of your own posts to your Journal. Even if you posted it months or years ago, you can add it to your Journal.

4. FINDING YOUR JOURNAL OR SOMEONE ELSE'S JOURNAL

After a Journal has been created, you can easily visit it at any time. There are a few ways to do so:

1. To visit your own Journal, just click the "Journals" icon at the top of any page, and then click the link in the center of the page that says "Go To My Journal."

2. Visit any member's Journal by clicking the small "Journal" icon next to their username on any post.

3. You can tell if a member's Journal has been updated in the last 24 hours by looking for the button on any of their posts. If you mouse over the button and wait a second, the time of the last update will appear. Click the button to go directly to that member's Journal.

4. You can visit any journal by simply typing the URL of the Journal into your web browser. The URL of any member's Journal is easy to remember. Just use this format:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/username

That format will work for any username. We also have an optional alternate format for usernames with spaces. Just use a + sign instead of a space, like so:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/username+with+spaces


LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

If you have any problems, questions, or comments about the new Journals feature, please post them in this thread. Our Journals FAQ is not available yet, but it will be coming soon.

Skinner, EarlG, Elad
Democratic Underground Administrators

[CottonBear]

1. Thank you! n/t

[Poll_Blind]

2. Thank you! n/t

PB

[Capn Sunshine]

3. Jeese, what took you so long?

:evilgrin:Just Kidding, Skinner! This is fucking great!
Thank You for your continued efforts to evolve this site.
I truly appreciate what you are doing for us.

[LisaLynne]

4. Cool!

Thanks for all your work, guys! :)

[KoKo]

Thanks.....looks interesting....Can anyone tell me what a "skin and

module" are, though? BTW...I really don't know...computer clueless if it's an html thing. But, I'll Google and see if I can get the terminology explained. :blush:

:thumbsup:

[xultar]

5. KEWL! I love it!

[Hawkeye-X]

6. Hmm.. could I write my own thoughts in the journal?

Cuz I'd like that. Right now all we can do is post elsewhere, then update the journal.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

11. ditto

[EarlG]

12. You can't post directly into the Journal

But you can still post anything you like (within the rules) on the message board and add it to your Journal.

[displacedtexan]

7. That was the easiest blog activation I've ever seen!

I hope DUers will take advantage of the journal option.

BTW, I'll add this to this week's Blog Box column.

Great work, Skinner!

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

[spindrifter]

8. Thank you, thank you Skinner, EarlG and Elad--

I can hardly wait--and you guys have made it easy!

[xultar]

9. That is some COOL ASS SHIT! I love the Skins!

[BrklynLiberal]

10. That is really great. Thanks so much.

:)

[Marnieworld]

13. You guys rock!

This sounds like a great idea! Thank you!:woohoo:

[Deb]

14. Can a blog contain photos/graphics

or are these only for written words? Thanks

[Skinner]

15. You can post anything you like.

If you can post it on the DU discussion forum, then you can post it on your journal.

[Deb]

16. Oh wow, this is just too cool!

Thank you!!!

[wyldwolf]

17. Perhaps the coolest feature DU has ever bestowed upon us

[welshTerrier2]

18. journal questions

1. can we post directly to our journals without posting in a "public" DU forum? I was looking forward to this feature but it doesn't seem like it's available ...
2. can we control the order of "posts" that appear in our journals? for example, i just "loaded" a bunch of my bookmarks to my journal but they appear in a "most recent to oldest" order ... can i change the order? for example, could i create a section on Iraq, a section on the Democratic Party, a section on democratic reform of our government?
3. can pictures be posted in the "custom modules"?
4. can the positioning of the "custom modules" be changed? for example, can i make a custom module appear right under my journal's title instead of on the right side of the journal page?
5. can all journals be "edited" at all times even if they came from very old posts?

btw, admins, thanks verrrrrry much for this feature ... i've been looking forward to it for some time now ...

[Elad]

19. Answers

1) You have to post on the discussion board first, and then add it to your journal.

2) No, the order is determined by the time it was originally posted (reverse chronological order).

3) Yes, you can put pretty much whatever you want in the blank modules.

4) Yes, you can order any of the modules however you want using the boxes provided with numbers in them next to each module on the preferences screen.

5) I don't understand exactly what you mean. You can edit your journal whenever you want, but you can't edit the posts you add to your journal except in the 60 minute window you normally have when posting on DU.

[EarlG]

20. Answers...

1. You can't post directly to the Journals - all Journal entries have to be posted to the message board first. Bear in mind though that we do have many, many forums on DU and some of them are quite slow to say the least :) - you could consider posting in a slow forum.

2. I'm afraid it's not possible to change the order of the posts - the posts appear based on the time and date they were posted to the message board. You could, however, use the custom modules to create a series of sections in the right column of your Journal, which contain links to categorized posts. You'd have to update them manually though.

3. Yes, you can post pictures - the custom modules work just like a regular message board post.

4. You can change the order of custom modules within the right column, but you can't move them out of the right hand column. (Actually, there is a way to move the modules by editing the stylesheet, but it takes a fair bit of trial and error. Plus you'd have to move ALL of the modules - they can't be moved independently.)

5. Journal posts are identical to message board posts, so they are subject to the same one hour editing time limit.

Hope that helps :hi:

[KoKo]

21. WOW! It's better than I thought! There's some good "walk through" tips

and even thought I don't understand html and all the computer terms...I'm a good "hunt and peck" person who can try stuff. You've made it easier than I would have ever imagined... I haven't worked it all out yet...but my initial delving says this is a very good thing.. There's much for folks like me who aren't "computer challenged" to go ahead and "do their thing" but you did give the rest of us some great "pre-formats" and it's kind of like having a GREAT MENTAL CHALLENGE to LEARN MORE!

It's really so good...to help some of us who want to learn more but need the "challenge" to find a way to do our own Journal/Blogs.

It's going to take alot of "hunt and peck" for me...but I think I can figure it out with your many "help aids."

GOOD! :applause: And for "dragging and kicking" some of us to learn some new stuff. :-)'s...Good on You.....

[KoKo]

22. Help! Elad.... I'm not ready to create my "journal" but that Red Thing

on the upper right when I post keeps saying "Journal Update" or something like that.

Can I get rid of that flashing red "Journal Updated" thingy...until I can learn how to use the new feature?

:shrug: Thanks in advance.

[katinmn]

23. You can go into edit journal and turn your journal "off"

I think it's the first set of buttons.

(Obviously I'm not Elad but I did notice that little feature.)

[Skinner]

24. Go to your Journal Control Panel

Here:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/?az=prefs

Look for the words "Turn Journal On?" select "No" and click "Save Changes."

[KoKo]

25. Okay...thanks...am going to spend some time tonight trying to learn

this...I'll get the hang of it "with help!" :-)'s THANKS!

[wyldwolf]

26. A few techie questions for Elad and Skinner

1. Is there a way to either see the hits and referrers coming to our journals or install a third party stat counter?
2. Can we set our own meta info?
3. What can we embed into the modules? Java scripts? Flash? I'm thinking features like news headlines, etc. and one flash app specifically that I'll show you if you PM me on it. Thanks a lot!

[EarlG]

27. I'll try to answer these...

1. You could try installing a third party stat counter into a custom module and see if it works, but you might have problems, depending on what our software does with the code. However, we're already counting Journal views, so it wouldn't be difficult for Elad to create a "counter" module which people could add to their Journals. I'm not sure when we'll be releasing the next round of modules, hopefully it won't be too long.

2. You cannot set your own meta info at this time.

3. To be honest, I don't know. The custom modules should work just like message board posts, so in theory whatever you can get to appear in a post, you should be able to get to appear in a custom module. Give it a try and see what happens!

Hope some of that helps...

[wyldwolf]

28. doesn't work

If I write code into a module, the browser reads it as text. 
If I replace the <  >  with [ ], the scripts won't work.

Oh well, maybe when the software is updated.  Thanks!

[Adelante]

29. I have a request

Can we get a DU logo with a transparent background as a choice on the form? It's looking a little mangy on some of the altered backgrounds.

While I'm at it. I like the "My DU" feature, but can we have an option of one to keep outside -- I rarely use "Options" but I use My Posts all the time, so I would rather have that handy and Options inside. If it's not a big deal, I would appreciate it.

I love the Journals. Really brilliant of you guys. :)

I don't understand how you got your big teacup above the Journal space.

[Skinner]

30. It does have a transparent background.

The problem is that if we want to keep the smooth edges (and we do), we have to have a little bit of background stuck to the edges. Maybe we can trim it a bit.

Regarding my posts...

Are you aware that you can see all of your posts on the "My DU" page, without clicking through to the "My Posts" page?

Your journal looks really great, by the way. I think it's the best one I've seen.

[Adelante]

31. Well, duh, I figured it out after I posted here

The new "My Posts" page is great, after all.

Thank you for the compliment, but I really have Elad to thank. I've been trying for months to figure out how to do this stuff and was simply confused by it all. Elad laid this project out so logically I COULD ACTUALLY SEE what I had to do to make changes to the code to get what I wanted. It was a lot of trial and error, and it's a very good thing you looked at it later rather than sooner, but for me, very rewarding and educational. Far different from my experiences with MT or ExpressionEngine. These past few days have given me much more confidence. So, thanks, Elad!

Are we allowed to put anything in the left column underneath the ads or would that somehow mess up the ad system?

[Skinner]

33. Currently there is no way to add stuff to the left column.

We may give you the option to do so at a later date.

[wyldwolf]

32. ooh ooh! I have a forum suggestion!

How about a journal add-on forum to develop third-party add-ons for DU Journals?

[Skinner]

34. That sounds like a pretty cool idea.

If it were possible for third-parties to develop add-ons for the journals, I'd be totally for it. But I think Elad would be better equipped to answer than I am.

[wyldwolf]

35. I'll give you an example

Right now I know of a streaming MP3 player made in flash. Currently, it won't run in the journal modules. However, a link from a module to a pop-up displaying the player might work.

[Skinner]

36. I've been wondering if it would be wise to offer a special kind of module

which would permit members to write pure HTML code for their journals. This would have the obvious benefit of almost unlimited flexibility. But it would have the obvious downside of almost unlimited potential for abuse. At the moment, I'm torn.

[wyldwolf]

37. I understand your quandry

I think if people want to abuse the system, they'll find a way.

The question would be if you wanted to take the time to approve every add-on. Very time consuming.

On the other hand, If I were in your position, I would want a little more flexibility so people choose DU Journals over other blogging applications.

I kept a blog and updated it daily for two years until it got to be to time consuming. DU Journals allows me to blog and participate in a community. However, I miss the add-on and coding flexibility that blogger offers. That, to me, is the one and only downside to DU Journals at the moment.