Inside the Little Plastic Castle

Someday I may again add to the cornucopia of excellent reading reports available here on Dreamwidth. In a previous life, enjoying these posts would also add to my teetering TBR pile. Now I get vicarious thrills from how folks’ reading made them feel. In particular:

chestnut_pod
https://chestnut-pod.dreamwidth.org/?tag=books+are+the+meaning+of+life&skip=30

dhampyresa
https://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/tag/reading+wednesday

rivkat doesn’t tag and does post many, many great reviews
https://rivkat.dreamwidth.org

runpunkrun
https://runpunkrun.dreamwidth.org/tag/book+report

Any recent DW entry with the tag "books" https://www.dreamwidth.org/latest?tag=books

Self-rec: mostly reviews, but also about the mechanics of reading https://jesse-the-k.dreamwidth.org/tag/reading

Reading-focused communities
readingtogether
booknook

Let me know whose reading reviews you enjoy....

Follow-up on yesterday’s post. As I said then,

People with paid DW accounts can filter posts by tags

Tags: Show only content that is labeled with a certain tag or tags, or only content that is not labelled with a certain tag or tags (people sometimes refer to this as “blocking tags”).

https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=76&q=filter

It actually didn’t take that long to apply my “no politics!” control to all my subscriptions–less than two hours. I’ll share what I learned (because writing detailed tech instructions occupies my entire brain).

Prerequisites

( 2 of them )

Applying tag filters

( 5 clicks for each )

What Surprised Me

The any/all/none controls apply to the current subscription filter list, not to the specific account. This confused me at first, but is ultimately more flexible. For now, I have created a “no politics” subscription filter list (which happens to be my Default). I can also create an “all politics” sub filter list, with the same tag choices for each account, and the entry tagged with value ANY.

I don’t understand the red “Saving in 5 seconds” message. I got antsy and clicked away before 5 seconds were up and it seemed like my choices were saved.

Thanks to runpunkrun, who alerted me to the fascinating conversation-in-progress about

Named Markup Formats

https://dw-dev.dreamwidth.org/222342.html

roadrunnertwice is planning out the replumbing of the editor we use to make and reply to posts. I'm thrilled that this will include supporting markdown for posts and comments. There are many other benefits, including not borking antique @mentions.

If you use a client to post here, and particularly if you use [eta: extensive precise HTML to create complex formats] in your posts, please check out the discussion.

• casual html
• markdown
• raw html

Following brainwane's example, I've just pruned my access and follow list. There were a lot of accounts that hadn't posted in years, and the LJ password mess meant strangers might be reading. If you can't see this post, and used to have access, comment here and I'll fix it.

Noticed an uptick in spam lately? denise knows why! In case you’re not subscribed to dw_news, it’s time to do two things to ensure your DW account is safe (and reduce the spam).

( details )

Bookmarklets are programs that live on your browser’s Favorites (aka bookmarks) bar. Where standard bookmarks have a name and a web address, bookmarklets have a name and a tiny Javascript to make life simpler. I just stumbled on a tool that let me combine a number of bookmarklets into a menu!

https://w-shadow.com/bookmarklet-combiner

Here's my "lucky star" ★ menu, which offers three functions I use all the time

• !css strips out all styles on a web page, permitting me to see my preferred, large font and pink background. Unlike reader mode, the no-styles version still lets me make comments.
• wbm save sends the current page to Archive.org’s Wayback Machine, saves the URL, and loads the future-proofed version, ready to copy into a post.
• boost puts your current selection in a new DW post with an attribution and link to your source. This is ljwrites’ fork of the signal boost tool from astolat and melannen.

Once installed, clicking the star brings up a little menu to perform one of these tasks.

To install the ★ menu in your browser:

1. Adjust preferences to display your Favorites Bar
2. Visit my Star menu page
3. Scroll to the Star icon at the bottom of the page (search on the string "result" and tab once)
4. Drag the star to your Bookmark Bar (I put it on the left edge). If you’re using Safari & a keyboard, command-1 will bring up the menu.

Prompted by sunshine_challenge, I’m trying to clean up my tags. I apply them liberally, and the result of ten years of blogging is more than 650 tags. YIKES.

I have three tag sets that are conceptually related, and probably too granular, and I seek insights on how to better merge them.

( Data herders welcome )

Read Markdown Simplifies Formatting Your DW Posts for an introduction and the formats you'll use daily.

This sequel covers the rest of Dreamwidth’s Markdown support. ( 1100 words )

Markdown is a minimal way to format your text. The goal is to use "natural" formats, similar to email. Software that understands Markdown translates it to HTML. Markdown is much easier--and more forgiving--than HTML. This post has the markdown you'll use the most. The rest of the features are explored later.

The full spec is hosted by its creator, Jon Gruber https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

Using Markdown Here at Dreamwidth

Markdown is welcome everywhere except in subject lines. You can use it for posts, comments, email posts.

( how to turn it on, formatting emphasis, strong; usernames; lists; rules and code )

When I prepare to publish something here, I think "I'm writing a post." When my gentle readers respond to what I've written, I think "they're making comments." Yet the official Dreamwidth vocabulary is not so straightforward. These are the things that keep me up at night!

To publish the current item, I tapped the "Post" link on the navigation bar. The next screen is called "Create Entries," yet the final action button is called "Post a $securitylevel Entry." With each entry I control who responds with "Comment" settings, yet the relevant FAQ talks about "replies."

One of Dreamwidth's quirkier features is how you can customize much of the user interaction texts https://www.dreamwidth.org/customize/options?group=text My favorite example is sovay, who titles the Comment/Reply function "Performable Epic."

( So, the poll )