DU updates and announcements

[EarlG]

Hello everyone,

Last year, in the wake of some financial struggles, we started a new, low-key fund drive to help balance DU's budget. The Tip Jar fund drive turned out to be a big success, and most importantly, it helped us manage our budget all the way through to the end of the year. So we're doing it again this year. In fact, we're doing it this week!

TIP JAR FUND DRIVE

Compared to our other major fund drives in February and August, the Tip Jar fund drive is relatively short. It will run from today (Monday) through Friday evening. There will be a small banner at the top of each page, and a reminder at the foot of each thread. All we're asking you to do is kick into our Tip Jar with a one-time contribution. If you are already a monthly or yearly subscriber, making a one-time contribution does NOT affect your ongoing subscription in any way.

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 once again we plan to recognize DUers that 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 not like the Hearts fund drive -- the members won't be notified when you leave kudos or get a marker on their posts -- but when I announce the end of the fund drive on Friday, I'll recognize DUers who received kudos.

Finally, during the Tip Jar fund drive we will be operating the site ad free for registered members. If you are a registered member but not a Star Member yet, we hope that trying out the ad free experience will help you to consider upgrading. Star Memberships are "pay what you want," and if you kick into the Tip Jar this week, you will become a Star Member.

BLUESKY EMBEDS

We are at long last updating the DU software today to include Bluesky embeds. They should work exactly the same way as other embedded content -- if you simply provide the link to a Bluesky post, when you post your message, the link will automatically transform into an embedded Bluesky post.

We are NOT removing X.com embeds from DU at this time, but we are removing the old "Twitter" styling from X.com embeds. They will now be clearly marked as X.com embeds, and not pseudo-Twitter posts.

So going forward, DU posts will automatically embed content from Bluesky, X.com, Threads, and Mastodon (as well as YouTube). However, one of the projects on our to-do list is an upgrade to DU's Account Settings which will let you choose which content you would like to see auto-embedded, and which content you would prefer to just see as a link. So if all goes according to plan, in the not-to-distant future, you should be able to turn off whichever embeds you don't want to see.

As with all DU updates, there's a chance that something might go wrong or not look correct. If any pages are messed up for you, or if you think that something has gone wrong, please feel free to reply here, in DU Community Help, or send me a DU Mail directly.

That's all for now -- thank you for reading, and as ever, we appreciate your support!

[Celerity]

1. It looks like I was right:

[EarlG]

3. Yes you were right

There was quite a long period after Musk bought Twitter that it was still Twitter, and people wanted it to be Twitter. We thought that altering X.com embeds so they still looked like Twitter posts was (at the time) kind of an amusing way to fight back against the whole "X" nonsense.

Of course, that was quite some time ago now, and obviously Twitter is gone, so it made sense to remove the Twitter styling in this update.

[EarlG]

2. Quick addendum

In case you were wondering, the little blue "Twitter indicator" on Latest/Greatest/forums does still only indicate that an X.com post is present in the thread. In future, we are likely going to KEEP the YouTube indicator, but remove the Twitter indicator. This is because a) X.com posts are nowhere near as prevalent on DU as they used to be, and b) we plan to provide options in Account Settings that will allow you to turn embedding on and off for different services.

But until we get to that, the "Twitter indicator" is going to remain (note that if you want, you can turn it off in Account Settings).

[live love laugh]

24. Please add TikTok and Bluesky visibility.

[proud patriot]

4. Thanks for all Admin Does EarlG

I'm so happy about the Bluesky embeds

[2naSalit]

5. Thank you!

[Kali]

6. SQUEEEEE!!!

GROVELBOT!!!😍💕

[EarlG]

8. The original AI

And still the only one I trust...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. I just look and the new bluesky link is working on a post that I made this morning

[EarlG]

9. Great

Thanks for the update.

[Hekate]

10. Thanks, EarlG!

[usonian]

11. A minor (?) request.

Is it possible to render some of those "mean to DU" Wikipedia links that are curtailed by special characters that they use ?

(without introducing a security loophole) ??

I sometimes have to embed the link in some text to make the link work right.

Sure, it sounds petty but remember!!

1. I was a petty officer in the service (with emphasis on petty) and
2, Let's face it. laziness is the mother of invention!

Best wishes for your "NICEST EVER" nags for money.

[EarlG]

13. We have to be pretty careful with the special characters in posts

Unfortunately it's a potential vulnerability, which is why we've got it locked down fairly tight and there are many that can't be used...

[Mr.WeRP]

12. Can you add Reddit embeds as well, please?

[EarlG]

14. Possibly...

Until now, I didn't know such a thing existed, nor that people on DU wanted to be able to do it! I can look into it and see what's involved.

[Mr.WeRP]

16. Thank you

The reddit API supports it and there are many great topic-based communities there and famous folks, including politicians, often hold live AMA sessions there. It is largely left leaning, though there are plenty of conservative centric subs.

And new subs come and go all the time… during covid, The Herman Cain Awards became a popular sub and this year the LeopardsAteMyFace sub is super popular. https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/s/xlICtYPhvs

[usonian]

17. I sometimes see Reddit links posted from "old.reddit.com"

I don't know why people do this, except perhaps there is a problem linking to Reddit posts (all of which escapes me)

People here have claimed that old.reddit.com is problematical.

Again, I have no idea why, but just want to mention these FYI.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. My dear EarlG:

I just went to leave a tip, and this did not show up: "Pay with Debit or Credit Card"

They seem to think I still have an account with them, and I don't. Nor do I want to, as you know.

I don't see any way around this.

[yliza]

20. "Pay with Debit or Credit Card" showed up for me but...

it still tried to make me create a PayPal account. I’m not going to do that. I hope this get fixed because I love being a Star member and my subscription will expire soon, but joining PayPal is a bridge too far.

[EarlG]

25. If the button showed up you should not have to create a PayPal account

Clicking that button allows you to check out as a guest…

[yliza]

27. I'm pretty sure that's how I did it last year

But this time when I go to submit the payment the button specifically says I’m creating an account. I can send a screenshot of what it says, if that will help.

[EarlG]

28. Yes, please

Feel free to email it to [e-mail] and I'll take a look.

[yliza]

39. I found the checkbox that opts you out of making an account

I feel like an idiot lol. But at least this idiot’s star membership won’t expire, yay!

[rampartd]

29. i had to send my star membership by usps with a check

and i'd like to keep it current, but pat pal is not gonna happen

[EarlG]

26. Hello there

I just sent you a PM about this.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

30. Thanks so much! I got it, and I responded.

[Pinback]

18. Great work

I really appreciate the work you and Elad do to make this site easy to use and feature-rich.

[greatauntoftriplets]

19. Thanks EarlG and Elad.

[CousinIT]

21. Thank you for all your hard work making and keeping this place THE BEST for Democrats & progressives!

I'm chipping into the tip jar RIGHT NOW.

[Cha]

22. Mahalo & Aloha, EarlG and Elad 💙🌈

Fo All you DO to Keep DU Running Smoothly For US Patriots!

[Skittles]

23. very happy to see Grovelbot!

DONE!

[stonecutter357]

31. Thank you !!

[Alephy]

32. So I contributed to the tip jar but...

It looks like it updated my Star Membership.

I thought they were unrelated.

[EarlG]

35. They're not exactly unrelated

Contributing to the tip jar is basically the same as making a one-time donation to DU. So anyone who does it gets a Star Membership (if they don’t already have one) or gets their Star Membership re-upped (if they already have one.)

I just wanted to make it clear to anyone who has an automatic payment that making a contribution to the tip jar doesn’t affect the automatic payment.

[Takket]

33. Just threw into the tip jar. Consider that a "thank you" for my long desired Bluesky embeds!

Thank you DU team!!!!!!!!!!

[Justice]

34. Contributed!

[patricia92243]

36. FINALLY - I can pay with my credit card!

[BComplex]

37. Thanks again for all you guys do, EarlG and Elad!!

This is home, and you keep making it better!

[Demsrule86]

38. I will donate

[ramblin_dave]

40. Blusky video test

Dog’s excited to discover that her family also adopted her sister.. 🥹

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden.bsky.social) 2025-05-20T18:49:57.253Z

[ramblin_dave]

41. Test result

So, Bluesky videos still do not play in place like twitter videos. You get taken to Bluesky. Is that the expected result?

[EarlG]

42. I guess so

There's nothing we can do to control the internal content of the Bluesky embed. It's as if you're viewing the actual Bluesky site through a window on DU. So whatever they choose to show in that embed is what you get. It seems Bluesky does not permit embeds to play video remotely, and instead shows a thumbnail image.