2024 Update 1
Formally known as January Update
Late Happy New Year to everyone!
I hope you've been well over Christmas and New Years, and also settled into 2024 nicely.
This update is late, but wont have much fun stuff to go over which is a bit depressing.
For this and maybe the next couple months updates may be late or even bi-monthly. We shall see.
Busy Busy Busy
Annoyingly, my real life outside the digital realm has been very busy and I think will continue to be until about March-April. This is annoying but unavoidable, so I wont be able to give the forum the love and attention it deserves, or start any new services or other such things.
I also had the great pleasure of my desktop setup going kaput suddenly, so I spent a day when I was writing this managing that. Luckily i'm pretty much back to where I was and have all the important data saved!
Affiliates, considerations and adjustments to ToS
I have recently added a couple of affiliate links to the site. This is done to potentially add a revenue stream of some kind to the site without plastering it with ads. At time of writing the only things that happen automatically is links to Humble Bundle are converted into affiliate links.
If you have any other sites or services you think I should look into affiliate links for, please let me know.
Affiliate links help the site by giving some small kickback when people buy things via them, which is indirect but still appreciated.
I think that these changes to the ToS are quite minor, however it would be unfair of me to not notify people of the changes. This is done via an extension, so be sure to accept them! If there are any issues doing so please let me know via email or XMPP.
Information related to affiliate links is available Here and also alongside the donate buttons on the right column.
Webring and sites going down
As some of you have seen in the sites header announcement, anon.cafe is shutting down.
Anon.cafe is/was an imageboard set up in 2021 and became a pretty large instance in the imageboard space. Most likely the largest of the alt-chans to my knowledge.
I know as a forum with accounts, sheepishpatio is not really directly related to imageboards and such, I do have a fondness for them and a willingness to assist if requested. If anyone knows a Board Owner or wants to suggest our site/contact me then feel free (provided its appropriate.)
I know trashchan and wapchan are in talks with board owners about taking on users from anoncafe in specific boards, so I think that migration is in hand.
I'm half-tempted to make an imageboard myself and add that string to our bow, so to speak. Let me know if you think thats something I should undertake or leave us out of imageboards and just maintain friendly relations elsewhere/or moderate other sites.
If there are any site owners that would like a hand with moderation feel free to reach out and let me know whats going on 🙂
Ads (The mainstay of these blogposts it seems)
This seems to be a recurring section in these blogposts. Partially because I like to write an update on the current state of site advertising (as in where ads are running and how much of a focus they are getting). I have to admit that i've been hit with the typical january money blues. I've still had a couple ads going here or there but not the usual push. In some ways this is reflected in the sites activity this month, although i'm sure much of that is also just the nature of this month.
Forum software throughout 2024
The software that this forum runs on is called Flarum. I think it is pretty great and continues to improve. There are still some features I want to see in the site and i'd like to have had them added by now or throughout this year. However the guys who make software are currently in the works of basically an entire rewrite of the whole thing. I'll write more about it as more details come out and I plan to upgrade. I do think there will be a period where the new software is out, and sheepishpatio is on the "old" version. I will make sure that any transition period is as short as possible. This will be midway through the year or in the second half. This just serves as an early warning 🙂
Thanks
As always, thank you for reading and using the site. I very much appreciate it and any input you may have.
I'll see you all again soon. Have a good day all!
Check us out on Twitter, where we post site updates and otherwise post random bits
Track Forum Progress
Forum page archive (old ToS and PP)
Donation information, donations are greatly appreciated
If you somehow missed it, the 1 year anniversary blog post is available here
first new ad image for this year. One day all will know its a starfish
