Short Summer 2024 update
Apologies for the delay, busy life etc
Welcome to our new users that have joined us recently. I have been a bit busy IRL but i've been sure to read every post on the site!
I've implemented some new maintenance tasks that should help the performance of the site and generally be good practice.
Future Features
It's been a while since the last time we talked about it.. Since we've also got a fair few new users i'll take this time to say..
Feel free to put any suggestions for the site in the Community + suggestions/feedback tag. I've had users reach out privately to make suggestions and i'm still looking at those as they've been given.
Things i'm looking at include
Auto-merging posts: For when people double post, i know its hard to reply to multiple people on mobile but it'll be good to avoid multi-posting
image album/carousel: to clean up the image viewing experience. Hard to do though since I think a lot of us appreciate using inline images
blog revamp: getting it so that a user can hide these updates from their blog page if they want.
Embed/Youtube improvements: I know we like to share media links like youtube but it is very picky and doesnt display the best. I'd like to do something to alleviate the issue.
Those are just some of the improvements i'm looking at implementing. I have also been trying to write some complex extensions in my free time, but my lack of skill has caused issues. I'm trying though and aim to get there eventually.
Site Identity
This is maybe something for a longer individual blogpost but i've been thinking a lot about how the site identity is right now.
Starting from my original fediverse instance (RIP), I have leaned into the clannad theming. I of course still love that VN/Anime but I'm thinking maybe I need to work more on our identity. I have ideas and already some artwork made of "sheepishpatio" characters and i'll post more about it and plans as we develop it further.
Going into that, the current emote reactions are just amusing images from shows/games I like. I am open to hearing suggestions for different emote reactions and stickers (may do those in future) for the site. Any suggestions and feedback is appreciated and can go in that tag or the 'meta' tag.
If possible i'd like to do some community contests and such related to site identity. Let me know what you think!
Shutting down my fediverse instance
One of the few things that i'd set up before this forum was the fediverse instance for me and some online friends. I believe it was in late 2020 or early 2021 and ran i'd say pretty reliably most of the time. (usually any breaks were my fault)
In more recent months I have been using it less as well as the other users. Since its one of the earlier services I ran and hosted it isnt the best set up or maintained. Due to the listed reasons I'm going to shutter the instance and remove it. It has been running on the same server as this forum and i'm hoping that doing so will relieve some strain and allow the forum to perform at its best. This also means that if I do decide to run another fediverse instance I can have it set up better and do things like alternate frontends.
To my good friends from there, thank you for relying on me and I hope to still see you around. If I host another i'll be sure to let you know.
A little Reminder
It's not my job to remind you, but when its sunny do try to wear suncream and sunglasses/a hat if you're out for the day. You only have one body and should take good care of it!
Thanks
Thank you for reading this far and taking the time to use the site. I say it every time but I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to use the site and read my ramblings.
Thanks to everyone who has been suggesting the site to others, Organic growth like that brings a smile to my face and is essential when bringing others who'd like the site in outside of advertising.
The wonderful art drawn for us by SimpelPlant last year. Hoping to commission him again soon
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