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Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Commended by TharaApples on 3/31/2021 8:50:57 PM

Since I'm involved in site changes now, I figure it's probably good to give a heads-up on my first official post. I've been touring the cities of CYS for merely half a year when the powers that be elected me to extend a hand on the coding side of things. I've got under 100 posts on the forums, so if you don't recognize me, here's a quick hello!

Off to the point, then. I'll be working on site updates. You may see an uptick in changes to the site, and I'll keep listing those here instead of creating new threads for each of them, since I'm doing them in clumps. I'm focusing on integrating some of the important changes from the popular site extension co-written by Brad and Ford, and Killa is helping to test changes so I hopefully don't divide by zero and erase Norway.


Site changes coming eventually

  • Unicode support
  • Dark mode
Finished changes

Changes on 5/14

  • Many page layout improvements (especially articles), fixed overflowing text
  • Many small functional improvements
  • Added View Profile under My Stuff

Changes on 4/28

  • Made it so admins can pin threads.

Changes on 4/9

  • Storygames have reading margins so they don't hit the edges of the screen on mobile and you can full-screen on desktop.

Changes on 4/3

  • Added main category and maturity rating to storygame search. Filters refresh on click.

Changes on 3/29

  • The Dark Fantasy category became Grimdark Fantasy
  • The Mystery/Puzzle category became Mystery/Thriller
  • The Everything Else category became Family Friendly
  • New Puzzle/Game and Historical categories were created

Changes on 3/23

  • The navbar is a little neater, based on CYSCE's themeless version
  • The storygame search was replaced with CYSCE's themeless version

Changes on 3/19

  • People without an avatar who talk in forums now appear as confused penguins
  • Admins don't have to live in fear of banning themselves...don't question it

Feel free to suggest site changes while I work on some longstanding important ones, and I'll consider them. I might even dust off some of the bugs in the site problems subforum. (Ooh, archeology!)

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
As a pair of 12 year old African boys named Abdu and Ndale who are operating on a desktop PC from 2000 running Windows ME with 512 MB of RAM and a sticker that says "Never Obsolete!" on the tower, I would greatly appreciate if the upcoming updates would not break Internet Explorer. Jokes aside, looking forward to the upcoming site updates.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Having an admin called "Nightwatch" seems very fitting around here.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Let us commend reviews without featuring them.

Capitalize my name.

And a reminder to put the cursor in the box so we can just immediately type the title when creating new pages. (instead of grabbing for the mouse and going up to the far upper right corner of the screen every single time.) It's such a tiny thing not it improves QoL a lot...that's a quick fix Brad immediately added to the extension on my request, while Killa just ignored me. :(

Lol xd wouldn't it be hilarious btw if Nightwatch got my trophy before Killa did? XD XD And Brad already has it.

And otherwise you already know what the major things the extension adds that should really be on the site are. I'm curious though, what's the plan with page gutters? They're so essential for reading on a computer, but do they understand they're not needed on mobile?

Anyway, I think a thread like this is a great idea, and thank you for not burying my jam thread.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

I've got all this recorded since last week (except the m&M request, which I haven't looked into). I've been keeping track. The margins shrink with the viewing width, so they're effectively the same at phone-sized widths. CYSCE is a godsend; all these changes would take weeks without it.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
If this horrible option becomes a reality, we need an option in each of our profiles (or just mine) that leave the lower case m as is historically accurate, as a lower case m.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Wouldn't it be just horrible if your name was mIZaL in the next update?

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
That would be tragic, toying with a username just for fun. I think we can have both historical accuracy and fulfill Miz's wishes with a small caps M.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Historical category? HISTORICAL CATEGORY? :D Well that's brightened my day because that is literally 90% of my output these days :)

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
It's been needed for awhile now. Not all historical games are intended to be educational (although several of yours I think still do qualify) so either we have stories about pirates fighting Aztec gods in Edutainment, or they get shunted off to Everything Else where they're not a great fit either.

Happily with new, better places for historical fiction as well as puzzle games and quizzes and the like, and some judicious purging of miscellaneous clutter from 2007, Everything Else will be left gutted and then we can build a daycare and playground on top of the desecrated graveyard.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
"At last! The Penguin army has assembled! We shall sweep over CYS and rule with an iron flipper!

Mwuhahahahaha!!!"

...

"Wait, is that penguin drooling?

They... they're all drooling?!?

Well shit."

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Green44 has ascended to daughterhood until such time that she proves unworthy of the honor.

Mayana has officially been disowned and stripped of its daughterhood.

Most of the life force from the blindy has been repurposed to wholesome daughter Cricket and a small portion has been given to deaf daughter Green to help her get started on her new duties of praising her father and his works. (Me)

Thara is still first daughter.

That is all.

Hello and site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Let it go on official record that I never liked Mayana, I was just using her for the proofreading capabilities of her screen reader.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Hey everyone, we have a competent storygame search now, and you may notice the navigation bar is a little easier to use. Thanks a ton to Ford and Brad for working on the CYSCE extension these changes are based on, and Killa for testing and improving the changes I ported over.

(For those of you already using the site extension this is based on, the Storygames menu item in the navigation bar has duplicate entries right now, and the appearance is a tad odd -- the extension will be updated later.)

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Hell fucking yes

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Sweet!

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Looks Great :D

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Oh shoot, that's good shit.

Does the forum search function correctly now?

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Yep, it works. I just found my very first post here.

http://chooseyourstory.com/forums/the-lounge/message/4469

EDIT: Well worked enough for me to find my first post which I couldn't before, it still seems to need specifics though or it'll time out.

EDIT 2: Holy shit, look at how woke I am! (Also JMgskills being a faggot as usual, glad he's gone. And now banned tranny HugsGoodbye going on about how he's against gay marriage and religious!)

http://chooseyourstory.com/forums/the-lounge/message/7688

EDIT 3: Even back in 2013, this place was dull. Seriously, I was providing the "A" material, and everyone is acting like a painting out there!

http://chooseyourstory.com/forums/the-lounge/message/9240

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Yikes, that Gay Marriage thread is certainly a read. Those are the names I remember from back then too.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Lol that last one. Berka, Swift, and Playa are the only people replying that don't come off as literally retarded.

Fireplay freezing up in terrified confusion at the sight of a long post at the end there made me chuckle IRL.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Haven't changed that one yet; it's not in CYSCE already, so it actually requires more effort.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Weird, I thought you must have done something with it because it's at least working better than it used to.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
P.S. No one will miss Norway.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

One thing I noticed was how on the navigation bar for the forums, News and Updates isn't one of them. Not sure if this was meant to happen but it did. 

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
It definitely wasn't intended, thanks for noticing!

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Can I get an F for Nightwatch's computer?

It stared too long into the site code.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

F

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
F

Site offline 3/28, midnight PST

3 years ago
Site was offline for changes, it's back up.

Site offline 3/28, midnight PST

3 years ago
The renovations will be most appreciated.

Site offline 3/28, midnight PST

3 years ago
Thanks to everyone for their hard work!

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Well looks like the category stuff went through. Now begins the long process of moving stories around.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
I haven't been posting much but I'm just unbelievably happy with the pace of these updates.

Another thing I definitely won't ever take for granted is having changes that go through, and then the person that introduces them is still active later to tweak things or fix any bugs as needed instead of immediately disappearing for years, we're all so unused to that.

Simply being able to search for the Family Friendly tag is making that category a lot easier to fill. That had to be the most requested feature for years and until now it was only ever available when using the extension and sitting in front of the computer which I have less and less time for these days.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Some of the story shuffling has been done. The former Everything Else category has been resorted to what seems best. Most of these were easy enough.

Quizzes went into the Puzzle/Games category.

Anything with an existing tag going into a matching genre category.

Anything that was already in Everything Else with a maturity rating of 3 or less stayed put.

Most of the former school stories once again got shuffled to different categories, usually Modern.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago

Sorted through some of the Mystery/Thriller/Puzzle/Game stuff. I think I got through the meat of them and where they should go.

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Nice I like the new categories

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
Commended by mizal on 3/29/2021 7:10:14 PM

Very nice! This is so exciting! And I'm not just saying that because my art is pretty. :~)

Edit. . .

Site updates, Spring 2021

3 years ago
It's almost like she's trying to tell us something...

If only Killa wasn't sleeping on the detective hat!

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago

I'll echo the above: the updates look great! As does all the new artwork, of course. Thanks to everyone who has been contributing to these improvements!

All the new categories should keep people busy working to obtain some of those coveted featured story slots.

Site offline 3/32, midnight PST

2 years ago
The site'll be offline tonight at midnight PST (6 hours and some change) for about 10 minutes for some changes. Glad to see everyone's appreciating them!

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago

It's just amusing to see all these updates and improvements so quickly after years of fucktards going on saying how this place was slowly dying and out of date compared to twine and also claims that certain improvements couldn't be done when they obviously could be all along.

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago

If the regular non-extension version of this site gets a dark mode, I might never leave it. 

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago
Dark mode and page gutters. After tag searching, dark mode and page gutters are my biggest wants for ease of reading. Honestly I'd have personally placed both of those even before the search stuff, I can't read these games anymore with the burning white screen and without a maxed out window and the text staying where it belongs.

These code bitches better hop to it. Brad is the only good one for adding these things before I even knew I need them.

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago
Right after that important obscure bug about dates and duels that Peng brought up. Priorities!

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago
We were a lot more active than certain other interactive fiction communities even when we were going years without updates, and I'm talking communities that literally bribe their members with cash money just to lend them some semblance of a pulse. But the only reaction to searching by tags (the biggest update so far) I'm able to have is 'about fkn time', lol.

Brad was able to build it into the extension years ago without any special access at all. The fact that we had someone who could update directly at any time, could've done this in an afternoon but just wouldn't for years and years, was more frustrating to me than I ever let on.

Super happy we finally have people who can test each other's work and keep the updates going at this pace and that Nightwatch brought catnip for Killa. OTP.

Twine though, lol. Imagine how funny it would be if we had had somebody who obsessively preached the death of CYS and the future of Twine, only for them to never actually make any Twine games and still be unable to stop themselves from coming around here and pressing their face sadly against the window. While doing literally nothing else. For seven years. Lol.

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago
I have to say it's really nice to see that the site's still being improved and worked on to this day, and at this pace too. It's exciting. :)

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago

The site looked basically the same to me ever since I joined, I never really minded it. But it's really nice to see it being improved on. I'm always a fan of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it"...but I like it in this case.

Site offline 3/31, midnight PST

2 years ago
I've always thought of this place as something like an undead dinosaur trapped in tar. It neither moves nor dies.

Suddenly things are changing quickly and it's a little odd, but certainly for the best.

Site offline 4/1, midnight PST

2 years ago
Guessing it'll happen tomorrow now since the site update request hasn't been seen yet.

Site offline 3/32, midnight PST

2 years ago
If that's the date it's scheduled for, all this progress is about to come to a hard stop.

Site offline 4/1, midnight PST

2 years ago
That was an April Fool's joke! Ha ha...ha.
In news completely unrelated to this revelation, I've changed the date to 4/1...

(April Fool's again! Except this time, I was expecting it. Got in on 4/3.)

Site offline 3/32, midnight PST

2 years ago
April fools!

Site offline 3/32, midnight PST

2 years ago
Oh shit was this going to be the April Fool's joke?

Then I made Ford an admin for nothing.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Currently, all of Will's games are in Edutainment, but could all be shifted over to Historical.

Thoughts?

@Will12

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Consarnit!

@Will11

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
@Will13?

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Most of his still count as Educational imo, and he thought so too.

Specific carefully researched IRL historical event = Edutainment
Fiction in a historical setting = Historical

Or at least that's what I'm going with to simplify this for now. Not too fussed if authors do whatever going forward of course, it could still be a blurry distinction.


Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Yeah, I think it depends how you define Edutainment and Historical.

I think if Edutainment is factually accurate then they belong there but if you want to bulk up the Historical category they're all historical fiction so they could go there too. I'm not really sure either tbh, like whether Hunting the Ripper is a puzzle / game, mystery / thriller, edutainment, historical or horror. or even family friendly if that family happens to be the Manson family. Most stories fall into a couple of different genres anyway so it depends on your perspective like one person's musical comedy is another traumatising horror flick.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Lol, I've seen that one. But yeah I know what you mean. Like take a romantic comedy like The Shining. That's very simple to categorize as a movie, but if it were a storygame somehow there's so much line blurring there.



Although ultimately I think it doesn't matter so much as long as there's nothing egregiously out of place. Fanfic is about the only one we're strict about, and that's easy to define.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Yeah I definitely wouldn't call Hunting the Ripper Fanfic :D And The Shining would make a great storygame :)

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago

I just left the Ripper one in Mystery since that's where it was originally.

The only ones of Will I moved were a couple in the now defunct Everything Else category which I moved over to the new Historical section since I figured if he thought they were Edutainment, he would have had them there in the first place.

Amusingly this lead to the Donner Party being in Family Friendly for a brief moment due to the name category switch.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
It's fine, plenty of school kids in Nebraska have read that one already.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Yeah, all sounds good :D The Donner Party were very family friendly, so friendly family members ate one another together :) But until Cannibal Families becomes a theme Historical sounds goods.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago

I think that it's fine for the author to decide the category, as long as the admins don't mind the choices.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
The site will be down for about 10 minutes around midnight, Pacific Standard Time for the sake of allowing thread pinning. So about 15.5 hours from now, save things you're working on and save your place in stories you're reading.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Cool, thanks guys. I know this one will make End really happy. Man, nostalgia is crazy. Anybody else remember how funny it was that time we went literal years with every new story locking out all the other new stories, as well as the entire genre it was posted in, for an indeterminate number of hours? How long was it? A full day? And fixing this just required someone to backspace away a zero in the database somewhere but, until Killa finally got access there was no one who could be bothered.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
There was some kind of delay with the code being deployed, but looks like it's all all working now. End gets to pin the history thread just at the cost of admins looking at a button next to every other thread. A small sacrifice for a patriotic cause.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago

At first I thought something weird happened and every thread was pinned.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Great stuff, thank you for putting in such a shift. If you could, please for the love of God kill every shade of beige plagueing this site next.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Dark mode is the next major feature they're planning to port over from the extension.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Thank God

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Got some changes in yesterday (a little earlier than I was figuring), so people using CYSCE will probably want to turn off dark mode for a day or something until it's updated. Unless you like burning your eyes with aggressive beige.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Yay update day

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago

Thank you for keeping everyone informed, Night. 

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Absolutely! Now to close a lot of finished bugs...

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Also @Will11 is now the rightful Grandmaster of History

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Many Thanks, it is always great to make history... :)

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
It's a very impressive sounding title, and well earned.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Brad has updated the extension to handle the changes. It should be working for the superior browser, but the Chrome one will take a little while longer to go through.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
Given long comments will be collapsed automatically now to something more reasonable to scroll past, I'm considering whether we should do away with the limit of three on featured comments.

Thoughts?

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago

I mean the limit was more of a self-limit thing than a real one.

Would it be brought up to 5 or something? Or were you suggesting an unlimited number?

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
What I'd really like to have is a way to commend comments without featuring them, and that I assume we'll get eventually.

Five would be good, or at least to see how that looks before adding more. It would've been just a crazy amount to scroll through before, even three is sometimes too much when reviewers are writing a thousand words or more. I always assumed that was the point of the limit.

There's still comments that deserve commendation that aren't always suitable for featuring, like if they're full of spoilers or mostly typo corrections, so this won't completely let us recognize everybody, but considering the quality of the reviews on some of these stories it'd be nice if they weren't buried. It really is difficult to pick one or the other to feature sometimes.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
The server move or whatever happened last night may be causing people to get logged out or some related issues. The usual people are looking into this.

Site updates, Spring 2021

2 years ago
That gave me a little scare, as the same occurs when one is banned :P

Heads up for Authors

2 years ago
There's some weirdness going on with ratings on new games right now due to the recent server move.

It miiiiight resolve itself on rollover tonight or it might not, but in the meantime you may want to hold off on publishing any new games until we know more.

...and for readers.

2 years ago
And looks like there's been some other issues popping up for some people trying to play games. It's being looked into, that's all I know right now.

...and for readers.

2 years ago
I'm having that issue too was wondering if it was just me

...and for readers.

2 years ago
It apparently has something to do with IP logging, which in turn has something to do with the recent server move. You might try a different device, or changing your IP around if you're able. (For me it was working on my phone, but not my laptop, and then after I switched my VPN on and off it was suddenly magically working on the laptop too...I really have no idea.)

...and for readers.

2 years ago
I can read storygames again, and an unrelated issue with ratings not updating was just corrected, so I think this problem is fixed now.

...and for readers.

2 years ago
Yep, the Great and Powerful Alex did some things and it's all good now.

...and for readers.

2 years ago
Yay!