Site Update » Blog/User Search, Also Liked Stories, Similar Groups, Trending/Related Tags · 7:03pm Dec 10th, 2014
I've added a few more new features in the past few days which I'm sure many of you have noticed but here they are anyway.
edit: I forgot to mention I also added a little page hit counter at the bottom of the page in the footer.
Blog/User Search
You can now search for blogs and users at the top of the page. Just change the "story" dropdown to which type you'd like to search for.
Example search for "plushies" in blogs
Also Liked Stories
I've added a new list of recommendations for stories now that works off of likes. It shows stories that are frequently liked by people who also like the story that you're reading. This makes it superb for actually showing similar content, especially for things like crossovers. The old related stories can now be found under the similar tab, and for stories below 10 likes it'll show that tab automatically, because it's not enough data for like-based recommendations.
Example from a Pokemon story
Similar Groups
Groups also has this feature now. It shows you groups frequently joined by people in that group on the homepage of that group.
Similar groups for Shipping group
Simialr groups for EQG Girls group.
Trending/Related Tags
The aggregate tag box at the bottom of the filter pane is now ordered by how significant each tag is for that query. It's best explained with examples.
A search for Diamond Tiara
Here we can see that a lot of the fillies are significant tags for this query. You can see that slice of life is ranked lower than Cherilee and Twist, even though it has a much higher value. This is because slice of life stories are not as significant in this query. So basically we see tags that are related tightly to whatever you searched for.
A search for stories in the last month
This means we can also use this for spotting trending tags. In this query of the past month, we unsurprisingly see a lot of Equestria Girls tags popping up, because they're being written about more frequently than they are outside of that timeframe. (They should actually be showing up even more here but I'm having some weird differences between my development copy of the site and the actual site, expect that to change a bit)
I noticed the new tabs on the sidebar. I like very much!
BTW, Cheerilee is misspelled up there.
New stuff = I am happy.
I want that plushie so fucking badly
We can search if you want to. We can leave your friends behind. 'Cause your friends don't search and if they don't search, well they're
no friends of mine.
Awesome!
The "Also Liked" tab is brilliant. Absolutely fantastic feature!
And they're great! Thanks, knighty!
Oh, I like this switch! Basing the recommendations off of likes? Genius! I applaud this change!
Also, this explains the sudden upswing in faves this week.
2644772
That misspelling hurts my soul!
Praise be to thee, Basedknighty, for thy generous gifts crafted from the fleeting nicety of spare time.
Quite some nice additions to the new features. Will surely come in handy.
You've been working hard to make this site more nuanced and accessible. Thank you.
2644778
Your avatar is perfect for this.
mlpchan.net/pony/src/1387489293511.gif
I just noticed the Similar Groups feature recommending a deleted group. See Here, Feminist Bronies was deleted due to excessive trolls.
Is it possible to also have manual sorting for that? I'd love to know what my most-read tags are, for example.
mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-2698604-2-tumblr_lykcjmgYaQ1rnpo0wo1_400.gif
Rarity approves... and so do I...
some features from other sites are showing up here.
Hey, new stuff, and it's actually pretty good! I see that in addition to the Also Liked tab, there's an Author tab. I'll be using that a lot.
I like the change to the story recommendation UI. Very elegant, space-saving solution.
Oh man, these new changes have been boneriffically good so far. THX KNIGHTY
Could you go into greater detail on how Also Liked works? Having at least 10 likes may be necessary, but it also isn't sufficient to cause anything to show up. Is the definition of “frequently” relevant here?
This is one of those times where change is good. Very good.
Still sad that I can't filter bookshelves on mobile, though...
This is getting pretty spiffy. Data is beautiful, and if there's one thing this site has it's oodles of data.
Also,
Neat. Did the counter start collecting mid-day yesterday, or something like that?
2644856 yup. Well, it starts at like 5am GMT (Midnight EST) I think. Can't remember how our daily cron job is set up. It should get to about 2.2 million or so.
Is there any way to get rid of the new zoom-lock on mobile devices? While that thing now makes everything cleaner and better to some degree, I can't see the new filter sidebar on my ridiculously small phone. On top of that, I'm having trouble with small pictures such as the log in this blog post.
Awesome. Good stuff Knighty!
Great work, Knighty. Thank you for the work clearly put into this.
The "Also liked" tab seems good, too.
I cant think of anything to complain about....
I honestly don't know how to feel about that.
Ha! This is a nice little fuck-you to the ones who derided your last post. Well done.
On another note, Stardragon is about to get more commissions than they can handle...
But more importantly, these are all wonderful changes. Thanks.
Now this I like. Nicely done, sir.
But no 'also disliked' tab?
The also liked feature is great. The only complaint I have left is that there is no way to filter or search within bookshelves on the mobile site (I access the site via the mobile browser on Android).
Thanks for adding the option buttons. Now I can look at the authors other works as easily as I could before.
I think the story recommendations feature would benefit from some filtering options, for more personalized results.
I'd like if I could filter out stories I've downvoted, stories with unfavorable upvote/downvote ratings, and incomplete stories that haven't updated in more than a year.
Awesome work.
But can I search through my favorites and read later list on mobile yet? It was there for a few hours after the last update passed and then it vanished.(note: I may just be missing it, that happens often) Everything else sounds cool though.
The story recommendation UI change is fantastic, it looks like an ideal mix of finding an author's other works as well as similar stories.
You know for once, I have to say you did a good job boy, I have no complaints.
Oh, this is getting good, like, this is incredible! Thanks Knighty. Fimfiction just keeps getting better. I love it.
I've already discovered a number of stories I enjoyed that I otherwise wouldn't have run across, thanks to this feature. So thanks!
That's a lot of pretty good things, Knighty. Thanks, good job, and all that nice stuff.
Cool stuff, knighty. This is the part where I whine about something being one pixel off, right?
o_o
Blog viewer number 667...
I AM A SAINT!!!
But really, thanks for adding this, almighty knighty.
Based Knighty says: "Let them eat their cake and have it too!"
The "Liked Stories" tab is a brilliant idea. Thanks for the updates, knighty.
Wow, no arguments in the comments? WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH KNIGHTY?
Superb is an understatement. The first three Also Liked matches for my Chrono Trigger crossover are Final Fantasy IV, Tales series, and Final Fantasy VI. That's not just "superb", it's uncannily accurate. Awesome work.
Gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised with the whole 'Also Liked' tabs section. It's neat, tidy and has both the newer system - which I liked because I'm a glutton for more reading material - and the old system of showing the authors stories; for those who preferred the great taste of FimFiction Classic! (Available now in most stores)
Didn't know about the groups thing, came at the right time considering I'm joining more groups lately.
Sweet Job Knighty
As I mentioned a few days ago, I like most of what I see.
However, the ability to see how long a user has been a member of the site has disappeared again. I'd really appreciate that back (again). Among other uses, it's a pretty solid indicator of whether someone saying outrageous things is genuine or somebody's new trolling alt. This disappeared when the newest interface stuff appeared.
Also, I noticed this layering issue is happening in PMs, regardless of context:
i.imgur.com/IWrB39d.png?2
i.imgur.com/lfaLngB.png?2
Also, people keep bothering me lately about not being able to stop the thread updates in the dashboard when I've banned them from the group the updates are coming from. I keep telling them to bother you instead, but here is me bothering you about it as well. Un-banning them "so they can leave" is just asking for trouble; it's a headache for everyone involved. (tl;dr the group ban system needs looking at)
Edit: We also still get pop-up notifications when someone we used to follow posts a new story. This is a long-standing issue, just thought I'd pitch that in while I'm here.