News Archive

  • 200 weeks
    Downtime & Server Move

    Hi all. Firstly, apologies for the extended period of unexpected downtime. Obviously any kind of downtime is non ideal, but unexpected is more annoying all around.

    On Friday morning (GMT) we experienced a hardware failure on our database server. To our knowledge there is no data loss of any kind. We have fairly regular backups hosted off-site, regardless. The exact cause isn't entirely clear at this time, but instead of wrestling with trying to get the hardware sorted (it was a dedicated server) we decided that this was a good opportunity to make a server move we've been planning for a long time over to Digital Ocean.

    Read More

    236 comments · 15,375 views
  • 278 weeks
    BBCode updates

    Performance improvements

    Over the last few days I've been working on improving the performance of the BBCode parser. I've managed to implement a few major optimizations, reducing the run time in common cases to around 1/4th to 1/20th compared to the older version. This has reduced total server-side render times on some of the more complicated test pages I've been using to around 50ms–70ms, which should be a noticeable improvement.

    New features

    Opacity

    Read More

    49 comments · 4,893 views
  • 300 weeks
    Recent Changelog

    We've done various unannounced changes of the past few weeks so I thought I'd group up the things we've done so you guys know what's changed.

    • Added account linking page for Patreon / Twitter
    • Added ability to cross post stories, blogs and bookshelf additions to Twitter
    • Added twitter userpage module
    • Added account deletion page
    • Reorganised user toolbar dropdown to better fit more items
    • Added session management page to see logins and active sessions on your account
    • Added new articles system and moved some existing ones into it
    • Redesigned PM page a bit to be cleaner
    • Increased font size in major places across the site to improve readability
    • New cookie consent controls for EU users and updated privacy policy
    • Recommended groups list on groups page - WIP
    • Tooltips in many locations around the site with helpful tips

    Read More

    114 comments · 6,019 views
  • 301 weeks
    Help Articles

    Something I've worked on the last couple of days is adding the ability for us to add arbitrary "articles" to the site which we can use for various things. Sort of an extension on the manual articles we've added in the past like the bbcode page, writing guide, etc.

    So far I've added 3 guides:

    I'd love to know if you guys have any idea for articles that would have helped you out when starting out or anything else that comes to mind.

    65 comments · 5,181 views
  • 329 weeks
    Night Mode

    I've been working on it for ages but only really got the impetus to finish all of it off over the last few days. In the "settings" dropdown at the top on desktop, or the bottom of the slide out bar on mobile you'll find a toggle for night mode. Enjoy!

    Oh, and although I've tried to cover everything there is a 100% chance I've missed styling some things so apologies in advance for any funky pages.

    246 comments · 6,798 views
  • 330 weeks
    Additional Search Update

    Hey folks,

    Over the last few days I've added a few things to the new search system. A lot of people were unhappy with not being able to filter various things as quickly as they used to be able to. To that end, I've added a little filter dropdown to the right of the search box which effectively contains everything the old sidebar used to. It even has some niceties like quick word count filters and a highly rated filter.

    Read More

    132 comments · 5,298 views
  • 330 weeks
    December 2017 Update

    Hey guys, got a whole bunch of updates for you today.

    Tags

    This is a small but important step on our way to the tagging system I envision. The existing way we handled things like characters and genres has all been merged into a single tagging system. That won't result in much difference for you viewing and using the site but it makes it a lot easier to add new tags especially.

    We now have a couple of new tag types: series and warnings.

    The series tag is for identifying what series (franchise) your fanfiction contains. I've added a whole ton of various TV shows, movies, comics, books and games but clearly we will have to add a ton more in the coming future. Stories must also contain one of the four MLP tags which are FIM, EqG, Movie and Comic, as this is a pony fanfic site after all. Feel free to bug me on Discord if you have a requirement for a series to be added.

    Read More

    630 comments · 13,770 views
  • 330 weeks
    Math BBCode tag

    I've added [math] and [mathblock] BBCode tags, which can be used to display formatted math. We've had a few requests for this, particularly for group forum threads and blog posts. Most math-related TeX syntax is supported. (We are currently using MathJax to handle the layout.)

    The documentation from the BBCode guide is repeated below for your convenience.

    Read More

    84 comments · 4,409 views
  • 353 weeks
    Fimfiction API

    If you're not a developer you can probably ignore this post.

    It's been like 6 years, but hey, things take time. The API is currently very WIP still but it's ready for people to get working on in our development chat room.

    API documentation can be found at https://www.fimfiction.net/developers/api/v2/docs and you should join the Discord Chat and PM me to add you to the private API channel and I can help you get started. The functionality is very limited right now but I'm dedicating all my time to it at the moment and would love to have people add their input to the process.

    60 comments · 7,397 views
  • 358 weeks
    New BBCode Tags

    Hey guys,

    One of the features in this new update was reader-side paragraph formatting. This helps improve consistency for readers across the site, especially for those of us who can’t stand reading indented text on a computer screen.

    However, one thing that wasn’t accounted for was the legitimate need for specific indenting of passages and for certain blocks of text to have no paragraph formatting. Some examples would be lyrics and poetry.

    Taking this into account, we have come up with a couple of new tags that remedy this situation which are documented below (copied directly from the bbcode guide)


    [indent] Indent

    The indent tag can be used to, unsurprisingly, indent portions of your text.

    [indent]The indent tag can be used to, unsurprisingly, indent portions of your text.[/indent]

    It also support levels of indenting

    Read More

    168 comments · 6,392 views
Jun
22nd
2015

Site Update » NSFW Image Policy · 8:08pm Jun 22nd, 2015

Hi guys. So, lately we've noticed that there's been a little confusion over what exactly Fimfiction considers to be a NSFW image. The rules do say that you shouldn't post them, but they're a little unclear on exactly what a NSFW image IS. This being so, we've sat down and put together a clearer policy on what sort of image content is too much. I guess it bears reminding that none of this is particularly new stuff. Fimfiction has been running on something akin to this policy for months now. We're just trying to lay it all out nice and clear and notarized so that nobody gets blindsided by the rules in ways they couldn't have really known about.



Risky image content is defined according to two tiers: Banned and Borderline. Banned is content that absolutely won't be allowed, and images containing Banned subjects should be pretty easy and obvious to identify.

Borderline is content that sits somewhere in the blurry boundary between "NSFW" and "Safe" images. Images containing borderline content are not directly banned, but the staff does retain the right to exercise our discretion on what is and isn't too much. You should not be surprised if an image containing Borderline content is removed (or rejected if used as artwork in stories). If it seems like it might be too much, consider something a little safer instead, or ask a staff member if it might be okay. In general, please try to exercise a level of discretion when thinking about posting pics of, or submitting cover arts, that involve Borderline content.

Banned Content:

-Outright sex acts.
-Genitalia/full nudity.
-Visible nipples, whether bare or poking up through clothing.
-Cameltoe.
-Sexual fluids, both obvious and heavily implied (i.e. "suspiciously sticky mayonnaise")
-Urine/Scat.
-Gore.

Borderline Content:

-Heavily sexualized pony butts. We recognize that ponies are nude by design, but some images are deliberately designed to make their rear ends look as sexual as possible without outright genitalia. Obvious crotch-bulges, excessive focus on the rear end, etc. are the main distinguishing marks for this sort of content.

-Functionally bare human/anthro butts. Panties so small they hardly cover anything do fall under "functionally bare."

-Excessive cleavage/uncovered breasts.

-Cropped/censored porn. Sometimes it's not enough to just baaaarely remove the parts with the nipples/genitals.

-Pictures appealing to various fetishes (diapers, weight gain, vore, etc.) that don't contain outright Banned content. Again, please try to exercise some discretion on what might be over the line.

That should be about it. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask and we'll do our best to answer. We should also be updating the rules page to include this policy sometime soon, so it will be there for future reference.

Report Obselescence · 10,363 views ·
Comments ( 307 )
Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

Farcical Pianos

Very informative, thank you kindly!

Yeah I had to find this out the hard way...

Vexy #5 · Jun 22nd, 2015 · · 2 ·

I thought Knighty laid down these exact ground rules shortly after the NSFW image ban.

Does this mean we can't post that gif of Oberyn Martell's death from Game of Thrones?

Visible nipples, whether bare or poking up through clothing.

Such a sad statement about the current state and influence of American culture.

Here in Canada, our proximity makes us more prudish than the rest of the British commonwealth by osmosis, but I still remember seeing a bit of upper frontal nudity on an afternoon CBC show maybe 10 years ago. (Two female characters were discussing something plot-relevant while they changed in the locker room at the gym.)

Speaking as a member of the VBH character segment, are we going with "excessive cleavage" as an absolute display length, or a percentage of total cleavage available?

Because if it's the former? Discrimination!

(As usual.)

JawJoe #10 · Jun 22nd, 2015 · · 26 ·

3171357
Remember, the human body is gross and boobs are gay.

I'm glad to see an actual guideline on these things

3171347

General guideline for any writers who want to do something farcical with pianos:

The people on this site will hurt you.

A lot.

mapu #14 · Jun 22nd, 2015 · · 9 ·

Ugg camel toe is worse than sexsualized diapers. So SFW.

Visible nipples, whether bare or poking up through clothing.

thechive.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/heinz-makes-ketchup-hotter-in-germany-5-photos-3.gif?w=499&h=274
Don't care if you're a mod, don't care if you're admin.
Poking through clothes should be fine, it implies one of two things, or both things
1.) Cold in the room
2.) Tight dress/shirt/bra etc...
I am in no way, shape, or form to be saying this for I am a lowly peasant. Regardless, however, it should be noted that this here...

poking up through clothing

...is perfectly fine.

3171349 Makes sense? Oh what fun is there in making sense?:pinkiecrazy::trollestia:

Good to see this, and thanks for explaining a bit more clearly, Obs.

And that's why I don't post deviantART images on FIMFiction. Hell, when Lovepuma69 drew the art for one of my stories, I blurred/edited out the nipples so I could submit it. Still suggestive as hell though.

-Kirb.

Wait, so I can read a story about the mane six being chained up, used as cum dumpsters for the town's male population, but HOLY SHIT ITS A FUCKING NIPPLE?

I never understood this mentality. I mean, yes, adverts and all that, but still, fucking really? Why not just limit it to if you have the NSFW switch? If borderline crap is unacceptable, why isn't the NSFW stories? For that mater, I never understood advertisers either.

Is the borderline thing just an issue of some shmuck from Android or Bestbuy checking out the sight in his 1800's getup, seeing more than an inch of skin outside the fact and just flipping his shit? Or is the adverts on the site monitored by goat screwing ISIS members?

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

3171385 Well, um...

You're a farcical piano!

Isseus #21 · Jun 22nd, 2015 · · 11 ·

Vore should be in the "outright banned" section.

"There is no limit to human cowardice, stupidity, and prudishness, Meanwhile, the universe is on an exercise regime after having burst a hole into the world of Teletubbies."

~ [redacted]

-Visible nipples, whether bare or poking up through clothing.

Male or female?

Normal #24 · Jun 22nd, 2015 · · 1 ·

3171395
I have used this site in school before. If you're reading something it takes someone looking over your shoulder a lot longer to realize the nature of something as opposed to an image

really nipples poking through clothing is bad? That's really, really.... Um odd.

could we get visual examples? :trollestia:

No big butts, no excessive cleavage, no nipples through shirts...
Jesus Christ, You guys are prudes.

I sincerely hope this means there won't be anymore clickbait cover arts. Btw the guy(s) who disliked this comment? You're probably a super virgin or an author that relies on clickbait pictures to get attention to your stories because your writing most likely sucks balls (literally).

3171355
That was about a year ago. All this spread of borderline porn and clickbait cover arts didn't really happen until a bit afterwards (like a couple months). I suppose this is coming from the new people coming in.

What about risque album covers? Or classic works of Renaissance art depicting nude people?

3171354

Yeah I had to find this out the hard way...

Go on...

What about nipple rings?

:trollestia:

3171357
That's because in America, there isn't really just "showing" nudity. Twenty, thirty years ago, yes. You had PG movies with full nudity in them. But there was a line between nudity and sexual nudity. As the sex industry in America has grown, it's shifted the way nudity is presented until there almost isn't a form of nudity in film or entertainment that isn't stylized for sexual purposes. As more and more research has been done into human sexuality, the more science has realized that the gap is expressly small as well. More and more businesses see nudity as a way to entice rather than to sell any particular point.

Probably the best recent example of nudity for purpose versus sexual nudity is in the recent Mad Max: Fury Road. There is a sequence with a naked woman, yes, but the focus is on what she was supposed to represent in the story rather than on titillating the audience. Thus the shots of her are very carefully chosen, at angles designed to downplay the sexuality of the character's form and instead focus on the bigger picture: That she was a carefully constructed trap placed to lure in travelers. That was the purpose, not the titillation of the audience. What was presented to the audience was to make her goal clear, not give the audience a pleasure thrill. Had another director handled it and gone another route, rather than the tasteful scene that was shot, the audience would have been given a full frontal view of the actress, probably with nipples erect and lots of sweat for shine ... and she probably would have struck a pose—not for the story at all, but just for the titillation of the audience.

Sexualization of the human form in America is common enough that most people can't even see the difference anymore, and there really isn't one. If there's a nude figure (or clothed figure, even), it's going to be sexualized. To an absurd degree. The shot you bring up (women changing) in an American film is going to be very different. In fact, you can watch American films with women in locker rooms in them, and most of them look like juvenile strip-teases, as if the women in question are far less interested in getting changed, but in giving some strip-show to an audience behind the mirrors. The reality of undressing is far from the portrayal of American media.

Meanwhile, those who are all for this titillation do their best to publicly shame those who are not with insults or other harassment, and will argue over and over again that there is nothing "sexual" about an image of a woman who appears to be licking her own breasts.

Those individuals quite literally do not understand what the term "sexual" means. Many of them seem to believe it's just a checklist of bullet points. It's not.

It's intent.

3171417
You have too much faith in this site's user base. When given the choice between exercising discretion or stretching the letter of the rules to the absolute limit, you can bet money they'll go with the latter. We're not creative enough for the former.

3171447
I can't upvote this enough. So shiny and chrome

I like how in my old school, a picture of Sweet Apple Acres from Imgur is blocked and cannot be seen, but a naked anthro pony giving a blowjob to a pony from Derpibooru is completely visible and not blocked. If you're going to put parental controls on your wifi, at least do it right, high school.

God, I know that college is going to be the same thing.

Why can't we have ratings on blogs, like we do on stories?

Majin Syeekoh
Moderator

3171395 Stories can be rated mature. Pictures cannot. Having show mature off would not prevent you from seeing these images.

While i appreciate the detail for rules, i still must ask: Why?!

We allowed stories so fucked up it could make a kitten cry, yet AN EXPOSED NIPPLE?! That is totally crossing the line, man. And last time i checked, people come here to read the story and not the cover art or comments section.

Sure, i understand if everyone is allowed to post NSFW images, it gonna be /mlp/ or wherever you fucks go to all over again. But we have the View Mature Content toggle, why not simply apply it to the rule? And wouldn't it be rather pointless to remove NSFW images when the story related is filled with clopping and extreme fetishes? Since i reckon if a person is intelligent enough to find this site, they can read.

And yeah images are more noticeable in public than a bunch of text, but most of them need to be manually click on to view. So if they have any shame at all, they wouldn't try those in a mature story while there are people around.

Again, i support making rules and guidelines, but i don't think this one is done right.

P.S: Nipples poking up through clothes or cameltoe is WORSE than diaper and vore fetishes.
That say a lot about this post.

3171487
You're no fun.

How did you come up with the fact that FiMFiction is equal to Nazism, without humor?

3171507
And yet you ask what's the point of my comment...which is what 95% of what serious people said to me.

3171447

Yeah, a lot of it's this. I don't doubt that there's plenty of nudity with artistic goals out there, but in practical terms, pretty much any benippled picture someone's likely to post on this site is going to be for sex purposes.

3171492

We allowed stories so fucked up it could make a kitten cry, yet AN EXPOSED NIPPLE?!

Times are a changin' me thinks

I needed an excuse to stop drawing clop anyway...

3171492

A lot of the current image policy relates to Google Adsense (which essentially pays for Fimfic's upkeep, so they're kind of important). They're Rather Vague about what exactly trips their sensors on NSFW images, so we have to play it a little bit safer than sorrier. Which, yeah, means avoiding exposed nipples.

Also, uh, bear in mind guys that this has pretty much been the rules-in-effect for like, months now. Nothing's really changing as a result of this. We're just trying to establish clarity on how risky images are considered on the staff end, so that nobody gets blindsided by unclear NSFW rules.

Well, even if the majority likes to read these texts and see these images, there are still a part of the people coming on fimfiction.net which isn't fine with doing that. There are other websites for this.
I agree with these rules.

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